safe and caring climate and culture in which we engage, inspire, educate, prepare, and empower all learners in partnership with their surrounding community to be successful in today's and tomorrow's society. Uh the board of education meeting will be livereamed via
our district YouTube channel. Um and would like to lead and pledge allegiance here. All right. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Right. And would you like to take role? The following board members are present at the district administration office. Scott Andre here. Natalie Copeland
here. Al Dalgrren here. Zack Dhold here. Diana Fenton here. Heather Williams here. The following board members are not present. Shannon Haw. The following cabinet members and staff are present at the district administration office. Superintendent
Dr. Dr. Lorie Putnham, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education, Dr. Jason Harris, assistant superintendent of E5 Learning. Nikki Hansen, executive director of special education. Danny Mayor, executive director of finance and business services. Amy Scallarude, Executive
Director of Human Resources and Labor Relations. Tracy Flynn Bau, Executive Director of Innovation and Technology Services, Katie Herbolt, Executive Director of Operations, Matthew Bush, media technicians, Paul Novak and Gordy
Scott, and custodian on site Austin Goodwater. Okay. And uh before I move for approval of the board meeting agenda, is there anybody who would like to have any items removed?
Thank you. Consent agenda. I'm sorry. Yeah. Or wait, first I would ask for approval of the board meeting agenda. I'm sorry. Second. Right. Um
call roll. Heather Williams, yes. Diana Fenton, yes. Zector Halt, yes. Alrren, yes. Natalie Copeland, yes. Scott Andre, yes. Okay. And now for the consent agenda. Believe Natalie Copeland had something
you like to remove? Yes, I Okay. Anybody want to second that? Okay. Gotcha. I would move that we approve the consent agenda with item D removed. All right.
Motion approved and seconded by Scott. Natalie Copeland. Yes. Zack Dhold. Yes. Heather Williams. Yes. Scott Andre. Yes. Al Dogrren, yes. Diana Fenton, yes. Item D.
Item D. And I'm just abstaining from vote. Got it. I'm looking for a motion. I would move that we approve item D. Second. A motion by El Dalgrren. Second by Heather Williams. Okay. Diana Fenton.
Yes. Zack Dhold. Yes. Alan Dren. Yes. Scott Andre. Yes. Williams. Yes. Okay. Then we will move into item number three information items. uh presentation plan to seek feedback on graduation
presented by Dr. Jason Harris, assistant superintendent of secondary education. All right. Good evening, uh, acting chair Dhawk. Good to see you there. Uh, Superintendent Putnham, board members, uh, we're just going to give a quick update on graduation ceremonies update.
Uh, we had an unfortunate situation at the tech graduation. And they got a lot of uh publicity media specifically around uh spectators that got into a incident within the uh procession leaving out of the um ceremony.
We always debrief after graduation uh or big events where we have folks come in and kind of look at what went well, what didn't go well. Uh well with this situation, it got a lot of attention and um so our purpose today is just to
gather uh actionable input from key key stakeholders specifically around future graduation ceremonies and then focus on safety, belonging and collaboration with uh around that. But specifically when you look at it, it's it's a small number where these incidents happen, right?
when you look across the state uh 429 school districts uh currently it's a small number when you see that but for whatever this year it it was out there a lot you know when you get anything on media uh but history-wise within the
last 13 years we haven't had any issues any incidents so when you look at that with this we want to get stakeholder feedback because we get emails from stakeholders after graduation all the time. And so one of the strategies specifically, we're going to look at uh stakeholder feedback strategy. We're
going to administer uh surveys to students and families in August and September. We're going to focus on uh the cla the current class that just graduated 25, our current class right now 26. And then we're going to look at class of 27, the junior class coming in.
We want to get feedback from them specifically uh around some themes that we'll look at. We'll use the graduation team data uh from administrators s cloud PD and then just stakeholder feedback from all our stakeholders from students to families and board members and then
we'll gather from all the stakeholder uh data and then kind of highlight the themes that we saw and then we'll come back I'll come back with the principles specifically on October 15th when we'll have a designated plan on what we need to do for uh class of 26 in the
graduation ceremony. Um, when you look at it, the timeline, we'll look at a 3-w weekek uh time frame when we'll do that. We'll start out with the distribution of surveys. We'll look at optional uh listening sessions. Talking to the principles, they felt like when I have
my parent meetings or gatherings with families that are already there for it, bring that in. So, not just random families. We also talked about when you have like open house and back to school, it'll be good time to get the survey out, right? So we want good good feedback and stakeholder participation
and so we kind of mapped it out. We'll look at uh week three and just compile the data look at the themes and then when we look at the themes we'll explore all the main points that came up from the current feedback that we got from stakeholders around dignity and recognition of each graduate safety and
crowd control. We'll look at accessibility and inclusion. Um just the expectations around enforcement, right? We look at noise, behavior, decorum, and then just communication between the pre-event uh and then the uh postevent
clarity. And then we'll look at the floor floor plan of how it's set up. One of the things we got a chance to do was uh talk to other uh school administrators and districts heading east on uh uh 94 to see, you know, what
they did. Was it at their school? How was the setup? When we looked at Maruchi uh and some of the metro schools, their setup is a little different uh in uh the sense that uh when you look at the floor plan of River's Edge is kind of
longitudinal. uh when you looked at some of the other ones, it was more horizontal where the the crowd was right like side of right in there and they it felt more intimate. So, we'll look at those things and then we'll come back with a plan uh
specifically around that. Uh any questions is it's justformational item tonight. As I understand it, two parents got into it. It'll be really interesting to see what we did wrong. I don't think we did,
but we'll be interesting to see what your report turns out. Yes. Uh, I just wanted to in case you did not see it because it was a late breaking press release um from the Slate Club Police Department, they did uh issue
charging um uh out on I believe five Jason. Yes, it was five individuals that took part were charged out. Thanks Dr. Harris. So um they uh I think that that speaks loudly right about who is at fault for that situation. And I
also wanted to say um I will gladly gather your feedback and our one-on- ones. I have that on our agenda item um so that you'll have a chance to give input and then I'll pass that on to Dr. Harris as well as we meet next week. Thank you. Any other questions for Dr. Harris?
Eldrren, not so much a question, just a comment. And maybe I should hold it for the one-on-one, but uh one thing I would like to see added on to that is just a general I would like to see a general purpose statement. And what what is it
that we believe graduation should accomplish? And what would it take for us to say that was really good and it did what we wanted it to do? because I have questions as to, you know, things like is graduation for
the students, is graduation for the families, or is graduation for the community? And in each one of those situations, I think we would approach things differently. So, I'd really like to see us define prior to going out for with a
survey, define exactly what we want to get out of graduation so that we have a end product in mind. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you.
Any other questions? Okay, I think that's it. Perfect. Thank you. to uh discussion and action items. Um item number a discussion item 2024 2025
activities update. Um believe it is all right. Dr. Jason Harrison take the lead on this one and from there. Thank you. You're still on J.
Oh, okay. There we go. Love the uh blue and black. Here we got balance. Got all right. Thank you again uh acting chair uh door superintendent Putnham. Uh board members, uh we'll have a chance
tonight on a couple of things specifically with the activities update from uh activities director Heiney and then activities director Johnson. uh just what's been taking place for the 25 uh 2425 school year and all the
highlights and then all the things we've been doing to increase participation uh engagement, what's the current trends, what's growing, what's not growing, and then uh I'll let these two folks uh take it away. Perfect.
All right. Thank you uh board members and Dr. Butnham here for having us tonight. Um we're excited to present uh kind of our year in review uh and also some of the exciting things we have coming up for this school year and and continuing to implement beyond. But uh again I'm I'm Carl Heiny, the activities
director at Apollo High School. Um moving into my third year here and and I'm Hillilary Johnson, um activities director at Tech and I will be I just started my first year on July 1st and I roped her into coming right away. So we got got it going. Um just looking
at our agenda tonight. Uh every year we have to go through an annual um Misso State High School League agreement and renew our membership with the high school league. Um and then go through our celebrations and and updates of last year. Uh and then also again like I said
our 25 26 moving forward. Um so starting off with our Minnesota State High School League. Uh if you've been in the past, you've seen we've played a video in this spot. Uh this year the high school league didn't send an updated video. um they sent a letter uh which was included uh in your in the
agenda there um for you to read on your own. But um again stating that partnership that we are a community um we're we're extension of the classroom and education um supporting coaches, officials, uh administrators in that
sportsmanship sense. Uh and creating those safe, respectful environments for all of our students to be able to grow and succeed. Um, and the letter explains it a little bit more in detail of some of the new things coming with the Minnesota State High School League, but uh, as we reported last year and and
kind of alluded to, uh, the approval of the 9th grade governance. So, uh, now the Minnesota State High School League is sanctioned 9th through 12th grade. So, our 9th grade students now fall under that catastrophic injury uh, with the high school league. So that was a
big a big thing where not all of the students were covered and and so there was kind of a a gray area and now this solidifies that line a little bit more. Um 7th through or seventh and eighth grade students participating on a 712 high school team do fall into that that
piece. Um but it was those standalone lower level teams that are that were not supported under that high school league. So that's that's the big addition. um the continuation of of these uh different sportsmanship uh initiatives with the salt uh and engaging our
students in those collaborative conversations with other leaders in other buildings around the the state um and kind of bringing the what does it look like feel like to be a participant in our in our sports world and activities world um which is really a growing thing for our our students and
there's a picture in in there but uh my favorite part of the the event is when they do the t-shirt exchange and all the students get up and they're swapping t-shirts from their schools with other students and then they're trying to upgrade their shirts and it's really just collaboration amongst different individuals and getting them out of
their comfort zone a little bit. But uh um we're really pleased to have that partnership with the Minnesota State High School League. Uh we we've both been in connection with the league office um in different variations of of our roles and and feel the support uh around us uh from that high school
league and feel our students are the same way. So, that's just kind of the update from the high school league. Um, but again, that's what we're we're asking for your approval tonight. So, and then from the state down to our 742 activities purpose. Um, so you can see
that our purpose is to create a culture where excuse me, uh, students embrace that growth mindset and it empowers them to explore their passions. And we feel really excited tonight to show you about all the different ways and options that we have for our students. Gosh, it's
really touchy today. Um, and then we had a a group of students um and activity staff that worked on our belief statements. So, we believe that sportsmanship builds character, teaching values, respect, discipline, inclusion, and accountability. Um, we believe that
work ethic is the combination of that growth mindset and commitment and that attitudes can be learned and cultivated and the positive attitude that one can bring for positive outcomes for all. And then the one that really resonates is the idea we learn together, we grow
together, and we succeed together. All right. And then I'll move into the the updates and celebrations from our our past year here. Um we are we're we're very excited about our our current year. Um and a lot of things that we continue to do for our students and
families is provide those free admissions uh to all of our venues. there was a couple uh rental facilities that we had to kind of negotiate through those those things and that has been established. So, no matter where our teams are playing uh when we're the host school, uh their their students are in
for free. Uh and then again, the addition of those parent passes to all of our student home games. Um and then another one we're continuing to grow on is that full online registration piece. Uh we worked with our technology department here to continue to to ease
that ne navigation through those those sites um and eliminate some of those data processing barriers. So um it should be a little bit easier and and more streamlined for our students to continue to register online um where we're able to track more the data more
