Good evening and welcome to the District 196 regularly. scheduled schoolboard meeting. At this time, please rise if you are able to join me in the pledge of allegiance. After the pledge, please remain standing for a brief moment of silence. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. At this time, I would like us to share a brief moment of silence for a District
196 school bus driver, Janice Anderson, who recently passed away. Thank you. All right. Good evening school board and a happy belated mother's day to the mothers on our board and in our audience today. Um first item on our
agenda is the approval of the agenda. There is no addition to the additions or deletions to the agenda as outlined. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Uh motion by Anna, second by Saken. All those in favor of approval of the agenda say I. I. Those opposed.
Motion carries on a 70-0 vote, which brings us to our very first item on the agenda, which is our recognition items. Um, and at this time, I would like to uh welcome Nandy Rick to the podium to introduce the Minnesota Future Health Professionals of America Adviser of the
Year and the Groups State Leadership Conference Award winners. Keep coming. Good evening board members, chairperson Johnson and superintendent Bull Sony. My name is Nandy Rick and I am pleased to be here tonight to recognize the district 196 chapter of
the Health Occupations Students of America better known as HOSA. HOSA is a student-led organization whose mission is to empower future health professionals to become leaders in the global health community through education, collaboration, and
experience. We have many celebrations to share with you tonight, starting with the Apple Valley HOSA adviser, Jim Lynch. Jim was awarded the Minnesota HOSA Advisor of the Year. We would also like to give a shout out to our entire
District 196 HOSA chapter for being awarded as the Minnesota HOSA Hype Award. I would like to turn the presentation over to Sumana Sadini, Eastview High School senior and president of the District 196 HOSA
chapter. Hi, I'm Sana. I'm the president of the District 196 HOSA chapter. At the 2025 state leadership conference, our adviser, Mr. Lynch from Apple Valley High School, won the adviser of the year award along with our entire chapter
earning the HOSA hype award. We also have our other adviserss here today. From East View High School, we have Mr. Brewer. From Egan High School, we have Mr. Colemine. And from Rosemount High School, we have Mrs. Spratz. And now to our actual award winners. From East High
School, we have Safe Aiz, Taj Bora, Evelyn Clark, and Honor Riscala that won first place in biomedical debate. Gay Shribadri, third place in ATC leadership. Janet Bahalu, first place in healthcare issues and first place in
occupational therapy. Amy Wyn, first place in medical law and ethics. Nila Venttor first place in health career display. From Egan High School, we have Sahasrajuva, Harjit Palani Kumar, and Isaac Victor that won third place in
biomedical debate. Zack Browning, Tyler Halfley, Jonathan Rubin, and Gavin Yang. Second place in mental health promotion. Sahaserjuva, district vice president, second place in occupational therapy, first place in ATC career development.
Nicole Lynn, first place in pharmacy science. Jonathan Rubin, first place in epidemiology. Maya Wong, third place in medical reading, second place in ATC anatomy and physiology. Alina Chang and Khloe Jeng first place in healthcare issues exam. And from Rose Mountain High
School, we have Lydia Bay, Grace Bosima, and Beth Cabete, district treasurer, third place in Hosable. Marissa Lisk, third place in sports medicine and first place in physical therapy. Naomi Techlamarium, Hosa Officer. And Caitlyn
Tras, second place in sports medicine. We would also like to recognize and thank the family and friends of the HOSA team members that are here celebrating with us tonight. If you wouldn't mind standing. Thank you, Chairperson Johnson, super school board members, and Superintendent Balsani for recognizing the student
group this evening. Excellent. Congratulations. Excellent presentation. Great leadership. Great job. Amazing. Congratulations. Excellent job. Amazing. Congratulations.
Great job. Congratulations. Congratulations. You're all congratulations. Excellent. Amazing work. Congratulations. Congratulations. Great job. Congratulations.
Thanks so much. Great job. Congratulations. Well done. Congratulations. Great job. Thank you so much. Great job. Oh, thanks so much. Congratulations. Next, I'd like to welcome Bruce Miller, Eastview High School principal, and Pete Roach, Rosemont High School principal, to the podium to introduce each of their
schools Minnesota aspirations and computer science award winners. Welcome uh chairperson uh chairperson uh Johnson, Superintendent Bosone, and school board members. I'm not Pete Roach. I am Brian Fendrich. I'm a teacher at Rosemont High School. I teach
mathematics and computer science. This is my 39th year teaching and uh 20 wonderful years at Rosemont High School and I'm here to talk about our award winners for the Minnesota Aspirations and Computer in Computing which is the flagship offering of the Minnesota
Technology Association and official state affiliate of the National Center for Women in Information Technology Aspirations in Computing Program. The Minnesota Aspirations and Computing Program is dedicated to inspiring young women in high school, grades 9 through 12. And each year it recognizes
deserving young women, celebrating these students computing achievements, enthusiasm for technology, leadership, community involvement, involvement, and resilience. This year, the state of Minnesota had one national award winner,
12 state winners, and n national honorable mention winners. Three of those national award winners were from district 196. Wow. Two of them were from Rosemont High School. Our first Beth Cabetta, a senior at Rosemont High School. She is working on applying learning models for sign language
translation and is a teacher at Kids for Code. She plans to pursue a degree in biomedical engineering on the premed track. And she has been offered an internship this summer for at General Mills. Lassia Pandari, a sophomore at Rosenmont
High School. By the way, I've had both of these young ladies in class. They're wonderful, just incredible people. She discovered her passion for STEM during her internship at Optum, where she worked closely with UX designers. Lassia is also a two-time state qualifier in DECA, a debate state quarter finalist,
and actively participates in student council. Lassie has also been offered an internship this summer coming at Lando Lakes. Good evening. I'm here to introduce our Eastview Jr. Advoca Chery who is a
national honorable mention recipient for Minnesota as A aspirations in computing. She started her journey in STEM in the third grade. Now she spends her time as a captain and software lead for Eastview first robotics team. Uh that's for
inspiration and recognition of science and technology. In addition, she leads STEM initiatives such as girls who code, technovation, which is a program that equips young women to become tech entrepreneurs and leaders, and she is the founder of her first, which is a
resource for girls all over the world seeking support through advocates, mentorship, networking with corporate partners for funding and exposure to other opportunities for girls working to be more involved in first robotics. through our Eastu mentor
program. She gained valuable field experience with Securian Financial in their IT software department as a a learning intern and she also serves on our district 196 gifted and talented advisory board and in her spare time she's a member of our debate team. So
Adva congratul Amazing. Congratulations. Amazing. Congratulations. Very impressive. Yeah. Fantastic. Congratulations. Very impressive. Congratulations. Amazing. Good luck. Great job. Amazing. Very
impressive. Congratulations. All right. Next up, I'd like to welcome Egan High School principal Paulie Rowski to the podium to introduce Kevin Dirkson, the 2025 Minnesota High School Chemistry Teaching Award winner. Thank you. Good evening board members,
Chairperson Johnson, and Superintendent Pulson. I am Paulie Reichowski, the principal at Egan High School. Thank you for inviting us here tonight. I'm honored to present Mr. Dr. Kevin Dirkson who is celebrating his 25th year in district 1966 all of it at Egan High
School. He is a chemistry and physics teacher and the science department leader at our school. Mr. Dirkson has received the 2025 Minnesota High School Chemistry Teaching Award given to an outstanding high school chemistry
teacher for excellence in high school chemistry teaching. This prestigious award recognizes his innovative work as a teacher. Mr. Steven Thompson, assistant principal at Egan High School, wrote this about him. Kevin possesses a
profound understanding of his subject and conveys his lessons with enthusiasm and clarity. He has developed a series of videos related to his courses, which have become invaluable resources for his students. He then uses those videos to
flip his classroom so that he can spend more time during class on hands-on activities and labs. Beyond the classroom, Mr. Dirkson has taken on a variety of coaching and co-curricular activities. He has served as a science
olympiad coach, football coach, track coach, cross-country coach, newspaper adviser, and faculty support for a number of studentled clubs. He is currently a volunteer coach for the ISD 196 mountain bike team, which he
co-ounded in 2011. For his innovative chemistry teaching methods and his outstanding contributions to the Egan High School community, the Minnesota American Chemical Society is proud to honor Kevin with this award. It's going to be
presented officially at the May meeting at the 3M Innovation Center tomorrow, May 13th. He will receive a plaque and a $600 honorarium from the ACM, but he has to do a presentation first. And he told me it has to be 30 to 45 minutes long.
So, Oh, yeah. It's the assignment. He's ready. Congratulations, Kevin. We're very proud of your accomplishments as a teacher and leader in our school, in our district. Kevin does not have his family here tonight because they're all up in Blaine at soccer events and tournaments.
