well welcome everybody um I'm going to call to order the February 11th uh school board meeting for Columbia Heights and we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance please stand if you are able I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right thank you so much uh Michelle will you please do the roll call I sure will Palmer here Petway here H here madas Smith here rude here onoir here granin here superintendent stck here wonderful thank you so much all right our mission statement is creating worlds of opportunity for each and every learner all belong all succeed our core values are Community Excellence collaboration Integrity respect courage courage and Innovation moving forward we have the agenda um so I would like to ask to uh would somebody move the agenda so moved Laura can I get a second second Julie any discussion okay no discussion we will uh proceed to vote all those in favor say I I I uh obained motion carries thank you all right uh communication to the board at this time any citizen or employee May briefly address the school board the board will listen to the brief remarks ask clarifying questions and if desired request that Administration follow up order I'm sorry I'm sorry what um we didn't go over the announcements or do we have to is it not like oh there are announcements I apologize I will back up um thank you all right backing up to announcements uh February 17th no school district center is closed February 18th is a flex learning day also on February 18th at 5:30 we will have our Schoolboard work session meeting here in the community room on the 25th of February we have our regular Schoolboard meeting here in the community room and on February 27th at 5:00 p.m. we have a Schoolboard Retreat also here in the community room okay thank you Michelle so then I will uh go back to the uh the communication to the board so um at this time any citizen or employee May briefly address the school board the board will listen to the brief remarks ask clarifying questions and if desired request that the administration follow up the board will not take action at this meeting on requests presented at this time and time will be limited to 3 minutes per speaker we do have somebody here so we will um go off for a second so we had um our Columbia Heights city council member liazon Laurel Denine came to introduce herself to the board um and uh to let her to let us know that she's are going to be our contact and we can reach out for anything okay um there nobody there's nobody else here so we'll go on to the consent agenda uh the consent agenda includes the Personnel report the Schoolboard minutes and the treasury report can I have a motion to approve so moved Julie a second second second from Michelle any discussion Julie I think I'd just like to thank um superintendent stenvik for adding the two treasury reports getting that into the the agenda consent agenda so I know that those are after the audit and it takes time to get get these out and ready for the new year so I appreciate that thanks for your email yes thank you um all right if there's no other discussion then we'll move uh forward all those in favor say I I I opposed abstained motion carries okay acknowledgement of contributions it's loading okay so I will read the uh resolution Minnesota statute 123 b.2 permit school boards to quote receive for the benefit of the district request donations or gifts for any proper purpose and apply the same to the purpose designated on that behalf the board may act as Trustee of any trust created for the benefit of the district and for the benefit of pupils thereof end quote therefore the school board of Columbia Heights Public Schools Independent School District number 13 resolves to accept with appre appreciation the $643 monetary contributions detailed in the background detailed background monetary Wells Fargo donated $150 to view for student use James R and Patricia hemk he hech thank you uh fund of the Minneapolis Foundation donated $578 to Columbia Heights public schools for support of Junior Achievement activity and Marine Riley donated $500 to Valley View Elementary in kind uh fadin American Legion Post 555 donated honey bear apples valued at $100 to Highland Elementary kns of Columbus Council number 9905 donated 16 new winter coats hats mittens and gloves valued at $400 to Highland Elementary donors choose donated art supplies valued at $125 to Mrs lunders classroom at Highland and donors choose donated Blick Art Materials valued at $13.94 to Mrs lender's classroom at Highland the total fiscal year 2024 2025 monetary contributions to date uh $63,800 can I have a motion to approve so moved Laura can I get a second second second by Julie any discussion say what we always say we are extremely grateful to our community for all of the support that they give to our students we really can't say it enough and you know it's it just the the coats and art supplies and it's just all encompassing and very generous yeah Julie and I just want to say that you know Junior Achievement is a great organization and our students being a part of that um they learned so much in such a short period of time to be a part of that organization and so that contribution will definitely be used MH yeah absolutely well said um we are always um Blown Away by the amount our community supports our our students so and staff so thank you very much all right since this was a resolution we will have a roll call Vote Yes Michelle Palmer I Petway I who I maderas Smith I granley I all right motion carries thank you so much moving on to discussion reports and information items reports from members of the board um Julie do you want to go first okay I get to start um so February 10th I attended the Fe the Fridley city council meeting and um gave them a a update on just kind of where we're at um I did mention at the organization meeting that we had you know all the different leadership respon you know positions as Mary as VI as chair and Laura's Vice chair uh Michelle as Clerk and um