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 when you're ready, can you call roll? The following board members are present at the district
administration office. Gina Isidto >> here. >> Natalie Copeland >> here. >> Zack Doorhalt here. >> Diana Fenton >> here. >> Shannon Hos >> here. >> Heather Williams here. The following board members are not present. Scott Andre. 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. Assistant Superintendent of E5 Learning Nikki Hansen. Executive Director of Finance and Business Services Amy Scallarude.
Executive Director of Human Resources and General Counsel Tracy Flynn. Executive Director of Operations Matthew Buché. Executive Director of Special Education Danny Mayor. Director of Community Engagement and Communications Tammy Dand. Director of Research
Assessments and AI Integration, Donna Roer. Media Technicians Paul Novak and Gordy Scott. And the custodian on site is Emerson Beamer. Thank you. Uh then I'm looking for a motion uh for to approve the board of education meeting agenda.
>> So moved. I have a motion by Diana, a second by Natalie. Heather, can you call vote? >> Natalie Copeland, >> yes. >> Diana Fenton, >> yes. >> Shannon Haw, >> yes. >> Zack Dorhalt, >> yes.
>> Heather Williams, yes. Gina Acto, >> yes. >> Okay. Then we have the consent agenda. The consent agenda consists of non-controversial items. The board adopts routinely without debate and 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 board minutes from March 11th, 2026 and March 18th, 2026. Item B, approval of bills and other financial transactions in the grand total amount of 3,376,29856.
Item C, approval of personnel staff changes. Item D, acceptance of grant awards and donations. Item E, approval of quarterly expenditures for board members. And item F, call for bids, Apollo renovations and additions bid
package two. Um at I have one um asked to for Natalie Copeland is recusing herself from um item D. Does any other board member want to remove an item from the consent agenda? Okay. So I'm looking
for a motion to pro approve A C E and F. >> So moved. >> I have a motion by Diana, a second by Natalie. Uh Heather, can you call vote? >> Diana Fenton. Yes. >> Gina Eso. >> Yes. >> Shannon Hos. >> Yes.
>> Heather Williams. Yes. >> Natalie Copeland. >> Yes. >> Zack Dhalt. >> Okay. And then we have um item D. Um Natalie recusing herself. Looking for a motion to approve item D. >> Second.
>> I have a motion by Zach. A second by Heather. Heather, can you call vote? >> Heather Williams? Yes. Diana Fenton? >> Yes. >> Natalie Cop. Oh, Zach Dorhalt, >> yes. >> Tina Cidto, >> yes. >> Shannon Hos, >> yes.
>> All right. Thank you. Um, we have one information item tonight. It's the LEAF Local Education Activities Foundation report. And here tonight to join us is Charlie Eisenright, LEAF President. And joining him is Tammy Dand, director of
community engagement and communications. Great. It is my privilege to welcome Charlie Eisenrike, president of the local activities and education and activities foundation and a face that is
pretty familiar to almost everyone around the table I think. So, welcome Charlie. I'm going to pull up the presentation. Charlie is going to present for us tonight. Leaf's annual report. All right, I think we're good to go.
Well, uh good evening everybody and and thanks for uh allowing me to be here tonight. Uh uh I don't miss board meetings, but uh um uh I'm happy to be here tonight to do the uh the annual LEAF report. Uh uh something that's near
and dear to my heart. As you can see on the on the screen, uh uh we are certainly uh looking forward to presenting the information for 2025. uh and you know that uh LEAF is a strong contributor to providing those that
access and likewise the opportunities uh for our students uh all the way across our district uh from the the little guys in the in the PK all the way up to our seniors in high school. So really proud to be here, really proud to be able to share this information with you tonight.
