Good evening. The time is now 7:00. The Visetta Public Schools Board of Education regular meeting for Monday, November 10th, 2025 will please come to order. Will the cler uh clerk please call the vote? Roll.
>> Sarah Johansson here. Harris Bend >> here. >> Valentina Ays >> here. >> Dan Janestra >> here. >> Heidi Kedar >> here. >> Sheila Prior here. >> Milan Sahony >> present. >> Chase Anderson
>> here. Thank you. We have a quorum. Please rise to recite the pledge of allegiance. [Music] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. If you wish to speak during the audience opportunity today to address the board, please fill out a form placed at the back of the room and hand it over to our
district admin assistant Amy sitting to my right. The first item on the 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 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? >> So moved. Second. >> Moved and seconded. Will the clerk please take a roll call vote? >> Harris Bend. >> Yes. >> Sheila Prior.
>> Yes. Heidi Kedar. >> Yes. >> Valentina Ays. >> Yes. >> Dan Janestra. >> Yes. >> Sarah Johansson. >> Yes. >> Milan Sahony. >> Yes. We have an agenda. Thank you, Sheila. The next item on our agenda is reports from organizations.
And I would like to invite Rachel in. >> Oh, Rachel. Not Rachel. I'm not here. Okay. So, nobody's here then? >> No. >> Oh, okay. So, we skipped that item. Sorry.
>> You do have something to say. Okay. Rachel sends her apologies. She did not have a ride. Um, clubs and academics, student council, they kicked off their annual adopt a family fundraiser for IOCP food shelf and Minnesota Children's Hospital.
Student council members wear fanny packs to gather donations to support those who need it the most. The theater, Anything Goes, is on stage from November 14th through the 22nd. You can purchase your tickets now through the high school. and
students who opted in took the preaccts this weekend to prepare for standardized testing. In sports news, the Weisetta girls and boys cross country won their respective state championships. Uh the girls team won its fourth
consecutive state title while the boys team finished second in the same championship. Weisetta is a powerhouse. Those quotes, not me. The eight-time state champion Weisetta girls soccer team advanced to the state finals tournament at US Bank Stadium and
we sadly lost two to three. Nonetheless, hundreds of Trojans showed up with pride and energy to support our team in this incredible feat. As it gets colder and colder, fall sports are wrapping up and coming to a close. Hope you have a great
evening. Till we meet again in December. Um would you would you you won't be taking questions right from us. Okay. All right. So at least you know comments if anybody wants to say anything. No. Okay. Moving forward the next item
on the agenda is recognition. In keeping with the spirit of inclusion we rotate board members at the podium. Today director Bendy will join Dr. Anderson at the podium. Good evening everybody and welcome to our school board meeting tonight. It's great to see such a nice crowd out here
tonight. Uh great cheering sections for some of our recognitions here tonight. I believe our first uh recognition is uh for the November employee of the month from Plymouth Creek Elementary School. And I would like to invite Abalene
Olsen, often known as Abby, to please come forward. Congratulations. [Applause] I don't invite you up. So, I'm going to share the really nice uh uh summary of
Aby's work here with you and then give her a chance to share a few thoughts as well. Plymouth Creek Elementary is excited to recognize an integral member of our team as the November employee of the month. Abene Olsen serves as the administrative professional at Plymouth Creek and has held this role since
January of 2023. The main office of an elementary school is constantly buzzing. Staff members need supplies. Caregivers are calling for information and kids are stopping in to say hello and grab a snack. Abby consistently models positivity and professionalism, managing
it all with a smile. Staff members shared the following. Abby is always so friendly and helpful. Even if she's busy, she will stop what she is doing to help others. She's often a problem solver and knows the answers to many questions. The front office runs smoothly because of her.
She is a positive light in the office for our staff and students. She goes out of her way to support students needs when they come to the office and is a big help for me as a teacher. Abby approaches everything with a positive attitude and is always going above and beyond to help the staff members in this
building. She does very well in high stress situations as well and I don't think this school would be what it is without her. Each school brings school year brings new challenges and Abby is always the first person to ask how can I help. Her willingness to serve in any
capacity helps support the flow of the building. She is known to comfort a struggling student, solve a copy room disaster, celebrate the success of a colleague, place an emergency order, provide a one-toone conference to a family requesting information, and put together a newsletter, all in a matter
of hours. Abby is loved and treasured by staff, students, and family. She embodies the spirit of Plymouth Creek and is a model for each one of us every day. Congratulations to Abby Olsen for being recognized as the Weisetta Public Schools employee of the month for November. Congratulations.
[Laughter] [Applause] I will keep it short and sweet. Um, I love my school. I love my staff. I love being able to come to work every day. It
just makes me really happy. I don't feel like a lot of people get to drive to work smiling. So, I'm really grateful that I get to be a true professional teachers pet. And here's to another 40 years.
[Applause] She's cute. [Applause] Before I move on, I'll just affirm I've experienced all of that when I've uh walked into the office at Plymouth
Creek. So, thanks Abby for being here. Our next recognition is another really exciting award. It's for the Minnesota 2025 National Distinguished Principal Recognition. And I would like to invite Birch View Principal Ashley Farington to please come forward.
[Applause] And before I turn it over to Ashley, I'd like to just share uh the following. Ashley Farrington, principal of Bertview Elementary in Weisetta Public Schools, has been named Minnesota's 2025 National
Distinguished Principal by the National Association of Elementary School Principles. Ashley was honored this fall in Washington DC for his visionary leadership, commitment to equity, and transformative impact on school climate and student achievement. Known for his belief that every kid has a superpower,
Farington has redefined virtuous culture around the message, you matter. boosting both belonging and academic growth. Under his leadership, the school has seen a 7% increase in reading growth and launched several leadership teams to foster shared responsibility among staff. Principal Farington exemplifies
what it means to lead with heart, vision, and purpose, said Michelle Krell, MEPA executive director. Congratulations Ashley. [Applause] All right. Good luck. Good luck being
brief when Mr. Faren gets the microphone. So I won't be like I sorry. >> Oh. Oh, you want to play it? Okay. Sorry. That makes it even longer. >> Hi everybody. I'm Ashley Fington. I'm
the proud principal here at Birch View Elementary and I've been the principal now for 5 years. Um, next year will be my sixth year and I couldn't be luckier um to be the principal here at this school with this group of people. Um, our families, our staff and our kids are
just second to none and I am so grateful for the opportunity to lead the school. >> Hello, my name's Lamont. My My dad just won the district the stringest principal of the year. >> Hi, my name is Lyanna. My dad's the
principal of the year. I just wanted you guys to know. >> I love it, baby. >> Um, it's really exciting. Um, I'm still processing a lot of what it means to me. Um, but really ultimately the first thing that comes to mind is the great
work that happens at our school each and every day. And I'm so grateful for this opportunity to to share our school's story and all the great things. Um while I might be recognized, um really it recognized the hard work of our school. Um and like I said, I'm really really
proud to be the principal. Um so this award just means a lot to be able to showcase birdview and all the amazing things that happens here. So my first shout out is um for my mom. U my mom is a big part of my story and why I'm able to be the man I am today
and the principal that I am today. Um I'd love to give a shout out to my wife Hillary and my kids Lamont and Lyanna. Um they support me every day with this work. Um making sure that um taking care of me at home so I can then take care of everybody else at school. Um and then I
want to take a huge shout out to Birch Elementary. Um, we have the best teachers, we have the best families, and we have the best students. Um, and I'm so lucky that this is the place that I get to work every day. >> You are the best principal ever.
>> You're the best ever. >> You are the best. >> How can I go? Um, good evening, chair, members of the board, and members of our community. I stand before here before you today humbled, honored, and truly grateful.
This morning is extraordinary, and I'm deeply appreciative to be here representing Birch View and the broader Weisetta community. For those of you I haven't had the chance to meet, my name is Ashley Farnington, the proud principal of Birchview Elementary and a 2025 Minnesota National Distinguished
Principal. It still gives me goosebumps to say those words out loud. This honor is one I don't take lightly. My journey from the small but mighty islands of the Bahamas to the frozen tundra of Minnesota has been full of purpose. From
a young age, I believe education was the gateway to a brighter future. I used to sit on my porch helping neighborhood kids with homework. Would my mom call in running a neighborhood school or using all of her money? There were tough times, stories that would take more than
two minutes to share. But through it all, I became who I am today. And I have no regrets. Raised by a single mom in a lowincome home, the odds were stacked against me. But I was lifted by many educators like my third grade teacher, Mrs. Lungley, who saw me, pushed me, and
in many ways saved me. Today, I have the privilege of living out that purpose every day at Birch View. And even more meaningful, I get to share that experience with my own children, Lamont and Lyanna, who are proud Bobcats. Birch View is a remarkable place. Sorry.
For the past 5 and a half years, I've had the honor of serving a community that leads with heart. Our motto is simple. At BV, you matter. Our top priority is ensuring every student, every staff member, and every family feels safe, connected, and a true sense
of belonging. Because when people feel like they belong, they take risks. They discover purpose and they thrive. At Virtue, people are thriving every day. Although this award has my name on it, it is truly a collective honor. It represents
the hard work, care, and commitment of our staff, our families, and the entire Birchview community. To my Birch View family, I love you. You and there is no better place that I would rather be. I also want to offer special thanks to my
wife Hillary, my constant source of encouragement and strength. Your support keeps me grounded, especially when the work becomes challenging. To my children, Lamont and Leano, you are my inspiration. Every time I see you in the hallways, I'm reminded why this work
matters so deeply. If it's not good enough for you, it's not good enough for any child. To my mother, Karen Smith, who will be here tomorrow, by the way, and family, thank you for your sacrifice, your love, and your belief in me. I am who I am because of you. To
Isetta Public Schools, thank you for believing in me. From teacher to dean to assistant principal to principal, you gave me the opportunity to live my dream, and I am profoundly grateful to call this district home. To measure, thank you for this extraordinary honor.
