I now call this meeting of the school board of independent school district 624 to order. Will the clerk clerk please call the role? Scar here. Thompson here. Arcan here. Here. Daniels here. Ellison here.
All right. We're going to start with our discussion items. B1 Otter Lake Elementary update. Dr. Gillespie and Miss Nelson. Good evening, Chair Aran, members of the board. I'd like to introduce Ang Nelson, principal of Utter Lake, who will give us an update on her school this year.
Good evening, everyone. I promised the few people that came ahead of time that I run back. Good evening, everyone. I promised the few people who came early that I would pick up the pace so we didn't have to use the storm shelter. So, we'll we'll clip right along here.
But, which by the way is just the hallway. Oh, good. Noted. Noted. Very close. But we'd like to avoid using it, right? Um well, I'm super excited to talk about Otter Lake Elementary tonight. Um so, a few things I'm going to talk about is um our priorities. Just
a little bit of background about Otter Lake. um our academic goals, student experience briefly. Um lots about our family engagement and then kind of what's next for the rest of this school year. Um all the pictures you'll see are pictures of Otter Lake students. I won't go into detail about who they are and
how much I love them, but they are all Otter Lake students if you were to come to the school. All right, so just a little bit about Otter Lake. Um so this is my second year at Otter Lake Elementary. Um it's a neighborhood school across the street from Tamarak. uh nature center.
We have around 490 students, I would say. Uh we have five cluster programs, so a center-based school, so students from across the district gets buses to Otter for highest level programming um for several special
education programs. We have an amazing staff who've been at Otter for a very long time. uh and it creates an amazing um feeling of family I would say for both families, students and staff there. You might see in the bottom right hand corner uh there's a little special
picture I put in there, Officer Betty, who came during our readathon to read to some of our students. There is another special guest that's photoed in here that you'll see later on in the presentation, but the main event is down there in the bottom left and that is the staff of Otter Lake Elementary.
So, here are the Otter League priorities for uh this current school year. You can see that the mission is over there on the left. Um I'm not going to read it all to you, but and then on here we also have our objectives of Otter Lake
Elementary. And then um our main focus area is we will ensure the academic su success of each student. And the way that we do that is really by focusing on those four main areas. So, student achievement, which we're going to talk about tonight, student experience, which
we'll highlight, family engagement, and then equity is really embedded into all of those. We do have a specific equity goal. Um, I'll talk a little bit about that when we talk about student achievement. And then wrapped in all of that is really our staff wellbeing to make sure that they love coming to Otter
Lake Elementary every day, that they feel connected, and that they have fun together. All right. So, our academic goal this year, um, and first I actually just want to highlight I I'm sure you've had other elementary schools have a FastBridge
um, as part of their goal. But I wanted to make sure that we knew what FastBridge was before we kind of dive into it. So, FastBridge is a researchbased universal screener and progress monitoring tool. So, it really looks at specific skills, which is different than an MCA exam, which looks
at um putting all those skills together into one test score. So, I just kind of wanted to highlight highlight that piece. And when we talk about low risk, we're considering the student is considered on track and not needing intervention and meeting grade level standards if they're low risk. So, our
goal this year is that 80% of students will demonstrate being low risk, measured by FastBridge, and that 95% of students uh with IEP literacy objectives will have met their goal. Um there's around 150 students at um Otter Lake
that are on an IEP. And so that is, if you do the math, I think it's about 30% of our our school population. With that said, they don't all have literacy goals. So if they don't have a literacy goal, they'll be included in this data. Um if they do have a literacy goal, they
are separated out. So for the purpose of this um presentation, I don't have the specific specialed data because really we're in the thick of IEP season right now. So I pretty much have a meeting every single day after school where
we're reviewing IEP goals, setting new goals for next year. We really are not going to be able to say with certainty that we've met that goal until the end of the year. With that said, if a student is not meeting their IEP goal, that's going to already be looked at. So, I feel really confident in saying
we're going to meet that goal, but I just wanted to let you know that there's not a special slide for the for that student population. So, for kindergarten here, you can see um that it compares um from fall to winter uh and they are at 84%.
Now, we're coming upon our spring um assessment season. We're not there yet. We are hopeful, confident, excited that we'll maintain the same data and that these students will remain um low risk. Obviously, as the testing season goes
on, students are expected to learn and do more. And so, for example, um you know, students in each grade level may be expected to know or do 20 40 more words than they would in the winter. I
don't have those exact metrics, but it's not the same exact test. So, even the students who are low risk currently will be expected to do more as they go along, which obviously we want them all to learn and grow. First grade is sitting at 72% at low risk. I'll kind of clip
through this and then talk about how we got here. Second grade is at 71% in low risk. We're very excited about these results. By the way, teachers have worked very, very hard this year, both in literacy and math. Third grade students are at
70%. Fourth grade is at 82%. I just want to highlight really fast if you remember our MCA scores from last year. They were heartbreaking specifically for this cohort. Um very
very low. There was probably a 50 point growth between and given you you don't really want to compare MCA and and Fastbridgeidge. It's not the same test, but the growth between third fourth grade has been astronomical for these students. So, I really just want to
highlight that. That is a huge jump. And so, we're excited to see, you know, we're in the midst of MCA season right now, what the results will be in August. And then fifth grade is at 69%. So some of the things that we've really focused on this year is making
sure that we have um really tiered support for academic knowing that tier one is 100% which means every single student whether they're in receiving special ed services or not are receiving all of the tier one instruction. no
one's getting pulled away from that. So, and then from there, really making sure that we're strategic around our intervention model. So, I know um I was here when Lori um presented on. So, she kind of went through the win
structure um in in detail. So, we have the same win structure as as do all elementaryaries where we have the 30 minutes for literacy, 30 minutes for math. Um we do progress monitoring for students. That's how students are grouped. students do switch teachers for their group based on the skill that
they're working on. Um, and then every six weeks it looks to see do they switch groups again. Um, students call it like graduating like do I need to be in a group still like they're very motivated to not be in a win group um or do they need to see an intervention teacher or
do they enter into our child study process where it's not working? They've done rounds and rounds and rounds of intervention. could something else be happening for this student? Um, and so we've been really intentional with that as well as um paying attention to what
the other students are doing during that time. So when teachers have their small groups um and some students are leaving for specialized services, all the other students are intentionally working on things that are meaningful to them. Um part of that is with our family volunteer program. So I'll talk about
that in a little bit, but they are in reading groups. they are reading groups with each other, with family volunteers, through enrichment or sometimes just like needing to stay steady um where they're very close to maybe needing to join a win group. So, they might need to
do a little more practice and then they can join. So, just really being intentional around that time. Um we've had a lot of professional development focused on differentiation and just scaffolding um best practice high impact
strategies. Um modeling it for staff and then having them brainstorm how it's going to be integrated into their instructional practices and seeing really high results from that already. Um our teams are highly collaborative with one another. They really want to work together. They're not competitive
with one another like they have higher scores to me. They're like, "What are you doing to get those higher scores?" Um because I want to get my kids there, too. So, they're highly collaborative. And then, like I said, our parent volunteers this year, um I really I know that they have made a huge difference um
with our with our literacy and math scores. Um and I'm excited to talk about that as well. All right. So for student experience, we do have a student experience goal where and it was that a 100% of students felt valued, cared for,
and supported at school. When we did our initial survey at the beginning of the year, and we did it K5 um for the littles, they did it one-on-one with a teacher with emojis. Um and um the older kids did it on a Google form. Each student then had to identify a trusted
grown-up in the building. And then we compared that with our DESA data, um, our social emotional screener. Anyone who didn't have a grown-up that they identified, you know, we would talk to them about that, what's going on. But we already in the fall was at 99.6% of
students identified feeling that way. Um, and so I don't want to spend I'm not going to go into detail other than highlighting here are some very cool things that are we're doing at Otterly to help students feel that way. And there is a special guest on the bottom middle that you can see, Dr. Gillespie
has come to read to students at Otter Lake as well. And then we'll um give that uh survey again to students again in the spring just to make sure that we've maintained that. So then more on our family experience. So, we um when we met in
August with our leadership team um at our data instructional leadership day, um they really wanted to extend themselves because we knew our student experience goal from last year, we sat at right around 98%. And they were like, well, just because we're almost there doesn't mean we're not going to keep
trying to make our students feel loved and cared for and supported. Um but what about our families? And so they wanted to add a family experience school which is 60% of Otterl families identifying feeling meaningfully connected to the Otterl um elementary school community.