So he is probably headed there later. I would knowing him. Uh I would ask that uh he is recognized by the board tonight as we have honored him at Egan High School as well. Congratulations. Amazing work. Nice job, Kevin.
Impressive as always. You too. Good to see you. Thanks, P. That was wonderful. And last, under recognition, but certainly not least, I'd like to welcome Ryan Rosine, Scott Voss, and Chris McDonald to the podium. They each will introduce their school's 2025 state
speech tournament winners. All right. Good evening, Chairperson Johnson, board members, Superintendent Bosone. Uh, thank you very much for having us here tonight. My name is Ryan Rosine, and I have the honor of serving as the head speech coach at Eastview High School. And tonight, we are here to recognize some
of our medalists at the uh from the 2025 Minnesota State High School League state speech tournament. And believe me, the recognition they deserve is tremendous in terms of all of the work that all of their accomplishments. So, I'd like to start with a couple of our state runner up. Runner up, first of all, Nick Zilstro, if you want to step forward.
Nick is in the category of extemporaneous speaking where he gives speeches on current events. The only trick is he learns his question 30 minutes before he speaks. Exactly. And his question this year at the final round of the state tournament was his
prediction about the economy in 2025. Oh god. So I didn't ask him exactly what he said because he could be very right, he could be off, but knowing how smart he is, he's probably going to be spot on to be honest with you. Wow. I also now want to have Tess Dalma come on up. She was state runner up in the category of humor
and she was doing the piece school of rock, taking that movie and and playing in that and putting it into um a 10-minute humor piece and she had a tremendous day. Joseph Panicker was a state champion in the category of great
speeches. His speech was Huey Long's Every Man a King from 1934. And in that category, he had to analyze the speech with the rhetorical model and then present why it still matters today in the year 2025. And finally, I want to have Sahiti at Luri step forward. Now, Sahiti has
had was a state champion in the category of creative. She wrote a piece called mismatched. But here's the other thing about C about Sahiti. You've seen her here before and her name mentioned because she becomes the sixth three-time class doubleA state champion in the
state speech tournament history. and she's the first ever East View speaker to earn that honor. With our success at the state tournament, East View places fourth in total medal medals earned in class doubleA competition with 190 at
the state tournament. And we now place seventh in total gold medals and state champions in all classes earned, which is with 35. So, we are very proud of our team. We're very proud of all of our coaches and of course, we're proud of the the kids and their dedication for what they do for this activity. So,
thank you for your support. Thank you for having us tonight. Amazing job. Is it gonna be good or bad? Up or down? No. No. Congratulations. Awesome job. Congratulations. Hey, good to see you.
Thanks for coming. Good evening, chairperson Johnson, schoolboard members, and superintendent Balsson. My name is Scott Foss. the director of Apple Valley speech and debate and I am here with a few of our participants at the Minnesota
State High School speech tournament earlier this spring. I'd like to uh introduce our our participants. I'll begin with um Brandon Vergera Vobos who is a senior. He was part of a duo and
they took second in the state. uh his partner Hayden Johnson could not be here. Um Brandon is actually an extraordinary case because he started as a sophomore and had never done any type of acting before in his life. By the end
of his junior year, he was nationally ranked and we have had the opportunity to see him grow and uh do really well here. The piece that they uh performed was a cutting from the short story that many of you probably read in ninth grade, The Most Dangerous Game. And so
they brought that to life. Um also taking second place right behind Sahiti was uh Theo Pollock who is a senior this year. And while Theo has done many other events, it was towards the end of his
senior year he decided to write this parody of our immigration system and um really allowed us to like laugh at some of these things that are at times pretty painful to watch. And so he was able to
um I think bring light to an issue and at the same time allow people to um to find a little bit of mirth in all of it. So um congratulations to Theo who took second. And then we also had two state
champions. We have Israelia who is a junior at Apple Valley High School. She is the the state champion in original oratory and uh her oratory is called the fruits of our labor and it's really a an
argument about how we don't maintain um our focus on things that are truly important and specifically she talks about maintaining focus on civil rights. And then our other state champion is Mahalit Samuel who is a
ninth grader. She won the category of pros uh performing a cutting from the book The Hate You Give. And beyond just the amazing adventure of a ninth grader winning the event, the final round was
so clearly uh in her favor that the second place was was far behind. And so it was really pretty exciting to see Mahal find her voice in this particular space. Now, you may notice that I skipped over someone.
I skipped over Isaiah Craig, who is a senior this year. He took third in the category of original oratory, and his thesis is on the weaponization of hope. But I end with Isaiah because his story is is I think um important to our moment
right here. Isaiah came to district 196 after his ninth grade year in another district. And among other reasons, um Isaiah just hadn't found that thing quite yet. And when he came to Apple Valley, his mom actually made him show
up for speech camp before the beginning of sophomore year because she says, "I just want you to meet some people." By the end of the year, Isaiah Craig was ranked third in the nation. and he truly found like his thing, this thing that that was able to allow him to say some
things that he felt were really, really, really important. He came to our district and found this and found our voice. And I end there because I want to thank you. In all the years that I've worked at Apple Valley High School, I have always felt tremendously supported
by this community and you have allowed a bevy of schools to really rise to prominence not only within the state but within the nation. And so that is that is a statement about your commitment to maintaining a focus on these things. And
so we are ever grateful. Congratulations to you. Congratulations to our students and congratulations to our parents. We have uh we have Mahalit's father here, Mr. He. So uh we are grateful for
everybody. Thank you. Amazing work. Congratulations. Wow. So, Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. You have to watch all of it. Great job. Hey, congratulations. Really impressive. Congratulations. So glad you could be here. Well done.
Congratulations. So impressive. Amazing. So impressive. Congratulations. All right. Well, something. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
We have a couple times, but it's like six hours. All right. Good evening, um, board chairman Johnson and Superintendent Bosone, along with the rest of the school board. We thank you again for having us here to recognize
the outstanding achievements of our students. I echo what Mr. Voss said about um appreciating all of the support that the school district gives to us so that we can have a strong debate, speech, theater programs to have those fine arts to allow our students to tap
into those. A couple of interesting facts. Um Scott Voss and I actually went to college together and competed in Mano together. So we've known each other a very long time. Um, the second interesting fact is is it's entertaining to see the types of careers that our
students pursue. And the last couple of weeks, we added a brand new career that we never thought we would. Pope Leo the 14th is also a former speech and debate competitor and an adviser after he left high school. So, see, you can they can
take you anywhere, right? Today we're here to honor uh Parm Tucker who was the third place uh finisher in Exempania speaking right behind Nick uh from East View. Um it was tough competition in the final round. What made it really tough,
I think, for Pum to um put his, you know, best effort through there is he had to work really hard while also uh flying to the east coast three times during that uh leadup to the state tournament while he was looking at the three colleges that he was considering.
Now, you might have heard of their small schools out east, Princeton, Yale, and Harvard. Um he has chosen to attend Harvard, which is uh great. So, uh, Parm will be a freshman at Harvard University in the fall. So, uh, his parents are
here. Um, thank you for being here tonight. Uh, if you stand to be recognized. It is always great to have the parents here. They're very supportive. Uh that's the other strong element to make a successful program uh in our district is not only the strong
support from the school board and the administration and the teachers in our building but from the parents who see the importance of the spoken word and how we develop those skills so that they can integrate them into whatever it is they decide to do. So join me in
congratulating Parm Tucker third place in Exemprinia speaking. My topic was also a prediction of the US economy except it was more about the consumers. So what was your prediction up or down? It was the consumers justified.
I like it. Like it go strong. So whether you're in business or health and they have to do it, but I'll send you all the links. That would be great. We would love that.