As president of our association and now Minnesota's NDP, I'm committed to paying it forward forward, supporting and uplifting the incredible principles across our state who are shaping children's lives each day. To my friends, mentors and colleagues, many of whom who are here, um thank you for
challenging me, believing in me, and reminding me of this the joy in this work. Each morning at Birch View, our students recite a pledge. Today, I will share that pledge with you because it reflects not only who we are, but who we strive to become. We are Birch View. We are a community
that works together. We show compassion when we care for others. We are curious when we question the world around us. We show commitment by never giving up. We are unique. We matter. We are Birch View. And to all of you who lead, teach,
and serve, you are unique. You do matter. And I am incredibly proud of the work you do for our children every single day. Thank you. [Applause] Congratulations again, Ashley. And thanks everybody for being here tonight. It's been really fun to watch Ashley uh
grow and flourish within the district starting as a teacher as he said and then working into a dean position and assistant principal and now principal at Birch View. Um thanks uh to his wife Hillary and his kids who are here tonight to support dad and uh share this
special moment with him. So thank you Ashley for all of your hard work. And I always enjoy going to Birch View and it's always kind of hard to find Ashley because he's zipping around 100 miles an hour through the building in and out of classrooms and greeting kids in the morning when the buses show up and and
uh it's uh he's a real high energy principal in a high energy building with wonderful staff who are here to support him tonight. So, thank you so much and congratulations. Enjoy the moment. Our next uh recognition this evening is for
the Minnesota Community Education Association Supportive Administrator of the Year. And I would like to invite Dana Miller to please come forward. [Applause] [Laughter] [Applause]
>> Congratulations. Dana's a familiar face at school board meetings. our very own executive director of teaching and learning and I would like to share the following that was submitted on her behalf and then give her an opportunity to speak a little bit about this award that she received. We are proud to share that
Dana Miller has been selected as the Minnesota Community Education Association's 2025 supportive administrator of the year. Dana received her award at the MCA MCA fall conference in Octo on October 30th. Dana was nominated by her community colleagues
for the award based on her exceptional leadership, advocacy, and unwavering commitment to our youngest learners. Dana's dedication goes far beyond expectations. She brings vision, compassion, and collaboration to everything that she does. Dana understands that early learning is the
foundation of a child's educational journey. When two of our elementary schools faced significant space challenges that threatened the loss of preschool classrooms, Dana immediately used data and insight to partner with district and school leaders to find creative solutions. Because of her advocacy and persistence, every
preschool classroom was preserved, ensuring continued access for our youngest learners. Over the past four years, Dana has been instrumental in helping our district truly embrace an E12 culture. Early learning staff are now included in professional learning opportunities and a building
instructional leadership team meets regularly with district leaders to ensure that early learning has a consistent voice in her collective work. Dana exemplifies collaboration. She shares her staff expertise and resources in support of all communityed programs. One powerful example is her team's work
to create professional learning communities for our Weisetta Kids child care leadership team. a model that has strengthened programs and deepened professional growth across departments. Through her thoughtful leadership and steadfast belief in the importance of early learning programs, district-wide
collaboration and shared professional learning, Dana has helped shape a stronger, more connected district. Congratulations, Dana. This recognition is a wonderful reflection of our collective work to support every learner in our community. And knowing you pretty well, I know how hard that was for you
to stand there and listen to me read that. But congratulations. Well done. And I will give you a chance to uh speak on your own behalf for a moment if you'd like. Congratulations. [Applause]
I thought I could just get up here and say thank you and go. And then Ashley. So now I got to say something. Um but it truly is an honor. And Chase is right. I'm not really good at public displays of recognition or emotion. Um I joked at the conference that unless it's a
Vikings game and then I become a completely different person and emotions are off. But I think I'll just stand up here all night since the Packers are playing and Chase wants to get home and so we'll just stand here and enjoy the evening. Um but truly um the recognition
really touched my heart and I'm deeply grateful to represent the work of Weisetta schools and the incredible partnership between teaching and learning and community education. Um for those of you that don't know about me, I come to this education thing pretty honestly. Both my moms were elementary
teachers and my late father was a school administrator for 42 years. And if you can believe it, 34 of them as a superintendent. I don't know, Chase, what do you have? Getting pretty close, right? But um education was our dinner table talk literally every night. And while as a teenager I didn't really
appreciate that, I certainly am grateful now because it was my father where I learned that schools run on people, on caring, creative, and committed people. And as my dad used to say, no job is beneath you. And nothing worth doing is
worth doing alone. So I know I'm the one standing up here getting this award, but it's absolutely not about me. Um, it's about the incredible people I get to work with every day, especially my teaching and learning team. Um, thank
you for being here tonight. That kind of shook me up a little bit and I appreciate it gratefully. Um, but it is just an incredible team that we're gifted to have here in um, Weisetta along with leaders and support staff in equity inclusion, specialized services,
technology, communication, community ed partners, and our building and district leaders. Um, you all make this very hard work joyful and purposeful. Um, I was told that this award recognizes my commitment to the E in the
E12 system. And um, last year at a facilities meeting afterwards, Jenny Eert thanked me for the story that was told here tonight. And honestly, my reaction was, "Yeah, isn't that what we're supposed to do?" Because I'm a firm believer that supporting early learning shouldn't be a bonus, it should
be the baseline. Um, so I also want to thank Michelle Bador. Um Michelle and I have worked together both at Eastern Carver County Schools and here in Weisetta. And so it's taken her two school districts to patiently teach this secondary trained
educator about the importance of a being a ready system and a ready school and that we need to learn to meet families and students where they are and show up and grow with them from there. That's a pretty genius idea to meet kids where they're at. Um, and if we were to live
out that mission and standard all the way through and take that learning from early learning, we'd truly be unstoppable. So, I'm going to close with the last bit of wisdom with my dad who always said, "If you're having a rough day in education, go visit an early learning
classroom, and he was right. Um, there's nothing like watching our four-year-olds joyfully learn how to be curious, kind, and brave to mind you why we all do what we do." So, I want to thank Weisetta Community Education's team, um the
Minnesota Community Education Association, and especially my amazing team that I have the gift of working with every day. Um it's truly a gift to come to work every day. So, for everything we all do in support of our children and their
learning and our community, thanks. [Applause] [Music] Congratulations again, Dana, and thanks to uh Jenny and the community department for that um wonderful nomination and the
fact that she received that award is certainly indicative of the great work that she does for us in the teaching and learning department. Our final recognition this evening is for uh those who have announced their intent to retire since our last schoolboard meeting. We have two on our
list tonight and those individuals include Py Davidson, administrative professional at Weisetta High School who served for 22 years and Melinda Inman Weisetta Weisetta kids Kimberly Lane for three years. If you join me in a round
of applause for these two individuals, I didn't see that they were here tonight. They're probably home watching the Packer game, I'm guessing. But don't you think, Dana? Anyway, thank you so much. That concludes our uh recognition. Congratulations to the honores and thank
you Paris and Dr. Anderson. All right, moving on. We have we now have the highlight of our regular meetings, the school spotlight presentation. Tonight, the spotlight is on Primoth Creek and Primouth Creek Elementary. and I'll turn
it over to executive director of teaching and learning Dana Miller to make the introductions. Dana, >> thank you. This is much easier because we get to celebrate the great work of Plymouth Creek Elementary um who's here with us tonight. And as we know, one of our foundation is working on the student
experience, specifically that importance of our students belonging. And so tonight, um, principal Ashley Paul is here to talk to us about how they've been on that journey of making sure our students at Plymouth Creek feel, um, that belonging need is filled. And they're going to speak tonight specifically to the addition of their
regulation stations. So with that, Ashley, we'll turn it over to you. Thank you. Yeah. >> Good evening, members of the board, uh, Superintendent Anderson, community members. Thanks for having us here today. Um, I'm Ashley Paul, the principal at Plymouth Creek Elementary,
and I have with us the newest addition to our staff, Michaela Pollson, our school counselor. We are thrilled to have her um on our team and we're here tonight to talk a little bit about um the building goals that we've been working at for the last many years around students feeling good about who
they are and feeling like they belong at Plymouth Creek. This year we have a specific goal around um the adult the adults in the building making intentional decisions to aid in students understanding and sense of belonging. Um, and so I'm excited to share about where that work has led us this year and
work that's been made much more efficient and purposeful with the addition of our school counselor. So I'm just going to share a brief history of what got us here. Um, in 2021, um, Becky KDson was our peer coach. She's now part of the equity and
inclusion department. Um, and she shared about restitution with some staff um, as their peer coach. Um and we made a commitment as a whole staff then to learn more about restitution because we felt that our PBIS systems were not working for all students. Um staff did a
full year of learning before any of that learning was introduced to students. Um from 2022 to 24 students started learning using Y charts to describe the ideal state for learning and community in the building. Um they also learned about their basic needs and worked with
adults and students on repair when harm was caused. In 2024, student needs were at an all-time high in our building. Um, our building had nearly 700 students. Um, and our support team was stretched. Um,
our PTO agreed to spend $10,000 on tools and books to support regulation as a tier one classroom support. Um, meaning that we could do our best to meet student needs right in the classroom. Um, so our dean, who couldn't be here
this evening, and I worked to research student materials, um, and classroom books that could support regulation of all types and ultimately create kits for each of our learning spaces in the building classrooms offices specialist spaces, etc. Um, and so this
year we added Michaela to our support team as our school counselor, and regulation stations became a full reality. So, here are some pictures of teachers unboxing their materials for regulation stations um during our back-
tochool time. And so, these kits um are there's two separate kits. There's one that serves prek through 2 grade students and a kit that serves third through fifth grade students. There are some materials in the kit that are the same throughout the grades and then some
that are more specialized based on the age of students. all the pictures. Um staff received professional learning in August during workshop week to create a baseline for understanding regulation and also to set some goals for where we'd like to go. Um
this was really important because this isn't necessarily information that we receive as educators and part of our our training to become educators. And so really understanding the brain um and what happens with regulation was really important for all of us. Um through the
use of one of our culturally responsive protocols, staff actually looked at a rubric for regulation station implementation and identified where they were at um at that time while also looking at and considering the ideal state for full implementation and the use of these materials for students.
Um, we leveraged our professional learning time last Friday also to continue our understanding of regulation to further support the use of these tools in our classrooms. Our building has had a calendar and a scope and sequence for supporting social emotional learning for the last several
years. And so this year, this this staff resource was updated to include videos um made by our dean and school counselor to support the roll out of regulation station for students and for staff. Um the videos were designed to ensure that all students receive the same
information and also then used as a tool to support staff learning at the same time. We're not going to watch all nine minutes. I don't know if there's sound. Maybe not.
the um the learning was broken into five different videos um specifically around the zones of regulation, how do we meet those needs to get back to learning and also to introduce each of the specific tools in the kit. >> Hey Panthers, it's Mrs. Pollson, your
school counselor, here for session five in our series about learning about regulation stations and the zones of regulation. Today we will be reviewing everything we've learned so far this school year. We have three learning targets for
today's session. The first I remember how to use the regulation station. The second one I remember the four zones of regulation. And last I remember how to choose an appropriate strategy for the
zone I am in. We have learned that we can be in the regulation. I'm very glad we didn't have to watch all nine minutes of that. Thank you. It's so cringey listening to yourself on video.
Um I would much rather speak to what the kids are saying about what we're doing in our building. Um so I gathered some quotes from various students in various grades and I just wanted to highlight a few here. One student shared the the regulation station helps me feel
regulated when I am disregulated because using a tool helps me get all my extra energy out like Mrs. Pollson taught us. Then I can be happy and ready to learn. Another student shared, "Sometimes I don't need the physical tools. I just need the space to feel my
feelings. Then I can rejoin the learning." Another student shared, "The regulation station helps me calm down with all the different tools. I like the pictures with the different strategies I can use. Five finger breathing is my favorite strategy.
And the last one, I think this one maybe speaks to me the most. I don't use the regulation station, but I like that I could if I needed it. So, our students are responding very well to it. And then a photo of a kiddo actually using it in real time. Me, I am Mrs. Pollson. I am the new
school counselor at Plymouth Creek this year. and I'm so very thrilled to be there. Um, it's very easy to step into a role such as mine when there's great work already being done at the building. I am not taking any credit for anything. It is already great before I got there
and I am simply just trying to enhance that. Um, some ways that I'm able to do this, I do counselor lessons in every classroom once per month. Um, I also send out a monthly newsletter to our families through Parent Square, um,
which has been a great source of connection, building that school and home partnership, which I believe strongly in. And I've had a lot of families reach out to me as a result of those newsletters. So, that has been very thrilling um, for me to experience.
And then I like throwing in numbers when they exist. So, I just thought I would share that 30 students have been specifically added to my case load as a result of teacher, parent, guardian, or rap referrals. So, I am pretty busy. Um, that photo collage, sorry, I forgot
to mention, but it's from our unity day celebration. It was so special. Um, lots of orange in the building. Our buddy classrooms visited each other and there was friendship bracelets made and crafts made and it was just a really beautiful day of celebrating. So, I thought that was worth documenting.
Um, again, I am not one to say nice things about myself. I would much rather have someone else say nice things. And again, like it really comes down to what the kids are saying. If the kids aren't thinking that I'm doing my job and doing well at it, then I'm really not. So, I put together a little
compilation of different students and asking them like, "What is different about Plymouth Creek since we have a school counselor this year? What have you learned from me? What do you like about me?" And this is what they had to say. It means to me that that that our school
prour is important and stuff and and and teaches us every time every time we every time all she comes and and and it's just like it means to my heart like a good thing
for our school counselors to come to us. W while it's Wow. It's like um more well it's more uh funnier to have a school counselor just just like um when when I see you on
every time uh um like at the end of the day and and you always give me a hug before I go to my bus stop and and it really and and it really means something really
really important to me that I that I had to have a school counselor. >> Miss Pawson, I love her and she teaches us boundary and um
and five finger breathing like this. and I love her. >> And she helps me make friends and also she helps people listen
so it's not so hard for people to listen all the time. And also this person does really fun things with people when when you meet your goal.
[Music] >> The thing that I like about Miss Pawson being here is that I always have somebody to talk to. >> Something that I like about having Miss Pawson here is that I feel more safe here knowing that someone can listen to me and understand what I'm saying. Something I like about what Miss Pa
teaches us is that she teaches us techniques that we can use at her desk if we don't feel very um like very like one piece. One thing that I like about Mrs. Pollson is that her lessons are really engaging and I feel that we can
get the information easily and our school benefits from her because kids have the ability to talk about their feelings and how safe they feel instead of doing something really bad. Miss Pawen is amazing.
>> Um, so it's so last year we didn't really have a school counselor. It's a lot easier to have one because um it's a lot easier to have one because then I can talk to her and help
she helps me feel my feelings cuz I have counseling outside of school also. And so I only have that on Mondays but when I'm at school I can have that any day I need it. >> Yeah. What do you even say after that? That literally says it all. Um,
obviously I I don't just work with children as amazing as they are. I also believe firmly in supporting staff as well and being a service to them. And so their feedback also matters to me. Um, so during our professional learning on Friday, I asked staff to share some
feedback for the sake of sharing it with all of you. And this is what just a handful of staff had to share. Mrs. Pollson has been amazing to have in my classroom. She truly connects life skills in a fun, engaging way. My students love her. Mrs. Pollson's
patience and drive to help each student be the best they can be is so inspiring. Her creativity shows in everything she does, and she is excellent at relating to students and staff. We are so lucky to have her. The Pushin experiences to
the classroom are so valuable. All children have access to her. Mrs. Miss Pollson has been great with students and helping educa educate staff. Very helpful. Mrs. Pollson is able to support students in a timely manner and is so
responsive to the needs of our building. Mrs. Pollson is such an asset to our building. She jumped right in is making connections with students and is helping students in ways that encourage a sense of belonging. Okay, this is also very cute. Uh, we
celebrated National Bully Prevention Month in October. Um, and part of my lesson for second and third graders was really focused around how they can be an upstander. So, I guess this is my creativity coming through. I came up with an upstander chant and I had every second and third grade class learn it
and then for the sake of this video, I visited each classroom and had them perform one line of the chant and then put it all together and it resulted in this video which is pretty short if we want to watch it or not. stands up for bullying.