This cute little photo is from one of our community dinner nights where we have um a student ambassadors program which most fourth and fifth grade students are a part of. Um this is one volunteer experience where they can host welcoming families as they come in. They
love doing it. they feel very responsible and they are very responsible. So we were able to survey 119 families during conferences in the fall and 81%ish um looking at fours and fives ranking
fairly high um stating that they they felt connected to the Otter Lake school community. Um, so some of the things that we've done kind of kick it off and then that we've done throughout the year and then we're looking to reservey at our carnival, which a 100% of families
attend. I can say that with confidence. Um, is um last year I pulled together a family advisory council that is separate from the PTA as the PTA is amazing and they raised just a boatload of money for Otter and were able to do a lot of
amazing things. Um, but that is their primary goal is support teachers through funding and it is a separate nonprofit group. I was looking to have families be more involved in decision- making and just um what do you think about the different curriculums we're using? Um,
do you feel like you're represented in this school? And a way that I wanted to try to have them give that feedback was by using it's in the upper leftand corner is our family um engagement tool that was created. And so um families
volunteered to be part of this family advisory committee and they they identified what they would like to see the staff work on for family um experience goals. These are just four of them. There's actually more. A lot of it had to do with communication styles with
families um with a lot with just uh recognizing bias and having staff go through ongoing ongoing training. um having some personalized plans with their kiddos um and having it feel community- based and
that everyone was welcomed. So that's really helped guide our work throughout the year in addition to having it be academic focus for our professional development is also having piece of pieces of this uh towards our professional development so we can also help reach these goals. So when we go
back to the family advisory council here in the spring uh and we can say does this look feel different to you? um here's what we've done to see what they say and what they'd like to see us work on for next year. Another thing that we did was in the bottom left is we were
really meaningful around our conferences. And when we kicked off in the fall with our welcome back conferences was including this little definition box, if you will, a lot of times you know we said, "Oh yeah, we always ask like what do you want us to
know about your students?" Um and people don't always know what to say. So being really specific like what academically are you excited about? Are you nervous about? What social emotionally are you excited about or nervous about? But then defining what do we mean by that?
Because um we in school world might say emotions and they might say they have huge reactions. They don't want to go to school. It's hard to get their shoes on. We can help parents with that. We can give them ideas for that. And families don't always know that. That's something we can partner with them on. So really
being um proactive during conferences to engaging in those kinds of conversations. Um a few other things that we've done this year is we've we've hosted several community dinner and conversations that were wildly successful. um like 600 people wildly successful
um providing um free dinner and then we have conversation cards on the tables where um we families talk about what's important about their student at Otter Lake, what's their vision for their student at Otter Lake and having them like okay
everybody stand go find a new partner that you haven't talked to with the goal really being to connect with people that you have not talked to before. Um the first time we did this that was scary even for grown-ups to do. Um and we highlighted that we asked students to do
this on a daily basis. Um and they were more encouraged to do to do so. Um depending upon how many people are left at the end of the night, we we like to close out with some type of circle to kind of share reflections from the evening. What are your hopes and dreams
for the future? That's where we got a lot of our ideas for what we did this year. for example, having um a a student group that's focused on culture that anyone can be a part of. It is a lot of our BIPO students, but anyone is allowed to be part of it. That really came from
our families saying, "I think we need to do something like this at the elementary level." And we said, "Oh, okay." So, it's meeting the needs of our families. Um they're asking for it. And so, really going back to them saying, "Is this what you had wanted?" And then, "Yeah, that is exactly what we wanted." So just that
ongoing consistent communication um two-way and then our volunteer program is probably the biggest highlight which is as part of the welcome back conference really asking everyone if they would be willing to um give anything to otter throughout the year
whether that be volunteering or knowledge or I mean anything there was a whole list of things. Um, in the end we had over 200 people that um have uh volunteered throughout the year. It's about 5 to 15 that come in per day. It's
really a great system that's worked out in the office. We have a few that even have now a permanent badge because they come in so frequently. Um, and the kids so look forward to the time with them. So, they help with literature groups, math games, student ambassadors. when we
had our huge readathon event, it was ran and facilitated throughout the day by parent volunteers. We really wouldn't have been able to do it without them. Um, one of the goals was we can ask families to come in and do some tasks like ripping worksheets out of
workbooks, but or we could ask them to come in and help us work towards our goals of getting kids to read at grade level. And families 100% stepped up to the plate. Grandmas and grandpas, neighbors, like people that don't even people in the building. Um, of course,
they all go through a background check and we have them sign off on like a ethics. Here's what we abide to. Um, if someone wasn't abiding by those things, I would have to talk to them. I've never had to talk to anybody. It's amazing. So, and then those are some quotes from some of our volunteers. And we have our
big volunteer thank you breakfast this week actually. So, really excited. We've had 75 people volunteer. Yes. And we have some fun things in store for them. So, what's next is on June 3rd, our fourth and fifth graders all participate
in a day of service where there is a several different service opportunities through the food shelf. Uh Ramsey County Sheriff, there's so many. I honestly don't even know all of them. They make sandwiches, they make blankets, they spray painted the parking lot. Tim, we
got approval on this, so don't freak out. But it's all about to help control traffic. Um they they clean up the gardens around Oer Lake Elementary. Um it's a really meaningful day um and for partners to come in and do that with us
and the kids love it. Um we're getting a new playground which was a huge thing that we worked on at the beginning of the year. So between the family advisory council, the PTA, every student got a say and every staff got a say in something to do with the playground, whether it's the pieces that are
involved in it, the colors, the students got to pick the colors and it was a deal. Um, and they're so excited. It's getting installed in June. Uh, and just to highlight that this is um a fully inclusive playground. Currently at Otter, we have an accessible playground,
which means that students who are um a lot of students that are part of our cluster programming can access parts of the playground. This playground, whether they have physical challenges or we have a lot of autism programming, these new pieces of playground equipment are
designed for sensory needs. Um and so we're really excited and so so so grateful to the district um as this is fully funded by White Lake Schools. So, um, we're so excited to have this built and have a huge celebration, which we hope everyone comes to. And then, of
course, which I've already talked to you guys about, is the Spanish dual immersion kindergarten program next year, which just recently got fully staffed, and we're very excited about that. Lastly, every day I do video morning announcements and it um ends with this
little Otter Lake chant where I say my part and then on the morning announcements I say the student part, too. Unless the students with me, they say the student part, but it's actually adorable because as you walk through the building, the kids like actually say it. I always thought like, oh, they're probably just sitting there listening to me, but they actually say it. And then
we end go Bears. And if I don't do that exactly, students will say, "Was something wrong this morning? You did. You said it a little differently. Something wrong?" No, nothing was wrong. Um, but they like their routine. And so do I, I guess, because I say it the same
every day by accident. But so that is the end. I will take questions. Thank you, Miss Nelson. Do we have any questions? Why are you guys looking at me? I don't think Do you have a question? Well, I Yes, I took I took some notes. Um, hey,
uh, you mentioned that you had 150 students on IEP. What's the trigger point to get them off of a IEP? Is it a test or how do you determine that? Well, there's so many different that is a really complex question. So, I will try
to answer it in a very simplified way. You're going to need to answer it in a simple way for me. um they will they would have to meet all of their goals and objectives to the point where the team could not come up with any more goals and objectives. They would say, "You know what? We can't even think of
another thing you could work on. You're at grade level. You're independently doing it by yourself with no supports needed." Um I'm looking at Lisa. I mean it it it would really be at that level when when I see that is you know we have quite a
few students in speech language at Otter. Students do come off of speech language only IEPs. So they have these goals and objectives. They work super super hard. They can't say their Rs. They finally master it. They do it
independently. They don't need those services anymore. Therefore they don't need that IEP anymore. Most students though, you know, if they are diagnosed with a disability and need an IEP, it's a, you know, a disability is a disability. That's not something that
goes away, right? I see. On their um on your website, I went to each school's website. Is there a location on the website that shows, you know, the investments that were made in your
school as a result of the bond referendum and the LTFM? That's a really good question. Probably not since you're asking that question, but I will make a note of that. I think it's more for the finance team to do. Sure. Sure. That's a really
good point though when people go to the website to highlight, especially when this playground gets built. I mean like that's a really big deal. Well, and also show the amount. I can mention quickly that the building our future page of the website does have buil bybuilding um
projects that were on there as well. So it's it in a way yes it's absolutely there for a from a district perspective. Um but I suppose we hadn't linked it from the school right to their page but it is there and available by building um a
page for each. Okay. And that's that's on today's website. Okay. Just couldn't find it. I think it'd be helpful to put it in each school where we made the investments so the parents that go to that website can see the investments
that we made in that particular school. I think that'd be helpful. Obviously, you don't have to do it for North Stars, you know, because that's a new school, but I think it'd be helpful. Thank you. Any other questions? Yes,
um I knew I we I know we adopted a new um dyslexia identification program protocols at some point in the last year. Correct. Am I It was a the identification and ways to
work with those kids. So we've screened for dyslexia for multiple years. It was highlighted in the read act in terms of solidifying it for across the state but we were already meeting those criteria and that's one of the reasons that we progress monitor three times a year through fastbridge. Okay.
So is every child screened or are they just identified as potential and then every child is screened for some reason their IEP might dictate that they don't take fast bridge testing but that's a very small percentage of students. At what age do we start doing that? The
screening kindergarten when they're entering kindergarten, exiting early childhood if they're with us. Okay. And then just to add to that, you know, through the progress monitoring and all of the data meetings that grade level teams do, if something starts to flag
like that's not right, this isn't, you know, adding up. Conversations with families are consistent and start early. So, we send home paper copies when a student starts and ends intervention, but they also receive communication from their classroom teacher um and or the
intervention teacher they're working with. And and people are willing to have hard conversations if that's what needs to happen in terms of like this doesn't seem right or you know like if they're worried about something. Um so that there is no surprises for families
because that that can be a hard thing for families to hear like my student's not reading at grade level and something might be wrong. So, um having those conversations early and often are super super important.