me as Treasurer and then I mentioned that Jessica was our parliamentarian and that we just seated a new member Karina so very um excited to introduce our team and then um we talked about um the fiscal year audit and just letting them know that we had a clean opinion that we did have some internal control um deficiencies mainly around segregation of Duties and I explain we're very lean and we you know as treasur I to review financial information and so that we try to plug the holes where we need to um but we have on a staff and and just kind of went into the fact that you know we do everything we can to minimize the risk um then I talked about our North Park School of innovation which is in fredley and mentioned that um the school's growing that we are now looking for an additional third grade um instructor and and being able to add there because we're a little more crowded than we would like to be and um I also mentioned that superintendent stenvik had met with um an NOA County um commissioner um Mandy Meer and Columbia Heights city council member bushin bin biskin her name doesn't look that way I know forgive me um but that um they met and kind of looked at our sustain sustainability projects uh especially at North Park where we have the the uh biodigestor um and the city council members are really excited about it and are excited to take the tour of North Park as well as maybe getting in on some of that biodigestor uh composting um but they were pretty excited about hearing hearing what they do there and really looking forward to it um I met Patrick vesio who will be um actually the liaison two Columbia Heights um schools so um he's looking forward to coming in and introducing himself one day um soon and then um we are inviting them to a tour of North Park so that is on the you know in the works um so that's what we talked about at the meeting um and then the other piece is as a a on to the Minnesota state um High School league um they have put out uh as we all know the president of the United States has issued an executive order to um revert Title 9 back to the old to the definition of sex being women and girls biological and not including gender identity but our state has our Human Rights Act which includes gender identity so there's some conflict in how our state and we're not the only state that has the same conflict um but there is a conflict that they're working through right now they have 60 days to kind of work it through with our state government to figure out what we're going to do about it so just to let you know that right now we're still in in the old old way we've always done it and so we're just going to make sure that you know we're just going to wait until they come up with a decision and then we followed the law so that's the update there wonderful and prior to this you attended oh I was at the policy meeting just prior to this I'm sorry I was so excited to tell you my update thank you uh Karina do you want to go next sure um let's see I think since we technically yeah since our last meeting um did attend the leadership conference um by msba um had a number of community conversations I've met with my mentor um earlier this week uh attempted to attend the business meeting um this month and hopefully next month I will be successful um I did also do a number of Tours um for some of our schools at Highland um Valley View and the Early Education Center and then also attended the subcommittee meeting on committee engagement before this meeting wonderful thank you Michelle yep um so kind of short this week um we had a bip family advisory meeting at North Park uh where it was kind of a special meeting where we had a Wilson Law Group come in uh who specialize in Immigration rights and law and they came in to talk to our families who may be concerned about some things and um it was a very empowering conversation and um there were you know their concerns were met with facts and and um the realities that are actually happening now um so that was a really good meeting it was um at North Park we invited Highland Elementary so we had lots of families come um for for both of those and that was um it was a really really good night I also attended uh snow blast put on by Heights next um it was really cold I did not stay long but there were plenty of activities um alpacas involved you know um s'mores uh my coat still smells like campfire smoke from the fires uh you know so it was a really really nice event unfortunately it was too cold for me um and my little one so we left um but it was it looked like everyone was having a good time and then I um attended the um subcommittee on community engagement meeting before this one wonderful thank you thanks Laura okay um well I have a few things to uh report on um one as I attended the monthly 916 um board meeting um and uh we had a lot of conversation around um we have the um the alc program um which is U Metro Heights um that is uh currently located in fredley um and it primarily serves our district um St Louis Park and fredley um although students can open and roll into that program um it's been very successful it's been very crowded and it needs to move okay um so we did find um they they found a great property um which is going to give us approximately twice as much space um and it is only it's actually more it's more accessible on the bus lines for all the schools and um as well as um the city buses too you can also take the metro buses um and they've actually given um the the uh the building is very secure and will be on the first floor there's a secured entrance and it looks like um as well as giving us an allowance for being able to do some build outs for our classrooms we're going to have more space um there's actually um the landlord gave permission to actually put in a basketball court as well a half court and so um I've s did some suggestions on trying to see if there could be some fundraising for that um to be able to to have some outdoor activities for some of these students um they're also continuing