>> Let's make it loud and clear. >> Bullying's not okay here. >> I will notice my heart and mind >> and only words that are kind.
I'll stand up and speak out. If I see others mistreated, no doubt. >> At PC, we all belong. >> All together we are strong.
>> Go. >> So cute. I love them. Anyway, um I don't really know where to land after that. Well, I'll just share that our belong we've had a goal around um student belonging for the last several years and so it just feels like a great fit to have added um Mrs. Pollson to our staff
to help support that in the different ways that students need it. So we have our regulation stations as a tier one support access for all. We have her counseling lessons also as a tier one support access for all and then certainly she serves students in other ways um as needed. Um, and then I'll
just end by sharing that she also belongs on our support team which consists of our social worker, Mrs. Schultz, our dean, Mrs. Schelsey, our principal, Mrs. Paul, and now our counselor, Mrs. Pollson. Just feels like a good fit. >> It really fits, I will say. >> So, thanks for having us tonight.
>> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, Principal Paul and Mrs. Pollson. Um, anyone have any comments, questions for for them? Yeah. So,
>> this is fantastic. I'm filled with panther pride. Um, welcome, by the way. Um, it's so fun to hear when we talk about um the importance of having counselors in each one of our buildings and at the elementary school and what that means and how important that investment is. This is exactly it,
right? And we saw um how tier one interventions show up in different ways in each of those videos. So, thank you for bringing student voice into the conversation. Um, I like to ask about horizontal and vertical alignment, right? And so you're doing really incredible work and then we'll be
launching some fifth graders up to the middle school. And this is an exciting time because all of our buildings now have counselors. And so in what ways are you working across the elementary levels and in what ways are you looking up to the sixth grade or will you be right? It's only November, so you don't have to
have it done yet, but to um make sure that we keep this going horizontally and vertically. >> I love that question. I'm a long-term thinker, so I am thinking about middle school transitions already. Um I am very
lucky to work with a really incredible elementary counseling department. We do feel we can say department now that there's one at every building. It's very exciting. Um, and so we meet monthly and they're always super helpful meetings and we also do department check-ins
every month as well, which are more informal. Um, and that ironically that conversation did get brought up at our last meeting of like how are we preparing our students for sixth grade and what does that transition look like? Um, I'm not explicitly sure what that
looks like. I am obviously more familiar with that from the last district that I worked in, but we did work K12 actually in my last district. And so I do believe that communication is important. I did take some notes. I was a noteaker at our last meeting of some things that we want to be sure that we do address with our
students. So I was able to hear from counselors that have already been in the district of like what their kids were missing or what they wanted to learn about sixth grade before going there. So then my intention would be um collaborating with the middle school counselors and seeing if they're I
believe they're able to come in and present to our fifth graders. But I believe so then I think our conversation comes around how can we more specifically tailor that to the needs that our students are identifying that they want to know before going to sixth grade. From my understanding, a lot of
it in the past has been focused around what specialist classes are offered in sixth grade, but students really want to know things like how to unlock their locker and how to transition between classes and what to do if you feel lost or scared and things
kind of like that. So, um, I certainly have that intentionality and I I imagine it will be a an intentional conversation as well in our department of how can we partner with middle school counselors and how can we fully get students ready for that transition because it'll be
here before we know it. >> I don't really have a question. Just wanted to thank you guys for sharing that. Um because counselors and all the buildings are fairly new, this is kind of the first opportunity I've had to see what it looks like. And I I like Sarah said, I appreciated hearing from the
students. I mean, we heard a lot of great things, you know, from the students getting to talk to you and see you when times are good as well as when they might need, you know, help with something. And so, and then all the students seemed really comfortable in
their ability and, you know, access to you. um which you know you it's it's for everyone. It really is. And and you know the the student who commented about how um even if you're helping a student who's having difficulties, it helps the whole class, you know, when you can help
that student, you know, listen like the the student said. Um so thank you for sharing all that. I mean, it's so important, you know, we to to take care of the whole child and this is a good example of that and not just because that's the right thing to do, but because it helps
with their learning, which is ultimately what we want as well. So, anyway, thank you and I really appreciate it getting to see those details. So, so thank you. I seeing all the students and letting them speak their own way was really really important for us to hear.
Um, I was a student in elementary school who required um, counselor services and I was taken out of my classroom, plucked out of my classroom and taken to another space and that always made me feel a little bit different and sometimes you don't want to feel different. And so that pushing into the classrooms and
having your whole class community doing it that way is really important. And so I appreciate the work that you're doing and I appreciate that your principal is supporting all of that so deeply. Um, my question is this. It's only been a couple months, but I'm curious to know,
have you seen any changes in the classroom when it comes to because of some of the lessons that the kids have already learned? >> I think some of the topics that she is speaking about it, it gives more voice to those topics that are really
important and often it doesn't feel like in a classroom you can get to those on account of all the academic work that's happening. And so she's really been able to highlight um the work of our SecondStep curriculum and beyond specifically around bullying um
highlighting those regulation strategies so that kids know how to get their needs met quickly. It doesn't require them leaving the classroom as often. Um when I shared in the presentation that needs were at an all-time high last year, it was really around like kids being disregulated, which looks a lot of
different ways, and us not having the tools to keep them in the classroom ready for learning. And so, of course, there are still students who need additional support. Um, but I would say the addition of these tools has helped keep more kids in classrooms more of the time.
>> Well, you actually answered my question in the last comment. So, I was going to ask you about the all-time needs in 2425 and uh so so just wondering what kind of needs are we talking about here? They they range, right? We have we have
students with um academic needs. I think a lot of it is, you know, we we're a pretty large school. Um and we haven't had as many supports as other buildings have had and that's for a variety of reasons. And so it felt like last year we were doing the work of many with just
a few of us. I mean, teachers are dedicated to supporting students with all of their needs. The whole child, like Sheila said, is really important to us at Plymouth Creek. and you can only do so much with what you have. Um, and so it felt like last year like we just
had to get creative. What what else can we do um to support students when it didn't feel like we had enough people? Um, adding another person was really important. And more people doesn't always mean more support, but in this case, it really really did. >> Very good. Thank you so much. Uh,
all right. There are no other comments or questions. Thank you both again and thank you for all the good work that you do for the kids. [Applause] >> First one is okay. Uh the next item on the agenda is
the audience opportunity to address the board. Um this section of the agenda provides an opportunity for members of the community to address the school board. Speakers who wish to provide input to the school board must complete the signup sheet and return it to our
administrative assistant Amy who's sitting to my right. I have a few of them here, but if you still if you if you need to fill out a form, please do so right now. Um, please note that you will need to complete a request form to be included
on the speaker request list. When you are invited to the podium, please identify the subject and or agenda items to which your comments pertain. Priority will be given to students and families with the students currently enrolled in the district. The schoolboard practice
is not to engage in a discussion or debate and the speaker but rather allow the speaker time to express their thoughts. Please present your comments in a respectful and professional manner. This evening, each speaker will be
invited up to the podium to speak for three minutes. We have a number of requested speakers, so I ask that you keep your comments brief. Amy will help us keep track of the time by holding up. Is Sheila going to do that? Okay. All
right. By holding up a red card at the 3minut mark. Please end your comments when you see the red card. You don't have it. Okay. We we'll figure it out. We'll do it some. Okay. If you have already shared your thoughts
with the school board, please consider letting someone new address the board. If a community member shares a message similar to yours, please consider shortening your message or presenting as a group. Um, none of them are students here, right?
Right. First one is okay. All right. So, we'll invite the first speaker this evening and the topic is bond levy pool and the name is Emory Marx. Board Chair, Superintendent Anderson,
and board members. My name is Emry Marks, and I'm a junior at Weisetta High School. I'm an athlete who competes in both competitive speed swimming in the fall and synchronized swimming in the spring. I'm here to explain why adding a pool at the high school is important and to express my support for voting it
forward as part of the next voter bond levy questions. And I know a number of swimming families are here tonight as well to support it. Right now, our high school teams have to practice off-campus. Competitive speed swimming practices at Lifetime Fitness and
synchronized swimming practices at West Middle School and sometimes Lifetime as well. While we do hold boys and girls competitive meets at Lifetime, the synchro meets are always at the much older West pool. Having a pool at Wisetta High School would make a huge difference to the swimmers and the
quality of our programs. We'd save time, money, and stress, and we could practice in a safe, private environment without strangers constantly walking by and watching us during practice. Getting to these off-campus pools also takes a lot of time and money. Right
now, swimmers have to carpool. Car pooling is stressful. Four or five girls crammed into one car, often driven by somebody who just got their license. For those who can't get a ride, it can mean missing part of practice. When I had to take the bus to West for Sink Girl last
year, we often didn't even arrive at the pool until around 3:50 to 3:55, even though practice starts at 4, meaning we would often have to start late. Wisetta's middle school pools are among the oldest and most in disrepair pools in our entire conference. West Middle
School Pool was built in 1957 when West was still wise at a high school. It has six lanes. It's old, dark, and there's not enough bleacher space for when we host synchro meets. East Middle School was built 10 years later in 1967. I have never been in that pool, even
though I attended East for all my middle school years. While the Lifetime pool is more modern, it is extremely hot and we simply don't have our own space. Practice times are never flexible and when we practice at Lifetime, we have to deal with strangers watching us and members getting upset that we're using
their pool space. Many girls find it very uncomfortable and distracting. I hope that the Weisetta school board will support the bond levy so that future swimmers can finally have a pool of their own. A space that feels safe, focused, and truly part of Weisetta High School. A pool on CA campus would give
us the consistency, privacy, and sense of pride we we deserve, allowing us to represent Weisetta at our best and build a stronger, more connected community. Thank you. >> Thank you, Emily. Next we have Erin Haldin
who will talk on the topic of building a swimming pool within the district. >> Did I say that right? Halden, right? >> Yes, Halden. Thank you. Thank you for having me here today. I usually would dress a little nicer, but I wanted to support the cause with my Why is that a swimming sweatshirt? So, uh, board
members, thank you so much for letting me be here today, um, and talk to you about the importance of building a pool or preferably an aquatic center within the Weisetta school district. Um, I want to tell you a little bit about how swimming has had an impact on my life. I
was a club swimmer who started at the age of seven. I went on to swim for Minnotonka High School. After that, I swam at the University of Wisconsin Madison as a division one swimmer and I actually continue to swim for M's program today. Um, swimming has taught
me dedication, perseverance, commitment, how to win and lose with grace and has provided me with a strong worth work ethic and lifelong friendships. These are skills that have extended far beyond the pool um over my schoolwork as a
child to as my career today as an adult and through my everyday life. My husband and I wanted to put our kids in a swimming program just to keep them safe around the water. And as luck would have it, they fell in love with the sport. And we are grateful that they have learned all of those same skills that I
felt like I have learned through swimming. Building an aquatic center will go far beyond the 150 kids who use that pool through boys and girls swimming and our um synchro program. You have the potential to reach thousands of people across the community through swim
lessons, renting to a club swim team, community open swim, a master's program, triathlon clubs, special Olympics programs, and adult learn to swim classes. I have participated in every single one of those.
Um, also it builds um there will be built-in jobs for our high school students as they can become lifeguards. They can teach swimming lessons and they can possibly coach. As you know, we currently use a lifetime pool and lifetime is shared with the community.
People, as Emory said, people are literally roaming around during practice and our swim meets. And it's really uncomfortable for the swimmers and as a mom it's uncomfortable for me to see the community members doing this. Um they're sitting in the sauna. They're watching our girls walk around in their swim
meetats and often our coaches have to stop and go address the issue with the community member and ask them to leave. Um in addition, the pool is hot and has a terrible ventilation system. Um, I had an opportunity to volunteer coach with the team last year and often the girls
would have to go out into the entryway at Lifetime to um to catch their breath and that's just simply not acceptable. So, Visetta has a really competitive swimming program. We compete against Edina and Minnetonka who have beautiful pools. When we want to host a larger meet, we have to rent the pool from
Minnotonka and that's just again unacceptable. Um, we had sections meet last week and our girls did great. They face place first. Um they're going to state this coming week. We have our boys season starting soon and they have national
level swimmers on their team. Um our SROS team has also won numerous state titles that they should be very proud of. So it's time to build our aquatic center. Thank you very much. >> Okay. And then the last speaker is
Stephanie Meyer who will talk on the topic of elementary enrichment program concerns. >> Thank you. I think I was meant to be here tonight because my children are at Plymouth Creek and we have um been welcomed by Abigail Wilson so many times. She's fantastic. So I can affirm
that recognition for her. Thank you board for having me. Um I I would like to share with you some packet work that my son was given today from an enrichment teacher. he's not in an enrichment program, but um the enrichment teacher brings down the
materials to the classroom because he sits there bored. Um and if not, he doesn't do packer work. He he reads a book. He's rated top 2% of children in the nation. Um this has been proven by qualitative and quantitative data. And so I have a lot of concerns as a
relatively new parent to the district. Um like I'd like to share with you tonight in five parts. Uh first, Wisetta public schools is misaligned with state and national standards when it comes to elementary enrichment programming. And I'll specifically talk about the pull
out math and reading programs. Wisetta relies solely on fastbridge for gifted identification. This contradicts Minnesota's Department of Education and National Association for Gifted Children's Standards, which require multiple measures, cognitive
assessments, achievement data, and qualitative input to identify advanced learners. This is impacting us by systemically underidentifying children in the district. Two, Weisetta uses FastBridge. It is a
test not designed for gifted identification. The Minnesota Department of Education and the University of Minnesota uh in their technical manuals state that this is not a tool to be used for enrichment identification. It has technical limitations. It has ceiling
effects. It is meant as a screening tool to identify the learners that are falling below not rising above. So why is using one source a source not used or indicated for identification and then three there is no opportunity to appeal
when you look at competitive districts Minnotonka Edina Eden Prairie well doumented clear procedures on how to request an exception or review that includes teachers that weigh in. It includes cognitive assessments. It's a
really well-rounded process to request um you know a reook at some of the test scores. So all of this combined, the program's under review. Dana Miller sitting here today has represented that it's in process of remodeling. That is fantastic.