Um have we found or have you found within Otter specifically or or Allison, this could be to you in a general way um a correlation between the results with Fastbridge? I know we've only only been using it for a little while at some
places, but between that and MCAs or do we find that there's a a gap there? We talk about it a lot actually. You want to talk about it for So yeah, I can talk about for otter. There is a little bit of a gap um that we do see sometimes
and so we often we we we talk about why um our MCA scores tend to be lower than FastBridge. One of the reasons is fastbridge is a screener that it's looking for very it's screening skills and that's how I mentioned MCA is really
the whole package. So student has to be able to take all those skills to answer these questions. Um you know MCA is a test that's given on two days. if a student is off those two days that that could be it. Because
sometimes we have students where we say, "Oh my gosh, on fast they were totally at grade level yet they were not proficient on MCA." We struggle with that and we do a deep dive um on why what their scores are to really look at
do is it appropriate for them to have intervention moving forward and sometimes it's not to be honest. So then it's a conversation what was happening on the day they took that MCA that possibly influenced that. I think the other thing for Otter that um we really
started working at the end of this year that will be our focus for next year is how we're engaging with our new literacy curriculum um in different strategies. So for example on the MCA exam you're able to use tools to highlight circle do
things like that. Um we We hadn't been doing that in our new literacy curriculum at Otter. Um partially because some of the books you're not really supposed to write in, right? So brainstorming like it's really important for students to have that skill. So now we're going to figure out how we're going to do that and practicing that
with students. So we did that leading up to the MCA test and it was really having a high impact right off the bat um in just what we were seeing and on the progress monitoring. So, we know now that high impact strategy will carry us into the next year and I'm certain will
help us kind of bridge that gap. Um, but there is a little bit of a gap. Yep. So, we think of a balanced assessment system for our district. And so, fast bridge really as an said is progress monitoring um universal screener that we're we're required to do by the read
act, but we also were doing it prior to that. Screens for dyslexia helps us with those skills as you think about that build for reading comprehension. Then the MCAs really test students aligned to our academic standards. And so that is the test that we talk about. You know, it's a accountability test comes out in
August. And what we have in the middle of trying to help us are our common assessments that we give for students that are aligned to the curriculum. And so for CKLA, our new um literacy curriculum that we're in the second year for, we're looking at those assessments and how can we better use that data to also help us and see, okay, with
FastBridge with CKLA, what correlation are we seeing in terms of MCAs? And so we're all working together and that really is common work across districts in the state to make sure that we have a robust way of seeing how kids are doing and and learning to read in school.
Thank you. Other questions? Yes, Mr. Thompson. Uh well, my first question was going to be how many students have IEPs because you put it in your goal, so I figured that you had a higher rate of IEP. So, you already answered that one. Um, and then I just think it's important
to point out that our current fifth graders are kids who were in kindergarten the year COVID hit. So they basically lost that first year at the end and then they didn't go back to school until second grade. So when I saw
like at first you would see those number and go, "Oh my gosh, what's going on there?" But then you can kind of piece it together and you know what happened to those students. So, um hopeful to see what the numbers are going to be the next time, um we get the numbers for that. And then pretend you're a student,
Miss Nelson. Why do we do it? Oh, the whole the whole chance. Just the last question. Oh, because I deserve the best. Good job. Thank you. You forgot. Go Bears. Go Bears.
Any other questions? I just have one quick question. I'm excited to hear how many kindergarters are enrolled in the Spanish immersion approximately. So, we have two full sections. I think it's 49 at at at Otter and I think it's really pretty close at
Matska. Yeah. Right. So, we're on track right now at Otter to have five sections of kindergarten with potentially a third one if we can or six if we can fill another um immersion class. So, it's a lot of kindergarters and we're so
excited. It's going to be exciting next year. Okay, hear that. Thank you very much. Yep. Thank you. Uh we're going to move on to discussion item B2, Vadness Heights Elementary. Dr. Gillespie and Miss Spear, chair, members of the board, I'd like to introduce Sarah Spear,
principal of Vadness Heights Elementary. Hi Sarah. Hi. Good evening, everybody. Thanks so much for having me. I'm Sarah Spear and I've been in this district, this is year 17. I don't know how that's happened, but three of my own children
went through White Bear Lake schools and graduated and off doing great things and the years just kept on tricking tripping by. So, it's hard to believe. Uh, being at Vadness, every day is a great adventure. And I want to start this off
tonight with our mission statement. Vades Heights Elementary is the cornerstone of our community. Together we, and notice that it's at VHS, the value each person as we provide
a high quality education. H, help our community as we prepare students academically and socially. E, enrich lives as we inspire students. And S, safe spaces are created that celebrate
diversity and foster lifelong learning. A little bit about our school. We sit right about 400 students kindergarten through fifth grade. We are a little unique in that we set up three K5 neighborhoods. So there's kindergarten
through fifth grade in each the Grizzlies, the Polars, and the Kodiaks. It creates a great sense of community, and I'll speak more to that in just a bit here. We have near 43% of our population qualifies for free and
reduced lunch, which makes us a title one school, 49% students of color, near 18% of our school receives multilingual services, 19.3% in special education,
and Vadness hosts a cluster program in EBD for emotional and behavior disabilities. We also have a tier 2 program for students on the autism spectrum or developmentally cognitively delayed. And finally, I said 100%
amazing. And I'm referencing our students, our families, and our staff. We also have three goals for this year. One on literacy and our equity goal. Both of those are focused on
proficiency. In KN&N one, it's the early reading assessment in FAST. In two through five, it's the A reading assessment in FAST. And our equity goal is specific to students in three through five looking at their reading proficiency. It's such a large percent
of our population with approximately 20 different languages spoken in our school that it's key that we focus on the needs of these kids and how we can best support them. And I'm so excited to say that the new curriculum and the program
that goes along to support ML aligns with what they get in the classroom. So they have the opportunity to have the content pre-taught before their classroom teacher teaches the information and that sets them up for success. We also have a student
experience goal where we're serving the serving the students and we look at this information and then we try to figure out how we can make our school better. What do we need to bring forward to better meet their needs to make each day better? if it's helping them get to
school, getting their them or their families to the closet. And our school is one who I go to the closet a lot. Um the thrift store right here within our campus. It's to the point that I get phone calls, emails, I've met them there
because all of a sudden they wake up and the kids don't have shoes. So I spend a fair amount of time. They know me by first name at the ALC and she's here again. Give her the key. and I love to do it because it's what our families
need. We also with the addition of the new social worker full-time bear care is a huge hit and Carrie Zerbal is her name. She does a great job to help our families get the immunizations to get medical care and treatment um which they
otherwise might not be able to afford. So, looking a little bit closer at our literacy goal based on proficiency. Here you can see kindergarten and first grade in the early reading assessment from fall to winter. And I of course wish it
were all green, meaning low risk. But I am very excited about the growth that our kids are showing. These students have only experienced the new curriculum CLA. And I especially am proud of the information at first grade. It's their
second year using working with Cala and the curriculum spirals. So what they learned in K kindergarten comes back again in first grade. And to be in the classrooms and hear the kids share, remember, celebrate what they know about
key concepts, whether it's history or whatever it might be. It's exciting and it's good for kids and it invigorates them to work harder, read, and learn. Here's our results for students two through five. Um, I used a different
format than what an just showed, but you can see in blue it's the kiddos who would come up as advanced, green is low risk, yellow is some risk and red is high risk. Um, my whole school wishes the data were
consistent throughout. Yet I also recognize some of these kids coming into Cala as let's say for example a fourth grader because it does spiral. It assumes that they have some of this knowledge already in their skill bank
and we need to build that. So watching our kindergarteners and first grade go through the system and through using Cala, I'm really excited to see future results. But the staff, all of us are doing our very best to get these kids
going and keep them on track in their learning. A big part of the student experience and family experience, uh, are the community engagement and partnerships that we have. Being the only public school in Vades Heights, we partner very closely with the city of
Vadness. Last week we had the city manager out uh for Earth Day. If you've been in Vadness, you see that they're working really hard in our our backyard, our bear's backyard we call it. We have seven acres back there and they're building a roadway back because it is a
water source for much of the north metro area. And if there were any troubles, no one in this room living in the area would have water. And the kids were very curious how this impacts the water flow. the city manager came out and shared and it's just a great partnership to work
with them. Um, safe sidewalks to school, the Vadness Heights days, there have been many opportunities to partner and um, it's fun. The Vadness Heights Fire Department is over quite frequently. They especially they spend a week with
us over fire prevention week in October. The Lions are very good to us. We do some community partnerships with food and toy drives. Uh this year they were very generous in providing all of our classrooms updated globes and maps and
um document cameras so kids could see them projected up on the wall. Klein Nissan is a new partnership and sustainable automotive they reached out and we partnered with them last week. Every student in first and third grade
went home with a sapling with parent permission of course because trees are the earth's ventilators and kids heard all about it and were very excited to go home with their their sapling. Kids Hope is a program that's
available across the United States. We've partnered with them for 12 years. And what it looks like at Badness Heights, it's retired professional senior citizens coming in and we work very hard to determine kids who need
that little extra something special. It might might be a gifted student who needs more challenge. I can think of a kiddo right now. He's brilliant and he's got a retired engineer doing some really cool stuff with him and he looks forward to every Tuesday. Other kids might just
