all right I like to call to order our November 26 2020 2024 meeting and we'll start with the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right next we have our roll call Michelle do the rooll please yes who here madas here Palmer here pway here granin here Mueller here superintendent stck here thank you um next we have our mission statement 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 and Innovation we get to start our meeting this uh tonight with two Highlander highlights um we have if I could welcome up to the table Jake Henderson you want to come up and Hector if you'd like to come up we have um our uh Highlander highlights for our uh girls uh soccer assistant coach Victor Alvarez um and our uh senior Danny Silva Blanco turn it over to you guys thank you all right well thank you for having us Cher Mueller uh members of the board uh superintendent stenbit thank you all um I'm excited just to present a couple uh of people up here um I'll speak maybe on uh Victor you could also do that too probably a little bit but um that away yeah that's true um but then I'll invite uh our coach uh our head coach Hector to uh speak on jerson um so anyways I'm really excited to be here uh to honor specifically Victor here tonight um I think this is your second year coaching with us now for both uh our both both our girls high school soccer teams um from day one Victor's been committed to just improving and getting better as a coach seeking out opportunities to get better which has been really great um Additionally you have just poured your heart and your time into the girls and uh creating relationships with them but then uh on top of that just making sure that they're getting better on and off the field um so that's been really great and then for me like my favorite part is just he's got an infectionist smile he's so excited to always be here um and he's just an asset to our community so uh really excited for Victor as he was awarded the class daa State uh State assistant coach of the year so congratulations Victor um and then I'll turn it over to uh coor to say a few words about Danny um I just want to say thank you for having me here with you guys um uh and it's great being able to talk about Danny again in a situation like this um he already came in as a Powerhouse day one so I wish I could say we had anything to do with training him in but I'm just glad he found a home to play with and to enjoy his time with I think you're a prime example of the people that walk through Heights um different faces different backgrounds and if you give them the green light to go they'll go as far as they can get um so it's been great to see you thrive in that realm um this award is quite literally the best soccer players in class 2A in the state of Minnesota so if there's any doubt you're a good player you can probably shed that now um thing that distinguishes you between other players that we've had um in the program is that you actually only had one year to get your history book because that's how long you're able to play and you made an impact in that one year here um the one thing that does also separate you in that game is that he got MVP from the actual allstar game for his team um he both opened the goal the scoring of the entire game which was incredible in a banger um but when the coach uh was down to the last 10 minutes and had looked at his bench of all stars that he didn't really know he looked at Danny and said you're you're the Difference Maker and he did he snatched the ball set up the assist and they scored the goal to make it 3-2 um um so I'm glad that Columbia Heights was your home and that you're a Highlander I hope uh I'm glad that you got to be the Pinnacle of our soccer program and that uh more importantly again you found somewhere to call home and hope you to come back to one day congratulations y do y'all want to say anything up uh good evening thanks for having me uh first I just want to say thanks to the coaches to my parents and to God for being here with you with you guys it might have only been one year uh that we got to play uh together but I'm thankful for the opportunities and uh to play on this team with you [Music] guys I hope to see you guys be Champions and just so you know there's a Danny Jr a little [Laughter] brother thanks well for me um thank you so much for um Jake Jake all is support is a big support for me and mney mney carello uh is not for Jake and signy that is not happening today thank you so much Jake appreciated your support all time thank you thank you everybody I thank you well a a big congratulations to Victor as the um uh assistant coach of the year what what what an honor for you but what an honor for us um and for our players to have a mentor like you for them so thank you very much congratulations to you for that um and to Danny um again what a huge honor um All State team um that doesn't happen a lot in Heights um so we're glad to see how hard you worked and you represented us well and we wish you all the best um and hope you come back and and help teach and Mentor uh some of our current players congratulations um I have certificates for you so we're going to have you come up um you also get to shake the hands of all of us so we'll all line up for that so we going to literally at my right hand so it was a part in right [Laughter] I'll do one at a time so you do a photo of you want to come up closer thank you so much [Music] thank you so that one is is really important for me my family I'm very proud for that [Applause] [Music] yeah I mean that's a very special thing not cry you are all welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting but you are also more than welcome to leave as [Laughter] well