I would draw your attention to uh kind of our new slogan uh that was came up from our our PR committee uh recently uh rooted in student growth. Uh and so again I think that fits well with that whole idea of access and providing
opportunity uh so that students can grow throughout their time in district 742. So uh this is our 2025 LEAF board of directors. As you can see, a very dedicated group from a diverse background. Uh it's so good to have the
various experiences all working together to support our students and staff of 742. Uh while this list includes our board of directors, uh there are other volunteers, many many volunteers serving on subcommittees such as our grants
committee and finance committees bringing further expertise to those areas. So again, just a very dedicated uh board of directors as LEAF normally has had throughout their years. Uh as many of are aware, uh our biggest
focus in 2025 was to continue the effort to provide activity fees free of charge for any middle school student wishing to participate. Uh and we succeeded in raising $100,000
to ensure uh these fees are paid for not only this school year uh but through the remainder of 2026 27. Um you may have seen the the wonderful video that was created by none other than your district
media folks. Uh but for those that haven't seen it, um let's play it again. Um, and for those at home as well this year, St. Cloud Area School District 742 and the local educ
announced LEAP's dollar commitment fee. ipating district 742 middle schoolers over the next two years. The idea came about when school district leadership and the LEAF board were brainstorming student needs for LEAF's
annual learning renaissance fundraiser. LEAF has historically focused on supporting district activities such as funding the after school activities bus and providing physicals for athletes. But we asked ourselves, are there still barriers, even perceived barriers that
prevent students from signing up? Middle school is a critical time for kids. Exploring activities and interests in middle school is essential for students to develop as athletes and participants later in high school. Leaf's generosity means all activities
fees for every middle school sport or other activity are waved. give more students more opportunities to learn and grow. And we know that students who participate in activities excel in the classroom.
>> We are 742. >> All right, let's uh let's move on here. So, as as we probably have heard, uh 2025 was a very successful year for LEAF. Uh our academic and activity legacy funds grew substantially
uh mostly due to our generous donors um now totaling over 400 unique donors that we have and uh and of course we had some exceptional investment returns through the Central Minnesota Community Foundation. Uh this allowed us to award $283,000
in grants to classrooms and activity programs across the district. So, we're super proud of being able to fund nearly every request uh that was out there. Uh maybe not their full amount across request uh but again just be able to uh
impact our classrooms, impact our activity programs uh for much needed uh access and opportunity items. Okay. Uh here you can see a combined revenue for 2025
uh came in through events uh such as our annual high school golf tournaments. Uh we started a new little event this year called beer beeranthropy which was a fundraiser for adopt a classroom. Uh you can see that our public support totaled
over $330,000 which includes that adopt a classroom. Uh the middle school activity fee fundraisers. And if you combine all that uh with our investment returns revenues came in uh just under $750,000
for 2025. So again a nice year from a revenues uh perspective for LEAF. Uh then we get to the the expenses because you can't have this happen without spending a dollar or two. Uh the
expenses for 2025 totaled uh just over $430,000. Uh you can see the program services. So that includes uh all of those activities and academic grants that we award out. So we take the money in and then we pay
it back out. So technically the pay it back out portion is an expense. So I don't know. Well, I think that's a pretty good expense when you come to think of it. Um, we also have uh other flowth through uh funds that would exist in there like our feeding 742 kids and
some of the the homeless student funds that we have. Um, we have fundraising that uh mostly coming out of our golf tournament uh expenses there and some of the uh software that we use for our uh keeping a track of our donors and
everything that they do for us. uh management in uh general would be salaries and other stipens, insurance, uh meeting costs, uh rent, things of that nature as well. So that's a picture of our expenses for five. Um getting
back to uh more good news with the with the 2025 grants, here's a breakdown of all of the activity as well as academic grants for 2025. Uh you can see that the activities grant was our largest uh
grants that were awarded in a a plethora of areas uh from elementary to middle to high school programming uh as well as our adopted classroom grants totaling uh just over $70,000. So again, another
nice year of being able to return uh the money that we do raise from our donors and other supporters right back into the classrooms as well as to the programs serving our district. Uh we've we had some uh exceptional uh