need that special person to give them that one-on-one attention. So, whatever kids need, they can get it through Kids Hope. The University of Minnesota, um, they actually host a college course on site at Vadness. It's a reading buddies
class. That's what we call it. They call it whatever they call it, but the the undergraduate students, it's a class about teaching literacy. And then we determine the classes with the highest needs and they push in to support and
either read to the children or the kids read to them. So a class of 25 going into our classes of approximately the same size. It works out great. In addition, we've been a partner with them for 15 years. We have year-long graduate
student teaching placement. Um it's grown. I've pushed and encouraged and to tell you next year we're looking at 16 sections at Madness. I have eight year-long student teachers coming to be
at our school. We have a reputation for teaching them well, helping them find jobs, and our students benefit, our teachers benefit. It's a great great partnership. Children's Performing Arts was a another
partnership that we just began this year for the first time. Two weeks ago, our fourth and fifth grade students, 33 of them, uh performed 101 Dalmatians at the Hanniful Performing Arts Center, and it was just a blast. So, a great thing for
us to do. Right within the building, uh we hosted our first community connections and conversations. That was in the second week of school. And I have to be honest, there were parents very skeptical to come. One dad actually
said, "I feel like this is a time share sales. When do I have to buy something?" And as I visited with families around the room, many of them were skeptical that we wanted something from them. So in my welcome that evening, I made sure
to say, "We're here for you. Dinner is free. we want to know how we can best meet the needs for your kids, for your family, make our school the best place it can be. And it was great and they said, "Will you please do this again?" So, I hope we have that opportunity to
do it in the future. The other thing that we do in our neighborhoods, the K5 neighborhoods, the teachers of the Grizzlies, the Polars, and the Kodiaks each take on the responsibility to host one evening event. So, the gri grizzlies
do the bear bash. We do that on the Friday night of Halloween weekend. And yes, there are costumes, but it's beyond the school day. Um, and save costumes, too. And it's a great opportunity for families to meet other families of the
kids, the friends their kids are playing with, so they can set up playdates, u make connections, and visit. We don't have an agenda that night other than we want people to visit with their child's teacher and make connections. We do a
parade of costumes. We have free food and it's a blast. We usually get over 800 people. And on our playground, if I don't get in too much trouble with uh the police stopping traffic, life is good. In the winter, uh snow much fun.
And this year, the polar neighborhood mixed it up. It started out with a family game night and the building was full. Every room had families playing games with their kids and staff and then we ended the evening with our K kindergarten, first and second grade
concert. And it was more than a concert. They actually invited parents up, one parent up to come dance with the kids. And the videos are unbelievable. Just crazy times. Um, spring extravaganza is coming up May 8th. That's a community
service learning project and this year the Kodiaks are doing kindness with chalk. So going out into the community and spreading positive messages through chalk on the sidewalks and you might see it all over the place and hopefully we won't have a rainy day like today. And
then that evening we will also have a concert by our third, fourth and fifth grade students. Our PTO although small it's very hard to get parents involved. uh works very hard to fund raise for us. They support all of our classrooms
financially. They support all of our field trips. Each grade level takes one trip a year. And we're very strategic in setting it up so each grade level has a unique and different experience, but we want to keep kids in the classroom and
focused on learning and make sure they hit all the required content. And so they really look forward to those events. schoolwide climate and culture. Um, every day we have bear time and bears at
our school is brave, empathetic, aware, responsible, and safe. And we tie that to our social emotional learning time that we have in our morning morning meeting each day and it's set up by our building. So this week for example, the
message is all about sorry is just a word and we're teaching kids why apologizing is important and how to do it. So, it's giving lessons for primary age kids that are spec specific to their learning level. And three, four, and
five students, they look a little bit different, but the whole school is talking about when you say you're sorry, what it should look, sound, and feel like. And it really makes an impact on our building. Every Friday, our fifth graders do the news over the system. So,
it's shown into the classrooms. Uh, if you're not familiar, Veterans Day is a big event at Badness Heights Elementary. We have celebrated it as long as I've been there, and it's all about teaching kids why this holiday is important. And
then students have the opportunity to invite in moms and dads, grandparents, aunts and uncles, or close family friends who are veterans, and we honor them. and it usually brings about a few tears, but through a message and
learning for kids as well as music, it's really cool. Um, community service projects. I've mentioned a few of those. And finally, I'll share March Book Madness. When everyone else in the world is probably filling out a bracket for
basketball, we are working on a book bracket. Our staff are reading books within the school. Kids are voting each week which book they like better and the big bracket on the wall is whittleled down to one main winner. And it's a big
deal. And to get kids so excited about books, it's it's just cool. So, as we finish the year strong, we have five or six weeks to go. There's still plenty to do. We will have spring assessments both academic and social
emotional which will start the middle of May. Schoolwide run club brought brought to our school by the staff. About 50% of our student population will participate. So we'll have about 200 kids out running starting
Wednesday. At the end of it, we have a color run and that's our whole school. So during the school day, every single student will participate. And we do that with great intention that it's during the day. Once upon a time, we did it in the evening. And too many of our kiddos
couldn't get back to school. This way, every kid is part of this great fun. We'll have a talent show, field day, all of these things right on our own field at school. We'll have a survey once again for both students and parents this spring. what's going well and what can
we do better tomorrow. We're never done. We got to keep the momentum going. So, Educators Thriving is doing a presentation for all of my staff after school tomorrow. And it's focused on the core values. This time of year, it gets hard. You need to keep pushing. You need
to keep working. You need to keep your energy up. And it gets tough. And tomorrow, they're going to get a boost from educators thriving. The spring extravaganza will be exciting and will have the student concert and community service project
for the kids and families and staff. A final thought, Vadness Heights Elementary is a proud neighborhood school with strong community connections, a commitment to students and learning, and a belief in the power
of partnering with parents to support every child's success. What questions might you have? Do we have any questions? I have a question. Okay, Miss Daniels first. Go ahead. Thank you. It sounds
It's so um remarkable all the connections and all the community partnerships you have and how enthusiastically you represent them all. It's really great. I just have um one question. Maybe you don't have the answer. Is there much turnover in terms of families coming or going in your
school in in your building moving in, moving out, or is that not something you usually see in that kind of a neighborhood school? I know in some some schools it's different for different reasons. I don't think our I don't have a number. Our turnover rate isn't that great. We of course have some, but it's
not significant. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Scar. Um, thank you. Um, I was the uh night custodian at that school district back in 1981. Believe it or not, I cleaned the boilers out. I had
to throw the clothes out that I used to clean the boilers. So, I'm wondering, did they get a new boiler and burner set? Is it still oil or is it natural gas now? Beats me. I don't know, Tim.
Okay. As long as it works, I I'm good. I'm not sure. Fair enough. What's the capacity at that school district for students? Well, that's a good question, too. Um, when I came, there were 550 students in that building, but the class sizes were
incredibly large. We also didn't have preschool. The multilingual pop population wasn't near as large needing the space. The special ed programs, uh, we didn't offer as many as we have now. And so it was the building looked much
different with 550 students. Um I'd say 420 430 is a good number. Right now we're feeling pretty full with 18 classroom sections, but we're very creative in how we use the space. Thank
you. Sure. Any other questions? Made the uh the boundary change that we had, how did that affect the numbers within your school? Is it just more last couple of years where you've seen the increase or you've you've been pretty full for a while. It truly wasn't
significant. There were a few families on the north end and some of those chose to continue at Otter. Some of them were already choosing to attend Vadness because as families uh commuted to work, they dropped their kids off on the way.
So, the impact was insignificant. Um, could you, as a title one school, you're having to deal with a lot of different types of situations with with students and parents and um, and teachers having to
to teach all of those different groups. Can you maybe talk a little bit about the importance of um why it's important to focus on the whole child as opposed to just teaching
them to read, teaching them to do math? And what if we're only doing those things? What happens to those students? So when I start conversations with families, I often start with I want your child to love school. and to love
school. That means they have friends, they're learning, they're growing, they feel good inside, and they can take home the worksheet or whatever they might have done in the classroom with pride. And so, it's it's looking at each individual situation and talking to mom
and dad or grandma and grandpa or whomever I might be visiting with and trying to get to the root of what's going on. as a bar school, building assets, reducing risks, the structure that we have in place for MTSS or the
multi-tered systems of support. I love it. That was in here and I forgot to talk about that. Um, but every week we have a meeting. So, in the first and third weeks we have our grade level teams and the second and fourth weeks we
have our neighborhood meetings or as bar calls it big block. And it allows us to focus on data as well as that information from the teachers who work with that kiddo, including the specialists, what they do well, where they succeed, are they a good friend, um
maybe they have great rhythm, whatever it is that we can find, we can build on. We're using all of our resources to just focus in on that child and make it specific and indiv individualized. So, I I think it's just about looking at each
kid. When you look at all of the data, I I also say this, you know, if you're going and looking for our school report card, you might not be overwhelmed and go, "Wow, that's a school that I necessarily would choose compared to others." But I always encourage families
to look at your individual child, see where they started and where they're growing because they're making great gains. And if they're not, we're going to work with them and come up with the plan to ensure that they do. Thank you. Any other questions?
