e e e e e e e we will start this evening's meeting um with a public comment we have one speaker signed
up uh Mike McCarthy is in the room I'll I do not see our public speaker in the room so uh with that we will conclude public comment and we will move to a call to order Joan roll call director Gish here
director Hopper here director Kellenberg here director low here director Parker there he's coming up director the Linder here chair Sherman here you have a COR great let's stand for the Pledge of
Allegiance Pledge of alance to the flag of the United States of America the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right
I will go ahead and make a motion to approve tonight's agenda can I get a second I'll second great dror hacker with the second all those in favor of approving tonight's agenda raise your hand and say I I opposed agenda
passes all right we'll move on to our student report yeah I'll start with an update from our music programs of the high school on February 3rd our top band choir and Orchestra each perform sets for the other band choirs and orchestras in our conference the festival took
place over the whole school day and was hosted at Irondale High School this year it was a super fun way to hear beautiful music and meet other musicians from CL the high school's Jazz Ensemble had a concert with the St Cory Jazz Orchestra last Monday February 10th I had the opportunity to attend and both ensembles
were just lovely the director of the Jazz Ensemble Dennis Lindsay was an instrumentalist in the S Pary Jazz Orchestra so I'm sure it was a nice experience for his students to see him in that perspective today students had their first first e-learning day of the school year I'm sure all students enjoyed sleeping in and slowly getting
back to school after having the day off yesterday now on to some student council news we had our 2025 blast week last Monday February 10th through Friday uh February 14th this week stands for be loving and sharing together and consists of events happening all throughout the
week during class periods for example we had an African drum group come in we hosted a Heritage fashion show put on some Minute to Win It games hosted a just dance battle students in the music program went around and serated students and staff on Valentine's Day and to wrap up the week we had a Family Feud game
with teachers going against students and the teachers took home the victory another event that happens during this week is the student versus teacher basketball game this is a super cool event for our students and staff students have a lot of fun cheering on their fellow classmates and their teachers they appreciate seeing some of their teachers in a different setting
than the classroom and this year we had the chelle's dance team come and perform a dance time at half with some teachers as well so this event and week was just filled with fun activities to help create connections between our students and teachers and student council's Battle of the Bands is this Friday February 21st
at 7M in the High School auditorium this is a really cool event that showcases some of the great talent at Still Water um so student council would like to encourage our community members to come and enjoy a night of rock and roll and fun um tickets are being sold on the hometown ticketing app and finally our winter sports are slowly coming to an
end I know Alpine skiing had their state tournament uh or state meet last week I think hockey is in the middle of their section tournament and I think basketball still has a few weeks to go but I believe most of our winter sports are trickling down and before we know it spring Sports will be up and running that's all I have tonight thank you
thank you comment yeah who won the game I know that's a pretty serious game and there's no quarter given in that basketball game the teachers won that game as well got your butts kicked a couple ways I know that's okay there's always next year for for the next class
yes all right um we will move on to our superintendent update um so first thing I want to thank our bus drivers uh it's bus driver appreciation week and you know I was at I was at the capital today and I was listening to some testimony on
a couple things and they had a bus driver from Rose mon Apple Valley Egan there and she said you know we not only drive bus but we are like a one room Schoolhouse with two glass rooms full of
kids that were driving down the road and so I thought that was pretty uh unique I um you know description on what they do so uh want to thank all of our bus drivers including Pete over here um for for helping us out and you know in
January I miss pair pair appreciation week that kind of moves around towards the end of January early February um so I missed it but uh again like our bus drivers our pairs are are unsung heroes here in the district and we couldn't do um take care of our
students and nearly as well as uh we could if we didn't have our parent support so I want to thank them for for all the things they do for us as well um couple things tonight uh operationally um our Focus as a district
you know since I've been here really has been on re recovery if a bad thing happens in our buildings how do we recover from it and we really have not spent a lot of time talking about okay if a bad actor comes into a building how
are we going to respond to it so um Mark and I met with uh some officials from Washington County back in November and we came up with a plan on how we're going to work with with our teachers um to try and uh provide them some more
tools um so that they can make decisions to keep students safe so if somebody comes into the building buing and teacher has a class in the far end of the building and the person's not near where the threat is get our kids out of there rather than go into a lockdown type situation so Mark completed that
training I think he's been to every building in the district on that and now that was kind of the first phase and the next is really going to be tabletop type exercises where okay let's sit down collectively and and talk through this and uh what are some things we can do to
keep ourselves safe so um I want to thank Mark and I want to thank the the folks at Washington County for for helping us with that um additionally with operations um we have our bond projects and we were
supposed to start breaking ground yesterday in Lake Elmo except Mark told me this morning that the equipment doesn't work if it's below zero so we're we're delaying on the uh ground breaking it in Lake Elmo for a week Bayport will be starting May March 3rd uh the high
school away April 14th and then uh um the uh Oakland Edition will be on May 5th so we're going to be pretty busy um you know I was asked whether or not we wanted to do have like a formal ceremony
for the groundbreaking I thought it might be a little cold yet uh this uh this month so we're going to wait till spring to do that but you can expect to be going to the different sites and locations regarding that um as I mentioned we had a legislative uh um or
I spoke at the legislature today on sparity Aid um we are a very large District area wise we transport over 8,000 students every day and we have 153 square miles and we don't um because of the size of our district we have a lot
more cost involved with uh the great distances and the wear and tear in our buses and and the time it takes to transport our students so we received some aid from the state of Minnesota on that um um actually I think it it it doubled I think in the last session from about 14 and a half I think to
30% um for reimbursement on that we're now looking to to uh get 70% of what uh we would uh um be able to to get reimbursed for that for our Aid which would be significant for the district as Transportation since I've been here has
been the biggest um excess cost I think that uh that we've had since I've I've been here as your superintendent so we had the good part about today is we actually had a republican um Bill sponsored and a democratic Bill
sponsored both doing the same things um so it really sounded like um you know it was it was a bipartisan um attempt to to get it done so I'm hopeful that that happens the other thing that I heard today and I stuck around and listened
for a while was a republican effort there's a Republican bill this is the most interesting bill I think I've seen in a while that would allow school boards to opt out of any state mandate that was put in last session so you can
opt out of it for the next till 20 28 29 um if you so choose so for example um if we don't want to pay summer unemployment anymore the board can opt out of it or if the board doesn't want to have family medical leave in the future they can opt
out of it um so needless to say I heard a lot of bus drivers and peras and and Cooks um saying we need summer unemployment and don't do this and um so it's it's a it I don't see it going
anywhere but it was really kind of interesting to hear the uh the rationale behind it and the other thing that was tied to that bill which I thought was fascinating there were three facets to it but the first thing they talked about was the importance of the read act and
how we need to U Don't water it down but really maintain and and uh to do it to standard so I thought that was um and I I think both sides can agree on that as well so that's my report for tonight good thank you any questions on those
legislative updates um my report I just I sent an email to the board just highlighting because I know we get a lot of emails from msba and sometimes it's hard to keep up um but they launched kind of a dashboard to help you keep track of all these bills and legislative issues and I was just kind of playing
around with it and I thought it was helpful so um take a look at that and may help you in your followup legislatively with folks so um and that's all I really have so with that we'll move on to the consent agenda we have four items this
evening is there a motion to approve great director low with the motion to approve is there a second second great director Kel ber with the second all those in favor of approving tonight's consent agenda as seen raise your hand and say I I I opposed consent passes
unanimously did we make it Mark is here to speak to us about the ltfm improvements for the summer of 25 he didn't want me talking about it good morning excuse me good evening geez I don't know what time of day it is
um sorry I'm in a in a rush we have uh Bayport planning commission here at 6:00 so they thank you for moving me up first so I can head to uh Bayport for that uh meeting here right after this so anyways uh here we're talking about the summer ltfm projects this is the last um bid projects we'll bring to you here for
approval this is kind of the catchall so we had some of the bigger projects that we did individually there's six um buildings here that have individual projects here a lot of this is just maintenance and and things that need to be repaired like for like so at Aton it's replacing the exterior exterior door in the kitchen at Oak Park there's
