microphone test for whetta public schools Schoolboard meeting February 10th 2025
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good evening the time is now 7:00 the wieta Public Schools Board of Education regular meeting for Monday February 10th 2025 will please come to order will the clerk please take the role Heidi ker here Sheila
prior here Sarah Johansson absent haris bende here Valentina SS here Dan janesta here Milan Sone Chase Anderson here thank you we have AUM if you wish to speak during the audience opportunity to address the board please fill out a form placed at the back of the on outside the door and hand it over to our district admin assistant Amy sitting
on my right welcome everyone to the second regular board meeting of the year we are glad you could join us this evening the first item on our agenda is the approval of the agenda and the consent agenda items consent agenda items are considered routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items unless a board member of or a citizen so requests in which event the item will be removed as a consent agenda item
and addressed the consent agenda items are listed in the materials the recommended action is to approve the agenda and the consent agenda items is there a motion I so move second thank you moved and seconded will the clerk please take a rooll call vote Sarah Johansson absent Paris bende yes Sheila prior yes Heidi ker yes Valentina SS yes Dan janra
yes Milan soney yes we have an agenda thank you the next item on our agenda is reports from organizations this section of the agenda provides an opportunity for a wieta high school student council representative to report on information and events at Wisa High School I would like to invite pton Mel student council vice president from Visa High School to please come forward welcome Pon okay uh
good even good evening everyone it's been a little while since I last saw you um but I'm glad I'm able to see you guys today um I will try to keep tonight's notes brief uh because we have a full house it seems um this last week the Wisa High School's National Honor Society held snow days a weeklong event uh leading up to the Sadies dance um similar to homecoming week in the fall the week consisted up uh consisted of dress up days wisett Idol singagrams and finally the midnight masquerade dance
um to the Trojan saying with the choirs during singagrams so that was um interesting this week the high school student council is hosting the um annual staff Appreciation Week each member of both the House and Senate are given uh a staff member to recognize and celebrate this week through uh diecuts uh Deca competed in districts and many competitor are moving up to the state level so that's exciting um the Wisa science Bowl placed in regionals
as Regional Champions um placing first in their wetta a group um the wetta orchestra has their mshsl Minnesota State High School league um a solo Ensemble contest um this April and then the chamber and string orchestras have the Lake Conference Orchestra Festival in March um these are great opportunities to bring uh our different schools together um wetta student council has been working with
the staff AI committee um to give student feedback to the new Implement implementation of a AI protocols in the classroom um and has been very beneficial for both uh the Senators and staff members and then finally uh Wisa theater presents the nine and 10 grade Musical music man which starts in late February and then one more thing sorry um just a little Sports rundown for for you um the dance team is State Bound for jazz and kick um and I think it's
next week I'm pretty sure um just in these upcoming weeks and then for sections that are coming up we have boys swim and dive girls gymnastics boys girls and basket boys and girls basketball Boys Hockey and wrestling in late February to early March and I'll bring you guys the like updates from that for the next meeting and then last but not least uh girls P Sky took third in sections at the Wild Mountain um we were one point
away from going to State um which is a little upsetting but it's okay um however Nordic ski were section champions for both boys and girls so um I feel like Marcus Westman would have a little giggle because uh Nordic always kind kind of comes on top of Alpine So yeah thank you so much thank you pton um colleagues any payon I um had the opportunity you're totally fine first of all thanks for coming
tonight thanks for always coming um I had an opportunity to judge at Deca and I will I just have to tell everyone here it is an amazing event thank you so much to is high school for hosting it they took 900 over 900 students through that day and judged them they are there are several um of our students that are going to State and they are still in need of judges so if um if you are interested in judging I highly recommend it I learned a lot and it gave me you know just
a lot of Hope in our future and our students are so bright um and so many students from around the regional area were with us too and it was it was just a really incredible experience that I highly encourage you to do if you have the time and opportunity anyone else okay all right thank you pton again like Heidi said I know what what the why that high school students do is just so impressive I always wonder when when they have time to study and
uh you know Deca BPA uh science Bowl Minnesota State High School league uh it the list goes on and on I had judged I think it was BPA if I'm not mistaken not Deca a few years ago and the kids are so impressive um I'm a former business owner but some of them knew more about business operations and how to run a business more than I ever did so it's really really impressive to see these kids do all that they do
and thank you thank you for uh leading them through students Council and for all the good work you do we'll see you next month thank you so much all right next item on the agenda is recognition and I will now join superintendent Anderson at the podium good evening everybody my name is Chase Anderson I'm the superintendent for the school district and it's always my honor
to convene the uh commendations and the uh uh recognitions at the school board meeting so it's my pleasure to be here tonight chair soney indicated uh all of the different activities that are available to students and not only do they participate but they do really well as we're about to find out uh with a few of our uh student groups our first recognition for tonight is for our state science Bowl champions and I think their Coach
Amanda Len is here I'm G to ask her to come forward in a moment I'm gonna and all of your participants that are here come on up and line up right here I'll make just a couple introductory comments and then I'll turn it over to to coach thanks so this first recognition congratulations everybody is the state champions uh in science bowl and I'll just share the following and then we'll have an opportunity to meet them and
we're going to do photo ops for our recognitions here tonight as well and Coach Laden maybe some of your participants might want to make a few comments as well if they're certainly welcome if they would like to Wi Isetta high school team one won the Minnesota Statewide High School science Bowl on January 25th competing against 27 other teams from 15 high schools the event was held at Hamlin University and was was organized by the Minnesota Academy of Science in April yetta's team will represent Minnesota in the US Department
of energy National Science bow in Washington DC at this time I'll turn it over to Coach Amanda leaden and she'll share a little bit more about the program and their accomplishments and uh introduce our students thank you for being here tonight thank you superintendent Anderson I am thrilled to share with you a little bit about these amazing students that I have the pleasure of coaching in science Bowl I'll just start um Richard Lynn is a senior uh he was
on the team last year when we went to National Science bow and earned fifth place and he's headed to Stanford next year to study math Kevin Q is next here he was also on the team that went to Nationals last year Kevin was uh the state champion for the Minnesota State High School League last year and he didn't miss a single question all year uh next Lu ya is junior he participates in Science Olympiad and earned second place in astronomy and first place in Dynamic Planet an
a ratri kamandal she is a junior she's researching the effectiveness of drugs on the tumor micro environment of non-s small cell lung cancer at the University of Minnesota you may have seen her featured on CCX media about a week ago a little over a week ago and unfortunately War Wong is unable to be here tonight he's our fifth team member and I want to share that he is researching organ prio preservation at the University of Minnesota he also leads the biology Club at Wiis a high school so just from
that list you can tell that I have the fortune of working with some very brilliant students and it's always a pleasure to see them practice and interact and do so well at the state competition it's difficult to convey all of their success and their impressive abilities but I think this will kind of give you a sense for their accomplishment during the championship round at regionals Lu ya challenged a question the experts in the room were unable to rule on the challenge so they
had to call the National Science bow and get some more expert opinions on that after a 10 to 15 minute weight of discussion that they had to have they decided that the premise of the question was poorly written it wasn't a good question and they threw it out so it just gives you a sense as to these kids they know the science so well they can get a decision reverse like that so I am excited to go with them to um the National Science poll in Washington DC in April and can't wait to see
how they do thank you any of you
that's really incredible and I'm glad to know that uh somebody from our team was able to set them straight on what good questions are as a former science teacher myself um that's always a a particularly fun recognition our next uh recognition is for the Central Middle School gifted int ented team in the 302010 national champions and I would
like to invite them forward and their advisor why am I not seeing anybody moving are we here oh way they're right in front of me to come forward I didn't finish my sentence my bad all of a sudden I thought I'm not seeing any activity out there uh their adviser Lana Ellen is here with the team tonight and in a moment we'll give her an opportunity to share a little bit about the team and uh make a few comments introduce them and uh make a few more comments about the uh the work
they did uh no worries we can fix that everybody okay all right so let me just share a brief paragraph about uh the significance of of this award wi Isetta Central Middle School's seventh and e8th grade gifted intelligent team won an National academic competition beating 108 other schools the competition formally called
questions unlimited is now the 302010 competition named for its point system where teams earn points based on how quickly they answer questions with clues of varying difficulty the team answered 150 questions covering subjects like history math and literature in just under an hour much faster than the allotted 90 minutes the team's coach Lana Allen emphasized the importance of collaboration and problem solving skills
the competition Fosters in addition to academic knowledge the school's sixth grade team also performed well placing eighth in the same competition the winning team members are now preparing for the spring session of the competition and at this time adviser lanaa Ellen will introduce those who are here this evening and share a little bit more about uh the Activity thank you for being here and congrat ulations thank you board members and
Dr Anderson for your introduction and for honoring our group here tonight it is my pleasure to introduce you to our team members not all of them are present but most have made it so thank you a Pera if you want to give a little wave that's okay thank you Min cow Shu yava Gotham Goyle shank ready G Penta ardan Hayes Shan ptil Anisha Paul uh EMT
feifer is not here but he is a member of our team diub ranan will Tui Raul Veno Max Wang and Becca King please join me in welcoming shuy Dia and Anisha who would briefly like to share a bit more about our team and its
accomplishments my team and I would like to thank the school board and Dr Anderson for recognizing us this evening we're honored to be here we especially want to thank Mrs Allen her guidance and support were a huge part of our success we couldn't have done it without her 302010 academic trivia is a competition run by the Long Island Quiz Bow League the format consists of 180 questions each worth 10 points grouped into sets