Well, thank you very much. Good. Good luck. Have a great end of your year. It's going to be busy. Come on by. And now, as Mr. Scar is good, you know, when we need that boiler cleaned, we'll give you a call. Thank you. Thank you. I won't be able to fit it in anymore.
All right. We want to go on to B3. one of uh subjects that's near and dear to my heart. So, career pathways, Miss Babish and Miss Olsen, Chair Arkin, members of the board, I'll introduce uh Katie Olsen, our career pathways coordinator, and Russ Reets,
our high school principal. All right, thanks for having us. Um I am the career pathways coordinator, um as Dr. must be mentioned. Um and um along with uh my principal here, we're here to talk about the career pathways program
um that not every school district has. And I always like to mention that that we're really lucky here at White Beer Lake to have the support to um have this programming, which I will talk to you about and what we've been up to this school year. Um we've had extra impact um with a new high school building. So
um thank you for shifting gears with us from the elementary level up to secondary. Now, um we can we can uh age up a little bit. Um so, uh career pathways really has a structure um kind of nationwide of how
we look at what what is a career pathways program, what does it entail? Oftentimes, career and technical education is thrown into some of this work. Um but really, we look at it as a bridge. So there's um programming and experiences and academic classes that we
can offer our students to help them be much more confident for life after high school. That is really the goal. Um and um we are proud to share that all of these elements you see on the screen in front of you are things that we offer um at the secondary level in our ALC um in
our main high school building. Um, and so, um, these are all the pieces really that are going to set students up for a more confident choice after high school. Um, something you see on the screen in front of you, and I'm sure Dr.
Aran's familiar with this, um, but just came out in the fall of 2024, is um, an updated what's called career clusters. This is from the Association for Career and Technical Education, a national organization um that basically updated
what was about 10 to 15 years old. Um data about what do jobs look like across the country and how do we clump them together? Um why am I mentioning this and is it important? um this change and you can read a little description on the
screen um is how um school districts function, industry functions, our workforce systems, how do we all interact together and what are we uh what are we training and educating our youth and our adult learners about and
for what does that look like? funding will stream in um in these same kind of sectors. And so you'll see workforce saying, "Hey, we need more folks in this area." And then secondary folks saying, "Okay, well, we want to get you those workers. We want to get youth excited
about this." Um so we all work together um to bring it back. If you heard of in Minnesota, we have a career wheel. Um lots of folks have that in their classrooms. You see it again in the workforce centers. um that is now going to be updated probably I think they
thought by like 2027 it'd take a while um to align with these new career clusters. So a lot of what work we do in the school district is going to funnel down from what you see here in these national career
clusters. Um so also important um we stay in um in touch with our Perkins leaders. Federal Perkins funding is really important to the career pathways program. Um, but we also stay in touch with real-time talent a lot on what's our labor industry like and our
workforce needs. Um, so labor and industry can change really fast. Our secondary school districts not always as fast. And so this 10-year um uh uh outlook is really important and impactful for us. Um so this would be
looking at the old career wheel. Um 12 of the 16 clusters that are in existence in that career wheel are um expected to decline in employment in Ramsey County specifically in the next 10 years. Um but four clusters are going to show growth. You can see those on your
screen. So that's a trigger for us in the school system to say, okay, what are we teaching in our schools? What do we need to ramp up? What where do we maybe need to pivot? And we start thinking about the next school year. And you might see course proposals and things like that coming across your desks. um
to reflect and follow along with these areas of need we're going to have right in our county. Of course, we'd like to um educate our youth and get them excited about careers and then keep them here locally. Um so, a lot of this kind of um
outside conversation of things happening outside the school district are really important to I like to emphasize what we do in the school district and what we're offering our students. We want it to be relevant. Um, we want it to be updated. So, um, something exciting that's
happening, um, partnership wise, it's really important to stay in touch with our industry. Um, I sit on the Washington County partnership. This is a brand new, um, group. Um, and we service students in Washington County, which is why we also participate in activities and initiatives that they're doing. Um,
and it's all of the secondary schools. Um, have a representative on this uh, committee. We have all of our executive directors and CEOs from the chambers of commerce for every city in Washington County and the county officials, county commissioners come and we sit and talk
about how are we bridging youth to industry, work experiences, um where are the gaps, where do we need support um and what conversations do we need to be having? As far as we know, we're the only work group for Washington County that exists in the entire state having these conversations. So, we're kind of
excited to lead the way. Um, and obviously we're excited as a our school district to be in that group. Um, uh, I also partner regularly with the White Bear Area Chamber of Commerce and the Vadness Heights Economic Development Council. Those industry partnerships are
critical. So, they know what we're doing in our schools. They know what our needs are. And then that's how we can offer opportunities to students as well um to give students those real world experiences. um get the uh industry and employers into the classroom and working
firsthand with students. Um also important in this work is m the Minnesota concurrent enrollment partnerships. Um so concurrent enrollment is something that even in current technical education you can offer students because they might have to go to college, they might have to get a degree still. They might go right into
workforce, they might not. Um, so being able to offer those students hands-on college credit classes in the high school um is a great incentive can really light the fire in students um and say, "Hey, I already completed a college class." We all know this, the world's best workforce. Um we want our students
to complete some college. They have a greater persistence rate than if they graduate and go to college. Um so we are excited to continue engagement in that partnership as well. um and then work um on thinking a little forward thinking with work-based learning. Um that is a
national movement that we don't want to miss the train on. And so we are talking to industry partners and we have some teacher champions that are excited to navigate with our new trimester system and our new high school building. How can we offer work experiences for
students um built kind of into the school day? They get college credit. They sit with a teacher. they talk about what they're doing in the workplace. Um so we're excited to see where that leads us as well. All right. So what is some of what our students have been doing this year?
Um something that you might remember from the bridge that I showed you, industry credentials um can be really impactful for students to earn when they're in high school um and help help them get a job after high school or while they're in high school in a field of interest to them. So, these are some
of the numbers we have from what our students have been doing this school year. OSHA 10, um, if you're familiar with that, that's typically kind of construction, trade, and industry, workplace safety. Um, we have students in a construction class that go through that and some of our students at the
ALC, certified nursing assistant. We'll talk about that again in um, a couple slides here. Um, but we had six, the maximum class size is 21. So, there's they're small classes anyway, and that's statemate mandated. Um but 16 students got their certified nursing assistant um
certification and they can work in the workplace. Um and we have a whole another semester of students completing that right now. Um Ford ACE this is actually one of our stellar programs we have and I'll talk about that at the end as well. They had a little data snafu on
their end um where I questioned what they sent me for an update this year and they said you know what we got to look into this. So, um, we Ford ACE is sponsored by Ford Automotive. It is a high school secondary curriculum where students are actually completing Ford training to be a technician. Um, so it
looks fabulous on their resume if they do want to work at a Ford dealership. Uh, maybe they're going into an automotive program and they're going to even go in and sweep the floors, right? And you just start, you get your foot in the door. Um, it really looks great on their resume. And there's also a simultaneous two-year program at Henipin
Technical College. Um, that's the next level up. Um, first aid and CPR. All of our 10th grade health students um take first aid and CPR in their 10th grade health class. They are all they all meet and um the curriculum and are eligible
to take the certification exam. Not all of them do. There's a nominal fee um of $5, but we did have 92 students already this year get their first aid and CPR certification. Um, and then we'll talk more about this as well. Serve safe. So
that's for the um, uh, service industry, if you will. And this is tied into our school grounds, coffee shop we have on site, and then our culinary classes. Um, we have a lot of students going through that as well, so they could um, understand workplace safety, sanitation,
and and food safety. We had a really big endeavor we took on this last school year. um in December and we started the planning January of last year. Um and you may have heard about it. We did get a little spotlight. I think it was channel 5 news
um which was exciting. But we partnered with Royal Credit Union um to offer test drive. So I have some of my description over here in my notes. Our entire junior class went through this simulation. Um, it is a hands-on simulation where
students visited a variety of stations to make key life decisions and manage a monthly budget. So, to back up, about the week before they went through this event, um, in their social studies class, they all got to sit down and say, "What do I want? What do I think my
dream career is? What do I want to do? Okay, let's back it up. Do I need to go to college to do that job or not? And if I do, um, what kind of degree do I need? two-year, fouryear, eightyear for, you know, medical, things like that. And then, okay, now I know what kind of
degree I need. Do I need to go to let me pick a college? And then they picked their college of choice and figured out what their four-year tuition rate would be or an annual tuition rate if they broke it down. Um, so they went into this simulation having made that decision. Here's what I think I want to do, and now here's my college plan and
budget based off that. Um students were required to go through the simulation um living off their career's monthly salary while paying for things like student loans, insurance, housing, and groceries, as well as accounting for additional expenses like entertainment,
pets, uh life surprises. We had our SRO's going around the simulation handing out random speeding tickets and things like that. Um so that was a fun extra. Um, and at the end we did, so we had about 200 volunteers that came in from the community, and I know some of
you were there, so you got to see it firsthand. Um, we did a student survey at the end, and then we, um, also did a volunteer survey. So, I'd like to share a few quotes with you. Um, students were asked, "Did you learn anything new? And if so, what did you learn?" Um, one of
the students said, "I learned that saving money is important." Another student said, "I learned how much work goes into budgeting. And our last statement, our last student I'll highlight said, "I learned a lot about how much things cost and it made
me more aware of my lifestyle and how I live." Our volunteers shared, "The students were extremely engaged. I was really impressed." Another volunteer said, "I was near the end of the stations. It was great to hear the students review their
prior decisions and think about how a different choice could have helped them out." And our final volunteer said it was fun to interact with the students and to watch them navigate this activity. There were some definite light bulb moments as they worked to balance their budgets.