Get the pan out of here. Yeah. See, there you go. Sorry. All right. Next on the agenda is our superintendent recognition. So, I will turn it over to Superintendent Bosone for recognition of students and staff. Okay. Thank you, Chair Johnson. Welcome
everybody. Congratulations to seniors Michaela Moran of Apple Valley High School, Eva Letberg of Egan High School, Gracie Pewitt of Eastview, and Sophie Straml of Rosemont High School are being selected by their schools as the 2025
Athena Award recipients. The Athena Awards are announced annually to recognize outstanding senior female athletes in our high schools for their excellence and individual and team sport achievements. This year's recipients were recognized at a banquet in St. Paul
in April. Next, I want to thank our educators and school nurses who we celebrated May 5th through May 9th during teacher and school nurses appreciation week. Our teachers help students acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to become successful
contributing members of society. We also recognize our school nurses for promoting health and safety and taking care of our students and our schools each day. Congratulations also to Rosemont High School students who earned exceptional honors at the 2025 DECA
International Career Development Conference held in April. 23 District 196 students proudly represented the district competing with more than 22,000 top business and marketing students from around the globe. Seven Rosemont students, Max Kowalsski, Alexis Olsen,
Grace Mensk, Sylvie Atkinson, Sarah Labar, Nick Garnsworthy, and Molly Pittson finished in the top 10 in their events. May this month is Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The
2025 theme is a legacy of leadership and resilience. Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month posters feature bamboo as a symbol of strength, endurance, and resilience. In District 196, our vision is to provide students, families, and
employees with experiences that honor the diverse cultures within our communities. This month, we celebrate the students, families, and employees of Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander heritage. Finally, I want to recognize the musical performers and stage crews who participated in the
high school musical productions of Encore, Bravo, On Stage, and The Song Book Experience. These talented productions packed our theaters, impressed audiences, and inspired our younger students across the district. I also want to recognize the 25th anniversary milestone for Rosemont High
School's Steven Alba as the director of the show, demonstrating his long-standing dedication and leadership in the Rosemont High School community. On Sunday, May 4th, he welcomed more than 100 choir alumni who joined in that afternoon's production on stage. Thank
you. And that concludes my report for tonight. Excellent. Thank you, Superintendent Balsone. Next on the agenda is our special communication requests. We have two speakers signed up for special communication requests. Members of the public who would like to address the board can do so in a variety of ways and our special communication request is one of our more formal ways
to address the board. Um speakers are reminded uh to refrain from any personal criticisms during their special communication requests. Um and also special communication request is a time for the board to listen to our speakers and generally the board is not having a formal response. However, if any
questions are raised during the special communication request portion, a member of the border administration will generally follow up with the speaker. Um, last but not least for our speakers, um just a little uh preview of how the special communication request works logistically. I'll invite you to the
podium. Each speaker gets four minutes um to speak. Um we have a little timer and you'll see a little light on the podium. Uh that light will turn green when your time starts. When it turns amber, you'll have 30 seconds remaining and when it turns red, you'll hear a little beep. and please uh conclude your comments at that time. Um when you come
when I call your name, please come up to the podium, introduce yourself and we will start your time. Our first speaker is Miss Gina Riv Castro. If you just want to start by introducing yourself and connection to the district. Um I my I'm Dr. Gina Rivas Castro. Um,
and I have children that attend school in this district currently. Good. Okay. So, good evening everyone. Um, although I no longer have children riding district buses, I'm here tonight solely to ensure no other family
experiences what mine has endured and to create awareness. In March of this year, the Minnesota Court of Appeals issued a ruling in my case that has profound implications and set precedent for every family whose children ride District 196
buses. In 2017, my children and I were struck by a school bus operated by this district. The driver was approaching the bus stop too fast for weather conditions and collided with my vehicle. What's critical to understand is what happened next. Because no police citation was
issued at the scene, and because our district owns and operates its own buses, the district's attorneys invoked a Minnesota statute to shield themselves from accountability. The court ruling specifically granted the driver official immunity and then extended vicarious official immunity to the entire school
district, effectively blocking any claim for damages. In the court's own words, "Generally, if the employee is found to have immunity, the claim against the municipal employer has been dismissed." Prior to the accident, I had repeatedly warned the district about the
dangerous placement of this bus stop located at Argenta Trail and 70th Street, where vehicles consistently traveled at high speeds. That road has since been reconstructed from two lanes to four, clear evidence of the hazardous
conditions. Yet, despite my warnings, no action was taken. For years after the accident, I continued advocating for relocating this dangerous stop to inside our neighborhood. The district repeatedly refused to take action. Only
after years of persistent effort did they finally agree, making it clear that schedule efficiency was valued over student safety. This immunity statute was design was designed for true emergency situations. Yet, it was applied to a situation where
the drivers failure to follow proper driving protocols created the emergency. What's most alarming is the disparity this creates. School bus drivers employed directly by districts can be granted immunity while drivers from private companies contracted by schools
do not receive the same protection. as well as private schools do not have access to this immunity law. The consequences have been devastating and I've been left bearing the financial burden burden of medical bills and future surgeries. Parents, you
deserve to know when you put your child on a district 196 own bus, you may have no legal recourse if something goes wrong, even if the district ignored safety concerns and the driver failed to follow protocols. I urge this board to review policies regarding accident
investigation and driver training. Inform parents about this immunity gap so they can make informed decisions prior to putting their children on the school buses. I urge parents to advocate for reform and for the board members to make
the to follow um what I asked earlier. I cannot change the outcome for my family, but together we can ensure other families don't face the same devastating situation without recourse. Thank you. Right. Our uh I'd like to welcome our
second speaker um to the podium uh Nemo Getty. Hello. if you can just start by introducing yourself and connection to the district and we'll start your time. Yeah. Good evening, uh, Mr. Chair, um, members of the school board and superintendent
Bosone. My name is Nemo Getty. I'm a culture family advocate. Um, I'm here tonight to speak about matters of importance to our district, our staff, and the students we serve. I want to begin by expressing appreciation for the steps
that this this district has taken to foster an inclusive and representative educational environment. Initiatives such as the grow your own and the pathway programs are commendable and a signal to commitment to diversity and
equity. These programs aimed at increasing the numbers of teachers and social workers of color within our district are essential as our students population becomes more diverse. The scholarships offered through these programs funded by the Minnesota
Department of Education provide support to our staff, many of whom are support staff like myself, aspiring to advance their careers and deepen their service to our community. By in investing in individuals with local connections and
an understanding of our community needs, we are addressing the s shortage of teachers and me mental health professionals and enriching enriching our educational landscape with diverse perspectives. We are grateful for the
vision and effort that have brought these initiative to fruition. And it is with this spirit of collaboration that I wish to address some of the challenges that remain. While we celebrate these strides, it's also my responsibility to bring to your attention certain
challenges and barriers that have emerged, particularly concerning field placements for participants of these programs. Despite despite the dedicated and academic performance demonstrated by the staff enrolled in these programs, we
have encountered obstacles that if unadressed could hinder the goals of these initiative aim to achieve initiative. Initially there was uncertainty regarding the possibility of completing field placement within our own district. Upon comparing our
situation to that of colleagues in similar pathway programs in neighboring districts, we discovered that our district was an outlier in not providing in district field placement opportunities to staff. While we appreciate the recent clarification that
in district pla placements are possible, the current requirement to take leave of absence presents a hardship, financial hardship for many, especially support staff. As data from the Minnesota Department of Education in the 2022 23
fiscal year indicates, the average salary of support staff is approximately half of that of teachers average salary. Requiring a leave of absent under these circumstances could create financial strain and potentially delay graduation
and lensure for these aspiring educators as social workers. For those in the pathway to so school social work program, that would mean taking field placement during two summer blocks in non-school um settings, which may not
provide the most relevant experience and give us a chance to work alongside our dedicated and high quality staff. We believe that by examining the models implemented by other school districts, we can find solutions to remove these
barriers and promote the persistence and success success of these staff. It is our hope that the district will align the implementations of these pro programs with its value. Ensure that every participant has the best chance to
succeed and contribute their skills to our schools and students. We are eager to work together to find practical and equitable solutions that would allow these programs to flourish and achieve their full potential. Thank you.
You eight. That concludes our special communication request portion of the meeting tonight, which brings us to our consent agenda board. We have 25 items on our consent agenda tonight. Those items include the minutes of the April 14th, 2025 regular school board meeting,
the minutes of the April 29th, 2025 regular special school board meeting, gifts, grants, schedule of investments for March 2025, summary of claims for March 2025, revenue and expenditures report for March 2025, treasures report for March 2025, nextgrad license agreement, Great River Energy easement, assignment for Avalon apartment and town
home to Pinewood Elementary School attendance area, confirmation of unrequested leave of absence, employment agreement, propationary employment agreement, additional service. Uh, personnel termination and non-renewal probationary teachers, workers compensation insurance, 202425 spring break, spring budget adjustments, Falcon
Ridge Middle School renovation, Scott Highlands Middle School addition and renovation bid pack two, Apple Valley High School activity center addition and renovation bid pack two, Thomas Lake Elementary School site improvements, Rosemont Middle School bid pack three, agreement with the YMCA of the North for 2025 summer school age care programs and pay rates for substitute temporary and
part-time community education employees. Are there any items on the consent agenda that board members would like to remove tonight? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve. So moved. Second. Motion by Katherine, second. I'm sorry. Motion by Robin. That came from my right. Second
by Jackie. Right. Okay. Correct. Perfect. Um those in favor of approval of the consent, please say I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries on a 70 vote. That brings us to our reports um portion of the
um let me see agenda and I'd like to welcome Rachel Hughes and Kim Davis to the podium to discuss our strategic priorities report MNMTSS framework implementation progress. Thank you. Good evening, Chair Johnson, board members and
superintendent Bosone. I'm Rachel Hughes, director of instruction achievement. Tonight we are excited to share about something called MNM MTSS. It stands for Minnesota multi-tered system of support. Think of
it like a road map that helps schools make sure every student gets what they need to learn and grow. We'll show you how this work connects to our district strategic roadmap where we are now and how we're helping school leaders and staff work together as teams.