We need as parents updates on what is the timeline, what will be impacted because our children are sitting here with your gifted and talented instructors running down from one classroom to the next trying to keep every student busy and challenged and
not become disengaged like my son. So, excellence for each and every student. I call this board to act swiftly to put in measures look at a multitude of inputs and create an exception process. Every program must recognize as perfect as it
is, it's going to need a review for exceptions. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Stephanie. >> Okay. Right. Then we'll move on to the next item on the agenda and that is the administrative reports and
recommendations. I'll hand it over to Dr. Anderson to walk us through the agenda items. >> Thank you, Chair Sony and members of the board. I'm going to defer to Amy G, our administrative professional who works directly with the elections. So Amy, if
you would please. >> Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Members of the board, uh, because I have the microphone, I am going to mention two things. Um, first, tomorrow is Veterans Day. So, happy Veterans Day to the listening audience, to the veterans I
know in the back room, um, and those of you that are married to veterans. Um, I also want to thank the team that helped me. While I might be the sole election clerk for the school district, this was definitely not a solo mission. So, um,
we did employ 57 elective election judges from all around the city of Plymouth. They did a fantastic job on both election day and on absentee early voting. Specifically, I need to call out Michelle, Marcus, and Karen. Karen, I
know you're watching. Uh, so, thank you very much for their dedicated hours and service. The election, frankly, went flawlessly as it did before, and it wouldn't have happened without the team. Um, also need to thank the election officials from the city of Plymouth.
They are instrumental in helping me learn how to do this two years ago and a really great refresher this year. So, specifically, um, Jod, the election clerk for the city of Plymouth, Natalie and Amy, they know who they are and I owe you all lunch.
So, on to business. Um the first resolution before you is the resolution authorizing the issuance of certificates of election and directing the school district clerk to perform other related duties. The school district general election was held on November 4th, 2025
and voters elected three members to the school board for threeyear terms commencing with the first Monday of in January of 2026. The three candidates receiving the highest number of votes were Melind Sahonyi, Alicia Little, and Heidi Kedar. The attached resolution
authorizes the clerk to continue this to issue the certificates of election once the time of contest of the election has passed and the candidates have filed all required campaign finance reports. All candidates, whether they won or not, are
required to return their final campaign finance reports. They're due tomorrow. Um the recommended action is before you. >> Thank you Amy. So the recommended action is to approve the resolution to issue
the certificates of election and direct the school district clerk to perform other related election duties. Right. Okay. Is there a motion? >> So moved and I wave second reading. >> Second. Moved and seconded. Any
discussion? I just want to thank Oh, go ahead, Sheila. >> Valentina. >> Oh, Valentina. Oh, sorry. >> Just a curious. Um, what percentage um I don't know if you had a chance to calculate uh what percentage uh came
voters came. Of course, I had that. I knew you would ask. Actually, I assumed other people would ask, but um so the voter turnout um in on election day was 15.3%. There was 8,33
voters on election day out of the 54,37 registered voters. We did have 147 uh voters register on election day. So, um that including the absentee section, we
had a turnout of 19.3%. Which is actually pretty good when it's only a schoolboard election. >> All right. I just wanted to thank Amy. She did not thank herself, but she thanked the election judges, but I want to thank Amy for doing a fantastic job with the election. So, thank you so much
>> and happy Veterans Day to you too, Amy. >> Yes. And Okay. So, the recommended action is to approve the resolution to issue the certificates of election and direct a school district clerk to perform other related election duties.
Uh, this will be a roll call vote. >> Heidi Kar. Yes. >> Valentina Ays. >> Yes. >> Dan Janestra. >> Yes. >> Sarah Johansson. >> Yes. >> Harris Bende. >> Yes. >> Sheila Prior. Yes. Milan Sahonyi.
>> Yes. The motion carries. Okay. So, we have one more recommendation. >> That's correct. We do need to pass the resolution canvasing the return of votes for the school district general election. Uh the school district election as you know was took place on
November 4th to elect three board members to the school board. The three candidates receiving the highest number of votes are elected to the board for threeyear terms effective the first Monday of January. The three candidates who received the most votes are Milan Sahony with 4776
votes, Alicia Little 4693 votes, and Heidi Kar 4332 votes. Uh, I will note that you all did receive write-in votes as well. Those don't count. >> All right. Thank you, Amy. So, the
recommended action is to approve the resolution canvasing returns of votes of the district's general election. Is there a motion? >> I move and I wave the second reading. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Is there a
discussion? I just want to thank all the candidates, each and every candidate that ran this election. It is it is a tough campaign and I appreciate you know the effort that everybody put in into this and
you know I think it's it's all good good for the for the district for the students that that these candidates have so much passion to run. So I really appreciate that. Okay. Okay. The recommended action again is to approve the resolution canvasing
returns of u of voters of votes of the district's general election. This is a roll call vote again. >> Valentina Ays, >> yes. >> Dan Janestra, >> yes. >> Sarah Johansson, >> yes. >> Paris Bende, >> yes.
>> Sheila Prior, yes. Heidi Kedar, >> yes. >> Milan Sahony, >> yes. The motion carries. Thank you, Sheila. I believe we have a policy approval next. Chase. >> Yes, Mr. Chair and members of the board. We have one policy for your review and
uh approval for this evening. Uh the policy is 803 crisis management. Uh the policies and regulations were reviewed as part of the regular review cycle and using the Minnesota Schoolboard Association model policy were available uh as our normal protocol with the uh
policy committee of the school board uh and by district administration and other district stakeholders where necessary. A final review was completed by the policy committee of the school board. the uh policy and regulations are included in
uh the board packet and the recommended action for policy 803 crisis management is before you. I'll turn it back over to you. >> Thank you Dr. Anderson. So the recommended action is to approve the policy as presented. Is there a motion?
>> So moved >> and you wave the second >> and I wave the second reading. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Second. >> Seconded by par. Uh any discussion hearing none >> Valentina >> Valentina sorry
>> uh just wanted to share with uh community in future if you'll see any policies which you have uh interest in uh what is nice nowadays that you will be able to see redlinined version and then you can come uh to uh schoolboard
and um share your inputs. Yes you >> I just wanted to say because we we went over this. I'm on the policy committee and um this particular policy there weren't many changes. It was mainly just language updates. So, just wanted to put
that out there to make sure everybody's aware. >> Okay. All right. So, there no more no more discussion. The recommended action is to approve the policy as presented. Uh again, this is a roll call vote. Sheila Prior, yes. Heidi Kedar,
>> yes. >> Valentina Ays, >> yes. >> Dan Janestra, >> yes. >> Sarah Johansson, >> yes. >> Paris Bende, >> yes. >> Milan Sahony, >> yes. The motion carries.
Okay, moving on to the next item on the agenda. Executive Director of Teaching and Learning, Dana Miller, will give the board an update on the enrichment review. Dana. Thank you members of the board. I'm
going to invite up our um team that is leading the enrichment review. So with us tonight we have Sarah Weinens and Anne Farenbach as teaching and learning coordinators as well as Austin Terson our director of teaching and learning who is leading that. And then we also
have here tonight Dr. Dr. Stacy Lackner, our research and evaluation director, and Abby Bra, who is our director of teaching and learning in our math and STEM areas. And then I will be here obviously as well to answer questions if needed at the end. Thank you.
And also, as a reminder, you you also should have received about a week ago um an email from us as well with an update. So, this will be in connection with that tonight. Thank you. Hi, thank you. Sorry, getting all the computer turned back on and logged into.
Um, thank you, Chair Sahony, members of the board, Dr. Anderson, and our executive team for having us here tonight. um an opportunity to share uh some updates um and a review of kind of where we at in the process uh what the enrichment review is and some of um uh
some midcourse corrections that were or adjustments we're looking at um at this time in our year. So, we're going to start with uh sort of an orientation to Oh, thank you. Click through dots. Um orientation is what we've uh some of the things we've shared about the program
review, some of our planned adjustments um at this time in our process um and some responses, some community feedback we've had um about our enrichment program and some of the criteria adjustments that we made uh for fall of 2025. Um so as you might remember we started in the spring uh prompted by a
need to respond to our attendance area changes um realizing we had some students who might be shifting schools um and an opportunity just to look at some consistencies across our district. We wanted to ensure that uh zip code uh wasn't a determiner of our uh access to arrangement services um and that didn't
determine the type of services um or experiences that our students might have. Uh so we looked at a criteria and selection process that we wanted to be implement uh by fall of 2025. Um had to look a little bit at what that what and how looked like. Um what was
our process um and decisions we made to get to that. Uh we took some steps to launch review um to support that um enrichment program and to take a deeper look at that throughout the course of this year. Um, and then we wanted to focus again on some of those uh specific
uh needs and plan changes to implement a criteria for fall of 2025. Sorry, make sure I'm pushing the right buttons here. A look at an overview of pro of the purpose of a program review and some of you have experience in other areas that
we've done uh reading and math. Um, but just uh to refresh your memory and some of the things we look at uh alignment to our systems uh is the overall objective. Um, we want to make sure it's researchbased. Um, it aligns with uh implementation of new curriculum resources and standards. Um, and that
we're analyzing best practices not only of our current state but an ideal state um that we might look forward uh to in any uh program outcomes. to reorient reorientate you to the uh
four phases of a review. Uh we have envision and assess, plan and develop, implement, evaluate and adjust. Um and in any program review you might have different elements that are going through those phases. Uh so while that's an overarching look of how a review might look uh for instance in our case
we might have we went through this phase with our implementation of the identification criteria for the fall. Um and we're starting to so we had to go through all four phases of that in order to implement the um those changes. And while the greater portion of that review we might have started back in phase one
and this fall looking at curriculum implementation and design brief history of enrichment in YZA. So prior to 201718 it was actually called the vision 21 program. Um some of you might still see elements at our website as we look to
switch over that still reference that vision vision 21. Um that was a model of services that included uh reading and math. Uh the identification uh had multiple measures of achievement test KAT uh and classroom behavior
scales. Uh the Kogat is a cognitive achievement test or aptitude test um excuse me. uh and that uh identification identification criteria targeted the top 10% that was a district based on district-wide criteria. Uh we had
programs like the young scholars uh that look to provide opportunities for underrepresented groups. In 2017 2018 the program went through an adjustment uh and shifted to what we now know as advanced academics and seminar. Uh
advanced academic students uh primary qualification was on achievement test. uh again targeting the top 10%. Uh they shifted at that time to building based norm. So it would have been the top 10% in a building as opposed to districtwide. And then seminar qualification was based
on the cognitive aptitude test. Um and that was a district-wide criteria based on national percentiles. Um so if you look at the difference between those two advanced academics in grades two two through five and this as you think of gifted and talented uh ac advanced
academics is that talented um side of the house so to speak. So it's based on the achievement test. Um it's a specific content focus in either reading or math. Um and students could receive one or the other based on an independent um uh identification. Um in seminar grades
four and five uh seminars can focus on a variety of topics. Uh social emotional learning, critical thinking skills, problem solving skills. Um and again that is more of like the gifted side of the house. So you think about that KOAT, the cognitive aptitude test being the qualification for that. Um and that has
um multiple modes of measurement there within it. A non-verbal, a verbal, and a quantitative reasoning uh portion of that test. So, it's been about eight years. About every seven to 10 years in any given content area, we look to review our programming to make sure again we're
keeping up with best practices um and looking at how our system uh that fits within the the needs of our system and and meeting our outcomes. Um again the attendance area changes in 25 2526 uh prompted us a need to look at how are we identifying so that uh we could be
sure that each and every student in each and every building uh regardless of where they landed based on zip code was was getting similar or consistent services. Um and at the time we couldn't confidently say that we had some different uh modes of identification building to building. Um and we had
based on some responsive local responsiveness uh we had different curriculum implementation or um different cycles going on in different buildings. Uh we gathered our building and executive leadership team um and decided to do a reevaluation of our program uh leading into an overall
program review uh with the priority task of having um by the start of fall of 2025 uh a criteria uh new identification criteria ready to be implemented. Uh we had our committee included enrichment specialists, principles and teaching and
learning representatives. Uh we began meetings in the spring of 2425 uh to look deeply at data and and a lot of support from Stacy Lackner and her research evaluation team uh to really take a deep dive into that data. Um and spring through the summer focus then was
on that identification criteria again. Glad I clicked both buttons here. Um so as you look at that phase of program uh review uh we've talked through some of that in uh how that looked uh in in enrichment. Um I want to invite um Ann and Sarah to share a
little bit how that relates to their experience as we bring them into the process here in the in the fall to really truly look at an overall program review. Um again how we focus on those best practices um and some experiences of theirs related to how they've led that work in other content areas.
