educate, prepare, and empower all learners in partnership with their surrounding community to be successful in today's and tomorrow's society. Heather, can you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge allegiance Thank you. And then can you please call roll?
>> The following board members are present at the district administration office. Gina Aso >> here. >> Scott Andre >> here. >> Natalie Copeland >> here. >> Zack Dohalt >> here. >> Diana Fenton >> here. >> Shannon Hos >> here. >> Heather Williams. The following cabinet members Oh, here. The following cabinet
members and staff are present at the district administration office. Superintendent Dr. Lori Putnham. Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Dr. Jason Harris. Executive Director of Community Education and Community Partnerships Shannon Avenson. Executive Director of Finance and Business Services Amy Scallarude.
Executive Director of Innovation and Technology Services Katie Herbold. Executive Director of Operations Matthew Boucher. Executive Director of Special Education Danny Mayer. Director of Community Engagement and Communications Tammy Dand. Media technicians are Paul
Novak and Gordy Scott. And the custodian on site is Emerson Beamer. >> Thank you. Then I'm looking for a motion to appro approve tonight's board of education meeting and work session agenda. >> So move. >> I have a motion by Scott and a second by Natalie. Heather, can you call vote?
>> Heather Williams, yes. Shannon Hus, >> yes. >> Dana Fenton, >> yes. >> Zack Dorholden, >> yes. >> Natalie Copeland, >> yes. >> Scott Andre, >> yes. Genie Gina Acto. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Then we have the consent agenda. The consent agenda consists of non-controversial items the board adopts
routinely without debate. Any single member may remove an item from the consent agenda by requesting removal at the time the consent agenda is moved for adoption. On tonight's consent agenda, item A, approval of personnel staff changes. Item B, approval of monthly
financial report for February 2026. Item C, approval of monthly treasures report for February 2026. Item D, approval for proposed revised board policy 208, development, adoption and implementation of policies, third reading. Item E,
resolution establishing dates for filing affidavit of candidacy. And item F, contingent resolution relating to choosing nominees for election to the school board and calling the school district primary election. At this time, does any board member wish to remove an
item from the consent agenda? Okay. Um, seeing no removals, looking for a motion to approve the consent agenda as read. >> So, move. >> I have a motion by Scott, a second by Natalie. Heather, can you call vote on that? >> Zach Dorhalt, >> yes.
>> Natalie Copeland, >> yes. >> Diana Fenton, >> yes. >> Scott Andre, >> yes. >> Gina, >> yes. >> Shannon Hos, >> yes. >> Heather Whittens, yes. >> Okay. Uh we have one information item tonight. We have technology and information systems future systems
transitions update. Presenting Katie Herbald, executive director of innovations and technology services. Good evening, Chair Haw, Superintendent Putnham and members of the board. I was going to have an info systems member here today, but she had a last minute uh
child care thing come up and couldn't make it. So, you're stuck with me. Um, I'll try to be as good as she would have been. Um, last time I was here, I was here talking about cyber security and I have another really exciting topic for you tonight, which is our future systems
transitions. We're going to be in for some changes in the next about year and a half. So, first off, um, why do we want to change some systems? Uh, we want to look at our operational efficiency and the integrity of our data. We want to get
some more modern user interfaces for our staff and our families so that they're looking at modern products um and really intuitive uh user experiences. We're able to then streamline support because we're able to reduce some of the amounts of products we're using which also
reduces confusion. So our goal and my goal over this uh next year and a half is to create a more integrated intuitive and sustainable technology and system ecosystem. So the first one we're going to talk about tonight is a uh when I talk about
systems tonight, I'll talk a lot about what system we're going to do and what we can eliminate in order to streamline this one. We can't eliminate anything. This is a straight system for system. So this is the ERP migration. Um our current Skyward SMS or Skyward finance system will be transitioning to another
Skyward product called cumulative. Um, just so you know, ERP is enterprise resource planning, which are the tools that we use for HR, payroll, finance, and asset management um, in one integrated system. We're making this change because Skyward developed
cumulative as a web native SQLbased platform to replace their aging SMS architecture. So, if you have been in Skyward Finance recently, you can tell the user interface looks older. It's a little bit outdated. Um, cumulative brings that user interface up, makes it
more modern, and then how it's programmed is a little more modern and secure than what we have now. So, it's a better reporting, a more modern look and feel, and more powerful automation. So, where are we in this process? Uh, right now, our HR and finance teams are
in the data cleanup phase. Um, they've been looking at the data in our current system, cleaning it up, and getting it ready to move into the new system. We have what's called a knowledge hub. So, we have staff in our uh in our district office that are going to be engaging in these asynchronous learning um to build
foundational skills. And then I gave you a little screenshot of what um my web interface in the knowledge hub looks like. You can see I've completed one course, but that's okay. I've got till July 28th to do the other three that are listed there. So, I am ahead of schedule. Uh but and then there are
different due dates for each set that's coming through. Um, I have a few. Amy has a thousand. Amy's got a lot of courses she's got to go through. She's really excited about it. >> It's going to be great. Um, so here's
our timeline. Our live data um that Amy's team uh and Tracy's team have been looking at and making sure is ready to go is going to be loaded into a training database or what we would call a sandbox, a place where we can make changes and and see how things are going to work. On April 27th, 2026, our staff
are going to interact with that system where they can start building custom forms and refining those processes. Unfortunately, the custom forms we have in SMS do not transfer to the new ones. So, we have to rebuild. And by we, I mean Amy has to rebuild all of those
custom forms and things within the new uh product. Um it gives us an opportunity to streamline some things, but it is going to be a process. Um we are then going to be creating resources for district staff and how to access the part that they need, which is, you know, the the um the various employment
records and things that they might need. Um, we are going to be live on February 8th, meaning on February 8th when you log in, you will log into cumulative. That being said, we need a week where our system is down where we'll be putting in all of the new information and making sure everything is ready to
go. Now, that week is February 1st, 2027. So, next February. We know that's around tax time, but we as a district, a few users will have access to our old system. So, if someone needs a tax document or something happens, we're
still going to have access to get those. It's just staff will not have access to that online system over that week. And we'll make sure we're communicating that out so everybody can get their tax documentation, everything they need, but if something happens, we'll still be able to get it. I think we're also
planning on just downloading everybody's stuff so we have backups on backups and we can get all that for everybody. And this is just kind of a general outlook of what the new user our old user face is on the left. What the new user face will look like um is on the
right. So you can see a nice more cleaned up easier navigation um in that system. Okay. Now we have another migration. This is a I mean that one's a pretty big one. This one is also a very big one. So we have SIS which is student information
system. We're going to be transitioning from again Skyward SMS, the old version of Skyward. Um we are not going to Skyward again. We are moving to Infinite Campus. Um this was a really big process to identify what system we were going to
go to. Um no single system really is a perfect fit for everybody. We included a lot of different user groups and a lot of different perspectives from from throughout the district before we came to this uh conclusion. So, we looked for a system that would operize efficiency
and value for the district. Um, this was a consultative decision-making model, meaning we brought in as many um points of view as we could. We talked it through. We gave a recommendation, but ultimately this went to the executive team to make the final decision, but the executive team picked what the
recommendation was. So, that worked out really nice. Um, we did a selection process. We reviewed four industryleading vendors. We had input teams and vendor demonstrations. Um the vendors provided walkthrough videos which were sent to all district staff. Everybody had the opportunity to watch