This isformational only. No decisions are needed tonight. We want to share what we've been learning this year and how we're building a stronger, more supportive system for all students moving forward. Thank you. M&MTSS was created by the Minnesota Department of Education
and is supported by state and federal grants funding. It's being used in many school districts across Minnesota, including ours. This is not just a one-year program. It's a long-term framework that helps schools use data and best practices to support all
students. This year, we started learning about the framework and creating systems for consistent teams and data protocols along with evidence-based instructional practices. Thanks to grant funding, these supports are free and available to all schools in
Minnesota. MNM MTSS fits right in with all four four parts of our district 196 strategic roadmap. It helps us stay focused and work together to support student well-being, achievement, equity, and making sure our systems and
resources are aligned. Right now and into next year, our main focus is on achievement, especially in the classroom by strengthening teaching and learning for all students. So, tonight you'll hear what
is MNMTSS and how it helps students, what we've been learning this year, and how we're working with school leaders and staff for future implementation. To walk us through this, I'm happy to hand it over to our MN MTSS coordinator, Kim Davis.
I just have to tell you it's her birthday tonight. So, happy birthday, Kim, and thanks for leading us in this important work. Hello, and thank you for having me. I'm excited to share about all the work that has been going on this year with MNM MTSS. As you know, incredible things
have already been happening in District 196. Work that truly reflects the passion, dedication, and excellence of our community. MNMTSS is focused on creating consistent, successful experiences for students, families, and staff across our entire system. It
emphasizes aligning our efforts, using data to inform decision-making, and committing to continuous cycles of improvement by establishing clear expectations for instructional practices, assessments, and curriculum. Alignment supports improved student
outcomes. It also promotes equitable and efficient allocation of resources, helping to ensure that every student, regardless of their school building, has access to a high-quality education. The Minnesota multi-tered systems of support is not just another initiative or another program. It is a
systematic framework for how we use data to drive decision-making, how our district and school teams work together in alignment to ensure our system works for every single student. The Minnesota multi-tered systems of support is a framework that all of our district work
should fall under. It is a way of ensuring continuous improvement by having frequent cycles of data-based decision-making and creating teams to implement action plans. MNMTSS is about equity. As we examine our systems and practices, there
will be a need to align resources differently to respond to student and staff needs. In doing this, we will be eliminating barriers for learning for all students. M&MTSS gets to the root cause of why our system may not be working for all students and has tools to strategically
plan for next steps. The MNMTSS framework includes five key areas: infrastructure, family and community engagement, multi-layered practices and support, assessment, and database decision-making. While strong work is already happening
in each of these areas, M&MTSS focuses on aligning these efforts to ensure consistency and efficiency districtwide. Last spring, we conducted a self assessment to identify priority areas which have guided our focus this school year. Teams have been working on
these priorities, developing action plans to support district-wide implementation next year. The areas highlighted in green were our learning focus for this year and will be further supported next year as we move into implementation. Aligned systems and
practices bring significant benefits. When curriculum, instruction, and assessments are consistent across our schools, students are more likely to meet their learning goals. Alignment also improves resource allocation, enhances collaboration, and strengthens our collective impact by allowing staff
to work within a shared cohesive framework. A strong M&MTSS structure depends on ongoing data review and reflection. In district 196, building administrators, district teams, and teacher teams are working together to align practices using this framework. Collaboration is
essential to ensure school and district leaders share a clear purpose. Our first focus for next year is strengthening the infrastructure by building effective teams at both the district and school levels that use stat student data to guide decision-making. Assessment is a key
focus for this year's learning work. By implementing and analyzing data from our universal screener, we can identify effective practices and areas for growth. As demonstrated in pre previous presentations on state and screening data, this work is ongoing. Next year,
we've strategically scheduled data days that align with our fastbridge assessments to enable district, school, and classroom teams to meet and analyze data. This alignment helps us evaluate the effectiveness of our practices and respond to student needs. We are collaborating with teacher and school
leaders to use these results to adjust instruction and better support all of our students. Our focus on using screening data to address needs within our tier one instruction will continue next year. Tier one instruction represents the core curriculum which is
accessible to all students in the classroom. Here's what the multi-tered systems of support looks like in the classroom shown as a diamond model. Tier one is at the center. It's our core classroom instruction. All students get this every day from their teacher. The
MTSS model strives to meet the needs of at least 80% of our students. To do this, we focus on consistent, highquality teaching and evidence-based curriculum in every classroom, preK to transition plus. When students need more, we add tier 2 and tier three
supports, which are small group or individual help on top of tier 1, not replacing it. This matters because strong tier one teaching helps reduce the need for special education referrals by catching and addressing challenges early. Right now, our data like MCA
scores show that we are not at 80% yet. That's why improving tier 1 is a major focus for next year. We'll also keep working to better align tier 2 and three supports so they're more consistent and effective across our district. MNMTSS works well for many districts
because there is collaboration to build capacity at all levels. We have been strategic with making decisions alongside school leaders, teachers, and district leaders so that there is a shared understanding as we move forward. Teams have been meeting monthly to look
at and talk about current systems in their buildings and map out priorities to develop steps towards imple implementation. This is what our building leaders say when they think about M&MTSS and how it will improve our system. We are very excited to be aligned in our efforts
towards school improvement. It has been a joy to work alongside school leaders this year to share strategies and come up with creative solutions across our buildings. Our school administrators are excited about the alignment and consistency that comes with M&MTSS and to have shared processes for looking at
schoolwide and districtwide data. We will continue to partner with MDE and other districts across the state to implement this work. Our goal with this presentation was to share information about engaging in the Minnesota multi-tered systems of support to create alignment and
consistency with our district goals and instructional practices. Now you have seen what the M&Mss framework looks like and what our focus areas are for next year. strong aligned teams, database decision-making, strengthening and aligning our tier one instruction and
consistency across our entire district. At this time, we would be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Excellent. Thank you very much for the wonderful presentation and thank you for being here on your birthday to share it with us as well. Um, at this time, are there any questions or comments from the
audience? Seeing none, questions or comments from board members? uh scouting just wanted to say happy birthday. Just wanted to follow up that but good presentation and especially when you put together and
just said how this fits with our strategic priorities. That's a big bonus for me. Just my question is how will we know if this MNTSS is making measurable
difference across all the four strategic priorities just more like a measurement. I know we have a lot of data assessment has been said we have a wealth of data assessment tools but how will we know what you know like quick example what measurements that we're going to use to
tell us we make a difference in our strategic priorities thank you go ahead yeah that's a great question um first it is the assessment data um looking at our student outcome data so fast bridge data MCA data graduation rates um also um be
thanks to M&MTSS s we have an assessment that we take together. So we did that last year that really set what our priorities are. That's why it was tier one screening data. Um so that helped align where we're going to focus our efforts. We'll do that one more time at the end of this year to reestablish what
our priorities are for next year. So thanks to this M&MTSS framework, they gave us assessment to be able to determine that um to make sure we're really focusing our efforts because we can't do everything well. So how can we be really intentional Other questions or comments from board
members? I have a question. Yeah. Um, thank you so much for all this information. It was um it's really exciting to see what this can do for our kids and um but I'm a little uh concerned about our teachers. From my um eye, it looks like this might
be adding some work onto their plates. And so I just wondered, is something being removed or how are we um being aware of our teachers? That's a great question. Um many of these things are things that we're already doing. Um so really when we talk about tier one and core at the elementary world that's the
in the elementary world those are four new curricular pieces that they're doing. So when we say we're focusing on that that is what we did this year is really intentionally implement those those curricular pieces. Um at the secondary world many of our subject areas have standards new standards right
now. So, as we go through that process of unpacking those standards to create our assessments, this work is embedded in that work. Got it. Thank you. Excellent. And I would just I'm just going to add to that that all of our working teams that have been working to roll these forward have teachers as a part of those teams as well. So, that's
wonderful. Very collaborative. Good to hear. Thank you. Excellent. Um just one other question too. Uh one, this presentation was excellent too. Thank you for um being here. You can get cake after I promise for your birthday cake, but Um, out of curiosity, I really liked
the slide you had that had the pillars and the things within the pillars that highlighted really gave an an insight onto how we're looking at this. I also love that you aligned them with how we are using the words around our strategic plan with the learning um what we're having like the learning model right