Many of them developed a deeper apprec appreciation for what their families and guardians have to deal with each month. And this was a great activity because um it was all free of charge from Royal Credit Union. They really just want to foster financial literacy. That's part of their mission as an organization. and
we're lucky to be one of the handful of schools that they've chosen to partner with on this activity. Um the last time I was here as well, we talked about a brand new grant we had just been awarded, Grow Your Own, from the Department of Education. Um we
have taken it upon ourselves to call um our program in the district, the Future Bear Educators. Um and this has been a really fun program to watch blossom and it just started this spring semester. um we took our fall semester to take one of
our um champion teachers and she um stepped in as a program coordinator to really build out what is this going to look like. She's concurrent enrollment um met those requirements we're offering our classes through Minneapolis College. Um and really this program was to foster
um students getting excited about teaching and especially to diversify the workplace. um in the end with hoping that our students were going to go off and and do their training to become a teacher and then come back to us. Um and so we did have some goals for our first
class. We just offered one class this first semester um intro to urban education again with Minneapolis College. We have 18 students enrolled, which was more than our goal. I think our goal was 15. Um and then in partnership, our students get to go out
and they do a field experience. Um and so they it was a perfect setup when we worked with Mr. Mau over there um and some other folks to they had a need with their extended day program. They had a wait list and they said we need to hire high school students. We've been trying.
What's going on? And we said we might have 18 here for you. Let's partner. Um and so we have um some students have requirements that you know that limit them to being able to travel or um do this experience after work in which we've set up other opportunities for
them. But 14 of the students are in eight different elementary school extended day programs um and within Mariner Middle School's AVID tutor program. And I think we eliminated the weight list. Very close. Very close. Can you help chime in real quick? So, we're
super appreciative of what we're really excited about in the future. Um, it's not an online voice tends to carry, but um I mean, if you average 10 to 13 elementary kids per the 14 kids, I mean, that's the impact this program has on us and our weight list and supporting our
families that need that care. So, we're super appreciative. We're really excited and very thankful. Yeah. And we uh we'll talk about our sections for this I think in another slide, but it it took off and we've got more sections of this and students excited for the next school year. Students who have completed this
first class then move on to the the second and third and fourth tier classes next school year. There'll be five total in the program all through Minneapolis College. Um, and important to note, our goal, um, for year 1 was to match the student demographics in our classes with
our district-wide demographics, which was at 30% students who identify as a student of color. We have 78% of our students enrolled um that identify as a student of color. We also have two uh school-based enterprises, as we call them, um, in our
building, which is really exciting. um a coffee shop that is as the kids call it super riz I think um but not I mean right coffee is coffee is the thing these days um and so this school grounds is an actual class out of our culinary
program um but that we have a real coffee shop if you haven't seen it I'm guessing you all have um that's open during the school day in our building um and students are learning how to work in the service industry how to manage their their peers how to um work with
supervisors. Um they're going through this serve safe training. They're also learning about roasting coffee and flavor profiles. And so a lot of these students are interested maybe in having a small business someday. Um so you can see some of the highlights here that are on the screen. Um it's been a really
great opportunity. We can also support a lot of our um students that work in our uh are part of our special education programming. Um and then our nutrition services actually was able to create c create a position and hire a student manager. That is the one position that's
paid um through this class and programming. The rest of the students um carved out an hour of their school day to do it for credit. Um but we got to hire a student manager as well. So that person then will be responsible I think next year for doing more of the supervision of their fellow classmates
um and that that school store. So, that's been really fun to watch and feel free to stop by if you want to get a latte or something. Um, we have another school-based enterprise called the Roar Store that is um more of your school
spirit store, school swag that is run through our business program. Um, and that was kind of a pilot this year of how did it work, how did it go. Um, we learned a lot and our um our business departments decided they're going to separate out. We're going to start still
start our DECA program which is a a studentbased organization where they get to learn all about business. They get can go to competitions um and things like that do some extra um work in the business world if that's their area of interest. Um but then there's a market a
merchandising excuse me merchandising class as well where they're going to learn the store management um inventory product design things like that. So, um, we are going to be doing a ribbon cutting coming up here in May with the Chamber of Commerce. We haven't done We
did that for our coffee shop. We haven't been able to do that for our school store, but we have a couple bigname alumni that um, we're looking to highlight. Um, and one of those is, if you've heard the brand Legendary, it's a golf apparel line. Um, Brock, the owner who started it, he's a White Bear alumni
and he's really excited to partner and we got a banner that highlights so we can show students. Brock, I think he was class of 2008. He's the owner of Legendary, like this could be you. It's We have alumni banners in a lot of our career pathway spaces, so students can see what their their predecessors are
doing now. All right, enrollment. So, it was really fun to see as we moved to trimesters, it tons of work for the teachers. Um, I got to tag along for a ride and kind of talk with them about new ideas and innovation and then see
what struck the students, what did they want to register for based out of what the teachers put out there. Um, so some of the highlights for our new classes um, this coming school year. Um, we are still in the works of piecing together what we would call a visual
communications um, career pathway program. I know Mr. Reets over here has got all kinds of ideas about what he wants to do with it. Um but we two of our initial classes that are one's through business um and then one through um kind of art and our communication
department um are both sports related. And so those took off booming with like four sections or eight sections each or something. So that's going to be really fun to see how they partner together. That's kind of that same pathway. Um we are going to start a drones class.
