##VIDEO ID:DqTxEcmT8WQ## e e e e e e all right start you don't get a gav till you're the chair us sorry it's not going to be on either apparently oh there there we go okay okay we'll call this meeting to order Joan roll call director gersich president director hacker yeah director ber here Dr La here Dr Parker here Dr theer here chair Sherman she's not chair she's she's director here you have a great let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay before we get started we are going to do kind of a ceremonial um oath of office for our three elected board members um so should do you guys want to introduce yourself like can we do it up here and have just stand up or what do you want to do usually we just do it sitting down unless anyone wants I was watching Andrew this morning at the county so that's why oh we usually are pretty informal and just you know just do it sitting down but if you guys want to stand we can if anyone feels compelled um so we're swearing in three people we have director hacker who is reelected for a second four-year term director Parker and Sarah how do you pronounce your last name it's gersich gersich and director gersich or I'll probably just end up seeing Sarah it's fine believe all right so um do we raise our right hand and just repeat after me and I'll keep it like super short um having signed the acceptance of O office and oath of office having signed the acceptance of office and oath of office okay I hearby publicly affirm I hereby publicly affirm my commitment to the oath of office my commitment to the oath of office I affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States I affirm that I will support the con of the United States and of the State of the State and that I will discharge faithfully and that I will discharge Faithfully the duties of the office of school board member the duties of the office of school board member of Independent School District number 834 of Independent School District number 834 to the best of my judgement and ability to the best of my judgement and ability that's it congratulations look forward to en um having two new faces on the board so special welcome to you here four years all right um now we're going to move into an approval of the agenda I'll make um a motion to approve the agenda can I get a second so moved great director the Linder with a second all those in favor of approving tonight's agenda raise your hand and say I I opposed agenda passes okay so we're g to move into our first of the year organizational portion of the meeting and we will start by me just kind of repeating some of the procedures for the community um the acting chair I will ask for nominations any member of the board May nominate themselves or another board member um and nominations do not require a second if no other nominations are immediately received I will pause and repeat the call for nominations so that there are three total calls for nominations um after the third call for nominations if the nominations are no other nominations are forthcoming we will close the nominations for office and then we will um have a roll call vote so um our votes are public I think before in the past a few years ago maybe there was paper ballot but I think we just decided when we took over that it would just be a verbal like a hander vote so we'll continue that practice um votes can be you know reopened by a motion if necessary and yeah you can vote for yourself if you so desire and when an individual receives four votes they're elected to the position and um if an individual does not receive four votes the board may choose to reopen nominations or simply revote so all right so we'll start with the first position the election of chair are there any nominations yes I'll nominate Ellison Sherman great for board chair thank you are there any other nominations are there any other nominations okay so seeing there are no other nominations we will close nominations and Joan roll call vote director gersich yes do you want to name or yeah if you could she's the only only one yeah so it's so yeah so it's fine director Sherman okay um director Hawker Allison Sherman director kenberg Allison Sherman director laow Alison Sherman director Parker Alison Sherman director th ler Alison Sherman director Sherman great thank you very much guys I app are you voting direct oh do I sure I will vote for myself shman received seven votes than you thank you guys I appreciate it all right um the next office is the election of Vice chair are there nominations for vice chair director hoger thank you I'd like to nominate Andrew theander for vice chair great um we have a nomination are there any other nominations third time are there any other nominations seeing n none I will close nominations and call for a roll call vote director gersich Andrew theander director Hawker Andrew theander director kenberg Andrew Lander director La Andrew theander director Parker Andrew theander director Sherman Andrew theander and director theander Andrew theander director theander receives seven votes for prce chair great moving on to the election of clerk are there any nominations for clerk I'll nominate Katie Harker great we have a nomination for director Hawker for clerk are there any other nominations are there any other nominations for clerk seen as the call for three nominations we will close nominations and do a roll call vote director G gisich ktie Hawker director Hawker Katie Haw director kelber Katie Hawker director loward ktie Hawker director Parker Katie Hawker CH Sherman Katie Hawker and director ther ktie Hawker Katie H received seven votes for Clerk and our last position is the election of treasure are there nominations for Treasure director H I'd like to nominate P kenberg for Treasure right we have a nomination for director kelzenberg for Treasure do we have any other nominations do we have any other nominations roll call vote d gich Pete kenberg dor hacker Pete gelenberg director Kellenberg Pete kelzenberg director ler Pete Kellenberg direct Parker Pete kelzenberg Sherman Pete kelzenberg dor theander Pete kelzenberg kelzenberg receiv seven vs for Treasure all right so with the election we'll move on to our next item which is um um the Schoolboard committee assignments and working groups so you all should have gotten um just a an assignment list of uh with empty and then one that we did with everyone's names on it from this last year uh so I just want to give an opportunity because I'll be finalizing this in the next couple days and it'll appear on our next consent agenda but I typically just like to hear from people if you have any um preferences you know interests that you want to Pur pursue so maybe just give me a phone call or email me let me know if you have anything some of you have already spoken to me and I appreciate that I feel pretty ready to finalize these up and we'll share those and then they'll be on the next consent agenda um and but I just wanted with two new members if there were any questions um otherwise just reach out to me and let me know and if I don't hear from you it'll be whatever we think will work best for the district any questions on that great look for that in the next few days and on our the agenda on the 21st um last year we talked board member salary so every year we kind of share the documentation um I don't think the intent was to every year be revisiting this but maybe every couple years so um I I guess I don't know if we need a motion for this or if we can just informally agree that we stay it it's it's really your past practice I've seen districts that okay this is what we establish as the board pay and it maintains that pay until another board action takes place and I feel like that's kind of been the past practice then I would say then you don't need to take any action if you're not going to be adjusting pay but if anyone feels I mean the there's just a slight bit of difference that we're maybe slightly behind I think the goal just for um our two new board members was we had we'd gone like almost 10 years without the board getting an adjustment of pay and we'd Fallen quite Bel behind on what other districts were doing so as a board we decided that we'd like to kind of stay at that middle ground we don't want to fall to the bottom but we don't want to be at the top of those comparable lists so we'd like to kind of keep in that mid-range and I think the intent was that every few years just like we do with um employee groups that we would just be revisiting that to make that adjustment to the middle um so we're slightly behind but not by much so maybe next year we can pick this up and make that adjustment might I suggest that we maybe do on the even years and just so we know that we're going to do it so we're not trying to have the discussion when are we going to do it and it's always an awkward