those walkthrough videos and provide feedback on them. We then had a task force where they analyzed the request for proposal documents and the survey data we collected to provide that recommendation. That task force was uh made up of teachers, counselors, clerical, nursing and administrators um
and info systems. And then in our final decision, the executive team utilized a rubric um and the task force recommendations to select Infinite Campus. This is what that rubric looked like. The main categories we looked at and you can see how they were weighed but price and cost effectiveness, core
functional requirements, system interoperability, and then security, technical infrastructure, and support. And Infinite Campus um scored the highest um both by by most groups. So, one thing that's really nice about Infinite Campus, um, is on average,
districts that move to it can eliminate four third-party systems. That's four less systems that we're having to click on, um, and go into different places. So, we're going to be able to go into Infinite Campus and do everything that's listed on those bullet points in that platform. So we can access gradebook,
online registration, scheduling, food service, school messenger, which is where we send out voicemails, we send out messages to families, uh pay a secure payment portal, um analytic suite, learning suite, data suite, workflow suite, and then a report translation module. Everywhere you see
an asterisk is a system we will replace with Infinite Campus. So you can see we're going to eliminate four systems just and or four third parties. We're still going to have the functionality. It's just all going to be kept within the one area. So, it's going to be easier to find and easier to interact
with. That being said, anytime we change, it's hard, but we'll get there. So, here's where we are for that. We had our kickoff call with our dedicated project manager from Infinite Campus. Um this project manager has recently done
two Skyward SMS migrations to Infinite Campus um from fairly local school districts. Um there is one school district that went from uh the Skyward SMS to Skyward Cumulative and is now transitioning to Infinite Campus. So
they're doing two um in the matter of about three years because they wanted to go to Infinite Campus. So, we're in the very early stages of this one, but our go live um will be in the summer of 2027. So, students will register um in our old system. We'll then be moving all
of those things into the new system, all the schedules. Um and then we'll be starting the year off in 2728 um in Infinite Campus. Okay, there's another one. I know there seems like a lot, right? I'm sorry. Uh so the next one is uh we're moving to
become a more Googlefriendly district. So right now we are in a dual environment. We run both Google and Microsoft. Staff members have Gmail and Outlook email. Um we're looking to reduce those systems and reduce that confusion by moving to what most of the
rest of the school districts in the state of Minnesota are on which is an all Google environment. The big part of this is going to be taking staff from Microsoft Outlook and moving them into Gmail. Um, this will help us reduce confusion. Right now, if you share a document in Google, that notification
goes to your Gmail, which very few people check. And so, there might be missing notifications by not being able to go or not knowing to go into Gmail. So, we're going to have everything move into one email. Um, it also helps us use our district funds responsibly because right now we're paying for two
subscriptions, both Google and Microsoft. We'll be able to eliminate the Microsoft subscription, um, and we can then just pay our, uh, enterprise Google. Now, one of the things that scares people is, oh, I'm not going to have access to any of my files. We're
managing this by retaining what's called an A1 license. These are free licenses and they include one drive, the web-based versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. So, everybody's files are still openable and still usable. Um,
departments and schools can purchase on their own the upgraded license for specific users who need the downloaded applications, which we would call the desktop application suite. So, if they need it downloaded to their computer for a certain workflow that they do, that's still available. We're just not
purchasing that for everybody in the district anymore. Um, people worried about their emails because for whatever reason there might be people who have thousands of emails in their Outlook inbox. Um, we're going to move them all to
their Gmail account. So, that'll be fun. Um, so you're not going to lose any of your emails. You'll still have them all there. They're just going to be you have to look at them a little bit differently. Um and then staff also retain access to Microsoft one drive. So if they have files saved online in the
cloud in one drive still available. Um so nothing really like we're not making anybody's files unusable. This is the last one I promise. Um so next thing we're going to talk about is talking about changing a little bit of how we do professional growth and this
is with Proerva. So it's a centralized platform that can bring multiple processes under one roof. So our professional learning management, our CEU tracking, our employee goal setting, evaluations and observations and mentorship tracking. So again with this one program we can eliminate three. Um
this includes a teacher relicure component to replace the current and mostly manual process. So we actually add um functionality that we didn't have a system for before. It's a one-stop shop for the entire professional life cycle. Um, our next steps with this one,
we're very early phases, but we're reviewing with internal teams. Um, and then if we are starting to move forward, we will begin the migration process in June. So, while we're in early stages of that one, it's actually the first one that we're that we'll undertake. And you can kind of see a a screenshot there of
of what that looks like. So, you can see some mentorship forms. There's a little bit about feedback and observations. It just provides more data for people doing those. um and then more data on various parts of uh relicensure. So the big question here is are we
actually streamlining our systems? We are based on what I talked about today. I talked about 10 current systems and after all the migrations that I just told you about, we'll be down to four. So less places for people to click, less confusion to cause, easier to find what you need.
Um here's a big timeline. So, it starts with our training base coming in April and ending in the summer of 2027 with transitioning to Infinite Campus. So, we got a lot of work ahead of us. Um, but we have it mapped out and we're feeling pretty good about making sure it all
gets done. But again, anytime we change, there's difficulties. So, we'll provide as many resources as possible. We'll support people as much as possible, but knowing that um when you're asked to do something different, it's harder um until it doesn't feel hard anymore, until you get used to the new processes. So, we'll continue to work through
those. Okay, I went fast. Any questions? Anybody have any questions at all? Heather, >> this is overwhelming for some. >> Sorry. >> Do you have like in each building, do
you have call it an expert who will help from a training and development process? Obviously, so much has changed to just learning in different um online um and platforms is not the word that I'm looking for, but I can't think of it right now. But will there be
people on the ground on a daily basis so that for people who are not as native, they they can have a human who helps them? >> Yes, the big one is going to be the student information system on that one. So looking at training people in each building. Um media specialists often
help us with this a lot and just like getting that training before school starts. Um that one the training is going to have to happen in phases, right? Because you can't train about what someone needs to do for the entire year all at one time. So it'll be like here's how you enter assignments into the grade book. Now here's how you
finalize grades and then here's how you move. So it'll be like as the year goes we'll have to have little checkpoints of training. But yes, and then I also have um just a brilliant innovation coach um who goes building to building when people need help and she catches on to
things really fast and helps people not only with some of the process programs like this but also innovative teaching practices and other programs too. So we do have people doing that. Um but yeah, it's it's uh it's overwhelming. Um but
we will have support. >> Keep going. And just one other um maybe I wasn't listening closely. You you talked a lot about staff, parents, and support for families as they transition particularly off of Skyward into other platforms.
>> Yes. Actually, I didn't mention parents, so that's great. Yeah, we will have to provide like the same thing we do with Skyward right now where we have videos available. We have um tables at our connection conferences or at back- toschool events or just generally at conferences or other times where parents
are coming around with information. We often right now help parents get their accounts created. We will have to do all of that plus a little bit more especially as we're starting a new system because it won't just be our new parents coming in. It will be all parents starting on a new system. I know it's not overwhelming at all.
It's fine. Okay. Any other questions? Thank you, Katie. I think you're have more tonight. Or is it was that it? >> That's it. >> That's it for you. Okay. All right.