four exterior doors um two in the gym and two of the hallway doors uh Rutherford has replaced the classroom Lighting in two of the houses we did some houses last year is kind of a continuing of that um lighting project at Rutherford Elementary Stillwater Middle School is replacing the the windows and the wrestling gym uh
Stonebridge is replacing the light fixtures in the kitchen the upper hallway and the three classrooms you know we kind of did the classroom Renovations the last few years and then there's another part of the wing that we're attacking and um doing some projects here at Stonebridge as well as as making uh restrooms Ada accessible by
the gymnasium there's um restrooms kind of kitty corner from the cafeteria and the gymnasium that are making those Ada accessibility not only for school but also nights and weekends for Community use and then lastly at the bus garage or Transportation terminals replace the window sealant and the light fixtures in
that facility as well so on February 6th we opened up uh 10 different work Scopes each of the work Scopes have between one and eight biders for them um you can see the the lowest bidder for each of those um different work Scopes um this is funded through long-term facility
maintenance so there are no bond dollars in this it's all ltfm funding for a total of $673,500 um for the bus garage uh was that a new facility recently or is that a existing facility has that been there a long time and so it's an existing facility that's been there I don't know how many years
it's been there quite a while um but we purchased it within the last four or five years six years so it's kind of newer to us but it's a building that we purchased that was already existing thank you very much any other questions okay we have a motion and a second all those in favor of approving
the ltfm for this summer raise your hand and say I opposed motion passes thank you good luck luck have fun all right we're going to move on to our next report um and Elsa is going to join us
for a winter assessment update of um our fras Bridge assessments good evening Dr Funk directors thank you for having me for those of you I haven't met yet my name is Elsa Mt I'm the data analyst and assessment supervisor and I'm talking to you tonight about
fastbridge one of our main assessment tools so a really high level overview what is fast Bridge fast bridge is our Universal screener which measures the strength of our tier one instruction in reading and Mathematics at the Early Elementary level we have early reading
and early math these are individ usually administered assessments so the teacher will sit down with the child and give the early reading assessment oneon-one a reading and a math are both computer-based assessments for our older students they're General measures of reading and math ability and take about
30 minutes on the computer each what we use fast Bridge most for are the benchmark scores it provides us these are test specific cut scores that indicate a student's risk of Performing below a future performance Target so put differently the student may be at
risk of not performing at grade level by Year's End these are aligned with our national Norm percentiles using a data set of 10,000 students at each grade level high risk our students performing below the 15th percentile
some risk are students performing between the 15th and 39th percentile early reading and early math only have the low risk category from the 40th to 99th whereas a reading and a math split that category into low risk and
advanced one thing that we note internally is that low risk is not the same as no risk we use the 60th percentile Sr cut off for indicating future performance on MCAS it's not a perfect measure but that's kind of our Benchmark for that extra push to make
sure you're on grade level by the end of the year we use fast bridge in a lot of ways primarily it's a systems level tool to identify gaps in our tier one instruction we also use it at the elementary level to identify individual students for tiered intervention
supports so our tier two and tier three supports this year we're excited to be using this data in our cat professional learning communities as well as in bar meetings when schools sit down and talk about individual excuse me individual
student performance finally one thing we won't talk about today is we look at student growth scores from fall to winter and spring and and we use it for Progress monitoring as well fastbridge provides other assessments that we're not talking about today CBM reading being one of them um and that provides a more granular level of detail so we can
measure growth from week to week month to month rather than fall winter and spring so we're going to go assessment by assessment here subject by subject and start with reading so early reading changes a lot from fall to winter and spring and that's because students literacy changes a lot from fall to
winter and spring in kindergarten and first grade so I won't run you through every single sub test that students take but in each screening period it's about four sub tests that students take um that are administered in sequence so all in one go the student experience is
relatively seamless but we measure these four different skills at each grade if we dive into early reading for kindergarten we see that the kindergarten class came in a little bit lower this fall than they did the previous fall Kinder Garten is one of the rare cases where we get kind of a
blank slate we get the students we get in the fall and then we decide and teach and improve them um this is the first time in the past three years that kindergarten has improved as a district from fall to winter it doesn't look like much on this graph but we can see a lot of variation when we dig in school by
school can I ask you go back a second okay so explain they came in at 67% low risk mhm and they moved to 70% low risk from wi from Fall win okay all right yep and
then in our shades of pink we have high risk and some risk the dark pink would be the highest risk light pink some risk so we do also see that the proportion of students at higher risk has increased slightly so the sum risk has shrunk but
the highest kind increased a littleit okay and then if we break it out school by school we see that five out of seven schools made significant growth in kindergarten from fall to winter um the schools I pulled out to highlight were Afton Lakeland made 14 percentage points
of growth Anderson 15 percentage points of growth Lily Lake 15 percentage points of growth um the exceptions where we see the highest need would be at Brookview and Lake Elmo and this is one way that we're able to Leverage The Fast bridge data to dig in and be more surgical in
our approach so rather than saying this is a systems issue we actually start to see quite a bit of systems alignment if you look at fall 2023 which is to be correct with the that is correct fast Bridge label is based on the fall year so when we say fall 24 is fall 24 Winter
24 is this winter 2025 so if we look at last fall um students are coming in at a similar level and then diverging sharply based on the schools that they're at whereas this year we see the schools moving more in
tandem which from a district level that's a good thing it's very exciting yeah okay at first grade we see kind of a consistent pattern of growth from fall to winter so last fall to last winter we saw a nine percentage Point jump this
year from fall to winter an 11 percentage Point jump one thing that we're hoping to see in the future is that as those improvements in kindergarten start to pay dividends there's less work to do in first grade and it's kind of this relay domino effect where each year we get
stronger and stronger here again we see the Divergence by school one thing that's exciting is that all schools are making that growth and five out of seven are growing significantly uh one school to note is Lake Elmo you'll notice that they're at
a lower place than they were this time last year this is the first year that the immersion program is required to screen students in English as well as Spanish so that's a big change in our data I was planing to skip this slide but I'm very happy to highlight Anderson
because we saw a lot of growth in early Elementary and Anderson so I'm glad to be able to share this with you um if you look from last year to this year in kindergarten that drop off is completely reversed from fall to winter and in first grade we see the same pattern of
growth but students are starting at a higher level and finishing at a higher level so this is one of the kind of success stories I wanted to highlight for you today all right one thing to note is that a reading and early reading are very different tests when you start to look longitudinally you'll see kind of a
a drop off between first grade and second grade and that's because first grade you're really measuring the basic building blocks of being able to read second grade is when you measure okay well what are you comprehending now you can read so what so this is our broad reading ability including still phonics of course and
vocabulary comprehension morphology when we look at our district level data we start to see that slight dip from fall to winter but if you compare fall to fall this year to last year winter to winter this year to last year we're seeing that slight Improvement we often compare winter to winter when talking about fast Bridge
because it's the most stable measure of growth in a system it's the least affected by enrollment changes as students come in and out in the fall and in the spr and the least affected by any calendar changes for when the screening period would fall screening in the winter pretty much is always January
when we come back from winter break one thing to note in this data is that this is the very first year that secondary students have taken fast Bridge formerly they were taking nwaa map so they're not reflected in those first three bars of the graph that means to get very much out of this data we'll
have to go grade by grade second grade is where we are are seeing the most growth particularly this past fall to winter third grade is very very stable at around 72% would probably be our average when we're looking at these bar
graphs the goal that we're aiming for is to have 80% of students at low risk based off of our mtss framework um the mtss framework assumes that 80% of students will get what they need from tier one instruction without further intervention in a healthy system
that would leave 15 % at some risk and 5% at high risk and one reason we aim for this is that it's very very labor intensive to Pro to provide those High needs interventions where the appropriate tool might be to intervene and strengthen our
tier one instruction to support all students so 71% is not a world away from 80% it's a move in the right direction but we would want to see that edge further up towards 80 yes is that uh 8055 across grades or for second third
specifically at each grade level theoretically in each classroom but as you get more and more granular that's never going to happen but it's the goal across okay thank you yeah with our secondary goal secondary excuse me goal being that 60% threshold I think the way