conversation to talk about so we just set it so we know when we're going to do it then we just do it every couple years it's not big yep I think that would be fine I think we always have to have it on the agenda right technically or no oh okay and then once you set it that's what it is and then it gets adjusted when you and reset it as long as we have some data on the books someplace saying here's what the board establish their their salary at okay so I would agre I think that we could do it on even years and just make that adjustment and it may not need to be adjusted for a mid-range or it may need to be we we'll just take a look every even year right um so we will leave the pay unchanged and um just to maybe for the Public's benefit just to know what that is um this is annually Direct directors make um $ 5,339 annually and the chair gets just a little bit more at 5,972 so that's an annual um salary so for the 12 months great okay so um in your folder believe we should have the code of ethics do we have that in the folders I do okay um so I would just ask board directors we've started doing this a few years ago just to review the policy in detail and then I just ask that you would sign it um and get that to Jones so we can put it on file and it just as a good policy to review in terms of what expectations are for a board member um it is policy 209 um for the community members who want to go read it themselves I'm sure it'll be on our board book as well um so yeah so just sign that you can read it sign it tonight or later just at the next meeting by January 21st and if you have any questions on that please feel free to reach out and then um having all the organizational stuff done for the year we'll move into our next um item which is the consent agenda our consent agenda is on the screen and and I will make a motion to approve items a through J can I get a second second director lower with the second all those in favor of approving the consent agenda this evening raise your hand and say I I opposed consent agenda passes unanimously all right um we have under strategic Direction a ensure the learning process is adaptable to meet individual student needs we have an update on the Lake Elmo cons construction or no the building I was like I don't know that no you don't know that principal pong TOA right good job all these hard games welcome thank you how's your first year like as going first five months right know mon five months um as principal um I've been in the District 27 years 20 years as a teacher at Oakland As a science teacher and then I moved to the high school and was a bar coordinator and then assistant principal there before last year moving to an assistant principal at Brook viiew and Lake Elmo and now the new principal roles sorry the new principal position at Lake Elmo so I'm so happy to be here and thank you um board shair CH Sherman and the new board members welcome and thank you superintendent Funk and the rest of the board members thank you all right so um here I am G to talk a little bit about Lake Elmo Elementary School um we serve the community of Lake Elmo and simmeron and neighboring communities um what you see up in front of you um in the black is what would be on a 2024 report card by the Minnesota Department of Education and red is what I con currently um ascertained from power school and so um for us for example students of color were at 40.2% just so you know 20% of our students that make up that category are um our Hispanic or lat latinx students and so we are a Spanish Immersion School along with um an English program as well but um partially in in the matter that we have 20% of our students are um Hispanic or Litin um and I'll talk to about special education um we have a higher percent because we do have some um programs specialized programs at our school um one other point oh sorry go back slide is our you can see our enrollment is 719 students we are above capacity and um which is one of the reasons why we'll be um opening a new school in the fall of 2026 so we are the largest Elementary School in the District we are the first bar Elementary School in the nation um bar um started out as a secondary program specifically for nth graders and over time that developed to be a very strong program that showed great outcomes for high schoolers in Lake Elmo Elementary Stephen Gordy actually had a daughter in ninth grade at the high school and he's thought this is a really great program that gets teachers talking and gets them working together to support students and he said what if we try this out of Elementary and so um it's kind of it's just been a neat experience so we're seven years in as an elementary school that has bar um we are one of the three in the district that have bar and it's just I'll talk more about that system and how it helps support our program and like I said before we offer both an English program and a dual language Spanish program and so for example in kindergarten we have three Spanish Immersion classes and four English classrooms and so um we carry that through from kindergarten through fifth grade we have an incredibly diverse staff um we have staff members from all over the country all over the world um we have including even our support staff our pair of professionals oftentimes when I'm interviewing I have a candidate that English is not their primary language they're very interested and getting into our program um so it's just a really neat place to work because of the diversity of the staff that we have um and we um host we are the home of um our District's medly complex students we call it the pony room um students kindergarten through fifth grade are in this program they do participate in the general educ education classrooms as well and we are the new interim site for the CIP program which stands for communication integration program there students on the autism spectrum that are in kindergarten in first grade um so we are a new site an additional site for the district um and this program will stay with us this year and next and then the new home for this program will be the new Anderson building um and we're anticipating an opening of our new building in the fall of 2026 so um I'm going to talk today about our strengths and our areas our challenges and opportunities for growth um our strengths School Community um from the diversity of our staff to the diversity of our students the number of volunteers that we work with um the Fidelity Fidelity of our systems um bar has been there like I said for seven years and so that is a very strong system in our school and really helps align our our um just our approach on everything that we do um we are also a very strong responsive classroom school like many of the elementary schools in the district and that has I think created an environment where we work very well together in terms of setting up interventions whether that's for academics social emotional or behavioral interventions um and then we offer a variety of programming options which I explained the Spanish Immersion the English the pony room the CIP we offer quite a variety um our challenges are Staffing shortages since the beginning of the year we've struggled um in getting enough per of support and I'll talk more about that obviously if we're over capacity we're struggling with our space um we have varying curriculum needs in our Spanish Immersion or dual language program and so um we're looking to some more alignment there between our English program and our Spanish Immersion or dual language program and it's just um been something that's in development um class size with two programs going it we might be on one part over like or closer to the the range that the board has said outlined outlined versus on some of the others and I'll talk a little bit more about that um student achievement as a new principal it's something that I'm definitely digging into and looking really this year I'm focused on the Fidelity of the programs that we do have to see the impact that that can make in student achievement um and obviously with the new school coming um people have questions and ideas and things like that and just thinking about what kind of forum can we provide that support for staff all right on that slide can you talk about responsive classroom I've not heard of that before she gonna get into it I think later on yeah so each slide there's a slide for each of these so we'll we'll yeah um here is um just about our school Community um like I said we have a very diverse staff we also have a very diverse student body um the staff that have been there I just was giving kindergarten tours before I came here and several of the families mentioned about the longev longevity of the staff members that we have in our building I mean we have people that have been there over 30 years we have people that