with um some of the college um opportunities through the alc um these uh students are simply learning different um they are um but they we uh that has been a great effort to make sure that they have the full High School experience even if they're not in a Traditional High School you know um and ALC stands for uh Alternative Learning Centers okay so uh this would this would be for credit recoveries um as well as um maybe just um more of a of a of a a a less chaotic kind of environment for students to participate in you know it's a it's a smaller area it's not a big a big school um but you know uh we do ship uh we do have after school programs and you can also um be concurrent you can you know go to school here and go to school there you know um so that's so that is actually pretty exciting then the fun thing also is is that um uh we're actually going to be spending less per foot but we're going to have more feed so it's going to cost a little bit more but we're going to have a lot more room which is going to be great you know um so that that is that is really super exciting um especially because the parking is even better too so I mean we can like like everything is is so much better in this particular in this particular area so that was very exciting um so um and I also had a uh a meeting and thank you very much um member Smith um uh we kind of met had our little check-in um had a great conversation and I hope we can continue that on a more regular basis I appreciate your time um uh we um I also attended the uh chair meeting prior to this as well as the subcommittee on community engagement and I think that that will do it awesome all right um so I joined the tours with uh Karina and Superintendent stenvik at um the here at the Early Childhood um at the district Center and then also Highland and Valley View and Columbia Academy um I also was able to watch some of the uh committee meetings uh at the state for Education policy and education finance and was able to um connect with uh Senator Kesh and um share some questions and concerns that came up through that uh which was fantastic um I also attended Culture Night last week at Valley View which was an amazing um expression of all of the different cultures and um families that we have in our schools as well as um there was a lot of dce daning and it it was it was amazing um they sent home posters with the children to um to work on with their families to be able to talk about what what their um what their culture is what their family is and to see those all up on the wall was just it was amazing to see just how um how diverse and how amazing our school Community is so um very glad I was able to volunteer there uh and and and be able to to see some of that so I also attended um there was a department of transportation meeting uh at the library last week about concerns with Central Avenue um I was able to speak with uh council member James there as well as the lead um one of the lead people on that project and I was able to connect them with superintendent stenvik so that we can partner and talk about the things that are particularly challenging for our students and staff and family and Community all around um so and I did encourage him to maybe come and see during during the hours where you know it's the busiest so in the morning at at drop off and then again it pick up so they could see um so I'm really looking forward to continuing that partnership they seemed very excited to to want to um hear our feedback so uh construction how whatever they decide they're still working on it uh and people can give that um give any feedback they have uh online they're accepting that now so feel free to go and search that up I believe the city of Columbia Heights has a link to it um construction starts in 2028 and will complete in 2029 so just like everything it will take time but it'll be better if we can all put our input into it um I also had several phone calls with um different members and superintendent stenvik and I had I attended the chair meeting prior to this and the subcommittee on policy and my goodness I think that that is it uh superintendent stenick thank you I attended a presentation by the Minnesota Department of Education this week on compensatory Aid um with that information I was also able to speak with our union leaders about the major shortfall that our district would face if the legislature moves forward with the new method of calculating this Aid um frankly there's no real reason to change the way compensatory Aid is calculated and so we are urging all of our legislators to allow both direct certification and the paper forms just as they always have um and uh I sent a message out to staff with some language that they can they they're welcome to use um to help them in contacting their legislators um last week access testing started across the district so that's testing for our multi students our El students um Columbia Academy students experienced very serious glitches on their screens during the test um so this week a district team met with um a couple people from the dep Department of Education and they actually agreed to help us with resolving the issue um and so the students will not have invalid um assessment scores because they will be given the opportunity to retake not it's not the whole test that was the issue it was just one port portion of it so they have the opportunity to retake that um I did not want to come to the board in the spring and say or in the fall and say sorry the data was invalid um so I was really happy and frankly to the community as well right um and I uh given in part to the tours that we've been um going on with um member Smith along with our regular Walkin talks um I've been able to get out to each and every one of our schools and I'm just really Blown Away by the dedication of our staff and seeing our students Thrive um in so many different areas it just makes me very proud so I'm in a sense of Pride this week and it's awesome so thanks thank you all right um we will move