thank yous, I guess, returned back to us. Um, we get these, you know, I wouldn't say all the time, but uh, uh, when we do, uh, they they really come from the heart, uh, uh, from several, uh, uh, various folks that, uh, get these grants. You can see, uh, a little
comment there from a McKinley, uh, teacher receiving, uh, social emotional intelligence grant, uh, along with, uh, the South uh, yearbook advisor. Um, we provided some new cameras. Um and uh so
kids weren't going around with their cell phones taking pictures. Uh and it changed the makeup of of how that yearbook was uh was delivered. Uh and then of course uh from our our middle uh middle school activity fee um just that
quote at the top um from one of our parents of district 742. You know this has been a blessing to us. Thank you for making the decision to provide fee alleviation and thank you to the patrons who have paid for this initiative. Um we
even got some ink from superintendent Harris over here too. So uh nice work on that. Thank you for doing that. Uh so again just a good feedback from our folks uh receiving those grants. Um, one of the things that has been kind of a a
point of emphasis, and you've heard me say this already in recent years, is our focus to uh providing access and opportunities for students in the district. Uh, when you think of our continuous initiatives like adopt a classroom, uh, which by the way total
the new high of 287 classrooms awarded this year. Uh, and we're gonna we're going to shoot for and reach that 300 plateau next year. pretty confident uh our participation fund again uh remarkable with paying for uh physicals
for students uh where parents that can't afford them as well as uh just those little odds and ends, little equipment things uh that uh can't fit into famil family's budgets. Uh we continue to fund uh some of the new initiatives out there such as feeding 742
uh with the district pantry here as well as 14 pantries uh in all of our buildings as well. So just uh again so grateful for our donors, our volunteers and then also the district staff who make all these programs possible.
You know with that good stuff happening uh with LEAF um we got to celebrate, right? Uh so we took this time uh this past Monday night to celebrate our successes uh and give out awards to several deserving donors, volunteers,
and district staff. Uh here you see the incredible list of folks recognized at our annual event. Uh you know, we had like Peggy Carlson, you know, if you don't know her by now, um you probably haven't been paying attention because she is extraordinary. uh just a great
volunteer uh great giver uh from uh from a charitable p perspective and certainly a giver of her time as well. So we definitely wanted to recognize Peggy for everything that she's done for Leaf throughout the years. And then you can see some of our donors, our other staff
uh teachers in the classroom uh as well as some other folks that have uh still involved with LEAF but uh have perhaps left the the school district uh in other endeavors. So again, it's it's these uh these folks that really make a
difference. So, we had a nice crowd on hand. Uh just a a good evening all around uh to celebrate and award some uh very deserving people. So, one of the things uh that we want to continue to do is to to move ahead with
purpose. Uh we're not going to rest on our lawyers. We want to do more. We want to reach more students, provide more access, more opportunity. That's so important for that student growth. Um, our recent discussions have centered on
being more strategic uh and intentional with our current donors uh while fostering new relationships as well as working uh very strongly uh to develop even more powerful relationships so that we can expand LEAF's outreach even more.
So again, uh we're we're focused on what we want to do. uh starting next month, we're going to be meeting with our current some of our uh very uh prestigious uh donors uh and working with them to really share in this experience with us. So, uh we're hoping
those numbers that I uh shared with you earlier, we can we can surpass those uh in 2026. So, uh, once again, on behalf of the LEAF board of directors, uh, I want to thank all of our donors, our volunteers,
uh, the district staff, uh, that is so c crucial in making this happen, as well as any supporter for all they've done to make Leaf so successful in reaching thousands of children across the district. Um, we'd love to hear from
you. One more. There we go. Um, you can find us on social media platforms. Uh you can contact us uh via email as well as regular mail or do it the oldfashioned way and just give us a call. Um we we love to hear from you. We
love to uh get your ideas, your thoughts. Uh and again, thanks so much to our donors and our supporters and everyone. And thanks for allowing me to share the leaf experience with you tonight. >> All right, thanks for joining us. Does
anybody have any questions or comments? And then if you found this at your uh spot too. Anybody have any thoughts? >> Yeah, you'll see more specific numbers
in the in the uh year annual report. So, >> okay. Well, thank you, Charlie, for joining us and presenting this. Um, good stuff. Really appreciate it. >> All right. Thank you. Okay. Then moving on into our discussion
and action items tonight. We first up we have the um resolution proposing name staff for nonrenewal. Joining us tonight is Tracy Fimbo, executive director of human resources and general counsel.