efficiently. Um then the continuation of the removal of barriers um accessible physicals again with our partnership in LEAF and some other local health providers. uh a while back uh CVS where we were was our main partner with LEAF had kind of stopped or ended that um and
LEAF has helped us kind of reestablish those connections with local partners and we're able to say that we're supporting these students um and have some on-site physicals set up here for fall at both of our high schools for kids that can't transport and all those things. So, we're really excited about
that. Uh continue to provide those culturally appropriate uh clothing and accessories for all students. uh the junior high activity bus, the return home after practices uh has been a huge success and and a very efficient way uh to keep students active and involved. And then a new one again this year which
we are super super super excited about is that uh LEAF has agreed to sponsor basically uh and provide free middle level activities for all students in that middle level including those participating on high school sports. So
all of our sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students uh will have the opportunity to participate in in activities at no cost uh thanks to those major contributions by by our LEAF foundation. So um continuing on with uh the commitment to safety. Um I know
sportsmanship is a huge discussion and is always uh at the forefront of all of our meetings when we're meeting with our conference stakeholders and our section stakeholders about how do we continue to uphold these expectations. Uh we do have monthly discussions that are meeting. Uh
we just collaborated on how do we continue to make unified commitment to communication with our families. So no matter what venue you're going in with our conference, you're hearing the same thing, you're being told the same thing, you're asked the same thing. Um and so we're continuing to work with those
teams. As I mentioned before, uh the salt and the Minnesota State High School League initiatives with our students and collaborating with more of the outer outer schools than just our conference. we're able to to meet with some other schools outstate um and down in the metro as well. Um and again that fan
behavior and expectations for all event and home games is what we're always trying to focus, you know, and and to change from our coaching hat to our administrative hat. It's not always about the wins and losses, but if we had a successful event and that's evolves truly to behavior and um we feel like
we're we're in a good position with those streamlined initiatives with our groups to to make it happen. Uh and then continuing the professional development. Um as we know in the classroom, uh our activities are extension of that and our coaches need to be coached. Um and our
adviserss need to have the ability to grow. Um whether that's in communication skills, uh whether that's in, you know, how do you work through, you know, social media? How do you work through discipline, playing time, anything? And that's where um we partner with Positive Coaching Alliance um to continue to to
bring those initiatives to our coaches. and then continue uh our commitment to collaboration. We are we're always excited um that we we try to hear our students and their voices are a big part of our activities programs and we want
to feel that they're involved in our decisions. And so this last year we had um some new initiatives. Um, we've started some esports, boys volleyball, girls flag football, uh, and then we've tried to extend that strength and conditioning program to meet some of our
summer offseason training needs. Um, because we have a demand for it and so we know we got to work to continue to grow these areas and be able to provide them for our students. One quick one quick uh anecdote on the strength and conditioning is we were able to um add
um a certified strength and conditioning coach at Tech this summer and um our head coach who normally is running it all summer um reported to me that he took a week off for the first time in years um and just did not come into school and really got a break. And it
just made my heart so happy that the commitment will help him refresh and we'll just be a better environment for our kids when we support our coaches like that. So, it was a it was a big win. All right. And then I'm I asked Hillary if she wanted to present on this whole
thing, but she wasn't here, so I'm going to keep talking. Um I'm going the data all of you have been given the data ahead of time, so I'm not going to spend a ton of time on it, but just want to highlight a few things. Um these are our main high school participation numbers, and every spring we submit our
participation numbers to the high school league um every every year. And so the number up top that you'll see by the high school, it it represents our MSHSL enrollment number. So the high school league takes our our overall population
and then they subtract 40% of the students that receive educational benefits and then they give you a a high school league competitive number. So then a lot that allows you to play at a more liked uh represented um grouping as
far as section and and those different competitive levels. So when you look at Apollo and Tech, our numbers, our enrollment numbers and our buildings are higher than that, but when we look at what the Minnesota State High School League deems as your participation number, um they're a little bit lower
than our represented. So, um you'll see those are our 12th through 7th grade numbers um of students who participated in a a high school league sanctioned activity. So, there's seventh and eighth graders that would be more like swimming
uh swim and dive uh both boys and girls tennis um and and those kind of sports that incorporate those seventh and eighth graders. So, those numbers are not re reflective of our junior high um numbers but of those that participate on the high school teams. And then just to
note that those are unduplicated numbers. So if a student participates in more than one state high school league um opportunity, they're only represented once on this table. And this is a quick snapshot of our fall sports. And I just wanted to note out
there, I know it's not at the bottom, but the the single asterisks are a tech Apollo co-op. So um those those are going to be combined. Um the double asterct includes Tech Apollo but also another another affiliated school. So
most often Cathedral uh sometimes Sartell and Sock Rapids for instance adapted soccer that's Tech Apollo Sartell sock rapids um our girls tennis or our girls swim tech stands alone Apollo is with St. John's Prep and Cathedral. So there's it's not just when
you look at oo those numbers are maybe a little bit lower than expected. That's because those are only the district 742 students participating and not those members of our co-op. And looking at uh high school sports, same thing. Um the the asterisks denote
the co-ops um consistent numbers uh from from years past um to what we're looking at here today. And same with spring. Um boys and girls track is kind of the standalone. Um, and then the boys volleyball has the tech
and we're we're looking to increase that population over at Apollo uh and be able to offer that this spring. This gets to our fine arts or music speech uh robotics and clay target. Um we've had extreme growth uh as you've
known in the past with robotics uh is kind of is maintaining um and again we run a lot of those robotics programs as kind of a north side southside. So these numbers just represent our high school students, not all of the members participating on North Side Robotics or
Tiger Robotics. Um and then our Clay Target uh has seen significant growth um and we'll continue that growth um over the last couple years and have some successful younger kids coming through. So I think it'll continue to move in a positive direction.
I'm going to jump in with activities and clubs. Um this represents the high school. So just Apollo and Tech. Um note that we do also offer many of these options in our middle school as well. Um and these
numbers in um contrast to the ones earlier, these are duplicated numbers. So if a student is in art club and French club, they're represented twice on here. Um some of the ones that we're really um excited about is the increase in the gardening club. Um they're doing
some really great work. Um, shout out to their adviserss um for all the hard work they've done this summer and are I mean really getting the kids dirty and in the dirt and um and doing a really great job on that summer gardening. Um the other one that is really growing
and we're very excited about is the Crush Interact group. Um this is one of them that we're combined for the first time. Um and the students are really excelling um getting out in the community um and becoming part of you know a a community that gives back to
the larger broader St. Cloud community. So we're very excited about the work that those students are doing too. Yeah. If you've been down to Summertime by George, they're the ones that are running around in the blue shirts and helping sell the tickets and getting up on stage. Uh often are our students that are presenting those things. So it's really really cool. And a lot of them
won awards uh from their contributions last year. Um in prelude to our celebrations, the morning show, uh they come as we get them, right? So, uh we had five students from the Tech morning show receive national awards this year, which was really a really cool thing. Um
and that HOSA club sent a bunch of students to nationals. So, although these aren't these are not high school league sanctions activities, there's opportunity for students to be recognized at a state and national level. And uh we got a lot of great students represent us in various clubs.
And then again, just some for your reference so you can see the number of students participating in middle school sports. Um we're very proud of the work that our um middle school coordinators are doing to get students out and participate. Um and so you can see some of the successes that we've had here. Um
again, boys soccer, girls volleyball are two that have really shown um increases over the last few years. Um winter boys and girls basketball is still very popular. And then in the spring,
you can see um definitely our our track numbers are going strong. Yeah. And to just highlight a couple uh along the way that we did, but uh DECA has continued to grow on on both sides of town and uh our kids have traveled.
We had a a national kid make the trip down to um Florida this year to represent us and win uh a couple awards down there at the national level, which was awesome to be able to celebrate. Um our speech teams continue to have success in a state champ uh over at
Tech. Um and then our our girls volleyball numbers have continued to grow um to continue to add levels, which is a a great thing. Um gaming and esports into that activities. We've established that esports program where our kids are competing online against
kids all over the country. Uh they log in at 4:00 and they play um different games and uh it's it's competitive and uh I got the opportunity to go and sit in and watch some of them and and as we go back to the interest level and listening to our students when you sit
in that setting and you d you're involved in it, they're really engaged. Um, and we're finding that people are getting full scholarships to colleges for this, uh, you know, gaming and and creative creative gaming stuff. So, uh, it's awesome to be able to pro provide those opportunities. And then our
student groups, uh, in partnership with our our schools and our counselors, our boys groups and girls groups, um, our project uh, with Boys and Girls Club and those those things are growing. And what we found is that it's creating that support not only meeting during the day,
but a lot of it is coming back in our activities world um where where those mentors are showing up and supporting and those kids are making that second connection. Um which is a really cool thing to be able to bring it full circle and and get their involvement. I'll give a shout out on that one to our girls
taking action and Boys of Hope um is a community partner that has really helped us with that student group um and is doing a lot of really good again volunteering work um and support of our kids during the day and um after school
and I'll continue with that recruiting and participation uh as we want to continue to grow those things. Uh we've continued with our middle level activity day. Uh we we enjoy it. It's a great day for us to get our student athletes in front of our our middle level kids and uh we get our our coaches there and our
students there and they play games with them a little bit. They they inform them. They offer here's what we're doing this summer. Here's how you get involved. Uh it's a really nice way to get face to face with a lot of students in that recruiting process. And our older kids have a lot of fun with it,
too. And often times they'll sneak back to a classroom of their middle school teacher and say hi. And they they love the opportunity. um our youth programming opportunities. We're really making an initiative to to reach out to our youth programs and establish some of those connections with our our community
um building foundations with with youth sports and youth activities to try to make those partnerships to continue to get those kids in our building, expose them to our activities and sports and and really kind of offer and solidify that connection because we know that those those those people are the ones
that are going to continue to to feed our programs. Um, and then elementary and middle level school connections. Uh, we we've tried to partner with different different classrooms. Uh, we've read for read in classrooms. Uh, we've sent a group over to Westwood every other
Friday to just hang out at lunch and wear your Eagle gear. Uh, we sent the mascot over there, a mascot costume over there, and the kids loved it. But it was just an opportunity for our students to engage with other students and, hey, yeah, I go to Apollo. Here's what I do. or and and really establish those
connections. We've tried to partner with our FIED teachers um on both sides of town when they start a unit. Uh for example, in the top right is our is a tennis unit. Uh Mr. Moral over at Westwood asked, "Hey, can I bring a couple tennis kids over to introduce the tennis unit?" And the kids ate it up,
loved it. Our high school kids loved it. Uh and we we saw we saw an increase in the summer participation in tennis programming mainly because of that connection where we had to get some of those high school kids to come back to the summer camp because those kids were like they're going to be there, right?