>> Yep. >> Okay. Moving on to discussion action items. First up, we have Amy Scallardude, executive director of finance and business services, joining us for to present the 2026 to 2027
compensatory revenue plan. And this one is an action item. Okay. Okay. Good evening, Chair Haw, Superintendent Putnham, members of the school board. Uh this is an action item. As you said, this is an annual required
action item. Um and so this is part of our uh every year budget process um related to compensatory revenue. So, little background, our compensatory revenue um is a significant portion of our budget derived uh based on percent of students who qualify for free and
reduced lunch. Um by statute, you can hold back 20% of the compensatory revenue to allocate on a district-wide basis. Otherwise, statute requires that the um revenue that's generated by site must be spent on the site. Um but we
know we have some discrepancies across the district in terms of what free and reduced um percents are and in order to provide consistent supports particularly um when we look at math and literacy and um chemical dependence um counselors and those sorts of positions we know we have
needs in buildings that may not generate the revenue to fund them otherwise. And so we've been doing this 20% um holdback which is the maximum by statute for a number of years. the statute does require that if you're going to hold back 20% on a district-wide basis that
the board has to approve that plan. Um and so what we have what you see on the screen shows what our compensatory allocation is for next year. Uh right now our allocation um is at about 24.2 million. However, um you'll see a a
second line there that says um there's a subtraction for a hold harmless reserve. Uh so right now under current law um we would be seeing an increase of about $4 million in compensatory revenue um next year. However, we are one of few
districts that don't see um pretty significant decreases under current law. Um and so uh as we were moving into the staffing process um we anticipated that there's a high likelihood that a hold harmless bill will be presented um by the legislature which is the same thing
that happened last year. Um, hold harmless in theory should mean hold harmless. Um, however, we ended up about a half a million dollars on the losing end um of that hold harmless calculation last year. Uh, and so we suspect that there's a high likelihood that a hold
harmless bill will be approved this year. There's already been a number of bills introduced. Um, nothing specific in the governor's proposal yet. Um, but they're still kind of sorting through what that might look like. And so we know that we can always add staff and spend money um later. it's really hard
to staff uh and pull that money back after the fact. Um and so we talked about this at board finance. Uh it was briefly um went over in the finance committee uh summary at the last meeting. Um but what we've landed on is um sort of meeting in the middle uh and
taking 2 million of the 4 million off um if there's a a absolute worst case scenario where we don't see any increase um we'll have spent about 1.8 8 million to 2 million um more than our current funding. Uh and that's about what we have in a reserve fund balance for uh
basic skills compensatory revenue. Um and so the plan would be if we don't see any sort of increase that we would spend down um that reserve fund balance that doesn't impact our unreserved fund balance. It doesn't change um what that percent is that's in board policy that
we target um because that is a dedicated reserve fund balance that can only be spent for compensatory allowable items. Um we do expect that we'll see some level of increase because we have increased enrollment this year. So I wouldn't expect that we we wouldn't have any sort of increase and we may end up
with the the $4 million if no hold harmless um comes through. But again, if that's the case, um, everyone will get to celebrate this summer and post and hire for a whole bunch of added, uh, intervention and support positions. Um, but right now, we know we always take the conservative approach to say worst
case scenario. Um, kind of what's the the bare minimum. Um, but also balancing uh having some funding available uh for staffing to support students. Um, so what that looks like then is about 22.2 million um is the the net compensatory
adjusted um amount that we're using. The 20% holdback of that is 4,454,000. Um, and that funds um 43 FTE. And so the what we're spending those funds on is very um
comparable to the previous year. Um, and so I'll briefly go over, we're not going to read all of the narratives. It's attached to the board packet. And again, same things that we've spent on um, previous years. Um but we have elementary uh instructional coach intervention positions. Um those are a
little bit of a of a re-imagined position this year. Um we've are phasing out the grade level leads and moving to more building specific positions. So those um in some of our buildings are coming out of the compensatory set aside. Um secondary math and literacy
support is not a new item. We've had secondary math and literacy specialists for a number of years. Um the one piece that is new uh is dedicating some of our compensatory uh funds specifically for secondary literacy intervention positions to be able to actually do um
that direct literacy uh work with students who are below grade level um for their reading. And then on the math side, uh we also have um dedicated and assigned an assistant principal role next year to work directly with um math specialists and data and working with
math teachers um to identify how to better differentiate instruction to meet the needs of of learners. So those are um not a new item in the plan, but a little bit of a of a change in some of um how the funds are used. and then chemical health counselors, um EL
staffing, early childhood. Uh these are all um the supporting of the CAP program. These are all very much uh in line. It's the same FTEES that we've funded in the past. Um and then also special education. So last year special education was new um to using
compensatory as a priority. Um and you'll see there the numbers. We had about a 9% increase last year. Um we didn't have as big of an increase this year. was about 3.2% increase in special education students. Um but definitely continues to be a need. Um particularly
as the state is working through budget. Um and the one area that we continue to see proposals for reduction in funding is in special education unfortunately. Um, so we've made sure that we have prioritized within our compensatory plan
um to fund the additional FTEEs that we need um to make sure that we can continue to support those even if we see reductions in special education funding. Um so again not new um but just um continuing to be a need um at the state
level. So that is the items that we spend that on. Um, again, 43, uh, an increase of about four from last year, um, with the the about $2 million increase in revenue. Any questions on the compensatory plan?
Scott, >> um, what is a hold harmless reserve? >> Yep. So that's where we don't we don't know if there's going to be a hold harmless bill. It's highly likely that we won't get a $4 million increase cuz they'll use some sort of modified formula that shifts the money in terms
of who who gets what. It redistributes that. Um and so under the current law, we would see a $4 million increase. Last year when we had the hold harmless bill, we ended up with about $500,000 less than we would have gotten under
current law. Um but the swings weren't quite as big last year. They're actually bigger this year. Um and so to to be conservative, we're we're trying to meet in the middle of saying if we had a situation where we really got no or minimal increase, how can we still
protect ourselves that we're not spending our unreserved fund balance? And so we it's basically how we we get to a point where we can safely spend money that we absolutely know we have either in continuing funds or in onetime money.