Good evening, Chair Hall, board members, superintendent. Um, I'm here tonight to present the resolution relating to the non-renewal of probationary teachers. This is an annual part of our staffing process. As we've talked uh previously about our staffing process at this time
of the year, we're making that tenitive staffing plan for the 2627 school year. And if we have do not have an identified placement for any of our probationary teachers, we're required to um propose them for non-renewal at this time. Uh
several of the folks uh each year that are on this list often reapply for positions and may be hired later in the spring or summer as positions arise. Um, in this evening's resolution, there are 14 teachers being proposed for non-renewal as probationary teachers,
and I'm looking for a motion to approve that resolution. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. I have a motion by Natalie, a second by Diana. Was there any discussion at all? Okay, Heather, can you call vote?
Diana Fenton, >> yes. >> Zack Dorhalt. >> Natalie Copeland, >> yes. >> Gina Acido. Heather Williams, yes. Shannon Hos, >> yes. >> Thank you. Um and then Tracy Fill, executive director of human resources
and general counsel is staying right there and she is presenting um approval of tentative contract agreements. >> All right. I am pleased to be presenting a tent of agreement with our clerical unit. Uh this uh agreement was ratified
by the unit last week and uh is being presented this evening for final schoolboard approval. The clerical group represents uh about 64 employees in our district and the um two-year contract uh provides for the following financial terms. In year one, there would be steps
for eligible employees. a 1% increase in hourly wages retroactive to July 1, 2025. The district uh insurance contribution uh to single plans would be increased to $640 per month effective October 1, 2025.
Uh the caps that you've approved previously on the EME contributions and uh the family medical leave statutory contributions of44% um for wages. Uh you can see in the in
the summary sheet that that would place our new starting rates for our class one clericals at $16.89 per hour for class 2 $1857 per hour. Class 3 $2053 per hour and
class 4 $2210 per hour. In year two of the agreement, it provides for steps again for step eligible employees. Uh we also made an agreement to eliminate step one of the salary schedule and add a new step five. Um it increases the longevity
rates to match other contracts. Uh this group has been kind of the target for those um non uh licensed uh employee groups. And so the only level that's changing in this group is that 25 year level going up to 20 $2.90 per hour. Uh
again in the second year we would see an increase in the single um contribution to the health insurance plan going to $660 per month. An increase in the insurance contribution to the family plans moving to 1193 per month. And new
starting rates for class one at 1772. Class 2 1948, class 3 21.45 and class 4 at 22.96. The total two-year cost for this agreement is 7.58%. And I'm looking for a motion to approve
the tenative agreement. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. I have a motion by Diana, a second by Heather. Any discussion? Okay. Heather, can you call vote? >> Heather Williams? Yes. Diana Fenton? >> Yes. >> Zack Dorhalt? >> Yes. >> Gina Eito.
>> Shannon Hos. >> Yes. >> Natalie Copeland. >> Yes. >> One more group. Our newest group hopefully will be coming early next month. Okay, >> those are for the next one. Will you give that to Heather? Heather, will you
take that and um give one to Gina? Okay. Um so then next up is another action item. It is the remuneration um for uh board members. This is tabled from the January 5th, 2026 reorg
meeting. Um where Jan printed this out you have in front of you. One of the action items at the reorg meeting is um we tabled number one there which is the monthly compensation but past all the
other uh outlined um items that you have in front of you. Normally what we've done in the past um practice has been to take the average salary settlement and um make that um adjustment to the
monthly compensation for board members in uh showing of goodwill that we're all in this together. And um at that time for January we didn't know what that average um amount was. So now that we are all but one done here, the year 1
salary settlement um average is 2.45%. So um it would be considered then um if we are interested in taking that adjustment, the 2.45% and adjusting that to our monthly compensation um and that
would require an action on our part. So, does anybody have any does somebody want to make a motion in a second? And I guess I'll then I'll open it up for discussion. >> Okay. I have a motion by Natalie, a second by Diana. Did anybody have any discussion or thoughts on that practice?