taught in other districts for 10 plus years that want to be part of Lake Elmo and look for an opportunity to apply and become part of our family our community and so we just have a very dedicated staff um our families uh we've been meeting as a PTA and just at one of our more recent meetings they said this is the most families we've ever had show up at our PTA meetings and so I feel like we are building those connections with our families and getting them involved um and so that's a really a neat place to be with a PTA that's growing um our volunteers this is our first year to connect with the vessel volunteers vessel stands for volunteers for elementary school literacy um so this is our first year to connect we had um just a phenomenal group of volunteers that have come in to help our very large program and we also even got some math volunteers connected um we don't have a separate program for them but they kind of connected in with the literacy group and then we have a lot of family members that are volunteering so when you walk through our building you're going to see quite a few volunteers help supporting classrooms and working with a little ones to learn to read and things like that especially with our kindergarten first grade program so these are our two systems that to me since they're already in existence and they're already very strong programs how can we improve the Fidelity of these programs so the bar program um there is a component where it's in the classroom and and there's activities called you times that's the social emotional learning component of bar that also is a and a way for a teacher to understand the whole child and we just had a conversation with our building leadership team on Monday about this like what kind of data do we get from U times it's our qualitative data it's those things that you might miss when you're looking at a formative or a summative assessment or a fast Bridge assessment you might not notice something about a particular child that you might learn in a u time um our teachers meet weekly they meet one week it will be with with their grade alike peers so if I have a student that I would consider like a level one concern I'm I'm a little bit concerned about maybe academics or a little concerned about Behavior I might want to talk to some of my other counterparts at my grade level and so I would bring that student up it's also an opportunity to bring up like those celebrations that we have about students um is our teacher kind of grade level meeting the next week they're going to meet at a K5 meeting and at that level maybe you have a student that has greater concerns where you're wondering you know in first grade in kindergart I noticed they they struggled with this I am as a second grader what kind of things should I be aware of as they advance to third grade or even fourth or fifth grade and so we ask that teachers present um level two students at these these meetings that are K5 meeting um and then we take that information because obviously there's students that are still struggling and so this fits very nicely in with the mtss process and so we tell teachers make sure that you've referred a student whether it's if a student Allon flags for us on Sabers so the social emotional have they have we talked about them at bar so we everything funnels through bar so if a student gets to the point that we're really thinking about what is that tier three that highest level of support that we need to offer we have Community connect and Community connect brings together um an interventionist our school nurse our school psychologist our school social worker myself my assistant principal and we're meeting to say what additional supports can we put in for the student and it might be supports that are outside of our building that um we may need to reach out for additional resources it could be a student that potentially might end up in a child study for a possible a special education evaluation and so that's kind of bar and it really helps tie a lot of the pieces together and so for us for having done bar for seven years is just part of who we are um I would say also responsive classroom is a big part of that because that's where we build that sense of community there's a strong sense of Community when you come into our school and it goes beyond the classroom so when kids come in they're going to start the day with the morning meeting but then there's components throughout the day that helps really get the kids to understand what are those expectations we want to support you with your hopes and dreams but what does that look like and so there's a lot of um common language that's used amongst the teachers common expectations whether you're on the playground or in the hallway and I just think it creates a very very caring environment um even how we how we look at discipline or how we intervene in behavioral issues it always starts with the classroom teacher they have that strongest relationship with that child and that's where we start if we need additional supports we have the green room and of course if you know at some point I might be involved in that process as well this the one side um or the one graphic up here on the right is responsive classroom has several components and you can see like attention signals take a break buddy room positive solving U problem solving meeting redirecting um and um reminding language and then interactive modeling and as a new principal I wanted to know where my teachers were at some have had formal responsive classroom training some have not they've been part of like our new teacher workshop and there's an introduction to it I also have teachers who are kind of experts in the area and so what kind of supports could we provide to teachers that feel like I really want to know more about this buddy room what does that mean and so I did the survey to find out where staff were at so that we can offer some of our kind of informal trainings before after school moving into second semester um this aligns the mtss structure aligns tightly with bar um you typically in mtss you talk about tier one tier two tier three in bar you talk about level zero to one level two level three and these align very well together and so this is kind of what I just talked about a small block meeting would be those teachers that are in your grade level and a big block meeting would be a K5 team and Community connect like I mentioned would be like our school social worker our school psychologist looking for whether or not we need to reach for resources outside of our school um and so it just really aligns well with the mtss process we're constantly looking like if the student is flagging here were they ever spoken about at bar if not where was the Mison communication and what do we need to do to make sure that they're in our process um there's documentation that we do with bar that passes from year to year to year so that we're not having to reinvent the wheel every year oh you know what we tried this intervention this worked really well for this student let's try that again now as they're a second grader let's try that and so that's a really neat component of bar is that there's this tracking or not a tracking but a spreadsheet that lets us know what we have tried in the past on the programming opportunities um like I said the pony room is our medically complex student um the ratio of Staffing just so you have an idea is two staff me or two students to one staff member and so it's very very important very critical that we have the Staffing for the pony room and the CIP program and so with a shortage of Staffing especially with our pair of professionals it makes it really hard um I have found myself and my school social worker and my assistant principal and um my uh School psychologists have had to support in both of these areas is because of the shortage that we've had in our par professionals um just because that Staffing ratio is very important yeah is that Staffing ratio set by the state or federal funding or just you know um yes by the district and then of course our Spanish uh dual language programming um students are they learn both Spanish and English and their racials change so in kindergarten for example Le it's 80% of the students day is in Spanish 20% of their day is in English their Specialists like whether they go to Art music PE media those are in English but the remaining part of their day has been in Spanish and we have now introduced what's called youly in kindergarten first grade and second grade so we are introducing more English into those early grades because the idea is to build strengths in both languages both Spanish and English um and we do have native Spanish speakers which is a strong component of the Dual language program so we want to make sure that we're doing just to both groups of