now. I caught on to that really helping to reinforce how we're talking about it. I'm just kind of curious um what does that look like? Like how are you looking? I think there were four or five items on the learning which is great. I always tell people we can't learn everything at once but what does it look like in ter in terms of timeline of when
you think we'll learn through all the layers? I can only guess it'll take time but I'm just curious like is this an ongoing implementation as we continue to learn continue to implement continue to learn continue to implement. What does that look like? Absolutely. Um so the ones that you saw in green that are in your packet that really was learning
work this year right and going into implementation work for next year. So really infrastructure is that key piece because if we can have clear consistent teams across our district then we have a way to do this work. Um then we hope to after we do the assessment again that's
coming up from NMTSS it will give us a couple more areas that we can now start doing the learning work for and then next the following year that would be our implementation work. Right. So we're slowly but surely adding to all the components and implementing them into our system. Excellent. like hearing
that. I love that. Continuous and learning, continuous improvement, continuous implementation. You know, this is a big thing. We can't implement it all at once. So, I love that we're picking the certain things to learn and implement, learn and implement. It's a really good visualization and how it fits into our strategic plan. Excellent. Any other questions or comments from
board members? Great. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. All right. That brings us to our old business and I would like to welcome Kaia Bruce to the podium to go over administrative regulation
801.5 AR should say second reading of 801 5.5 AR lot. Good evening, Chairperson Johnson, members of the board, and Superintendent Balsone. Community education is proposing an increase in
facility use fees for indoor spaces at elementary and secondary schools in class 2, class 3, and class 4 effective July 1st. To ensure our rates remain competitive and equitable, we conducted a market fee study in March comparing our facility rental rates to those of
neighboring districts. The results indicated that our current fees are generally aligned with and in some cases lower than the average rates across these districts. The proposed adjustments for the 2526 school year are intended to account for increased costs
associated with fac excuse me facility scheduling, building supervision, and collaborative purchases of athletic equipment used by the community. These changes will also help us keep pace with inflation. In addition, we are proposing a revision to the due dates for
community use applications for fields and grounds. This adjustment aims to better align the application process with the district-wide scheduling timeline. At this time, I request your approval for the proposed fees for the 2526 school year, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Excellent. Thank you so much. This is an action item for the board tonight. So, before we go into questions, is there a motion to prop to approve the facility use fee increases as presented? Move approval. Motion by Jackie, second by Katherine. At this time, are there any questions or
comments from the audience? Seeing none questions or comments from board members. All right, seems straightforward on a second reading. We have a motion to approve by Jackie, seconded by Katherine. All those in favor of approval say I. I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries on a 70 vote.
Thank you very much. That brings us to our new business and I would like to welcome Jill Coyle to the podium to go over our 202526 overview of student rights and responsibilities. Good evening, Chairperson Johnson, members of the board, and Superintendent Balsone. I am here before you tonight
for a first reading of the 2526 overview of student rights and responsibilities. You'll also hear me refer to that as our handbook. It's a little less of a mouthful. Um, it's a long document that summarizes all of our key student policies and regulations in um, a
userfriendly format packaged together so that it's easy for our students, families, and staff to review those key policies. Um, very long document. I have a very short presentation for you tonight, just hitting the high points, if you will. Um, and then you also in your packet you should all have the
complete document and it's in a uh it's formatted in a fashion that you can see all of the edits, strikeouts for the deletions and underlines for the additions so you can follow along. So with that we'll go ahead into the presentation. Um, first maybe just a
word about the purpose. Why do we do this? Why do we have a handbook? Um, I identified about three purposes. Uh, and you'll see them there in the presentation. one, as I said, we just need to communicate our student expectations, including our student discipline policy, so that all of our
students and families have a clear understanding of the expectations at school. Um, it also functions as a reference source on a variety of student rights and responsibilities. And it's really quite a broad range. You'll find topics like special education, health and safety notices, data privacy
notices, um, studentto student bullying, all sorts of topics. all there presented in a again a user-friendly format for our families. And then finally, in Minnesota law, there are a variety of requirements of items that we need to put in a handbook to provide notice to
families. So, for example, student bullying, we need to have that summarized in a handbook. Harassment needs to be summarized in a handbook. Pesticide notices summarized in a handbook. we have to include a suicide prevention um lifeline number which is prominently displayed on the cover of
the handbook as well. Um so we're solving all of those um uh or we are serving all of those purposes through our handbook. Um continuing on uh some thoughts about how we update it and how we communicate it annually. Uh so first
it is updated annually. Uh we do that in a variety of ways. We took a take a look of at laws to see if there's new laws that we need to incorporate into our handbook every year. We take a look at any policies that the board updated or regulations that the administration updated and make sure that's infused
into the handbook. And then we solicit input from all of our school communities. We'll hear from our principles and um and through them we'll hear from our families and teachers on things that they think maybe aren't working so well within the handbook updates that would be beneficial for
students and families and staff and we'll collect all of those and then those suggestions will go through a vetting process where it's reviewed by cabinet um by principal groups and then ultimately it comes here to the board for your final review and approval.
um it is provided to all of our families. In the past, we would mail it home at the beginning of the school year, typically in August. Just last year, we moved to an electronic format. And so now what we do is we send a communication home to all families with a link to the electronic uh document. Um
and then paper documents are printed as well. Not as many, but there's a few at every building uh for those that still want to receive a paper copy. Um it is reviewed in all of our schools with our students. It's done in a developmentally appropriate way at each level. Each school might do it a little bit
differently, but they all do that review with their students for all of the key points in the handbook. And then they do refreshers as the year goes on. And then finally, you can find the handbook on our district website. It is, I believe it's under the tools menu, parent tools, and then you can also find it under the
menu under the about link. You'll find it there as well. Uh it's translated into English, Spanish, and Somali by professional translators. And then now on our website, you can translate all of our content into a variety of languages so it's available and accessible for
all. Continuing on, let's talk a bit about the 2526 changes. And again, I'm not going to go into granular detail on each of them. There are too many, but I'm going to hit as many high points as I can. Um, so first, I've got a slide here on new and substantially changed
sections. So the brand new sections this year, we have two of them. There's a brand new section on student health and that's really just the basics with with regard to student health information about immunizations about vision and hearing screenings that may occur at school, medication administration at
school. Um not new policy, nothing changed, but some basic information for our families on student health. And then we have a short paragraph on language access. What that does is it reflects the fact that this board recently adopted a new language access plan. So, that's uh briefly summarized there with
a link to the full plan on the website. There are some substantially changed sections as well. Um I think there's four of them. Whoops, went too far. Go back. Um we've got substantial changes to the Minnesota Healthcare Program section on page nine. Student
interviews with outside agencies, page 10, corporal punishment, restraint, and reasonable force, page 20. And I'll stop there to say those last two reflect changes to regulation that were made in the last year. Um, and then you'll remember this one, the cell phone policy
is something that this board adopted uh I think in March, maybe it was February. Um, and so what we've done is we've replaced the old language on cell phones with the new language um uh the policy that you adopted just a couple of months ago. So that is there. Continuing on, um
the next two slides deal with changes to the section on student behavior and responses. So, as you look at the handbook, there's um many pages. The interior of the handbook looks like a grid. Um and there you'll see a listing of a variety of behaviors, behaviors
that students may engage in that we don't want them to engage in. And then a listing of the consequences or the responses. Um and I believe there's four. for first occurrence, second occurrence, third occurrence, fourth occurrence with a suggested response for each behavior. So, we made a number of
changes as we always do to the behavior grid. Um, I've got them listed here. Uh, let's see. Um, here with regard to changes to student behaviors, it could be one of two types. It could be that we're changing the description of the behavior
to be more clear or to cover more or in some cases to delete language. or it may be that we're um either increasing or decreasing the consequence. So those are the two types of things that you may see. So for example with number four, the first on my list there, abuse alarm, verbal, written or otherwise expressed,
we added a slight increase to consequences starting at the second occurrence. Um similarly or differently to illustrate the other type of change down on number 12, nuisance andor recording devices. Um, we added language. Let me go there. Um, to
clarify the definition. Actually, number 14, technology related. We added language making it clear that misuse of a cell phone during instructional time or our cell phone policy would prohibit it, will draw a certain consequence, typically stars, which is our lowest level consequence to begin with. Um, but
we needed to call that out in the policy to be more explicit about what happens if you use a cell phone during instructional time. So, that was one where we changed the language of the description. And then one more. Um, continuing along, additional behavioral changes. There's a few of them here.