>> And what's dedicated versus undedicated? >> Um so the unreserved fund balance is basically the available for anything, right? It's um it's what ties to our board policy on a minimum fund balance percent that that target that we're always looking at. We need to keep a
minimum. Um there's other certain uh sources of funding. Um gifted and talented funds, operating capital, uh safe schools revenue. There's there's different pieces of revenue that come in. Um revenue for alternative programming that can't be spent on just
anything. If you generate more in revenue than you spend in particular programs, it has to stay dedicated for that specific um item. the uh basic skills which is what ties to compensatory um fund balance originated from a number of years ago. I think
we're probably going back seven or eight years. Um but there was a point in time where the state uh had it written in statute that a certain percent of your compensatory revenue every year had to be spent on extended time programming. So either extended school day, um summer
programming, Saturday programming. uh and there's just only so much that schools can do in terms of staff being willing to teach um students actually committing to coming. And so during those years when that requirement was in place um we simply couldn't spend that
on extended time programming to anywhere close to the amount that the reserve requirement was. Um and so that's where that reserve requirement came from. There's no longer a requirement to spend it on extended time programming. that was repealed um just
based on the reality that no one was was actually able to accomplish that. Um and so now that instead of being reserved specifically for extended time programming, it just went to being reserved for basic skills, which is the
statute um term for compensatory. >> Yeah. >> Um you mentioned a CAP program. What's a CAP program? >> Yes. So the CAP program is an alternative to suspension program. So, if there's um students that have um a
behavior incident that um that warrants removal from the building, um we can send them there where they're still actually able to be with licensed staff and we've got mental health supports and counseling supports um which is a much better instructional less disruption to
their ed educational experience than doing a one or a two-day suspension. And that is not a new program. That program is housed at Roosevelt. Um, and we've been using compensatory funds for a number of years um, to help support the staffing model there, particularly with being able to add in mental health
advocates and those those non um, core teacher supports that were added with ESSER funds that we wouldn't have been able to continue if not for the compensatory. >> That's good. Natalie, >> I'm interested in learning a little bit
more about um the special education issue at uh with the state's budget um saying here that they are looking to cut it even more and we already have a high enough cross subsidy. So my two questions are what are you seeing on the um coming down uh from the state on
that? And then two, if we didn't have a cross subsidy, would we have to spend compensatory money on special education? Um, no. If we didn't have a cross subsidy, we wouldn't be spending any of this on special education and we'd have millions of dollars to to reallocate uh
to other purposes in addition to that. Um, so there's really two pieces. Um, there was already some reductions to special education transportation um that phased in um partially this year, partially next year. Um, so we're already set to lose a couple hundred,000
on the transportation reimbursement. It used to be 100% it went to 95% this year and to 90% next year. Um that was written into law last session. Um and then also last session uh was a requirement to um to have MDE develop
what they call the blue ribbon working group um which is aimed to identify areas to cut statewide in special education. Um, so far, um, from what I've heard, there aren't great solutions coming out of the blue ribbon working group because our special education services are mandated, right? I mean, we
they're they're required services. Um, and so the solution, if there's no kind of aha moment, um, is to reduce the cross subsidy reduction aid, which was added a number of years ago. So, you know, kind of backsliding um, and then further increasing, uh, districts cross
subsidies. So that's not necessarily intended to um take place next year. Uh those blue ribbon group um or any reductions would be the following year. However, we have to make maintenance of effort for special education. And so if we know we have to add positions and
we're going to cut funding. we need to set ourselves up into a a situation that's sustainable to maintain those positions that need to be added in the event that there are um significant reductions to special education in 2728 which right now it's looking like is
more likely than not unfortunately. So >> thanks Amy. >> Okay, any other questions? So this is an action item and administration recommends that we approve the 2026 2027 compensatory revenue plan. Do I have a motion for
that? >> So move >> and a second. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Scott, a second by Zach. Heather, can you call vote? >> Shannon Hos, >> yes. >> Scott Andre, >> yes. >> Zack Dorhalt, >> yes. >> Heather Williams, yes. Diana Fenton, >> yes.
>> Gina Aso, >> yes. >> Natalie Copeland, >> yes. Okay, Amy is staying with us. Next um is a discussion item. She has the 2026 to 2027 FTE uh projections based on enrollment and registrations.
>> Okay. Um so this is going to tie in nicely to our compensatory revenue presentation because you'll see as we go through that in total we are increasing FTE. Um and again that directly correlates to the fact that we have an increase in um our compensatory revenue
that we're expecting uh to receive the 2 million that we just talked about. Um and our compensatory revenue um at least for our district is exclusively spent on staffing. We take all of that and and spend that on um on staffing and positions. Um so I did pass out a copy
so you have it in front of you. Um and then it's also up on the screen. Um at the elementary uh level, we have um an increase of two kindergarten sections, three sections uh combined from grades 1 through five. Um and then an additional
ADSIS um or intervention position. And then uh you see the changes for um our elementary um allies um that we have. We have art going down slightly um but we have music and fiad going up slightly. And a lot of that just has to do with um
the boundary shifts and what made sense in terms of um where to add and how to fill those. Um the biggest factor in that was the shift of the immersion program to Kennedy uh and really having a commitment to getting um a choir program established there. it's been hard to to staff that choir program um
because there's really no other secondary to share that with um and so the decision was uh was made to add music there which could be a split music and choir um versus adding art which is usually where we would um add so we reduced art in a different building as
those boundaries shifted um but we added music at Kennedy um so that we can really get a commitment uh to regrowing that choir program um and you'll see down below that choir is going up um when we get to the secondary portion. Um slight slight increase in FIED uh and
then um a little bit of increase in um some STEM and enrichment programming um that buildings allocate to. And so in total, we're looking at being up seven uh at the elementary level. Uh when we get to secondary, I'm not
going to go through um every area. Uh I'll draw attention to um just point out a couple kind of key themes. If we look at the language arts line, uh you'll see that's going up 4.2. And that language arts is where um that language arts intervention that we talked about as a
priority um for adding intervention positions at the secondary level out of that compensatory FTE. Um that is really was identified as as one of the highest priorities um when we looked at at district staffing um needs in terms of
addressing that that literacy uh gap. So you see that going up 4.2. Um you do see increases in some other areas like math where we maybe had FTE prioritized to math intervention before but have shifted those funds to literacy. Um with that really being what's identified as
as kind of the biggest um the biggest driving need. You'll also notice a common theme as we look at our CTE areas. Um business family computer sciences health sciences. we see increases across the board um really in a lot of those areas as we're as we're
continuing to grow and expand programs um and and increase the um the interest in in those areas. So uh then the other thing I'll note um that is new which uh you might recall from the middle level course um new course presentation is the addition of the theater option at middle
level. And so you'll see um that that has um just over an FTE across those three middle level um schools. Uh and there's some decreases in some of those other um areas um that offset that because now people have a choice um as
part of that C4 um band, orchestra, general music rotation. Um and so some of that is just shifting um FTE from one area to another but that is that is a new program um and there's good registration numbers um for that and some excitement around that. Uh so in
total secondary FTE um just about a 5.9% increase um we have a small increase in um in EL2 um but very consistent uh numbers. nursing, we don't expect any significant staffing change. And then special education, right now we're anticipating
an increase of 5ft FTE. Um we're still finalizing um you know in what areas and what that looks like. It's very early in the staffing process for that department. Um but we do know with the increase in students this year that we need to add um staff um to some extent
for next year. And so that's our preliminary projection there. >> Thank you. Does anybody have any questions on that, Scott? >> Um, for the people at home, could you define an FTE? >> Yes. So, an FTE um stands for full-time
equivalent. And so, um, and you'll you'll see some of these, we have um really strange numbers, right? It's going up 0.07. Um, so a 1.0 means a teacher is teaching every section all year. Um, if a teacher teaches one class all year, that's a 0.2. two. Um, and if
a teacher teaches one class one trimester, that's how we get to a 007. So, it it looks a little bit strange in terms of um that doesn't mean we have te, you know, actual teachers who only work um that it's just how they how their allocation of their schedule works
out um across areas and the number of sections that we need. Um but a 1.0 is a full-time um contract teacher. >> Thank you. Um, I've been thinking about computer science for for a long time. We were
short on students taking computer science and we're finally starting to rev it up and now into artificial intelligence is coming in and it's kind of knocking it back down. Um,
I'm not sure where we should be in our curriculum on that. Should we be pushing computer science or not? you we the way we characterize it is data sciences um so some of that does involve co you know computer coding um I
think if you talk to our coding teachers they will tell you that it is um in some ways right if it's a career that you want to have that there are some basics that you need to understand right uh it's just like you know I might use chat GPT to to write an email for me but I
know how to write already and so it's really that human AI human model um that we would want anyone doing coding or other computing sciences to to be able to use which means that our students still need that. They also need uh to know about um algorithmic thinking,
right? Which is part of the computer science conversation. They need to understand data. Um so all of that is really wrapped into the to one conversation. >> So we basically still need computer science >> for now. Yes, >> for now. >> We'll talk again in six months. Who
knows? and the computer science, those are um really encompassed within the business in terms of how it's classified on here. And so you do see that there's an increase there. Um and some of that is increases in computer science courses. We also are um running the new AI literacy course um that was in the
course catalog in the new course proposal. Um and so there's um there's definitely still students interested in enrolling in those courses as well. Natalie. >> Uh, so the questions I have are, um, two things. The art in the elementary going
down and then band in the secondary. Um, I know you said the reasons for both of those. Band was theater. I think you said that there's some kids that maybe will take that. >> Yeah, there's some shifts in the in that middle level. Um there was also a slight reduction um at tech in terms of and I
don't know if that's just a large class going out. You know I I don't have all the details. Um but that's really being driven um a little bit at each middle level as kids are shifting to theater and we need three sections instead of four or whatever that might be and then a slight reduction at tech. Um so that's
what's driving the secondary band. Um that elementary um is really because of the boundary shifts. um we had a a a reduction in um FTE for prep at certain, you know, in some sites where we have to shift because if you're if you're losing
150 kids, you may not need as many um of those um those uh math or sorry, music, art, and FIAD teachers to cover um that teacher prep rotation. Uh and so it really um just comes down to what works best with the schedule for each
individual school. Um and Kennedy was one of the the areas where we um we really needed to add um in those areas to cover the addition of all of the immersion sections coming in. Um and so normally we would try to say let's shift art from one to the other um and kind of
keep keep that as a district-wide um make that more of a level shift, but with trying to prioritize covering the choir at Kennedy, uh it really just didn't make sense to do that. Mhm. So there's no band or art access that's being lessened for any kids. It's just
right sizing for the shifts. >> Right. And really, I'd say we've we've probably been um at the secondary level, you know, not providing an equitable um option for choir at Kennedy because we haven't been able to. We haven't been able to staff that. We haven't had um
somebody who's interested in a part-time position. And we know those music teachers are hard to hard to come by. Um, and so we really need to have full-time positions to be able to post um and and offer to people uh in those areas. Trying to have a part-time uh position just really doesn't work
because it's such a competitive market >> along with a child in the Apollo choir. Yes, please bring back the Kennedy choir. Thanks, Amy. >> Okay, anybody else? Okay, thank you Amy. Uh next up we have
uh Tammy Dan, director of community engagement and communications presenting an action item. It is the approval of date for district 742 retiree recognition. >> Good evening.