we phrased it was that 85% of students well you're gonna have to help me Kaitlin so we're trying to p as far as we have correlative data you do at the higher thank you when we dive into second grade we
see kind of that consistent pattern of growth from fall to winter which is a difference from last year especially when you look by school one thing I wanted to raise on this slide is that when we start to look by school School the question of our sample size our ends becomes really important if you think
about Stonebridge they moved from 67% low risk to 72% low risk that's a 5% jump which is awesome it's also three kits so when we think about that change it can be that simple as intervening with those three kids or it's that simple as changing what you're doing in
the classroom when we look at grades four and five the consistent data we started to see in 23 starts to vary a little bit more so in fourth grade in particular we see that drop between fall and winter last year and we see that drop between fall and
winter this year fifth grade it's mirrored but it's not as dramatic we do however see a modest winter to Winter Improvement last year 61% of fourth graders were at low risk or Advanced this year it's
68% um fifth grade is more stable between those two so one thing we start to think about is especially um when we see data like this is to think about why why is this something different happening in fourth grade than we saw the years prior so we have another tool at our disposal which
is the CDM reading screener that students in fourth and fifth grade take it's a measure of oral reading fluency so students will read three passages aloud for I believe three minutes um and it measures the foundational skills of reading um which are the precursor to
comprehension if you're not able to read it fluently it takes you that much longer to understand what you're reading so when we look at fourth grade we see improvement from Fall of last year through to all and winter of this year however we're not we're sitting at the
high 60s so we're not getting as close to that 80% and is the same story in fifth grade so we have some of those foundational literacy skills to still make up as we look towards fourth grade that being said it doesn't fully explain the drop or drop from fall to winter
because we don't see that same drop in the oral reading fluency it's also something we see very consistently across schools both last year and this year which leads us to think that there's some systems level factors at play one possible explanation is curriculum we talk about the
implementation of letters which goes some way to showing the growth that we see especially at Early Elementary we start to see that trail off as that work is not followed up with the curriculum we use which is Lucy cofins yes can I bring Sky up here a
second yeah yeah sorry Sky I'm gonna put you on the spot was gonna what are your thoughts on this um yeah so I think hello everyone um so we have done a ton of
work with um kind of filling holes at the K2 level we got hegerty a few years ago we added Letterland to third grade and fourth and fifth have just not received anything so I've been here for three years we haven't made any strategic changes there our goal was kind of start from the bottom and move
up um and so they are sitting with a curriculum that is um not as rigorous as it needs to be with the changing MCAS next year as well and also um a curriculum that teachers have moved away from as well because we know that it's
not best for students right and so I think teachers are doing the best that they can with what they have to make it as rigorous as possible but they are individually filling holes that they see and so we don't have as consistent as a pro of a program um and so I'm excited
that we are moving in a direction that we're looking at a much more rigorous area and we would also be um moving towards adding a morphology so that word work would continue through it wouldn't just word work is done at third grade and then I hope it worked so you can
continue on but instead actually adding a strategic morphology to the fourth and fifth grad so um really beefing up what they have in their classrooms and what teachers can pull from too SK thank you Sky appreciate that when we start to look at our secondary data becomes a lot harder to
draw conclusions because this is the first year that we have any data at all so we see a drop from fall to winter in sixth grade but not in the other grades and we don't quite know yet whether that's quote unquote typical if it's something we've seen in the past but it is something to keep an eye on as we think about sixth grade as a transition
Year from elementary to Middle School one exercise um that Sky put together for us to do with PLC leads was to look at these graphs sometimes you get really lucky and get to use real data that is just interesting to look at because we see well I don't want to
spoil the exercise what do you guys notice looking I noticed two things I noce a Delta between Oakland middle and Stillwater Middle and that it looks like it's rather stagnant between the fall and the winter right it's exactly the
same at the very top level for low risk and any risk if we kind of lump our two categories into that binary right 71% fall and winter 65% fall and winter at both schools is there anything
changing high risk for Oakland yep it went from 9% to 12% so I mean this is an indic we see this a lot at the board it seems like at the board table where we've got two different experiences or outcomes at the middle school but you also have a
decrease in high performing at the middle school so there's a decrease on both sides just decrease is impacting different populations potentially yeah and we do see some of that as well at Oakland that the higher performing students are shrinking as well um so it doesn't give us a lot of answers it
gives us a lot of questions to go back to our secondary schools and figure out well what do we what do we do next some of the things that the schools are looking at in this pilot year are connections between courses and grades as we think about course placement as well as looking at students who didn't make any growth that was one of
Oakland's focuses in particular was what what are the students who are moving backwards because we see that there must be some of them so who are they how do we intervene do you know the last time we've made significant updates to Middle School curriculum I mean not in the last two and a half
years yeah I mean this would be another area it's been quite a while the attention may be yeah and we would expect to see more stability at these larger schools you're moving a larger population of students so it's going to move slower but this is unusual and this dat the data for
Stillwater mle just to clarify does that include like there there's that cluster of gate the gifted and talented program does that that that data is in those students are included in this data correct yes so I would be curious if you take those students out if they
might similar more similar we can similarly look at the high school we see some signs of growth in grade nine which is again you know we want to temper that because it's very new data to us but it's exciting as a transition year that we see that growth um 10th grade is another one where it's
very very stable um one thing that we're continuing to work on is implementation at the secondary level to make sure that all students are screened this becomes especially kind of pertinent at grades 11 as and 12 as students start moving into PSO or they have the option to not take a math class in their senior year
that kind of changes the sample of students that we're starting to look at so in 12th grade in particular we have to take it with a grain of salt because only half of the students were screened we're g to pause here do some takeaways and talk about reading but I think we've
covered a lot of questions from Reading we can see areas of need and areas of growth down to the school grade and teacher level we saw strength in early reading as instructional practice CH instructional practices change and we see more alignment between our schools
uh we spoke about the literacy curriculum in grades four and five and then our P pilot data in secondary is also starting to show those areas of strength and need as we can look into our different schools different grade levels different classrooms can I ask a question on one
of these slides on the 1112 do we you know obviously not every student is tested and some are moving out to PSO maybe not taking math I mean it's it's quite low is that I mean do we know anything behind that is it when year
it's a one point a data we'll know more after a year or two plus you can take a look at you know students that we tested who took it right and the you know I'm sure there's maybe markers that every student has this is this is really
challenging because as you just St we got PSO kids we've got AP like I don't know it's just a harder harder group to to to get a a consistent data set I think but go ahead
well and one thing that we learned this past year in this pilot year is that our screening window was based on the Elementary calendar so it fell kind of middle of January that's also when the end of the semester is for our secondary students and that provided kind of an additional layer of challenge so that's
certainly one thing that's easy to fix on our end to be able to get more and more students screened it won't ever be all of our students and we'll see kind of it I mean not to skip ahead but we'll see a difference in our 12th grade data in particular it's still only about half of students are screened but students
who are taking a 12th grade math class tend to be our strongest math students because they're pursuing advanced math so that kind of affects our data on that end the assessment that this is all based on how is that assessment done is it just a one-time snapshot test that
the kids are taking and is that test used strictly for data or is it used to place the kids in specialized help that's a great question it's done three times a year so fall winter spring but only that one one time in that window um
anything more often than that and you don't kind of it's not as sensitive to measure that growth so that's why we use different tools for Progress monitoring in terms of using for course placement and specialized help these are conversations that are really just beginning in our mtss work and thinking
about what our intervention processes look like at the secondary level but this data is what helps us to facilitate that conversation and know who we're even talking about potentially identifying all right thanks um one more question I have and I'm sure you've shared this before but how is are
these results or how are they communicated back to families at the elementary level results go home kind of in a paper copy um at the end of each screening window with um a letter in the fall and then that's provided virtually at the other periods