Thanks Austin. So uh you probably have seen this before, right? This is a this phase uh review process. We've used this in many situations. I um was proud and excited to be part of a program review
around reading. Um I think Sarah, you might be the only one that was around then. Chase, you too. But um we went through this same process in reading and in math anytime there's a >> um through that cycle usually we go
through that and it's it's just such a great process I think um that phase one really envisioning and assessing uh that's the part that we're really ex that's where it gets really exciting to zoom out and think about possibilities and really think about aligning things
with our vision our strategic directions um and what that looks like um in today's world um because things change in education. So um phase one is really exciting. Phase two then too um based on
what we learn, we get to think about um research, best practices, things like that. So it's a really exciting process and we're just at the very beginning of it in terms of the broader program review. Um certainly the criteria piece
has been through a phase is going through phases. Um and the other parts of this are really just starting. So it's really exciting process. I'll just add that we are um from the math perspective, we've been in phase four for a while and um there are new
math standards that um were approved in the spring. And so it's really exciting that we're launching um that phase one work now, K12, and really thinking about what student experience and learning should look like for math, which makes the alignment with this um enrichment
review also great timing. All right, thanks for sharing that perspective. Um, so look at again the work in progress and I've talked through a lot of this. I won't belabor too much on this slide just to call to um the kind of outline exactly what that identification criteria was for the fall
of 2025 that we implemented uh for advanced academics and again that was uh using the fastbridge test. So that was the achievement test we used uh and identify the 97th percentile or above on two of the three LA uh last math or
reading opportunities. Um again with the help of Stacy and her team we really looked at what are the percentage of students relative to those scores in our district. Uh we started looking even at like the 90th percentile and above. Um, and in our district, grades 2 through 5,
uh, to give you an idea, in math, we have about 38% of our students who would qualify at the 90th percentile and above. Um, and even at the 97th percentile or above, uh, grades 2 through 5, we have about 16% of our students. Um, in reading, uh, in if you
were the 90th percentile, it would be about 21% of our students. And at the um 97th percentile, we're still about 8% of our reading students. Um when you look at a program service or a pullout service model, um you really think about
uh you know, similar to an RTI model. Um it's about that 5% of your students. So you really feel if you're going to pull them out of a classroom, um it's those students who truly are at that exceptional level. Um I think Stacy referenced nationwide like 3 to 6% is kind of the window of where you see uh
national best practices landing. Um, and so, uh, really that was kind of our shooting for about 5%. Again, much above the 97 percentile we felt was a little too limiting. So, though we're still probably high on that math side of the number of students who might be identified for a pullout program, we
hesitate to take it uh, any higher than that as far as um, not only the the specificity of the tool above the 97th percentile um, but also in limiting those opportunities for our students. Um so again as we get into the fall of 2526 we'll uh continue the review of the rest
of that program including that curriculum design phase um starting with advanced academics. >> So one of the things that um we're working on right now is uh our curriculum in the enrichment program.
Um, as you know, thank you. As you know, um, we're very committed to the PLC process in Weisetta, the professional learning communities. And one of the foundational pieces of a PLC is a guaranteed and viable curriculum. So, we are um, in the past enrichment uh,
curriculum wasn't always um, consistent across the buildings. Um, there was a lot of similarity, but there was things being taught at different times and things like that. So, um we are working to enhance that consistency so that we
can um um really lean into that PLC process in terms of advanced academics. Um that helps enhance not only student learning but teacher practices as well. Um and we're doing that across the district, right? That's part of our work as a system to support that PLC process.
So, what we've been doing is um making some adjustments in um the curriculum to um using checklist to um create that guaranteed and viable curriculum. Sarah and I will talk a little bit more about what that looks like in reading math in just a minute. Um, but we're also
working to really ensure that alignment like Austin mentioned across the U model of supports with our MTSS model >> along with that alignment with uh across buildings. We're also really looking at that alignment with the general education classroom. And so as part of
that um really working on aligning the curriculum for enrichment to the standards and so um you know we've been working on implementing the ELA standards for a few years and we have the new math standards and so we're really trying to connect that work. Um
we've also invited some elementary classroom teachers to join us in this process again to ensure that alignment with tier one. Um and then um also really thinking about um connecting to the resources um that I'm going to
talk about for math specifically. So one really exciting uh implementation that we're doing this year in math is a program called Concept Quest. It's a component of our Bridges curriculum. And I think a couple of you maybe tried a problem with me a year or two ago and
and will probably acknowledge it was very challenging. Um and it really is an enrichment for all resource. And so we're um want to ensure access for all students to this um really rigorous math thinking and problem solving. And the
enrichment specialists have really helped partner in that work. They've been excellent collaborators. They have um created some mini lessons to help launch those in our classrooms. They've done observations of each other to really ensure that that um looks similar
across buildings. and they've also organized that resource onto a Google site to really ensure um easy access. Uh kind of a fun story about that is that we we've trained classroom teachers on Concept Quest. We've trained the enrichment specialists and then Becca
Ospy who's the secondary math specialist and I also got to train our high school mentors on how to use them and how to ask students really great questions when they're doing those to keep the thinking with the elementary students. Um and a second grade teacher told me that uh the
day the enrichment specialist came to launch them, the high school volunteer was also there. And so it was just a really great example of how we can um engage across our system in providing really rigorous and enriching math opportunities.
Um the other work that we have done so far in math this fall is uh the team has worked on revising uh an existing problem solvers unit um and they are working on teaching that right now. And then for our future work we are
proposing a new data analysis unit for grades three through five uh that aligns well with trends that we see in our MCA data and then also bridging to our to our new standards. And again, we're really thinking about how we can ensure the alignment with um bridges and tier
one pedigogy for math >> and in the area of reading. Similarly, um really looking at the 2020 standards which are in full implementation right now. Um so we um with the team decided uh chose a one of the existing
highinterest units at each grade level 345 to revise those to align more more closely to the standards and then to also infuse some of our culturally responsive protocols that align with our tier one instruction as well. And then
in the future, um, our next step is to, um, look at designing some new book club units aligned with the tier 1 pedigogy, um, to extend that learning for our students. And then just to continue to unpack those standards and align um, and and the MCA performance descriptors that
have just come out for the new the new MCAs to ensure that that our curriculum is supporting some really rigorous instruction and student growth in the area of reading as well. All right. Now, we'll talk a little bit about how we got to some planned
adjustments here um that we're looking at implementing uh as early as this winter depending on um logistics and some further feedback that we'll be getting from our enrichment specialists and our principal teams. Um as we talked about earlier with the identifi identification criteria where we had to move further along in the phases of that
in order to meet our fall implementation. Um and uh and when we went to that district-wide um criteria identification again the 97th percentile in FastBridge um and considering that
trend um we knew that we might have uh some adjustments and and some implementation um uh or wanted to be responsive to some things we learned through implementation. Uh so we really are with that now in that evaluate and adjust. Um some of the things we've taken a deep look at some along with the
feedback of some of our specialists and community uh is really how does that multiple measures uh apply and align with our board policy. Um and if you look at the enrichment program as a whole when we designed the identification identification criteria,
we do have multiple measures in the sense that we have a gifted and talented with the advanced academics and the um the seminar. Uh the coette in and of itself is a multiple measure test of multiple measures. Um and the achievement uh base for the advanced
academics uh based on the task bridge is another layer of that measurement and access point for students. Um but based on this feedback, we do see uh an opportunity to add another layer to the advanced academics as well um by partnering it with the the use of our Kogat testing. Um, so we see uh an
advantage um to to adding that layer and we'll talk a little bit more about that here as we look at um some next steps. Um again, we're gathering some additional feedback. Um the timeline for that uh will hopefully be uh potentially as early as this winter to add that layer for some of our families.
So look at some of the proposed changes. Again, I've got to click both slides here. um we would be looking at um adding a layer of that Kogat for a additional layer of evidence uh for our students who are um what we might call
nearqualifying. So if you think about a student who might have had one of their scores in the 97th percentile uh in FastBridge and when we look at the two of three maybe another one of the scores within a standard error of measurement. um so might have just missed that qualification for advanced academics due
to only having a one of the scores on 97th percentile. Uh for those students we would offer uh to use KOAT as initial layer. So if that student qualified uh fourth and fifth grader would have already taken the KOAT test. So if their cog score was also a qualifying score, right now it's a composite score of 130
um or a score in any of the domains of 135 or higher. Um then that would be a potential to qualify uh for also advanced academics. Um and then uh we would also have a reconsideration process. So an appeals
process for students who maybe didn't have a score in the 97 percentile but all three of their scores are within standard error of measurement. So think of the student who might have had a 96th percentile 96th percentile 96th percentile um or even 93rd 95th I'm not sure exactly all the how low the SEM
goes and it and it varies for math or reading um but so an appeals process for those families who could also um ask to have the coat considered as a part of a layer for that advanced academics. Um again for fourth and fifth grade um those are systems and testing logistics
we already have in place. Um and we have would have to be thoughtful about what that looks like for second and third graders. The testing is available but then we have to determine who would who would give the test and what's the appropriate timing for those grades. Um and then an additional consideration for a proposed change would be moving to an
annual identification tri or cycle. Currently we we use the two out of three and we include the fall of the current year as part of the qualification criteria which of course means we have to wait until after testing's complete and all the data validated and and um and made official by our uh teach or
data uh research and evaluation team um which then means after that comes notification to families invites and um scheduling for our students. If we did within an annual year use the fall, winter and spring for determination for the following year. so that going into that year we could be prepared um with
some of those decisions already made and with that we'll take questions or comments >> okay thank you very much uh anybody have parish here >> I have few so I'll go with one and we
can rotate uh so thanks for the details and vision 21 obviously That's that's the term that I'm most familiar with. >> Sure. >> Um and I was trying to follow so >> when I look at my daughters when they went through vision 21 there were
different you know MCAs and whatever was available at that that time there were different criterias being looked at every year and I still remember one time my older one didn't get into reading but she got into next year and then math she was consistent. So there was like every
year different criterias being looked at. So did we move away from that at some point in time and are we now going back to have those multiple criterias? >> Not to not to that extent. So I don't Stacy might want to speak a little bit
more to some district issues. >> Sure. So yeah, a few years ago um we did our um we had a review and we looked at all of our criteria. So it has changed over the years and so you may be talking about a situation like you said where
you had one child who qualified one year then we changed the criteria so they didn't qualify the next year. So what we try to do is we try to make sure that we're consistent. So if we're making any changes we're very um it it's a it's a slow roll out so we're not making changes for the entire program. Um, and
that may have been the situation that you I just >> No, I think so where I'm trying to get at is so did we relax the criteria and we are now going back and making it more comprehensive. >> So, um, previously >> didn't follow. So, so
>> that's okay. Previously we had district-wide criteria and then in 2017 18 we changed to a building based criteria. So it included a lot of individ additional information that was collected individually at each building. So um this change we're doing a
district-wide criteria so that there is um so the identification is the same at each building and it doesn't matter which building you go to. It's the same criteria for all students. >> Okay. And the expected outcome is of course not just look at the one measurement but look at more than one
measurement. And again it's districtwide. So the expected outcome is what? Is it going to get more difficult to get into enrichment program? Is it going to get easier? Like how how would you characterize that? >> Um it's difficult to say. Um we're
looking we're reviewing all of the criteria to see you know what are what are the needs of our program review and what are the types of data that we have available to us. So it's difficult to say if it'll be making the the program larger or smaller. I think that's more
the review process and and discussing with our um with our teaching and learning team. Um but in terms of the criteria, it it's we have to go through the rep review process first um to determine whether it's going to make it more difficult or
>> Okay. Yeah. And where I'm heading is I'm just trying to understand what would be the outcome. Right. So great that every building will follow the same criteria but how comprehensive that criteria is and are we really identifying you know I'll call it the top three percentile if
you will right through that program that's what I was trying to understand like how are we making sure that these criterias are solid nationally recognized and we know that we're going to get you know top of the crowd if you will in that enrichment program so we
can focus on those high performers if you will. Yeah. So, right now, um, this fall we use the FastBridge 97th percentile looking at three different administrations. So, we looked at winter, spring, and fall for all of our students. So, we do have that data where we're doing multiple data points. It's
just one diff one type of data. We're using achievement tests. Um, so we know that if we're using the 97th percentile nationally, that's the top 3%. But in our district, we have found that we have 16% of students who qualified for the math services based on that criteria.