of three within each set all three questions share the same answer progressing from difficult to easy questions our team is very proud to have placed first out of 1008 teams Nationwide with a score of 89% good evening everyone I'm Dia subber Manan and today I'll share how academic trivia shapes our future academic trivia is
more than just to game it's a brain workout a test of quck thinking let's be honest the only time when obscure 18th century poetry actually impresses people in daily life we rely on critical thinking quick decision making and staying sharp Under Pressure an academic trivia sharpens all three it helps us process information communicate effectively and make quick decisions on behalf of my team I can say that our passion comes from the thrill of Discovery our love for competition and
the joy of learning it helps build teamwork a lifelong curiosity and confidence plus who doesn't love confidently shouting out an answer only to realize you were completely wrong the skills we develop such as rapid analysis memory and quick thinking help us in many fields ranging from law all the way to technology academic trivia shapes our future greatly so the next time we answer a question remember we're not just playing we're growing
competing and preparing for a future where knowledge is power even with just knowing the capital of lonstein a special thanks to Miss Allen for helping coordinate our team and giving us so many opportunities to showcase our knowledge I'd also like to thank the wetta board members for giving us an opportunity to be here today thank you everyone I'll be handing it over to Anisha now thank you Dia as she said this
experience taught us all so many things it was a long process to get to where we are today whether some of our team members have had Quiz Bow and science B experience before or not but as cheesy as it may sound one of the main things we also gain are the friends we make along the way getting to know people who have the same interests and passions create communities that last years in full honesty being able to have a group of people who put in the same effort into school as I do really brings a sense of belonging some of my friends
also did 3 to1 trivia actually most of the team was already my friend but thanks to this competition I think our friendship grew stronger hopefully the memories of silly answers and weird questions will always be an inside joke and it's not just social educationally I really got to learn so much more from those around me Dia mentioned how we learned so much from the questions but I'd like to emphasize how much we learn from each other I'm so grateful I've gotten this opportunity to participate alongside such brilliant people and
I hope to learn more in the years to come I'd like to emphasize once more that I'm so grateful that Miss Allen has run this program for us and superintendent Anderson has allowed us to participate in this competition thank you together just make you see
our next recognition this evening is for one of our staff members I'd like to invite Julie Johnson uh assistant principal at Central Middle School to please come forward keeping you all in suspense why would she be invited forward well I'll tell
you Julie is being recognized or was recognized this year as the Minnesota assistant principal of the Year worthy of another round of applause as noted and I'll read from the script now congratulations to Julie Johnson assistant principal at Central Middle School on being named the 200000 25 Minnesota Middle School assistant principal of the Year Julie will be honored at the Minnesota Association
of secondary schools principles annual banquet on January 29th which already occurred right January 29 I want to make sure that wasn't a misprint I thought oh okay nope so recently she is also now a contender for the national assistant principal of the Year award which will be presented in Washington DC this fall Julie congratulations we're really proud of you and we'll give you a chance to share a little bit and now a round of applause okay it's
really hard to go after all of the incredible students that just spoke so bear with me um good evening members of the wetta school board colleagues and Community um I'm honored to stand before you tonight not only as an educator but as someone who is fascinated by the delightful chaos of learning um I must confess while I could easily spend hours discussing formative assessments and differentiation
delving into divorce for questions and effective PLC work or even spreadsheets love spreadsheets um talking about myself always leaves me a bit flustered and if I'm honest a little bit sweaty so tonight I just want to share a little bit about why I do what I do and how every single day reminds me that this work is guaranteed to change lives a couple summers ago I was at the state fair and I heard an all too familiar is that Miss Johnson
and after taught thousands of students at this point there's always that moment of panic do I remember your name and thankfully quickly added it's me do you remember me and I was like yes I do remember you and we caught up and he told me how now he's in college studying engineering and then he said something I'll never forget uh yeah you were the one who got me here I hated math until I took it with you and then you made me think I was good at math and the thing was he was good at math
he just didn't believe in himself at that time and in that moment I was reminded that our influence as Educators goes far beyond textbooks and lesson plans it's about instilling confidence passion and a believe that every student can Excel I believe with every fiber of my being that what we do in education has a profound impact on the lives and our society our work is purposeful and it's guaranteed to make a difference my journey both as a teacher and now
as an associate principal has taught me invaluable lessons a listening ear goes a long way the importance of patience I'm often reminded to slow down thank you Sarah Thon and above all the power of believing in one another I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to some Extraordinary People along this journey thank you Christian um thank you for always believing in me being our family's Rock and supporting my journey as a mother and a woman
in leadership not only do you rocket as a dad I'm proud that you're a teacher and that you have a remarkable gift of making connections with your students they are very lucky thank you TX Xavier you have encouraged me even when I didn't see it in myself your unwavering dedication to the success of our students and staff at Central Middle School is unparalleled your integrity and belief in others will continue to inspire those that
you lead thank you rob we just had dinner at Noodles and Company and he really helped me with my nerves before this thank you our camaraderie and trust that we have built with one another are the pillars of our strong team we Challenge and support one another every day and thank you for letting me learn alongside you uh thank you Chase the members of the our uh District leadership team your encouraging words and steady guidance continue to shape me as a leader and your support has been a constant
reminder that every step forward is worth celebrating uh thank you to our Central staff uh and Community our community at Central Middle School rallies together in support of our students and each other from gabbing about articles that we are reading Tik toks um and to coming together to celebrate the wins and support each other through tough times it's truly a unique Community to spend every day in and to the students
thank you for continuously molding and shaping me both as a leader and as a person I learn from you every day each of you has taught me that the classroom is not just a place for learning but a community where every story matters at my core lies two fundamental beliefs first that every student can and will learn at high levels and second that the adults in the room are the single most important factor in their educational Journey my job is to
support encourage and believe our students and teachers even on the days when they not might might not yet believe in themselves I initially wanted to say It's Magic but it's not magic it's more intentional than that it's about people believing in one another it's about people caring about one another and it's about people believing in themselves when we witness those moments of joy growth and success we see the true purpose behind our work why Isetta thank you for the opportunity to serve
and thank you for believing in the power of Education let's keep inspiring keep growing and keep celebrating every Victory no matter how small
congratulations again Julie and thanks for the great uh uh cheering Gallery you have here tonight glad you could join us our next Rec for the evening is for our employee of the month and I'd like to invite Keith Reese to please come
forward I'm going to share a nice narrative here about Keith our employee of the month from Oakwood Elementary School when the Oakwood staff learned that Keith Reese would be recognized as February Employee of the Month everyone couldn't help but smile and agree Keith absolutely deserves it he's the perfect representative for Oakwood as a special education pair professional Keith has a
has a structured daily schedule but he remains adaptable always adjusting to meet the unique needs of his students one of his standout qualities is his deep understanding of the students he supports allowing him to make thoughtful changes to enhance their learning experience he's proactive in asking questions and offering ideas because he knows how to best approach each student even students he doesn't directly work with with feel his warmth and presence often reaching out to him with questions or to share stories building genuine connections along the way Keith is
an exemplary role model for both students and staff he treats everyone with kindness and respect always taking the time to engage with others even challenging situations he brings a sense of calm and is always ready to offer his help students shared some of their thoughts about Keith and I share the following he is cool and really helps us with things like math he's nice and he is fun he likes to do things with us I like that he comes to lunch with me he
is a kind man the student had a huge smile saying he's funny Keith's dedication and compassion and unwavering commitment to our students and staff set him apart congratulations on being named Employee of the Month your contributions do not go unnoticed and we are grateful for everything you do to make Oakwood Elementary School a better place thank you for your hard work and your continued Excellence congratulations to Keith on being selected as the
February 2025 wetta Public Schools employee of the month Keith congratulations uh I'm not the one for speeches but um I'll give it a try um before I get started I do want to share a really cool anecdote that I thought of um I did think it's really cool that I was able to be February's um employee of the month you know given that it's black history month so I wanted to start by
saying that um well first I would like to thank my mom uh she's the hardest work I've ever seen in my life she raised uh four kids and had two jobs most of my childhood uh and she never received any award for any recognition for that so as far as I am as far as I understand this is a testament to all the hard work I saw come before me which has not been unappreciated uh even to this day it still blows my mind that I'm an educator I would say I was a student who um followed my own plan and not the group
plan um but you know I had three staff members throughout my course of schooling who made a huge impact on my life um that was Miss pjo from North viw uh that was Mr Harris from Park Center and also my coach Justin at Park Center who was my wrestling coach who made me the captain after my first year of wrestling because he saw what it I had what it took to be a leader um then I would like to take thank my SP team um without them I I wouldn't be standing here today um Mary Sita Kylie
Kelly Sue thank you guys always for being there for me especially for our students um we do such a good job of making uh plans and communicating uh even about our daily lives you know we'll sit down and talk about oh what are you doing this weekend things like that and you know we thoroughly enjoy each other in our company and each other's company uh I wouldn't trade those ladies for anybody else um Anusha Steph and Don I think those are three greatest teachers I've ever had