for the secondary level we're currently providing scores on Fast Bridge sorry excuse me on power school so they're uploaded to the parent portal and then one thing that we're developing is what that messaging looks like to families in terms of what is this assessment how can
I use it and what do I need to know okay that was kind of my question just so families can put this into perspective what it means what it doesn't mean you know because I know like any assessment it's one one day one small assessment so we're going to take a look math and
one thing that will come to is that there's often quite a bit of overlap between what we see at each grade level whether it's in math and reading but early math like early reading um measures several different skills over the course of kindergarten in first grade so that includes matching quantity
decomposing numbers looking at place value and even all the way up to story Problems by the end of first grade catch up so here we see kind of an area of need in kindergarten as we dropped from 84% to 74% low risk this is similar to
last year and we'll see on the next slide that it's consistent across the schools one possible explanation we saw that um decomposing numbers is added as a skill however that means it's a skill that we need to be teaching between fall and winter so it's kind of a point to
look into for further Improvement and then first grade as well we see some modest improvement from fall to winter but it seems to be just kind of repeating the pattern from last year we see the schools moving more or less in tandem more consistently this year
than last year but not necessarily in the right direction um one thing to highlight though is that I believe it was Aton Lakeland with starting at I have 95% low risk in the fall that's a lot of kids at low risk it would be unrealistic
for all of them to stay low risk but it's still exciting is that Anderson go back a slide here is that Anderson that is who's the little one there that's going oh the orange where it went down then back up okay
yeah and then first grade as well we kind of see a lot of variation but um speaking of Anders oh I had my notes on the wrong side 5% at Aton linin with for first grade excuse me and then we also see impressive growth at Anderson um 17
percentage points ath again we're switching to our general grade level math skills so assessing our broad math abilities across domains number and operations algebraic thinking geometry measurement and data at the district
level okay again we see it's relatively static from fall to winter this is now looking at probably about 7,000 students all told so that's a big ship to steer um fall toall shows a slight dip and then winter to Winter is very stable but
again we've added secondary into those last two bar graphs this is where I was really struck by the similarities between a reading and a math because the um the second grade graphs really mirror each other just down a couple percentage points um
but the same growth trajectory um second grade we see that solid growth both fall to winter each year and year-over-year and then third grade is much more stable with 75% low risk so that's really approaching what
we would expect to see for our mtss 80% goal at second grade you can see the variation school by school um Brook viiew in particular made a impressive growth going from 64% to
75% and Lily Lake from 66% to 74% low risk when we look at fourth and fifth grade math I'm excited by the growth we see in fourth grade from 74% to 80% low risk especially because this is not a pattern that we've seen before from fall to winter in fifth grade we see a drop from
fall to winter each year but a smaller drop this year than it dropped this same time last year so the end result being some winter to Winter growth when we look school by school we see that tight alignment especially this year at fourth grade and we also see a
very different story at Anderson in particular they're starting at a different place and maintaining that growth and then fifth grade we see the variation by school um where last year each School trended trended downwards I won't say
sharply downwards but trended downwards this year many schools are holding steady or close to holding steady um one thing to note however is that last spring 70% of fifth graders were at low risk on Fast bridge but 46% of fifth
graders met or exceeded expectations on the MCA so in fifth grade in particular this is not a perfect measure of future MCA success which is part of why we push for that rigor in our Benchmark level descriptors and at our 60th percentile on Fast r
are the what about the standards I mean are we talking two different sets of data points for for standards on this or you know because if we're saying we're at 70% low risk and we're coming in at a 46% proficiency what's the disconnect
it's a really interesting question one thing that's not clear to me from the fast Bridge documentation is exactly which skills are assessed and that's part of the challenge of an Adaptive assessment so no two students are asked the same question questions because you're asked a harder question or an easier question based on your performance that's what makes it
difficult to use fast Bridge as a diagnostic tool because it can't tell you exactly which skills a student has at which time I would be curious to know since fast Bridge is a national tool and is more aligned to probably common core
standards and the broader fifth grade math abilities if there's a disconnect there do most districts use fast Bridge or are there other assessments that are more aligned to State Standards or I would say more and more are using
fastbridge map used to be Anda used to be pretty utilized but again that wasn't necessarily aligned to the state standards either okay but map's becoming or excuse me U fast bridge is becoming much more common okay yeah and both fast
bridge and map are Norm reference so they're comparing students to one another or to that sample Norm of 10,000 students versus is MCA which is Criterion reference and is comparing students just to what they're able to do based on the standards so it doesn't really matter how anyone else in my class did it's just what I knew on that
day on that test and these are conducted not on the computer these are computerized these are computerized so that variable's not there okay yeah and MCA math is adaptive as well to yeah I would imagine a lesser degree but
similar especially for math because it's ad at the item level so each question after first grade Dem sorry but sorry we talking so for fast Bridge after first grade or second grade and up yep we see kind of a similar Trend in
our sixth grade seventh grade eighth grade math data with that similar drop in sixth grade so because we see it at both fall and winter it's again kind of worth looking into but not worth um worrying too much until we know more
um yeah at our grades nine and 10 again we see a growth from nine in ninth grade from fall to winter from 61% to 66% and that same stability in 10th Grade and like with reading we're working on the implementation side of things to make
sure that all students are screened at 11th grade and 12th grade we're getting closer to that 70th perc um 12th grade in particular we have 75% low risk but again these are students who are opting to take math as a 12th
grader so just like with reading the math fast Bridge assessments give us the ability to identify the areas of need or growth by school by grade and by teacher we see a need to strengthen kindergarten math we we know that we have a need in fourth and fifth grade fifth grade in
particular and we see that born out in our data and our pilot data and secondary gives us some information to work with as we continue to implement yes when we look at this data how should we think about uh absolute
numbers versus uh Deltas within a year so looking at a growth of 65 to 71% within the year from fall to winter versus one school is at 71 and or one group is at that 65 so how do you guys think about this
when you're making choices or or aligning resources to um within the group changes versus absolute numbers does that make sense as a question it does I mean I think when we think about change over time it shows us both kind
of the natural progression of our teaching it shows us a response to intervention um with the exception of kindergarten kindergarten doesn't receive intervention until mid year that right every other grade level we start to especially at elementary we start to intervene and respond to the data that we see so it gives us a chance to act on
it so in some ways we would expect to see growth because we're doing something different and if there's a student who's at high risk we should be acting on that in some ways it's marginal because there's hopefully only a very few students who need that level of intervention but it reflects on the quality of intervention um it also gives us more
information about systems level changes so if we Implement a new professional development program Implement a new curriculum that gives us that kind of temperature gauge whereas looking school by school tells us more about where to target support would be kind of my short
VI thank you very much any other questions um so from here obviously this just gets reviewed at the PLC levels at the cat levels right so teachers are actively using this data to work with
with their students today I mean because I think that's what families would want to know right these are these aren't just sitting on the shelf collecting dust they're actively utilized the MCAS are not valuable because it's a point in time
test that's taken once a year districts are utilizing fast and map and and other assessments that we can get periodic checks to to see if we are what our instruction is aligning to the St standards is our curriculum aligning to
the standards and as as you could see from a number of the slides tonight we are able to see and and Elsa talked about it you didn't see it but we can see to the classroom level what's happening with our students and and our and whether or not our systems are
aligned so our teachers in the classroom are able to see okay I've got kids who are successful I have kids who are struggling and then they can work with their colleagues to to try and uh you know come up with strategies to uh to better meet the needs of our students so
yes this is um this is an active tool that uh we utilize so for both uh reading and math it seemed like fourth and fifth grade were pain points
do I mean obviously Sky said curriculum for reading is is a challenge I don't know if the same thing is for math it is do do we make I mean midyear Corrections is or additions to curriculum are there things that we can do in real time
knowing that that it's a problem yeah I mean I'll give you an example with fifth grade math okay we you know I think one of the challenges we've had in fifth grade math is do we do we stick with our current math the essentials program that we have within the elementary or do we