students and for students to to strengthen in whether it's their home language or the language that they're learning can I ask do you know what percentage of students are are native speaking or or spoken at home anyway yeah it does vary from grade level um and so it is anywhere I would say from 10 to 30% depending on what grade we're talking talking about we ideally in a dual language if you want what's called two-way immersion you would want 50% Spanish speakers 50% English speakers to truly have a two-way program a dual language program could certainly work as a one-way program um but we do have native Spanish speakers or Heritage speakers that are part of the program and and so that's an ad I mean that's where that program came from is really to try to help support our native Spanish speakers thank you y um one of the things that I have up there is just as as kids are learning another language whether it be English or Spanish as they're learning that language sometimes when you look at a third grade MCA assessment you might be like oh they're really struggling but what you have to remember is they have both languages going on in their their brains and so the their vocabulary is massive it just doesn't translate well into an English standardized test and so um right now we're doing fast Bridge assessment and in the Spanish Immersion program they are tested both in Spanish and English so that we are able to kind of determine if interventions or supports are needed um what we do see is when they get to fifth grade at that point you start to see them being able to kind of make that switch to be able to go between languages and so if an assessment is in English you start to truly see what they're capable of and so typically with our MCAS in fifth grade you'll see our fifth grade fifth grade Spanish Immersion students outperform their English um just a quick question yeah on the MCAS with Amigos unidos um do they have do they take it in English if they're not if there's not an exception written somewhere they take this test in English so there could be a disadvantage in those earlier yeah some states offer the opportunity but Minnesota just has the MCAS offered in English Okay y um this is uh kind of to take a look at I know we were looking at the different schools and where they are in terms of their MCA M mtas scores um and so Lake Elmo has had gears where they've done really really well compared to the district and years that they've struggled as a new principal this is something that I'll definitely be looking a lot more into um right now like I said I'm really focused on the Fidelity of the programs that we do have because I do think it'll strengthen our academic outcomes and so when we look at our opportun ities uh for for just for some growth and some supports our staffing shortages for Lake Elmo have just we had 23 new staff to start the year um and so all their principales are in deing in here fine staff Katie Staffing so that new staff means teachers but it also means support staff pair of professionals as well um and so we had 23 new staff members coming into our building and we have 120 staff members and so that's a lot of new staff um including myself and so um as we look at supporting them um it just is a big ask and I think that it's going really well um I just wanted you to know that that's a challenge that we've we've worked through um we have a shortage of we have had pregnancies and babies and all kinds of things this year and so we have had a shortage of our um like speech and language our OT our pts and so um we have had to Outsource for those and have online providers and and it's just been kind of an ongoing thing for us this year at Lake Elmo um just so that you aware that that's been a struggle for us um our Paras have also been right now we have four openings we've struggled with four openings since the beginning of the year we have certainly hired people but then people leave for life situations and things like that um but it's definitely been an area that we've struggled in um there's certain expectations that go along with a perah if you want to be a special education perah there you either need 60 credits Beyond high school or you need to take the par Pro exam a lot of the applicants I get are not natives English speakers the test is given in English you can ask for extended time um but that for a lot of our our applicants it's it's very off-putting we've also struggled with our custodial crew in being short we were short staff to start the year and we continue to be short staffed same has happened with our nutrition services so Lake Elmo has just had a lot of other things that are out of our control that we've been working through this year and I think people have stepped in I mean it's amazing how people have stepped in said I'll help I'll do lunch Dy I'll do recess sty so people have been a it's just been a really great way to bring our community together because everybody realizes how short-handed we have been at different times um quick question about the Paras um in terms of the the turnover is it retention um or is it just life is happening people one got married moved to Iowa one got a phenomenal job working at the library in mayo so it's actually been really good reasons that they've left us um but most of the perels that have been there have been there for a very very long time and I feel like the ones we've hired are phenomenal and are part of our family and it's going to be hard for them to to leave as well but yeah it just as it's just life this year okay thanks yep um and just like other schools I've talked even though we're a large school and for example I have a full-time fied teacher but I also have an additional F teacher so like small schools might say well we have to share a specialist we share Specialists as well even though we do have a full-time music teacher and a full-time fied teacher we do share Specialists as well um with the size of the building that we have um so I just wanted to make sure that that was just something that you understood Katie can I ask you really quick what is the breakdown enrollment wasse between Amigos like in the whole building what's the general kind of Lake Elmo versus the amigoos I know everyone's under the same school I know it's I would say it's it's pretty close to 5050 I mean it depends kind of at each grade level it varies um and so like in kindergarten right now it's 5050 um a little bit more at say Spanish Immersion or Amigos unitos than English but it does vary because then you get to fifth grade and more students are on the English side than on the the Migos un needle side as a whole probably yeah it kind of averages out thank you um can we talk about MCA a little bit over second like what grades are MCA taken in because we you show in the fifth grade but there's more than that right third and fifth third and Fifth Fifth Grade for science only yes the others are for grades three through five okay because like it shows 82% for fifth how did your third and fourth go because the the presentation from September showed you guys at 55 for reading can we go back to the that's that's there's 55 par of the slide you're looking at right there is 23 data the the slide that I'm looking at that that we're showing that should be 24 D that's that's 20 2023a that's old data okay yeah so I guess my question is is if we're looking at all the grades would all the grades have similar scores because the difference between the 80% and the 55% seems pretty surprising to I'm trying to sort out is their grade problem what's what what's driving that difference yes yeah the grades definitely like if you were to look at I'll answer that what's that okay hey depending on the test all right third grade reading is the hardest test we give so our kids in Reading score what is it 50 low 50% by the time they give fifth grade reading it's a different completely different test they score significantly higher so um we can get into more detail on that later I can show you some data on that but um depending on on it's kind of reversed in uh math our fifth grade math scores are in the tank well our third graders are doing very well so great question but we'll and we can send we did some some MCA you might have seen we can send that to you too and then do some followup I know these presentations and I probably should have prefaced this with our new board directors we asked all our different schools to kind of come in and just give us like a brief overview of kind of how things are going both some of the strengths some of the opportunities and where the board maybe can should just better inform our decision making at the board table knowing some of the challenges and maybe that we would kind of come across themes like for example I don't think we've had a school that has come up that hasn't mentioned