thank you thank you congratulations I'm just gonna have a perran now the rest of the night I think that's awesome that's precious yeah I love that um next we have we're going to have to get back to business now um next we have our agenda approval adjustments and announcements we'll start with the approval of the agenda can I get a motion to approve the agenda moved Jessica in a second second I I didn't hear you Michelle so first uh motion by Jessica second by Michelle any discussion hearing none we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed abstain motion carries next we have our announcements on November 27th 28th and 29th there is no school on November 28th and 29th the district is closed on December 10th at 4:45 we have our subcommittee on policy in the superintendent conference room on December 10th at 5:00 is the subcommittee on Community engagement in the community room and December 10th at 6 p.m. is a regular school board meeting in the community room and then on January 7th at 6: PM is the organizational meeting next we have our communication to the board um at this time any any citizen or employee May briefly address the school board the board will listen to brief remarks ask clarifying questions and if desired request that the administration follow up I'm assuming since there is nobody left in the audience that there's nobody here unless any of the directors wanted to come up at this is there somebody on line yeah no they have to be here I all right um so moving on excuse me we have our consent agenda would anybody like to remove anything from our consent agenda I'd like to remove the new suspended deleted courses okay and so the new suspended deleted courses will be voted on um immediately following the consent agenda um so can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda which includes the Personnel report rep the policy first reading of policy 416 drug alcohol Cannabis Testing 416 forms 418 drug free workplace drug-free School 419 tobacco products 506 student discipline 515 protection and privacy of pupil records and 532 use of peace officers and crisis teams um and the minutes from the November 12th meeting and the November 19 18 work session motion to approve the consent agenda so moved Laura and second second second by Mary any discussion hearing none we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed obstain okay next um I need a motion um so what we'll do is we'll have a motion um and then we'll do discussion I get a motion to approve the new suspended deleted courses for 2025 2026 so moved Julie and second second second by Laura any discussion Julie okay so I just have a couple of questions and I'm I'm glad director THL is here um to hopefully answer a couple questions I did miss the board meeting where I was not able to have that discussion um so all of these courses the question I have is have the books and such been identified yet for these courses and maybe sure yeah come on up thank you and before director tual answer that question I no no no that's totally fine this is good to have discussion um uh and I know that you'll you'll provide information uh further but with the governance piece with this we approve the the the course um and then from there the course is approved then materials are are identified from from there but do you want to give more detail on that thank you good evening chair Mueller members of the board superintendent stenvik yes thank you for your question um we have worked for quite a while last year included as we came to the board and shared that the ELA Department the English language arts department has worked with the regional center of excellence which is part of bright Works which connects with the Department of Education so all of the work around the courses in terms of what's within them FS within the standards and So currently we're approving the courses and then our next step would be working with them again to look at materials to support okay so does this go through the world's best Workforce group um that approv curriculum or reviews curriculum um yes we did go through last year and shared about the ELA courses that would be coming up or the work that we are doing we do share with them it's not technically a curriculum when they're usually doing book clubs or other pieces so we do share the materials and offer that we also offer our families the opportunity to look at the syllabi prior to the course that and with that so we would share that with families ahead of time what text would be within the courses and we always have Alternatives if something is of question that's perfect um so one of the courses that came up was this exploring identity through literature and I've had some comments about is this going to include sexual identity versus you know other you know culture and other types of identity does that include that within the standards it does talk about identity and that identity is made up of a lot of different pieces it doesn't specify exact which ones needs to be included but within the standards all of it is included when we think about identity okay and then when it comes to um families who might object to materials we have um opportunity to use other materials um how are parents informed of the materials their CH their child would choose great question within the syllabi that the high school provides for families it lists a text that will be used a core text many times if choices are there students have choice and we don't it's not a core text that everybody needs to read but if it's a core text it would be included in the syllabi that would be provided to families okay and then if families do not want their child to choose this class you know as an