sideyard. >> Okay, we're gonna start tonight off with a special recognition. Heidi, if you want to come on up and sit here. Dr. Funk's going to introduce you. Um, and we're welcome. We're fortunate to have the partnership plan here and their new director. So, go ahead.
>> Thank you. >> Yeah. So everybody, this is Heidi Louise and Heidi's been named the new executive director of the partnership plan. She brings more than 15 years of nonprofit leadership experience in fundraising, communications, and operations with a
focus on expanding access to meaningful learning opportunities. Having worked with organizations such as the Dodge uh Nature Center and Preschool, the Minnesota Zoo Foundation, and the University of Minnesota Libraries, Heidi has a strong understanding of the partnership plan
through her two years of service on its board of directors where she held various leadership roles on several different committees. So, this is Heidi. Heidi, I don't know if you want to say anything to the board or, you know, but uh here we are. >> Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
I'm so excited to meet some of you for the first time, see some of you again. Chris is um on our board as a liazison to the school board. Um and so is Dr. Funk. Uh and I'm just it's such a big district. Um so it's a little uh
fascinating just to be in this opportunity and in this space to explore the role that philanthropy can play in supporting our education and working with you all on where we can I keep I use the term dot connect. How can we connect dots? >> Absolutely. Um I guess I want to take a
step back and just we acknowledge oftentimes partnership plan in our meetings, but it's nice to be able to have a special opportunity to acknowledge not only what not only to welcome you. Um and we're excited to be working with you, but just to acknowledge the great work that the partnership plan does for our students,
for our families, for our staff. Um, I mean, it's just countless ways that you're supporting the strategic direction of the district and supporting our teachers. And, um, we're excited at your leadership and what you're going to bring to the table and continuing that really strong partnership.
>> Um, is there anyone else that wants to throw in? So, at the parade last weekend, we were handing out flags and I heard that that came from the partnership plan and they were a hit. [laughter] Holy cow. Very popular. So, those are so fun and I love stuff like that that we can really spread pony
pride and have um just a lot of spirit in the community and so thank you for things like that. I don't know if that was your idea or somebody else's but >> that was that was preeie but >> that was amazing. So, thank you to that point. It's um I think we have a lot of opportunity to connect the excitement and passion that people have for
supporting our schools through the partnership plan. There are so many ways to support a school and this is um one of those tangible ways that we can get people involved. So really excited to um help more people know who we are, that we are a way to get support into the schools and that we are here to just
help do good things. >> And not to um not saying we have this huge audience watching right now, but there is a little bit of an audience, maybe all five people, right, watching. Um how for someone that hadn't heard of the partnership plan before now and they were watching tonight, what would you
maybe want them to know or how could they get involved and engaged? Yeah. So, we are an independent separate 501c3 nonprofit. I think that's a helpful clarification. So, we do operate independently. We have our own board of direct board of directors. Um, but of course, everything we do is to support
the schools. So, working in partnership with everybody in this room and throughout the district is the only way we can function. Um, I'm excited to say we just launched a new website. Um, so partnership plan.org org is a great um kind of starting point to learn a little
bit more about the work that we do and we'll continue adding impact stories of the real work that our community has made possible through donations. >> Yeah. Awesome. >> Yes, >> the website looks great. That was awesome. I [laughter] love that. Um I was excited to see that. And I'm also
really excited about >> you taking on this role and it being a full-time role. I mean, I think there's so much it's always been part-time, so it's so much more uh so much more just hours in the day to put to furthering the goals that that partnership plan
has. So, I'm I'm really excited for you. >> Yeah, I think that's a great um note as well. I will I tell everyone I'm not going to raise twice as much money um in [laughter] the first couple years here, but you know, that is an um opportunity, right? needs continue to grow and they evolve and so that just positions us in
an opportunity to help meet more of those needs in the ways that that we can. >> Great. Yes, Andrew. >> Yeah. Well, uh congratulations. It's great to have you uh in place as the executive director. Um I'm a big big fan of the partnership plan and the work
that you do. Um, you have a really great board of people that help support uh that work from a governance standpoint. And uh I'm excited for what we can do as a board and as a district to help further uh promote the good work that's happening because it really helps
directly impact the students that we're serving. And uh you know, just really appreciate how you guys can maybe meet some of those funding gaps and help create some unique opportunities that I bet pretty much everyone in this room who has kids in this district have been able to partake in. So, um, a big thanks
to Rick for obviously for his service and really excited, uh, for, uh, what you have, uh, in store ahead for the partnership plan. So, thank you. And I would share what, uh, director Law said, uh, the website looks awesome. Thank you. >> Really well done. So,
>> yes, >> I would, you know, you're replacing Rick and um one thing that could probably be very exciting is I think whenever Rick went into a building, eyes are on him because somebody's getting an award, somebody's getting a grant, he's giving somebody something and that would be something that would be great to look
forward to is you're going in there for positive reasons, you know, somebody's getting something. >> Yeah. >> So, >> absolutely. >> And welcome. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. We're very excited to have you. um let us know how we can, you know, be a part of the good works that you do for
our students and for our staff. And we're just thrilled that you can make it in this summer meeting and spend a little bit of time with us. >> I'm working every day. >> Yeah. [laughter] A little bit of time with us. So, um in a quieter time and um we're just looking forward to working with you in that partnership. So, thank you so much for coming in.
>> Thank you for making the time for me. >> Yeah. Thank you, Heidi. >> Thanks. >> All right. So, everyone go check out their website. It's new >> and according to Chris and Andrew, it's well worth the the [laughter] time. Okay. So, um we do not have anyone
speaking tonight for public comment. And we will therefore call the meeting to order. Joan, roll call. >> Director Gerspitch >> here. >> Dr. Hawker >> here. >> Director Kelzenberg >> here. >> Director Law >> here. >> Director Parker. >> Director Theelander >> here. Chair Sherman >> here. You have a quorum. Great. Let's
stand for the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
>> Okay, I'm going to go ahead and make a motion to approve tonight's agenda. Can I get a second? >> I'll second. >> Great. Director Theelander with the second. All those in favor of approving tonight's agenda, raise your hand and say, "I." >> I. Motion or agenda approved. We will go
to our superintendent report. >> Good evening. Uh first construction update. Construction is entering the final stretch for our two new elementary schools and crews are putting on their finishing touches. Next week, our staff will have the opportunity, if they so
choose, to move into their new spaces and get classrooms ready for a great school year. Families are invited to get a sneak peek during our family preview nights. Lake Elmo will be on August 12th. Bayport Elementary will be on August 13th. Uh the entire community is
also invited to celebrate our beautiful new schools at our open houses and ribbon cutings. Bayports will be on September 1st from 6:00 to 7:30 and Lake Elmo's will be on September 2nd from 6:00 to 7:30. So we've got a family
night and then we have a community night for both buildings coming up here in the next um month or so. Um, as the board is aware, um, switching gears, you know, as we, as we start transitioning to a school, a new school year, um, one of the things that we discovered over the
last couple years, a lot was the concern about global studies. We were teaching it for a semester and we were supposed to be teaching it for a year to get in all the standards. So, we've adjusted the schedule. So this year we will be teaching global studies for a full year.
But as a result we've had a few less electives in eighth grade. So I have shared with our two principles the uh the belief that uh since we have electives being impacted, we should probably start to take a look at the
schedule and see if the schedule the way we are really structured is best serving us. So we I'm looking forward to getting a working group together to examine opportunities for our middle school kind of like we just did with the high school. So that'll be upcoming this school year.
>> Great. >> Um that is good to hear because I know the board has heard a little bit about that the impact of the one less elective in eighth grade. Um but really no choice when you need to teach the standards first. Um but glad would do you anticipate that will maybe involve like
students staff kind of like you said similar to >> um I don't know some students maybe but it's it's mostly it's going to be staff staff and >> staff and administration >> school administration. >> Great. >> Y >> thank you very much. Any questions for Dr. Funk? >> You're talking middle school, right?
>> Yes. >> Okay. >> Great. Um can I ask one question? You didn't report it and I forgot. I'm sorry and you may not know this. Did um bus schedules when are those going out for families? Monday. >> Monday. Thank you. All right. Um I do not have anything for
my board chair report and we will go on to our consent agenda. Um we have several items tonight. A through I are listed on the screen. Is there a motion to approve? >> I'll move to approve. Great. We have a
motion to approve and in lower with the second. All those in favor of approving tonight's consent agenda, raise your hand and say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Consent agenda passes. And tonight we have two reports that we're going to be given. So we're going to
start with Elsa and Cararissa. And we're going to have kind of an academic year data review. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. Good evening, directors. Good evening, Dr. Funk. Uh, today we're going to talk about a year in review of our academic data. Super high level. Um,
it's a fairly short presentation, so there will not be like a time at the end to stop and ask questions. There will be, but feel free to jump in and stop me as I go through and we'll split it between the two of us. So, part of the reason for doing this is that we have a lot of changes in 2025
2026. Um, we have the academic calendar, changes to daily start and end times, moving towards foam free schools, which is a major change in our policy, literacy implementation, which you'll hear more about tonight, as well as our elementary science model. Our presentation tonight focuses on the
academic calendar and daily start and end times. Um, but the thing to remember is that because there are so many changes, we're not really working under experimental conditions. We we never will be. Um, so that limits what we can say in terms of causality, but it's also a really good opportunity just to look
at some of our data holistically as a year in review. So in that same vein, this year one uh particularly of the calendar pilot is a progress check, not a final decision point. We get a really good baseline. We get to learn about our stakeholders experiences. um and we get to see some areas that we
want to pay closer attention to moving forward, but we cannot establish that causal link. We also know that we're limited in the data that we have, particularly for surveys, and we're not going to be looking for a final verdict tonight. So, with that, we'll jump into some
student outcomes, starting with academic data. Generally, academic indicators are stable or improving. On the left hand side, you see um high school grades over time. That's all of the courses taken at Stillwater Area High School. In particular, course failures are down
significantly since 2022. That's something that we track on a semester basis through bar um as well as, you know, as a district. And Fg grades represent 2% of all courses taken. And that's actually quite similar at the middle school level. But you'll notice that at the middle school, there's more
students who earned at least one F. So we might see a higher concentration of students earning multiple Fs at the high school whereas the middle school it might be you just get the one reading you'll hear a little bit more about later today but overall fastbridge reading proficiency is up and then math
proficiency on FastBridge is quite stable as we move to our like social emotional and student well-being outcomes. 89% of students were screened at low risk on sabers. That's something that has essentially not moved since we started
screening K10 um in the fall of 2425. I keep wanting to say last year, but now 2526 is almost last year. Um elementary intervention participation obviously fluctuates from fall to winter to spring as the screening cycle progresses but has not changed wildly um in any of
those periods. And then secondary intervention counts are more of a reflection of the structure of the program changing rather than student need. >> And can I ask a question on Sabers? So, is that a part of FastBridge? Is that done in conjunction with FastBridge? >> It's a great question because the answer is kind of yes and no. It's administered
through the same platform. It's the same vendor. >> Okay. >> Um and very similarly, it follows a fall, winter, spring screening period. Sabers is done later in the year. We wait six weeks essentially for students to get to know their teachers and teachers to get to know their students. Whereas FastFridge were required to
screen within those first six weeks. So, Savers is October, January, and Marchish. March, April. Um, the other thing to know is that sabers is done by the teachers. It's a teacher behavior observation scale rather than students self-reporting.