Good evening. Nope. What? Okay. I guess I haven't been here in a while. >> Okay. >> No. >> Okay, there we go. All right. Um hello
and it's um good to be here. Uh, Chair H, Superintendent Putnham, members of the board, it is my privilege to name the recognition for retirees this year. It's still not working.
>> Yep. Just get it nice and close. >> Okay. Sorry. >> You Okay, there we go. Usually me not being heard is not a problem. It's not usually what people complain about. So I
am here to um very much celebrate retiree recognition for this year. It is going to be May 20th and we are going to have that ahead of the board meeting. We started that last year and it was very popular. It'll be
5:45 before the board uh meeting begins at 6:30 right here at the district administration office. >> Yeah, that sounds great. I thought that worked out well last year. So, um will we get an invite? So, that gets
on my calendar so I won't forget. Thank you. >> Yes, we we do send out invites for it and the retirees get them in the mail. >> Okay. All right. Any questions at all? Okay. And I think you're staying right there. Oh, this is an action item. Um,
so I'm looking for a motion to approve the date for the district 742 retirey recognition, which is again May 20th, and the time is 5:45 p.m. >> So moved. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Natalie, a second by
Scott. Heather, can you call vote? Scott Andre, >> yes. Gina Evito, >> yes. >> Natalie Copeland, >> yes. >> Diana Fenton, >> yes. >> Williams, yes. Shannon Hos, >> yes. >> Zack Dorhalt, >> yes. >> All right. And then um Tammy Dand is
also presenting um a discussion item communications update for us. >> Yes. And again, thank you and good evening. It's great to be here. I'm going to give an update tonight on
communication and marketing for uh St.Cloud area schools. And I thought it might be worth uh taking time just to reacquaint you with the communications team. I think you're all familiar with me and my role as director of community engagement and
communications, but I wanted to point out to you the rest of the team on the left there is Carissa Hopkins HooL. She is our communications coordinator and her primary um responsibilities are content creator and that doesn't matter
if it's website or social media or a publication or a video script. She is our main um creator of that content. She also is um a great assistant for video production and she is in charge of her
social media management. So all district branded accounts are uh she is the administrator for those. On the right hand side is Carla Hilner. She's our marketing and outreach coordinator and Carla's main responsibilities are
publications, graphics, design. Uh she also does website work and she's in charge of our district branding. And then in the middle there is the youngest and newest member of our team. She is
Elizabeth Hennan and a supremely talented visual communication specialist. She does all photography, all videography for the district, the editing and video production. We keep her busy.
And I thought, oh, I'm sorry, I'm jumped ahead here. I wanted to talk about what the team does. Um, over the years I've found that sometimes people have no idea what we do. Or
sometimes they think it's all about the fun sunglasses and the branded cool pens. And that's true. That's us. We are about the bling. But the scope of who we are and what we do and why we do it is actually much
broader and and deeper than that. First and foremost, um the communication team ensures public awareness and uh ensures trust and support in St. Cloud area schools. That is the mission of the
communication team. We um obviously support the district mission and we align to all of the strategic priorities in all of the work that we do. Our audiences, whether that is our families
or our staff or our community, they depend on us to deliver important, timely, and accurate information. They come to us to know that that information is accurate. In addition, we operate strategically and collaboratively to
engage our families, our staff, our community partners in the work of our schools. So, that's two-way communication. We are also the storytellers of the district. It's our job to make sure the positive stories are being told of our
families, of our students, of our programs, and that those are being distributed widely so that everyone knows who we are, what we stand for, what we're about. Uh it's our job also to create the marketing plans and
communication plans that promote and ensure that awareness about the district and the schools that I spoke of earlier. And finally, it's also our job to support other staff in their communication efforts. Whether that's
district staff, departments, uh schools themselves, it's our job to help them with their communication needs. Each summer we plan. So we get together as a team and we take a look at what we
have done during the school year. Um, I'm going to talk about analytics in just a little bit. And we we say we look at our goals from the previous year and we say, "How did we do?" And then from those conclusions, we make decisions and
we draw up our goals for the next school year. And that's when I update the communication plan. These are our communication channels and you can see they are vast and varied. I
want to point out to you both audiences. Of course, we are always communicating to our families and our students and our community. But please note that we also have 2,000 staff. That is our internal
audience and we are communicating and committed to them on a daily basis as well. I want to draw your attention quickly to just two of the channels. One is the website. This is the number one place that families go to for that
accurate information that I mentioned to you when we're gathering analytics or when we take a communication survey. What comes up uh time and again? Uh can you guess the feature on the website that families turn to most often?