And so it was really cool and we feel like we can expand on that and make those connections in in all of our sports and and really continue to draw that pipeline. Uh and then lastly, the homecoming day activities. last year um at a at Apollo uh we Justin and I went
through uh kind of the initiative of of starting this homecoming day and and showing kids, you know, here's a here's a high school league sport. Here's what it's like to be involved in it. Here's the fun that you can do. And I know we've presented on that uh in the past, but it was it was really a a great day
and we got kids exposed to to high school activities um in a short amount of time. And this year we're looking to expand it and add three more high school league activities at 3:30. Uh so if they want to stick around after school, they can continue to watch. So we'll have um
boys soccer, girls swimming, and and volleyball at 1. And then we'll have girls soccer, girls tennis, and we're hoping to to slide adapted soccer in there uh right at 3:30, 4:00, and then we'll have uh a varsity football at 7:00, and then our homecoming dance after that. So, it's going to be a busy
day, but uh it's exciting to to keep the opportunities there for students where they don't have to feel like they got to go and then come back. And um it just gave them an opportunity to see what it was like. Um and at Tech this year, we're planning on um an activity um event between
school and the football game. So again, that our students don't have to leave and come back, but that we'll have programming um working with the Tech Alumni Association and our student council um are all working together to provide events for our kids before the game so they can stay.
Yeah. Then continuing on to community connections. Uh again, we're we're all in it together and we know that our community needs to we need to support our community who supports us. So, um, just some things and highlights where we've been out in the community, uh, recently with community education, the
one district, one book and Shields, and we have that partnership. Our students go and hang out there and have a great day. Um, our Crush Interact Club, as we noted before, spends a lot of time down at at Summertime by George, but is very involved in the Rotary Club and learning the the future Rotarian way and and is
mingling in with our community in various ways. Um, and then our volunteering work. All of our teams, a lot of our teams take initiative in in volunteering in some form or fashion with with a group, whether it's going and reading in classrooms or whether it's going and um you know, bringing in
toys for toys or tots, h helping out at the cop house. Uh Salvation Army, we have a group going to uh fill backpacks, back to school backpacks tomorrow. Um there's another group going and and uh begging groceries. So, we're trying to be active in the community and and
knowing that it's a it's also a servant role as as well and what we give we get back. So, um we're very active in the community and and we like to to be present and know that it helps us when we're we're going around. So, all right. There's going to be a lot of
these. Yeah. Just uh looking at state and national qualifiers just to highlight a few and then the next slide kind of gives some pictures to it. But, uh, we had, uh, like I mentioned, we had a state champion in speech over at at Tech and and, uh, um, that was great, a great
finish to a senior year. Uh, we have swimming participants in the state tournament. We had a state champion, um, at Tech and Apollo this year in boys swimming, uh, which was a really cool, really cool thing to be able to celebrate. our adapted sports continued
to have the the success that uh it's had in the past and actually didn't make it to the floor hockey state tournament which was the first time in several years. Um I had to go back and count all the trophies on coach Bachan's desk to see when the last time we didn't make it
but uh they made it back again in the spring in in uh softball. But we did have the uh CI or cognitive cognitive impairment adapted player of the year. Um and so it's a huge recognition. Um when you when you and it's not per
sport, so it's all of the adapted um cognitive CIS that are eligible for this. They have to participate on multiple teams. Um and so we had a representative representative from Apollo uh that that won that award this year. So it was a cool thing to celebrate. Um Tech Girl soccer team made
it to state for the first time. Um multiple conference titles and state participants. um DECA national qualifier and again our robotics teams continue to make it to those VEX state nationals and even worlds. Um so we're we're excited about that continued success and these
are just some pictures. Uh we we had a hard time trying to crop them to fit them all. Um but we had a lot of participants in the state tournament and every time that we have a state participant uh we do a sendoff. So, um, if you've been to to Apollo or Tech, um, we do it
very similar, but we get the the marching band involved and we we try to send them out and cheer them up to to go do well at state and and just have fun competing. Uh, the whole school steps out in the hall to support it. And so, it's a really really neat sendoff for
for our students. Now, I get to take a little bit of the looking ahead. Um, so I first want to just thank Carl. I mean, I think our partnership um of the two of us over, you know, the last month and a half um I'm really excited about the work that we're going to be able to do together um
and how well um it has gone so far. So, thank you Carl for all your help um and looking forward. So, some of the things that we have been um planning and collaborating on is really thinking about how we strengthen our community connections with our youth programs. So, how are we um getting involved? Making
sure that they know who we are. Making sure that we understand um each other's mission and that we understand each other's barriers and figure out how we can help each other to continue our goal of growing participation. Um continued responsiveness to programming efforts and future innovation. So, I really
think about um listening to our students. Um some of the things that already have come up um working on an environmental club at Tech um working on um increased participation in um our I had a group of students already this spring come to me and really want to
talk about marching band. So, we're going to think about ways to support marching within our pep band and see if we can kind of grow some interest. Um, a shout out to um, Coach Jess for all of her work and being willing to listen to kids and um, give it a try. Um, we are
very excited um, to be able to add a middle level co-ed swim program this spring in order to um, increase opportunities for our students to uh, get in the pool and um, have access to high quality coaching so that they can be set up to be um, participants at the
high school level. Um and then again, one of the other things that we've been able to um collaborate on is, you know, the um gift that we are being given for our new facility at Apollo. We're very excited um to collaborate on that together. Um and then um updating always
the the equipment that we um need and making sure that our students are safe and have what they need to be um compete at the highest level. Um, we also this summer, um, Carl even, you know, we want to make sure that the community and the state can see what
amazing facilities we have. Um, so we continue to work with the state high school league to host other section games. Um, and even this summer, um, Carl worked on with the Vikings on hosting a camp here. Um, again, one of
our goals together is to really think about how we collaborate within the conference. We already have days where the students get together as conference leaders, and the two of us have been talking about how that's not a one-time event for our kids, but how do we continue to take those themes and grow
leaders in our building? And then again, that enhanced professional development with our coaches. So, the two of us already talking about how do we onboard, how are we supporting new coaches, how are we um listening to our veteran coaches, and
then being able to um collaborate and get them the support that they need. Okay, that was a lot. Uh thank you very much for listening and we are happy to take any questions you have. Any questions for the presenters?
Scott and Dreason. A couple of years ago, um there was fan behavior at some of the schools that was uh pretty negative for some of our students and I know there's been some work on that. Could you go into that a
little bit? Yeah, you know, we've, like I said earlier, we've kind of established expectations at a bigger level with our conference and we've kind of unified that. So now people coming into our setting, our buildings and our fields and our our facilities, they
understand, yep, I already know those expectations cuz it's what I have at my school. But um we do a pretty good job collab collaborating with our building administration to make sure we have enough supervision uh to make sure we have our facilities, you know, in a good spot where we can handle any things that
that come up throughout the course of an event. Um we had some really good success this last year and felt like our events run smoothly. Um, you know, we we have a few things that pop up from time to time, but um, we are prepared with our building administrators to to meet
those needs of those students. Actually kick people out. We try not to, right? We we try not to. Um, but if if the situation deems it, you know, we'll remove from from the event. Yeah.
Okay. Um this clay target shooting that sounds really interesting. Uh what is the liability situation on that? So the it's it's with an independent um so when we provide those those students
the opportunity they're they're they're shooting in with the independent um grouping. So we have basically are the host. Um we we support the students but all the the the other things the ammos the guns that's all personally own or
supported by their groups. I don't know if I've answered. Okay. So we're we're kind of avoiding liability the best we can. Well thank you. Thank you Tracy.
Hello. Uh, it's been a while since we've talked about this, but I believe that our independent groups are required to carry liability insurance. And so that's how we cover the liability. The group takes on that responsibility and they're required to provide proof of insurance.
The hold harmless then. Yes. and our our our coaches in the range support do a very good job on on gun safety and gun training. Um, and they they kind of joke about it, but they're really serious. If you mishandle, you
get this wood stick to hold on to until you can show that you can appropriately handle a gun. So, they they take it very seriously. Um, but it is a very fast growing sport. Um, and uh, we're very excited to be able to provide that opportunity because there's a big interest with our students.
Okay. Um, you mentioned competitive numbers on some of this stuff at at 40%. Could you explain that a little more? Uh, so the enrollment the Minnesota State High School League um takes our general enrollment from our schools and
then they take 40 what we provide for them as the students that are on educational benefits. They take 40% of that number and they reduce our population to a a more competitive number for us. So our our approximately
1300 students reduces to 956 I think is what what it was based on that 40% students receiving the reported number of educational benefits students 40% subtracted from our total number gets us to our MSH MSHSL participation number
and then sorry not to interrupt but then what that does is that puts us in a competitive section so regardless of demographics we're competing against other schools with like numbers of students likely to participate. Yeah. I was wondering the purpose of that.
Yeah. So it puts us in a section so so we're not competing in a section with a Weisetta that has 2,500 kids. We're competing against other schools with like numbers. So our students have a fair chance at play. Okay. Um
a while ago there was an activity done involving uh NASA, the National Aeronautic Space Administration and it was called Apollo at Apollo where we u actually brought in
astronauts and had a big big gathering. It was sanctioned by NASA. Has there been any thought about maybe doing something like that again? I mean, that that'd be a great idea. I mean, we'll bring it to our well, I'll bring it to to our building
administration. Um, we do a pretty good job of trying to find ways throughout the school year to bring our community members and some of those things back in front of our students. Um, so I I can bring that back to our team. Yeah. Okay. I know it went very well. In fact, half the board didn't show up because
they were over there. Yeah. Um, any other questions for the presenters? Heather Williams, can you talk a little bit? I I know um nationally participation rates are
falling um really in most districts for a number of reasons, including we're seeing fewer students who are duplicative. Um they play only one sport. But even so, and particularly as you look at um belonging and engagement
uh and different thoughts about cell phones and that sort of thing, we know that that also has an impact. What do we know about our numbers? Um when I look at the just raw numbers, I think they're problematic. Um I I
think that uh engagement in ex outside extracurricular events or activities, co-curricular events are critically important. I understand and appreciate that MSHSL gives you a 40% reduction. That's still that kid though that is
more unlikely to participate is still a kid who would benefit from participating. So from a competitive perspective, it's helpful. From an overall perspective, it means that even fewer of our students are participating. So what do we know about the reason for
not engaging? And then um I'm happy to see the work that you're focusing on with student or with coach u mentoring and advising and expectations and and those sorts of things. How do you involve coaches in expanding and um what is the general um message and promotion
around the importance of engagement um really beginning in middle level and all the way up? Yeah, I mean there's we understand that it it starts at the bottom and it and it continues to grow and that's where you know we've both kind of set with that initiative of we need to increase our
exposure of these events and draw the population, right? And so um there's different things that we know are barriers and and transportation being one, you know, our socioeconomic status um you know culturally appropriate clothing and we feel like we have great partners in addressing those. but it's
continuing to communicate to our community that those are the barriers and we're here to help by doing this for you. Um, and so we need to continue to get in front of our stakeholders as far as um, you know, our youth programs and and creating that partnership with our
district and our youth programs and getting them in our buildings and facilities, but also connecting with our our coaches and the youth programming, our coaches at the high school level with our middle level coaches. and it's it needs to be a a full stream. And so I
think just kind of as we continue to move forward and and pulling those coaches together. Everybody's doing their things and they're doing them well, but we need to just continue to keep aligning them and this is working well here. Maybe we can try it over here. And just sometimes you
don't realize it until somebody else says it and you're like, "Oh, yeah. I' I'd do that, too." And so creating those those collaborative conversations, but the the exposure and the communication to our families um I believe are are kind of our big barriers that we need to address this year as far as making those
connections and communicating. Yes, we have culturally appropriate clothing. Here's what it looks like. Here's what your playing venue is like. Here's your staff. So that people understand and are more comfortable joining something like that. Um, and so that's a a big thing
for for us around those things. Um, I will just add, um, I think one of the things that's exciting for me is I'm learning about, you know, you know, the barriers that we've talked about, but I'm sure there's others as we go into the communities and start working with our youth programs that we'll learn
about. Um, but one of the things we've um, recently hired a new soccer coach um, at Tech. We're very excited that he's an alumni and wants to come back and and be part of the program. um and he was able to um take his state high school league coaching class last week. So, a real shout out to the what a good
job the state high school league did. And he came back saying, "Wow, that first slide about why we play made such an impact on me and we need to go spread this word to the community." So, we're going to have a parent meeting tomorrow night and take the MSHSL work that he
did um back and make sure that the community understands like these are the goals of the State High School League. These are the reasons why our kids participate. It's not all about winning. It's about leadership. It is about having fun. It's about growing academically. Um and then also being
able to reduce some of those barriers. I'm going to bring a computer and help register kids, right? Um we're going to get names and and addresses and make sure that people can carpool and get rides. Um so I think just the more we get into the community, we'll find some
of those pieces. And I think the more we continue to hire coaches um that have real community connections like that that we'll find out things that we didn't know before. I think the only thing that I would add cuz I think you hit it nationally you
see seen a decrease in participation and our youth and students. It's it's a it's a whole onion to peel back from that because their choice and selection of interest of what they like,
right? I think Carl hit it. The sooner you help find interest in something you like, you get them in and you give them exposure. But what we've heard, once I get there, I might not feel connected or a sense of belonging or I might have
that and at home my family says you got something else to do or or I'm not going to carpool you to do X Y and Z because of these things. And so when we really look at it, it's a it's a huge dynamic when we start to talk about
participation, but especially a diverse population that we service, right? We could do all the things and then it could fall on home like you're not doing this or you might not get positive reinforcement. And so some of the things that we look at, but I think we're on to
the starting early, give an interest, and then when we see it, you got a whole another competitive lens where I've been playing competitively since five. Well, do I want to explore with my middle school friends that are starting at basics, right? And so when we look at it, we hear all these things from
families, but I think our our focus continues to be exposure and experiences early and then all the supports and removing other barriers. But Heather, like you know, that's a complex thing when we talk to our folks specifically of why kids aren't getting involved. I
just think it's it's a it's a big, you know, how we peel it back to get to the root of it, it's it's a huge uh uphill battle for us. But I think given exposure and experiences. One additional question. Um, and you
have done a really good job of not talking about competitiveness. what are your expectations around competitiveness? Um because I understand that's not the primary purpose. Um I would be lying if I didn't say that I don't think that there is pride and
there is community engagement and there is reputation that is gained from that. So as you look and have conversations across coaches and across students, how do you look at competitive um success as part of the formula?