>> Okay. So, students are not self even in the upper grades. >> Even in the upper grades. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Looking at attendance, attendance is looking really good post pandemic. We're sitting at about 95% average daily attendance across grade bands. Average
daily attendance just takes all of the days attended out of all of the days enrolled. So sometimes that can mask other trends. That's the reason that we look at chronic absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism is the percentage of students who miss at least 10% of school days or more. You will also see it
referred to as consistent attendance. That's the opposite. That's the percent of students who are attending 90% of days or more. So we're sitting at about 13% chronic absenteeism, which is down 43% from 2022. Um, elementary did increase a little bit last year, so that's one thing to keep an eye on. It
went from 9 to 12%. Whereas middle and middle [snorts] and high school were essentially exactly the same. >> Any sense of what caused the increase, if it was like situational or >> we saw more absences in February than we
usually do. So, I'm curious to know whether it's the result of Operation Metro Surge. We also saw >> um an increase in chronic absenteeism for our Hispanic students. It's not a smoking gun, but it's one thing that we would look to see if that continues next year. >> Sure. >> And then the other thing to look at is
period tardy sets just for middle and high school. Those are concentrated kind of expectedly at the beginning of the day and at lunch. That actually surprised me a little bit. Um it's period four at the high school has some flux around lunchtime and then period three at the middle schools is where we see a little bit more um tardies
happening and that's especially since um 2024 the bigger increase happened the year prior and then a little bit more last year. Can I ask just and I don't know that you know this on the absenteeism and I'm glad um Sarah addressed kind of the time
frame and kind of that the demographic audience that may have been more impacted. Um but is there any school like are there any schools where absenteeism is kind of on your radar as being more of an issue than other schools or >> I have to dig back into it. >> Okay. I mean I'm just kind of curious if
it's spread. I mean obviously I think with the time frame and some of that there it yeah there might be some indications there but >> yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I got a question there. As far as absenteeism and tardies comparing one year to another are the consequences to
a student for an absentee or a tardy the same. Does that affect the results at all? >> Consequences. Um, we might have to look at that a little bit more. I'm not quite sure I I have the answer for that. I mean, I think the consequences are
probably more so on the student not learning, right? Like I mean, that's really the consequence. I don't know that um kids are punished for different things. Um, but certainly we're paying attention to it. There are requirements at the county level of if you reach a certain threshold, we have to report and do some things. So, that would probably
be the biggest impact that a family might have. It's a chronic problem. >> Yeah. One thing I can check too, I know that families get automatically notified every time a student is absent. I'm not sure whether that goes down to the period level or not. Um, but I do know that within those period tardies, uh, not tardies, period absences in
particular, if you're gone for the whole day, you're also marked absent for each period. >> Okay. Right. Thanks. >> Yeah. Um, we'll look at student discipline as well. In school and out of school suspensions have increased since last year. Um we see that largely at the secondary level with a moderate increase
at the high school and then the most increase at the middle school level. Um in terms of trends, there are typically more incidents in semester 1 than semester 2, even if you adjust for the different amount of days in semester 1 than semester 2. Um and that continues to be the case. And then in terms of
times of day, discipline incidents are usually concentrated at the middle of the day. Think about your lunch times and your recess times. But we also see slightly more incidents at the end of the day with the later end times for older students. So that 2 to 4 pm window now includes our secondary students
where they would be headed home by then. Um a couple factors we think about imp impacting discipline data would be our reporting practices. Some of that is changes from the state level. Um cannabis is a new discipline reporting category as of the 23 24 school year whereas that used to be reported just
under illegal drugs or other. So tightening up some of those practices. Um they changed how bullying is reported. Um there's a new option for physical contact instead of fighting and those are that's a slight distinction but impacts our students. And then also we know that there have been social work support reductions at the secondary
level. Can >> I ask a quick follow-up question um about the secondary incidents being later in the day? Is that a trend that has happened in the past or is it more pre prevalent this particularly year? >> It's newer this year because in the past at least the way it's broken out is like
a 2 to 4 p.m. window. So, one school let out at 20:05 that left about 5 minutes to get up to very much. Um, so I think it's an artifact of just being in school longer. Um, but that's one to keep an eye on. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Can you tell me what does an inschool
and an out of school suspension look like? Just take an imaginary student. They're in school suspension. What does that what's the out of school? >> Yeah, an inschool suspension means that you are at school but you're not in your classroom. Usually that looks like you're in the office. Um, in rare cases it might mean you're with a different teacher. That's the dictionary MDE
definition, but that that's more unlikely. It would usually be you're in the office with a administrator or some other sort of supervision. >> Okay. >> Um that's pretty uncommon at our high school just in terms of capacity and practice. Um and is more common at middle school uh and I suppose
elementary. Um out of school suspension, that means you are not allowed to come for to school for the day. >> We don't have very many of those, do we? >> Because that's kind of a big deal to be kicked out of school. >> We we have some. >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah. >> Thanks.
>> What what what does small and moderate mean? I mean, what are we like on a percentage basis? I how do you have any idea of how many >> I can get back to you on exact figures. It has fluctuated quite a bit, especially for middle school. So, it's it'll be interesting to see depending on
what you choose as your start year. Um there had been an upward trend since like from post pandemic to 2023, then a dip last year and then a rebound. So depending on how you slice it, but we can look at that. >> Can I um I just have two questions. One is I'm glad you explained the state
reporting differences because that's definitely a variable, but my other question was we had the behavior matrix that was I mean I think it's kind of just implemented. Is there some of that that might be you know we have these processes and procedures in place that might we be seeing some additional
reporting from building administration? >> I mean we we've always had a discipline matrix. We did quite a bit of work a couple of years ago to revise that behavior matrix. Um got a new change, some new some new look and certainly looked at the the responses. Um so it's it's always been there. It's just been
>> revisited and um updated. >> Okay. So it's maybe more state than >> couple of years ago. >> Okay. And then my last question and this is just I I would be curious and I don't know if you can really measure it, but this was also the first year without personal devices. And so whereas before
kids were kind of like listening to music on their phone scrolling, I mean we knew that we were kind of creating a culture of interaction with kids and and so there might be some initial I don't know kinks in that I don't I mean is that something that we can ever find
like our do our principles maybe observe that or I would just be curious if they might say hey you know there's good things with the reducing the personal devices and it's the right decision but you know there might have been adjustment >> old anecdotal data but from talking to
students we had less fights >> oh okay >> you know this is Cararissa and I we meet with the student advisory group and as we you know did a check-in with them throughout the where uh they seem to think that flights were way down because
there wasn't as much, you know, probably online bullying going on or texting or or whatever, right? >> So, I don't know overall, but um that piece of it they were pretty uh um the kids were clear about. Now, I haven't we'll have to dig into the data a little
bit more to to get the specifics of that, but >> Okay. So discipline meaning it could be for other reasons other than peer um disc you know disagreements. Okay. >> Yeah. I mean a lot of a lot of the discipline actions or disciplinary
behaviors that we're looking at are interpersonal, right? But that's because a lot of behaviors that students exhibit are interpersonal. Um so it will be hard to I think pinpoint and we would have to rely a lot on anecdotal data from principles but it's worth looking into.
>> Okay. Thank you. I believe this is the last piece we'll look at, which is enrollment. Um, and overall total enrollment is looking very similar to last year or to 2425. This is the October 1st number. There's a lot of different ways to look at enrollment, but October 1st is what MDE typically
uses for their official enrollment. So, if you were to look up any other school, any other district, and you wanted to know what their enrollment was, you would be using the October 1 number. A lot of that is driven by our early childhood BPK voluntary preschool seats. Um, and you'll see that our K12
enrollment is down a little bit, but not relative to the overall size. >> So, just to comment on that. So, they've had a lot of demographer reports [clears throat] last few years. Here's an interesting statistic.