Any guesses? Yes, it is the calendar. That is where that timely, accurate information lives and our families depend on us for that. And so that seems simple, but they depend on that and they they
consistently tell us that's where they go. Of course, the website is also where we house important resources. It's also where we house very timely information. So when we have, you remember just a short while ago, when we have a
referendum, that becomes its own information source right there on the website. Also going back to audiences, we have this is the public facing side of the the website, but we also have an internet called staffnet that is staff
access and and those are their resources. This is just a quick uh image of our social media challenge channels. This is a very engaging and very believe it or not positive all right way that we
communicate with our families and with our community. In the le on the left hand side you'll see branded district Facebook and Instagram posts. On the right hand lower corner you'll see targeted Facebook um accounts. Those are
our Somali and our Spanish FA Facebook pages, those are translated and they're administered by native speakers. That colorful image right there, that's one of our newest accounts. And that is ISD742 careers. And we have two people in in um
human resources who are doing a heck of a job of posting to that Facebook account to bring in potential employees to the district. So, these are all channels that we use for positive engagement. Whoops. And then I want to spend some
time talking about our marketing campaigns. Most of the people around the table have been here long enough to recognize these marketing campaigns. Yeah, they've been around, right? Uh when I came to the district, which Tracy and I argue about, she's not here. I
think I've been here 12 years. She says 11, but potato potato. Um 742 proud was the first marketing campaign when when I started and that was so successful that we carried that over into the first uh referendum if you remember that became
our signs because it didn't tell people how to vote but it did tell people that we're 742 proud of this district. These are all campaigns that have been successful over the years. Usually they run about two years and then we start a new one. 742 together was right after
the pandemic when we were getting back in the schools and we wanted to physically celebrate that we were together again as a school community. Right now we are uh running the we are 742 campaign celebrating what makes us unique, what makes us special, what
makes um us the district where people want to be. And I'm going to run through real quickly um specific marketing campaigns. I referred to the referendum earlier. This again, you'll probably recognize it
was just April 8th a year ago. You'll probably recognize there's our logo for the rec referendum. Uh these were uh posts and on the right hand side you'll see the website page, the video, the renderings. These were all assets that
we used as part of the marketing campaign for the referendum and of course uh the superintendent and pres principal scholar took that show on the road and did a beautiful job with it. This is the ready set school campaign.
This is a marketing campaign that we ran in collaboration with community partners and donors St. Cloud Rotarak which is the young um sorry St. St. Cloud Rotary, but it's the younger arm of St.Cloud Rotary. They were our highlight sponsors
along with private donors Tom and Janet Cronis. They provided enough funds to launch this initiative for providing school supplies for all preschoolers in district 742 and all of Tilah. We will
be um launching fundraising for Ready Set School for the next school year and hoping to widen that scope. We have marketing campaigns when specific needs arise. This was an uh recent enrollment campaign uh to
increase enrollment and improve parent awareness of where to go and how to enroll. I just want to point out two of those pieces are translated. So, we're reaching all of our all of our um families. This is a new marketing
campaign this year. I point this one out because obviously it's a lovely campaign, but this marketing campaign came out of a parent advisory committee meeting. We sat with them, listened to what their needs were for immersion, what their fears were, what their dreams
were, and we created a very robust marketing campaign this year that's been very successful. You'll see testimonial posts down there. You'll see top five reasons to choose. Uh we did that for Spanish as well as Chinese. In the upper right hand corner, you'll see their
revamped web page. And then the little screenshot there of the video is part of a threepart Y immersion video series. Uh the third part is going to be dropping April 15th. Also new this year are our school
spotlights. And this marketing campaign came as a direct result of our leadership telling us what they needed for their schools, what they wanted for promotion. So we took a very targeted campaign of looking at what makes your
school different, what makes your school um uh the DNA, the thumbrint if you will, of your school. And so if you have not seen one of the little mic check videos, I encourage you to go home tonight and go to our YouTube channel
because they are adorable. It's a spontaneous setting up of the microphone in the school media center and uh Chrissa and Elizabeth ask a simple question like uh what made you smile today? and kids just randomly like one
after another come up usually shily to the microphone and then they just blurt out and they're the mic checks are really great. We also have inside the art room all of this campaign came directly out of a survey of our principles.
We also have marketing campaigns I should say communication plans uh due to very specific needs like our immunizations this year that's been robust. It's still going on. We're talking about families, the need to be immunized, and if they're non-compliant,
the follow-up communications there. And of course, we had boundary redesign. Big deal. We needed to get that information out. It needed to be accurate. We needed to invite people to join those focus groups and be a part of the process and then, of course, follow the process
along the way. And all of that information is on the website right now for people to be able to access. And finally, just like in the summer, we get ready for the next school year by setting those goals. We're ending up as
soon as graduation's over. We we're going to end up the school year evaluating and taking a look at our analytics and deciding what worked and what we want to keep going with. on the left hand side. I just want to point out those school spotlights that I that I
mentioned that report that is a single analytics report on one school. That's Apollo's spotlight. And Carissa put these reports together for every single school. By the way, those are still going on because school year is not over. But every single school that's had
a spotlight week, they have their own report so they know how they're doing with that promotion. I've got a survey out to principles right now, so I don't have the answer for you tonight, but but I'm asking principles how this went for
you and your school, and I have a feeling it it's going to be thumbs up. I have a feeling we'll be doing um spotlights again next year. It's not hyperbole for me to say that we track our analytics daily. We do. Um, we
use a media tracking uh tool called Mountwater and it takes into account all kinds of factors that we track. Um, and and some of them are more useful than others. The one in the middle of the page is sentiment. We we follow that quite quite
religiously. That is how many times our name shows up anywhere in the media and whether that sentiment is positive or negative or neutral. And believe it or not, obviously we want positive, right?
That we want that positive buzz. But honestly, right down the middle of the road, neutral sentiment is a really good place to be. We we like we like what that chart tells us. What I'm going to point out briefly is the top one. And I
know this is small and you can't see it very well, but um that top one, and sorry, Lauren, because this this addresses traditional media, the top one tells us where we're showing up the most often. And I bring it up because I've
been before you before when that chart was Sloud Times, right? That chart was more traditional newspapers and look at what's happened. Radio's on top now. And that's not because I spend radio
advertising dollars. I don't. It's expensive. And also, who listens to radio in their car anymore? I don't know. Everybody has their own playlist, right? But what that is telling us is when radio does an interview or radio
does a news story, they post it to their online source. That's what's showing up right now where we are showing up is KNSI and WJ. So when I say this helps us form decisions,
that's what we'll be taking a look at this summer. Sorry, Lauren. Um, this I'm not going to spend a lot of time on. I just want to show you this is how we track. We take a look at all of the analytics for Social Week Media as a
whole. And then we take a look at our individual accounts. We have goals set for each of these accounts every summer. And almost without fail, we meet or exceed those goals. And if you spent time with this chart, you'd see that's true for um everything but YouTube this
year. Um we will spend time analyzing that a little bit. I can tell you that probably the decision to not do school videos is contributing to our YouTube um views going down. On on the flip side,
if you look at the lower um data point, the view duration of the videos we do have on YouTube has gone up 14%. And that's a good data point because what it says is people aren't clicking through, they're actually spending time with the
video. And finally tonight, I would just want to give you a treat. This is one of our we are 742 videos from this year and it is um highlighting what's unique and um
this is a really unique story out of South Junior High. It's called South Hidden Treasures. And I'm going to let Becky Estrada tell the story. It's very brief, but you're going to love it. Hi, I'm Becky Estrada, principal at South Junior High, and welcome to our
makeshift time capsule. Over the summer, we had the fortune of having a construction manager named Bubba, who was pulling apart our building to make it into the beautiful thing that it is right now. During that process, Bubba pulled lots
of different memorabilia, pictures, and different items that might have come from uh an existing teachers lounge that was remodeled or our lockers or bathrooms. And as he was pulling these things, he started to see that there was almost a theme like the history of the
building to us. As we saw the history of our building and the history of people that passed through our walls, we found that middle school in 1970 and middle school in 1980 is not so different than it is in middle school in 2025. So we saw friendships, we saw
letters letters of love and love letters of dislike. We found, you know, school pictures being traded and we found lunch money that never made it to the office. You name it, it it's in this little time capsule. As we were collecting these items, we thought, why not put it on
display so our students now can see how rich our history was and who we are as a larger middle school community. We are 742 South. And with that, I'll entertain any questions you may have.