Students will get their drones pilot license through this class. We surprisingly or not have a number of students who are interested in getting their private pilots's license and are pursuing that. So this was kind of one way to help engage those students. Um
but also this is you you may or may not know a really upand cominging area in industry. You can use drones in probably every industry. Um and so to have that pilot's license is a I think the average income starting out is like 80,000. Um so we were really excited to take
advantage of that. and our teacher went and got her drones pilot license because that's what she has to have. And so it's been really fun to watch it play out. Um computer hardware technology in our school building. We have a techhub. If you've seen that, it's in our learning
commons. Um that the vision behind that was always to have our students, if you're familiar with summer tech depot. They get to work on Chromebooks, take them apart, you know, do all the things, tinker with them on a more official basis rather than just at home. Um what our go vision was always to bring that
into the school day and how can students be doing that for their peers and for staff for that matter. Um so a computer hardware technology class um is going to more formalize that technology working on computer hardware um curriculum and
experience for students. And we actually have two partners industry partners that are really excited to work with us and have come to us and said we want to hire your students. we'll work with your schedule um get them a little bit of training and then we'll we'll bring them on. And so that's one of those maybe
work-based learning opportunities we're hoping to see come to fruition. We will be offering first aid and CPR as a standalone college or concurrent enrollment class with Anoka Ramsey. Um that took off with like seven
or eight sections or four sections or something too which was crazy. Um, but that's important because first aid CPR, that class offers the BLS certification, which is required to get into nursing programs and the emergency medical services programs, which are all really
important and popular right now. So now students don't have to go to college or take an extra class to do that um after they've graduated high school to get into a nursing program. They can say, "Check, we already did that in high school." Um, certified nursing assistant
has um over doubled. I guess I didn't know what you call that tripled. Not exactly tripled, but um in in its sections for next year also that's also a concurrent enrollment class. We partner with Century College on that. Um and then intro to healthcare careers, another concurrent enrollment
class with Century. Um really took off. So that was exciting. Um also unique and I emailed out a lot of my school district partners and said, "Hey, who's offering math for the trades? We're looking for curriculum." and they all said, "We're not and we really wish we
were. Tell us what you do, what you pick, we want to know about it." So, that was amazing that our math department said, "We want to dabble in this. We see there's a need, a different way for students to learn math and to use it." Um, and so they so we're and
students wanted to take it, right? That was the next thing. So, that's going to be really exciting to roll out, kind of watch to see to see how we make strides there. Um, digital photography is a class we've offered for a while. Um, but we had twice the enrollment in that class coming up next year. Um, and then
a slight increase for our instru intro to construction trades and small engines. All right, I'm getting close to wrapping up, I promise. Um, we talked about this at our systems accountability committee meeting last week. Um, I was presented with the data you see in front
of you back in March at a conference that I went to um where a uh the organization Advanced CTE did some national polling um last fall to see where um the our constituencies across the country how they felt about career
and technical education. Um and I wanted to be able to share that with you. Um we we tied it back last week then to some of our feedback from our folks here in the district. Um and really um as you'll see nationally that um folks at middle
school and high school level were presented with um different different areas of the high school experience and were asked to rank um where they felt these areas um fell in importance for their students experience. Um and it they either ranked a one, two or three
um the the areas you see on the screen and obviously in order, right? The most picked one, two or three for the the top one and so forth. Um so as a school district, it's exciting to see that we are doing all of these things. Um as it relates to career preparation, career
and technical education, just exposure for students to be able to make a more confident choice. Um, it was also exciting to see that that's important nationwide um to what's happening within our the walls of our schools these days as we compare it. Um, this isn't
isn't an exact comparison because what we did last week was we did a poll and it was just ranking it. It wasn't grouped like one, two, or three. I don't know what each individual picked. Um, but I wanted to compare it to what our folks at the the meeting last week
responded on where they felt that each area was of importance to them. So, a little bit different than what you see nationally, but again, it doesn't exactly align with how how they did the ranking of one, two, or
three. So, some of this might be surprising, some of it might not, but we're doing all of it. The last thing that I'll wrap up with, um, we're really excited and proud of our automotive instructor, Mr. Dasher, and all of the programming and, um, work that's happening in our automotive
career pathway. Our min I don't think it's come out as a public statement yet, but our Minnesota State Center uh, or transportation center of excellence selected um, our automotive career pathway as exemplary secondary program of the year in the entire state of
Minnesota. Um so this was for a program that showcases secondary level transportation um oh that serves as an exemplary model of institutional support instructional leadership and programwide excellence. And this is a um a big thank you to everyone in the school district from top
to bottom to teachers to the students to make this a success. That's it. Yeah. Thank you. Any questions? Any questions for them? Um how how do we partner with the um
tech career and tech school 916 offers? Um do we partner with them and do we have do kids go there because we don't have you know are we go back and forth? I know they have an automotive we have an automotive but they have cosmetology. We don't I mean I know we have like 90
students in that program or 95 I think is the last count. Yes. Yes. Great question. Um so 916 CC center services 16 different schools. Um they are a fabulous resource because they primarily exist because our schools can't have
everything. Um and so we do have some overlap in what we offer and what they offer. At that point students we hope would choose our programming but may choose to go um to 916. 916 offers diesel. We don't offer diesel. They offer um auto dismantling, taking the
cars apart. that's not part of our curriculum. So, there's some nuances there. Um, but overall, um, we're very supportive of students going there, especially when it's not something we offer in our building. We don't have the infrastructure to have. So, cosmetology is a great example. We're lucky, our
students are lucky that they have the opportunity to go there and work in that clinic um, or salon there. Um, and dental careers is amazing opportunity because right, those are things that we couldn't offer. So, we really feel that's an extension of our career
pathways program. We bus our kids. Yes. They select that they have a way to get there. Yep. I think they have we have two different time blocks or waves that our students can go in. Thank you. Yeah. Other questions, Mr. Scar? Thank you for presenting. Um, what
are our numbers that participate in this program? Are they increasing, decreasing, flat? Can you comment on that? Yeah, I can. So, our easiest metric to um measure is course enrollment, which isn't all of what
Pathways offers. Um, but as far as course enrollment, we've doubled for next year. Actually, we had about 2700 students in career pathway classes this year. We're at 5,400 for next year. So, um I think trimesters has been huge in
supporting the opportunity for students to have more choice and take more things that really strike them. Um along with our teachers having great innovative ideas that are moving and shaken and taking advantage of the wonderful facilities we have in the building now
too. Um and then I do track the um outside of programming and events and speakers and things like that that um we put on and I track those numbers. Um, I think those numbers certainly have grown because now we have the opportunity for our ninth and tth graders to participate
where before it maybe was here's a one event at the high school for or for South Campus for 10th and 11th grade students. Now, how can we do something but maybe a little more beginner for the ninth and tth graders and then that engagement wasn't always there. But now
with the older students, ninth and tth graders are much more apt, more comfortable. They'll just pop in for this that or the other thing. So, so now I have suggestions wonderful that you could you can think about. One of them is and and I used to be a speaker at the
in the St. Paul public schools to try to get kids interested in accounting. Tough tough cell. Tough cell. But we are in such a shortage of CPAs right now that they're they're doing all kinds of
gy gymnastics to try to get people licensed to do that work. So anything you can do to boost up the numbers in in that area would be key. Um your IT program, you know, there's IT and then there's OT operation technology which
operates our infrastructure. There's a lot of cyber security risk related to that. Um how can we get kids to and students to get interested in cyber security at an early age because that's the best time to do
it. they're curious and they probably would make the best um uh applicants for for for you know that in the future. So that's one you know even getting somebody to talk about cyber security
you know would be I think helpful and then um related to construction uh driver safety credentials that would be one I mean like safe defensive driving that's usually a requirement for a lot
of trade you know construction trades and things like that where you have to drive a truck back and forth from a work site that's another one. Um, and then on the um just two more on the on the retail side, do you do like customer
service uh role playing on what you know when you're communicating with a with a customer? You know, how you approach the customer, those types of things. Do we do that? Do you know what? Well, we don't necessarily do role playing, but
our our students are serving the community. So if you come to an event, the store is often open. Um, so they are in a real, you know, commerce type situation where they're providing customer service to those, you know, patrons as they enter that. So there's a
train, you do, you know, a training for how to interact with customers, customer service, what's the expectations for good customer service, right? Um, the other one was with um I'm familiar with the PSO, but I was curious, I know it
applies with community colleges, but what about with trade schools? Because you can if if a if somebody in their junior senior year could take like the classroom tests or the classroom classes and test out of that and then they can
do the hands-on after they graduate. Is that is that something that is done across the state or is anybody doing something like that? So separate like taking separating the two. So I'm not sure I fully understand them. Well,
there's there's two aspects when you're to the trade. There's the the classroom aspect and then there's the hands-on aspect. So, I'm wondering if you could if they can break that apart so that the classroom aspect they can do here, get credit for it, and then after they
graduate, they do the hands-on piece. I don't know if you could split split it. I'm just curious. Yeah. So, I don't think you could, but I don't think you have to. Um that is part of what we are trying to embed with concurrent enrollment classes in our school is that
and especially in um teched that's oftentimes where like Century College that's their niche of coming in um with a concurrent enrollment class that is the college class and it's both the theoretical and then the hands-on because I think you have to do both at
the same time. I think that's important. um in a lot of our teachers the value of a high school teacher teaching it instead of the college professors. They can also teach the technical reading piece of it of here's the theory, here's what how you read the textbook. It's a little different, but maybe you also kind of get it a little better and then
how you apply it. Um Okay, I got it. It's helpful. Thanks. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Wait, sorry. Oh, no. I didn't see um Thank you. So I have um I have a comment and a question. Um I I was at
the systems accountability meeting last week and um shared that my daughter is involved in the intern to urban education. I had no idea this was even a thing and she came home and she said I'm doing this thing because a teacher recommended me and she had not had any sort
of focus to what she wanted to do after high school until this program. And there is such a teacher shortage right now all over the country. And I love the fact that Whitebear is it has the trades, has construction, has
automotive, but is also focused on education as an important career pathway for our students. So, it's been tremendously helpful for her and I really look forward to to the growth in that as well.
Um, so my question is I love the idea of math for the trades and so that you said came out of the math department. It it makes me wonder like what are the other departments like are there other writing
for the trades? Because in every position you ever have you're going to have to do some writing of some kind. Um, are there classes that are percolating that are similar to this?
Well, we're meeting u with language arts teachers tomorrow and they're working on some innovative course offerings. One of them is technical writing and technical reading for the trades. Um, so we could see this expand uh across other departments. But yeah, everyone is sort of um looking at what they could
provide, you know, with you know, a a certain pathway um where students can come in and out of a pathway and have an experience within their department. So, we hope it grows. And I think to um touch on Mr. Scar's um comment as well about customer service.