Minnesota kindergarten enrollment has fallen from 65,423 in 2019 and 20 to 56,000. So we went from 65,000 in
2019 to 569 almost 57,000 in 2526. So statewide we're seeing a 12.9% reduction in kindergarten students. Um and they're also stating that um first
grade is similar. So um I think Overall, the trend wise are younger kids. Two things are happening there. There's there's less spurs. There's more competition. And and really the third thing that I wanted to mention is we're we're seeing it particularly this year
um for this upcoming school year. We're seeing a lot of families want to hold their kids back. You know, okay, they're they're five, they're eligible to go to school, but I think we want to hold them back another year. So, those are impactful um at the younger grades on on our enrollment. So these aren't um
necessarily this is enrolled but we're not looking at who have they could have moved they could have I mean there's a it could be birth rate could be holding kids back >> smaller kindergarten classes coming in >> okay >> and then smaller K smaller one and then we have large high school classes
graduating so there's the delta right there it's more than the delta actually so >> do we ask families if they if are we doing that yet like where for this is goes beyond this is K through 12. Are we kind of at that? I know we had talked a little bit about that like >> yes,
>> we are asking their why they're >> like why why they're leaving or because sometimes I know it's moving or it's it's >> through our welcome center we have Carla working really hard to track student movement and so she is actually every month pulling a report of families who have left us and she's reaching out to families to find out what's happening.
Um she's tracking that information and providing that back to us as district directors and principles so we're aware of that. Um, we also have a lot of things that we are putting into place to um, not just catch you after you've already left and be like, "Hey, why'd you leave?" Trying to find the people who are maybe on the verge and not
having a positive experience so that we can try to improve, fix whatever the problem is. Maybe help them. Um, sometimes it's just coaching to help people know what options they have within the district. We sometimes find out from parents that they didn't realize that this other school offers this opportunity or this is over here. And so doing more of that proactive
messaging to families too is helping. But we are definitely tracking and having conversations um and learning a lot through that process too. It's been really helpful for us to hear from families what their experiences are and how we can improve. >> Do we have I mean because obviously with the changes that we're talking about
calendar time change I mean is there are we getting that feedback? I mean I know calendar our biggest competitor is on the same calendar. So so are some other charters. >> As far as the tracking that we're doing and the conversations we're having, I don't believe calendar has ever come up as the reason why they're leaving. It's
usually more about something that happened to their student. >> Um, more of an experience issue. Um, sometimes it's honestly a number of a number of conversations we have are about mental health like students are just struggling and they need a different environment or um,
>> you know, sometimes it's there was an issue at the school and they didn't feel it was resolved properly. So, those are more of the stories we're hearing or honestly a lot of them are we're just moving, right? Like new job opportunity, we're moving to another district. Um, so those are the trends I would see that we're seeing so far. Um, but we just started tracking this middle of last
year and we'll keep doing this moving forward. >> That's I'm so grateful that you're doing that because I know it takes time, but I think the information we're going to gleam from that is going to be invaluable. So, um, thank you for that. >> Okay, so moving on. Um, you know, there
there are a lot of factors um, as Elsa just talked about and we only highlighted a few of them and there's a lot of changes that are happening just in a general year. And this year, this past year, there were a lot of big changes. Um, and so our goal today is to just share information um and help give some feedback on what we learned during
the first year of our calendar pilot. Um, there has been a lot of attention on this. So, we wanted to make sure we were reporting back of what those findings were. So, looking at the academic and behavior is a big piece. And then we also wanted to get experience data from our families and our staff and our students. What was the experience like?
And so we did um send out a survey link for families as well as our students and our staff. This was an optional survey. It went out as a link telling people that they had an opportunity to share their feedback. It was online. Um so knowing this there is definitely um some challenges with doing an online survey.
Not everybody always has access or is able to respond to those. So we do know that as we get that this is not necessarily um a scientific survey that we did. This was really to get feedback so we could learn about those experiences and understand how the schedule change um specifically the
calendar as well as start time. This first year we asked about um how it really was experienced by our stakeholders. So we did get um some participation at all levels. 700 of our students at the high school. It was just shared with high school students responded um and you can see the
response right there. We had about 450 of our staff and 1,800 families responded to the survey that went out. um from that. >> Can you go back really quick? So, of the families that were sent so these
response rates I mean we didn't get huge response rates um are and I'm assuming staff is more than teachers that this would be t so all and we didn't it's staff as a whole K through 12. Okay. >> I just want to point out
>> you sent this out is we have um we have a list of all of our staff. So, I think there's 1,200 some maybe more staff members that are included on that list and we just sent them all an email inviting them to provide feedback on the calendar and start times and so they could choose whether or not they wanted to respond. >> So, I know you sent it like twice to
families, right? >> I believe at least. And then it was shared all over the place. I saw it out on social media being shared around and I heard people were sharing it. So, yes, it was um sent out same way as with staff. We also have a list of all of the parents in our district. Um that's how we send out newsletters and all of the information. So an email went out
personally inviting them to participate in this survey as well and then there were some reminders that went out through newsletters and different >> So I would just say and Elsa maybe you could what would the response rates maybe tell us I mean if anything because they're fairly low I mean I would think
that we would have had higher response rates in certain situations >> common I think for what we >> for an online survey it's hard to get people to participate >> you you usually look at 30% as pretty good >> okay >> but it's still only 30% of the people you're interested in surveying. And
generally, we make the assumption that if you're not responding to the survey, you don't have a strong feeling one way or the other, but there's always, you know, things to think about in terms of what's the best way to reach all of our families and all of our staff, >> right? >> And we certainly know barriers like online surveys, there is a barrier. There are some families. We we do
provide this in a way that it is um available multilingual lingual like multilanguage. Um, so there are families that can participate in staff if there's a language barrier, but it's still no, we know that not everybody goes online and takes a survey or that they're reading their email on a regular basis. So that does limit responses, too.
>> Great. Thank you. >> Can I ask a quick question? And I think we might get into this a little later, too, but um, in terms of the the staff that responded to this, they they were responding to the exact same survey. Correct. >> It was slightly different based on the audience. I mean, very >> It was pretty close.
>> Pretty close. I guess what I'm I'm wondering is if the staff were prompted to respond in terms of how it person was personally impacting them or how it's impacting their students. Was there that kind of differentiation? >> Both questions in there. >> Okay. >> And many staff also responded from their
perspective as parents and family members. >> Sure. Okay. Yeah. I mean they have multiple roles. So I'm kind of wondering which perspective we're capturing. >> And then last question I'll ask in the staff. Do we know like was there a higher percentage in elementary versus
middle versus high school who took part of the survey or was it pretty consistent? >> Yes, >> it was surprisingly evenly distributed. Sometimes we see different I mean often we see one or more of one or the other depending on the survey, but it was I
believe 45% elementary, 41% secondary, which is pretty close. And then the rest um is early childhood and then um districtwide staff. >> Okay. for those who are not in a building. >> Whereas the family survey was a little bit more elementary. >> Okay.
>> Thank you. >> Okay. Um so at the end of year one, at the end of the school year, we sent out this survey. It was um the very end of May, so people were just wrapping up the year and had had a full year of the experience. And just in general, um you can see kind of mixed results. You can see for our families and staff um there
was more somewhat or very negative feelings about the their experience with the calendar and that's understandable. It was a big change, right? Logistically, this was a pretty significant change and we've heard that feedback from from the time we started talking about this of the impact it was going to have on family schedules and staff schedules. Um but what's
interesting is if you look at the students in red, the students um were more positive, the respondents were more positive in how they felt about their experience with the academic calendar. >> Were there any questions? Just really quick, going back to that site, I just want to make sure we're capturing all the questions as we go along. Any questions?
>> The only thing I'd say is in that the student response, they lost a week of their summer, too. >> Yes. I'm glad you got that. So, year one did have a different impact because we did have the later end time and the earlier start time um of the calendar
for folks. So, there was about a week difference. Um so, it was a shorter summer for people last year. Their experience was shorter. Um, and I think for as you can you can see from the results, the kids um, as I get into their feedback a little bit, kids overall they liked being done in May. They really liked that. They um, liked
the fact that the breaks aligned as we had talked about having that ability to be done with first semester and go have your winter break and then come back and start fresh. That was definitely something that students appreciated. Um, they weren't wild about the August start though. I mean, it was early and as you said, you lost some of the summer, but I think just in general, it's a change.
And so, there was that trade-off of I like being done, but I also had some concerns about starting earlier. Um, and then they talked about the stress around exams and projects and things having to be done before you could have that winter break. You had to get everything done first. And so, that was a new experience for them, too. That came up in their feedback.
>> Um, from the family respondents and the community respondents, um, again, you've you've heard this. We've got emails about this. there was a gap for that May June ex um couple of weeks, the first few weeks of the summer where camps hadn't really started yet in the community and the things from other
school districts that they're participating in hadn't gotten going yet. So, there was definitely a gap that caused some challenges with child care or just finding activities for your kids. There were concerns about summer vacations. You know, I always take that trip in late August and now I can't. Um and coordination with neighboring districts. You know, we have folks that
live kind of on the edges of different communities and so our calendars weren't aligned. So, that came up as some concerns from families and our staff talked about um the uneven semesters. We do have more time in semester 2, I believe, and it's shorter in semester 1.
So, that kind of made it a little more challenging with their pacing and understanding how to get through the content on these different schedules. >> Um they talked about I think this is more about the start times versus a calendar, but the activity absences, the number of kids who are missing because
of um activities and that's really a start time piece. We'll talk more about that. And then there was concern just about the work life balance for our staff that this was a change and it impacted their schedules and that caused some extra stress for them. And there was um some concern too that they didn't feel like they were part of the process
or that their voice was heard during the implementation of this change. >> I had a few questions um on that and I want I mean I did send these in advance. I don't want to think I'm like throwing these at you, but um were the absences
and the um like with the activities is that I mean that's kind of I know when I was in high school if I participated in an activity like I I did miss classes. >> Why don't we hold on that till we get to the >> Okay. >> to the start time. >> Okay. >> Can I actually throw something in? So
that last point that you were making about the staff voice not being heard during implementation, I guess that one kind of struck me because we delayed the whole thing an entire year to have more staff voice included. So I'm I'm just
curious if there's more context on what what additional voices were we needing to hear before we started to actually try this change. Elsa can jump in too if she has other thoughts. But in reading the comments, a lot of it was just frustration that they didn't like the change and they have told us they didn't
like the change and we didn't we didn't respond to that. So, I think that's part of where it was coming from is just that frustration that we told you we didn't like this and yet you're doing this. I think is kind of what I read in a lot of those comments. >> I think that's pretty accurate. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And again, that's of the respondents.