>> Does anybody have any questions or comments? Scott, >> are you a speech writer? Uh, am I a speech writer? >> I think that Willie Jet used to have you do some writing on his speeches
>> sometimes. That was true. >> I am a writer. >> Zach, I just want to mention how continuously impressed I am by these efforts and this team because we'll go peek at other districts and or just other entities.
Um, and not to call out the city of St. Cloud, but they don't even have a communication department, right? >> Can you imagine how much better or easier things would be if they did? So, maybe you guys can like uh lease yourselves out or something. Revenue generator. Not that you, but just it's
it really is amazing the constant communication and how easy it is to to find things cuz I said calendar earlier because I go to that often. So, this just Yeah, it's really cool. Great job. And >> thank you.
>> Yeah, >> it seems to have made a really positive impact, too. I think the tone and the the comments and everything are very supportive and it's it's shifted. So, great work to you and your team. Thank you.
>> That was the plan. So, thank you, >> Natalie. Yeah, always impressed with your work and your team is a beautiful team as well. Um, I just want to say the website is so much easier to use than it used to be and I know you've worked really hard
on that and your team and a bunch of other folks. So, when I go there as a parent especially, it's so much easier to find where I need to be and um so thanks for that. And then um the mic check is bringing together generations because Milo and I watch it every time it comes out. We watch it after dinner.
So, and we even liked the middle school ones even almost better than the elementary ones, which was amazing. So, um really great job on that. >> That's great to hear. >> Thank you, Tammy. >> Anybody else? Lori. >> Well, I know that this won't be the last
time we see Tammy, uh, but it is the last time you might see her present here at the board meeting because she is announced her retirement, which this board approved sadly last uh last time we met. Um, and so I just want to say a deep appreciation for um the incredible leadership you've given. Don't make me
cry. Um, I think you know one of the things that I know I've learned from you is um is and that you've taught this team is who is the audience, right? That'll always who is your audience? I will always play in my head long after you've gone. Right. And and it that is such a
um it's such a valuable question to ask. Um, and it's, you know, it's it's just one of the tiny, right? It sounds so small, but it's one of the tiny gifts that you've given us. Um, and and I agree with this team. Um, you know, from when we didn't have a communications department, like you have built this
from scratch and you have built something that will last forever. Um, the the legacy, right, of of the of this district, um, and the pride that our community feels. And so, I just can't thank you enough for all that you've given. And we still have a couple months left. So, it's not goodbye yet.
>> Thank you. >> Okay. Next up, we have um Ayan Omar, executive or excuse me, equity services director. Um she is presenting the Native American parent advisory committee, NAPAC, board response letter.
Great. Perfect. Um, good evening, Chair Ha, Superintendent Pundit, and members of the school board. Uh, following our February 18th uh, NAPAC uh, vote of non-concurrence and presentation of our American Indian Education uh, update,
the school board has 60 days to respond in writing to NAPAC's recommendation. Uh the board's response must be received, validated, and submitted both to NAPAC and MDE Office of American Indian Education. Uh as noted in the response
letter, the school board values its relationship with NAPAC and thanks NAPAC members for their collaborative input and ongoing uh partnership. Together, we continue working toward our shared goals. Increasing academic achievement and attendance for American Indian
students, improving access to American Indian education for all students and staff, and enhancing support for the unique needs of our American Indian students. Thank you for your diligence, focus, and commitment to our American Indian
education program. Thank you. And then I'll pass around the NAPEC letter. The signatures are on two different pages. If you don't see your name on the first one, it's probably on the second one then. Any questions at all?
Okay. Thank you very much. We Where are we? Who are we giving that to? >> Okay. All right. Then we have the board of education standing committee reports and I believe we just have one but correct me if I'm missing you. We have board
development policy governance committee chair Zack Dorhalt. >> The board development policy and governance committee met on March 25th to review updates of several district policies. The committee recommended all three reviewed policies. uh 599 in
district transfers 533 wellness and policy 510 school activities for first reading at the April 1st board meeting. >> Thank you. Okay. Uh then we have future agenda items. The April 15th board meeting
topics will include the local education and activities foundation leaf update summer projects update resolution proposing named staff for non-renewal or placement on unrequested leave of absence approval of tentative agreements
if any renumeration for board members tabled from the January 5th 2026 reorganization meeting assessment plan update and policy readings at this time. Does any board member wish to suggest a future agenda item?
Okay. Um then I am looking for a motion to adjourn our board meeting so we can open up the work session. I have a motion by Scott, a second by Natalie. All in favor to adjourn the
board meeting say I. Opposed. Okay. meeting is adjourned at 7:46 p.m. and at that same time we are opening up the board of education work session. We have four items up tonight. First up is the transportation protocol
update. We have Shannon Ason, executive director of community education and community partnerships as well as Matthew Buchcher, executive director of operations. Good evening, Chair House, Superintendent Putnham, and members of the board. Um, I want to acknowledge
that first. Um, I did offer to defer my time to my dear colleague Tammy Dand, not out of any selfish intent, but she turned me down, so you don't get her back. Um, maybe at another meeting. Uh, good evening. We're excited to to come tonight and talk about a shift in
our transportation bus assignment protocol, bus stop assignment protocol. Uh, but first, some fun facts. Each day, approximately 9,000 students are transported by District 742 uh traveling over 1.6 million miles per year through
more than 100 different bus routes. District transportation ensures the arrival and departure of students to and from school each day. Um with that data in mind, as we prepare for next year, our department is moving toward a more structured framework for assigning AM
and PM bus stops. Uh this is built on three core pillars, safety, predictability, and consistency. Uh currently our system allows variable schedules which create significant challenges for our drivers, particularly
substitute drivers. Variable and inconsistent schedules increase the risk of error such as a student not being dropped off at the right place, um which is clearly a problem or missing a bus. uh it to eliminate the risk, we are
moving towards a standardized five-day consistency rule. Uh for reference, what this means is we want I'm sorry, for reference, most districts in the state of Minnesota have a very similar practice. We had not for the last several years. Um but what this means is
starting next year, each family will have one designated AM and one designated PM spot Monday drop off Monday through Friday. Their AM and PM may be different Monday through Friday, but they will remain the same Monday through Friday. Um, what is going away
is the opportunity to have split in AM or PM. So, for instance, uh, my kid gets dropped off at home on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but elsewhere, maybe daycare on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Um, but we still will allow differences between AM and PM, just not during the
week, Monday through Friday. Um, this was going to require a consistency that that we think is healthy and best for all involved. Um, and we can just no longer support the the pretty intense inconsistency that is created by all of those splits.