a chance to meet um Donna shared something with me that I still think about to this day and it made a huge impact on me as a educator she told me there's more than one way to skin a cat you know and since then like if the one thing doesn't work with the student I try another thing and I try another thing and I try another thing and at some point we going to get it to work you know um and it's also fitting that uh I found out that Donna was actually the one who nominated me because when I found out that I was the employee of the month she was the first person I thought
of I was like if anybody deserves it she should have deserved it so thank you to Donna for that and uh thank you to all the staff in Oakwood uh from everybody to Sarah Beth to Shelly to I'm so sorry to miss hunt sorry Amber uh everybody has been so helpful and warm to me since um I did my tour at Oakwood so even before they knew I was going to start working at Oakwood everybody was so warm to me uh anytime I asked for help or even somebody's ear
for a little small talk they're always there they always you know make time to uh handle that or talk to me uh and last but not least you know thank you to the kids of hakwood you know those are the ones I uh do it all for um some of the students I serve are some of the hardest workers I've ever seen in my life and um the things that they um accomplish on a daily basis amazed me and not only does it amaze me but it makes me a better person um that includes the kids that I see in the hallways and in the classrooms um the
ones that aren't my students the one that I have games with on who can see who first which at this point this year um it's ugly my record is ugly they always they always catch me um but you know even the ones who just smile and say hello those make they make my day they make me happy to come to work every day and to you Schoolboard and everyone here thank you for honoring
me thank you Keith and again congratul ul ations and in honor of Keith and all of the Oakwood visitors and students and families that we have here tonight you may have noticed my Oakwood Eagle uh
perched next to my name plate uh in front that probably looks familiar to staff and students at least and maybe a few parents as well we're so happy to have all of you here tonight and Keith again congratulations um our next recognition and I believe our final one for the evening is to announce the names of those in individuals who have announced uh their intention to retire at the end of the school year and I would like to uh share the following names we have
a number of them tonight which isn't uncommon in February because that's sort of the timeline that uh often times retirements come our way uh to notify us that they'll be wrapping up at the end of the year our first one is and often times they aren't here but if you are and you wish to come forward feel free uh first is Michelle brager par professional at Northwoods for 13 years Trish Hill a familiar name to many in the group administrative
professional at Oakwood 31 years is Trish here maybe with all the Oakwood folks maybe Jane lall per professional Metal Ridge 18 years Ruth Swan pair of professional WIS Zetta kids at Northwoods for 20 years Ward Bloomer teacher at Central Middle School 30 years Melissa NE Neil teacher at the high school for 16 years Deborah godan teacher at Northwoods eight years an Carlson
teacher at Oakwood and Meadow Ridge 18 years Jill freshwaters teacher at Plymouth Creek 29 years Linda Johnson ECFE teacher early learning school 18 years of service Valerie McWilliams Jones teacher at the high school four years Marlene Demay teacher at the high school 33 years and Mark
Ferry teacher at the high school for 17 years if you could join me in a round of applause for all of those even though that list of individuals will conclude their time with us as an employee of wetta public schools their contributions and all that they did for us will live on for years and years to come and we so greatly appreciate all that they've done and uh all of our uh the all the things
that we focus on with wetta schools is built upon the foundation of all of those who have been here before us and we just so greatly appreciate uh their efforts and and all of the differences that they've made with students and their colleagues and within the community over those years so thank you so much and thanks again for being here we're looking forward to our Oakwood presentation and uh we just thank you so much for being here with us tonight with that I'm going back there and I see Dana approaching
I think she'll introduce our uh Oakwood guests here tonight thanks again I have that impact on people so I have this kind of
congratulations to the honores the students their coaches employee of the month and retirees and thank you Dr Anderson okay we have the now we
have the highlight of our regular meetings the school school Spotlight presentation tonight the spotlight is on Oakwood Elementary I'll turn it over to executive director danana Miller to introduce to make the introductions thank you Mr chair members of the board tonight it is my pleasure to introduce this month's um shining Spotlight on Oak Elementary where a strong culture of learning and growth is at the heart of everything they do through their professional learning communities or PLC work
with the support of their literacy coach and specialist Oakwood staff have committed to some ambitious site goals 100% of students meeting or exceeding their literacy goals aligned with the grade level standards as well as 100% of students learning new things they are good at at school the Oakwood team is here tonight and excited to share their progress along with some special student feedback as they continue fostering a supportive and enriching learning environment and with that I'll turn it
over to principal Nino and the Oakwood team thank you so much for having us this evening I'm Sarah Beth Denai the principal the proud principal at Oakwood along with me I have these two fine staff members um this is Amber hunt she's our literacy coach and Shelley Nelson uh sorry Shelley Boosey um she's our PE teacher so um to get us started and grounding some of our work each year we have a book of the Year and that
is a book that we use as a teaching tool throughout of our throughout our our year to kind of just focus on what is it that we would like to accomplish this year and so this year's book is called we are together and it is a story about um kids that are able to do things on their own and do great things on their own but when they pair together or have a small group or even in a whole Community the amazing things that happen and Sprout from those uh connections and collaborations so it was interesting for I love
to read month this month we had a author come and visit just this today Stephen shackin and he was talking about how he as an author and illustrator have a lot of other people on his team to make his book better and so just hearing this continued message for all of our students and staff has been really nice um for us to hear through other people as well beyond our Oakway community so looking at some of our district core values we wanted to kind of highlight
which ones we're focusing on um as we create this created this presentation for you so um so achievement oh sorry hi thank you um achievement so challenging each other and ourselves in excellence and collaboration working together um in ways that um eliminate barriers I feel like Oakwood is so strong in these two categories specifically when we all focus on our strengths and it's easier to work
together to accomplish bigger things so just taking bits and pieces from all of our students our staff all the staff I feel like Oakwood is very strong at working together to try to find ways that all students can be successful um and then uh we highlighted under Equity needs of all part of that is learning about who we are as individuals and Def defining what those needs
might be and what that might look like and so before we can meet all the needs we have to figure out who we are and so those are that's one of the pieces that we really focus on is getting to know the individuals not just the child but oursel as a community and as well as um teachers and leaders in the building we'll go back to um Community maintaining that sense of belonging and I believe syv heray said the other day in a presentation belonging is important to maximize achievement but as a
learning community at Oakwood we are always thinking about every part of our day as a learning community so as an entire School we're thinking about a learning community in a specific classroom around specific subjects but how are we learning and growing together as a community and I think that um ways that we've been trying to achieve that is interdependent learning basic needs Circle practice cultur responsive protocols and what we're really trying to do is emphasize um learning for all and so um those are some of
the ways that we're coming together as a community to strengthen um our sense of belonging but also working off the strengths of all students and then respect respect of our is our overarching goal um and you heard from our Employee of the Month Keith as well that learning about each other and sharing about what our experiences are in our perspectives and listening to those and how we connect is very important to all the work that we do I could just
add one thing about Community um I love that Oakwood does assemblies often um bringing our whole entire school together and it's been so um it just brings so much team building and collaboration between the K5 students at Oakwood and I feel like that's really important for the kids to see that belonging of a bigger picture than just their grade or their classroom so no oh okay
so um last spring our staff took together uh the um survey from Educators thriving and so some of the pieces that we learned about our staff were very important to how we were again grounding our work so if you could see here these are quotes directly from our staff um we since have um welcomed over 20 new staff members to our team so again this is great knowledge for us to know as we are welcoming in new staff as
well so as you can see we are dedicated we have incredible teams the administrator great group of teachers who all work in support and help each other which is again something that we hope is highlighted and seen um through our students eyes as well can I can I add something before we move on there um so I feel like I just want to honor Keith again because just going back to how he um shows up in this work I think like supporting all students in learning that he does
support students across the across the whole um community of learners but also he is so willing to pitch in and do something that is maybe not what would be considered you know in his area and he's willing to also help staff members so not only is he helping students but he's willing to like jump in and help staff like anytime you don't have to ask he's just going to do it like he notices it and he does it and I feel like that's what really brings that like first quote out there where it's like and even that second one of like an incredible staff like in team like we are really working
as a team and that's how we're going to get you know more done for our students I also want to just um take a moment um for Sarah bath to with that second um quote there with an administrator um she is a strong leader for our building and I think that um shows and um her she values the voice as a students and she also values the voice as a staff and she is so approachable and it is so easy to go and talk to her and she'll listen and she'll help Implement what we need and so I just really wanted to recognize
her too with her leadership in the building because it has been amazing so thank you yeah gosh thank you um so as um it was shared with you our academic achievement goal and again this is something that is uh attainable by all students but figuring out what they need and what their goals are that they're working towards so measuring that that growth goal to the end um so we said that we will meet or exceed literacy goals
aligned with grade level standards as determined by each professional learning community so we do that by grade level we also have one for our Specialists for special ed um and for our uh intervention team so we have lots of teams that are supporting students all throughout the day um going along with these goals it's super fun at Oakwood because we have these these goals posted like everywhere they're in the hallways they're in all
the specialist rooms down the halls in the restrooms and lunchroom cafeteria and it's just so fun because at least as a specialist like teaching PE class when they're in there and I'm teaching something new and there's a student you know I don't think I can do this I've never tried this they seem hesitant it's like we can do hard things let's try and it's just a memory like it's right there on the wall a poster and we can try hard things and just watching them be successful and something just blossoms into