So, in the case of staff, 35% and then of like going on your other chart, can you go back? So of the 35% it would be staff would be like 42 somewhat negative 42% of that of those
that responded. So it's not like all staff, it's so because my question I was also like director Hawker. I was kind of surprised because we did I know it was I mean we have a very divided community in this and it's really the conversation for me is
half the community or slightly more believes school starts after Labor Day. Another half the community believes it can start before Labor Day and they see the advantage to it. Um they don't want to go to school till mid June. Um, and that is kind of what we're trying to
navigate with this is trying to to measure over three years. Um, I was surprised because I was wondering where was the stress. I think what did they say that the teachers I really want to understand the work life balance and the
staff voice because like for example I thought were they rushed on grading? Did we change grading periods for them? Did we like what did we do that caused the Yeah. So, some of it um is kind of similar to the students. Staff had to get all their grades in before break.
So, if you get it in before break, >> they they didn't though. Okay. Staff had to get their their testing and their everything done, but they still had the same amount of time to grade um over the grading period. >> And there was a grading day when we returned, >> right? >> Okay. So, testing done before break,
grading continued. >> Grading was s same schedule. >> Okay. Some staff responded that yes, I crammed it in all before the break and that was actually really awesome because I got to enjoy my winter break. And then some staff said, well then I still had to grade during winter break, right? >> Okay.
>> Uh some of it too is that our our staff are families as well. So there's that work life trade-off. I'm going back to school and my child's going off to college and now I have to navigate that. So some of the work life balances >> and and the other one >> the other one that I've heard from staff
is I live in X community my family's on the calendar like >> okay >> post Labor Day in that community >> this community so it's creating stress in my life because my kids are on a different calendar than I am. Was there anything in the feedback that you
received from staff where we could make improvements to I mean no one wants to hear even though it's you know of 35% we don't want staff stressed is there anything that can be done or might we are I mean I know this is a three-year
pilot for a reason on the calendar maybe people learn efficiencies you know they experience it the next year and they they're like okay >> we haven't looked into that yet we're still reporting the data >> okay Andrew. >> Yes. Andrew. >> Yeah. Um I know you kind of mentioned
this, Director Sherman or Chair Sherman, uh but we knew this was could be kind of more controversial from a calendar standpoint because there's just going to be the uh personal preferences that we see. Um and I know it's can be a challenge and and for you being a data expert, Elsa, um it seems when there's a
low participation rate that can undermine the credibility of the data. Um, I don't want to discount those who took the time to respond and and obviously there's many reasons for people that maybe didn't have an opportunity for whatever may be the reason. Um, but what I appreciate is
people sharing their their voice and their opinions, using this as a year one day at a point and then hopefully we can continue to get the word out, have more people participate in next year's survey and then after the third year survey. So to me, you know, it doesn't change the
plan that is in place of, you know, going through this pilot program. I think it's worth uh the time and effort uh just to see how does that impact uh because obviously change is hard. I mean, I don't want to, you know, diminish that for families and for
teachers or anybody else. Um but that you know I think there is a purpose to that and I don't like to bring in anecdotal type of evidence but you know just from my own uh children who are you know attending Stillwater public schools um I think they were very positive about
it. Uh you know so I think that was um interesting to kind of hear their perspective throughout the year as I kind of just checked in um and just saw you know what they had thought. Um, so I'm kind of excited to see what that future data continues to provide and and show us and um around particularly the
calendar um and then obviously I know you're going to jump into the bell start time which >> good baseline >> I'm very passionate about in terms of you know the importance of that. >> Yes Dr. F. >> So just a comment on this whole survey what we are trying to gauge is community
atmospherics. Okay this is just okay what's what's the feel right now? Okay. So, I mean, from looking at the data, okay, students seem to like it or don't care. Okay. Parents seem to not like it or don't care from those who who filled
the survey out and teachers similar to what the parents had to say as these guys already stated. But again, if you're looking at your in the number of people who actually filled this thing out, >> right? >> Okay. The the vast majority of the
people don't have an opinion. >> Okay. one way or the other on this thing. Um so what I am sharing with you is atmospherics okay it's mixed okay at this point in time and you know we'll see if the
atmosphere shifts in the next year if it doesn't okay that makes things more you know challenging one way or the other for you as a board uh to make a decision for the future but that's this is just where where we're at right now with with feel within the uh the community on on
this piece of the uh the change. >> That's that's why we do things like this. I think when we call it a feedback survey, it truly is for feedback because there are things we learn from it. And um you know, we haven't spent time really digging deep into what can we change or what could we control within um the current environment. But there
are definitely things in there that we are looking for of of you know, are there are there issues? Sure, there's a childare issue. What can we do as a school district to make sure that we're offering camps earlier? What are we doing to make sure we're meeting some of those needs? So that's kind of the next step for us of again taking this feedback. It is I mean you've you've
>> commented on the fact that it's not everybody's feedback, but for those who took the time to survey, it's real and these are real concerns for them and we want to make sure that we're looking at it carefully and what can we do in the pilot. We still have a couple of years of this pilot. So what can we do to try to make that experience more positive for families and then ultimately you'll have to take all the data you gather
after three years and determine what you want to do with it. Um, so I do value the the feedback that we have and I think it's important for us to spend some time looking at that, but also to know that there's a lot of other data points that we're looking at as you eventually make a decision on if this is the direction we want to go long term or not.
>> And it is um I just want to echo I mean I do think like um director theer said it's a baseline >> and you want to know you know you want to get to the end of the year three but we just have to be patient and see how it plays out. But I will say the student um reaction is was positive. Hopefully
we can up some of the response rates. I know, but um because it's hard when there's, you know, when families are less than 20% responding. So, but um I appreciate what you say also that you can kind of assume that they're okay. I mean, they're not they're neutral, you
know. Um so, thank you, Vert. This is interesting data and great. >> Okay. So, while it's not part of the pilot, um because it was the first year that we had our daily school start and end times, we just thought we'd take the opportunity. We were already putting a survey out there. Let's get some
feedback on how start and end times are being experienced by our families. Um so, again, this is separate from the calendar, but it is an important change that happened. So, we asked families to just weigh in on what that experience has looked like as well as our staff and our students. Um so, this is what we
learned. Um, you know, as a board, you really were focused on what's best for our students, especially our secondary students, based on the research around sleep and what they need for sleep. And knowing that our early start times were infringing on some of that sleep, we u made this change. And here's what we learned. When it comes to alertness and
the ability to focus, um, this is kind of a heat map. So, the darker colors are showing um, a higher percentage of people um, and the lighter shades are showing lower. So overall you can see that people are saying it's about the same kind of in the middle. Um but you'll see higher numbers for our
secondary students that our high school students um were more alert and able to focus. They reported that our staff were seeing um that with with our high school students and our families too. So overall it looks like we were um getting this kind of feedback from our staff
about how the start times were impacting alertness and ability to focus. Um you will see however elementary families have a different experience. Um there are more that are saying that their kids were not as able to focus that they were maybe more tired in the morning because it is an earlier start for them. So
secondary more positive elementary um a bit more negative impact there for them according to the respondents of the survey. >> Quick question. Sorry back to the the staff piece. Is that all staff >> and and was that reflective of them or what they're seeing in their students? >> This was asking them to look at their
students. >> Okay. This was explicitly >> this is a student question. So our goal was to try to address student sleep. Yep. This is what staff are reporting they've noticed from their students. >> Okay. And it's both elementary and >> these numbers are all Yes. >> All together. >> All together.
>> Okay. Thank you. >> And so when we're asking um elementary families, that's what they're observing at home when their child wakes up. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Yes. Um Okay. Okay, so overall key findings
from the survey data is that students were more positive towards the calendar, staff and families were um more negative as we talked about common ground between everyone was that people appreciated the semester break and the aligning. Um it was just more about then what did that mean for them as an experience? So in in
theory it was great but then what was their experience with it? Um the early August start was the least supported by everyone. They um like being done early, didn't like starting early. Um, student outcomes we saw were more mixed or or good. Um, so we talked about all of that
data and then when it came to starter end times, we're seeing mornings are improved and kids are more alert at the secondary level. Um, there was a lot of feedback about the afternoon and evening routines. It does become more challenging for our secondary students when they go later in the day. There's a lot of activities and work and all the things that they're trying to do that
become more challenging when they're at school longer. And elementary parents did trend a little bit more negative to the start and end times. Dr. Funk, >> Elsa, not to put you on the spot, but I'm gonna put you on the spot. Um, what did we see
with high school? Because Allison asked this question a little while ago. What did we see with high school afternoon activities impact on that? Did we see an increase in impact on students gone um with the change in the calendar or
change in the start time? >> We did see an impact. It was about Oh, I'm not sure. I'm going to get the exact numbers. Um, it went from about 5,000 period absences for sports reasons last year to 8,000. So, it's a small population that's affected, but they are
affected. Um, yeah, we we saw that just from the attendance records in addition to the staff reporting and the students as well. They would say, you know, I have to leave early because the bus for such and such sport leaves at 2:45, so I have to go. Or even when I was doing MCAs, I had a student who had to go. And when we
when we kind of talked about this and this was a pretty unanimous like based in science decision. Um I mean we are not out of line anymore like we were with our high school start times. We're in with our peers. This is a normal kind
of start time with peers because at the 740 we were way on abnormal. So my assumption would be other high schools deal with the same type of absences um when they're when students are electing to participate in activities.