So, um part of what we'd see and I I have a paper visual if you want a copy afterwards is our career pathways course guide. It's a visual for families to understand what classes really are in automotive. Um and this is going to be my example. And then what classes are
affiliated? Meaning part of kind of the general education core curriculum. What of that might tell me as a student, oh, I'm interested in those things. I should look at the automotive field or I'm good at those things. I should look at the automotive field. Um, our teachers
picked those affiliated courses. So, our career and technical education or pathway teachers are not all CTE. Um, picked affiliated courses. Mr. Dasher on the screen in front of you picked public speaking as an affiliated course. He said these students have no idea how important it is because of all the
customer facing they're doing the um the confidence um in the professionalism they need to have when they're reporting back to their clients what happened they need to document things people are complaining how do you handle that um so that was part of our tiein to make that
connection um it's exciting to hear about language arts and if I dare to be so bold to make a plug um ma so for example math for trades is currently an elective. It is there is a push by the Department of Education to make classes like that part of the core um
requirements and count towards a math requirement. So, wink wink. I really like the idea of putting out a path or putting out the classes in front of students so they can see where they connect because I think a lot of students they look at I mean I can only speak for the ones that live in my
house. They look at the course catalog and they're like a lot of this, right? And so I love that that you're setting it up so they can see their skills and then also see the path. So I think that's wonderful. And one more question I thought of. I forget what the name of
the event is, Miss Olsson, but it's the one where you have community members come in and talk to sophomores. The mock interviews. Yes. Is that happening again this year? Yeah, that Well, that just happened in January. Oh, okay. Yes, it happens every January though. I missed
it. It's such a great event. highly recommend that everybody participate. Thank you. Oh, yes. I don't know who was first. I thought you had something. Yes, I did have a comment and it was only to say that I'm so proud of the facilities we
have to teach these classes. And because we didn't have those before, we have our new high school. I mean, I look at the automotive and the CNA and the coffee shop and the bearware uh gear shop and all the things that we have now that are
so the facilities do matter. And so to have those available in addition to the classes and the curriculum is so important and I think um again thank you to the community for passing the referendum and then for everyone making it happen in this room. So, I just have
to say it's it's astounding when if you haven't seen some of the facilities to view them and see that it makes a big difference for the students using them in in particularly these kinds of classes. that I just have one last nobody else
going um well I a I just I am a huge fan of career pathways as many may know because this helped me graduate high school and it provided me with a job all the way up until I went to school to become a social worker and it even supported me
through college while I was earning my new degree. Um and I just Mr. Doer is fantastic. I used to go in and sit in some of his meetings he would have with the automotive at the at the old high school where it was a very small space
he was cramped into and now just his space is fantastic and he just I mean he just lights up when he talks about it. So I'm that's wonderful to hear um his hard work has paid off because he definitely works very hard on that. Uh it just to highlight a little bit of the
cyber security uh need. I had brought this up back in 21 when Jenny Moore was here and I had had a conversation. I have a cousin who works in cyber security and um just MSBA had highlighted that year a huge need for
cyber security staff and my cousin who works in industry uh for Abbott had said they there's nobody who qualifies for the jobs they put out. So, they just have to hire them and then they have to train them. And she said, "Even if we could just train them in how to work
Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, it would be a huge bonus because they have to teach them everything." Which is kind of scary to think that they can't use some of those basic programs. And then for my own self when I went to school and we
had it was called on job training back then um and I took math for the daily living which let me tell you that class that was a helpful class taught me how to balance my checkbook taught me what interest was like you learned a lot of things that you were like I had no idea about that stuff. Um but the path I had
was administration. So, I was the athletic director secretary for my senior year of high school and then they actually hired me on after I graduated for a year. Um, and I was just an administrative assistant in the office. Um, and then they lost funding and they
couldn't keep me. But some other things to just think about. I mean, our district wouldn't be where it is without a lot of our administrative staff that we have. So it is a good pathway to maybe be easy and it would help some kids learn how to use Excel, PowerPoint,
Word, uh Google in like a career platform and environment which they're going to need to use. Um and so it just always makes me think of that. Um, and I know at the time they said one of the biggest barriers to bringing in a cyber security programming is to getting the
staff that can properly teach that class because the degrees and the certifications that they need to have was something that they had always looked into but just didn't have the capabilities to do that. So, um, they did they do pro partner I believe and we
probably still do with Century has a program regarding that. would be great to find a way to bring it into our schools as we're growing and technology is definitely an area that's growing. Um being someone who works in human services now, I was happy to see that was uh the number one for growth coming
up here. Um but just yeah, so thankful that we have this in our buildings and it's just wonderful. So thank you. Yeah, thank you for sharing. we all kind we do cyber security is the revolving conversation we have of how and when is
the right time to implement something what's the right partnership um so that is 100% on our radar at least so you know that we're finding the right the right time and the right place and the in the the right partnership I think to make that happen um so that's definitely
on our radar and then so is the students um having that gap in knowledge of Microsoft products versus what we use in school. And um there are certificates out there that we've talked about embedding um into various classes. Um and so that would
give students that that opportunity to learn that as well. So that is also on our radar. Thank you. Right. Mr. Scar, you had one more comment or question. Well, this wasn't this wasn't rel related back to cyber security, but I have a different question. But um that
the me Minnesota has like a cyber the state of Minnesota has a cyber monitoring center in St. Paul that would probably make a decent partner I would think. Thank you. Okay. My other you know I looked this is related to Miss Daniel's question about the investments
made and I I'm looking at the slide that shows the investments in each school and there's two bullets per school. So there's probably a total of 25 bullets to justify a $400 million project. I don't think that's adequate. I think
there should be more transparency with that. So is this a question directly for the administration? Okay. So this is that's something for them. I think it's germanine to the topic. Not with not with your qu the question had to do with upgrading our
facilities which is a good thing right in the high school across the the other schools. So it would be nice to see that where did we put the money. Can I just offer some clarity? You may. Um so that is that information is all in
the documents that have been presented to the board over the various schoolboard meetings. So they are all on the website. So anytime that we get an update about the the bond referendum, they'll come in and they'll say, "This
is what we've done so far. This is what we've spent. This is the projects that we're doing." And so that information is all out there in the board documents and is also like if you look in some of these other sections of the process of the building our future, that
information is all there. So the information that because I mean I've been here and Deb's been here since the very beginning of the bond referendum and it is all public information on all of our presentations. So we can you can find those certainly on the website.
Well, it's not easily accessible. It's insufficient in my opinion. It needs to be more transparent. It should be on each school uh school's website to see exactly what you did. I'd like to bring it back to well and plus we haven't had
we have not had a review of the project since August of last year. It's time to have a review of it. Okay. But right now we're on career pathways. So I want to bring it back to that. U Yes. Go ahead. Um I love the visual that you had for here's the different areas that kind of
cluster together and if you're interested in A through Z, these might this might be the pathway you choose. if you're interested. And this would be the first year that um I haven't received a U registration booklet. So, I didn't
look at it. So, I'm assuming it's not in um well, I call it a booklet because we used to get the book booklets, but now it's all online. Um I would think that would be something that could be really helpful for students to look at. So I mean parents too, but for students to
look at especially ninth 10th graders as they're choosing the classes that they're going to be taking 10th grade and on basically just to see sort of as they're working through uh with the counselors when they take their assessment to see what areas their
aptitude is in and then they can see well these are the different kinds of um classes that may be available for me for these things just just to tie it all together for students. Some students already know from the day they were born what they're going to do. And then
there's the vast majority of the others who have no clue um but would like to look at okay so they say I'm good at this. Let's let's see what that falls into. So, I I think maybe that kind of visual or
um that kind of information would be super helpful as the kids are looking through um and the parents are looking through what what am I going to register for next year. So, just throwing that out there that Yes. Well, you're totally right. So, something we have in development are called career trees. Um
if you've seen them at Century College or the 916 Career Tech Center, um they are a tree of a of a pathway and our industry partners and our teachers came together to talk about what are we teaching in the high school and then what is that what does that look like after what are the options and it's
tiered by entry level technical careers and then professional careers. And so that um we are we have two of those already printed um for our health and wellness pathway and our um automotive pathway. And then the others are in production and working together um with
our partners to to get those printed as well because they totally agree that that's really valuable. And then there's curriculum with it. Um and the teachers can tie that into their classes as they see fit. So yes, I think that'd be great. Super helpful. Thank you. And I just want to say thank
you for all the time you're putting in career pathways. Um the old career wheel was 18 years ago. I go I sat on the committee and so and I actually went around and taught it. It needed to be updated. And I like the new uh national
one because it's taking it from the pathway to more of the cluster area because in high school a lot of our kids don't go that far down, but they're the cluster area and then it still opens some opportunities for them. they still have the opportunity to go down to the pathway but that the new the new p um
clusters are going to allow them to have a wider a wider scope and that because we also know we don't change as fast as industry so that it lets them be ready. I also want to I also want to um I want to give credit to our certified nursing
assistants to earn their earn their certificate because what we don't maybe know is the state mandates they have to have so many hours in the classroom or they can't sit for the exam. So it's not like they can come once a week. They have to be there and that's the state requirement. So they're putting the time
in for that. And the last thing is your test drive as you're talking about it. There are so many standards from our new personal finance course that if you can pair that up because some of those everything you talked about hits one of those standards. So keep what you're
doing. Um it's exciting and I want I'm excited to see what we do next for our students. So thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. You are now at an adjournment. Can I get a motion to adjourn? Mr. Chair, I move that we adjourn. Mr. Ellison, do we have
a second? Second. Second by Miss Thompson. All in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. We are now adjourned. Thank you.