do what we're doing at the middle school and a decision was made at some point a number of years ago well let's do what they're doing in the Middle School which is not aligned with the fifth grade assessments so you know Amy I know Amy Fischer's been working really hard with our um math math teachers particularly
the fifth grade level um to see if we can really realign some of what we're doing there and part of it is a curricular issue when we're looking at you know I don't know when math was purchased here the last
time 10 15 years ago um excuse me so that's a that's a piece of it we are in the process of adopting a new literacy curriculum but it's going to be probably peac meal because of a budget so we're going to probably adopt part of it next year for K2 and then we're going to
probably adopt 35 some of it is the training you know we we've got letters training going on and and those teachers who have been trained in letters and a lot of them have been trained at K1 you've seen what's going on with the with the uh the alignment of our systems
there so there's a lot of different factors involved here um but I also want to just emphasize that uh our staff is not sitting on their hands they're working together collaboratively trying to figure out okay what's the best way we can meet the needs of our students
and this is just one of the tools that we have available to us I know I'm I for the first time really do see some good system I mean like when you see everyone kind of tracking in the right direction in a few areas and I just do want to recognize the hard work that's going on behind the
scenes because it's a process and it's going to take time but I think we need to celebrate those successes and I know there's a lot of people in this room watching home that are a part of that so I mean more work to be done but certainly seeing some um some strong system
alignment thank you very much thank you aome good job thanks for everything you do all right all right now we're going to move on to our um preliminary budget guidelines and assumptions good
evening so before you tonight is a copy of a document um that we um put um together for the board um and the community which is basically um a document
that sets forth how we are going about um our our budget for next fiscal year and it starts with the framework of our priority based budgeting process and um goes into how um the
budget is set um the framework of our strategic plan and our strategic direction as you can see on the first page and then the next page is um our
over oops this is a little touchy that was our strategic plan of objectives and um back in November um Caitlyn and jacleen um
presented the um comprehensive achievement in Civic Readiness um an update on that and and then our overarching uh strategic plan key initiatives which are literacy School culture equity and
inclusion and social emotional Lear learning and those are the three that we are um focusing our efforts for next fiscal year in the budget so where we come into play um in preparing the budget
calculations uh enrollment is being finalized this week um those calculations we have some initial projections and we'll be working with HR to do that initial Staffing so um those
can be uh rolled out to schools and then um our Revenue calculations as you'll see in the fiscal forecast which is next um those calculations we are using the current Formula allowances we do
not do any hypotheticals at this point um it could change as you know significantly so we we go with what we know um the levy we do know because um that was a approved by you um in
December and then federal revenue again we go with what we know and um some of those entitlements were posted initially so we are going to go uh with what we do know um with the carryover we do know
and uh if anything changes we'll we'll also adjust as necessary and then on our expenditure side um we are basing that on actual salaries and benefits and honoring all labor agreements so as you know a salary
benefits um those do have um significant cost of living assumptions um inflationary costs there and then Staffing allocations again they are based on projected enrollment um not enrollment that's out into the future we
like to keep our projections As We Know students are coming um into we will adjust as necessary um as a team and work with principles uh benefit rates um include a
large package um that is medical D Dental pension contributions um and other changes um there are some changes um at the legislative level as well and then um projections we've also
included uded um non-salary expenditures um there'll be an inflationary adjustment and um and that also is on the fees for service end there um and then our use of fund balance um we are
very mindful that uh we will not plan on using any unassigned fund balance we do have a balance in our restricted fund balance areas but those will be proposed to the board in the past we've used operating Capital
fund balance or long-term facility maintenance fund balance uh specifically for capital projects or wiring networks things like that um but those were planned projects uh with the fund balance purposely designated for
that um again fund balance um it's in accordance with fund balance policy 714 um and again again we are certainly um mindful of what our fund balance is right now and uh we are working toward
uh getting that um minimum un assigned up to that 5% and then as far as presenting um the 2025 26 budget um we will have a timeline posted um and uh that will be
on our website in addition to the presentation um uh that is next this evening and then the format uh going forward uh there'll be many updates between now in June on the budget we'll also have data on our website um as
presentations and additional information on the budget uh that will all be posted on uh the finance website and the links are in the document here and then in accordance with policy 701 um establishment and adoption
of the budget um has to be adopted uh no later than July 1 in order for the district to operate and spend dollars so that that's basically the guidelines and assumptions it's a guiding document um
for the district and just looking for your approval of the document this evening um we have a motion to approve the preliminary budget guidelines and
assumptions great I'll go with Dr kelzenberg with the motion and um director lower with the second uh questions for Marie regarding the budget guidelines and assumptions before we get into what will be the projections so this is just the
assumptions has the board provided any guidance on timeline to get to 5% or have you made a determination on that timeline was what that will be so we're making movements towards that but I'll answer that we have no
idea what level of funding we'll be receiving from the state and until we have a better sight picture on what we're going to receive from funding I would find it very difficult to give a realistic projection to the board on uh on that the other Factor
that's involved with that is um you know our enrollment which is a moving Target as well so those are two significant factors um so the short answer is no and I guess for the chair question as well like have we provided any guidance
or do we have a set an expectation for when the balance will return to 5% I guess I would concur with what Dr Funk said I think as a board we could um we could return the fund balance to 5% if we wanted to but it would decimate the pro student programming that we have
in place so the board prior to you coming on the board made the uh gave the direction to basically stay the course work with staff to know that they are aware that the fund balance is below what we want it to be and what the policy says strive for um and so we are
working within those I think it's a it's a it's a very good question from an angle I mean from a board perspective you know if okay it's 5% is that the number that's important to us we we need to be at 5% because if that's
the decision then we have to make recommendations correct um to get us there sooner than later um so but having said that there's when we are as tight as we are financially there's a lot of
uh second or third or impacts of having to do that so and again I think this document is just looking at the guidelines and assumptions when we talk about the um Financial reality here next we can look at that but I think the
current procedure that the board the direction of the board was to work closely with the team to know that we want to build that up but we want to do so in a responsible way that can hopefully not negatively impact the classroom all on top of the existing cuts that have had to been made due to
funding and legislation and number of other factors so I guess the reason I ask is is twofold sorry I guess the reason I ask is twofold one is if we can align parties on what a responsible Direction looks like then we
can all look at you know is it 1% this year and we're trying to add 1% next year is it you know we're going to just survive as far as we can and then we're going to address this in two years um or we're going to start to address this in two years and then make a a progression
out from there and then we can provide guidance in the assumptions that saying we need to to increase this by x% In This budget period or this but in this budget period so that when we go back and ask for money in three to five years
then we have our fund balances in order so that our ratings are in order as well so are you making a motion to amend the document I guess I'm just opening a discussion to see if what people's appetite would be for setting a
progression for return a fund balance to to within policy in order to I guess open up a discussion if you have a motion and then we can see if you get a second and then we can have that conversation if we want to address that I want to make sure we address it just
is tonight the only night the point of order is tonight the only night that that motion could be applied or can we address that assumption in the in future meetings I am not comfortable or prepared to have this discussion um at
this point in time um I mean there's a lot of factors involved here there is um Again part of what we do and I know you're new to this is we have strategy sessions with the board where we talk
about negotiations and we talk about you know potential settlements that sort of situation and and you haven't had a chance to be part of any of that yet so it's
um I think I understand exactly the direction you're going but I think there's some more information that has to be shared with you um that can help for your mindset as we're moving forward here rather than just coming to the board together and saying okay well we
need to create this timeline and this and this um in this man but I I think we owe you more information um so we're not going to make a motion to amend um we have a motion at a second to approve all those
in favor of approving the guidelines and assumptions document raise your hand and say I I opposed okay the document is passed and now let's move on to the fiscal forecast the current let go