And do we want to do that again? Okay. Um, let's Heather want to call vote on that action then? >> Zach Dorhalt. >> Yes. Gina Estabo, >> Natalie Copeland, >> yes. >> Shannon Hos, >> yes. >> Diana Fenton,
>> yes. >> Heather Williams, yes. >> Okay, thank you. Um, then the next one that we're on is that was all of our action items tonight. Um, first discussion item. We have the assessment plan update and joining us tonight is
Donna Roer, director of research assessments and AI integration. Good evening, Chair Haw, Superintendent Putnham, members of the board, colleagues, and listening community. I'm happy to be here this evening to present the district-wide bienial assessment
plan. Um tonight's uh presentation is just a brief update of our plan for the 2627 school year. And the message that you're going to hear from me tonight is pretty straightforward. Um, it's really about updating or about streamlining
really our assessment system, our district-wide assessments, reducing unnecessary or duplicate uh testing, duplicative testing, and then just making sure that the assessments we are keeping are the ones that best support teaching and learning. And so, you'll
notice we have a nice little picture and a quote to the lower right that says, "We assess not to label, but to launch." And so we're really um looking closely at making sure when we evaluate our assessments that our learning and teaching um team and others are at the
table giving really good input about the effectiveness and usefulness of these tools. And so I'm going to go through this pretty quickly. I'm going to briefly ground us in the purpose and guiding principles. I'm going to move to our summary slide so that we can see the full set of changes at a glance. Um and
then I will let you know what's staying and what kind of our next steps for implementation are. And so um obviously our goals are to follow state statute and state laws and we did have some changes to um what is
required for assessment in the 2627 school year. And so as we took a look at um adding things that were required, we also wanted to look at reducing redundancy and um and then keep keep the things that we know are working to help
us identify those really important student needs that we can address with some of the new um letters training and the science of reading instructional strategies that our staff are getting. um when you know an assessment is not
adding value in our system and or if it overlaps with another comparable tool, it's really important for us to look closely at the purpose and the use. Um and so that's really what this team got together and did. And tonight these are
the results of all of that really good work. Um I'm going to take us right to the summary at a glance. This is kind of the high-level um picture of what happened throughout the the look at our assessment plan. You'll see there are really four types
of changes. We're adding a few assessments where they're required. Um we're adjusting some schedules where we can reduce some of the testing burden and we're removing a redundant tool and then replacing some of our secondary tools with options that are better
aligned to instruction. So this slide really reflects that overall direction. Um and I think what you'll see is for example in um kindergarten and first grade we're adding a one minute oral language screener if you will. It's a
sentence uh one minute sentence repetition task that our kindergarteners and first graders are going to use um and be screened with. We are um adjusting some of the early numerousy assessments um to reduce some of the
burden in first grade that we uh identified. Um we will keep fastbridge um uh as well as um continuing to do I Ready in kindergarten so that we're shoring up those number sense skills um
early and as as really as early as we can. Um, if you look at the grade four and five, you'll see that we are adding the CAPY read ba basics. We did give that assessment this year and staff found it incredibly useful and so we are going to
be giving that again in the fall and in the winter and in the spring we'll do what we call a gated screening process where we will only give it to the students who um who are identified as still not meeting benchmarks.