more and more success and learning opportunities with the kids and so I think it's really fun to have a visual for the students at Oakwood and they know what our goals are and they know what we're trying to accomplish with them which I love um and so I think it's just a really positive thing and when the students see the the teachers in the building you know working together and collaborating it just rubs off it's like a whole environment there at Oakwood and I'm so happy to be a part of it but I think it's just really obvious to people
that walk in our building and the students and the staff and the parents as well so so our next two slides are um the student friendly goals that we have and it was a big discussion about wow we have these goals for our students but they should probably know what they are so we made them in kid-friendly language um and going by what one of the students comments they're they're they are hanging in the restrooms and they said wow we are reading everywhere that is right really are so
we have these posters everywhere so we will continue to grow as readers as well as the next one we will discover new things that we are good at at school and so sometimes those moments don't always click with the students that they don't realize that that's what's happening and so having those opportunities to share that with them like oh my gosh did you have you done that before no I haven't oh wow that might be a new thing that you're good at and so just making sure that we're coming back to that and so what said oh hey that I read that on a poster somewhere I'm like there it
is there's that magical moment of that connection yes um I think just adding on to that quickly before we move on but the nice thing would have posted are students and staff but also parents that walk the halls and like all parents know what are the goals at school also which is is a community it's like what's happening at school what's happening at Community what parents do is really important so we just feel like if everybody knows what the goals are we're going to be able to attain them much
more easily too so um our second goal here our student experience goal these are some quotes that uh students said and one thing that always stood out to me by just looking at the four here is like listening really shows up and asking questions and I just think those are being curious is just a skill that we want students to have for lifelong learning and then listening too like it's just just not just such a underrated skill sometimes but um I think like that third bullet I'm good at asking questions with my unified PE
buddy just thinking about how does the idea of asking questions we ask questions in science and math and reading and writing but then when you can apply it to a different area right and being good in and again going back to that community of like asking questions is now growing that community of Learners right so it's just thinking it's like full C Circle it all really connects and comes together so those are the things that stood out with me um with those quotes from students all right so
um I am the literacy coach and coaching is part of our literacy program um the coach's role is designed for collaboration with teachers to imp improve a student learning outcomes and their overall experience so as you see up there there's kind of three different sections but they really are um working together it just kind of gives you an idea of what might happen in those pieces and this is also not an exhaustive list this
just gives you some ideas um of how a coach can support plc's teachers and students so for the PLC Point um part as a coach I'm able to work with different PLC groups and I would also like to point out along with the peer coach because she's done an amazing job also um to support literacy work and also having more Equitable outcomes for all of our students so coaches partner with teachers um to respond to student needs so I might help a team think about
how do they want to design or facilitate um their instruction or I might work with um just meeting a specific students's needs um but we're really going back to that impact on student learning so I just want to highlight the one of our teams our fourth grade team has done a really nice job of working together in their PLC and one of the reasons that they have been successful is they're really collaborative so they're using that um collaborative um efficacy like Hat's effective size and how that
changes and they really are vulnerable with each other they're willing to be flexible and adjust to the needs of the Learners and because of that they're all on the same page and they're all having stronger outcomes for the students based on that recently they did um invite me in to one of their plc's and we were it was right after um some of our professional learning they all went to the same professional learning specifically so they hear the same message come back and when they invited me in we were able then to think about how does the work with small groups
with literacy work help students learning so we looked at data and they had kind of looked at it beforehand so they kind of had talked about which students they wanted to talk about to to participate in this small group and then we talked through components of implementation so thinking about the essential standards work how does it show up in the small group um we're looking at ways to elevate students access to understanding so how does the vocabulary the fluency um the setting of The Story how
does that use to support the understanding or the comprehension of the text and so we discussed the pacing um we also discussed extensions um so students had extensions of the learning um to make things um maybe having a more like authentic way to use the text so even after they read it and for understanding and comprehension they're going to go back and think about the fluency and then reading it to an authentic audience so maybe going back to that Community
piece again of like performing it for a younger um grade level right to continue that like learning community um so again going back to that key is really that collaborative planning and I'm able to help with just helping them um think about the planning and then going back and reflecting on it so um how is that having better outcomes for our students another thing um being kind of the teacher column I also meet with individual teachers and I've been
working with teachers um with some conferring this year and one teacher in particular has gone through a whole cycle of um of coaching and she's with with conferring so we did a plan um so we did a planning session like a goal setting with her and then um she observed me with conferring and then I observed her with conferring and then we went back and we had um the debrief on the practice and so it was kind of like our C cycle that we've been working on
and so she was able to participate in that whole thing and again going back to that idea of how did it affect the students I have a little quote here from one of the students so she was working on goal setting with the students and when they go back and are doing their work independently how are they continuing to use the goal that they set to deepen their learning and understand of the materials um in that Independence so they came back to confer with her a second time they would then continue talking about the goal that they had set for themselves so when I asked the
student how have you um how has the conferring helped you grow as a reader and this is what the student said it helped me grow because it helped me get better with some of the words I don't know Mrs ringquist helped me break them down and understand them so I could read them I found some things I am good at and some things I can work on for the year so along with that conferring um not only are you working on that skill building and goal setting for yourself students have a little agency over their own learning but they're also noticing and going back to our second goal of what what is something that they're good
at right so it's really building that confidence um but also realizing as Learners no matter what age we are we are still growing and learning um and then the last column um that coaching for learning kind of going back to um the wise feedback and thinking about um having it be specific actionable And Timely um really has growth for all students and so deepening understanding and having that um adaptive change so
that wise feedback um goes back to zaretta Hammond's work but it's really coaching in the moment so students if they have um a misconception you're able to help them or if they're having they need a hurdle that they're um needing help overcoming you're able to help right in the moment but also um elevating their agency over their learning while also um noticing strengths and then also challenging them because we know a lot of students really need that challenge here as well and so it's really thinking about how do you get to that next step so
they're thinking and deepening their learning no matter where they are on their reading journey and Amber will rle was new um to our elementary buildings just last year and so just in the two years that we've been able to have this position you can see how much work she's already done and all the coaches done together at our school so um just to put some more student quotes in here and these were unprompted it just was what did you discover I discovered I'm good at letter
names I am good at word study I discovered that I'm good at multiplication and division I learned if you mean if you be mean to someone it hurts their love spot and that's something that we do in kindergarten our Dean does um classroom seal lessons and so I just think that just hearing from the kids and again this is what they chose to share and so it just brings a smile to us because you know that this is something that they're really reflecting on as as who they are as
Learners um all right so a few other oops thank you um a few other quotes just about things we are good at in school um you can read these I'm better at my speed stacking um when we get to try these things I realized I was so good at it um I'm good at playing the xylophone and music and and as Specialists and all the teachers of course um we're really striving to have a variety of activities within our specialist classes so that students get a
huge wide variety of things they have never tried before maybe they would be awesome at maybe they would thoroughly enjoy to stay active throughout the year an instrument they would love to play um as Denise teaches ukulele and just all these things and then the art lessons and um with all of us Specialists we really um we we when we meet I'll talk about that next in a second with the plc's but we really try to work on the social emotional pieces um we bring that to the forfront of all of our PLC
um meetings so that we are really trying to bring in a sense of the community again but also um even just um confidence and getting the kids to try new things where they I don't know just exposure I mean we bring all these things where it's like what what would be new I mean we've had students teach us things you know like have you have we done this in PE no I never have I'd love to try it you know we can try that or whatnot and it's just good to like learn from each other and
it's um we really try to bring that in so all the students can be successful at things um and be leaders um building trusting relationships is obviously something that every teacher and administrator and school person should be doing but we um also really work on that and I feel like at Oakwood people just are so above and beyond um with our teams and even cross teams which I feel is really important I mean there's been occasions where the kindergarten teachers will share their vocabulary words with Specialists so we can like
incorporate it into our lessons you know like September we're working on these root words and then we can start working on them I just think it's like amazing because it's just so above and beyond um the support with our specialist teachers oh that's yeah perfect um is intentional planning like I said bringing this we meet once a week for an hour and um if not more throughout the hallways and things of course but just very intentional about planning new activities um Making Connections talking about
students that may or may not be struggling and how we can help them um what do you know about this child that they could that I could pull from to help them step out of their shell in my class and things like that and so I feel like we have a really strong PLC and then also when we cross PLC with the different grade level teams since we teach um 1 through 5th um we're helping our new kindergarten specialists in that role because that's new as well um