elective and there are no other options is there an opt out for them great question that's the benefit of the courses tonight that we're approving is that our um students get to choose from a whole plethora of courses that are being approved this school year and looking to approve more in the future so it is by choice that they're choosing the course thank you very much that's all my questions okay any other discussion or questions all right hearing that oh yes um thank you so much for coming up and and talking about this um so just as a reminder um for is it true my understanding is that we follow the state standards um that are in place for our English language arts is that correct yes I have them right in front of me yes wonderful thank you so thank you thank you you any other discussion hearing then we'll proceed to vote all those in favor of approving the I got to find it new and suspended deleted courses for 205 2025 2026 as presented please signify by saying I I I opposed abstain motion carries thank you very much um next we will move on to our discussion reports and information item starting with reports from members of the board and let's start with Jessica I think you got at least one thing to report right can you believe what it's going to be can anyone guess umh yes I will report out on Highland turkey Bingo because I made everyone sit through all of my incessant promotion um but it was a very successful event we had great turnout at Highland for their turkey Bingo event um superintendent stenvik was able to attend as well as director pet was it was great to see you both there um and they uh had a successful event and raised a lot of funds for for the school there so glad that um the community was able to participate in that um I also attended the pre- delegate assembly meeting um because we have delegate assembly coming up I'm looking at uh Dr Palmer over there we're excited to attend that and represent um our district at delegate assembly uh next weekend um and then I did attend the work session um like many of you last week and I also uh stopped by uh a night of conferences at Columbia Academy so that's all from me thank you great thank you so much Julie um I also attended the work session and I also um review Ed expenses for the month of July and or August and September and um had a meeting with um superintendent stenvik um just as a report for um my review of expenses um really glad to say that I never come across anything that's unusual or or in a concern um so those months are closed for me and um that was it thank you Laura um I I actually don't have a whole lot to report um I did have uh I did attend the work session along with everybody else um and um I had conversations with um um several um several board members that's pretty much it thank you for your time thank you on show yeah um I attended T Bingo which was a lot of fun uh I I told both of you that I would only stay for an hour and I stayed the entire time so that is how much fun it was um and I attended the work session last week we also held a bipo family advisory committee meeting at North Park um this this past week and it was it's getting darker faster and our meetings are at 5:30 so it was really like pitch black and it was snowing for like the first time really snowing and so kind of a um a lighter group but it was a lot of fun um being able to um Talk individually to family so that was that was a good night and I also attended the city council meeting last night um just gave an update um a couple things um promoted Shrek which is coming in December and um yeah that's all I have thanks great thank you Michelle Mary well um I have not very much to report this week I did attend the robotics meet um at Columbia Academy and it was the most people that I've ever seen attend because we actually have space for them so that's really exciting um and it included people who don't have somebody um in their family that that is in robotics so that was really nice to see community members in there um and a lot of people have asked about how do they get involved to to volunteer so I'm directing them to uh coach or cut on that um unfortunately I did not make the work session last week because I was Ill I'm glad to be here tonight um other than that I had the chair meeting prior to this and uh phone calls with members pway and maderas and conversations with student staff and families so thank you great thank you so much um for me I uh last week had a chair meeting prior to the work session also attended the work session and I have to call out member Palmer thank you again for your world famous lasagna which I mean our work sessions are fun anyway but that just makes it more fun when you get world famous lasagna and for everybody who contributed to potluck thank you for that um I attended the chair meeting prior to this um I also had a conversation with member hu member H conversations with superintendent svic and conversation with um member Palmer um next um so thank you all um next uh we have our superintendent's report and correspondent superintendent zic thank you um director tuck and I met with the Columbia Heights Library Foundation to provide them with a progress update on their generous Grant that they gave gave to us um part of the program funds were used to provide new books for our summer reading program and the funds were also used to to provide supplemental reading um materials aligned to our new literacy curriculum in grades three through five so very grateful for the library foundation and that continued partnership um a district team participated in the second of four sessions at the University of Minnesota for the principal support series um so really looking at how