Um, in grades four and seven, we will be placing that stamp um, which is our immersion programming Spanish um, language assessment. And that will be um, something that we're going to look at closely this year to see if the if
the purpose and use of that is really adding the value that we that we want it to. And we may continue next year or the following year with fourth and seventh grade. We'll just we're going to see how that goes. But this is an adjustment that we're making. Um I believe last year we did it in 2, four, six, and
maybe eight, right? Which is if you think about our kids that are in immersion who are also potentially EEL who are also in fifth or eighth grade, they're taking a lot of tests. So it was really important to us to look at the experience of the learner as we made
some of these decisions. Um the Kogat is being removed. This is a really costly assessment in terms of time as well as money. Um and the team there um felt that they had all of the measures that they needed. They're using um multiple
measures by the way. Um they've got in-class assessments that they give as well as standardized tests to identify kids for enrichment services. And so um make I want to make it really clear the the gifted and talented and enrichment programming is happening. It's just they
will no longer use the Kogat to do their um identifying um processor. Um at secondary we will be replacing the STAR reading assessment with CAP read basics and um again the team really felt
that this was a much better um test. There's there's actually several tests, six subtests that are given to these students and it really informs the letters the it informs the reading instruction strategies that our teachers
are getting really good at as they go through their letters training and their science of reading training. So, um I'm super excited that we actually have aligned measures to the actual instruction that um is happening as it relates to improving reading
instruction. And then for math, um we will be adopting some new secondary math curriculum and we have looked at the assessment inside that curriculum and we will be using um that assessment as our universal screener for math in grades 6
through 12 for next year. So that's some exciting work to come. um and looking forward to seeing how how teachers feel about using more um tightly aligned assessments to their instruction. Um so what's staying the same of course
are all the state required assessments. So just keep in mind we still do MCAs in grades 3 through 8, 10 and 11. Um we still have the access test. Those will continue. Um we will continue to progress monitor and um look at how we
are identifying students for reading, math um and language support. None of that is really changing. We will just continue to be looking at and monitoring the data um and doing those really effective strategies to intervene um as
we go. again gifted and talented stays cog um we will also be giving families access to the results in new ways that I think are um broader in the sense that they can see results in a video they can
hear they can read it um we will be sharing results in conferences um with families as they come in so sort of a multimodal approach to trying to give families as much information as we can about how their kids did and where where they and find the information. Um,
again, I think just making sure that we are clear on the roles and the purpose of the assessments that we're giving um is ongoing work that we will continue to do with teams and teachers and community as well. Um and then just being
committed to making sure that our um students with disabilities are English language learners as well that they also are assessed and looked at very closely um throughout the year. Uh for next steps um obviously this
spring we're going to adopt a new curriculum and that will um happen and begin right in the fall. So with that adoption, there will be a lot of work that needs to happen with communication and training. And so we will be doing some professional development over the
summer with some of our assessments to get our new teachers up to speed and just make sure folks have what they need to be ready in the fall. Um we hope to um have our plan published on the website by the first day of school. We
will um certainly be communicating with families about when testing is happening and all of that good stuff. Um and again, these are changes that will go into effect in the 27 school year. And um this is, you know, we would like to
just bring this to you every other year, but it looks like we will be back next year because there are some decisions that the state has not finalized on yet. One of them being the um new kindergarten assessment has I believe 16
subtests that are being identified in a different tool called TS Golds. So once they um give us that information, we'll look at what those are. We'll look at what we're currently doing, make sure that we are not doing redundant testing
on our kindergarteners, and then we'll be back with those changes next time. Um, and so I leave you with that. Um, and I welcome your questions. >> Thank you, Donna. Does anybody have any questions on this?
We're a quiet group tonight. Okay. Thank you very much for joining and presenting this. We appreciate it. Okay, moving on to um our next discussion item. We have Matthew Buché, executive director of operations joining
us. Um presenting proposed revised board policy 533. This is a second reading um of the wellness policy. Good evening, Superintendent Putnham, Chair Hos, and board members. appreciate the time to come back in front of you as
we pull up the policies on the screen. We're actually going to go over three of them tonight and they are second reads. Um so we won't cover them in a whole lot of detail. I believe you had a chance to review them also um in >> Thank you.
As we pull it up, I'll just quickly remind us that the uh policy 510 um primarily simply had some adjustments to the MSBA model policy. Primarily within the introductory paragraph, we aligned the language to the new model policy there. And then a couple of places where
we added guardian in front of parent where we had historically just listed parent. um where the primary changes and there's one other change lower down where we align to our current practice around instead of giving recommendations of food that would be safe in the classroom reminding that we actually
don't do that. All right, any questions or comments on that one? Okay, thank you. that will be back on the consent agenda for next time. Then we're going to do another second reading. We have Nikki Hansen, assistant superintendent of E5 learning for
proposed revives board policy 510 second reading for school activities. >> Good evening, Chair H. Superintendent Putnham. For our second read of 510 tonight, there are very minimal changes in language proposed with no refinement suggested from the first read. Um, you
can see those minimal errors there or changes, proposed changes there in yellow and would be happy to take any questions that you may have. Okay, we're all good on that. So, that's coming back to the consent agenda. And then you have one more for us tonight.