forecast so this evening before you is um a fiscal forecast of the next uh two years and again this is to give you a picture of um basically current reality
using uh the current fiscal year as our base and um just kind some of the the overarching um Financial um areas that we're um
considering here is number one and this is kind of a theme the last couple years is the unfunded State mandates um you know just the legislative platform I'll just say that that we've had um you know some of the
react uh areas with the curriculum and PD um um our district uh received about $300,000 um overall for the curriculum and as you may be aware that curriculum
is sizable um for our district the cost estimates um I other areas paid FMLA um just the time um on the esst uh tracking um there are other
areas that just continue have costs um that are embedded within the projections um legislation impacting Revenue um the one that comes to mind you'll see in a slide is compensatory
education it's a big one um that if something doesn't change um that will impact US inflation and Rising costs um not only the inflation from all the different areas uh within the budget
just the additional cost to do um business um within the district and um just the competing areas between districts and um
and marketing and trying to get staff um just I I think just the uh even putting in infrastructure just different areas um just making it's limiting our district uh projected enrollment levels
so just want to um talk about that a little bit um the current year and the previous year our kindergarten levels have been lower than they have been and so that it it feeds through the system
and lower cohorts or um and so our grade one and two levels projected at the current state again this is a point in time a picture as of February this could change you know in a month but right now
what we're seeing is those lower enrollments that are working through um the district and so you'll see that in the next um slide or two and so we have to consider that when we do our
projections for the next couple years and how that enrollment feeds through the system and the revenue because we count those students and the dollars this is and I I don't know if this is a a you question Marie or a Dr Funk
because I'm there's the balance of the legislative mandates that already in effect right and then the ones that could come as a result of this session I was just reading on the um Governor Wall's budget right which was transport reducing SP transportation funding just
so I'm clear things like that would not be in your assumptions because if that were happen it would alter this projection okay that's correct okay so those are the things you're watching for as they work because I a we talked about today very supportive but that's not in
our projection okay thank you correct and then one time only funds um we had Federal grant carryover um that we are spending this year so that wouldn't be available for next year um
and Beyond it's gone so there are just there are things you have to consider um throughout this um process so um looking at and this is just a different way to view um what we've had for our general fund um un
assigned fund balance so there are different classifications of the district's fund balance um with the highest being like your nonspendable or your inventory um to your restricted fund balances
which are your um your operating Capital dollars or if you had um you know your your Levy like your Tech Levy um down to your unassigned which is your most I would
say discretionary or non um legislative that's a non-restricted type and so we've we've gone from a District at the highest point of being 99.9% back in
20145 um to 1.1% which is just shy of 1.7 million and so we we're be very mindful that um to do anything with this fiscal forecast and using unassigned dollars some
districts who have large unassigned fund balances will use this to balance their budget we are not in that um situation where we can use our unassigned funds nor would I recommend it it that is a onetime only fix so I
would not recommend that to the board ever to to utilize dollars um for fund balance um when you're looking at a one-time project like we've done in the past for like wiring or networks and you have the
capital dollars and you dedicate those that is something you consider but not with unassigned so here's uh before you is our Revenue side um the fiscal forecast
so um the First Column up there is basically um the revenue category and then you walk across our current budget um fiscal 25 you can see and I'll just
kind of point out um we're at the 149.34 fiscal 26 our budgeted enrollment or what that projection is um we would be looking at um 8,25 students so that's a difference of
uh 54 students um a decrease there and that projection um again like I said is lower at those grade levels one and two as we look out to next year um and then
um as we look at a side by side on the next slide um I am projecting that uh we would increase um in fiscal year 27 um that is when our schools um the new schools would open um
again being I'm a little bit more conservative really sorry so I'm I'm doing that half to 1% increase um of total enrollment so I'm a little more
concerned so state aid um the next is That's not including sped comped you'll see those separated uh we are increasing about 1.7 million that's again that 2% uh I
believe we can go up to I believe 3% % but again I'm I'm just being a little more you know cautious of what it really is and um doing the 1.7 million for now comped
you'll see that is um that calculation with the direct certifications that is a projected loss of 300,000 um sped currently um I am
projecting that to be level um there could be changes there with what um Allison you mentioned um however our cross subsidy rate increases slightly in fiscal year
27 um that could be about another million for us in fiscal 27 um it all depends on what changes for current year English learner um the rates increase uh next
year and you can see those I just put those up there for reference but that that gives us about another $200,000 um it's sad because comped decreases about the same um and then
Levy we increased about 2.4 million um however that is in a lot of categorical areas so I can't just shift that to areas like the classroom that was again a million for the OPB Levy um
about 900,000 for the tech Levy and then about 800,000 for the referendum so those are just some of the areas and then there were some adjustments in there so just note that some of those categorical areas or restricted areas
that you can Levy for they're really can't just stick things in areas you want to Levy is really restricted based on Law and then the federal here um again 1.4 million a lot of that was carryover
in our federal special ed um uh Grant and then um some we have projected lower allocations not due to what's currently going on but what we originally saw about out four months ago
um on our Megs uh the state system and then also some other grants in the federal resources that we originally um had and then the other category this again is other Revenue I am projecting
just right now the same levels these are your Student Activity funds um you know your athletic accounts interests some other grants other donations things like that we're just projecting that level it looks like it's coming about the same
this year so again those are other activities so as we go over to the expenditure side and just want you to kind of keep your eyes on that 2.6
million in Revenue increase because now as you see the 7.9 million on the expenditure increase we'll kind of talk as a big picture um so on the salary side um you
could see about 3.3 million is what um I'm projecting between this year and next year assuming we do nothing with um Staffing levels so I'm taking a picture point in time of Staff um current
Staffing levels negotiated agreements steps and Lanes assuming a cost of living um is included and then benefits um again the the inflation the additional benefit
costs and um there's a change in uh legislation on paid there's paid FMLA that's included in the projection and then for purchase Services supplies
materials there's a slight cost of um inflation included and then on the new curriculum requirements that's mainly the redact um with some additional costs for
another um adoption in a textbook textbook adoption coming for next year so you can see the difference overall about 7.9 million I just wanted to highlight salaries and benefits uh for
this district is about 74% of the general fund budget so it's a large percentage when you're talking about any type of reductions um we are people business um and we serve students so any
type of um forecast assumptions um we are forecasting a lot of um cost with within the salary and benefits can I ask one question on related to this um I know some of the mandates that we had in place were new
last summer so like the um Family Medical Leave changes the unemployment what are you using to are you padding those assuming that they're going to grow in in number I guess I I don't know what your thoughts are around
that yeah I I added some costs within the benefit okay and you know the the paid FMLA one there's assumptions within our benefits um there's you know the unemployment
cost that's over and above what we you know are able to get problem is we don't know what they're going to be right and then they may be year one it may be one thing and then okay year two by a little bit more or and that's kind of what I'm reading is that it could be more because
more people know about benefit and the other factor is summer unemployment we get reimbursed most of it right now but that pool of money is burning out at the legislature and we don't know if they're going to fund that again so then we may be just taking summer unemployment out
of the out of hide okay thank you for that so that's 7.9 so when you look at the and I put up just some historical here so as you look
at where we closed the fiscal year in 2024 um you'll see our Revenue was 142. 6 and then our budget um for this current year is 149.34 what I'm seeing there's not a lot of
growth up at the state level as far as what I'm seeing as Revenue um and so that's where we've got to do something more about um adjusting where we're at um
here um at a district level um unless there is um changes coming but we have to have a plan on the expenditure side um again for fiscal year 24 uh we did balance our
budget um we used fund balance um for capital projects um at sites uh we had Tech licenses and curriculum that wasn't general fund balance it was it was our operating Capital correct the res all these were restricted uh fund balance
operating Capital we we did the Smithsonian science back in fiscal 24 and then Uh current year fiscal 25 um we had uh 900,000 that's for our wireless
network and so if you look at fiscal year 26 uh what I just presented to you our revenue is 151.90 our expenditures are projected at 158.1mm we're proposing or
projecting 1.4 million of that um curriculum purchase uh we're using um operating Capital so we're still about $4.8 million of a