>> Um we have not looked at that data. We have compared start time. So yes, we we know that we're a rated board. So we could maybe presume that's the case, but we didn't look at that data. >> Okay. I mean I would >> but the data the start time data is similar. So we're you know 8:30 >> most everybody's moving to 8:30 or
later. So for the secondary students >> and I'm just kind of looking and again I know you're this is just data that you're living with but I would be curious like how other I mean we're not abnormal now anymore so my my can you know my I would assume that other students in other districts with similar
start times are also missing classes and what we can learn from how other districts handle it or just like we it's important I think for the feedback to consider from staff on how we can you know listen to their feedback and make adjustments and make their lives easier. I think that, you know, I'm concerned
with the parent feedback too on this, but again, it's a small audience and my assumption is when you're choosing to participate in an elective, there's good and ch there's challenges and opportunities with that participation. Um, director Theelander.
>> Yeah, thank you. Um, is it fair to assume that um the number of participants is the same for academic calendars as it is for the bell start or would some people that weren't responding to one or the other? >> It's a good question. Did we break it
that down? >> It's difficult to disentangle because it was the same survey that was sent out to all which was good and bad. I mean, it's like Kissa said, it's hard to separate the feedback for both the start time and the calendar because it's the same survey, so it's mixed in people's heads. Um, every open response talked about
both essentially. Okay. >> Um, >> which I would >> but there's Yeah, there's not every question was required. Not every participant responded to every question, but there didn't seem to be a trend that the calendar got more focused or the start time got more focused. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> But I know this kind of comment u ch you
mentioned, you know, when we went through this process. I mean, a I feel really good about the process we took of the community listening sessions. I mean, it was a year plus. >> Yeah. >> Um we brought in a national sleep expert virtually. We have a local pediatric sleep experts that's provided some
really insightful data. And to me, it's just, you know, a decision that's been grounded in just scientific evidence of of what the benefit is. Um and I know that's an early start maybe for some elementarymentaries in a perfect world. I'd love to have it at 8. Uh I'm excited
and and appreciate the great work that our transportation team is doing and finding efficiencies and ways that maybe we can in time maybe uh adjust that uh to even closer. But to me it's just something that is so important for our kids. Um and what I you know in having
again Angoli having kids that experience both schedules I also then realize that every single kid in this district will have the benefit of the additional sleep and and and time that they have uh by the adjustment to the schedule. And so
although it may be more difficult maybe for elementary families which you know we you know we experienced um but it's something that we know they're all going to benefit from and it's just something that I think is too important for us to
um you know put aside uh based on the evidence that's there. >> You know the discussion when we had this a while back is about giving and taking that hour and the good or the bad of it. And then what I found very ironic is then we had all that discussion. Then
daylight saving time comes and that just took that hour away from everybody. >> Do we see an impact? You know that that data has probably been there forever, right? Daylight saving time has been around and then now it's coming up in the national discussion to make daylight saving time permanent >> all the time which I'm I'm not a fan of
that because I like my daylight in the morning. >> Um but does do we see an effect on kids with daylight saving time? That that's a a stretch to ask for any >> I think the impact you're going to see on kids is darker mornings longer. >> I'm sorry.
>> Your kids who are getting on the buses >> are going to have darker morning. I mean they're talking 8 8:30. >> That's the perspective I >> Yeah. And so that is going to be a that's going to be a challenge for some folks that you know right now we've got a short period of time where we have
people get on the bus you know pretty early in the dark. that is going to be a much longer window um because of this daylight savings change. >> I personally would hope that the national discussion would take a look at the kid impact of there because >> yeah and the problem with the [clears throat]
problem with the national discussion is this the states that are impacted most negatively with the dark mornings are all in the north. Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota.
>> Okay. states in the south not an issue >> because of the way you know the the earth is >> do they do different schedules down south because they're >> I don't know but but that is a that is a a concern if they do this >> okay >> um you know the amount of darkness we're
going to have in the morning >> and that's going to be statewide as as everybody shift you know we were one of the last ones to shift start times to 8:30 you know plus at the high school so yeah that is gonna that is going to be an interesting discussion Sure. >> Yes.
>> You may not know this. Didn't you love when every question starts like that? [laughter] Um, >> were high schoolers getting into school on time better? Like the first first period absent or tardies? Any >> It was pretty similar to the year prior.
>> Both of them were up from the year that, but pretty similar to the year prior, >> which is kind of surprising. Yeah, >> that was, you know, similar a little bit higher because here it's a year hour later. Yep. But I'm still going to be, you know, racing to get in.
>> But again, I was I was pleased that the students and again, sample size, it's not all students. So, I always feel like with any data you're looking at, we got to keep that in mind. But, you know, 29 and 16% of those respondents, they they
do feel like they've slept, they were more rested. Um, so I mean I'm looking at that and I remember back when we had these discussions which were long and involved and really rooted in kind of that science and study of sleep. I know that
they did say it takes time and um and so I hope we still have like that information available on how to back up your child's bedtime that we're resharing that and we're you know because and we're sharing the data with Annette who's working on the community education side to beef up those
programmings to try to help families just just because it's right the right thing to do doesn't mean there aren't challenges that we want to be responsive to. Um, so I want to kudos because I know you guys are behind the scenes working on those shoring up systems and
programming to get that in place to try to help. So, um, thank you for that. >> I'll put that plug in again if anybody's looking for a fun job. We are always hiring Adventure Club staff. Um, and we are desperately in need of more folks to help out so we can get people off weight list. So, check out our website and come work with us.
>> And we have a job fair. >> We have a job fair coming up. Yes. And that information is on our website, too. Or on social you can find that. Um but yeah, that is definitely a need and that's an ongoing need and it's really the challenge of just finding the people to be there. I think um we're making some progress but >> and just when you're talking to other
when I'm you know when we're all out there talking to other districts, every district has the same challenge. They're all struggling and we were struggling before the time change. I mean it's we were struggling before we are struggling still and we're joined by every other school district in the state [laughter]
>> which doesn't make families necessarily feel >> No, it doesn't. It does. We are definitely um doing everything we can to address it and >> but I've gotten some postcards and I mean I appreciate the efforts. Two job fairs this summer postcards that have come out. I know we're all kind of out there and I'm talking to the community
as much as I can and I'm sure everyone here is. So, thank you for those efforts and this is good. >> Okay. Well, to wrap up, um again, this is just year one data that we're sharing. This is not to be used for decision- making at this point. It's really just to give you a feedback on
what the experience has been, what the data is looking like and showing us um and understanding that this is representing a lot of change in our organization. And so um that was the intent was just to provide you with some information to serve as a baseline as we come back again. Um intent is to do similar process next summer to gather
some feedback from our our um stakeholders at the end of next school year to look at the data um same data points that we're looking at now to see if there's been any changes. um and ultimately bring this back to the board for conversation. And at some point at the end of um our year three pilot, there'll
be a decision of is this the direction we want to go long term or do we want to look back at that post Labor Day start. Um so we will just continue to provide you the information that you need and answer other questions that come up in the meantime. >> So somebody asked the question the other
day, well, hypothetically, what would a post Labor Day start look like? I can't give you the specifics, but somebody looked into it. So, for this uh for not this school year, but for the following last day of school, it would be June 12th
because of the late Labor Day. So, just to give you a little bit of perspective on that. >> I know it's such a tra I mean, yeah, I'd be curious. We do we do we did we ask our staff like I mean because that really is the conversation is really are
we going to be a district that continues like we have to start pre-LOR day or do we go post Labor Day? I mean I I try to talk to teachers when I'm out and I hear pretty strong opinions that you know people don't want to be teaching into June either, >> you know, where it's like do we have a
sense of >> I don't know. I mean I guess well I'll continue to go out there but I know when I'm talking to people it's not again not scientific I'm not talking to everyone I'm not I mean there's you know but I mean that is the question so I don't know if we ever asked anything like that
on our surve on this feedback form to staff um >> haven't yet on this one years past we've asked that that survey of the pre-post Labor Day start when we've looked at past calendars we've been doing this um pre-LOR day start for more than 10 years and when we started to get feedback on
that initially it was almost always a 50-50 split. Um, so we haven't done that recently, but that's just historically what we've kind of seen people. Um, it's based on experiences and families and what's important and so it's really challenging to get solid direction. I think everyone has a different experience.
>> No, it's a divisive issue. >> Great. >> Well, thank you. Um, one question too. Um, do we have a timeline because I know typically we approve calendars we want to try to get two years in advance. We >> so the timeline that I I think we talked
I think we talked about this a number of months ago. We are going to we'll provide another survey at the end of the school year and then that will really provide you I think comprehensive data. We could probably do one more midyear
but that's going to be pushing it. I mean, I think you're going to have to um you're going to have to what you're probably going to end up doing is in November of next year, November December time frame, I think typing up year.
>> No, the following year the following year. So 28. >> You'll have to you'll probably approve two two calendars at that point. >> Okay. >> Get us back onto the two-year cycle. >> So that's kind of like 27 or January 28. One of the two. Yeah, >> that will be okay. >> Yep. >> Thank you.
Thank you. >> Okay. Um the next report we have tonight is Sky. She's going to come up here and give us a literacy update. >> So I I had us break this out separately
because literacy has been a focus of the board. So take I said, "Okay, we're going to talk about overall things, but I said Sky, I want you to come in and talk specifically literacy and how things are going." Um, and I would I will tell you I can remember my first
board meeting here and we had some very poor literacy scores in the district. Um, and so um, fortunately we were able to hire Sky and I'll we just sit back and watch and [laughter] >> pressure. >> No pressure. >> If only it was that easy. >> So I'll turn it back over to you Sky.