Yeah, I mean competitive competitiveness drives numbers too. I I feel like and creating competitive opportunities doesn't necessarily mean winning, right? And so we can create those competitive opportunities and and we can help with building some of those schedules and and
you know trying to find competitive games for our for our teams to play in. Um, but you know, our our coaches reestablishing that culture, making practices competitive and fun, you know, instilling that in the game, being competitive and fun. And you know,
you're right to say we're going to show up and it's okay where we're losing it. No one likes doing that. But, um, competitiveness doesn't always mean mean wins. And it's kind of teaching that and reinforcing that because when you don't have success, it's not fun. And people
tended to leave, right? right? And they tend to not be involved. And so finding ways to increase that competitiveness, not only in practices, but then on the playing field is something that, you know, we're looking at when we're we're creating our schedules, our participation schedules for our sports,
but also then when we're working with our coaches on practice planning and, you know, what are you doing outside of the, you know, off the court or off the field that's creating these opportunities for students? Um, and we we both feel that that stems down into
our our junior highs. And you know, our junior highs are a time for students to to learn and to try something, but it's also needs to be somewhat competitive for some of our higher level students. So, there's there's kind of that happy medium and that's where we're trying to figure out the best way to to balance
both, right, with the participation. But competitiveness definitely is is a is a need and uh I I do think it helps drive those numbers as well. Yeah. Thank you. And one of the things that I think our renewed commitment to strength and conditioning I think is
really a a way that we are trying to grow that competitiveness. Right. What I have seen this summer of middle schoolers in the weight room just being athletic, right? that is going to translate one injury prevention and if our students are healthy, they're going
to stay on the field and do better. Um, and they are going to be able to participate as an athlete in multiple sports just by the work that they've been putting in in the weight room this summer. So, I want to add that to the piece that I think the more we can um invest in the training, the more that we
can invest in um those highquality opportunities with um certified strength and conditioning coaches, I think will serve us well as the kids progress through our program. And El, did you have a question? I was just going to
I Heather brought up the 40% reduction and that that number kind of popped out at me too. Um I look at it maybe a little differently than some others, but I've always looked at our our uh
participation numbers in the district somewhat from a budget standpoint. And I know that it's not uncommon in school districts that have high levels of poverty and high levels of diversity
to have poor levels of participation. And I think there's a lot of reasons for that. Number one, the feeder program coming up, families just don't have the money. families, they they uh may not have the the parents don't have the
ability to shuttle their kids around for there's there's a whole lot of stuff that happens before high school and and junior high in getting kids involved in in athletics. And so that whole feeder
program suffers in areas such as ours uh or Minneapolis or St. Paul or you know just you look at the cities that have that struggle with participation numbers and then when they do get to high school instead of looking at it and saying okay
well if we would invest into creating uh facilities and processes for increasing participation in athletics and
activities such that providing things such as busing to and from after school activities, uh equipment, um coaching, just a whole there's a
whole network of resources that's needed. But we're we are the number one most underfunded school district in the state of Minnesota. And that's not talking
about activities. That's talking about we're the number one underfunded school district in the state of Minnesota. So where are we going to pull money to do those types of things? And so instead of giving us money and saying, "Hey, you guys can you guys need to we can help
you develop a really strong athletic program or really strong activities program in your school district." The state throws up their arms and says, "Yeah, yeah, 40% less. We'll consider that pretty good." So you can have 40% less kids and we'll just bring you down
and you can play in a less competitive league. So it to me it it it really all comes around to a funding number. And and I've brought it up other years. I'm not going to go through them again this year, but there's if we if we were able to fund athletics at the same per
student dollar amount as Sabra Corey, you would have several million dollars extra in your budget to work with. And that's that's real money. And that's that's the money where you are able to do those things. And the kids at Raori
that are getting those high numbers by and large their parents can afford to shuttle them. Their parents they they they aren't in situations where they can't physically do it where we have just the opposite situation here. So I think that's that's really a
a big part of what's happening. And I think you guys do a fantastic job with the resources that you do have and we should be proud of that. Uh, one of the things I noticed when I was looking at the numbers too is there's a 25% plus
drop off from 11th to 12th grade in participation numbers. What's going on with that? Why why do we see such big numbers of drop off? Yeah, I mean as students go throughout their their high school careers and
their their educational years, um you know, things change. Uh some kids feel their role has maybe changed as part of a program. Um, some feel that, you know, I could put time in here and show up five, six days a week for a couple hours a day and and and put effort in there,
or I could go work a job and make some money and prepare myself to go on to college and and be ready financially in that in that aspect. Um, and so there's there's a lot of variables to that. Um, and you know, kind of finding your way through that that program and and kind
of finding your your role. And I mean, we want to create those competitive teams, but we also want to include is, you know, it's about inclusion and environment as well. Um, but that's kind of what we're we're finding is that when students kind of get to that junior year, they get through that junior year,
if they're kind of, well, my my role is, you know, decreased or I'm maybe not where I want to be, you know, they've they've found other opportunities. And some have switched sports. Some have, you know, like I said, decided to go play a job or be involved in a different activity that's not as demanding on
their time. Um, they also over time, you know, increased their education. Um, some are taking more advanced classes that the the nighttime doesn't necessarily allow for me to do that extra studying for my AP or my my post-secary courses. So, there's a lot
of variables to that. Um, and usually it's fairly common to see larger participation at a at a beginner level and then as you kind of move up that pyramid, the participation numbers drops off from year to year typically. So,
yeah, I think it's a good question. It was one that the two of us were talking about earlier today, too. And, um, I think for me, it warrants more questions and something that I hope to learn a lot about this year because it was a question I had as well. Okay.
Um, I think la last thing I'm going to bring up and I could have either done it here or in the uh committee minutes part of it, but one of the things that we talked about at
the at the legislative committee was doing some type of a resolution for the schoolboards association to bring forward. Last year there was one that was brought forward by a school I
forget which school district now and I just looked. Um doesn't matter. It it had to do with the Minnesota School Boards Association and transparency and uh bringing producing agendas,
producing minutes, and it was asking that the Minnesota School Boards Association live stream their board meetings so that school districts could be more informed of what's going on with the uh Minnesota State High School League.
And it was actually voted down by the uh members of the schoolboards association and it was it was to me it was it was really kind of odd. The school boards association was very much against
forcing them to live stream. And it would have been it was for them to bring to the legislature legisl or ask the legislature to produce legislation that would require them to live stream. And their reasoning is kind of odd. It's that oh well the min the Minnesota State
High School League is a private organization. They're a nonprofit. uh they're still held accountable to the standards of producing uh agendas and minutes, but to require them to live stream.
We're afraid that that might carry out into other organizations and we don't want to have the legislature pushing things like that and there's school districts that don't even do that yet. So, they kind of went on and I mean it's to what to me that's a
safety. the schoolboards association was saying, "Hey, we're a private organization and we don't want to have to live stream our meetings." Um, so anyway, it failed, but there's there's a there is a lack of communication
between the Minnesota State High School League and what they're doing and the schools. And if you look on their website right now, their last
agenda that's that was published was for their April 3rd meeting. They've had a few meetings since, so they aren't really publishing agendas, and the last minutes that they have on there are from February 5th. So, they aren't really
following what we would say are uh open meetings laws type standards moving forward. And I'm just I'm kind of curious and if you guys would have any idea for us on how we could get them to
be a little bit more proactive in getting that information out there because it would be really nice to know what the school what the Minnesota State High School League is doing since we all are members in the in a monopoly that that we were here to vote on whether we
want to participate in or not. But I don't know what the other option is. So we'll probably vote to participate. Um, yeah. No, very, very good question. And I, you know, the school or the school board, the high school league is always willing to listen and and we feel like our connections with the high school
league have been very supportive. Um, and that when we we call or we ask questions, they they answer and they um communicate with us very well. Um, we do get um updates regularly from the high school league as far as here's kind of what's what's in the know, what's going
on, what's coming up. um we get those communicated to us regularly as ads. Um but as far as posting minutes online and and that kind of stuff, like I said, we can we can inform them um and and ask for a better representation. Otherwise,
we do receive more meeting update notes. Uh maybe not the agenda, but what was discussed, what was voted on, what uh what's coming up. Uh we get those updates regularly from the high school league. And then we're involved in monthly, they call them lead meetings. And so we have a region lead that kind
of brings the information from those meetings to us for discussion uh and brings information back. So we feel like our communication with the high school league is very uh very open um and very the the communication is very good with informing and and then moving to uh
improve or or vote on things. Um but uh I guess I haven't looked at their their posted minutes because we we discuss those a little bit more regularly. I wonder if Eric would be open to if he's sending them out to athletic directors. I wonder if he would be open to sending them to board members also and it
wouldn't have to be all it could be on a request basis or something like that, right? And maybe maybe one maybe I could contact Eric and see. I mean, he's been receptive. I I give Eric credit. He's been receptive in the past to the things that this board has done. We haven't been the friendliest to the school to
the Minnesota State High School League, but I do feel like we what we did needed to be done and I feel like there was an end result that was very positive for the entire very positive for the state high school league to be honest with you. So, um,
but I I I think that there is a a need for better communication between the state high school league and us. And I and I I I was going to bring that and the reason I would have brought it up in the other part is we were going to include that as a resolution
uh to bring to this Minnesota School Boards Association, but it's already really there and I don't know that, you know, if if they're already required to produce minutes and produce agendas, I don't think that it's really makes sense
to bring a resolution to the school board's association asking them to do what they already are required to do, but the follow through isn't there. So, okay. Thank you. And Dr. Putnham, Heather Williams, and Scott and Dayson.