to reports from our student Representatives so atan do you want to go first sure um I attempted to um go to the community ed advisory council meeting um yesterday but it overlapped with my want me louder you pull your your microphone closer thank you um I attempted to go to the community ed advisory council meeting yesterday but it overlapped with one of my classes where attendance is required so I'm working on that issue with my professor so hopefully I can start attending meetings again I also attended a student council meeting last week and then I also went to the snow blast we also left early cuz it was really cold and it was nice to stand then next to the campfires but it wasn't cutting it so we took our s'mores and left but we had fun while we were there and then I also attended two girls basketball games um one today JV and then two Varsity games a close friend of mine is on the team so I like to go watch her and support also watch the boys basketball game it's a lot of um different energy I wish they had the same hype as the girls but it was nice to see the dance team at halftime the pep band with the CA and all of them come together and the cheer team is really cool experience and then I also went to the subcommittee meeting for Community engagement right before this thank you uh ASA would you like to go um I held GSA meetings on February 3rd and February 10th um I went to and competed in the Prior Lake speech tournament on February 1st and the two River speech tournament on February 8th I helped run concessions on February 7th um run by synchronized swimming and I before this I attended the subcommittee on community engagement meeting wonderful thank you so much um all right we will move into our next uh our next portion so achievement integration budget and this is by uh assistant superintendent Mambo now if there's any technology concerns you've like two minutes before Brian go gets out to his car just so you yeah chair grundland superintendent svic and members of the board I guess um your one and only presentation tonight so uh and then you go close session yeah um so tonight I am here to can you hear that I can hear all right thank you tonight I'm here to present to you the achievement and integration budget uh for the fiscal year 2026 our mission in Colombia it's public schools creating worlds of opportunity for each and every learner all belong all succeed I think the two core values that uh will be represented in my presentation will be excellence and integrity this is an informational session and uh I plan to come back on February 20 uh to get approval of the budget so the purpose of the achievement and integration uh program for Minnesota is to pursue racial and economic integration increase student achievement create Equitable educational opportunities and reduce academic disparities based on diverse racial ethnic and economic backgrounds in Minnesota Public Schools if you're ever interested to dig more the two statute that uh govern the achievement and integration are right on the screen it's actually some great reading uh so the achievement integration uh budget today I'm not talking about the plan just the budget uh as two components the first component is that once we've establish a budget for a plan for three years I keep coming back and bringing up a budget uh and share with you the allocations and then you get to approve it but since I'm not talking about the goal I will at least share that there are three goals that govern the achievement and integration program number one is to reduce disparities in academic achievement so making sure that our students all our students are growing academically number two it's to reduce disparities in Equitable access to effective and more diverse teachers as you know part of our plan we've reported that all our teachers are trained so we provide professional development to ensure that they can teach our students really well and our third goal is to increase racial and economic integration and I'll speak more to that uh on couple slide later so the next component of the achievement and integration budget uh is very specific to how the funds are used number one uh we must adhere to some strict guidelines from the Department of Education which is at least 80% of the funds should go to direct student services so anything related to students uh whether it's during school after school or summer school to support both academic and racial integration and then the second component it says no more than 20% can be allocated to professional development as we know the district receives some other fundings to provide professional development but given that achievement integration expand the landscape of what can be offered there is some uh allowable portion of professional development to be supported through the achievement and integration budget and then the last one uh school districts are always limited with fundings but they do allow that administra administrative cost be covered under this budget but not to exceed 10% so globally speaking when you look at the achievement integration uh uh plan and budget they have some um allowable uh strategies to be used and they're listed up uh in front of us uh we don't use all of them in our achievement integration plan but we've used some of them and so there is flexibility for district to choose based on their needs what they can do so for example Innovative and integrated prek 12 learning environment uh is an example of what those funds can be used for and uh in our school district part of our Innovation is using the AVID program and I'll come back to that family engagement uh is also one of those uh initiative that the achievement ation budget These funds can support as we all know uh family engagement is one of the strongest components that supports achievement because we believe that parents are the first teachers of their children and then professional development as you've heard my other colleagues we have come here before and talked about all the good things