And I think for reading, we're at about 7% of our students in that 97th percentile and above. Um, does that answer your question? >> I think also, if I can add, the goal of the review is not to put more kids in or put less kids in. that that's not the
the goal. Um the goal is to really make sure that we're consistent across the district so that if I move and we've had that situation where a kid moves and they may be in it in one building and not in another or vice versa. And especially if we're using percentages of
students, then it's by luck of the draw. Is your kid in a class that has a higher percentage or a lower percentage and that when you get in? And so um that needs to be consistent. And then our enrichment program has both an academic um component, the advanced academics,
and it has the seminar piece. So, we're using multiple measures for our enrichment program, but we really do believe that we need that extra measure and opportunity at the academic part as well as at the seminar part. So, that's really what we're doing. If we did follow the the the recommendation of the
top three% we would be actually be raising our our cut score way above the 97th 98th and we have chosen um as we know Weisetta has um a very high performing student body and so we have a
large percentage of students who even at that 3% qualify and we want to honor that despite the fact that it's NYZA right um it also requires us, if I might, to say what Sarah and both Ann were getting at is when we have um the
percentage of kids we do in the 90th percentile and above in our classrooms, we have to make sure that our tier one instruction in our classrooms is enriched because our classrooms are enriched. And so, it's really critical that our teachers get that those skills
um so that we don't have students setting board in classrooms because that's on a teacher responsibility. Um we should not be having that. Um and so we need to figure out how we support the teacher in the classroom to make sure that students are not sitting um to that level.
>> Okay. So more comprehensive I'll call it you know selection criteria consistent across all buildings. Um again I'll call it industry standard if you will. So that makes sense. And then what about once you know kids are in enrichment and
again I couldn't quite put finger on it. So are we making changes to the program itself? So what the curriculum we teach and how we teach I think there was one example given in the slide. So can you elaborate that portion how are we changing the actual both math and
reading enrichment program itself? >> Yeah and I'll again can invite Ann and Sarah to speak more specifically to the work this fall we've started with uh looking at just bringing the level of consistency. So the first thing we did this fall was um to designate a math and
reading unit at each grade level um so that all buildings are working on the same unit uh working on some of those classroom connections. So connections to where does the classroom level of rigor uh meet the benchmark and then where do we in enrichment programs take on the learning from there hitting the advanced levels of rigor for our students in
those enrichment programs. Uh building on models that we use in tier one. to things like book clubs in our elementary schools um and the concept quest and some other uh curricular uh models that we have in our math instruction um and where can we as a program then build
from there um so yeah and maybe last question um >> obviously I've seen students taking pride in it when they get elected for enrichment right obviously those are talented kids um how do we ensure that they don't get discouraged right um
again and I've seen kind of both examples where people in the group or kids in the group they really help each other and they are super excited and that reflects but then you have you know certain individuals who are really smart and then they feel like oh I got to go
now two step below even though if I'm in the enrichment program because now I have to like be consistent across so how do you make sure that we don't discourage anyone and if there is a talent that requires maybe more challenging work we we kind
of figure it out how to encourage them. Can you sort of tell us about it? Like how do we make sure that top talent is not? >> Yeah, I think maybe an anecdotal story uh that one of our immersion specialist shared earlier in our year in our program review um was talking about an
experience with a student who maybe was feeling and sensing that challenge for the first time. Um and some emotions started to run and you know the kind of I can't came in. I hadn't experienced that level of failure before. Um, and our enrichment specialists are amazing at just connecting with those students and recognizing that kind of social
emotional need of those students um, who are maybe experiencing some of those challenges the first time. So, they're very adept at at kind of pushing those students to their level of challenge, helping them build that rigor, helping them build that grit, so to speak, right towardsing that challenge, um, and and building on
those skills. So, um, I think I think that's part of the goal and outcomes of a of a program is to help our students work through those levels of challenge. >> And as long as we have that feedback mechanism so we can identify and take corrective actions, that will be great. And again, one last um, thank you. I
mean, like I said, both my daughters, they were both in math and reading uh, throughout elementary and and they loved it. um especially working together as a group and kind of you know help each other help each other and there are always like those stronger personalities that are wrong but then somebody has to
speak up and say hey I think this is the right answer. So that taught them really life lessons how to work in the team and not just solve the problem but speak up when you think it's the right thing. So um again those were some of the things we were hearing from our daughters and
our sort of you know other students. So thank you. It was really great experience for us. >> Great. Fantastic. Thank you. >> I would like some clarifications um to hear. Uh so um as if right now we have uh we're using fast bridge free data
points for from fastbridge for math and uh reading and for enrichment one for seminar we're using KAT uh results. Correct. uh in the past uh what did we use like to be honest why um we joined by that in
2017 I believe so I was thinking I don't remember that my kids had to take uh since we we uh joined later but I will give a credit why Za said um you supposed to take test too so because
everybody has the chance uh I did not realize that they supposed to retake test every year to qualify. I I I felt like we once kids qualified we stayed. >> So that that might be the difference
between the seminar and the um advanced academics. So advanced academics um since 2017 18 it was an annual re-qualification uh with the winter entry point institute for some students who might be there if they you know showed that aptude on the fast bridge in the winter score. um enrichment
specialist might work to include them you know from the winter on. Um but seminar has been as you mentioned like you take it in the fourth grade and then once you qualified you don't need to re-qualify in the fifth grade even through um middle school. >> So you don't need to re-qualify again
>> not for seminar. Correct. >> Interesting. Um and also a clarification I would like to hear. I believe in the past at least again uh my if me my memory correct will be correct it was vision 21. kids were pulled out two
times for 45 time for 45 minutes each which means per week it'll be 90 minutes um I mean depending obviously if you qualify for reading math but it is uh 90 minutes nowadays I believe uh the update
I got from teacher from elementary teacher it's 30 minutes which means if you do math a kid is losing 30 minutes uh a week >> uh twice a week though. Um, so our math and reading both are twice a week. Seminar is once a week.
>> Yeah. My my point is if it was in the past 45 minutes twice a week, it is 90 minutes per week. >> Mhm. >> Nowadays it is two times 30 minutes which means 60 minutes. So a kid effectively is losing 30 minutes of
enrichment chances compared what it used to be. Yeah, we're gaining 30 minutes in tier one instruction as well. Um, so we see those working together when we talk about like our our systems of support. Uh, one of the reasons we talk about that so strongly in that tier one connection is we really do see that as a
continuation. Um we wouldn't expect any of our students a part of our enrichment program isn't to think that the only opportunity for enrichment or challenge or thought from you know like if you're meeting in Tuesday and Thursday in math is that those are the only 30 minute times of the day that you're being
enriched. Um and that whether it's 30 minutes, 60 minutes or 90 minutes a week in enrichment um that those that learning doesn't continue. There's connective tissue in between. and there's things that they're connecting with classroom so that there's some of the skills that we're taking and learning in enrichment that can actually
enrich their entire math experience. Um again, enrichment teachers also connect closely with classroom teachers. Um so that our teachers are seeing how to support those students for the rest of their week and not just the the moments they're in a pull out experience. >> I understand. But at the same time, um,
I'm kind of putting key I mean, I'm working at school, too. And what I've seen lately when you have limited amount, sometimes even 5 minutes pulling out kids uh, through hallways, you feel, oh mine, I lost already 5 minutes of
mine. In my case, it's 30 minutes to I'm doing as an interventionalist. And it feels like I am drill surgeent almost like uh because I I have to um I have to bring um progress but at the same time it feels like you don't have
an opportunity to connect uh with kids and when we're when it used to be 45 minutes I can sense at least it is full lesson uh opportunity versus when it is 30 minutes. I I'm wondering how
difficult it is for an enrichment teacher to have that connection with our gifted and talented students and also to give the same am um just pulling out two
times for 30 minutes. uh versus for example if you are saying about given equal uh if students need help students can be pulled out three times or if they need I'm talking about as intervention sometimes even you have to pull out five
times so uh in this case it feels um disbalanced and um and to be honest I also had a um one family who belonged to who decided not
to because they felt it was not enough and they chose to go somewhere else. I would like to hear what can we do so that our gifted and talented students can still also be being heard, being um
challenged and for them uh it can be also fun and they have enough time to connect with a gifted and talented teacher. By the way, I would like to say thank you because um our gifted and
talented teacher from uh Vision 21 from years ago right here, she um taught my oldest kids and uh they were coming and sharing some things which I never heard at uh charter school. So I would like um
other kids, younger kids to have the same opportunity right now. And um what's a plan so that uh these kids would have uh so that um we can have
spec if there is not enough uh time or I mean one specialist is not enough can we do something uh that um our gifted and talented students are also being supported. Yeah, I think I would just say that our
vision for those outcomes are the same and that's part of our program review and time is one of those things we'll have to continue to consider as we look at our review process. >> If I can clarify one more thing, but you said you're going to be uh adding one layer of uh cog uh test. If you're going
to be doing every year, uh is it going to be different type of cog test? Uh how does it >> um so the Kogat test the KGAT test really shouldn't be given every year. Typically um the most it would be given is every two years. We
used to do second and fourth grade but we moved to fourth grade. So I don't anticipate we would be doing an entire grade level beyond fourth grade. Um unless that comes out of the review process. Um the fastbridge tests we do give three times a year. So those would
be the the multiple administrations, but typically students um are screened once in Wisetta and fourth grade on the Kogat. Um but again, that's part of the review. Um, and we'll be looking into, you know, all of the different
possibilities and it maybe including like was proposed maybe having a a smaller group of students take the Kogat in second and third grade depending on whatever um adjustments to the identification process um are made.
>> Right? Right. So the second and third grade layer would be just for those students who are either the near qualifying or within an SEM on three of their of their test. So we wouldn't be giving that as a gradewide uh assessment would be just in response to the small populations of students who are within
one SEM with one qualifying score or within one SEM on all three of their scores. And then as uh Dr. Lightner said uh in the fourth grade that we would you know considering development level if student took it in the second grade that would be where we would have them taken again with the entire fourth grade class
um as that separate qualification for seminar as opposed to the second layer uh for advanced academics if it was a second or third grade student. And if I can ask uh one more thing about um feedback actually um I am very
grateful to I hope that I since I'm praising this teacher I can say her last name uh no okay my um she will recognize it I guess uh um my uh son uh joined the
fourth grade at uh Plymouth Creek and the night before she shared the examples of kaga t test uh so that allowed my kids to see how it looked like actually and I believe truly that's what they
helped them also to I mean to understand what kind of type of uh test to to expect and um I think it it would be nice for students when you before you given that test just to give some sort of a how does it look like so that the
students who never done can have um equal opportunity um because um first time when we tried we were surprised um even with a higher 99 percentile we didn't qualify 99
percentile so um but at the same time I mean I don't I don't have any anything um any grudges to say one of them already was recognized I think that he proved himself uh that he deserved uh but I would like others Our students if
they never done anything like that at their households but they happen to be bright for math or reading if they will have a chance to see an u examples of ket test so that we know how to do it. Thank you.
>> Well I have more questions. So thank you so much for coming and providing us all the data and wish you continued success in what you do. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next we have
finance reports and executive director of finance and operations Trevor Peterson will present a resolution relating to a special election. Trevor, [Music] >> Mr. Chair, if I may, I might suggest maybe I give a little bit of uh
introductory background that might be helpful to sort of set the stage for what we're going to be hearing here from Trevor Peterson. >> Dr. Anderson, maybe I might want to interrupt you from another agenda item first, I believe. Oh, that's right. >> Sorry, I did not add that. See that?
Okay. >> Yeah, we add it afterwards. Yeah. >> So, go ahead. >> All right. Good evening, Chair Sahony, Dr. Anderson, members of the board. Um, tonight um first we're going to bring forward uh the financial reports. This uh report is through the end of
September. Um we're starting to see a little more activity um both re revenue and and expenditures um for the most part uh and looking at where we are as percentage of budget compared to previous years. We uh are certainly in line with what we might expect. Um some
of the outliers other than the normal things that we might see um uh we still um we're starting to see some uptick in our state um aids that we receive. Um we have not yet received any property tax revenue through September. Those will start in November, October, November.