and that's that's going great um but we really try to focus on um supporting one another another example of the learn to read would be last week when learn to read and it was everybody's quiet at Oakwood reading from 8 to 8:15 at the the kickoff day and one of the classes came down to PE with books and she said I didn't know if you you know if they don't want to read I know you have a lot going on in your class too I said 'absolutely not we're reading as the school from 8 to 815 and everyone went to their number spots and I grabbed a
book and sat out there and we all read from 8 to 8:15 and then we started our fied lesson it's just an example of like supporting people and all the Specialists did that that day and you know obviously reading is like our main goal and so we always want to focus on that and just helping each other and showing the students that we believe in what we're all doing and I think that's just awesome um with the students like I said the social emotional learning piece is just huge and it really shows at Oakwood in my opinion um the
students are confident and when they're struggling there's one two three teachers in the hallway helping them or you know encouraging and I just it's just an awesome place to work and I think the students um are really lucky to be there in my opinion so okay so you heard a lot from us today about what we are doing to Foster that learning community that learning environment and so we wanted to
end with you hearing from our students so we go what do you do to grow as a reader uh read a lot of books uh read books um I was planning on making my very own book it helps me grow when I'm alone in this room with peace and quiet I read
mystery books so I would stop and pause on the period so that I can understand more and I can find the details and solve the mystery before I find out what the mystery is to be a better reader is to is to more time to read and also read at home and read at school I personally just find new books
and I finally found um a perfect series um the book is called A Series of Unfortunate Events and I'm already on the sixth book whenever you want to find an interesting book you can you will definitely find it some day and never give up on reading because it's very interesting yeah I like who read books cuz I've discovered a new series of books what book is that di of a kid
what do you like about it um it's like comedy and like lots of words combined most of the time I love graphic NOS because you can see the pictures a lot and it can bring you Joy but it can also um you can also want to read other long books so always read a a different book or like a graphic novel or something different than that work hard read
hard always read can you tell us about something you learned about as a reader yeah so when my grandma discovered a few new series of books um me and my brother discover that we really like reading them and now every single time there's a new book of in that one of those series my grandma always gets it and then we get better at reading and spelling by reading once
I went to fourth grade they teach me new techniques that I can use like if you don't get it go back and it and other techniques what I have learned is that um reading harder books they're not as hard as I thought they were you can choose the level that you want to go on like with books and stuff like I choose harder books to challenge
myself but anyone else going to choose the right the good fit book that continue as a reader by sounding Out words and put them into a sentence to figure out what the sentence means I discovered how to pick good fit books and it helped me understand and by visualizing a new thing that I discovered in big words is using a strategy and the strategy that I use
is breaking words apart um and read those words part by part I think that says it all so if you have any questions for us thank you for so much uh thank you We Will We Will discover new things that uh we are good at um I would like to meet that kid that knows how to find a love spot I don't know what that is and
you know I would I would definitely like to know because you know we should all find Each Other's Love spots I think I would love to meet with him so thank you thank you for the presentation any questions comments so thank you this was really great so when we look at um academic achievement goals and and student experience goal uh again they're not silos and how they are intertwined and how they connect with each other so that's a good representation so great really
thank you so much um one question I have is again looking at some of the feedback and again what you discussed so the academic goals are they defined at the grade level are they individualized can you talk a little bit more what those goals are sure I can we do have a building called based data so we are using um growth data so we we would like students to meet each meet their individual growth data point from the start of
the year to the end of the year um but we also want the kids to be able to share with us what they are working on as individual readers and so that is based around that um essential uh standard that we were talking about around reading so it could be around comprehension it could be around vocabulary um it could be around sounding Out words being able to read all the words and so or be a more fluent reader so those are all those pieces together that they're working on
individually in their classrooms okay in in terms of 100% achievement um what's what's the read in the sense do you think it can be done are there any challenges um anything you would like to share with the group you I can answer that if you want okay so of course you know 100% that's always our goal we want all of the kids to be able to make that growth goal um as far as meeting the data predictions
that's what we're hoping for and so all of the work that we were discussing as far as being able to give the teachers the skills and the ideas and the strategies that I'll be able to do that in the classroom in the whole group setting as well as small group and individuals that's what we're working on to help meet that 100% okay thank you uh there are going to be series of
questions just I just want to um if you can help me to remind um W also started implementing redact right so elementary teachers already finished uh their with their training we did bulk of them did um we started if you were here last spring we started it last spr the new hires will be finishing up this school year uh so since uh then I'm curious it would be nice to see uh data what do you see uh how did it
help students to I I mean i' I've heard amazing things uh and some teachers were saying I'm glad that I learned uh the way how I can teach and help students because sometimes teachers were thinking at least they were trained uh you just read more uh just uh but just reading more doesn't work for all students for some of them needs uh quite a bit if once they start see see seeing syllables suffixes and all then all of a sudden
they discover that oh even the word is not I mean looks scary scary long uh I can read it actually so I'm curious what kind of um winning uh uh in um one more thing you also I think it had already Benchmark am I right with a i win winter Benchmark testing so what kind of growth did you see with all these things
you talk sure um so on that first part when you're talking about like the Ola or core training that most of the teachers were able to finish unless there are a new hire this year um we also um have a new word study in our language arts this year and I'm seeing a lot of the learning that had happened in the core teachers are making those connections a lot with that word study piece um also some of the different pieces that um show up in core some assessments so if we're wanting to learn more and know more about a student um past the um fast bridge data we are
able to do some more specific um testing with students to know more about them as Learners before we do any more planning of instruction for them so teachers have been using that in that capacity as well and so I feel like um when I've been meeting with plc's also just some of the language that showed up in some of that training has um come into those PLC conversations using those four qu um essential questions that we go over and PE people are making those connections um I think we have some upcoming PL
that we're going to kind of continue like coming back to it because like it just like you said if you see it and then you don't see it again so that learning isn't continued forward so we're going to continue to kind of review it um as a staff and think about how can that be applied to um what is happening in our um literacy work moving forward yep and you're right we did take our winter fast Bridge testing and so we have looked at that data and we have conferences this week um at school as well and so partnering and learning from families as
well what they are seeing in their student and what other questions they have in their growth in their learning and so for those students that aren't making the the growth that we are hoping for we've isolated um some different skills that we would like to work on with them to get that into them out of that moderate growth into that more High aggressive growth uh but have you seen a bigger growth since obviously right now the implementation is happening deliberate you are delivering deliberate instruction
uh do you see growth in students compare what it used to be I'm curious what is what kind of data do you have you know I would say some of that data is even coming from our teachers and just saying that the training that they received from the core um instruction has been amazing some haven't had such uh structured reading instruction as a learner themselves or some haven't had some in some time and so having those PLC groups talking about
what skills that they need to do either in the small group to help accelerate that learning has been part of a a ongoing discussion and so we're also talking about what other things uh what other strategies and things can we bring into um from our learning with core into the classroom and so we are continuing to talk about that and identify those areas but overall I would say this the teachers are saying we feel better equipped in in our learning and being able to teach they also would say
um most teams have started with our new version of our language arts curriculum so that they're seeing some of the benefits and the improvements that they've um made with some of the instructional uh tools in the curriculum so they've said that that's been great and then I would say our street data and what our St students are sharing with them they're seeing more levels of them understanding of what they are needing to to learn to grow as a reader and I think director SS if I can help sarth and
the team add to that a little bit um because I think the question is um now that teachers have taken the core training are we seeing that in the winter test and um one of the struggles in Gifts of education is it's not a it's not a lab experience we don't have a direct correlation between we did this and then we got this so um there are many variables and why the redac has so many different components to it is all of those put together in a package are what we believe will raise student achievement so as the team has
been talking about their commitment to reading if they've been talking about um professional development around learning when they've been talking about the work that Amber and the peer coaches have been doing when they've talked about Specialists being committed to that work all of that is from that training because we chose to to really pretty much Train everybody in that addition we've been doing the OG training with our kindergarten in first grade so that's another component we have gotten new curriculum and taken that on as well so it's the plethora of all those
approaches that will have an impact um many of the teachers have GA engaged in further learning so to your point rather than just taking the course there's also been more deliberate learning um our culturally responsive protocols again in order to see every CL um student in their um full self and being so that they're realizing that reading which we saw so um it's really hard to isolate and I think um director soney had asked a question from the state level too on you know do we see like right now
um we we completed that training in November I it would be really hard to isolate that so then we do rely on our teachers's input and we are hearing overwhelmingly um support and as you know there was some reluctance and and and difficulty in arranging that training because it was like one more thing right but what we're hearing from teachers overwhelmingly um and from our leaders is how positive that training was and so we do believe um that it will have an impact along with all