shortfall that this is where we're taking ourselves into priority based budgeting and we've had um multiple meetings um now discussing
opportunity to bring that down and and we've made a lot of progress um but there's a lot more to go um and so that's what we're working through right now um for our next presentation or meeting uh for the
board and then in fiscal year 27 just to kind of walk that through that 152.4 um revenue and hopefully more comes uh the expenditures assuming that we cut or
reduce that 4.8 million those expenditures would be 157.7mm that comes then we adjust but this is what we know now um and again it's it's a combination of a lot
of um different things but again this is even being um having an enrollment increase in 27 of about 1% so in the fiscal year 27
right so it's just that again that 74% you know of salary and benefits um in your budget for your general fund is it's a large piece of
your budget and um it's considerable um dollars go into that with um inflation I mean this is when I read
this this was the reality we've been talking about for a long time with our legislators that um Metro wde Minnesota wde yep so it wasn't altogether unexpected but it's certainly deflating so the difference is many of our peer districts
have fund balances they're going to be dipping into yes exactly which will'll eventually catch up to them too but it makes our the work of staff to find these efficiencies um I I can't appreciate it enough your efforts and your meetings at a director level to find these
efficiencies and hopefully we can find better ways of doing things um to kind of come up with some of this but it's a it's a bleak picture when with all the unfunded mandates and all the um funding we've received from the state
right and that's the and that's the what people think that's the message that people got when it's not really what was the reality and we'll continue to refine this and as we bring back budget updates it's you'll you'll see these numbers you
know we'll refine them and bring them back to you as we know more and update you on what's changed so before you is a budget timeline as you can see we're um in that mid to late February and so um
right now we're working on those uh enrollment finalizing that enrollment for that Staffing uh allocation and then we'll be uh March where we'll be giving um schools their basically their Budget
Building Supply budget allocations and then we'll be working with programs to get their uh budget allocations out and then we'll give you another budget update in March and um go from there the
then the Staffing plans come back and what will that March meeting be when the results your um director's work be presented I see two I would imagine two updates in March okay um the initial here's the initial thoughts on our
priorities get your feedback on that and then come back again later in the month from the board's perspective would it be wise to take this information to our legislators and just try to continue to message them I mean is there any yeah I mean I think they're hearing it I mean
we certainly can I think they're hearing it after while I mean I know AMC did a budget survey I don't think we filled it out because we wer we weren't done yet but uh they're aware of this but I'm also hearing the fiscal cliff coming
with the you know the budget forecast so um I just don't see a lot of new Revenue coming um from our legislature it's it's really the can is there any mandate relief kind of like I was talking about when I was there today um and I I just
don't see that happening either to be honest with you yes when talking with legislators numbers are helpful we've already talked about the react is a one-time fee of we think 1.4 million and we're getting a potential $300,000 offset with a net of
1. oneish mlion about one time have we done the math on family I believe the other two are paid family leave and unemployment is that the other two main ones that we're talking about or yeah I mean I get I think uh Chris I don't know if you have off the top of your head
what we pay in unemployment this past uh so 390,000 and so most of that weed because they put I think 27 million aside um but that money is going to be gone they say and there's I don't know if there's currently a bill to refund
that um so then it's going to be well sorry districts you just got to write a check for it um the uh the big concern I've got is the 20 weeks Family Leave coming up and you know as we talked at the legislative breakfast currently the structure is
it's you know a percent or part of a percent by the district the other part of the percent is to be negotiated okay well that's that's one cost but the real significant cost and we're not going to know this for a number of years yet is
all right I have a teacher or a parah or somebody an employee of the district who is out for 10 weeks okay if if I'm local business person okay maybe we can get by but if I need come required to have a licensed teacher in that classroom who's picking
up that cost um and so it's you know I sat and I listened in a committee meeting today and I heard a lot of good people talking about the benefits of some of these things and and how they're really looking forward to it but at the same time I'm I was just
thinking how how are we affording this how are we going to be able to afford this long term um as a state and and and as a school district um so those are really concerning factors that are out there um and so and and like I said
and to be realistic we have a a split government really at the legislative level and we've got you know a um a governor who's on one side of that split at the at the governor level so I just don't see us doing a lot of change um in
this in this uh um upcoming by any any other questions great well we appreciate your work and look forward to Future updates thank you see you all right we're going to move on to
our two policy uh reads here first is a second read for policy 55 um it's Al turn it over to Paul I think we'll start with 505 depending on the
board's conversation we'll take action and then we'll move on to the cell phone that sounds sounds great uh good evening members of the board Dr Funk um so as was introduced um we're looking at uh model policy or policy 505 distribution
of non-school sponsored materials on school premises by students and employees and this would be for the second read of this policy um the policy committee did meet last week between the two meetings and uh reviewed this policy um we had a we did
have a question at the board table last uh last board meeting um regarding a little bit about the how this interfaces with the identity harm protocol and so we did look at that I think um what's um important to note is that under the
guidelines in section four part B um it indicates those areas in which which uh material non-school distributed material um these are the areas that the material is always prohibited um and we look at that and it certainly um is in alignment
with the identity harm protocol you know which really focuses on a person targeting another person or group based on an aspect of their identity and so um I do believe that this this is in alignment with with that and certainly is not in conflict or wouldn't provide
any conflict on that um and then that there weren't really any other suggestions or changes so and there weren't any changes to the actual language of the policy from the first reading to to this reading um I will go ahead and uh make a
motion to approve can I get a second then we'll ask any questions second Dr Hooger questions for policy committee or um Paul um sorry I asked both of the questions last week on this I believe um one was on the uh potential power
differential between um teachers handing out material and students handing out material and if that was a concern and if that was addressed or if anything was changed so was one question yes uh and that the committee did look at did discuss that a bit um and and in review
of the policy didn't really see where the different there would be a difference in uh requirements under uh between a teacher and a student regarding the way the language of the policy reads um I think what the prohibited you know type of material
would be for staff or for students the one place that does differentiate is in section uh six under what would be a disciplinary action um in that case and it does split that out um and indicates in part A that in a student that might
require some type of uh action um that would be based on the student discipline policy and if it was a staff member um it would certainly take into accordance any contracts Collective uh bargaining agreements policies procedures and any other statute so it does differentiate
there between I guess my only concern there is if a Coach or a teacher hands something out it's a significantly different meaning then if if all a student potentially hand something out I would suggest yes dror hacker and this is something that we def
discussed in um in committee as well and kind of where we landed in addition to the wording in the actual policy itself um if this does become an issue in real life like right now it's kind of a hypothetical um so we're trying not to create policies for every potential
situation but if it actually does happen in our district then we'd be certainly um open to pursuing a second policy that would just be for staff so that's kind of where we nett it out question kind F my second question is is everybody
gone go ahead um on the identity harm area uh overlap um again with concerns of creating policy for policy sake um I do worry that if someone hands out
material that said I believe X which is in this as long as it's not obscene or vulgar basically it's effectively allowed um and someone feels that that impacts
their um their group or their identity that those two would potentially be in conflict and we have a discussion okay yeah um and I would just like to concur with what Dr hackard said we did talk
about that um our principles want to have this policy they feel a need universally when they were pulled that they really want to have a policy to be able to fall back on so if this isn't sufficient for them um and again we have no reason to believe that they don't
think this is sufficient um policy is living breathing document and so that kind of Full Circle communication between all stakeholders is going to be important to know if we hit the mark on this one uh there is a motion in a second any
other questions okay all those in favor of approving policy 505 raise your hand and say I I opposed great policy passes um and now this is a second read on the
personal electronic communication devices policy and we are not going to be considering an action for this one we're going to have a third read on it um so I'll turn over to you Paul yes thank you uh yes so 54.5 personal electronic communication devices uh for
a second read I will just uh point out there were two uh changes uh in wording um from the first reading to this reading the first you'll find in uh section three subpart