district office and principles are collaborating to to have the most impact for our students um congratulations to the Highland community turkey Bingo was really impressive so well-run just a lot of fun too and I I did get two things in the silent auction so I was happy about that um a reminder to board members that with the holiday there will be no Friday update in your email this Friday okay um and today I got to help serve lunch at Highland Elementary school so just we have such a caring food service department um and I really appreciate all they do to ensure that our children are all wellfed so what a great kitchen what a great space to be in and the children were wonderful was it breakfast for lunch it was breakfast for lunch the kids loved the mini pancakes um can I ask a question too were you serving lunch because we were short on staff or because it was something that you chose to do for a funing so um um during the pandemic days many of us at the district Center would be deployed out to help in different buildings and since that time um Teresa Hernandez who runs the kitchen at Highland once a year at least invites director Bennett who served last week and myself um to just go and help out oh that's yeah they were not short staffed it was just I mean it was really a special event for us right I love that thank you of course I know that you would if we were a short staff all right thank you very much um next we have our world's best Workforce um kaker and strategic plan um and we have director tuck roll and assistant superintendent yway and I'll be chiming in from here okay good evening chair mu members of the board superintendent stenvik I'm here this evening with um assistant superintendent nmway and superintendent stenvik to share about our summary of last school year 2023 2024 our mission in Columbia Heights Public Schools of creating worlds of opportunity for each and every learner all belong all succeed and really focusing in on all of the core values this evening as we reflect on last school year our core values in Columbia Heights are aligned with our Columbia Heights public Public Schools Board of Education Equity statement so the governance for this item has already taken place back on June 25th of 2024 the board approved the new strategic plan and so this evening we're here to present on um just a summary report of last year as we transition into the new plan the dep Department of Education provided us world's best Workforce in 2013 to support school districts with enhancing student achievement through teaching and learning supports the four goals are listed below for world's best Workforce and from there school districts work with our world's best Workforce committee to determine smart goals on each of those for each of the years so really focusing in our goals on all children are ready for school all racial and economic achievement gaps between students are closed all students are ready for career in college and all students graduate from high school so our world's best Workforce committee presented these goals last school year and we were excited to see that we met in two of the goals goals one and three around all students ready for school as well as increasing the number of students taking college level courses we did not meet in go to um we met in many parts of it but did not meet it fully and in go four about increasing graduation rate or keeping maintaining it we do not have the data yet as a graduation rate for fy2 24 for last school year doesn't come out until February so we were on track um the last few years so we're hoping that we're also on track for that one part of the world best Workforce uh is also the achievement and integration uh and the purpose of the achievement and integration for the Minnesota program is to pursue racial economic integration increase stent achievement create Equitable educational opportunities and reduce academic disparities based on students diverse racial ethnic economic background in minneapol in Minnesota public schools and we have three goals for the achievement in integration program uh number one is to increase the College and Career Readiness for Hispanic students from 42% participating in early college classes to 51% in 2026 in order to achieve the overall demographic of the district last year we met this goal second goal is to maintain Main Columbia Heights Public School students access to teachers that are trained in culturally relevant and effective instruction at 100% for three years by stren strengthening Equity thems uh by participating in professional development I am happy to report that that goal was also met and then the final goal is to increase the number of students participating in integrated learning environment for both Columbia Heights Public Schools and San Anthony New Brighton and we measure that goal by looking at the participation rate of students and our participation rate was 93% so that goal was that goal was also met this evening we provided a quick summary of those two but there's a lot more details on each of them including the strategies behind them and more data and that can be found on the Columbia Heights Public Schools website there's a full report we also provide it through the update as well as um we had a public meeting in o October and we also provided through different committees throughout the year and as shared earlier by chair Mueller it has changed from world's best Workforce and she mentioned kaker which is comprehensive achievement and Civic Readiness so in 2024 the legislation passed um moving from world's best Workforce to cacr and through that you'll notice the same four goals but a fifth one added in so starting this school year our goal