Just listed all of the ones that got changes. Um, there they are again. It may be that we've enhanced the consequence. It may be that we've modified the language. So, for example, number 21, assaultive behavior physical. We adjusted the language there to try to
differentiate assaultive behavior from fighting. two very similar categories and so we wanted it to be clear for both administrators and students what the difference was and which one would draw which consequence. So that's where the clarifying language came in. Um and then
down with number 44 and number 46 mace pepper gas or tas taser possession or weapon possession. We added tiered consequences in those sections to reflect the fact that sometimes a student may have pepper gas in their
possession, but they don't intend to threaten anyone with it or use it. They're merely in possession. So, we differentiated the consequence. If you have it and you're threatening someone with it, that's one consequence. If you merely possess it, that's a lesser consequence. So, we've made some
adjustments there. Uh, with that, I think I'm nearly at the end. A few housekeeping matters. Uh note that we are still uh in session. There could be additional legal changes. If changes occur that warrant inclusion in our
handbook uh and their pass between now and old business on June 9th, we'll do our best to infuse those in here. Uh so stay tuned on that. If it's something larger where we'd really need to do more of a comprehensive policy review, we'll catch up with those changes the next
year. Um, know that the final document will have updated forms for 2526. Formatting will be cleaned up, page numbers put in, the cover letter from the superintendent updated. Um, and then as we go forward, as this board may make future policy changes as the year goes
on, those will be infused in next year's um, the 2627 overview of student rights and responsibilities. So, with that's with that, that's all I have for you tonight, but I'm happy to answer any questions and I will be back uh with old business on June 9th. Excellent. Thank
you so much. And with that, are there any questions or comments from the audience? Seeing none, questions or comments from board members? Anna, I just wanted to say that I appreciate the clarifying language. Anyone who's raised
a child um knows how uh sometimes students can get um you can push language if it's not very specific. And so I'm sure that the adults and as well as the student appreciates the clarifying language. Specificity sometimes matters and so I
appreciate that. It sure does. We try to be as specific as we can. Um and I'm sure our students appreciate it too and the adults I'm sure as well. So thank you for that. Excellent. Other questions or comments from board members? Scouting. Just just wanted to quickly
clarify that I know last year we went to all electronic, but then if families want a copy, printed copy. Do we provide them or they have to print them on their own? Well, certainly they could print it on their own, but I'm quite certain if they were to go to any of our schools or even
call the district office, we could provide them a paper copy. Yes. Okay. and all of the books will or all of the schools will get a big box full of them that they can use as the school year goes on. Thank you. I remember that was a big thing. I'm proud of that. I'm proud that we give anyone paper copies that need
them. And I'm proud of I think the 40ome,000 we saved in printing costs when we went to electronic because every board likes that. Did you have something else, Anna? I had one more question. I'm sorry. Um I love that we can now translate into any language. Um, my
second question, and I I think you answered this before, can it also be um instead of just written, can it be auditory as well? I believe it can. Um, I I I'm quite certain on the website that you could. Is there an audio option
um with accessibility tools to listen to it? I'm I'm looking over at our communications department. Not yet. Not yet. Okay. So, someday that would be a next big win from an accessibility standpoint. Okay. Thank you. Some good questions. Other questions or comments? All right, we will see you
back on June 9th for the second reading. Thank you. Thank you very much. Right. Next, I'd like to welcome Eric Hansen to the podium to go over the addition of student school board members and revision to policy 203. Thank you. Good evening, Chairperson Johnson, members of the school board,
and superintendent Balone. I'm before you tonight to review proposed changes to policy 203, school board organization. The specific changes I'm going to discuss tonight can be found in section one of the draft policy before you and relate to adding two non- voting
resident student members to serve as exopicio members during open meetings of the school board. This revision to the policy would allow an additional way for student voice and input as well as the opportunity to learn about policy governance and civic
responsibility using the Minnesota School Board Association guidance. Knowing that discussions are happening amongst our legislators as well as learning from other school districts who currently have students on their school board, our district administration is prepared to be directed to draft administrative
regulations around the student application process and interest form, a process for reviewing applications, a process for student interviews and selection, guidance around details such as length of term and other responsibilities. I would also like to point out that
within the draft revisions to this policy, you will see other technical minor adjustments made in other sections of this policy, most notably in section 3, the section pertaining to officers. The proposed revisions seek to modify the existing policy language to bring it
closer to the MSBA model policies. The language in section 3 is drawn from both the MSBA model policy 202 school board officers and the district 196 uh board handbook. Tonight, no action is needed. This is the first reading and I will be
back in June for approval of the revisions of policy 203. If approved, I'll ask you to direct the administration develop to develop an administrative regulation and selection process for adding two students to the school board. At this time, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.
Thank you very much. Um, this is anformational new business, so there's no motion or action item on this tonight. Um, and this may be something the board wants to discuss at a future workshop, but at this time, are there any questions or comments from the audience? Yes. Um, please come up to the podium. Uh, you can just start by introducing yourself, your connection to
the district. Um, these are a little bit more informal, but we generally have two minutes for public comment during agenda items. Sure thing. I appreciate it. Uh, and thank you, Chairperson Johnson and members of the school board. Uh, Superintendent Michael Balsson. My name is Brady Sternberg. I'm a former member of this school district. I graduated
last year. Um, and I was really involved with a lot of you guys with the uh with the school board. Um, and I rise tonight to voice my support uh for these proposed changes. Uh, I I think what's really clear is that we have a crisis of
civic education in this country um and in our state. And I think that this proposed action is a great way to kind of get ahead of that. I think uh something that I I I really liked that uh Mr. Hansen said was, you know, civic education. It
really is about civic education. When young people can uh become involved in their community, when they can get a voice, when they can learn the process by which uh you know the laws that govern them, uh they are excited to keep staying involved. they are excited to uh
learn more from their school district and and from the people that uh they work with and and and they learn from every day. And and like anything in this school district, you know, it's about learning and and I think that we can learn a lot and students can learn a lot
uh from the process of of getting members on the board and also for those students to uh learn more about what the school board does and and the actions that they take uh throughout the state. So, I look forward to this progressing and um I hope it goes really well. Thank
you. Excellent. Thank you, Brady. I I I would be I would be remiss if I didn't add that um uh Eric Hansen mentioned some legislation happening. I happened to be tuning in to that live legislation and I saw Mr. Sternberg testify from
Washington DC on that as well. So, I know not your first time, but always great to see District 196 um alum and still active in Minnesota even when you're not physically here. So, I just had to say I I saw you speak on that, too. Um other questions or comments from the
audience? Oh, see questions or comments from the board? Sorry, I've got a question. Yes, Robin. Um so thank you for explaining um the proposed changes. Um and one of the things um that you said that this would be an additional
way to involve students and so it's kind of a two-part question. First is what are we currently doing to involve students and how many students the second part of that would be how many students are taking advantage of those opportunities. Yeah. So, um, our comprehensive high school principles, our other high school
principles, our middle schools, they do have student groups that they're getting voice from, getting feedback from. I know when I was a middle school at Rosemont Middle School, we had a group that I I met with and uh, and rotated that group to get other voices on there, too. So, there that's happening all the time um, in our secondary schools um,
and could be somewhat layered into the process of this to make sure that we bring those voices here, too. Okay. Thank you. Other questions or comments from board members? Yes, Leah. I just want to say thank you for, you know, for bringing this forward and for
the opportunity to have further discussion on this. Um, I use a a mantra that is really important to me in my day job and borrowed from the disability community um about uh
nothing nothing about us without us. And so, um, I use that for folks experiencing food insecurity, for basically anything that we're trying to do good work on, right? Let's center the people most um impacted in figuring out
the way forward. So, I bring that up just to say that I think having students on the board is could be an important opportunity for us to get that input. But I think it even starts with bringing
them into a conversation about how we do this. What are the ways that they want to have more voice? Um, we had some of them active in, you know, bringing a bill to us earlier on this same topic and we had really meaningful
conversation with those students afterwards. Sort of to the question that that was just raised about what are all of the ways that we can bring voice in because it's going to, you know, there's no way that two students
can carry all of that, right? And and it's similar to for us, you know, we have different hats we wear as parents or, you know, as community members and yet we can't always represent everyone, right? There has to be paths for people to speak for themselves. Um, so just
know that I think that's going to be really important to me as we continue to explore the right way to do this is what do our students and former students even, you know, think about what is the most effective um ways for
them all to have voice and then how does that bubble up into anyone who would be playing that primary representation role. Yeah. No, I appreciate you bringing up. That's a good point. Uh, one of the process I took um in coming here tonight is I met with um five or
six local superintendents who have students on their school board to ask those questions. Now, these current superintendents were um one high school districts. However, one of the um superintendents uh came from a six high school district and talked a little bit about that layered leadership. Um I
think what you're referencing to bring those voices which would be similar to something that we'd need to consider as well. Other questions or comments from board members? Jackie, I agree with Leah and Brady, thank you again for your comments.