>> Well, good evening directors. Dr. Funk. Um, I am not a onewoman show, but I am [laughter] here to try and explain all the great things that we have started. And so, last year, as you know, we've I've been here a lot meeting all of you
and asking questions and kind of pushing things forward. And so, last year was a huge year, 25 26. Um, just to put it in some numbers, 250 people are rounding that corner of completing the science of reading training. Uh teachers are hard at work completing that asynchronous
part even now. So we have just a few dangling. Our firm deadline, so we're still in line with science of reading. Um the read act is actually they have until September 15th. Uh they did give everyone that buffer because of the different start times very likely to
your last conversation. Um but we also onboarded a new phonics curriculum. So that one was called UFly and that was in all of our kindergarten through 2 grade classes including our amigos and so um every K2 classroom onboarded that. In
addition in our English sections we onboarded a new knowledge building curriculum in K5. We also added intervention during pony time at both of our middle schools. So we did a pilot during the second semester last year and then we also piloted a reading
intervention at the high school. And so last year was the first year that all of our schools were seeing an intervention of sorts. Uh last year was really our trial year and I'll speak more to that at what that kind of looks like at secondary. Um and I was here with our curriculum adoption committee for our
Spanish immersion. So big year for literacy. We do have a lot to celebrate. Um here is what you're looking at in blue would be the 25 year. So in Fastbridge they go with the first year of it. So it's 25 and year 26, but this would really be
our school year 2425 is in blue and 2526 is in red. And you can see that we did see the implementation dip that we were expecting in the winter. That's very very common when you're onboarding new curriculum. Um we were bracing for it. We are happy to say that we rebounded
back up by spring. And so you can still see that growth that we had from that 68% where we were at in winter to that 72% at spring. And this is combining both our lowrisk and our advanced students. And so we went from um 69 the
year before in the spring to ending at 72% K5 or K12, which is excellent growth, especially in a huge implementation year. digging down a little bit deeper into that data. These are again those graphs that you see continuously. They come
right out of our universal screening. Uh just the color orientation again, that big black line, that horizontal line kind of marks grade level. And then above that in the purple, that's going to be your on or above grade level. And then below that horizontal line, the
light pink is at some risk. And then that dark pink color is at high risk. Um, and so what you see here is from fall to winter, we saw very little to no change. Uh, that's when we saw the overall district dip, but our K1 held strong there. And then you can see that
from winter up to spring, we're moving from that 64% to 69% districtwide. >> And so that also includes our amigos students who are only doing it for 30 minutes a day. And so really speaking to that strength of that curriculum that we adopted um, even in a first year
implementation. And so I'm excited about where that will go when we, you know, hit the ground running. We already know what we're doing now. Um, and I wanted to call out that that leap of that 5% also includes four buildings that made over a 10% jump from fall to winter, which is huge.
>> Huge. >> Um, I can also stop I should have said this in the beginning as Elsa said, you don't have to wait until the end for questions. You can just stop me at each slide as well. I just said and I apologize I didn't send this in advance but was just thinking about it. Um
did you um notice any significant difference? I mean we talk about four buildings with a really nice jump. Did was there a difference observed in general between elementary schools or were they all sort of >> Great question. I think uh that answer
is a little bit tricky. The answer the straight answer is no. So out of our schools, four of them made significant growth while others were growing as well. Um there's not a single factor that can be isolated down. It can be an implementation gap of course, which
we'll speak to a little bit later on today, but it can also be some had further to grow. So where we landed last year, we saw that those kindergarten numbers were really low in some places. And so building back from a really low first grade all the way up um is just
different in different places. Um, and as that actually leads me into this one. In our second through fifth grade, we start to see some of that gap due to some of our schools were in their second year of implementation because they did pilot the year before. So, a huge trend that we found at Anderson, which was one
of our pilot schools, is that they made extreme growth compared to their peers, especially in those grade levels where they were now in their second year of implementation. uh speaking to that guaranteed and viable curriculum of this curriculum is not built to fix it in a
year. It truly is built to go K5. And so over time, that's what they told us when they, you know, sold it to us and everything of every year the kids get stronger into it because they've already got all the um routines down, all the procedures down, how we are learning to read that brain science down as well.
>> Well, and it's a lot for teachers. I mean, new curriculum. So, our teachers are going to get more, you know, efficient with how they teach it, too. Um, Director Thelander. >> Yeah. No, it's it's exciting to see the uh increases already in such a short time span. I I you know, I think expectation at least for me is sometimes
maybe it's one step back, two steps forward. Yep. >> But to see those progresses already in the positive um so early is awesome. And kudos to the work that you and your team did to find some really good curriculum. Um, I guess a question I have is what is a fair expectation of when we really can
see the optimal implementation being represented in the data? >> No pressure. >> No pressure. Um, well, I would say [laughter] with the strong start that we already have with K1, the greater foundation that we can lay, we're going to see that continue to go because as
soon as you have that foundational piece in K1, you can add on the two through five pieces. Uh, and the graph that we're looking at here, this fluency piece, that's what we start to work on in K1, but we continue through. And one of my favorite quotes here is the best reading strategy is the ability to read
the words on the page. Um, you cannot comprehend your way out of not being able to decode those words. And so, to that matter, if we can keep it going, which I do think that we can, we're going to see our kids can accomplish anything, right? Because we'll be able to free up this time in second through
fifth grade to we've got them fluent. Now, let's push them deeper in that content and we'll be able to lean into that knowledge building as soon as we're done with that second grade. So, this part will just continue to go and our intervention groups will get smaller. And so, there isn't a perfect world
where 100% of kids can do it with tier one. It's just not realistic. But the more ease you can get in hitting that 80% 85% who can do it with just tier one, that means your intervention groups are one to three or one to two. you're really hitting those kids who needed
that double and triple dose instead of missing that first dose overall. Um I have told Dr. Funk, I would say give anything three years. That means that you know the kindergarters, the first graders, they get to be second graders and then we're going to start to see it on those bigger assessments and things
and you'll start to see it stabilize and take off the growth. Um that's in both languages as well. You'll see that in immersion. They always say, you know, third grade is that tricky year because you're flipping it over and then you start to see them outgrow it. That's what will happen, I believe, with our
new curriculum as well. >> My guess is though, and I know you're going to get into this later, is the teaching with fidelity is important because if you have someone not teaching it, that student goes to the next grade without those foundational skills. And that's kind of maybe where we, you know, it could trip up some of the results.
So, >> absolutely. And I'll speak to that when we get to guaranteed and viable curriculum as well. Um, some huge celebrations that I wanted to call out. So, we went into middle school saying, "How are we going to pull this off?" There isn't a block right now for middle school intervention that wouldn't have
pulled kids away from other pieces. And so, what we did is we have pony time. And anyone who's familiar, it's kind of the opposite block of lunch. And so, um, it is sorted by grade level. And we were like, let's do whatever we can here. the principles and their leadership teams
came together and they decided on what if we tap in more than our ELA team. So we have our ELA team and our social studies team actually doing it. A huge shout out to our social studies team for jumping in here. Um and the results were incredible and so we used um Anita
Archer's rewards program and so it's built for secondary readers. So I want to be clear, we don't have secondary students sitting there a you know with what we would be doing in kindergarten. This is a program that is built for secondary students to become more fluent
as well as doing a lot more um morphenemic and so using those root words and strategies to be able to be a more fluent reader to ease up that pressure on them. And what we [snorts] saw at both middle schools was about a 60% exiting and 40% exiting in sixth
grade. This is in one semester. >> That's crazy. >> It's crazy numbers, right? And so what we believe to have attributed to it is a lot of the stuff that we're showing them through this program, they wouldn't have gotten because we didn't have an explicit program when they were in elementary school. And so what we
anticipate is these numbers dropping over time because they are now getting it in elementary school. And we saw it all the way through our eighth graders. I mean 63% exited the need for this intervention at Stillwater Middle School in one semester. Um, and so we had an
overall exit rate at Oakland of 48% and at Stillwater Middle of 45% with our social studies team. So again, just a huge shout out. This is because our pilot was so successful, something that we will be bringing into next year. And as of two days ago, the state actually
approved that our they would pay for our science of reading training to be extended to all of our middle school teachers in the middle schools without a cost to the district. And so the same way that they'll cover the ELA ones, they will cover our social studies teachers to go through alongside um and
the new um lead literacy lead Danny Johnson who is with me during training. We are going to take it alongside them to help be the bridge between our elementary and our middle school and create the Stillwater piece. So we will start that this fall as well, which was a huge huge win for our district.