Okay. Um, you talk about declining participation rates. I think there's probably a correlation between playing time and participation. As you're better, as a better kids get more and more playing time, the less
better kids get less playing time, and pretty soon they just throw their hands up and walk away. Is there something that can be done? I mean, that's a great question. Playtime is a a very up and down touchy kind of subject uh when you dive into it
and and it's different per sport because some sports can offer more playing time cuz you know we're putting 11 kids out on a football field versus five kids on a basketball court. you know, we're running four lines or three lines in hockey and they're all, you know, so it
but you know, it goes back to the competitiveness question as well and and the time that, you know, our students are putting in to to move because there is that opportunity post high school and, you know, some kids are driven to that, some kids are driven to being participants with their friends and, you
know, there's there's different variables that, you know, the give and take of that. Um, I think our coaches are are very good at um communicating with our student athletes and and here's the the expectations with the reality and and being very forefront in that
knowing things change through a season. Um, but uh, you know, everything is addressed a little bit more of an individual standpoint as far as playing time. All right, Heather. Okay, any other questions,
Dr. Putnham? Thank you. Uh I just want to say um that um this is I think the um one of the best if not the best let's go with the best uh pre activities presentation that I have seen in a very long time. I've been coming to these
meetings for non seven eight years now and um to Dr. Harris and uh Hillary and Carl, like the the clarity of the vision, right, that you you showed us through um not only the data, but the ways that you are um out and engaging, I I think is something we haven't seen in
a while. Um and so to the three of you and to our ACS out there, right, I very much appreciate that and know that it is it is seen and I heard that uh recognized here. Um the level of community engagement is phenomenal. And just anecdotally, I when I when I'm at Apollo, like I see Carl everywhere all
the time, and I'm like, "You have to take some time off, man." Um, and Hillary is new and I know has been engaging our community before her job even began. um and and um the the kinds of relationships I think that Hillary um has I know that Hillary has on the south
side and already engaging with a Tuck alum and um working with people who want to fund raise u right has has just I think really um you are a gift right to that community and the two of you are just um going to be a powerhouse and it I can feel right like I can feel the
excitement and the commitment and um solid really comes to mind right like it feels like you've got a really um solid handle on what is happening or where you want to go. So, um you have my deepest thanks and Dr. Harris for your leadership of this domain. Thank you.
Anything else from Dr. Harris on this one? All right. Well, thank you. And uh it may not feel like it in the middle of a hot, humid, muggy, quiet, lethargic July board meeting. Um, but I I'm excited to I've seen all just again what Dr.
Putnham said, seeing you out in the community and doing things and um, having been volunttoled to be a soccer coach for a few years now, is it's just kind of exciting to see a little more in depth what the future that she put on there. It's exciting. Thank you.
Thank you. Thanks. Well, that being said, I think our next um item that they have is the is an action item um which would be approval of Boyce Swim and Dive Co-op and Dr. Jason Harris. Um I think this one's
yours too. Uh good evening again, acting chair uh Dorhalt, Superintendent Putnham, board members. Uh you uh shout out to these folks. You just heard them talk about all the great things that are happening. But we also know when we're tonight we'll talk about the uh boy swim and
dive co co-op and when co-ops happen hearts and feelings are in this you you feel like you're losing a piece of yourself when you're losing identity. So our uh folks went out and talked to stakeholders get feedback. What do we need to do to grow our numbers? Uh and
uh we're one organization and sometimes it's hard when you don't have numbers. Um, but I think uh what we heard today is we're we're trying to put some things in place to do that. And then I'll let these two kind of just talk about uh next steps around the boys swim and dive
co-op. Yeah, thank you. And and uh transitions right from one to the next and and talking about some of those participations. Um, you know, we've we've seen steady competitive programming on both sides of town and and our are our both coaches on on both
sides. Uh, to no less to their their work and effort into trying to maintain these programs and numbers and being present at all of our activity days and our our um recruiting opportunities and in our buildings. And uh, you know, it just at some point the numbers are are
where they're at. And uh it is it is hard cuz you you have two very competitive programming programs. Um but the numbers just they're not quite there to support. And back to the the whole scheme of things when you tear it all down here, the crush cooperatives, when
we look to form one of these, we really start by looking at the participation numbers. Um and then once we hit that participation number, that drives kind of us into the direction. And uh that's where we start to meet with those stakeholders. we start to meet with our district administration to just kind of
work around those numbers, but then we really look at that that safety and student participants. And you may ask, well, they're in a pool. they're not going to get, you know, run over when they're tackled or But when you talk about adding that those students to a high school, a competitive high school
program that's producing state champions, when you're a seventh grader just kind of thinking about swimming, it's very hard to jump into those highly competitive varsity activities. And so, um, as we alluded to in the previous presentation, the the implementation of
a middle level swim program where we're able to start more of a feeder, hey, come try this out for a couple weeks at a little lesser stress level. Um, but that kind of alludes back to that student safety piece of just the demand of of being in the pool six days a week
for 2 hours and and having to to really put your body and mind into that that perspective. So um that student safety piece and then access to opportunity for our district students. Our our two swim programs Apollo was a standalone uh tech swim program was
TCRB. So it included Cathedral Raori and Becker. Um so when we looked at the cooperatives and our numbers we looked at our district students. So we tried to take out the the Cathedral Becker and Raori uh when we were looking at our our actual district participation. And the
last question that we get from a lot of stakeholders was well if can we find another team to stay and and form two cooperatives when that starts we start getting a little bit messy and the funding goes a little bit different. So our initiative is to stay within tech
Apollo to start and then we can branch from there. So um when we look at our why uh back to our tech and Apollo uh less than 10 10 participants on either side of town um general then that moves into that general competitiveness right
and if we have low numbers are we able to field teams and are you know you're going to a lot of duels you're traveling you know to Fergus Falls to Brainer to you know even just Sartell and it's it's challenging to compete in any of those duels and so that that mental competitiveness we're winning some
individual heats but not necessarily those big-time duels. Um, and then ultimately the fiscal responsibility, you know, of limited district funds and and you know, are we at that point where we're better off funding one? I mean, we we do take in some um monies from our
our co-op schools uh per student, but um kind of that fiscal responsibility of running those two separate programs. And then looking at the numbers, um, you know, looking at at Apollo, you have a little bit more spread out through the course of those. Um, Tech had or Apollo
had eight students, uh, two that would would graduate. Uh, they are we have a few more swimmers in the pool. You know, we're projecting to be around that 10 12 um possibly 15, but that these are the consistent numbers that we've seen from
the past years. Uh, Tech had six students. um most of them which are are homeschooled um but fall in and are competitive under the tech in the tech school district zone. Um so they they swim for tech um as their home school. Um but you can just see there the
numbers combined would still make a pretty small uh swim program and these are numbers without the Becker um Cathedral and Ricori. So, as we come here tonight, our next steps are to seek schoolboard approval for the co-op of of the tech Apollo swim
programs to form crush. Um, we did meet with our conference and our section uh administrators last week. Um, and we did get approval from both our conference and our section. Um, but it still comes back down to the school board. Um, and then we would submit our approval to the
high school league for um their approval on our co-op. We have asked uh proactively asked Cathedral um Becker and Ricori if they would still like to remain as part of our co-op under the Crush name. Um and all three schools
have agreed that they would like to continue that partnership um pending our board approval here tonight. So um and then looking at our programs, uh obviously we're merging two programs. Um so we would need to fill our head coaching position. Um, and both of our
our head coaches are very qualified and very uh much deserving of that that position, but we'll go through that interview full interview process uh to to determine our next head coach uh and then work with that coach to fill out the remainder of our staff. Um, then we
bring our competition schedule together, um, our practice facilities and and kind of balancing the the two facilities between Apollo and Tech. Um and then again the development of that middle level spring uh program swim program will give us the opportunity to say hey
like now we can see real feeder numbers. We're not relying on our community ed swim lessons or our our community partners that are in the swim uh development. We're we're seeing our actual data within our district. So, um that is a huge uh commitment to to being
able to provide that and really get those those students involved at an early age at a less competitive um advantage. And then increase uh exposure. Uh we're looking to add two pool two live cams within each pool at Tekkenal to be able to live stream events uh in those pools to continue to
increase that exposure. So, I guess that's kind of our information. Um Al and Scott You said Becker and Ra and Raori, right? Yes. Yeah. What What kind of numbers do they have? I'm surpris I'm kind of surprised to
hear that Becker would have uh they must have low numbers, too. Yeah, I believe they sent uh three students to us last. Do those schools have Do those schools have pools? Yeah, very nice. Well, both of them have pools. Do the junior highs have pools? Uh I'm not sure on the junior highs. How
how critical do you think it is for a junior high to have a pool to have really strong swimming and diving program? I mean, I think from working with um in my learning and working with our current coaches, I think it is really important
and having access to a pool um community, I don't know that it necessarily needs to be at a junior high, but having access to pools in your community, I think is really important. Yeah. And I I think St. cloud just and it isn't just pools, it's water. There's no there's very few lakes. There's the quaries, I guess, around here, but
there's not a whole lot of lakes and there's not a whole lot of pools and and there just hasn't been the commitment from the community as a whole in this area. But I I just I was just curious on that cuz I remember, you know, it's been a long time, I'll tell you that, but
when I was back in junior high, we had a pool and swimming was one of the classes that we took as part of FIED. And so everyone was exposed to swimming and and the Mouser School District always had a really strong swimming and diving
program. Um but I and I'm not suggesting that we'd build pools at this point. to be honest. Um I will I will say um I I know we have um in partnership with teaching and learning um have a
partnership with fourth graders that go every fourth grader goes over to the YMCA and is able to get in their pool second grade sorry thank you Nikki um and so we are trying with some of our younger students one because we think it's you know an important part of their growth and safety and other it's a nice
way to get them exposed to the to the for it. Scott, I think that the availability of facilities is a major problem. Um, I know when we started remodeling at
Apollo, pool was all of a sudden shut down at the last moment, last notice. Now that we're getting into remodeling Apollo big time, it may be shut down again from a year, maybe more. Um,
I can see where we're going to need the crush, but you know, someday we're going to have a great pool up in Apollo. Is there a system for undoing a crush? Yeah, I mean, there we've talked about it. we have a, you know, an idea of what
it looks like and and what we need to to do to get to that. Um, but when you're looking at peeling back, uh, from the crush back to the respective schools, you we need to just make sure that we have competitive numbers at both of those schools, if you would separate.