Um, when you look at I was been on the MSBA board and was proud to serve that and have given out the checks to students who were on boards. And if you're in Malaca or if you're in Lakeville and you're a one one high school town, that's a bit different than
if you come to our district and you've got four comprehensive high schools and the school of environmental studies. Um I wish so the number doesn't seem right to me, but we can't have a four students on the board. That doesn't seem right.
But so I'm thinking I'm looking around and looking at other schools and I think a better idea and it goes get with Leah. Two students can't carry everything and we've got lots of different students that come to our and celebrate with us. I mean just our just today we got the
host students. We've got the computer science people. We've got the the people that came that are um in the debate. So you've got all of those kinds of people. you got people coming in with sports, things that they bring their background, their their story to the board. Um, I
think a better idea would be to create a student representative committee from all the high schools. Minneapolis has a great model that we could look at and have a committee of those K of maybe five students from every high school and then pick from there the two people that
want to come and represent the board. Um, as I said, Minneapolis has a great model that you can look at. St. Paul does, too. I think it might be I would like to see the dis the administration come back, look at some of these and come back and bring it to us. In
Minneapolis, they have what they call a citywide leadership board. You have to be on the citywide leadership board and there's five students from every dis every school. And then there's very defined classifications of of your
responsibilities. You have to commit for a year. Um two people will then you can attend you need to attend the meetings. You need to be dedicated for and it's going to be this many hours. We've have a lot of students that come and work on our um legis legislative advisory committee,
our budget advisory committee, our curriculum committee. So those people if they got together with other other students from other schools could share their voice and then to me the voice would be more authentic when they're sitting here at the table. It's hard
when if you're going to just come in here and sit down and try to comprehend what we're what the things that we talk about. you know, you're gonna come in at the middle of a budget cycle and where is your input? Where is
the place that you can as a student bring your input? Well, I would I think we should do this at school. Oh, well, sorry. We can't do that because that would have been the budget from last year. We're now talking about we're in the middle of this budget and the budget. So, I think there's a lot of things that are
are that I think that we need to really do have much more student voice and I think we can we can be more strategic. I think we can help amplify student voice so we have a bigger we have a bigger
pool of students that we're bringing um rather than just two. I would like to see us amplify it student at St. Paul. They do they have say 13. I don't know. I could look for the Minneapolis one and see how many they think, but I'd like to see us widen out that pool. So, we
have I I agree with you, Leah. You said two students can't handle this all. Are you going to are we expecting then those two students to go back and report if they were from Apple Valley High School school and East View High School, then are they going to go and talk to the
kids at Egan High School? are they going to be getting information from middle school kids about what you know as they move forward? So I think I personally would like to see us either have a workshop on this or send it back to the
administration and say let's try uh let's try to flush this out a little bit better. Yeah. So that would be my recommendation. Good. Um um if I can just weigh in, I mean I promise to hit other voices as well, but um just a
couple of things that I've heard so far. I do think there are probably additional avenues to get student voice. Um absolutely. I think this is one recommendation and one step. It's not the solution. I think it is a movement
in that in that direction and I think movement is good. um about um I think a lot of the questions being raised are questions that I think I would trust the administration to work through um and students in that position. Um regarding
like Minneapolis, I actually was talking with the Minneapolis board chair last Thursday. They have two student school board members on the school board and they come and they do other things. Yes. And they I that student that board chair was telling me how much they value those two student school board members. uh and
through their citywide student board leadership. Absolutely. There's a lot of ways that they can come up and again I trust the administration to work through all of those minute details of how they do the selection. I don't think that's a board level conversation of to micromanage the exact selection process, but I do think it is a step in a
direction. Um and I do think it's like it's something that we can continuously improve upon. Um I don't think we have to necessarily tackle the entire problem in one big uh roll out. This is a this
is part of a solution. It is uh tied tried and tested in many districts across the state and country. Um and it could be a good way to start the process of getting additional student voice knowing there's still going to be a lot more work to do. Um and I think you had a question. Thank you.
Um, so this is I've thought a lot about this one because this was one of my priorities when I ran. I wanted to see student voice and I did absolutely want to see it on the board.
Um, as I've been on the board and I've seen how much more diverse and how large our district is, um, I think we're putting the cart before the horse to have a policy first without having a strategy. Yes. And I think the attempt
the the I don't look it as a micromanage. I look at the board is the board is we set the vision and I do believe that the uh administration is responsible for the
strategy if I'm in in collaboration right um I do think speed kills I do not I am very reticent to uh approve a policy without any inclination of how it
is going to be operationalized. Um, I'm very nervous about that. It doesn't even talk about how it fits into our strategic roadmap. It is so fast. So fast. What I've heard is that there are other school districts
that are doing that. Minneapolis, St. Paul, that's all I really heard in student voice. I still haven't heard what is the problem we're trying to solve. Student voice over what? What is the voice? I mean, that's
how generic it is. And as far as getting involved, that's still civic engagement to what end and how for how many people. I still haven't heard enough to really sink my teeth into it. And it's not that
I don't trust that administration can do it. It's that it's backwards. We should be going through and there should absolutely be student voice. I'm looking at student centered and I'm looking at
collaboration. I'm looking at community. These are the adults in the room deciding again for people without people. And that is the one thing that has been frustrating to me the most is that so many times the people in the room who had the influence and the power are forgetting that the people who who
have the most experience and the most to lose and the most to gain aren't always in the room to have the influence from the be very beginning to build the system so it's sustainable. And so I appreciate one or two people who have the best interest in
mine. even I did. Now that I'm in the space, the best thing I can do for our constituents is to make sure they're in the room when it happens and that they have the opportunity to help build it from the ground up because that's where it's going to be
sustainable. And so I don't think the policy I think that it should be vice versa. I'm all down for the policy, but I want to make sure that we are doing the right thing for the students and that the students have a say on how it
looks like and not us. And before I leave this my term or whatever that looks like, that is the thing I'll be fighting for is making sure it's the right way and it's not the adults who are figuring it out for the students. I don't have a lot of faith at the policy and then things will just miraculously
happen. Yep. That's what I don't have faith in. But that's me. But I'm I'm committed to making sure that it happens and it's sustainable because what I don't want to happen is that we have performance on a school board performative because I do know
what that's like and then we walk around saying it's successful when it's successful for two kids who can now put it on their college application and the other I don't know how many other students now don't get a voice. they don't have the privilege of having that on their
application and there's a lot of students who will miss out because of that because that's also inequitable and that's what ends up happening. That's my concern. I want everyone to succeed. I would like to look at the Minneapolis model but I want
us to create a model that's the best model for us. Yes. I'm not I don't know enough about Minneapolis. I don't mind drawing from Minneapolis as a starting point. So, and Jackie, you and I don't always agree on things. So, I mean, this is the
fact that Jackie and I are agreeing this. We're sometimes polar opposites. So, there's something here. This is something, but I'm saying that there's something here that the fact that we are seeing something here is unusual. And I feel like there's something there's a there there, right? I think because
we're both looking at at student voice in a larger not two students talking a larger group of students talking and bringing information to us. So that would be I don't know that's just me that's me but I can't speak for anyone else on the board. That's me and I
agree. Great points. Thank you. I just wanted to address a couple things. I don't think this was done backwards in terms of getting it to the board to have a discussion. This is exactly how we have discussions withformational items. Yep. And the way we do it is this is a policy change. So we have to start by
talking a policy change and bringing it. This is not an action item that I already said. So I don't I just don't want to I just that was said and I don't want to insinuate that anyone thinks that this was done back. No, that was my opinion. This was just my opinion and I spoke for myself. Yeah. This is just the way that boards have to bring stuff with the open meeting law to have the
discussion. So don't insinuate you did anything weird or anything like that. This went through policy committee as well. Um so it's and that's when it came here for informational. Um also and I I would just add I think there's like a
student like student voice is a big thing that we can capture. Like I said this is a step in a direction but and we can definitely have workshops but I mean we also need some solutions too. You know there's a lot of uncomfortableness but not a lot of recommendations how to
move forward with a big big plan. This is developed in our overall strategy. It is part of it. It is part of that strategic framework. But again, it's one step. It's not everywhere. Um but yeah, I'll open up to other questions. I think I saw the coin. Go ahead. I just wanted to quickly add that we're having this
discussion. I'm happy that we're having this discussion and I totally agree what is being said. Each one of the board members, I'm in support of it. For one, we have we all want to give a voice and to student representation. We have I
have always always struggled I've been advocate for that and also civic education civic participation is really important. We have listened a lot of students groups that come here talk to us. There's been a lot of different ideas that's been thrown at us. I like
the fact that we are trying to be proactive about some things but the thing is we are missing options. how we usually do policies. There's a lot of things that we're missing to how we're going to implement this. And as a board
by statutes, we have the legal responsibility to look at what is piece of policy before is introduced. Is this implementable? What is unintended consequences this might bring? So that's the facto of it. So I'm happy that we
having this this discussion but we're going to take it back to the cabinet which we have always done the the readjustments of always done there's always been options that's been brought to us uh maybe look at this what options is available how we can accomplish this
I've seen it there's been discussion of two-year term one year term to what I mean there's a lot of things that we need to discuss it is our responsibilities that to make sure that how we can best implement this if any. So,
so what I'm hearing if I were to summarize the majority of comments and please speak up if you have something else you want to say, but I'm summarizing please, this is disagree with me if you don't like this, but I'm kind of what I'm feeling is the board would maybe like to have a workshop to discuss student schoolboard members and
kind of some of the highlevel details so we're comfortable before we have a second reading or an action item. Um, and I'm again I'm looking kind of for the majority of the books. I know we're a little divided or if someone has another opportunity or another idea. Sorry, Katherine, you haven't had a chance to speak yet? Sure. No, I think it's a great conversation. Um, super
important and I think what I'm hearing is that we would like to to have some other options of infrastructure brought to us as to how how would this be built so that it's representative. So some some different options based on other
schools that just show you know how are we going to make sure that that different voices are brought by just two people by two students. So some options to then react to about how that infrastructure is built and I person I
have I have elementary school kids that are going to go into high school and they have active councils too. So I would love to see how it links all the schools to start super young with civic engagement. Um because I think that's an
opportunity where we you know start young with this education of how just their government works up to us. Um so I think having some things to react to and respond to are helpful different options that that might strike a chord with us.