>> Going to the students who are even older, we did another pilot. So we called it literacy lab. Um we have one teacher who was already employed by Stillwater. This isn't a new hire. This is a same hire. We just moved some of her blocks to be with her reading license. And uh we did an elective
credit or an elective course through this but um that is moving into next year. And so we taught we are going to teach it in both the fall and spring to accommodate the different schedules. So it'll be an elective. you can take it in the fall or the spring to help ease up that
scheduling pressure at the high school as well and try to keep students as in in many electives as they can. And it will be a multi-grade course for that same reason. And so 9th and tth graders can take the same course together at the same time to again be able to schedule
more blocks to ease up students being able to take the electives that they are choosing to take as well. Um Allison, you had asked me a question before now as well uh for last year. So last year we had 45 students participate across the two semesters and we had an exit
rate of 35%. Um about because of our scheduling gaps in the middle of the year we had about 50% of the students who would have qualified be able to take it at that time. Um and now with the more options that we have created through the new schedule we will have the ability to
serve many more students through this program as well. >> Incredible. >> Yeah. >> Awesome. A huge shout out to all the scheduling gods and people who do that at the high school because it is a giant puzzle that they work very hard for our students to
have what they need. >> And that Matt craft should we be like sending Matt [laughter] Matt good vibes >> and the counselors? >> Yeah. And the counselors. >> Yes. Everyone who's working um to make all of this magic happen for our students and make sure that they get both what they need academically as well
as their choices involved. Uh we've also been telling parents too, it isn't that students cannot read, right? And so the student in your home who is taking this class, it's not that they cannot read or they're not sounding out words. It's that the way that we're doing that and the way that we used to teach is
inefficient for their brain. They are putting so much strain on their brain to be able to do it that way. And so we give them ways to read with more accuracy and automaticity and ease that up so that they can understand what they're reading more. Um the number of
high schoolers who actually said why did never no one ever tell me this like right and you're looking at exit rates of 48%. because it just clicks. >> Um they're like, "Oh, >> so when it says ology, that just means it's the study of and so I really just
need to know that first part." And we're like, "Mhm." They're like, "What? No one's ever told me this." And we're like, "Right, we're also learning alongside you." And there's a lot of humbling things, right? If we didn't know better or we would have done better. And now that we do know better, we are working to close some of those
gaps that will now be closed for our K through fifth graders so that by the time they are in middle and high school, they're able to take more of those electives and worry less about reading efficiency that way. >> And I just want to say because as a board um sometimes we know things that are going on, sometimes we don't.
>> Right? >> That was probably the most surprising thing in this packet. I was unfamiliar with the pilot in the rewards in the literacy lab. And I'm so grateful that our staff is not just focusing on elementary, but catching kids up that
didn't benefit from the no better um do better. Yeah. >> And we're just we're giving them the support that we need, you know, out in our secondary schools as well. So I was just like that was the most surprising thing of just like wow look at all this good work. So thank you to the teachers
who are just in our secondary doing this as well and um now getting phonics training. I mean just excellent. Excellent. >> Yes. >> All right. Lots of the questions were around this guaranteed and viable curriculum piece and so it was not without some challenges. I know I'm here
saying look at all these great things that have come right and that is true but there were some challenges and so some of the core challenges when you're looking at a curriculum of adoption of our size is curriculum overload. We didn't just do one, we did two curriculums. Um although it was the
right thing to do, it doesn't make it any easier. uh which led to inconsistent pacing. And so when we speak to inconsistent pacing, sometimes it's I started earlier or someone else started later, but it's also sticking to a new
type of curriculum. So the curriculum that we adopted for knowledge building is a circular curriculum, which means we teach less at one time. So we're moving units every three weeks instead of every quarter. So where we were four total
units in a year, you teach really deep and then you move on to the next topic. You teach really deep and you move on. With our new curriculum, you start to plant seeds and build what we call velcro in their brain so they have more to stick it to um as they move forward,
right? And so you're planting words like schema and foreshadowing. And although you're not asking a student to do that right away, by the time you are in unit six, they're like, "Oh, I've heard you use that word. I've heard you model that for me. And so we're building that velcro up. Um but that's a new way of
teaching. And so for teachers to trust that and to kind of feel that we saw some teachers over teach for a little bit, stay in unit one for too long. We saw other ones kind of move through some pieces. And so as we worked with our building literacy leads to kind of build
that trust of how it works. I'd say it was about three units in that I started to really see people say, "Oh, I get what you mean about don't teach too deep because it will come back." But that's really normal, too, right? Because we have teachers who want to do the very best for their students and
they're looking at a boxed curriculum and saying this isn't like I used to do and I don't want to miss it. And so it was really three weeks in and that's where we kind of got off pacing which resulted in um in some places we went all the way to unit nine. In some we got
to about unit 8. And so that's something we'll be working towards going forward is just to keep everyone on pace so we teach everyone the same amount and that is a very normal piece of it. Um and this last piece I put on here is autonomy tension. So this is again
something that you're going to see uh because it is saying well I've done it this way for this many years and it has worked right and that can be true as well as when we talk about guaranteed and viable curriculum it isn't actually that what you were doing wasn't working
it was that it was working in a silo. And so what we see is kids can have an extremely strong first grade year. Right? You're seeing scores in 80% 90% because it's just that good. But if the second grade teacher doesn't actually know what you were doing or it doesn't
build together, we start to see unintentional holes be created. Um, and it's no one's fault other than no one was looking at it vertically to say we're going to do this all the way up. And so Marzano's research has the best research around what is the number one
thing you can do for students. And it really comes down to over and over again. Look at it vertically. create a similar experience for all students and say this is what we're going to cover because that way there will be no holes and the more strong teachers and strong
experience you can have the better off a student is going forward. Um, and so that builds trust within the system. It builds change on teachers to say, well, I've I have been doing this. It has been working, which can be true, but then looking at it a little bit broader. And
I would say where we got to by the end was we're still seeing it in some places, but we we had a committee choose a really strong curriculum. And that means that they got to live a really strong curriculum and really see the benefits from it. And it doesn't hurt when the scores also back up because you
get to feel success and you get to see the the results going. So that is something we'll keep an eye on. I know it's come up in surveys and it's come up in other areas. So we'll continue to work through the why behind that as well as making sure teachers are understanding that we want their creativity too, right? And so we don't
want robots in front of our kids. We really don't. We want all students in our district to have a guaranteed you'll all cover these same things so that you're all ready for second grade. If you went to this elementary school in first grade, you can seamlessly move into second grade at another space. But
we still want our teachers to sparkle. We still want them to be everything they are and bring everything to the table. And so we'll continue to work through how to make people feel comfortable with the fidelity to the content and the fidelity to who you are as a teacher and what you bring to the table.
>> Dr. funk. >> So a good way of looking this at this and maybe I've said this before to the board, others have heard me say it. It's the concept of defined autonomy. >> All right. One of the challenges we have is if you know if we have a lot of change in
systems, people just kind of do their own thing and they have a lot of autonomy. They well we're going to go do whatever. Um so what we're doing is we're providing the sandbox. All right, here's where we want you to operate. And it's really the art of teaching. Okay,
the science is here's here's the curriculum. Here's what needs to happen. Um, how you get there that you that's your the art that's the skills you bring as a as a as a teacher. And so um because because we and Sky was purposeful about putting the autonomy
tension in here because we do we do have some really good teachers who've been teaching a certain way for a number of years. And why do I have to do something different? I know what I'm doing. Well, the challenge is that as Sky mentioned, you may be doing something well in first
grade and those kids have a different experience. And so by the time they get to second grade, they now have a different experience that the second grade teachers um and other teachers in first grade may have taught, >> you know, the the curriculum. So that's
the tension within the system. Um, but again, I think, you know, the more people we can get to the to the why and and to emphasize you do have some autonomy here to um to use your skill set to um, you know, bring out the best in our kids. Um, so it's not it's
guaranteed and viable, but it's not completely prescriptive. I think that's an important uh, delineation. >> Dr. Thelander. >> Yeah, I mean u this is a really big deal. I mean it's um the undertaking that is involved from assistance alignment assistance alignment is huge.
I mean just how you talked about incorporating you know scheduling and counselors and teachers at elementary middle school high school. Um you know the work that's happening in teaching and learning. Uh it's really exciting to see because I think this is at you know
one of the core promises that we as a school district are telling parents. will teach your child how to read and that is such a important life skill and you know I just appreciate you know that you know kind of the guaranteed and viable curriculum. um you know having
that systems alignment is I think is so critical and so I just want to say thank you to the you know again to you and um you know executive director Willis and teaching and learning and the whole staff um as well as our teachers and our paras and um you know everyone that's
involved from a staff standpoint plus we talked we recognized the partnership plan and you know kind of closing you know uh that circle within that is how important the community is because it does take a whole community and having vessel which you did such a great job in recognizing all the volunteers are going
to elementary schools to help you know support the teachers and support the kids to read. Um so just a big thank you because it does take everyone you know working in the you know rowing in the same direction to make this a successful outcome. So thanks for your continued work on this.
>> Absolutely. So, planning forward, um, principles as our instructional leaders, I know they've been at hard at work, uh, working on what's that going to look like, what are the action cards, how do we align this, um, how do we push our results that we got this year to keep it
growing, and where are some hot spots that I might need to support more as an instructional leader, um, or tap into some of our coaching or the teaching and learning team as well to make sure that our results are across all of our buildings, across all of our schools. The great news is that every building,
and we'll go into this more too in September when we come into the deep dive of everything and have some MCA results to look at, uh, is that every building had wins in in different grade levels. So, it isn't that there's any building with no wins across any grade
level. And, um, we're excited to share out that all schools are growing in the same way. We had some really great in fifth grade, some really great in kindergarten. And so now our work is how do we even that out so that we're seeing the same growth across all grades in all buildings. Uh and to do that we're going
to lean on our principles. We of course have our teaching and learning team but also our teacher leaders. So this is something we started last year and will continue going forward is something called building literacy leads. And that's K12. Every school has a lead and they come together with me and we actually plan
out what does your individual school need? Do they need modeling? do they need extra professional development? How can we push the school and the uniqueness of the school to the next place? Um, and those were they applied for the role. Some of them were hinted at by their peers. Uh, there's two at
Brookview who are sharing the role because they said, "We just have so many teachers and so many kids, it makes more sense for us to split this up so that she can speak a little bit more to the older teachers and they can speak it and to the younger teachers." And so that is something I'm excited to continue going
forward. And then this last piece here is a shared feedback loop. So ignore acknowledging and not ignoring our warts, right? So putting on the slide autonomy tension and not pretending that everything is uh rosy when it isn't. And so listening to that feedback saying,
you know, this is not prescriptive. We actually don't want you to feel like a robot. I'm sorry that if something I said made you feel that way. Let's work through what that can look like and work through so that we can build that trust and keep everything going forward because a K12 overhaul of a specific subject is a lot and it feels like a lot
and that weight is really falling on our teachers and so acknowledging that and to keep them going and asking what they need as they go forward. >> Yeah. Um did you get any like success feedback or from teachers who maybe had been worried about the autonomy piece
and then you know dis and discovered that they were able to still bring their unique vision and talents to it or not yet? >> Absolutely. So there were some even willing for us to videotape and share with other teachers how they do it. Routines and procedures became a big
piece of this of oh I can still bring my own routines and procedures. I don't have to change everything about the way that I teach even if the content is shifting a little bit. Um, also, you know, we can still do our favorite readalouds in addition to and so really starting to explain it as at the bare
minimum. Here's the content that we'll cover to make sure everybody has this. And also, please bring in your favorite read aloud. I know kindergarten does mystery readers. So those are uh still exciting things that we're continuing on and we never want to cancel any of those things in any of the buildings that make
it special for the students and the teachers as well. Um but it was mixed you know some really like a new thing and some do not. And so that this is my third time on a new curriculum in three different districts and I can say consistently
where we landed was a really good place to be after year one. We have teachers who know what they're teaching. We have teachers who are starting to ask questions. Could we do it this year, which mean this way this year, which means they're starting to look at how to make it even better? Um, and still some
questions. I'm going to need some support with this. I'm not sure I quite understood unit one. Could we roll it out differently? Which is exactly what we're here for. And we have another training coming up just in a couple weeks with we're flying out the um curriculum people to bring us into the writing piece of it a little bit deeper
as well. >> Can I ask with really quick with Vessel um is that in is that program because it is so I mean I can't thank enough the Vessel volunteers and the important role that they play in all of our schools. But is it in every school? I mean are we expanding that?