of preparing students to be lifelong Learners so our world best Workforce committee will create a smart goal around that and share that with the board so both the cacr and achievement and integration and world's best Workforce all of those um we are directed to have all of those tie into our strategic plan and we really do feel that under our umbrella priority areas of all belong all succeed in creating worlds of opportunity together um that they really are well aligned so with our new strategic plan moving forward for this school year presenting next year uh we there's just a screenshot here of the Strategic plan website that's on our website um this will be populated for this year's data um because we have all new metrics um it'll be populated sometime in August or SE or early September of 2025 so for this evening what we're going to do is take a look back at last school year and this is really part of our transition Year from our previous strategic plan metrics and looking ahead to our new three priority areas um so let's take a look back so under the first priority area of all belong you might recognize this data as it was presented in the spring as well we provide our students with a survey and we actually have started to do it twice a year our Administration and teachers have said that they wanted at the beginning of the year and also at the end of the year so that they can look at improvements and areas to support their focus in their schools so our student survey from 2024 really showed above 80% that students feel like staff care about them and that they feel safe at school we also saw an increase in most areas in students feeling good about themselves and students who Express their feelings appropriately very often or almost always so one of the metrics that we're looking at measuring for in the area all belong is we really feel like um one way to measure a sense of belonging is participation um and so for next for this current school year we've designed different ways of collecting data um and this just shows some of the data limitations that we had for looking at next school year or last school year um so with the the data that we do have for participation in activities and Athletics you'll see um that we have almost a 50-50 breakdown between uh male and female students students participating in activities and Athletics um and here you can see the racial and ethnic back uh breakdown of participation in activities and Athletics and again this is in um Middle School and High School participation rates I I think we take great pride in our school district in terms of student relationship and the support that they receive from the adult uh and here we have some examples of a few of those support we do partner with outside partner Lee Carlson is one of our partners who provide mental health support and wellbe being for our students uh we also have social worker in our schools who provide uh daily small groups as well as one onone uh meeting with students and then we conduct RIS risk assessments to ensure that we have a quality data to be able to serve our students and mitigate those uh um needs uh we also are proud to have homeschool is who are constantly working with our teachers and our families to be an intermediate uh whether it's communication or uh inviting families into the schools and providing them some professional development to become well-rounded with what we do in school and then we train our teachers in responsive classroom at the elementary level so that they can engage with Fidelity uh and treat our students with respect in a humane way and we also provide a curriculum like fly five to have teacher uh at their hands to guide their instruction as well as move mindfully and then at the Colombia Academy we have star which is an opportunity for teachers to meet with students to receive extra help uh five days during the week and then finally we have mental health week at Columbia Heights High School uh in terms of family relationship uh this is information that you seen before uh but uh when we look at the data for 2024 and compared to the previous year uh we see that in all categories we've we've gone up uh my favorite I think it's the one that says teachers provide useful feedback to support learning uh and so you can see that at their high school it's 90% at Colombia Academy 93 and as you go backward the numbers tend to go higher why I couldn't tell you why but it's the great work of our teachers that they're doing uh along that same Continuum uh families do speak and appreciate uh the support that uh the schools are offering and here in particular we see that adults help students to think about how to handle difficult situation uh and the the data similar to I mean at each category we've gone up compared to the previous years I think when we look at our school district we always ask the question what are we offering and I think in our district we're offering a pleora of opportunity for students to uh enjoy that sense of belonging uh at the elementary level in particular around the Arts and Athletics uh there is Family Fun events that I know many of you board members have already reported tonight uh there is also Multicultural uh events and opportunities that they have and I I think my favorite is the music the boy he seems to be quiet but I think when he plays that instrument it's wonderful uh at the secondary level we also have offerings so that continuation from elementary to second secondary is also visible in our offering uh with respect to what student can enjoy and I think we see more athletic at the secondary level and we see more celebration we heard about the Robotics and there many of those fun activities that students