And when you look at the data, you know, Tech has more students, uh, but the numbers in our Crush Cooperative lean a little bit more to Tech where if you were to split them, they still couldn't stand alone separately. But we do have the opportunity, and we've we've said that with our our stakeholders, that if
it gets to the point where we feel we can support two standalone teams in their respective schools, that we would do the process just like we're doing here, uh, and dissolve those co-ops. We're talking at least a couple of years down the road before Paulo gets super. Yeah.
But uh I've never seen a crush undone. I was just wondering is there actually going to be a process? Well, and that's where you know we do have that but uh a sport like swimming holds a little bit different because it has a individual aspect to it. So, um,
you know, for instance, our our small team, uh, we had all but two kids participate in the state tournament last year. Um, and so that individual piece gives you a little bit more flexibility when you talk about what are the numbers you need, right? I don't need a full 50
person program, but I need enough students to be able to competitively field the team um, and give those opportunities both safely and and physically. So, Heather and couple of questions. When you talk about
getting it scheduled, like how are you looking at are you going to switch like every week you're at one facility and the other? Is it on a monthly like how and part of that is about belonging too, right? Um so that Apollo and tech students both feel like they still have
meaning in the program. Yeah. Uh, and that's a great question and and it's always brought up and we try to do our best to try to develop some of those consistencies for our students. One for transportation sake and and two for just like I as I'm
running my kids all over town this summer to wait am I supposed to go here? Am I supposed to go there? So just adding some of that consistency for our families too. Uh we try to break the schedule as best that we can. Um so for instance um girls basketball we start at
once we start at Apollo for no the they go for two weeks in three weeks in November and then December and then at over that break in January then they go to tech and they are permanently at home at tech for January February and so we try to base it on you know participation
from each school and try to make it as even or fair as possible. Um, but it also has to work in our schedule and all of the other events that are going on. Um, so it there's there's a few scheduling pieces that we kind of have to work out, but generally we keep them
at one school for a duration and then find a good transition time to move them to the other school and try to balance those schedules. Um, you mentioned something that I think is important for us to think about or just be aware of. um particularly now with the there's much more required in
the summer and I think that becomes a facility piece as well and you know if you think about um whether it's middle or high school level kids if the facility is close enough that they can walk to bike to that changes their ability um to be engaged and and when
you think about the disperate locations of our two schools if you've got a kid on the north side who's in 8th grade and really loves swimming but doesn't have the opportunity in the summer to get to tech very easily. I mean, anything that you can think about that helps with
that. I know I think Hillary you mentioned earlier trying to work with the coaches about who can ride share and how do you have that conversation? And then one additional thing I was going to say and I don't know what you do around this but again an opportunity for the two of you to partner when you do go to crush programs what sort of team
building um do you think about do you talk with the coaches about because you're trying to bridge gaps. you're you're trying to to bridge, you know, you're taking two programs or a co-op program including others and and what are strategies or what are things that
um coaches can do that the schools can do that we can do um to make that more seamless or make that feel like um kids belong. And and the reality is is it's even for a lot of people with sports um it's still about the social activity.
It's just the way that that they engage. And then the last thing I'll just say is I I think as we look at crush um and those programs and particularly in the individual sports I mean I think that's one of the things that the numbers are showing there are some different patterns that are happening in
individual sports and there's a couple of entre um that I think are helpful in that given the over commercialization of our youth sports um world uh it's really hard sometimes if kids have been playing basketball since they were in third
grade if you've not played, you know, to jump in, you know, at seventh grade or eighth grade. One of the benefits that they have seen from individual sports is there's, you know, like in swimming, you can put a whole bunch of people in the pool. I mean, you see it in track and
field. But I think um that again there there's a little more space that they still get to participate um and they can still see development even if it takes a little bit longer because they're not as fast to begin with. I think the challenge in team
sports is, you know, you get a group of kids who are already significantly more developed just because of access and and then it's both a psyche thing and it's just a a skills thing that holds them back. So I think it is an opportunity you know to think about how we talk to
students about individual um sports and and where they might engage you know just from a lifestyle perspective as well. So thank you. Thanks El Delgret. Yeah I think I'm convinced that it is probably the best thing that we can do
for this program as it stands right now. So I would like to move approval of the boys swim and dive co-op as presented. I'll second. Um, any other discussion?
Okay, I'll call the motion or the roll call vote. Natalie Copeland, yes. Zach Dorhold, yes. Heather Williams, yes. Scott Andre, yes. Alrren, yes. Diana Fenton, yes.
moves us to uh action item C which is approval of the 2025 2026 membership renewal in the Minnesota State High School League. Then Dr. Jason Harris on this administration would like approval of uh the renewal of the 2526 uh Minnesota
High School League uh participation. I guess that would be uh there any questions? If not, I'd be looking for a motion. So move second. We have a motion by Scott Andre, second by Natalie Copelan. We get a roll call.
Diana Fenton, yes. Zack Dorhalt, yes. Al Dogrren, yes. Natalie Copeland, yes. Scott Anderson, yes. Heather Williams, yes. All right. And that would move us to action item E, which is approval of the
2025 2026 membership renewal in Association Metropolitan School Districts. And thank you. Are we doing uh did you say the Metropolitan School Districts or the School Boards Association? I'm sorry. Renewal of the Minnesota
School Board Association. Item D. So I correct myself. We are now on item D, approval of the 2025 2026 membership renewal in the Minnesota School Board Association. Uh presented by Dr. Lorie Pundum. Thank you so much, acting chair Dorhold,
members of the school board. Um I'm going to give you an overview of and to our listening public about what the school board does uh the schoolboard association does and uh share some of the um dues information. So the Minnesota school boards association provides support to school boards across the state through advocacy board
development and policy and legal guidance. The membership dues for our school district are $15,188, a $363 increase from last year with the policy service renewal dues being $760, which is a $10 increase from the past
year. We also pay $2,950 annually, uh, for subscription fee for board book, which is the online program that houses our board agendas and meeting minutes. administration recommends approval of membership renewal in the Minnesota School Boards Association and MSBA policy services for the upcoming school
year. Uh any questions? Uh Scott and Dreason. Is there some sort of a breakdown on that $15,000? What do they do with it? Uh so that would be they let me go back. So they advocate, they develop uh board
development and then they give legal guidance and policy guidance itemization. We did not receive that. I would say they pay salaries with that. That's what they pay for their staff with. So I mean it
they do publish that yearly. They put on the conference and they they do there's a number of things that they do. Um, I would just say that, hey, I mean, I'd like to give a public kudos. A year ago, we were kind of hard on the schoolboards association. So, I'm going
to give some public kudos to Kurt Schneider, who has been very, very receptive. I sat down at the legislative conference down in the Twin Cities with Kirk and had a conversation with him afterwards and he actually he was up
here the next that was on a that was on a Saturday. He was up here on Monday, I think. uh meeting with Dr. Putnham and the relationship has done a 180 since then. A year ago we had the AI conference.
They didn't even want to talk to us. They didn't want to participate. This year they led the charge. They were advertising it. Um they just it's been a complete 180. So I'd like to give kudos to Kirk and his responsiveness. And if I could also add to Gary Lee who has
really led the right been in deep partnership with us uh with Genai and has gotten us in front of multiple cooperatives AC around the state right just helping to build a coalition and education um and though well you you probably haven't gotten to see her nearly as much um as I have um just
being out and about uh Tiffany Gustin right as with their their finance um she's really really effective right she's not as effective as Amy in terms of communication cuz Amy can giving me understand uh you know school finance but um she is really stellar and uh does
an excellent job um representing uh school finance needs around the state. So I would agree with you all we it was a little rocky for a bit um but very appreciative of of the ways we've seen um those engagements. Other questions or comments?
Did you have a motion? I would, if we don't have any other questions, it um I'd be looking for a motion to approve item D. I would move that we approve our renewal of the membership in Minnesota School Boards Association. Second.
Okay, for roll call. Heather Williams, yes. Diana Fenton, yes. Zack Dorhalt, yes. Al Dren, yes. Natalie Copeland, yes. Scott Anderson, yes. All right. Uh action item E, approval of
the 2025 2026 membership renewal in Association of Metropolitan School Districts, AMSD. Thank you. Again, I'd like to provide you with an overview of the history, purpose, and benefits of our me our membership in uh the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, which I
will here to for uh refer to by the acronym AMSD. Uh we have been a member of AMSD since 2009. Uh while we were the first district outside of the seven county metropolitan area to join, uh Rochester and Duth have since followed our lead and I think Mano too. Um the
association of metropolitan school district represents over 50 K12 school districts, intermediate and cooperative districts and integration districts. AMSD member school districts enroll more than 1/ half of all public school students in Minnesota. The mission of AMSD is to advocate for metropolitan
school districts and advance legislation that supports student achievement and fiscal stability. We saw AMSD play a valuable role during this past legislative session in guiding and lobbying state policy makers and their efforts aligned well with the needs of our school district. Their key areas of focus this past year were to keep the
formula linked to inflation, gain flexibility in funding streams, and fend off new mandates. Membership benefits for a district such as ours, a regional center, are important. As you know, districts like ours are unique in that we are surrounded by school districts that are a much smaller, have different
school populations, um, and the opportunities and challenge that we experience are more similar to many of the metro districts and certainly the regional centers compared with our neighbors. So because of this AMSD membership is helpful to me to our executive team um and our district leadership in team in general um because
we have the opportunity to attend AMSD meetings and collaborate with other district leaders and their board members uh facing issues similar to ours. And so administration recommends the approval of membership in AMSD for 2526 in the amount of $11,939
which is a $51 increase from the previous year. Any questions? If not, I would be looking for a motion to approve action item E. I move we approve action item E. Second.
Motion by Scott and Dson. Heather by Heather uh Heather by second by Heather Williams. If you would take a roll call on that. Al Dren, yes. Zack Dorhalt, yes. Diana Fenton, yes. Heather Williams, yes. Scott Andre, yes. Natalie Copeland. Yes.
All right. Action item F, summary evaluation of the superintendent. And I do believe that's okay. I got to turn my pages, too. This will be presented by Natalie Copeland.
Oh, yes. It will be presented by me. And I even have it up. So, I swear I was prepared. um just has something to read for the 2024 2025 superintendent evaluation public report um from district 742.
On behalf of the district 742 board of education, we extend our sincere appreciation and strong support for Superintendent Dr. Lorie Putnham following the completion of the annual review process. her recognition as the 2025 Minnesota Association of School
Administrators Superintendent of the Year and election as chair-elect of uh that same board reflect uh the widespread respect for her leadership across the state's education community. Over the past year, Superintendent
Putnham has demonstrated exemplary leadership, strategic vision, and a deep commitment to the success and well-being of every student in our district through effective collaboration with district leadership, staff, families, and the broader community. She has helped guide
the district through both opportunities and challenges with professionalism, transparency, and purpose. Key accomplishments this year under her leadership include uh number one strategic system alignment. Dr. Putnham continued to
refine and integrate continuous improvement plans or SIPs across schools and departments ensuring teams have clear goals and are aligned in their support structures. Number two is leadership development. Dr. Putnham maintained a strong focus on building
leadership capacity throughout the district, promoting a culture of distributed leadership and shared responsibility. And third, transparent, valuesdriven communication. Her consistent open communication has built trust across stakeholders, most notably during the
Apollo referendum, which she had at least 1.2 million meetings or what was the actual number? 93. Okay. where her leadership and clarity helped unite the community and contribute contributed to its successful passage.