principles being engaged in substituting and not maybe focused on academic um leadership as much as they would like to or peras being a shortage like some of these them are kind of springing up but um I just want to make sure that we're kind of keeping it at a high level with strengths and opportunities and have a conversation but you might not be prepared to dig into some of the real nitty-gritty details especially as a new friend I have it that's what I was looking at has the 55 I know I spoke to this a little bit before but the what has happened with the K5 program in terms of curriculum for our Amigos T needles our dual language Spanish program is that it's the consistency that vertical alignment piece and so that's an Ask of our Amigos un needles program is to have time to do some vertical alignment and to look at the curriculum that they're using um one of just the quick one that I kind of caught on is like for example um there's should be the same curriculum you would hope in Spanish Immersion as in the English like you would hope for the same and like for math well math expressions is K5 in Spanish dual language but only K4 in English in fifth grade and English uses Holt I don't know the answer for why that is I'm just coming into a program and and say finding out more information about about some of these differences um I know that with us moving forward with literacy that's going to be a big help for us in aligning um at least the literacy component of both programs and we already have that with the science um and class sizes um with two programs what we do see is for example um when we look at that student to teacher ratio right now in the younger primary grades you typically see a higher teacher student ratio in the primary grades but then as students of students leave the program or move and so then you'll typically see the reverse happen where all of a sudden there are higher teacher student racials in the English program and so with running two programs you do see different uh teacher to student ratios Katie here's a question I want you to I don't want you to have to uh answer it right now but give it to Caitlyn and we can she can provide this to the board in an update historically what has been our attrition by grade level in the immersion program I think that's an important data point um especially when we're looking at kk3 when I had been this this many kids and by the time I don't think I don't think we've ever looked at that mm I agree so essentially what you're saying is like you start out K in immersion with a fully yes like 25 to 26 kids and then for life or whatever maybe people just buy out of the Dual language they leave the program either leaving the district or going into the yeah we don't have people leaving like um the Migos un needles program to go to the English program it's more that theyve left the district district okay and that's why you have yeah you can't bring kids it's really hard to bring a fourth grader in from another I mean we do have it happen but very infrequently so then you're left with lower we don't have movement very typically happened between the programs unless there's a significant need but it's not something we would encourage research says you need to ride this program oh and you will see the benefits of being in this program through the entire program K5 and that's good that parents that are in the district and stay in the district stay with the program because you do I'm assuming that's communicated very clearly to before you buy into the program yes yep and that's what people are asking like tonight most of the tours that I gave for kindergarten were around families very interested in the Dual language or Spanish Immersion program um and then here we have our layout of our new school and with that design there's a lot of questions I just met with my second grade team today and just wondering what is it going to be like because right now our our building you're very isol you know you're in a traditional classroom and the Halls are very narrow and there's not a lot of you know people intermixing throughout the day um and so to be in a space where you ideally might have pods like a fifth grade pod fourth grade pod and you have that opportunity to collaborate and to teach in a different way what's that going to look like and so a lot of Staff have asked are we going to have opportunity to look at professional development around that and where would we fit that in and and how are we going to best support those ped pedagogical pedagogical needs of our students if we do a more collaborative space where we're working with students so in summary um that's our staff there we had a a big barbecue to start the year off um to help people get to know each other but we're looking to you know that consistent Staffing especially with our support staff um like I said with our peras and our speech language OT PT um it's just been a really challenging year in that regard s um and so the strength definitely comes from that consistent Staffing and and so we really want to get the people that have the heart for it in the Pro in our program to support it especially with our Paras because I definitely see a lot of heart it's just that fear of that exam um the curricular support with that consistency between our English program and our dual language or Spanish Immersion program um that's going to really help us out especially because there's so much collaboration that happens in term of our our plc's or our cat work and so really want to see that alignment there that vertical alignment piece is what the you know our dual language program is asking for giv us that opportunity to really look at where our kids need to be from year to year to year um as they move on um the student teacher ratios with seeing the programs and how they differ in you know the primary grades versus the Upper Elementary grades um and then that professional development piece especially moving to a new building that have a very different layout and what does that mean for our staff yes Dr Kel question earlier on in your presentation you mentioned that you're over over uh capacity right I wonder if that's related to Spanish Immersion uh you take people from throughout the district in there everybody that wants into that program are they in or do we have to turn people away yes we turn people away there's a lottery system yes so people are turned away um and so right now there's a tiered system um there's obviously you want native Spanish speakers um and then it kind of goes to after that if you already have children in the program obviously we're not going to make you have to go to different schools um and then if you're a staff member and you have student you know your kids are going to go you want them in the program um and then it looks at whether or not you're within the Lake Elmo boundaries or not and then like that fifth tier is people that are outside our boundaries or people even outside the district and is the limitation the actual space couple things yes space is one okay the other thing I want to share with you is we are relooking at how we are doing this as districts around us are creating emerging programs and so we're looking at this is this Lottery system that she just mentioned the best way to do things um because if we do a lottery system and we make you wait for the lottery well okay well I'm just going to go androll my kids someplace else so we are actively looking at right now on um changing that to a potentially a first come first serve um type of basis and we have about half you said about half so about 400 people it's been if everybody was in that wanted to be in what would that be that's why building a bigger school yeah yeah and I think it's having that quality staff as well right because you really want to have like um trying to find a teacher who is well you know fluent in Spanish by cultural biliterate you know um bilingual but also have this incredible skill set as an elementary school teacher is a really unique skill set and so finding an ideal candidate you you know you're going to get people that oh yeah I I speak Spanish and then you know part of the interviewing process is asking them questions and having them respond in Spanish and you realize wow maybe their skill set isn't what we need it to be so our teachers are phenomenal in both the teaching of Spanish and also their skill set as an elementary school teacher and so you want to make sure that you can support the program with amazing staff like we have okay thanks and you have two preschool sections just like every other school y any other questions I appreciate you kind of summarizing some of the the challenges I know it's not necessarily anything the board can do but it sounds like staff will be working with you to address some of the alignment and