that we do on professional development it's also allowable and then uh K and college readiness uh more so around supporting rigorous courses work right preparing students to take advanced placement classes or other uh preol um classes and then finally Recruitment and retain retainment of racial and ethnically diverse teachers and administrators uh in our achievement integration budget we don't necessarily use all the funds to support this but some districts are really big into using this into HR so these are the global landscape of what it can be used and there some additional bullets as well so there is a timeline a strict timeline that we have to follow and so uh as you recall I was here with uh director takro uh presenting on the uh world best Workforce and the achievement integration program and uh we gave you yes there's a new acronym uh change uh and we we we gave you a report on the goal goal and the achieve and what we're able to achieve and I am proud to say that we met all our goal for under achievement and integration and then today I'm here presenting to you the budget um for fiscal year 2026 and then on March 15th 20 of this year uh that budget is due for review to the Department of Education and then on December 1st our finance department get to give a preliminary uh report of the expenditures that we have used for the first part of the year and then on the 15th that's when I get to submit the report for achievement and integration for the previous year and so the bottom uh timeline is the same just for the following year so here is the budget summary uh the achievement integration budget as two component uh so there is the achievement integration uh Aid and then there is the incentive revenue and so for the fiscal year 2026 uh we will be receiving 1 milon1 15144 ,000 um in achievement integration revenue and then for that as I said earlier 80% of it uh at least 80% should go to uh direct student support and then 20% of it uh can go to professional development and administrative cost and then the incentive revenue is around 38,5 and4 so in total we will be uh submitting a budget to the Department of Education for 1,1 189,900 so just to give you some more example of where and how we spend the money I talked about Avid Advance via individual determination um this is a program that supports students who are in the middle and that prepare them uh by giving them reading writing skills critical thinking skills so they can eventually take some advanced placement classes and get ready for college and so we do this uh k12 and the funds are uh used to pay a program fee uh staff materials and Supply professional development and including some college visits uh the Innovative and integrated learning environment um some of the uh programs that we funded are the modland classroom project which is uh at the high school in Colombia academy uh and then uh those funds are also used the achievement integration funds are used to pay program fees professional development transportation and materials as well family engagement which uh you know about uh our homeschool on that I'm sure you've met The Homeschool on from your school do a wonderful job connecting our families to uh opportunities within the school and outside the school and I think uh if you may remember last no yes last Tuesday we we had the uh community resource fair in the PAC at the high school all the home school years are attended and uh a lot of our families filled up and uh received information from several Community Based organization uh from around and outside of Colombia height and so um along the same line you know for family engagement uh there are also classes that are provided for mental health in partnership with Community Based organizations and so funds again are supporting staff uh communication uh to make sure that our families and students are served well uh professional development uh we sometimes use outside presenter and sometimes uh uh presenters from within the district and um this year we have Yolanda who uh was was able to provide professional development we have Sarah B who's the El coordinator who's providing profession development myself included was able to help with the E and then we have an outside presenter in the middle so summer seminar as I said the achievement and integration uh budget uh uh or plan support both economic and racial integration and our partnership with San anthonino Brighton uh allow our students to work alongside Stan Anthony New Brighton students and we offer summer semin in our courses in writing and algebra and this past uh summer we had a total of 30 students from both district and we had two teachers one from our district and one from the other district and of course part of our summer school or summer Encore we often send students on field trip so that they can um uh experience and connect whatever they've learned from uh their classes to the the real world and so in summary um we have a budget which is prescriptive on how we spend the money uh but by focusing a large majority of it to student direct student services we have strategies that uh we uh uh use to ensure that the teaching and the learning uh benefit students and then we have goals that are measured and we report on those goals uh annually uh that concludes my presentation and I'll take some questions wonderful thank you uh Michelle uh I just have one um who is summer seminar for like how how do students get choosing for that yes so the summer seminar is for incoming freshman so eighth graders who are graduating but will be going in uh as freshmen and it's to prepare them either to become better writers or add to their skills or some of those who want to choose choose math uh they're able to uh take classes for 3 weeks I'm sure I've asked that before thank you that's a great question I just a quick question um is all of this funding straight from the state or is there Federal funding coming into to this program as well so uh 70% of the aid is coming from um uh so SE 70% so back up