With this new protocol, uh, we recognize that some of our families navigate court-ordered split custodial arrangements. And to support them, we are introducing a new split custody transportation waiver process. Families may apply for a waiver to allow for two different stop locations provided they
meet the following criteria. We must receive a copy of the court-ordered parenting plan. Both addresses must fall within the students assigned school attendance boundary. Uh for example, if the student's school is Clear View, both parents must live in the Clear View attendance area. And then also, the bus
must already travel uh past that requested second location. We will not be rerouting buses or adding new stops to accommodate the second location. Um even with an approved waiver, uh the schedule must remain predictable such as
a consistent week on and week off. Um to ensure um every oh for reference um I do want to share that currently uh we have fewer than 50 families who will be impacted by this um and that's across the entire district. Um, these are
families whose current schedules will need to be adjusted to fit the new safety protocol, unless of course they meet that waiver requirement. To support these families through the transition, uh, we would send a direct letter to each of the impacted households within the next week or so. And this
correspondence will explain how the new protocol specifically affects their current routing and will provide them with the necessary steps to align with the new standards for the upcoming school year. Also to ensure that everybody has the information they need, we've updated a version and this is a
draft version right now of our web page. Um this page uh details the protocol. It provides clear visual examples you can see on the right side of approved schedules and um also uh if we scroll down here I'll show you it also has
examples of not approved schedules. Um so uh we want to be really clear for our parents. We also updated our FAQ section. Um, and then to avoid any confusion, uh, this would go live at the same time as those letters go out to the impacted families so that they can
reference this right away and it would have that, uh, waiver available at the same time. >> Uh, so again, with over 9,000 students being transfer, uh, receiving transportation daily across over 100 routes, um, we feel this is an important
shift for us to make at this time. A new protocol will provide essential consistency needed to manage this scale safely. Uh and by eliminating the risk of daily schedule changes, we ensure that our drivers, staff, and families have absolute clarity on where their
child belongs at dismissal and at each drop, AM and PM. Uh ultimately, these standards allow us to manage the complexity of our district while never losing focus on our top priority, the safety of those we transport every day. Um, so with that, we want to open up for
questions. >> Does anybody have any questions on that, Scott? >> Yeah, I was thinking back to many years ago. Uh, we used to have a bus come by our house. Some days I'd take the kids
to school and some days they'd ride the bus and the bus would stop for maybe 30 seconds in front of our house before moving on. Is that still going on these days or has that changed? >> Uh, so the question is, can a parent
self transport some days and still have the bus showing up at their house or at their designated stop? Yes. >> Okay, >> Natalie. >> So, how do you navigate for um split custody cases? How will you how do you
navigate if the mom's house is in the school boundary and then the dad's house isn't or vice versa? is that >> um we would not uh approve that particular case. It would have waver Yep. Even with the waiver um they would have to meet all of the conditions listed. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> So technically then therefore they wouldn't qualify for the waiver because it doesn't meet the conditions. >> Okay. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. Moving on to our next work session. item moving. We're
into board policies. So, we have proposed revised board policy 533. It's the first reading of wellness and uh we have Matthew Buchcher staying with us, executive director of operations and Sarah Model joining us, nutritional
services supervisor. Thank you for joining us, Sarah. >> Uh yes, thank you for join Do you Are you good? Um Sarah's going to just walk us through briefly. This is a policy change that we do look at and update. Um and there's
not a lot of change, but she will walk us through what change and uh there is to this policy. >> All right. So, yeah, like we said, very minimal changes. Um we looked at the updated model policy from MSBA and MAZ
uh MASA. Um and the probably one of one of the first change is just the purpose statement and it's just making it consistent with USDA regulations. So our uh original statement said um school meals and other food and beverages sold
and otherwise made available on the school campus between the student start and dismissal hours are consistent with the standards. Uh, but per USDA, it has to be during the all of the items available during the school day, which
USDA defines as midnight the night before to 30 minutes after the last bell needs to be consistent with those standards. And so just updating that language um to say the school day versus that student start and dismissal time.
And then the next changes are a little bit further down. And so updating anywhere where it said parents, updating that to be parents/guardians to be consistent with our other policies and our other language that we use.
And then okay, so then this is the other part where there's, you know, a little bit more changes. Um, other foods and beverages made available to students. Um, so to be consistent with all of our parent and student handbooks that we have, uh, we changed what originally
was, uh, that the district would provide parents a list of suggested foods and beverages to that they could bring to classrooms. Um, but again to be consistent with all of our parent and student handbooks, this is the exact language we have in there, which is due to the safety and allergies of
individuals, students or families may not bring homemade or commercial food or drinks for distribution. Example, birthday celebrations during the school day. So, that is the exact same language in our handbook. So, keeping that consistent in our board policy um as
well in the handbooks. And yeah, and that's about it. Okay, any questions at all on that one? First read. >> Excellent. Okay, >> thank you. Thank you. >> Moving on to our next first reading, we
have uh Shannon Ason, executive director of community education and community partnerships joining us back and doing a first reading for proposed revised board policy 510, which is school activities. Good evening.
Yes. Uh there we go. Also, uh some pretty minor changes to this policy as well. Um you'll note that the areas that are highlighted in blue for you are just areas that um show where our our language and our policy varies from the MSBA policy. Um you'll note that the
first difference between our policy and the MSBA policy is we have a we have a belief statement about the importance of activities. Um we also have a section B um around uh students while participating in school activities will be supervised. So, we provide an
adequate supervision uh notice there as well. Um and our board uh committee decided or is making a recommendation to keep those those pieces in. As we scroll down, we just have a couple of minor different language changes. It's just really formatting. Uh and
we'll we'll we would propose to keep ours um the way our policy currently reads. However, when we get down to letter G, uh we um are proposing that we would add the language. Um you'll note that it says the school board will ensure that any funds raised for
extracurricular activities are accurately accounted for in accordance with the state statute and are expended in a manner consistent with the purpose for which they were raised. Um, we are proposing adding that language because our language was a little bit different
than the MSBA language and we felt that this just made it more congruent with that language and with the intent of the law. So, we're just uh recommending adding that piece. And then additionally, you'll just note there's a couple of formatting changes with the with the statutes below as well.
Any questions? Okay. And one more. Uh Shannon has the proposed revised board policy 599 first reading which is indistrict transfer policy. Wonderful. And this is a policy that there is not an MSBA model policy
but several districts have um also share an in district transfer policy. Uh you'll note that the first change up here just highlights that instead of using the term geographical residence, we changed it to primary resident address because that is what was used throughout the document and in the
definitions below as well just to match that language. And moving down, you'll see um part A there. Uh this is just uh again a language formatting change to make it much more clear to our audience what we are saying that our decisions are based
on the school's capacity and the listed guidelines. Uh updating a link there for you and then additionally going into resident enrollment options. The change here is just it says in district trans transfer requests for the upcoming school year
will be considered. It used to say from uh May 1st through Friday of the first week of the school year. Uh we are changing it to say will it be con it will be considered after May 1st. Um and the reason for that is we do take indist transfer requests throughout the year. So we wanted it to be consistent with
our practice. Moving down uh we did remove immersion programming as one of the indicators on here. Um, and that's simply because immersion programming does not require an IND district transfer request. So, it it did not make sense to keep that in here.
And then, um, number three, uh, we did update update that language quite significantly. The previous language, which I won't read, um, just it was more of a practice that we do um and and it's not entirely accurate of the current
practice. Um, but what we do in in is within our in district transfer request form and we wanted to match the language on our form is that transfers are school specific and reset during transition years. Transition years are kindergarten, sixth grade, and 9th
grades. At these levels, students return to their home attendance area unless a new transfer is requested and approved. Sixth graders at Kennedy kindergarten through 8th grade students um sorry sixth graders at Kennedy which is a kindergarten through 8th grade student
school are exempt from this requirement. Then number four um again this is just updating language um just to make it more clear um transportation will not be provided for students with approved in
district transfers. Transportation is the responsibility of the parent or legal guardian. And then another um one more link update. And that is it for this particular policy,
>> Natalie. >> Yeah, >> it's interesting in that same part where you were reading. That's kind of weird wording. >> It is. >> When I read it, I read it like five times. I'm like, what does that mean? Oh, so maybe just that needs to be a little clearer. We need to make update update that again. Thank you.
>> Yeah, you're welcome. >> Okay. Anything else? All right. Thank you for those first readings. So that was everything on our work session agenda. Looking for a motion to adjourn our work session. And I have a second. I have a motion by
Natalie, a second by Scott. All in favor say I. >> Opposed. Uh work session is adjourned. It is 8:03 p.m. Have a good night and thanks for watching. Thank you.