those other factors that that they're speaking to so um and then we do look at that winter data especially in teaching and learning dig into that but we really look at that growth over the term of the year so we'll be looking at that spring data real deeply from Fall to Spring that's where their growth targets are set on um specifically hope that helps a little bit but I would just like to add on a moment to um a lot of I think a lot of times we're looking at like the quantitative data versus like qualitative and I
think just like with having conversations with teachers um going back to that word study piece again when we're having Learners who are multilingual Learners I think a lot of that core and Ola training um lent itself to like more learning about how to support those students in the classroom as well and I keep hearing to how teachers are able like that was been very beneficial so that's really more qualitative right now is it's like their their responses to what they're thinking about when they're planning their
instruction but I think that will later lead into the quantitative data right and like like you're saying is that showing up in testing but as Dana pointed out like right now there's just like so many variables to decide like in pinpoint like what is it that has made the change has it made it the change in the curriculum it's I think it's a combination right it's like it's a lot of things coming together at once sorry I didn't mean to dig into I was just um thinking since I'm working a charter school and our charter school
is very heavy on elll population it's amazing to see that kids might not know the meaning of a word but they read because of a tapping uh technique it's it's it's fun actually to watch it's uh and I'm sold to that that's why I was curious if you studied scene and it's I think that uh it's also fun to say to kids you know what once you'll be able to read nobody can stop you from anything you can get any books uh so I was curious if you started seeing immediately
but I guess uh we will be able to see it by Springtime maybe more over growth I think to going back to like that OG training um just kindergarten teachers were trained for the most part last year and then our first grade RJ train this year and I think since last year kindergarten teachers have been able to implement it better this year and they have said that they've seen some huge improvements and it's really exciting so thinking about too when those students transition next year to first grade what will
those first grade teachers see from the implementation of that this year right so it's really exciting to see um how that work will progress from this year to next year but we're seeing some of the same things that you just mentioned so it's really exciting glad to hear thank you thank you I was going to say we've also trained our um our kindergar prayer Professionals in OG as well so it's been amazing just the conversations that have been happening um between all staff members I just wanted to comment that
I know I'm I'm struck hearing everybody from Oakwood talk um that just it really comes through that it's such a collaborative space and you know it just I can tell you guys have you've created a village you know and it takes a village to raise a child and you know it seem everybody is just helping everyone else and you're all you know collaborating so much and have had a lot of the same training and it just I don't know really comes through so I'm very impressed and thankful thank you for sharing
all of that and um I am excited to see how the work progresses um and you know thinking towards the future because I mean it's always a work in progress right and I know you you you know reevaluate your goals every year do you see um you know reading being a goal again next year or you think you might you know Branch out into math or I mean I guess you can you can have a new goal and not forget about the old goal but I wonder if you could speak you know more
to that and how you decide you know what to focus on and not lose focus on the other things as well absolutely and that is um the beauty of being a generalist elementary teacher as we get to teach all of the subjects um so yes I would say this is all work that we're building on and so it was great when we were meeting with the different PLC teams to talk about the identification of the essential standards that they'd like to dig a little deeper into and they're like this is great and so then we can keep all this for next year and we
can just keep improving it we're like yes it's a living breathing document look at that and so uh we would like to we do focus in other areas as well but you're right our building goal um the last few years has been centered around reading and I think it was because we were doing the core training as well as um having the new version of our our language arts curriculum and our writing curriculum um too and so it just lent itself to having these great conversations but we have teams that are always talking about math as well um I know Abby has been
saying at meetings hey don't forget about me and math so we will I promise we do have conversations around math as well but yes so we are hoping that some of the practices and what we're using in language arts will then also transition into those essential standards in other areas to improve learning and you can keep the reading goal and add another goal onto that right exactly thank you thank you for coming thank you
for sharing so much about this wonderful Oakwood community that exists um so I have a comment and a question um I Heard a whole lot of wonderful things during this um during this presentation so I'm just going to kind of reiterate what what stuck with me I heard about student agency in their learning I heard about knowing their goal and knowing their next step I heard about curiosity and learning I heard about vulnerability in
our teachers and that leading to better outcomes for our students I heard about ond demand feedback so that our students know sight on scene how they can improve and where that comes from reflective learning and I want to say thank you for sparking an interest and a love of learning in our students because that's the thing that's going to carry them through as they get into more complex and harder topics and you're creating that Foundation that really helps that really
um grounds them so that they know how to to uh you know Sprout from there as I've been hearing about plc's not just from Oakwood but from several other schools and and the importance of the PLC work um It's Made Me reflective over the past few months and I'm wondering it it is Absol absolutely our schools's responsibility to make sure that our students are meeting their goals academically and we have to keep pushing for that and we have an incredibly amazing community of parents and
so I'm curious to hear from you what is it that you can tell parents what can you tell us as community members how can we support your efforts I think that's a great question and one that we um have been reflecting on as we are approaching conference time too and so a lot of our staff members have shared out just reflection sheets or data sheets for families um what would you like to share with us as we are continuing the last few months
of this school year in your child's learning and so I think one of the things that I would like to say and and families to say is the school does other things Beyond um the school day and so those important pieces of connection like we had mentioned a little earlier those assemblies we have a science fair last week we have a upcoming Carnival we have all of these other events um our art Reflections so we aren't just looking at those academic pieces within our school day but the support that
we have from our community um uh letting kids choose and try and and experience these other ways of being able to highlight their learning I think has been wonderful I always think the gift of time we've had um over 40 community members be our literacy Volunteers and it's such a great commitment it's once a week and they are paired with one student for 30 minutes a week and we have been very lucky to have strong Community involvement with that and some
people who have um volunteered with the same student over a number of years and really have seen them grow and that is all a part of what we are looking for in support of of all of our Learners and so um one of those things that we also talked about years ago was how do we support that learning at home um because homework work homework is a big conversation point and so we said what is that Difference Maker and we said reading reading is that Difference Maker and if we could set a time reading
every day and I think that that's something that we'd like to do and so that other learning that we used to do as homework we try to make sure that that's something that we're able to provide for the students of support within the school day and so if you could do anything to enhance and to support is is read and we've had a lot of um mystery readers this week um this month for I love to read month to and I would invite anyone to come and read to any of our classrooms um it's really a great opportunity to just see kids exposed to
different books and and see other people um as readers as well if uh nobody else has any questions I want to make a comment and then a question comment based on what Sheila actually brought up she talked about collaborative space and I was thinking about that you guys have so much coordination between the staff and the teachers and and the principal and everybody else I think that trickles down to the to the students and I'll
give you I'll give you an example of why I think so I was a judge at the science fair Oakwood had the science fair last Thursday I was judging second grade I was a judge two years ago but this time there was there was a kid I don't remember his name I don't even remember his project what what stuck in my mind was what he said at the end of his presentation and I will never forget that second grader telling me I asked him I asked every student in
every project how whether they participated last year how they did whether they going to do it next year I asked him the same question he says yeah I did and I won first PR first place and then without prompting he says I hope I win it this time too but you know what all the other kids have such great great projects I will be okay with somebody else winning it okay that that stuck in my mind I mean that at that age you know how it how it feels to have everybody else doing better or as good as
you do not just me right so I think that that basically speaks volumes about how you collaborate and actually I think it trickles down to the students they see that the question I have is uh kind of um carrying forward with valentina's comment about when are you going to see results you know is the spring time a good good time so if you go back to the slide which shows growth
goals okay so this would this seemed like a similar slide maybe some different wording from a another presentation scoot School Spotlight presentation by another school I forget which one it was they had these goals they also had a deadline of May 2026 I believe and I don't see that here so one of the things that I've learned is that
when you have smart goals the tea at the end of smart is time bound right I'm not saying that that deadline or goal should be pasted everywhere where you have these in the lunchroom or the lobby or everything but within your group do you have some kind of a deadline for this we do and it was Sunset Hills presentation you are correct you are right you are dead on and so yes we would say by the end of the year so once our students are able to complete
their fast Bridge testing and that's usually in early May miday and then that gives us time as the staff to really work on um looking at that data and then being able to share that back with students and families as well and then we continue planning our work throughout the summer for the next fall so yes that is our goal too is by the end of the school year usually by the end of May wonderful thank you you know I look at this as Sprinter 100 meter Sprinter they want to they want to win the the the championship if they don't have a set
goal they're probably not going to be able to do it because they cannot practice with no goals in mind right just the goal of having you know winning the championship doesn't really mean anything you have to set yourself some time bound goals so so thank you thank you for that I appreciate it um if there are no other questions questions comments uh I want to give you a round of applause for wonderful presentation thank you so much all of you thank you so much for your time