The board recognizes and values the superintendent's dedication to fostering a culture of excellence and innovation across all our schools. She consistently models effective communication, thoughtful decision-making, and a deep understanding of the complex needs of
our educational system. Board members have expressed high regard for Dr. Putnham's leadership style and impact. As one board member shared, I am very appreciative of Lor's work and believe she is an exceptional model of leadership and public service. I
appreciate her responsiveness to the board and community and also her willingness to delegate responsibility to her leadership team for action in their areas of responsibility. We are fortunate to have a superintendent who guides us with compassion, pragmatism,
and honesty. As we look ahead, the board is excited about our district's future under Dr. Putnham's leadership. We remain committed to working together to prepare, engage, educate, empower, and inspire all learners to thrive in
today's and tomorrow's world. 742 proud. Thank you. I know that's a lot of talking about you, which you don't like, but we had to do it yearly. So, so thank you, Dr. Putnham. And I don't know if there's any other
questions or comments. Um, otherwise, yeah, we did. Um, and it is an action item, so I'd be looking for Oh, yes, Dr. Potam has something to say.
I just want to say to this board, uh, thank you, uh, not only for your kind and generous words, um, but also for the the kinds of support that you give me, um, every day for some of you, um, and and I I really value um, this board
because um, each of you will bring a different perspective to to one topic um, and and really be okay with um, hearing wonderings, curiosities, uh not only from each other but from me. Um and
I um I I and yet we do it all. You do it all like with civility and respect um and care and with a foundation of being about every kid, right? No matter what perspective or role, how long you've been here, um that is what unites us.
And I listen to other superintendents. I watch the news and um it's not always pretty out there. Um and so I just want to um acknowledge that, name that um and um know uh to each of you that you have my sincerest gratitude for making this
job um easy uh along with uh this beautiful executive team and I will introduce them all uh momentarily when I get to my superintendent's report. Um but they too uh walk beside me uh day in day out and sometimes it is actually day out. it's into late hours and early
mornings and um I I wouldn't want to do this uh without um you this board and this team that I work with. So, thank you. No, thank you. Let me uh looking for a motion to recommend adoption of the summary
evaluation of Superintendent Dr. Lorie Putnham. Roll call. Scott Andre, yes. Heather Williams, yes. Diana Fenton, yes. Zack Dohalt, yes. Aldrren, yes. Natalie Copelan, yes.
All right, moving on to reports. Uh any um have a superintendent report and any standing committee reports? Um that uh fin legislative.
Oh, Lory's going first. Gotcha. All right. So, we have a really cool, super awesome. Uh, all spar my poor Chinese. Um, let Lori take it away. Yes. At one point, I was told not to try
to speak Chinese because it was embarrassing to myself and apparently others around me. So, I'll do it all in English only because that's the only thing I can do. Um, before I begin though, I want to just uh introduce all of the so you see some new faces um who have joined us. And so, um, obviously we have Dr. Harris, uh, and Nikki Hansen
sitting beside us, the assistant superintendent, um, who span all the way from PK to 12. Um, and then we have Amy, uh, Skeleut, our business and finance executive, and Tracy Bo, our executive director of human relations, labor relations, and, uh, additionally added
this year, uh, general counsel. uh Matthew Buché who is our executive director of operations. He comes to us uh most recently as a principal from Spring Lake Park High School um after god 12 15 years of administration at both high school and the middle level
and teaching experience uh as well. And then Danny Mayor uh a familiar face um has worked in our district for a long time um and uh reluctantly uh uh has we've I I've asked her uh a while
now uh to step into this role because she is just a stunning administrator for our special education students just with deep compassion um for students and families. So really grateful Danny that you finally said yes. Persistence
and Katie Herbalt who is our executive director of all things I innovation instructional techn instructional technology what's the other one information god darn it I'll get it yeah again Katie is a familiar face having worked as um taught in our district for
a hefty amount of time as a science teacher um and then an innovation coach um and then gratefully I am grateful she stepped into this role um and has just done an exceptional small job uh getting us started and and grounded in those
departments. So uh that is our team. You will see us in and out of u committee meetings and here at board meetings. So thanks. And now I'm going to talk about China. Um so this board um uh graciously agreed to um send me and Tracy B um on a
superintendent's delegation to China um in uh end of June. Um it was and I'll talk about a little bit about who is there. Um but one of the reasons um that this board uh allowed that is a much of the funding was paid for um by some of the host organizations, the schools um
because we tooured mostly private schools. And uh um what my goal one of my goals this year of the three um is to really uh invest uh not necessarily always financially but in terms of education and effort in our immersion programs. uh knowing that they are
really a unique opportunity that is um unmatched uh in this area and so um wanting to really uh engage and I'll talk more at the end about about the ways that that will look um as benefited from this trip if this will go.
No, there we go. Um so here is the the list of the delegates. Um, and you can see the purpose there was to create partnerships with schools in China to expand opportunities for our uh, students in Chinese immersion program to learn about their education system and collaborate with our Minnesota delegation partners. Um, which actually
turned out to be one of the um, the the jewels, right? A little unexpected um, gift that that I got um, getting to get to know these people cuz we spent every waking minute with them. So, so you can see there they crossed many districts. Angela Mansfield, our dev our assistant
commissioner from the Minnesota Department of Education was there um along with uh principles and uh superintendent from across the state. So the way our time worked is that um we would get up every morning um and head
out uh to uh uh visits to either uh K12 schools, higher education organizations or um like uh governmental entities, right? departments of education though it's structured a little bit differently there. Um so you can see here this was these are the education visits that we
did um while in Beijing and we always took photos. Um and so you can see that we saw um some of those uh those important the Chinese uh center for language education cooperation um and the international education foundation were some of our sponsors. um they are
very um invested in creating uh partnerships um for uh bilingual bilingualism between the uh the um two countries and then uh we would have lunch uh al together you'll hear that often and off
to the Beijing cultural visits. Um, so really truly this was an incredible experience to be able to see things that in my life I never thought that I would get to see. Um, and to really experience um some of the the treasures um of the Chinese culture. Um, so you see there's
Tenement Square, uh, the Great Wall. Um, kept thinking that I could just climb to the next outpost and it never ended, right? Cuz it's 6,000 miles, but it's a it's an illusion, right? I thought we could get there. No. Um and then the um temple of heaven um is there. So it
really this is just some highlights of of what we saw. Um we would have dinner and then sometimes there would be evening events or we'd uh collaborate on some of the things that we learned from Beijing. Uh we hopped on a plane and flew to Hjo, which was our second of
three stops. Um and there uh we got to see um the the you I'm going to say I'll say the Greentown Primary School um and the Haou foreign language school. Um and they were one another one of the main sponsors of the trip that HJA foreign language school. Um there are about a
when you come up to it there's security. Um there's it's uh it looks like a college campus. There's about 200 students and um they teach five different uh languages in immersion. Um and the president of China, his actual daughter went there as so did uh I think
one of the founders of Alibaba. So it's an incredibly um important institution um in their community. And the two of those uh um sponsored the AI and steam conference um where we get to uh I get to share some of the the great work that's been happening here uh in
collaboration with uh folks like Katie and her team and Donna Roer, Justin Scallerude, um Jason Harris and uh the secondary uh principles as well. There's the international AI and SEM education. Uh there are four speakers
and there were two from schools. Uh there's a principal from Boston who is pretty cool. Um and then a couple um a woman from China and then um a guy from a company in Colorado. Um I don't recall exactly all of it, but you can see that's one of the slides um that I
presented about our ethical AI framework that was established um with that team of uh uh stakeholders like parents, f uh students, teachers, and administrators a couple years ago. So while we're in Hangha, um we saw a lot uh we were there
uh 5 days, I think. Um, so we saw West Lake, uh, which is one of the, um, it's a beautiful lake and there was an just an incredible, uh, show, uh, that where they performed on the lake in the evening. Um, and it it looked like they were just floating and dancing and it was done to music. It was one of the
most incredible things I've ever seen. Um, Xi National Wetland Park where we had a couple boat tours over the days. Um, got to see learn about the uh, flora that was um, abundant. Went to the Hanjo Silk Market and then we also got to see Alaba headquarters. I was super excited
cuz we uh we thought we were going to see go to Deep Seek. Um and so I was really excited about seeing Deep Seek and unfortunately that got cancelled. They did get us into Alibaba which um the other uh English speakaking delegation um who was at the AI steam
conference. There were conglomerate states um had sent a delegation and they did not get in. So I am grateful that we did get into Alibaba. Um it was not guaranteed. Um and then we get to see a tea plantation um or which is over on the far left.
And then we took a high-speed uh train uh to Shanghai. Um and uh that was our final stop where we got went to the International Education Association of Shanghai. There there was a team of public schools um who came to to see us. Um and that was the first time that we
had really engaged with public schools. Um and private prior to that we had seen um mostly private schools and um one thing I took away from this trip is that money is certainly a common denominator across cultures right in terms of dictating opportunity and access. Uh and
then we went to the UNESCO uh teacher education center which was an international training site for teachers. Learned about how they prepare teachers particularly around immersion. Um and that was uh that was a really neat experience as well. Uh here in Shanghai, we went to um boy, I think it was like 98 degrees with the
same amount of humidity. Uh but Tracy and I braved the braved the heat while others did not. And we went to Chinatown at Old Shanghai, saw U Garden, um and then went to Starbucks Reserve, which was like the largest Starbucks in the world. So that was kind of interesting
and cool. We didn't drink any coffee. Um so thinking about some next steps. uh what are we taking away from this? Um so we are meeting next week um I'm meeting with uh several of the superintendent um who have Chinese immersion programs um
in partnership with Minnetonka uh to develop shared resources and our our plan um is to create an instate conference for our Chinese immersion um teachers, administrators, students and families really to do a a collaborative instate effort because we all um we all
want to work together uh to pull our resources Um and having those connections will be uh really exciting um for us. Um we made we made a job offer while we were there um to this lovely man who um is the director of
that Hangha foreign language school that I to told you about. Um so he uh just has a really incredible um uh pedigree in terms of having taught there, assistant principal, principal, and now director, which is right between the state department and the school. Um and
so uh not only is he um an excellent educator, he um is he just loves teaching and and um loves students, you can you can just feel the energy that he brings, which is a very um peaceful and calm and uh um competent sort of energy.
And so, uh, we are working. He he said yes. He has been to Minnesota before. Um, he's spelled a year, he's just spent a year in White Bear Lake. Um, but he, uh, said yes to us. And so, we are working on getting his H1B. He will be moving here as soon as that comes
through. And we'll be, um, it'll be exciting to have, um, somebody um, Chinese leading the program. We've had many Spanish speakers in the past, but um, to have a Chinese person leading both, right? because he has decades of immersion education experience. Um it
was quite a coup on behalf on Tracy's behalf. So thank you to her. Um we are also um we're going to start we set the date um at the end of August. I think it's the 26th. We're going to be restarting um the immersion family um
educator advisory groups that I'll be attending um just to start to connect um uh the the two programs, the Spanish and the Chinese. um and really start to build stakeholder engagement around that. They are our best marketing tool um and they want to be um and so really
excited about uh bringing them together. Um we are working on creating sister school relationships. I know we have one um in Chi-Ching Ching Ching I think Chang I don't know something like that. Um, so we do have one sister school.