So, the next few months you will see some of those coming in. Um, but all in all, we are currently at um for the general fund um 8.6% of our total budgeted revenue for the general fund compared to 8 and a half and 8.9 the previous two years. So,
again, right in line with where we might expect to be. Um, moving on to the expenditures. Um, there are a couple things to point out. Again, a lot of the timing uh some of these expenditures varies from year to year. U for example, we might get some supplies and materials
the end of August one month or one year maybe the beginning of September the following year. So um from month to month it might look a little bit differently. Um but a few things to point out um as the expenditures are concerned um you will see the food service fund has expended um a
considerable more amount of their sent to budget uh through September as previous years. Um that is the planned expenditure for the facility upgrades at the high school for the serving line. Um so that is certainly um what we would expect that to be. Um and the community
service fund that's currently at 28.6% of uh annual budget of expenditures compared to 19.4 and 18.9 the previous two years. Um we have seen a considerable increase in both the summer um as well as the the school year child
care program. So both the revenue and expenditures for the community service fund have increased um due to that program. Um otherwise um like I said everything else is pretty well in line with what we we might expect to see. Um so um with nothing else to report I guess I would open that up for any
questions. Otherwise um ask that we move along to the next agenda item if >> I have a quick question. So, community ed has increased spend, which tells me that's good news, right? Because we have more space and we have more ability for
students to within the district to access those services. Is that a correct understanding? >> That is correct. And I believe I talked to Jenny earlier today and I think the number that she gave me was an increase of about 250 students in that child care program. So, um correct. Sometimes a increase in expenditures um represents a
good thing and in this case that would be the um the situation here. That's great news. Thank you. >> All right. No more no more questions. So, let's move on to the next the recommended action. >> You wanted to say something? >> Yeah. I'll just share a couple introductory comments here. I think kind
of set the tone a little bit. Uh we'll let Trevor and team whoever else uh might be invited up to offer assistance, cover a lot of the technical aspects of of uh the agenda item and action item that's before you tonight. So, we've been working on uh this chapter of
facilities for at least three to five years. Uh more intensely in the last year or two. Um halfway through my 18th year here in the district. I think we've never not been working on facilities during that entire time. Um we've worked
closely with um our strategic partners Krauss Anderson and W architects and engineers for the entire time that we've been uh focusing on um our projects throughout the district and we have here tonight with us Baggley from W
Architects and Engineers and John Hunick from Krauss Anderson. Uh we've also worked closely with our district staff and uh our principles, all of our leadership team within the district and they've worked closely with those that are in their buildings or within their programs to collect feedback and and
utilize that information as we've packaged uh uh facilities recommendations along the way. So also here tonight uh is John Deutsch, our director of facilities and transportation. He's been in integrally involved um with this process. We've
we've taken a look at uh three sets of data really in regards and we could argue a fourth because we've also taken a look at our internal data points in regard to projected growth within the district and uh have built the facilities plan according to how we feel
we can best meet the needs of the community and uh uh be ready uh with appropriate facilities in order to accommodate uh that student growth. Recently, we've had meetings with the city of Madina. Uh, as the board knows and many listeners will know, we have
property in the city of Madina that's large enough for both an elementary and a middle school. Um, that'll be our next frontier and uh part of uh what we're going to be recommending uh a next step for uh this evening is uh uh possible expansion of our facilities in order to
accommodate that next wave of growth uh that we're anticipating in the future. In the past 10 to 15 years, we've opened two elementary schools, an early learning school, we've done a high school edition. We've added classrooms to many of our elementaryaries uh also
to uh our middle school uh sites and uh we anticipated growth and many years ago, 10, 12, 15 years ago and we responded with new facilities to accommodate that growth. So we have uh you know a bit of a challenge. it's hard to have a perfect crystal ball to uh
know exactly how enrollment is going to grow uh into the future and exactly where. Um and that's been a little bit of a challenge for us, but I think that's always part of of the uh facilities plan and in any district. But I would say we felt some of the same
before we built Metal Ridge in Northwoods. Um it was uh anticipated that we were going to experience some significant growth, which we did. And uh frankly, it would be really hard for me to envision right now where those 1,700 elementary kids that are currently in
those two buildings would be if we didn't have those two buildings. So I'm thankful for the team members and the school board uh action, our strategic partners who helped us uh prepare for opening those buildings. I think in 2015 was Meto Ridge and 2019 or 20 I think
was Northwoods. um the and we are getting closer to that point as we heard from our demographer who was in where we're going to hit that equilibrium point but it's a number of years out into the future yet and we have quite a lot of growth yet that's
going to happen uh before we're at that point. I would suggest that the facilities package that uh is under consideration and that's uh brought here tonight uh for you to authorize us to move on to the next step which uh I'll
let uh folks that are more well-versed on uh the details of that present that information. But I think we could say that with this package um includes just in quick summary and not all inclusive but an elementary school, a middle
school, a high school edition um functional kitchens in our schools that currently don't have kitchens that can actually prepare food. We have kitchens or or schools yet that we transport food to. Um cafeteria expansions were
necessary. um so physical education spaces and athletics uh spaces um special education spaces that can best meet the needs of our students. So those are kind of a sampling of of the projects. You got a more detailed report at our most recent work session with all
of the different areas that we've been looking at. And while it's difficult to predict perfectly uh how the community is going to continue to grow and exactly how many students we're going to kind of hit that equilibrium point with um I think this package of facilities it's possible could carry us through the
finish line. Now, I say that somewhat hesitantly because I think at some point um if we do build this 10th elementary school uh now or during this chapter of facilities, I could see the possibility that there may be a day way down the road where we would need an additional
elementary school, but it's really hard to predict that. But I do think that this um um package of facilities that are uh being presented for consideration and uh possibly moving forward with is uh you know really going to help us
accommodate the great majority of what I would anticipate our our school district would continue to grow to. As you know we crossed the 13,000 student K12 student threshold this year. I've kind of thought in the back of my mind for many years that that mark of about 145
or maybe somewhat shy of 15,000 students will get us pretty close to what I think um the available space within our community um could accommodate for new residential growth etc. Again, that's a a non-scientific crystal ball other than
a lot of uh intuition and seeing growth in our district 17 years plus at about 200 students per year. Um, I think that trend is going to continue for well into the future. So, I just wanted to share that to set the stage for okay, what now? And we talked about this a couple
weeks ago at the work session and we have some individuals here tonight uh prepared and ready to uh give you more detail on what those next steps are with some recommended action. So, with that, I'll turn it over to our executive director of finance and operations uh Trevor Peterson.
>> Yeah, thanks Dr. Anderson. That was a wellversed uh introduction. um don't have too much to add to that too, but I am sitting here on behalf of not only our strategic partners in facility planning, but also uh with the support of our facility steering committee um as well as our community task force on
facilities that has met in recent months. And um with that uh that presentation um that was given to the board last Monday uh we feel is a very exciting um long range facility planning proposal um that we are asking to take those next steps to um take those next
steps on tonight. Um just to add a little bit to to what Dr. Anderson had said it is projected that by 2728 school year um why is that public schools will exceed available building capacity at every grade level. And while that is exciting, it also um challenge us
challenges us to have these discussions that we've been having over the past few years and u bring forth what we think is a is a really um great plan for the the future of our student learners. So, um, again, in collaboration not only with W Architects and Engineers, but Krauss
Anderson, um, and Ellers's public financial adviserss, um, tonight, um, presented to the board, um, we would like you to consider approving a resolution that calls for a special election, uh, to be held on April 14th, 2026. Um, this election would be seeking voter
approval to renew an existing technology lever levy authorization as well as the issuance of general obligation building bonds. Uh, the existing technology levy um is set to expire after taxes payable in 2029 um and would be renewed at the current
tax rate of 2.66075% 66075% of the district's total net tax capacity. Um, which would then extend that through taxes payable in 2039. Uh, this levy does generate roughly $7 million annually for the district. Um,
which is used to fund technology systems, devices, and personnel costs. Uh, the issuance of the general obligation building bonds would be structured over two ballot questions. Uh, one question would approve the construction of uh, what Dr. Dr. Anderson said of a new elementary school, a new middle school in addition
to Weisetta High School, expansions to various school building kitchens, safety and security updates and enhancements, as well as various other capital projects across the district. A second standalone question would then um ask for the approval uh to construct
a new eight lane pool at Weisetta High School. Um so we thank the those who were here to to voice um or address the board um concerning that uh the pool will would support physical education classes, swimming and diving programs um
and will be available for community use. Uh therefore uh with having said all that, um the administration is asking for the board to approve the recommended action before you. Um, and it should also be noticed by approving the resolution calling for this special election, uh, the board is alo also
authorizing the administration to submit to the commissioner of education of, uh, the state of Minnesota for review and comment. Um, that document is required to be submitted on or before November 25th of 2025. Um, so I think it's worth noting that that does include approval
of that as well in this motion. So with that we would ask you to uh introduce her and um ask for the question um of the recommended action before you. >> Thank you Trevor. Um so colleagues the recommended action is to adopt a resolution relating to determining the
necessity of renewing and expiring capital project levy authorization and issuing general obligation bonds and calling a special election thereon. Is there a motion? So moved. >> I second. And I ask that we wave the
reading of the resolution. >> Any discussion? >> Hold on one second. Sure. >> Well, we're very excited. Um I think one of our purposes of the district is how we meet the needs of a growing population. That's our uh mission too as
a school board. So um this is just really great to see and new construction means new additions to our district stories. So, I couldn't be more excite excited. Um, it's going to be great to see this work in action. So, thank you so much for everything. You
>> want to go last? >> Yeah. I just wanted to thank you uh team. I know you presented in our last session again all the history. How did we get to this point? Why why are we recommending what we are recommending? And again, Trevor as you called out this
is not you know the end of it, right? there is still going to be Minnesota state board review and things like that and then ultimately it's on voter assign. So again thank you for all your help and you know walking us through the process until now.
>> Uh first I would like clarification. um swimming pool. It sound um it sound I mean awesome to be honest. At the same uh time as I said I asked is it uh wants versus needs. Question for me comes why
we're not using East Middle School swimming pool and west middle uh uh school swimming pool for PE classes. >> Yeah, that might be a good Dina question. You mind? I can take that, but I may also reach
out to Jenny Eert for this one. The East pool is contracted out to the community and is used all day long by our community. Correct. Yeah. So, that one is is we um have an agreement with the city of Plymouth and they use that for their community planning. And then the
West Pool, as you heard, is extremely old and so it'd be very hard. It's not anywhere near there's no locker rooms and so forth. So it's not conducive to student learning students dressing undressing supervision. Also a challenge that we have with that is that in order
to have students in there and and meet legal and safety guidelines um we would need WSI WSI yeah um trained lifeguards in there or we would have to make sure that our FIED teachers all have that and that has not been something that we have done. Um, I will say having been a
principal at a middle school where we added a pool on, um, it is very difficult to do that piece in a in a FIED program with all the transitions and so forth and the unique needs of middle school learners. So, it has not been part of our FIED curriculum at this time.
I might just add too if I may. Um given the nature of the schedule in middle schools, it would be a pretty tight turnaround time for um an individual class period uh for physical education. Um because if I'm recalling correctly, I don't think those are scheduled in a
block. So you would need that extended amount of time. Um it'd be more conducive probably in the block schedule at our high school where they have a longer period of time. uh the limiting factor there has been having to have a pool at the high school. So this would you know maybe create some opportunities
for actually offering some uh swim classes at the high school because the facility um >> additionally we we do um we our students can take a lifeguarding class and we do some stuff with sailing and um some stuff with scuba diving but we do that
offsite at the high school. So a pool at the high school would allow us to engage in curriculum at a high school level. And to your point, Dr. Anderson, that's much more conducive at a high school level also where there's not um some social emotional needs that occur that make swimming at a middle school very
difficult. And I would just say too that we strive for continuity of the curriculum across all buildings and the level and east and west with a pool would be compared to central without a pool and we wouldn't be able to to deliver comparable uh programs in that
regard. And just as a point of interest too, I think we have about two just short of 200 uh high school swimmers involved in our three main swim programs. So it is pretty sizable uh co-curricular programming offering as well.
And one more clarification. Uh I think at today I heard that uh this one before it came to uh fruition it had been in works for three uh -4 years. Correct. >> I'm sorry.
>> Before this proposal came to table, it had been in uh at works for about three-4 years. Am I correct? the big package having conversations about facilities for quite some time.
>> Okay. Um >> yeah, I was just going to add that I think that the district's been closely monitoring October one enrollments and trying to decide when the right time was. Um, so I would say it's been an ongoing conversation for three or four years, but probably about this time last year is when that very observable
three-year trend was um on the up and up, a full recovery from pandemic. And kind of knowing that when you were going to get full, we had to start aggressively talking about it. So, >> and on that note, I think we probably would be where we are today two years ago had it not been for the pandemic
again. >> Yeah, it's hard to predict, but that did slow down our growth. But then now it's really accelerated again. So there's a little bit of catch up with that. >> And um one more clarification that yes I
sent an email uh with some with a bunch of question. I would like to say I appreciate for answers but next thing I'm going to read uh because as if when I was writing it I didn't have that information and since I'm representing
um uh taxpayers too I am trying to do my due diligence about um how responsible we are with money. Uh first of all, this is a very complex proposal which should require time and
proper amount of uh discussion. This is over half of a billion dollars decision. While appreciate the work of board facilities uh committee and heavy lifting of a task force, we each need to be able individually explain to our
neighbors why it is a good decision to spend a half of a billion dollars in a district which is almost fully developed. Hazel Reinhardt explained that enrollment growth in suburbs slows dramatically even before the district is
totally built out. Uh the whole time we listened to presentation from Hazel and Morris Leverman company. We knew that it is about a construction of a new elementary and middle school buildings which many in community actually support. On the last Monday, I heard
that referendum includes building renovations, security additions. While I understand rationale for having functioning kitchens in several elementary schools, unfortunately, we did not hear about the reasons behind
other renovations. How much will will be spent of a new construction versus renovations? Renovation versus uh safety improvements. Knowing that safety is number one in parents' minds after September shooting, it would be nice to
hear what kind of features can help us as a district u for safety and security. While we don't want to volunteer all the features to potential perpetrator, we would like to know what was rationale in choosing particular measure and how
measures and how can it help in stopping a perpetrator. Today we have a middle school capacity of 3,226. And what is the thought process to build an entire building for enrollment of 3,489?