get to uh say they belong to Columbia Heights because they can participate in after school activities so as part of all belong we look at student relationships staff relationships and family relationships so this is really looking at opportunities for staff to be engaged um in terms of providing leadership across the district there are many different committees um that staff participate in and and lend their ideas and perspectives too um we also meet regularly with the head the department the heads of the different unions both licensed unions and non-licensed unions um on a regular basis um really making wanting to make sure that we're taking care of our staff we offer a few different or a couple of different programs um for this one is the employee assistant program and I think that's pretty standard across most districts um one thing that we started implementing new last year and are continuing this year is a program where we've contracted with a licensed therapist for staff to access staff can access this licensed therapist not having to go through their insurance process not having to wait months and months for appointments um and they can U it's very convenient it can be in person or via Zoom um and um the feedback that we're getting is very positive um and it's a very welled utilized program for for staff to check in with a licensed therapist we are also fortunate to have two Affinity groups in our district and the groups meet throughout the year and they support each other and they also provide ideas to the district or provide guidance or feedback and both Affinity groups are supported by the Department of Education through support by resources as well as funding and so that's been a great support in terms of our district to ensure everyone feels like they belong um last year one of our U metrics that we were able to conduct was a staff um staff taking a survey in January as part of the Strategic plan we did only have 27% participation but we um intend to bolster that participation rate and as you can see the different breakdowns of Staff Cate job categories um the majority of that 27% were teachers responding so that gives a little bit of context for the next Slide the metrics on the next slide when it comes to employee satisfaction so there you can see the different breakdowns in terms of strongly agree in blue agree disagree um and then strongly disagree in green so these are all different metrics that we that we look at and um take into consideration as we're planning for the future and connecting with our staff as we move from all belong to all succeed you can see from this slide we look at a lot of data we really focus in on the data what is the data telling us what story are we seeing from the data so some pieces from the data that we saw including our AP we had over 350 we had 353 students take 353 exams taken by our students last school year by 242 students so some students took three or four exams they were in here for hours it was amazing the next area in terms of proficiency we know is an area of growth for us so the Prof proficiency data here we have taken out students who are El level one and two so newer to the country learning English as well as our students who receive support for cognitive disabilities so with that taken out our proficiency is listed and this is an area of focus for us this school year is to really grow in proficiency and growth fast bridge is an assessment that we use in the district and we give it three times a year in the fall winter and spring to students in kindergarten through 10th grade and this is a data that our teachers and our admin and all of us are using quite a bit because we're able to narrow it down where the MCA is a state assessment given one time a year and we don't receive the data until summertime so fastbridge really has been the support in terms of providing more instructional strategies as well as intervention or support to push students ahead and then our SAT proficiency um also without our students who are one or two are listed there too one of our benchmarks or one of our goals from our world's best Workforce is really increasing the number of students taking college level courses we know the impact it has on students as they go into college or go into careers but also the financial impact that it can have and so our goal was to raise it by 5% but we can see here that we raised it by over 11% and that was really the teachers at the high school pushing students into the courses as well as increas in the number of courses we have and here's a long list of the different AP class offerings from last school year um that were provided or students had a choice of as well as our in NOA Ramsey Community College and Century College Early College courses where students earn college credits for that Columbia Academy also offers an honors track which leads into many of these courses a whole list of our Career and Technical education courses it's amazing the things that our students are doing in there and then we're fortunate to have it at the Middle School we have a career in technical education pathway as well with Project Lead the Way and we have four different courses that rotate from robotics to Green architecture to flight in space another big area of all succeed is really supporting our staff with professional development so we have four District inservice days and this was shared with the board earlier last school year our focus of the day is on educational equity and when we think about educational Equity we really focused in on liter univers last year so we had 193 staff including our school board sitting in front of US participate in the Hill Center science of reading course to really