this evening thank you so much audience opportunity to address the board no no no form today okay moving on to the administrative reports and recommendations the first one is the super Anderson will present three board policies for approval Dr Anderson Mr chair and members of the board as you're aware we have a board policy
committee that meets generally monthly sometimes more frequently um and be for you tonight in the board packet we have three policies that were recently reviewed uh they are policy 52 Pol uh student discipline policy 516 admission of non-resident students uh open enrollment options and policy 601 graduation requirements as the notation indicates uh in the header the policies and regulations were reviewed as
part of the regular review cycle and using the Minnesota Schoolboard Association model policy where available or where applicable we don't always have a perfect match between District policies and what msba has for model policies but we often times have used that one or that organization for guidance and those are reviewed by District administration and other District uh staff members where necessary and a final review was completed by the policy Committee of the
school board so in regard to uh what's in the board packet these are the policies each policy or most policies also have what we call a regulation which kind of outlines the administrative uh implementation protocols um oftentimes the msba version of the policies have a combined uh policy uh regulation procedure uh type of format um our district has always had a longing tradition of of separating out policy issues which are
what our policy language which is what school board uh approves and then the regulations which is what our leadership teams utilize to implement the policy so uh before you tonight uh the recommended action is to approve the above policies as presented in the attach ments again 502 student discipline um policy 516 admission of non-resident students which is uh uh part of
the Open Enrollment options program and then 601 graduation requirements thank you Dr Anderson so board colleagues the recommended action is to approve the board policies as presented do I have a motion to approve I move wave the reading second reading and I wave the second reading thank you Sheila is there a second second moved on seconded is there a discussion right
Valentina oh okay Valentina sorry I can see that yes go ahead yes I have a question just clarification about policy and uh in regulations uh we discussed about uh policy but we would like to work on our regulation part at least to hear feedback from Administration my question is so we as a board are responsible for policy but regulation is
coming from administrative uh part amate that's correct that's been our long-standing practice so uh as if right now we are approving just policy itself that's correct okay okay that's all thank you okay thank you questions comments if not um this is a voice vote I'm going to repeat the recommendation again the recommended action is to approve the board policies as presented so all in favor say I I
I I oppose nay the motion passes thanks to the policy committee for your due diligence on this thank you so much Valentina Paras and Sheila um I I missed the meeting I had a family emergency right right but you're on the I am on the committee yes thank you sh all right moving on uh the next one is the teaching and learning uh report there are none and then we go to the finance and operations report presented by executive director Scott L Scott
will present the combined Financial reports for the month ended December 2024 perfect thank you Bo chair soney superintendent Anderson and board members uh this is just our regular monthly reports that come to the board so just a reminder um it's accounting so there's always a leg so this is through December 31st so um just to point out this is for the first um six fiscal months of the school year um if you look at page two um just a few things to point out that we pay attention to
right off the bat obviously our biggest Revenue sources are property taxes in our state AIDS you can see they're right in line with what expectations are um miscellaneous can fluctuate some um but Federal AIDs that will start to kind of come back into line um as the board recalls the dollars or Co related dollars um wound down so um we'll go back to kind of our normal allocation and be doing Federal draws um when you look at Food Service um as you recall
with the state picking up the free meals um there's still that lag so it depends on when those are reported to the state and when we receive reimbursement that's more in line with like what our general fund is for revenues um Community Service uh similar in lined prior years and then Debt Service of course um better be right on track every year so got to pay our our bills so uh next page all right um key things I always point out every month are the salaries
and benefits as the board recalls that's roughly 70 to 72% of our overall aggregated expenditures um for the general fund so um as you can see with our salaries those are right on par our benefits we are trending down a little bit from prior years but um as a board probably recalls that a prior session we talk about about um an accounting change that we made over a year ago um and then obviously with the preliminary budget we were a little bit conservative on um estimates on health insurance and some of those others because we never do know
where that will come in with new staff and with changes so um you'll uh the board will be hearing the revised budget for the current fiscal year on March 3D um and you'll see that those are have already been adjusted on that um purchase services and capital expenditures just something I'll point out that there was a question by a board member today um just because they are trending up from prior fiscal years um just to note I kind of note on the front page but there is variability in those areas it depends on when we get build for things it also depends on when
projects kind of wind down from the summer um but in this case we had a big curriculum purchase at the beginning of the school year um in the supplies and materials which um impacted that amount right away so obviously that percentage starts higher um and then it Trends over the rest of the course of the year and we also had a big purchase with capital expenditures at the beginning of the year so we expect that to flatten out over the remaining fiscal months um but we also do acknowledge that obviously our costs up are up a little
bit we're seeing some cost increases just with inflation so um just something that we're aware um our team has tackled that in the revised budget and you'll see that again on March 3 um looking down at Food Service um uh pretty much right in line with prior years along with community community service Debt Service um and then the construction fund we continue to spend on those abatement bonds obviously those are primarily used for parking lots and that's challenging to do this time of year so um we'll see that wind down the rest of
the school year um and then final page again this is through the end of December um but at that point um we were sitting with about $56 million in in our men trust account so any questions thank than you Scott um colle Scott I noticed something can we go back to page two really quick in the revenues um all the way up okay so
as I'm looking at 2425 in property taxes um how can we be at 100.4 per. um that can also vary based on our enrollment as well so we could be up a little bit we could have received um some past taxes that were owed to us um so those can all be fluctuating factors inside of that okay thank you for that y I wish all the revenues were like that yeah all right so Scott I have one question I may have asked this before so I apologize for asking it again because I
forget what the answer was if you go back to the last page the the uh maturity amount for the mlap plus Max or the total actually is 56 m470 th000 is that a part of the fund balance or is it not uh no those are very separate things it's cash versus yeah versus the accounting so that's just cash in the bank as you recall um kind of like how I've described schools
were a governmental entity so we don't close the books every month so that would be like when people are like well how' you do this month well I mean can't really answer that question um just because our costs are laate out overtime we get property tax payments from henpen County four times a year so that spikes our cash flow um at the same time we also um the department of AD and the state are well aware when we get those payments from hanpen County and so you'll notice if you look at on our state AIDS report those are months that we
have um zeros on state aid that we received so if you look over the course of the year for the first six months you'll see some months that didn't change a dollar for what we received in state aid over that whole month and that would likely be the months that we receive aid from our local lby my main main question then would be actually so let's say we we are in an emergency and that's what the fund balance is usually for we I hope we never reach that point where we need more than the fund balance but if we do can we dip into this
and use that or no um that's a really hard question to answer um this cash is available um and factored in for the full year so if we were to spend this all down we wouldn't be able to pay our bills going forward so like when we're Advanced those funds from Hut County for our property taxes that's basic basically just money in advance when they allocate it out to us and then that's to cover future expenditure so that's kind of what I talked about that we don't necessarily close the books every month we're on an annual basis and even then the state withholds certain
percentages of funding um special it's currently in the same situation right now so um obviously cash flow is kind of King because we have to be able to make payroll and every two weeks we spend $7 million in payroll so um we're constantly watching that I can tell you you have a f a fantastic Finance director David draskovich who um tracks this I think even when he sleeps because I ask constantly and that's the biggest fear ever so we're constantly watching
cash flow um obviously we've been in good interest times as well so that's been a benefit to have these dollars sitting in our moff account okay and then one a final question if you go back U one one slide go number three I think right that was the expense slide yeah right there yeah the Food Service fund I mean it's I don't know will it make a difference that the eggs are now 65% more expensive for our expenses for food or is that all covered by the
free meals from the state um well the we would be reimbursed for those so and I also don't know what uh Michelle our director in that area you know would a pre- purchased in advance um or what agreements they had with the vendors that they have some of that is price locked in just to Shield from that but I would have to ask Michelle for clarification on that okay but so in in theory if the the state is covering all the food right all the meals then it should not affect the district itself if the
egg eggs eggs you know go up in price by 60 65% right I mean um Theory but then I would argue we need to be worried about the next legislative s so yeah until then we are okay okay thank you Scot that's all I have anybody else yeah so Scott you talked about there is a difference between the revenue and expenditure right about 6 million I think 260 shows the total revenue and then when we look at the expenditure it's 266 so to kind
of level it out is it going to go till end of school year or would we see that balancing sooner than that um if you recall um again complicated question I look forward to the next budget presentation I'm sure all of you do and I'm sure Dr Anderson looks forward to my 50 slide presentations along with my board or with my colleagues here but um that's we kind of went through that during the preim and I know we touched on it um you can't really look at that aggregated total because we do have fund
balances that we don't necessarily take into account that we're going to spend down if they're restricted or assigned and we also have ltfm dollars that have some pretty big swings because of the covid pandemic so if you recall um that was a pretty big swing and when you look at the prelim budget just on its face it's showing that we're um have expenditures over revenues which actually isn't the case it's due to the levy cycle and when the state takes those back so um I think if you look back in the
June 24th presentation we're showing roughly $2.7 million over expenditures um and we would assume to be in that place if not a little bit better with the Revis so again that's tricky to look at that report um which is why I'm always hesitant especially the first like two three four months of the fiscal year um I don't feel like it tells an accurate story so um in classic accounting form um there's a lot of ases so but no concerns from your side absolutely not no we have growing enrollment obvious