Proposed uh revised board policy 599, second reading. This is the indistrict transfer policy. Yes, for uh IND district transfer policy 599, we do have some language changes to match our IND district transfer application process.
So you can see those highlighted there. Um the one refinement that was suggested from First Street is highlighted here in blue on the screen and that was just some language to read more clearly. And so that proposed language change um states transfers are school specific and
reset during transition years. Kindergarten, 6th, and 9th grades. At these levels, students return to their home attendance area school site unless a new transfer is requested and approved. Sixth graders at Kennedy K8 Community School are exempt from this
requirement. Um, so that was just some language that we cleaned up to read a little bit better here in our indust transfer application policy. Any questions? All right. Thank you. Uh, then we're moving on to the reports. First up, we
have the superintendence report. Dr. Lori Putnham. >> Thank you, Chair Hos, members of the board. Um, and this evening, I want to give an overview um from the Westwood fire. Um, in the wake of the recent fire at Westwood Community School, our local partners moved with incredible speed to
ensure our students remained safe, engaged, and import and supported. While our educators transition to remote learning, the community stepped in to bridge the gap for child care, nutrition, and physical activity. The moments following the incident required a high level of coordination and emotional support. We would like to
extend a sincere thank you to our district administrative office staff, community education staff, and Apollo High School counselors. Their immediate response to Westwood Community Church right after the fire was vital in facilitating a smooth and supportive parent student reunification process during a chaotic time. We would also be
remiss not to note that our Westwood staff, well, I've said it numerous times, deserve an additional shout out for their incredible work as well. Uh during the first two days of the closure, students maintained academic momentum through e-learning choice boards. Uh these boards prepared in advance for school closures, allowed
students to engage in curriculum aligned activities independently from home. Following the initial e-learning period, we transitioned to daily instructional support from April 8 through 10. Monday and Tuesday were used for planning and materials distribution. Learning access was provided through both digital
opportunities and physical materials to extend learning. Engagement with the digital learning opportunities was very high with some of the lesson video lessons receiving over 100 views. And you can imagine we have our it's two and three section uh classes at Westwood.
And so that really shows the level of engagement of our students and their families. Uh to bridge the digital divide and support hands-on learning, physical materials were made available for pickup at the district welcome center and Westwood Community Church. Materials were also distributed to the Boys and Girls Club to reach our
students there. These resources included activity packets, supplemental books, and hands-on learning supplies. Community engagement with these materials was strong. 40 families access resource at the district welcome center and three families access resources at Westwood Community Church. And I want to
give a a special recognition to our learning and teaching team and Nikki, Assistant Superintendent Hansen uh for their really quick work in putting together this uh this plan and those materials. So, thank you. The Roosevelt Boys and Girls Club served as a critical anchor critical anchor for working with
our families providing free emergency child care for 94 Westwood students. The Great River Trillions Museum provided an extraordinary experience for our students, offering joy through hands-on learning, interactive exhibits that encourage creative problem solving. Uh,
the GRCM welcomed 132 Westwood students over 3 days. An additional 84 student uh Westwood families were granted free access and 34 members served as chaperrons. We are uh lining up a free field trip for Westward PK students on
Thursday, May 21. And those activities supports were facilitated and provided by Christine Haulingsworth and the dedicated staff there. Um I just have to tell you some of the quotes were it was fun. Playing outside and playing with water was awesome. That was a first grader. The boat racing was the wa with
the water part was a lot of fun. I don't know what that entails but that was a fifth grader. And a fourth grader said I like the climbing and cloud area best because I really like climbing. And then just a few other uh recognitions um to uh the food security uh remaining a top
priority um in addition to breakfast provided by our nutritional services department. So thank you to Matthew and Sherah um and uh Sarah. Lunches for the museum trips were made possible through the park event center, Jets Pizza costume, catering and Costco. Supplies for student activities were provided by