>> We are expanding this year into the seven elementary schools. So, we've confirmed with um the Lily Lake was the one school that didn't have it yet. We've confirmed with the principal, Jeff Stensrude, who is interested in continuing that on. And I am busy with Dave and recruiting uh different
volunteers. Huge shout out to Dave. He does most of that work behind the scenes. Um I just connect him with the schools once we have volunteers. And so, we are set to do a vessel training this fall with a hopeful hard launch of October 5th. So, we like to give our
teachers some time to meet their kids to get those routines and procedures, remembering that we push vessel mostly into those K1 classrooms. And so, the less people you're adding to that other than the 25, you know, new people in the room is best and then they can welcome
in and then we'll be off and running. So, I'm excited to say we'll be in all seven. Great. Uh, we are still looking at what it looks like in middle school. We tried it a little bit this year, worked on some things that we learned some feedback from. Um, I always say
middle schoolers are wonderful, but they don't want to go out. They want to be with their friends. They don't want to be in the, you know, in the hallway the same way a kindergartenner's like, "Me next. I want to be [laughter] first." It's just a little bit different. And so, we're working through what does this look like at middle school and how we
can we be helpful at those levels. And then I didn't ask this in advance so if you can't answer it um you can just follow up with me but what role do our instru instructional coaching staff play in this adoption process and the literacy can you speak to that maybe a little bit or maybe they don't maybe
that they're doing something different I mean do they get involved in literacy >> absolutely okay yes and so uh we do a comp process and so teachers set their own goals around it but >> almost all elementary teachers set a goal around literacy last year and and
they're working one-on-one with coaches in a coaching cycle or they're working um with doing learning walks with each other and watching each other teach. And so our instructional coaches are in every single building, every single literacy goal and helping out with that as well,
>> but they're not specific to literacy. So they also coach our science teachers and our math teachers um as well. So they they didn't just do literacy, they do all of the staff. >> Perfect. >> Yeah. I'm just um I'm floored by the early on
results. I know there's more to be done and we have more work to be to be doing, but the growth is phenomenal. And I mean, this is one of those things where I feel like when we when we came in and and Dr. Funk and his team kind of came in, we we really identified literacy.
This is a really good example of staying consistent with that and with that goal in mind and now it just feels like it's finally kind of paying off with identifying the curriculum. It t it all takes time every phase but just seeing how like I mean you mentioned social
studies teachers counselors that are engaged in you know freeing up people's schedules and I mean it's just from top to bottom the organization has really rallied around this literacy goal and I think it's going to pay off dividends for learners and the community is right there in this and so just gratitude all
the way around just really phenomenal results. Yes, >> I can speak anecdotally to I mean very anecdotally as the parent of a of a my daughter just graduated kindergarten and her um her reading from beginning to end
the end of year. It floored me. It floor I mean it just beyond any expectations I had. So I mean something is I mean great teacher but something's clearly working the right way. So >> giving teachers great tools makes it
>> yes >> great for everyone too. We already had great teachers, now we have great tools to back them. And now we're off. >> So looking forward, this is my last one, I promise. Um, so looking forward, we have MCA4 results that will be released
in September. Um, we are excited. All signs point to they shouldn't go down, but you never know. It's a brand new test and so again we go with that fast bridge is a really good predictor or it was on MCA3. Um and so if that follows
the same trend we should be I'm not going to curse us I guess but [laughter] um I'm excited to see how they land that way. Uh we will have 56 secondary teachers will be getting the science of reading training. Uh the secondary program is just one year so
they will wrap up within that year. that includes our secondary ELA as well as our middle school social studies teachers and then a few smatterings from around the district of just new hires or different areas that way. Um, anyone who comes in, we will still onetoone talk to
our new staff. If they if they're in elementary school, they will still get it through um a state cohort. They won't they're not just out of luck. So, we will make sure that everyone who comes into Still Water already has it or we'll continue to give them letters training as well. Um, we will have a new
knowledge building curriculum for K5 Spanish starting, you know, in a couple weeks, which we're very excited about. All shipping and everything looks to be on schedule with the new building. And the new building is ready to receive at the shipping docks. [laughter] Looking at Mark back there to just confirm. Here
they come, all those boxes. Um, and then we will continue to serve reading interventions during pony time at the middle schools and we will launch our literacy lab elective at the high school in both fall and spring semesters. >> Awesome. >> Yes. >> Can Can I ask a question? Was letters
training was that going to be >> part of like new teacher training like in school? >> Yeah. In college? >> In college? Yeah. Yes. >> So when is that supposed to >> I mean they they should be doing it now. Yep. So, the first graduating cohort
will be the 2728 is when >> they would have been freshman when they started. So, we still have a little bit of band-aid to do depending on the school, depending on the state. Um, and that's why we'll continue to letters train, but anyone we hire after that coming out of a state um Minnesota
school and most other districts around or states around as well. >> Awesome. >> Yeah, that's going to be very helpful. >> For sure. >> Great. Can I just make one final comment? Um, you guys have covered most of >> all of the accolades and I very much
appreciate all the work that you're doing, but I just wanted to give a shout out to you Sky and your leadership in all of this. You have really left no stone stone unturned on this one and I so appreciate all of the effort and and your ability and your experience in
navigating on boarding a new curriculum. We are very much the benefactors of that. So, and our kids are and our community is. So this was a big big lift and I so appreciate you. >> Thank you. >> Happy to be here. >> You make us all excited about literacy. So we [laughter]
>> anytime you want to talk literacy, >> we know who to call. Steve D. [laughter] >> Well, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um that concludes the um the open part of our meeting. >> No, >> no, we have one more. I'm sorry. We have
a first read on policy policy 610 um activities and programs away from school campus. And Mike, we're going to turn it over to you. >> So, we have a policy R 610. I believe it was adopted in 2003.
Um and we are looking to replace it with our 610 is currently labeled activities and programs away from the school campus. We are looking at adopting model policy 610 from MSBA which is education
programs. Um scroll down to C there. The only change between our policy and MSBA to C. Scroll up a little bit to the top Joan if you can. There you go. Is we have added school sponsored celebratory
or recognition trips. Okay. So basically I'll read it to you. School sponsored celebratory or recognition trips may be approved as supplementary or extracurricular activities when participation is voluntary. The activity serves a legitimate student or student activity purpose. Equitable access is
provided and the trip does not materially interfere with required instruction. Celebratory trips shall not be represented as instructional trips solely because they occur during the school day. So that's really the only change that we have added to the MSBA
model policy. So tonight is the first read and if you have any questions I can answer them. Otherwise you can contact myself or Dr. Agbamo in between and we'll bring it back for a second reading our next next meeting.
>> Um I think I and I provided this but I just want to capture it. I think we need to look at E one and two a little bit. Joan and I were talking about it, but I think we could just talk take that into the next policy meeting we have. >> Good. >> Um, but we want the feedback. So, if if
um the board is reading it, provide that feedback back to to Joan and Mike. And I just had one kind of general question. Um, so a as we're adopting the model policy, are there any other areas that are going to be substantial changes in
how we do things um just in practice by adopting the model policy? >> I don't think in practice. I think what we're adding really um it's a model of what our practice is. So I mean so that's why we're >> so it's it's an alignment with what
we're already doing. We have principles looking at the fe at the policy and so they're always involved. >> That's why we added C. >> Okay. >> Recommendation one of the principles. >> All right. Thank you. >> Okay. So that's just a first read. We'll meet again as a policy group. Take any
feedback we get um receive from you in the next few days if you could look at that and provide that to us. Um great. All right. Now we are moving into close session. We have two close sessions. I'll read the first one here. Um, the next item on the agenda is a
closed session pursuant to Minnesota statute 13D05, subdivision 3C3, which allows the board to go into close session to develop or consider an offer to purchase or sell real property. Um, I will go ahead and make the motion to go into closed. Can I
get a second? >> I'll second. >> Great. Director Theer with the second. Um, okay. All those in favor of moving into close session, raise your hand and say, "I." I >> opposed. Okay, we will move into close session.
>> Didn't you say there was two