I think Oh, go ahead. Okay. I was just gonna say I think this all shows we're very passionate about having students involved. Yeah. You know, and like we all agree that student voice is important and we want to capture it. Um, we're just trying to also trust that
we're doing our board work and we're not getting into the weeds of your work, but you know, being in this seat, we know what all it can encapsulate and we want to do so in a way that's meaningful for as many students as possible and not
just and while we don't have the answers because we do want to trust administration because you do a wonderful job, but we just want to make sure that we're capturing as much as we hand. And so I think that's where the passion comes from and giving us just
like a few uh bumpers, you know, or guidelines like we could do A, we could do B or pieces. So we are, you know, getting as many kids as possible because we all really do want student voice. It's absolutely something we want to capture. So I think that it just speaks
to how passionate we are. Just right. I think uh what you said earlier is really what we're basically talking about. We need more information especially how we going to implement that this and yes that given the amount of questions that we have workshop will be the perfect
thing to have where we will have strategist things to you know look at so that all our questions are answered then we'll go back to yeah uh routine maybe second reading third reading and so forth perfect thank you is everyone this
isn't a action item but can I just we're in an open meeting so I can say can I get ahead nod the board would like to h tackle this for a workshop topic. Yes. All right. Perfect. So, I'm going to look at administration, too. What other information do you need from the board to be able to generate a good workshop?
And you can ask later, too. But I know I'm putting you on the spot, but is there you get enough from our dialogue tonight because this was a great conversation by the way. Thank you to all the board members who wait. Yeah. know I think it's all it's a great discussion and and uh certainly thoughts have gone through my head as I process through this and ask questions around um certainly we want to involve our um high
school principles in this as well um so I think um I think the thoughts are are wise um and I'm happy to have a workshop model and and really dig into this excellent is there possibly any former students
that could maybe have any ideas that you could maybe reach out to about maybe how they would maybe approach that with former students. We have lots of them. Oh, there's somebody waving. I can't think of anyone. Wait, somebody might have raised their hand. Brady, good.
Okay. Are you gonna stay afterwards and maybe have a Okay, that'd be great. Thanks, Brady. Um, thank you for this discussion. Um, Eric and I and others have been really thinking about this. We've got some high school principles in the audience here, too. Thank you. And Brady, thank you for being here as well. It's an important
topic we've been talking about actually for quite a while and thinking about how to encourage students to be um part of what we do. I think that's that's really important both at the local school level but also at the district level on our advisory councils and uh coming to different meetings and speaking and
things like that. One question I have for the board just in thinking about the time of school year May. I'm going to talk about graduation here in a few minutes. Um, what is the timeline that the board would like to look at in terms of having a workshop or putting students on the school board? You know, we were
working trying to maybe make this happen for next fall. I don't know that that's more important than slowing down and doing it right. One of the things I heard tonight was maybe slow down, talk to more students, um, get more voices. That can be part of multiple plans we put out, but that does take some time.
Um and and I just want us to test or or ask a little bit about your um vision for a timeline for this project. Part of me oh um just thinks it would be great for the student board members to join when new members are put in in
January. You know, it's a natural time where you get um you know, the new uh you know, chair and vice chair and all of that. At the same time, it doesn't um allow for them to have a full school year, you know. Um, so it would all depend on their term, but it seems like
that would give them the true experience to have them come on when other members came on to the board, but I don't know how feasible that is. Okay, that's helpful. I'd support the January timeline. I like that. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. So, if you want a backwards plan from
January, Sure. kind of help us with workshop dates. Yeah, I think we shoot for January. Understanding we might need to be a little nimble because students aren't available. Not all students are available in the summer. Correct. With work schedules and and they're not in the classroom.
They're not at school. Correct. So, okay. Thank you. Good question. Great. Thank you board for the excellent discussion. This is the discussion I like having at the board table um where we can hear ideas, get some consensus, how to move forward um and not have to
take any action. I love that. Those I love those items. So, thank you very much and we will um be talking soon. Thank you, Mr. All right, we have nothing under other action items tonight, so I will turn it over to Superintendent Bullone for superintendent updates. Okay, thank you, Chair Johnson. Um uh this past Saturday,
May 3rd, I along with uh others attended the South of the River Powow supported in part by our own American Indian Education Program, uh in collaboration with other programs as well. It was a highly successful event with an estimated 500 people in attendance. And a day like this takes many staff and
volunteers, and I want to thank everyone involved for making it a great day. In April, our high school students completed more than 1,900 preac tests and almost 2,000 ACT tests. We also had more than 400 students working on their
bilingual SEAL exams. It was the first time that District 196 administered the ACT in a digital format. We received positive reports from our schools and district assessment team who help support these tests across the district. This week, all of our high schools are
completing AP exams. These are advanced placement exams. Approximately 2300 students in grades 9 to 12 will be taking a total of 4,800 AP exams. Uh these AP courses, advanced placement courses, expose students to college
level rigor in their coursework, and students have the opportunity to earn college credits based on their exam performance. And we want to wish all of our students good luck on their AP exams. Tonight is the last regular school board meeting, regular school board meeting before the class of 2025
graduation ceremonies begin. I want to congratulate more than 2100 seniors who will graduate from district 196 this year. We will recognize them for their hard work and perseverance in achieving this milestone. We wish them all the best in the next chapter of their lives.
Commencement ceremonies for our four comprehensive high schools will be held on Saturday, May 31st. Egan High School ceremony will begin at 2:25 in the school stadium. The other three comprehensive high school ceremonies are at Maruchi Arena with East View starting
at 12:00 p.m. Apple Valley High School at 3:30 and Rosemont High School at 7 p.m. This week we kick off our celebrations with a Native American cultural honoring cere ceremony on Saturday, May 17th at 100 p.m. at Central Park in Rosemont. Graduations
will also be held at several other district schools and programs later this month and in early June. A complete complete list of graduation ceremonies is available on our district website at district196.org. Lastly, I want to encourage district 196 students,
parents, and citizens to consider applying for membership on one of our district advisory councils, which are accepting applications now for terms that begin with the 2526 school year. Advisory councils create awareness about important educational topics. They
provide opportunities for advocacy on behalf of students, families, and staff and advise the staff, administration, and the board on topics and issues that are essential to them. And more information is available again on the district website. Thank you. Are there
any any other items that board members would like to share? Seeing none, that brings us to our German. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. Motion by Robin, seconded by Sakoden. All those in favor of adjournment say I. I. I. Those opposed.
We are adjourned.