added staff and we're seeing increased costs but um as I've mentioned to the board our our secret sauce to being able to be successful right now is student growth we're uh Minnesota is a pupil revenu driven system um as soon as that slows or stops um the business model changes directly drastically and rapidly and we saw that happen during the pandemic so something we're keenly aware of and also looking at all the time thank you y thank you Scott um okay so
the next item on the agenda is the is a board action we have to take an action on one item for tonight on this one so the school board reviewed and discussed the existing standard operating procedures on January 27 2025 and and updated them to reflect current practices I think I believe the last one was done in 2018 so we had not looked at it for a long time right Chase something like that yeah last one
yeah I think they're reviewed but I don't know that edits were made to it uh since that time so there were significant changes in this document among the updates the school board has added the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance to the agenda for their month regular school board meetings anyone who does not wish to participate in reciting the pledge for any personal reasons may elect not to do so is there a motion to
approve the February 10th 2025 updated standard operating procedure so moved second moved and seconded is there a discussion say something Valentina okay uh just want to compliment our chair for allowing to have uh uh for allowing all school um uh board members uh to have a chance uh to discuss items which uh we
would like um even though to be honest to thisday I don't know what's your opinion but I appreciate that uh you are giving um you are valuing everybody you're treating everybody at um this table equally and um I just want to say publicly but I appreciate it thank you all right yeah I just um want to reiterate what Valentina said and and
thank um thank the chair for um allowing this process to happen and I'm glad that we did it so thank you I just have a a quick uh statement to make actually the res recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance is a line item in the proposed standard operating procedures The Proposal aligns with the board policy which requires students to recite the pledge in classrooms with an option to opt out for any reason okay so if there are no
other comments I'm going to repeat the motion uh is to approve the February 10th 2025 updated standard operating procedures this is a rooll call words Shea you could do that Heidi ker yes Valentina SS yes Dan janesta yes Sarah Johansson is absent Paris bende yes Sheila prior
yes Milan soney yes motion passes unanimously all right the final item on the agenda is board reports and this section of the agenda provides an opportunity for board members to update school board members on school board related work or to make announcements of interest to the public today we have today we have three board reports uh I'll just mention what they are and then we'll go ahead and start then we'll talk about the school on the U uh
what is that right get on the bus get on the bus um visit I I will talk about with you know along with Valentina about the msba leadership conference and Paras will give a report on the W wi education fund Gala so you can go ahead and start thank you Mr chair on February 4th 2025 members of the Intermediate School District 287 School Board joined Administration to go to South Education Center
in Richfield as part of the get on the bus visits we engag with students met teachers and listen to highly informative presentations from staff the main focus of these presentations was on augmentative and alternative communication or AAC for short these are methods used to help students who are non-verbal or experience challenges communicating to express themselves these are methods broken down into
two categories low Tech and high-tech low Tech methods include cards with text or paper with illustrations and high-tech methods include text to voice mobile apps and buttons which can be programmed to say individual words words when pressed we then went on a treasure hunt where we visited classrooms and observed student spaces looking for these teaching methods and devices in action thank you to Intermediate School District 287
for your informative presentation on augmentative and alternative Communication in your thoughtful tour of South education center I join my board colleague melen soney and expressing our gratitude for such an excellent visit thank you and and thank you for taking care of that inviting the board members I know some work at that time some of us have the time so we attend as much as we can but thank you for doing that every
every time okay so I'm going to now ask Valentina do you want to go first or should I go first okay I let me go first because I that way I can tell you know who attended and all that stuff so and then you you can continue with whatever you have to say Okay so every year the Minnesota school boards Association also known as msba hosts a leadership conference in January this year it was held on January 16th and 17th at the Minneapolis Convention Center
board members b genestra and a along with Dr Anderson and admin assistant Amy guys were able to attend the conference featured nationally recognized speakers workshops an exhibit hall a school Excellence showcase and a recognition lunch as the msba board director from District 4 representing 15 school districts from the West Metro I prided over a discussion with my dist director district school board members
I also hosted three workshops number one Robert's basic rules number two the superintendent contract and number three a student facilitated discussion about cell phone restrictions I found the conferences to be extremely valuable and a time to learn from board members around the state Valentina can go ahead uh before first
day I went also to msba training and it is um building a high performance School Board team and that one was actually fun I felt like a child back at school uh because it was discovery about personal different personality traits and we were supposed to um to work together and choose the items uh what you might need from the list um as a survival as we are lost
at the sea and I realized I was operating based on Survival not thinking that somebody will save me uh saw saw a mirror and at the beginning I was thinking why do I need the mirror I am lost at sea but at the end of the day it came actually many people watched uh survival movies and apparently mirror is one of the first thing which you want to use so it was my Discovery okay sometimes items which you think they are
useless might be very helpful and also I learn about um uh sometimes uh just because somebody uh behaves certain way it doesn't mean that uh they're doing it deliberately just personality because uh there are four types of um characters promoter supporter controller and analyzer and it was fun to hear how
all groups were uh uh discuss uh describing themselves because especially I think that promoter was saying for example and yes we're coming like that but uh we have a goal and we need to move and let's stop talking about the same topic over and over we need to move ours was thinking but what about uh data it's analyzers for example so it was uh for me it was a discovery uh and I figured I'm going to use it in future
that knowledge so I appreciate that part and second on Thurday we had a keynote uh speaker one thing one fun fun part I would like to share that I don't know how to play any music instruments uh because didn't have any opportunities in my life but I tried to sell I don't know why I have it saxop to love for saxophone so I tried to sell that instrument to my son didn't happen but then a keynote uh speaker uh
uh Mickey Smith Jr was uh entered the um Auditorium with a saxophone and I was thinking okay this this performance but what he delivered I couldn't at I mean the beginning my perception of the beginning and how I ended up I mean I ended up with tears and I mean uh because he he gave such a through the story through the playing music
and at the same time telling how he actually ended up where he is and at the same time that there is always even even though there is a time you might doubt uh why life put you in certain position uh you need to take it that there is a reason why you're there uh he also uh said that uh uh that he would like we need
to remember that we need to be Victors not uh victims and Victor he meant to that when you're working with students you need to have Vision uh you need to see yeah you need to hear a sound sound obviously through saxophone and it need to be um you need to put intentionality you need to put consistency uh commitment and care and Trust when you're working with students
and particular episode which moved quite a bit is when uh he shared that one one student came and it just happened to be that apparently years later he found out that student had the most difficult day kind of uh and that day he happened to say uh one sentence I see you and then it came the the moment when he felt in his life
uh what's the point uh he tried several times to uh get an award he was not named and all and all of a sudden he found out from when he received the mail it was the mail from that student saying sharing that just let you know I I had a very bad I mean even bad intents that day but you seeing me and literally seeing I see you actually helped me to being able to uh bring myself up and
he said well who would have known that this student actually by sending letter to my house also helped me uh to uh on the on the during difficult time of my life so it looks like to be honest both of them were able to support uh I mean um it it was not expected but at the end it worked out such way that they
both actually helped each other that was uh that part was unexpected I have to to say thank you thank you uh yes I I was I was at that keyot speech as well and I that was the second time in two years I've heard Mickey Smith Jor he is a Grammy award winner if you get the chance I think there is a presentation from him on YouTube so I would recommend watching that is incredible so thank you all right Paris thank you
chair son and members of the board uh Dr Anderson thank you for this opportunity to share the amazing work that Wisa education fund um team has been doing so wisard education fund team organized the wild for wiarda Gala on Saturday February 1st the event exceeded its scope raising over $100,000 I'm going to say that again they raised over $100,000 which is about 30,000 more
than what they had raised in Prior years and all proceedings will directly benefit Wisa students uh by subsidizing an outdoor experience for sixth graders in the fall of 2025 teachers staff grants and the scholarship for a graduating senior I also wanted to take an opportunity to quickly talk about WIS that education fund or wef as we call it um it is all volunteer run 501c3 organization
was founded in 2003 with the mission to support wisata Public Schools teachers and staff in imagining new ways to engage student and meet their needs we has Prov provided funding for teachers and staff that are outside the District budget since 2003 we has awarded over $430,000 in Grants and those grants
have positively impacted over 300 individual teachers and staff through various programs this year we team worked with all School leaders and they decided to support an extended day outdoor trip for sixth graders in in the fall or early winter of next school year again thank you to all volunteers for their countless hours to make this Gala success and thank you to all community members and sponsors who made
it possible we are encouraging community members to check the wi education fund website to learn more about the purpose and how you can help and contribute to the cause again I think the we team definitely deserves the round of applause um again amazing job um some of us attended in person but truly amaz amazing job and again thank you WIS education fund team for this huge success so great job yes thank you
par um yeah that Gala was was incredible any questions or comments on the reports colleagues no okay so this concludes the wetta public schools regular board meeting the next board was work session will be on February 24th and there will be a special work session as SC mentioned earlier on March 3rd is there a motion to adjourn so moved any
second second right in second all in favor say I I oppose n the motion carries the time is now 8:59 and the WIA Public School school's Board of Education regular meeting for Monday February 10th 2025 is adjourned