class size issues and things like that but certainly if the Board needs to be I would trust superintendent you would see us if you needed our for sure support yeah great thank you so much for coming well thank you so much for your time tonight all right we're going to move on to another Lake Elmo topic under utilize systems and align resources and an efficient manner to support learning uh the new Lake Elmo Elementary earth work bid good evening chair Sherman members of the board um on December 19th we opened up 39 bids 39 work scopes for the new Lake Elwell Elementary School um with the holiday season um we weren't able to get through all of the interview process with all 39 work Scopes but we did pull out one the earthw um the reason that one got pulled out we're going here tonight for that approval is because we want to start the first week of February get mobilized on site and start with our site work so we're bringing that work scope here specifically the other 38 work Scopes will'll bring to the next meeting on January 21st so with that work scope We There were nine bids for that work scope the lowest responsible bidder was Park construction company out of Minneapolis Minnesota um for $2,922 700 so with that um I would like to award the contract to park so we can get moving with the site work for that and then I'll be here at the next meeting to talk about the other 38 work scopes for that project great um I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve the earthw bit is there a second a second great director thinder with a second any questions just in general um how did how did the awarding bid come in in terms of the budget is that what you were hoping for above overall so we look at them because you know some are high some are low but in terms of overall we are we are on budget and on time excellent so we're in a good spot good thanks and as a uh you put some qualifiers on the lowest responsible bidder can you sort of go through that process of what that looks like of identifying what a responsible Builder is and so first off you look at the low bid um and there's two different ones so some of you going to see our um best value and some are not best value so we pulled out um nine different contracts to look at Best Value in terms of making sure that everything that's um they bid the number that they bid is everything within there they didn't miss any you know doors or some different things so we get later and they look at change orders and learn things so they understand that the the what they bid is for the material then you get into terms of what the timeline looks like we have a construction schedule already laid out you know where you fit in that timeline can you fit do you have the um people power to make sure that you fit in in that timeline um do you have value engineering ideas that can help us with the scope in terms of schedule in terms of ways to improve so we bring those contractors in um for the best value is the top three the people that have those lowest three bids I should say they come in we have a conversation with all those and then that's how we get the lowest responsible B the best value other the other ones is we have um conversations with those but not quite as formal and in-depth as the those nine critical work Scopes uh and last question for me on this is uh how do we factor in things like disenfranchised entities or veteran owned businesses or women owned businesses things like that do we factor that in our vendor selection um and no we we send this out to everybody who can apply so we have um advertisement for bids that goes out in um for at least two weeks do your does your construction management you know Charles Anderson I think they go through they yes they will reach out yes thank yes but their public beds open everybody appreciate it okay so upon passage of this uh do they start moving dirt right away or are they just kind of standing by waiting for the temperature to go up nope we're going to start um that first week as we'll get the the trailer out there get their things on site um but we're going to hopefully start to move dirt and and get the sight cleared as as soon as we possibly can even before the frost gets gets out we're going to start moving with snow and everything around so that's part of these conversations and make sure they understand the scope and they have the um Power and Equipment to make sure that you know come probably that second third week of February they're they're moving dirt okay thanks and sorry do we have the trees sorted out yep yeah awesome right we have a motion in a second on the floor seeing no other questions all those in favor of approving the uh earthw work package raise your hand and say I opposed motion passes unanimously thank you Mark thank you okay and now we're g to have Carissa come and talk about our legislative platform as we head into legislative season it is that time good evening members of the board Welcome to our new board members glad to have you here at the table today um I'm going to go over quickly some of the legislative priorities that have been identified by our legislative committee um so thank you to those members who are part of this conversation every year the school board adopts a legislative platform to help as they have conversations with our local legislators about what our schools need obviously our goal is to make sure that we're providing for our students and it does cost money so a lot of our priorities are based on funding and there's also just some other things that we think legislators could help us with so much of this information is based off of other platforms that are created by organizations we work with such as the asso of metropolitan school districts or the Minnesota school boards Association so if you're familiar with those organizations you might know some of these uh topics that are on our platform as well there's kind of four main areas and education funding is the top one so the basic education formula I think every year has been on our platform that we are asking for some dollars um just to help us cover those basic costs of Education which rise just like your bills at home um we're seeing those those numbers increase things like Staffing things like um insurances and just all the costs um so we're asking for that basic formula to be increased also asking for our cross subsidies to be um addressed as well recent legislation has helped in this area so we have seen some money which is definitely a good thing but you will notice that we still have some considerable gaps in what um our cost is and what we're receiving for things like our English Learners and our special education another area under education funding is the react you've heard a lot about that in previous board meetings as we talked about the literacy curriculum that we need to adopt and the professional development with the letters training there's a lot of cost for the react and we we're very supportive of this work we know it's important work but there is a gap in um what the state is providing for us through some of their literacy Aid and teacher comp Aid We're certainly getting some funding for that but you'll see we are anticipating about 1.3 million just in curriculum costs there's also been some costs associated with PD and some other ongoing needs that we have with this so we're asking for them to just fully fund that read act for us additionally there was legislation um recently that provides for our staff through an unemployment insurance or paid leave program um this is costing us some money and we were I think with the unemployment insurance this past year which is kind of that gap for things like peras who don't work over the summer um it was mostly covered for us this year but we know that that funding was limited and we're not expecting that that will continue to be funded moving forward so our ask is that we provide funding for these State mandates um the Paid Family Medical Leave is another area where we're required to pay 50% and then we kind of have to negotiate with our staff on what they're going to pay and so we would just like the legislator to make that a 50-50 split so that we don't have to have that negotiation and then the earn sick and safe time um I was talking with Chris carlston from HR today this is one of those requirements that is not only costing us money it's considerable time on our HR staff to try to work through a lot of these these things that are spelled out in the earn sick and safe time um we already have some contracts that are pretty generous and are providing a lot of this time for our staff but having to go in and match things up with what state's saying and work through all of those different nuances with different groups can be really challenging it's been um very difficult for them and it is adding