achievement integration is made up of two components number one it's the uh Aid and then there is the incentive revenue and so um uh it's part of the local 70% is local Levy uh from the state um State okay so 7 it's state not federal okay that's what I was trying to understand thank you thank you good question Kina go ahead thanks um I was just curious if the budget as you've presented it is the budget that is submitted or will that be more detailed excellent so what you what I presented to is a summary of the budget so there's a detailed budget that has uh several line items that address where we're spending the money in professional development what programs so I gave you some example of programs that we pay yes so there is a full budget thank you and which one do you submit to Department of Education uh the achievement integration budget so the full bu yeah awesome thank you have an extra question so incentive Revenue did I know we talked about the 1.1 million but where does the incentive Revenue come from and what is that for I mean what do we have to do to earn that so uh I believe last year this question was asked again and so the Inc that's fine uh the incentive revenue is also provided by the Department of Education and it's to incentivize School District to deliver the programs as expected so hysterically speaking uh if you go back in the '90s they used to refer this is only as integration revenue and so over time uh because of disparities that we've seen in achievement they morphed into achievement and integration so there is an high interest to see students from all walks of life to be able to achieve at higher levels so that amount is automatic it's not like um we might not earn it we always earn it yeah it's a component of the achievement and integration program than you yeah and I just want to quickly clarify because um I know that there are a lot of questions I think both both here at the table and frankly within the community at large no matter where you're at um but when you say Department of Education talking about this you are not saying the federal government just to be clear you were talking about Minnesota State Department of Education that is correct okay wonderful wanted to quickly just make sure that um we capture that um I have one question is slightly related to the budget as well um I know Brian often comes director Henkin often comes and shares budget forecasts with us and we know those are constantly in flux um is that going to be is that the same for you or is this about the number that you are expecting is this a firm number that you're going to be expecting to give to the state so this number that's fluctuate uh in comparison to last year we're receiving $55,000 more than last year however as the year progress when they recalculate the numbers that you're referring to from direct Anakin we may see an increase in it wonderful okay thank you for that um I think the only other thing I would want to add right now is um I heard from several people that uh the professional development specifically the one that Yolanda provided was absolutely wonderful um and they were really excited about that so I just wanted to make sure I pass that along thank you I will share that with her Kina um I had just have one final question which is are these resources um on a reimbursement basis or are the funds received up front um so there is an allocation so once we spend and then well actually shouldn't say that uh funds from the Department of Education are given to school district on a tier base so it's included in the payment that we receive thank you wonderful are there any other questions all right well thank you so much we will look forward to seeing you again uh February 25th thank you thank you thank you all right oh nobody provided me with the all right so we are now going to be moving into a closed session um we'll adjourn for the superintendent midyear evaluation can I get a motion to move to close session so moved Laura second second Julie all right we will return um after we are done with that right well thank you um we are returning to our open meeting we were closed for the purpose of discussing the superintendent uh midyear goals uh where we were provided an update on um goals one and two uh talking about about literacy as well as the attendance pilot program all right so on to board topics are there any board topics are there any student topics I forgot what board topics are that's okay so this is just like other things that are happening um other things that we want to make sure people know um I will say uh just encourage people to reach out to our legislators uh both local and um at Congress to discuss um funding concerns especially related to uh the various changes that are happening at all the levels um and even so if you agree or even if you don't agree with what's happening or the stance that they have taken it's still really important to make sure that your voice is heard um and I every time I call uh I hear that uh so that would be my board topic is there anything else go ahead um I have upcoming events at the high school love it yay yes please GSA is running concessions on February 21st um I for kind of forgot the time but whatever game is that day probably um we'll be going going to the Centennial speech tournament on February 22nd the Columbia Heights High School choir concert is February 24th at 7 p.m. and GSA is having a guest speaker on February 24th fantastic thank you what time is that meeting is it after school M all right uh super excited there will also be a hard copy of the heights Herald coming out shortly here layout is this week um so super excited for that as well are there any other topics any other others any other others none all right with that then uh can I get a motion to adjourn no moved Karina a second point of order a motion to adjourn I'm not sure we have to make I'll second thank you all right uh [Music] the do I have all those in favor say I I opposed abstained motion carries uh we are adjourned at 726