Scraps, the St. Cloud Recycled Art Project Shop managed by Jennifer Pence Cobber uh along with various private donors and the Westward Community Church served as a satellite point uh for distribution for food boxes and that was supported by Troex and the Initiative Foundation. Uh the St. Cloud Area Y
generously opened its doors to our community providing free access to open swim and open gym basketball. Uh we are thrilled to report that 166 families uh took advantage of that opportunity. Um, and I want to say a thank you to the uh for those who in our community who
volunteered and gave us financial assistance. The success of all of these programs relied heavily on local hands and hearts with volunteer support. A special thanks to Gina Asavdo, Diana Mets old, Glenn Palm, Becky Cobburn, Clara Court, Susan Farog, and Greg
Reichstead. And then the St. Cloud Rotary who put forward a $1,000 challenge match to serve further community donations. So all of that came together in a weekend, right? Imagine that. Um and so we just uh wanted to celebrate all of the
community, our staff, our volunteers, uh the many people who made this an incredibly positive experience for our students and families. Uh despite what could have been um a really um hard and challenging event, um I think we're coming out of this stronger and as
always, I am so grateful for uh this community. So on behalf of all of us, thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. Then we have the board of education standing committee reports. I believe that we have two for tonight.
Achievement integration equity board committee chair Diana Fenton. >> Thanks Chair Hos, Superintendent Putnham and members of the board. The achievement integration and equity committee meeting met this morning. The two items that we discussed this morning, we had Donna Roer presented the
recent published 2025 graduation rate data and she also presented on the assessment plan changes that you saw tonight at the board meeting. >> Thank you. Actually, we have three reports. Uh finance audit board
committee chair Heather Beams. Uh the board finance committee met on April 6th of this month. Um, we talked about the board finance committee community member. Lori reported this p that past practice has been to have a community member serve on
the board finance committee. However, there is no law, MSBA recommendation or district policy that would require this. In addition, we do not have a community representative on any other board committee. It was also noted that there is a community finance study group that
any interested community member can join and there is no limit on to h to how many people can join that group. The committee recommended that we eliminate the finance committee community member position which is currently vacant. Secondly, we discussed cashless ticketing for events. Amy presented a
recommendation to move to cashless ticketing for athletic events starting next school year. A number of schools have made this change in recent years, including Wilmer, who has a very similar demographic as our district. Eliminating cash sales creates efficiency, saves administrative time, and reduces the
risk of misappropriation. There's also a financial incentive to make this change because the new ticketing platform that our conference is moving to next year provides a rebate to to the district for all online ticket sales. Families who are unable to utilize an online payment option can still use cash to purchase
tickets or passes in advance from the activities office during the school day. Thank you. And then we have personnel negotiations board committee chair Natalie Copeland. Thank you, Chair Hos. Board Personnel Committee met on
Tuesday, April 14th, and covered four topics, including the option for up to 5 days of extended pay for principal Skolrode for 2526, 2627, and 2728 school years to support his
leadership of the Apollo renovations and Apex construction projects. The committee also reviewed the licensed staff non-renewal process and recommendations that were voted on tonight's at tonight's meeting and the upcoming administrative hires for
assistant principles and coordinator openings. Finally, the committee reviewed Dr. Putnham's evaluation results. Dr. Dr. Putnham asked for feedback on two items. Continued delegation of board policy and development duties to executive staff
and her role in providing board development activities and opportunities for members. And that was all. Thank you. Then we have future agenda items. The the May 6 board meeting topics will include community partnership update,
summer projects update, approval of tentative agreements if any, policy readings, and school updates. At this time, does any board member wish to suggest a future agenda item? All right. Um Oh, this is so exciting.
I'm looking for a motion to adjourn tonight's um board meeting. >> I have a motion by Heather. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> I have a second by Natalie. All in favor say I. I. >> Opposed. Oh, meeting is adjourned. 7:22
p.m. Have a good night. Are you sneaking out there? I have stuff that I was supposed to have.