to our cost too so that's just something we'd like to try to simplify um moving forward the compensatory funding um this sounds really complicated I think what it really comes down to is if you remember we now provide free meals to students we also ask parents to fill out this free and reduced lunch form there's kind of a disconnect there and so it's actually costing us money um so we're experiencing about a $300,000 loss with the way that it's currently working and so we're just asking them to to look at that process and try to simplify that and make that work better for us in our new environment um we're also asking for an increase in local optional Revenue uh currently this is about $724 that the board can Levy for this and we're just asking for that to be increased up to 974 there was some legislation recently um that well intentioned to try to keep kids in school um keep us from being able to suspend students who are especially at the younger grade levels who are um struggling with some Behavior needs but what this is really happening at our school is it's um because kids are in school and need that support there's some behaviors that we're having to address it's taking a lot of time for our staff we really need more staff we need more support to be able to meet these non-exclusionary discipline requirements so we're asking for some additional funds to help in that area um long-term facilities maintenance you have probably heard as we've come before you with lots of different projects through ltfm funding um it provides a great source of revenue for us but it's pretty Limited in how we can do it so what we're asking is maybe for a little bit more flexibility in how we can use those dollars right now it's a like for like replacement but if we need to add on space at school or change something at the school we'd like to be able to use some of those funds instead of having to be so um instead of having to be so inflexible security modifications is another thing we'd love to be able to do with those funding can I ask a question on the first bullet point are we are we truly just asking for the funding for the staff which we know staff is hard to find or do do we want the local control back to be able to exercise in a rare case if we needed to expol a younger student well that's a question for the board what we are asking as uh from the committee from from what I understand is if the state is mandated that we cannot expel K through three or prek through three year old third graders what are we going to do with them if we are fully staffed and busy elsewhere where and they are not providing any I mean this is the classic unfunded mandate okay no longer going to be able to to suspend these kids I should say not expelled um can't suspend these students um so figure out what you're going to do with them and we're not going to give you any more support um to help meet their needs and I guess my only and it is would be a question for the board with um maybe what you're seeing kind of that boots on the ground but do we want to be asking for that local control back and do we want to take that back or has that been okay for the district to handle I don't know how often this comes up a k through three a prek through three um discipline need that's this that would rise to the challenge of well I I think with the split legislature right now you are not going to have any chance in of getting that that law changed so if we're going to have the law on the books all right then at least provide us support for it from a funding mechanism and Katie I don't know if you want to end on to that at all well at least my two cents on this is looking strategically at what we're going into with our new legislature too um asking for funding unfortunately is going to be really hard um and as you can see all of these are asks for funding um so at least internally or po potentially um up to the board is looking at what is going to be our strategy of asking for funding or or asking legislators would you look at repealing like pulling back these laws if you're not going to fund these you can't expect school districts to absorb those costs um even if they were well- intended um and ideally yes we want to have the funding so we can support and follow these laws um but but knowing that's not gonna because when I'm at amsd that definitely the conversation is the funding isn't going to be there right with the split legislature so the better strategy is probably to focus on that local control and you know remove the mandates that aren't supported I don't think you're gonna get either one but we could draw I mean or you could and that's kind of I guess what I was saying where if if not fully funded repeal I mean is that something we need to talk repeal unfunded mandate I think it's a great way to approach it okay because that's kind of where I guess I would lean towards repeal any unfunded mandate would be the I mean I I think if you say repeal any unfunded mandate we I mean you basically lose half of our education things that rules so there's so many unfunded mandates out there as I understand it but if it does seem like there's an opportunity to to modify potentially I don't know enough about this to understand the consequences or the the benefits but I do from the conversations that we've had from the school board um every presentation has brought up the short shortness of staff and having to uh have other Behavior Uh taking time for behavior issues um so it does seem like a modification if not funding may be beneficial um I think repeal might be hard I just think modification might be another approach and maybe we need to be specific because the repeal for me is what was done in the last legislature I mean not obviously we're not going to repeal special education requirements or English language learner requirements more of the um the last legislature what the read act the you know obviously if we don't want to ex we don't want to I mean I don't think we ever as a district have had the intention to expel any student it it rises to the level um based on a lot of a lot of work that goes between that action and and expulsion but if you're gonna mandate that we can't take that decisive action then you fully fund it or give us that control back because if we can't man I'm imagining that if you have behaviors that are rising to an extreme level K through three and we don't have the staff or we're pulling funding from General Ed classrooms to address that extreme Behavior that that's a problem so to me I guess I I would look at it as a I don't think we're going to get the money just everything I'm hearing at amsd is We're Not Gonna but but I think it's a valid conversation when we have the legislative breakfast here at the end of the month to have that conversation look you're doing this okay if you're not going to pay us to do this then we would like some relief here exactly and that's the intent of the platform is to bring forward the issues that we're having and I think this is a big one you you mentioned men it you've heard this from every principal who's come forward that the behaviors in our schools are escalating our kids are coming with a lot more um behavior and we have Staffing shortages and then the staff that are there are being pulled in more directions so this is definitely one that we are seeing play out in our schools and this isn't going to be new for any legislature legislative representative to hear because when I'm in amsd all of the district superintendent school board members are seeing the exact this is very in line with what they're seeing so this last bullet about the school safety Levy kind of ties into that conversation we are um spending quite a lot of money on sro's school security um counselor some of those different things that are providing those supports to make sure that our schools are safe and we get some funding but we're asking for more and also flexibility and how we can use those the safe schools levy says it can pay for this or this but there are additional um supports that we think would be helpful um to just make our schools safer in the area of assessment which is our third priority um there's been conversation at the board table around the MCAS and currently we are um if if families opt out of that if a student opts out of it it actually brings it impacts our scores and so we don't see that a lot at the elementary level but we do see more at the secondary especially at the high school level where kids are opting out of those tests so we're just asking that we just continue that practice and then um the idea of maybe looking at an a instead of an MCA uh that's a test that I think our students feel is more relevant to them and that they're willing to take more seriously and provide some good information to that our staff can use so we're thinking