What is the operating cost? There were no discussion of operating cost. Uh more buildings will require more staffing and high maintenance expense. how will be uh how it will be handled especially 10 years uh from now after student growth
subi sub subsides last um in respect of a swimming pool many school districts are closing their pools or filling them in because like I heard on last Monday you hardly break even because maintenance cost is high. uh we did not
discuss operating cost and how it will be covered in order to be able to explain the need of referendum. We need to hear what and um are we planning uh what are we planning to spend on and hear justification reasoning why we
heard from Amy that an election cost us about 10,000 um grand uh of 100,000 grant hearing last Monday that we knew for a long time today I heard three to
four years about need of referendum why didn't we plan to include include referendum questions in November this year or next year in order to be fiscally responsible and make sure that we are transparent with the taxpayers.
Doing it in April feels as a form of voter suppression to me because not as many voters will be uh turn it in. While technically we will have a chance to vote against this proposal or I mean weigh in in future meetings realistically once the ball is rolling
any changes are unlikely. Uh things are tough economically. Recently many corporations like Target one of the major corporation for Minnesota uh announced their plans to uh lay off employees. On top of that
Henipin County announced about 7.8 a tax increase for the next year. Lastly, in order to justify asking uh what kind of money we need to have a better we need to have a better business plan which explains what are we spending money on
itemization and why. Thank you board colleagues. The resolution that's in front of us is the culmination of years of research and collaboration to determine the current space needs that are based in our teaching and learning
needs of our students. There has been an incredible amount of deliberate effort that has included inputs on many fronts. I'll just name a few of them. They include financial and building partners, a demographic, actually several demographic studies, steering
committees principles senior leaderships teams, the wider administration, development of a community task force, and several community surveys. The potential ask is big, but the process has proven to be
deliberate and actually very much follows in andetta's tradition of being fiscally responsible. Please remember that this resolution allows us to hear the voices of our voters on the exciting options that are ahead of us.
>> Yeah, you >> um so I first ran for school board in 2019 and we were talking about all of this stuff then. I mean even you know the kitchens um parents have been begging for these for so long and this you know it it's not even about the
number of students in the building. It's about can the food be prepared there? You know, and is it, you know, better quality? Is it fresher when you can prepare it on site? I mean, if you've been, you know, I've been involved for a
long time and we talk about this, we've been talking about this for so long in the facilities committees and and finance and it's just I don't know it it I I and I've heard from parents and so I
am excited to approve a vote because I w want to hear more from the community. This is the community's opportunity. I feel like the district, everybody has done an amazing job to do their due diligence to base their, you know, these
decisions on again so much that has gone into this. It's it's just it's mindboggling that anybody would think that we that it's just coming out of the blue. Um there's, you know, we need to plan ahead. We will have students
without a building. And this it's part of our responsibility to plan ahead and use the best information that we have available. You can have low birth rates and still have a growing district if you have homes being built at the rate they're built in. And in a district like
Weisetta that has a lot of people who want to come move here. Um, so I think I I I know myself I'm getting I stressed that we're going to run out of room and I I I've heard from parents that feel the same and many of them will probably
probably be very eager to do this for our district. So, when I ran for the board 12 years ago or got on the board and there was a lot going on, someone said to me, Sarah, you need to remember school districts are not speedboats. They are huge ocean
liners and it takes them a little while to move where they need to go. And as I think about this referendum process, we've been on the ocean and we have been thinking about all of the things and the work and the due diligence and the patience. And I think patience is really
important to really think about if we are going to spend taxpayer dollars, we need to make darn sure that we really need that. And we need to become crystal clear about what we're going to spend it on and why we should be spending it on that and not something else. because
13,000 students and 70,000 plus taxpayers have a lot of ideas and needs and things that we could do to serve them better. I really want to thank the task force that gave up time in the summer and the fall to um look at all of these proposals and to engage in a full
set of honesty and um skepticism and um thoughtful direction. I want to thank this team. Um, I'm gonna guess that you, like me, would like us to be a little more like a speedboat sometimes because we've got the students coming. Our teachers need the spaces. Um, and our
parents have high expectations of what their children will encounter when they come to school. Sometimes everything doesn't line up. So, we get our calendars right and our numbers right and all of those things. But I do believe that we have had a very comprehensive process and we've had the
right people on the bus to really drive through, get a good understanding and um come forward with a question. We trust that the state will review our will review our documents and give us feedback based on their knowledge and then most importantly we trust that the
voters will listen to our case and will think clearly about it and how it affects their pocketbook and then they'll make decisions as well. So thank you and thanks to the students that are giving up their night as well to come and tell us things because that shows dedication. So thank you.
>> Okay. I I have I may have mentioned this last Monday but the pardon me if it's if I'm repeating what I said last Monday but I have I have two things to say. One is first of all I'm not an expert in finance. I understand
just enough to understand enough. Um, so I trust that s when you presented what you did last week, you convinced myself and voters to be that
although a lot of them thought that additions to the existing buildings is enough, it's probably about the same cost as building new buildings, right? Is that that is that did I hear that right? >> Correct. Yes. There was a comparison of
building on to East and West Middle School as a >> that option was within about 10% of the cost of a new building. >> Um with drawbacks to site size in transportation and attendance areas being taken into consideration. Um and
then there was also discussion of potential expansion of some of the district's elementary schools and some of those same challenges in addition to um driving some elementary schools to being over a thousand students were some of the major concerns. So I would say it was a combination of of budget and attendance areas and educational
advisability. >> Sure. Um that does not mean that you know that voters without knowledge without information will will just say yes to the the ballot you know on the ballot. I think we will need a lot of effort to educate. I think that will be the most
important thing between now and April if the if if we approve this this recommendation. Also want to add one more thing. Um we are looking at close to half a billion dollars in the referendum. Two years ago, Independent School District 196 consisting of
Rosemount, Apple Valley, and Egan schools approved a referendum of $495 million. So it is not unheard of. Uh and I I'm confident that uh you know our our communications department, finance
department, facilities committees will will do a good job of educating voters and I hope I hope we do this for the students. Yeah. Again I can sense that I am painted
right now like um I am opposing as I said community on from many of them I heard that uh yes elementary yes middle school but um I am just challenging with other itemization and I was just asking
it would be nice to have itemizations uh what and why that's the reason I won't have a doubt uh that um I mean I'm not expert uh definitely in finances. It
is me going to uh community and being able to sell it. If I cannot say what items for what reason, I cannot sell it. That is that's my it is like you are
going to bank and you are just saying I need that amount of money but without itemization. I'll be honest it will fail. I'm not sure any banker will give. The same way I would like to be able if I am out and about in community to
explain what is the reasoning behind what what are the items and why that's the only reason why I'm um I wish that uh we we saw more and we had
a chance to discuss given the fact >> I'd like to call the question and we can provide Valentina with information at another time but I think everybody else is ready to vote. >> I am done. Thank you Sheila.
I had just last sentence and that's it. Thank you. I appreciate it. Okay. I'm going to read the recommendation again. Uh recommended action is to adopt a resolution relating to determining the necessity of renewing
an expiring capital project levy authorization and issuing general obligation bonds and calling a special election thereon. This is a roll call vote. >> Dan Janestra is absent.
>> Wait, do you want to wait for Dan to come? Oh. Oh, I was going to take I was going to ask for a five minute break after this, but okay, we'll start. >> Yeah, let's see. Let him come back. >> Sarah Johansson, >> yes.
>> Paris Bendy, >> yes. >> Sheila Prior, yes. Heidi Kedar, >> yes. >> Valentina Ays, >> no. And I give reasoning. Milan Sahonyi. >> Yes. >> Dan Janestra.
>> Yes. Thank you. And the uh motion carries. So I'm going to ask for a five minute break so we can then >> Can you give me the last item? >> I'm sorry. I we need a five minute break. Thank you.
So many people at Thanksgiving. >> Okay. Okay. So moving on to the next item, it's the other board action this evening. The school board will vote on selection of a search firm to assist the school board in the recruitment and
hiring of the next superintendent for Visetta Public Schools. Executive Director of Human Resources Dave Woods will walk us through the process. Dave. All right. Thank you, board chair Sony, members of the board. Superintendent Anderson. Uh last month, requests for
proposal uh were issued to superintendent search firm with a history of recent searches in comparable Minnesota school districts following a review of written proposals. MSBA was one of three firms selected to present to the board on November 3rd, 2025.
Rain Associates and HY Associates were also invited to present. Subsequent to these presentations, each board member then submitted their feedback regarding the presentations and proposals from the three firms. While the superintendent search committee concurred that each firm
offered services likely to result in a successful process, MSBA's presentation and proposal aligned most effectively with the district's stated needs and profile. Board Chair Sahony uh Board Chair Milan Sahony and Board Vice Chair
Heidi Kedar also conducted reference calls to several school districts uh that have recently partnered with MSBA in in a superintendent search which corroborated the feedback gathered from the WEIA board members. The following summarized feedback from the WPS board
members is a is reflective of the strong support of the selection of MSBA to lead our superintendent search. Um the the uh summary of feedback includes experience and knowledge. Uh MSBA possesses extensive experience and a comprehensive
understanding of a min Minnesota school governance. Direct familiarity with Weisetta and strong Minnesota based connections relationship and trust. Schools, a long-standing member district of MSBA, will benefit from MSBA's
extensive educational network and wide reach. As MSBA represents most Minnesota school districts, MSBA's capacity to foster trust and strong relationships throughout the search process is evident in recent successful searches and
positive feedback from neighboring districts. Methodology and support. MSBA offers a robust methodology for partnering with coach uh with and coaching the school board and engaging with the Weisetta school community including comprehens comprehensive
services post hiring training and a commitment to sustained support process and value. MSBA offers a straightforward process and fee structure. They also have a highly responsive and experienced staff that will be fully available for ongoing support throughout the process.
So the recommended action you have before you is to approve the selection of Minnesota Schoolboard Association's Executive Search Service as a recommended search firm to assess assist the school board in the recruitment and hiring of the next superintendent for Wisetta Public Schools. Uh if this
selection is approved, a contract for services with MSBA will be recommended for approval at a special session on November 24th, 2025. >> Thank you, Dave. >> Mhm. I'm not going to eat lemon heads before I read something next time. My
mouth is like watering and I'm not pronouncing words correctly. Sorry about that. >> You're drooling all over. >> That doesn't have to be part of the action, but I'm like not Thank you. >> Okay, so I'm going to read that recommended action again real quick. is to approve the selection of Minnesota
School Boards Association Executive Search Service as the recommended search firm to assist the school board in the recruitment and hiring of the next superintendent for Visetta Public Schools. If this selection is approved, a contract for services with MSBA will
be recommended for approval at a special session on November 24th, 2025. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. any discussion? >> Yeah, Valentina, go ahead.
>> Just wanted to share I'm very thankful and grateful that MSBA is the one because I heard very good news from our school district. Some of them already went through a process of hiring twice and both times were very happy with MSBA
service. Thank you. Just want to make a quick couple of comments. I want to thank first of all I want to thank Dave for working tirelessly to bring us to this point. All three firms we interviewed last Monday brought their own strengths to
the table. MSBA stood out. Their references, as Heidi and I found out, said good things about them. They have helped districts across the state in identifying a superintendent. Districts from the size of 154 students to one
which is 28,000 plus. One neighboring district required a search done very quickly two years ago and they did that during the reference checks comments like very professional. They let the school board make their decision while
guiding them. They hold your hand throughout the process. The process is fully transparent with community involvement. These comments makes one feel confident about their ability to help us find the right candidate.
All right. So, I'm going to read the recommendation again. Recommended action is to approve the selection of Minnesota School Boards Association Executive Search Service as the recommended search firm to assist the school board in the rec recruitment and hiring of the next
superintendent for Visetta Public Schools. If this selection is approved, a contract for services with MSBA will be recommended for approval at a special session on November 24th, 2025. This is a roll call vote.
Sarah Johansson, >> yes. >> Harpende, >> yes. >> Sheila Prior, yes. >> Heidi Kedar, >> yes. >> Valentina Ays, >> yes. >> Dan Janestra, >> yes. >> Milan Sahony, >> yes. The motion carries unanimously.
Thank you. Uh, the final item on the agenda is board reports. We have none tonight. Uh, this concludes the Visetta Public Schools regular board meeting. Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. Second. >> All in favor say I.
>> I. >> Oppose. Nay. >> The time is now 9:44. The Bisetta Public Schools Board of Education regular meeting for Monday, November 10th, 2025 is adjourned.