What it is is it chang something like that. You're right. Um, but we want to be able to develop um additional ones because that gives our students more opportunity for uh virtual um interaction and dialogue. They are very interested as are we in setting up
some um uh experiences where they could live with uh come live with us, our families. our students would go live with them um and really do some um some deeper learning um and then the that's the partner exchange programs and home stays. I couldn't think of the language.
So um so really excited about some of the things that have come out of that um potentially some additional funding uh to support uh some of those um sister school relationships um and the partners uh the programs and the home stays. So,
uh that is a quick rundown of our trip. Um we wanted to be very uh transparent um about what we did uh what we learned and uh what we are bringing back to benefit our students and families. Any questions for Superintendent
Putnham? Scott, um you had a assistant commissioner of education along. Uh, is there any chance there's uh some money there that'll help out with our u programs?
You know, I I I certainly can't speak um for for what MDE's commitment or capacity can be. I know that um Assistant Commissioner Mansfield was very engaged in the in the trip. um she is over compass um and so right she doesn't do right she's not the assistant
commissioner for teaching and learning um but she um has stayed engaged with us throughout um even as we go back um and uh I cannot join us at the next meeting or when we meet next uh next Thursday but um has indicated her commitment um
to being a good partner um to us in the extent that she can apparently Uh, Minnetonka has gotten some money over the years from China. Any chances of getting a little money there? Yeah, that's certainly a conversation
that we've u begun. Um, as I said, they are interested in in supporting um those sister school relationships, right? Um some of the exchange programs, the home stays, um supporting some of the potentially even the inconference. Um but Minnitanka I have to say uh
superintendent law um and the the uh Joe um and Lillian who are was a princ elementary immersion principal and um the immersion teacher who uh coordinates much of their program um have been nothing but um gracious and amazing and
um want to help um help us um and and help the other folks who have really stepped up and said we we need you. We want to help. we want to grow and um you know they're superintendent law said go um so they're really giving us a lot um
outside of funding um they're very much giving us a lot in terms of expertise and time any other questions I mean just that's at the end of your report all right well thank you look forward to just a lot of
seeds planted with that. So, it's exciting. Um, other standing committee reports. Aldgrren. Yep. Uh, the board legislative committee met on July 21st.
uh discussed um second half of the year here in the the likely agenda what the agendas are going to look like. First we decided that we should be looking at topics uh to submit resolutions uh to the MA MSBA
delegate conference. Uh delegate conference happens first week in December. uh resolutions are due to the MSBA for that by September. They'd love to have them earlier if they could. They're
they're open right now to receive them, but uh we have to put them together. So likely what we what so anyway I'll get into what we discussed doing for resolutions, but we will be bringing them forward at the next meeting, the first one in August, second one in August, uh for a
first reading or to the board or for the discussion. We'll be bringing it to the it's a work session, right? Be bringing it to the work session for the board to discuss these resolutions and then the second one uh we would be voting on and it's required now. It didn't used it
used to be that board member could submit a resolution on their own to the delegate conference. Now it's required that they be passed by school boards before the delegate conference will consider them. uh so we would bring them
back at the first meeting in September uh for consideration by the board and then we would submit them immediately following that uh the the topics. So there there's a number of things.
Once the once the delegate once the school boards association puts something in their legislative it's not their platform. Their platform comes from their leg legislative priorities. Once they add it to their legislative priorities and that comes
from the resolutions that are submitted at the delegate conference and voted positively on it goes from there. It goes into their legislative priorities. And the way I understand it from Denise Dietrich is that it stays there
forever. And so pulling a copy of the legislative priorities, it kind of looks like that's the case. It stays there forever. There's a lot of old and outdated things. So, the first thing that we discussed is having a conversation with
the Minnesota School Boards Association about them coming up with some type of a process for eliminating old outdated items from the legislative priorities so
that they're actually a tool that they can use uh to move forward. Because what they say at the conference is the legislative priorities. What they are is if we if a legislator asks us a question on a topic, we can go to our legislative priorities and we can we can uh give
them the school board's association's legislative position based on what's in that booklet. So, it has to be updated. And it's I know Denise mentioned to me that she was currently looking at some
sort of a process, but I think we should encourage them in doing something to get that taken care of. Uh in the legislative priorities list, we had a couple of items that we wanted to to bring forward. One would be paid family
leave, which starts next January. Uh it's a point 015% from an employee and point uh 015% 05 055
8844 then from it's it's it's paid half by the employee and half by the employer but nonetheless the costs it's a it's a new it's a new tax. So, how is that
going to be paid for? And that's already in their legislative priorities. That was that was brought forward a year ago, I believe, and it's in there. So, we don't need to bring that forward. Um,
I think unemployment was obviously in there and that's a few years old. And then what's the third one? The that doesn't affect us really too much was the Yes. Yeah. the safe and sick time, which is another
unfunded new tax on businesses and school districts. But we did we did talk about a few different things that we would like to bring forward. And so the first resolution would be uh resolution to make
improvements of fixed playground equipment to be an LTFM expense. Right now, there's no method of paying for the improvement or or installation, not installation, but improvement uh replacement of playground equipment. The
only way that you can do it really is through fundraising or through uh a um referendum of of some sort to devote dollars for it. But they are fixed pieces. They're part of curriculum. We need them in our schools. So, it really
should be part of that. So, uh, Josh is going to put together a resolution for us on that. Second one was a resolution to update the funding for extended learning. Um, Amy, you weren't at the meeting, and maybe you can talk more to this one, but
as I understand it, it's been fixed for a long time. I I don't think it's been changed since the time I began as an auditor, which is 20 years ago about. So, um And it's a dollar amount. It's a fixed dollar amount. Yeah. And
it's not tied to the formulary increases like the regular formula is, which is potentially one way, you know, to put that in a resolution to tie it. Um but certainly the costs of providing extended time instruction have um changed slightly in 20 years time. So
you would think that the formula should should change to keep up. Yep. So that would be our second one and that'll come forward and it'll have when they come forward they'll all have they'll have what the resolution is and then it will also have the rationale uh behind it. Uh resolution three would be
a resolution on generative AI literacy to include responsible use and data privacy. It's it's really an update. They have we adopted the ones that we brought last year were adopted, but this is an update to them. So, similar to what I was talking about with updating their legislative uh priorities, they
this would be an update for them. And then the fourth one that we would bring forward would be a resolution requiring a task force be created with the goal of a statewide DPA that includes language about AI. So, it's another AI one. Uh
resolution number five on here is not really a resolution. Um that was the asking school boards association to come up with some type of a process in October. We're going to look at the development of the MSBA board
legislative platform or the we're going to look at the board legislative platform. Uh, and then let's see. We're not going to produce I'm just reading this. That's it. So, I mean, it's there's a
couple of things that we're not going to do on there, but um, if we're not going to do them, I'm not going to report them. Is there going to be an election of delegates coming up? Are we using the same ones as last year? There will be. There's a 100% of the
delegates will be reelected this year. So it it's that happens soon. Uh but I haven't seen anything from MSBA on it yet, but I believe it's all delegates need to be reelected this
year. So we may or may not we can submit resolutions whether we have a delegate at the conference or not. It's just if we have a delegate at the conference, uh the delegate gets the opportunity to read the resolutions and actually speak on behalf of them. Whereas if we just
pass the resolution and send it down there, the Minnesota School Boards Association does that on our behalf. You and I have been de delegates in the past. I just wondered when the election is coming. have to wait have to wait to get notification from Minnesota School
Boards Association that the election is on. But we Yes. So anyway, in October, we're going to start working on the legislative platform for our school board that we would use with our local representatives. So
that is it. Any other committee reports? Miss Heather Williams. Um the board finance committee met on July 14th. Um we the first agenda item was multi-purpose athletic facility project update. David and Brady from JLG
Architects presented an update on the new multi-purpose athletic facility which was approved in the April referendum. The presentation included information about the site layout and parking, exterior design, landscaping, interior floor plan, mezzanine, entrance storage, field layout and turf options,
field markings, safety netting, lighting, scoreboards, and signage. The next step is to review pricing and finalize the design so that we can move forward with design, development, and bid. This will be brought back to the board finance committee in August to review pricing and a presentation will be made to the full school board in
September. Um, we also talked about scheduling an additional finance committee meeting. Amy discussed the need to add an additional finance meeting in July. The agenda will include an update from JLG on the Apollo referendum project as well as information about options to convert restrooms at tech to single-user restrooms like what has been done at
Apollo and McKinley. That meeting is scheduled for July 31st at 3:00. And finally, um, we discussed Apollo parking lot change orders. Amy reviewed several changes for the Apollo parking lot due project due to large total dollar amount. These will be on the consent
agenda for the board meeting today which we approved. Any other committee reports? Not a committee report but I talk about something is that then can we for future agenda item?
Do you have something's on the agenda? Um, we had a meeting yesterday with Greynut. Oh, okay. Yeah, go ahead for the Okay. Um, I don't know if people know what Greynut is. Uh, back in the 1990s, uh, the city of St. Cloud and the school
district got together and decided that they needed their own internet system. So we formed a gray net which made a contribution and started laying a conduit between all our school buildings
and all of the uh city buildings and over the years uh that has grown. Uh there's been other government entities that have taken an interest in it also. And uh
we we laid the conduit, we pull the cable through it. Uh as years have gone by, the cable's gotten old. We pulled that back out and put in fiber and upgrade, upgrade, upgrade, and it's become uh quite a substantial system.
Benton County and Sterns County and lots of uh cities are buying into the grayet system. U and it doesn't really cost us very much to build this because
we have the ownership of this conduit, but we have companies like Arvig come in and uh actually build it and then we lease it back to them at a cheap rate. So, it doesn't cost us hardly anything,
but we've been doing this for many years, and it's worked out very well. Uh, one of the things that, uh, I asked him was, uh, hey, we got uh, a new athletic center coming in and we have Apollo High School. Do we need to get
some conduit out there to the athletic center? And they said, "Yes, put it in the ground. Then we'll run fiber when we need to run fiber. Uh well, I just did some checking and I think we got about a week, maybe two
weeks before that parking lot gets finished, but um hopefully we can get it in the ground. That's about all I got to say. Thank you. I think it's important to note that the granite is owned by the city and the
school district cooperatively and anyone else that's using it is leasing uh fiber from us and that's what brings the cost down. We collect a lot of money in leases from cities and uh townships and and schools. I mean St.
Cloud State uses it, Benton County uses it, Sock Rapids uses it, Sartella uses it. Um, and they're all leasing fiber from us. So, they get they're getting high-speed internet through our system, which we own, and we own the cable. Um,
and that brings down the cost and and in a lot of cases just to get the fiber to their building, they'll lay the fiber, pay for the cost of it, and then lease the service back from us. So, but the ownership remains with the school district and the city.
Even the state of Minnesota is in they run cable down the I94 corridor. Well, they are also creating a ring through St. Clouds so that if there's a break one area, you can still run information backward.
But, uh, it's great. It's a good system. Thank you. Any other committee reports? Looking for a motion to adjurnn. Any objections? Second. All right. I think that ends a board
meeting at 8:49 p.m. And we'll see you next time. Like to remind you all that my first Fourth of July board meeting, we're here until just after midnight. My first name remember I didn't know how to manage. the
channel.