about replacing that MCA and giving them that act option instead and finally a couple other priorities that have come up is um the idea of data requests this has become a bigger and bigger issue in school districts um across the state and ours certainly as well in the cost that it's um being incurred for these data requests certainly people have the right to request data and for us to provide it but it does take a lot of time often there's legal costs that are involved and we're not in receiving any funding for that um and it is definitely costing us each year and the last one is for school boards to be able to again back that local control being able to pick school calendars that um meet the needs of their students in community and currently you know it's the Labor Day post Labor Day start is what's on law we've been able to uh work around that for the last couple of years because we do have construction projects and things with the waer that we can get but couple years couple years I guess this have been seven seven um so those are the priorities that have been outlined and certainly open to any discussion here the plan is for us to bring this to a legislative breakfast at the end of the month and we're also inviting board members and um some of our staff will be going to the capital later during the session too to have conversations with our legislators and I just want to make it with this is a draft we're going to be bringing this back to you in a few weeks for formal approval if you see something on here and you think okay well just as we were talking talking about with the uh prek 3 um exclusion um contact us let us know um and we can tweak it and we can adjust it and what we will do is we will take this and we will utilize this when we meet with the uh um area legislators here in uh I think it's the 31st yes and then in uh March or April I think it might be March this year we will actually go to amsd day at the capital and we'll be able to go around and meet with each of our individual um senators and representatives that represent the area and we will utilize these as a part of our uh talking points and I just wanted to make the comment that I think the format that you adopted like I think it's been a couple years now where we kind of who we are on the side I just pulled up the the 24 I I like that format that yes look that visual appeal and easy to read um we do have a draft of that as well so once we finalize this we'll have that version that we can hand out to the legislators okay the free and reduced lunch that for a long time that's been an application right somebody fill it out if they want free and reduced lunch but now that lunch is free There's No One S of to fill that out however but it's still used for other things beside lunch what if we rename named it to some other we have so we've been doing a lot of um marketing of that in a different way still encouraging people to do it it's educational benefits and we have a list of all the other things they can get from it so the start of each year they we hand out a flyer it's in all the newsletters it's kind of all over the place schools have it front and center um in the main office so we're trying to help people understand the importance of continuing to fill out that that paperwork but they just don't have that motivation that they they did before so it's a it's a harder sell but we're continuing to try and we do have people who are still filling it out um but it's and all districts are experiencing it's not unique to us and I think um and I just wanted really quick because it is related to that superintendent is there it was talk at amsd about matching the federal process like that the state forms don't match the federal needs do you know more about that um I I well I don't know exactly how the state is doing it you know they're talking direct certification but I'm not sure we never really got a clear answer from how they were going to do it moving forward okay the problem we have is initially when we switched to this and the problem it was created because we went to free lunches for everybody so parents used to fill out forms if I need free or or reduced assistance for my lunch for my child I'd fill out the form and then I could get a free reduced lunch well now that the state is said everything free they don't fill those forms out anymore or as much as they used to and a lot of our Aid was determined by how many what percent of our students fill those forms out and so now they're talking these different direct certification is is one way the federal government does it um but there's a loss to it and I think M correct me if I'm wrong it's like $300,000 less um because we we're calculating in a different way and the state has said well we're going to hold districts harmless well we're not seeing us being hell harmless of this so it is a problem we've really not gotten a clear answer on the way ahead from the Department of Education on this yes kind of along the lines of the the free lunches um do we have any feedback on how that is going for our district is is that a one to one are we doing okay funding we're making money on that oh okay the Food Services the food service to for fund yes okay um so we actually we seeing increased increased participation which is good for our kids um but um it's hitting us you know in other ways are we able to keep up with the higher demand for feeding our kids another area where Staffing Staffing is Services is definitely hiring so if you know anybody who's looking for a great job that's that's definitely one we could use some more people okay thanks but I think the program which is being funded is it the program itself is much more expensive than was anticipated so the funding is long term I just I think that people are starting to question the sustainability State I mean and again one of my concerns when I they K brought it up initially was we're going to be spending hundreds of millions of dollars for free um launches for everybody which is a great I'm not going to argue that but all right we're also short a lot of dollar and other areas in education that we're not able to support so that's the concern yes director cander and so Dr appreciate the work that you do to help kind of educate and inform the board around legislative issues I think that's really great and proactive so I appreciate that what other districts are doing things like that obviously from amsd msba are we seeing other Metro school districts and other rules who are coming forward with the legislative platform yeah I think that's pretty consistent across the Metro it is okay y I think it is it helps to hit it on a local level ites what relationships are yeah and it and it really it's important for us for our local legislators to say here's the impact on stillw Water Area Schools so that they can okay I get that um as opposed to here's the big Statewide piece this affects your voters right y your taxpayers and we've had great response from our local legislators I mean I think already our RSVP we have almost all of them that are coming to that breakfast they appreciate this information they appreciate when we come to the C capit they take time out of their day to to walk us around or to meet with us so I think they do appreciate having this information and we have students that will come again that maybe are interested here they're certainly welcome to so we can have some more conversation as that March date comes closer yeah so maybe does gauge interest even start to put those feelers out now if people are interested in that advocacy okay we'll bring this back at the next meeting if you have feedback in the meantime you can reach out to myself um Katie I think is leading that group group um or Dr Funk and will you put that for us in the the format that you that yeah it helpful kind of see it in that format but then we could have any other final questions it's that's really share that draft with you now and then we'll finalize that and have it ready for okay okay great okay thank you so um if you look at that presentation and any anything in that email that feedback maybe direct to superintendent and Carissa and then they can pull together that information and determine if a meeting needs to be called between committee before the next meeting okay that was our um last Open Session agenda item we do have a closed session tonight um pursuant to the attorney client privilege and Minnesota stat statute section 13 d05 subdivision 3B and 2 A3 I move to go into close session to discuss to receive confidential legal advice on pending litigation involving a student um I will go ahead and make that motion second and director hacker with the second all those in favor of adjourning to close session raise your hand and say I I I opposed we move we'll move into close session upstairs e e