e um and it was really to clarify a couple of the questions that were brought up and discussed briefly at the last board meeting but in E you'll notice it reads personal electronic communication device means any personal device capable of connecting to a cell
phone was the old language what we added as a committee was the was the word wirelessly so it now reads personal electronic communication device means any personal device capable of connecting wirelessly to a cell phone
the internet a cellular or Wi-Fi Network are directly connects to another similar device um and it goes on to uh indicate and include wearables uh headphones iPods airpods any uh virtual reality devices um that
would be included in that personal electronic communication device um and and part of that was that there was a question I think brought up about Wireless like wired headphones that are required sometimes for testing and and other times for other uses that are educationally relevant I think
oftentimes those are um school um provided um headphones um but it but it does allow that if it was a personal personal headphone that doesn't have wireless connectivity um that that would be allowed to be used with their device
um in that way if it as long as it doesn't have any of that wireless connectivity that would be like when we discuss that that would be like when you in the lower grades when you buy or buy your kids the headphones to bring into class that plug into the okay yeah yeah
or if there's a synchronous activity that is being done you know for even maybe a high school student that sort of thing um that that would not conflict with the use of this policy so the second uh change was
um wording change um was in part four um in on the personal electron elic yeah communication device use and storage um you'll see in the personal electronic communication device use um
A1 uh it states that all students it used to say K12 we added prek-12 uh to to um make sure our youngest Learners that are in our Ed Elementary buildings um would be following by the same rules and I think
that came up because some do wear the watches they're not carrying necessarily just to clear it's not phones but it's the watches yeah yeah it was just to be as inclusive as we could with that um now this is the probably the one of the
big changes as you'll see here in a the there this is where the two choices were in the p in the in the first reading uh the committee um decided to present today um just the one option where there
was the most support and so it reads under part A and it doesn't separate you'll notice it doesn't separate elementary middle and high school because it's the same for all levels but it reads all students prek K12 are prohibited from using personal electronic communication devices on
school premises from Bell to Bell which includes but is not limited to instructional time lunch periods recess School sponsored programs events or activities or any other time during the designated school day all personal electronic communication devices shall be kept in designated areas in turned
off so Paul brought that into one do we want that number two on there because we haven't decided what we're going to do there yet if you I know I was just looking at that um it's a procedure right because we don't know yet if it's
G to be is a backpack considered a designated Bill sorry that's what we have to determine that's would a backpack be considered a designated area that's what we have to determine right that's kind of the procedural piece that so I mean policy or if
you we can look at that I guess in policy too and think and just think through that but I did notice that too as I was reading it I don't know if it I guess we'll take a look at it does any if anyone has anyes right then okay they're not
there's not a designated area so that's where I would say give the administrative the administration the Lee a way to figure this out and but you guys decide whatever you want to do is there any strong feelings on the board on that language just my initial
think thinking through this um is the language in number two broad enough so even like with pouches the designated area could be the pouch p so I mean is it Z is the school then it would be the pouch if we were
doing pouches but I mean is is the language in this policy broad enough to I mean that's the big question I would have is if we leave it in there is it broad enough or is it going to trip up the procedural piece my question is is it
necessary I would say yes at this point but I'm I guess I'd had to think about it because I'm looking at number one it doesn't it's pretty clear Bell to Bell well would would you want to be able to give some guidance that or
expectation that you can't have it in your pocket right I mean that I mean I think that would be the if you didn't have something saying you know that you that could just be in your pocket could be on you know you're just not going to
use it although there's going to be some procedure do you want to have something in there that says like number two hope that it's broad enough to right whatever you guys I yes is that is number two model
msba language MH yes I mean I don't see the harm in having it as long like you said I'm looking at to see interpret it if it's broad enough and obviously this will be a heavy procedural policy that will be communicated in a number of different
ways so we talked about that a little bit too and handbooks and okay if anyone has any other additional we'll just make sure the language is Broad enough yeah some debates on that in committee but if you guys have any
strong opinions one way or the other you can send an email to Paul yeah excellent and I think on that point I would you know look closely at that number two there and look that against section seven part B which gives the school board directs the superintendent and
School administration to establish additional rules and procedures regarding student possession of that's that clause in there that that kind of outlines the procedural component of the policy so so might be something again to look at with that um I would just point out that one of the other questions that
that came up um that was brought to us was just the idea of buses and just some clarification on what what about the use of cell phones on buses um and in this reading it really does um in that se in section uh
481 it indicates Bell tobell which again is means from the Bell from the start of the school day to the bell of the end of the school day um is that's where the Restriction is so uh buses to and from school with this policy cell phones would be allowed um there certainly are
those requirements under any time any use of a of a personal device regarding you know certain restrictions would would um be enforced but um as far as the access would be allowed on buses to and from like in that second example I
think we discussed locker rooms obviously those aren't yeah those are not allowed just regardless right right in the policy and then I think the last question that I had noted that we had discussed was the uh regarding um times in which students are leaving the
building for um really school-based activities if it be PSO or educational things or or work experience courses in they leave campus um and again I think that that's very clear that um in both sections where it talks about off-campus
and school sponsored activities um along with the previously mentioned area it's really establishing guidelines and procedures ERS that's allowed um as as that develops of of what that would look like for students
so direct Parker uh on topic 4B off-campus School sponsored activities that you were just addressing I do think that the current language as I read it and I may may not have read it right because honestly that's a lot of words
um would have potential problematic for say the baseball trip to Florida you know are they not going to be use their phone for seven days um or a a tournament you know the ski tournament uh the end of the year ski tournament up in babic up north you
know how would you address that say we may establish it doesn't say they we will We may so we will it's of course we're going to have some some Case by case situations here where
um so it's it's me publish yeah I think the the reading allows for um especially like the the last s these guidelines will be provided the guidelines that are established for the activity will be provided at pre-activity meetings activity specific
permission slips and by other means as appropriate in that circumstance so I think it it allows I for sure read that wrong okay thank you so I think that covers some of the areas in which we're discussed um with the between the first and the second reading thank you very much yes well I
just I know at our last meeting there was a debate we had the option we St the option that A and B option one was to just to cut a little slack at the high school level for a between classes and at the time I was kind of for that and I still see some Merit in it but I have
got a lot of feedback from a lot of people and I'm okay with that so I think um that's part that's the way we're going to go um but also the feedback I'm getting is the the devil is in the details here in the implementation of this and the enforcement and the consistent
enforcement so it's probably not going to go into policy but I just want to acknowledge that that is an issue and I think good luck to you administrators on uh on seeing this through but I think the policy part that's the easy part right now is the
bill the good news is and I don't want to I know Carissa was talking about this at our policy committee meeting is that typically it's a little bit like pulling teeth maybe sometimes to get people community members or staff members whoever is necessary to want to
volunteer for a a committee and in this case with the procedures for cell phones she didn't have any problem that it was a some it was a committee people wanted to be a part of because they believe in what this is doing um so I think from that standpoint hopefully there's some
good Solutions and some um and some good ideas that come from that and I do appreciate that we did get the feedback because at the time I thought there might have been some differences out there but I think it was pretty solid Bell to Bell and uh that made me more
comfortable with what we're doing now so uh so continued feedback is welcome on this policy we'll come back for a third reading and action so um if you have any feedback send that to Mike and Paul and we can discuss it at our next uh commune meeting thank you very much
thank you thank you all right uh our last item on the agenda is a closed session uh pursuant to the attorney client privilege for the purpose of receiving confidential legal advice in response to threatened litigation I will
entertain a motion that the meeting now be closed for the purposes stated um I will go ahead and make that motion is there a second I'll second great uh Sarah with a second all those in favor of moving to close session raise your hand and say i i i n none we will move
to close session thank you 205 for