support our staff with the science of reading how do students learn how to read and how can we support them better we also as mentioned earlier by superintendent stenvik we have a lot of leadership committees one of them that we have in our district that really does impact our goals and the strategies that we have is our teaching and learning leadership meeting which includes administrators and teacher representatives from all the schools and programs and many of the directors and we focus in on head hard hands what is the knowledge that we need to have how do we support our staff with that the Heart part what are the relationships we're building how do we support the connection with our families and the partnership how do we support each other through plc's professional learning communities and then the hands is really the Hands-On what are we noticing what are we seeing in the classrooms what are the teachers seeing in terms of instruction how do we support that knowledge that we know how do we we bring that into action so the different areas we focus in on we look a lot of data we make a lot of changes that's needed look at resources that are needed we support each other on that it's almost like a PLC together to determine areas that we could focus in on and a lot of that looking at it is a fast Bridge testing and in all of our schools we really take the time to focus on in each and every student to make sure that every student is growing and if not what can we change what supports can we give we focus on on supporting students to get one year plus of growth because we know that would help students push them ahead and close any prior gaps of knowledge that there might be in regarding the data we know that in our school district we've grown the number of uh English language Learners and so before us we have a slide that's uh giving us some data about the annual access score which is the assessment that our English language Learners take to measure their Proficiency in English and so we've broken the data by school looking at the composite score and you can see that from one year to the next uh every school has improved uh the way proficiency is measured uh from access is that you need to score for you need to have a score of 4.5 in three of the uh four I mean 4.5 in all four domains but if you have three uh with a 3.5 then we have to look at uh some other measures to access why 4.5 is to exit you we teach students with the hope that they're learning the language and they're becoming proficient and they can access um uh the uh content at a grd level the second slide is looking specifically at each of the four domain that are measured by the access test which is listening speaking reading and writing and I want to draw your attention to uh the speaking part uh in particular when you look at that second uh part you see that Highland is one of the school that has reached that almost that 3.0 in terms of scoring and uh when we looked at the data we asked ourselves the question what was happening cu were very interested and what we found out that the teachers at Highland were teaching students how to speak continuous continuously using filler's word and uh really demonstrating what it is that good speakers do and so we've adopted those same strategies and share them with all the El teachers including other teachers in the district and we are asking uh as a district we've set a goal to develop oral language development so that we can increase the fluency uh of our students it's important to note that the research there is research out there that suggests that El students speaks on average for 90 second per day and so our goal is that in Colombia I they can speak for more than that so continuing with family engagement uh our schools uh communicate effectively with families to ensure that they have information and so Columbia Heights High School Columbia Academy and Highland send weekly family newsletters to families and then elementary teachers also send regular communication through seesaw uh at the secondary level uh the communication is sent via parent view and then throughout the District Columbia Public School there are updates that are sent weekly to family staff and secondary students uh in addition the Community Connection is sent to household in the district uh three times a year more data uh to substantiate what families are saying or their perception about school uh again like the previous data that we shared in 2024 we saw a lot of increase and uh my favorite on this slide is communication is easily accessible by school programs and families are reporting with uh High percentages that they are able to access that information from school and on this next slide we're looking at Family engagement and communication uh the difference here is pretty striking right parent satisfaction uh about communication within the district you can look at the blue and the red which is strongly agree and agree in a vast majority our families are favoring the way we communicate with them so this slide is a list of um opportunities for staff to Enga for staff engagement and communication um these are various committees where staff members parents some oftentimes students and community members come together um to make decisions and um suggestions or recommendations in those various areas so lots of different different opportunities for talking about student wellness Communications um Community Education our district finance committee lots of different opportunities there um in our survey data that went to staff um asking about how effective is the information you receive from your school district and site and you can see the breakdown there so again as director tuck mentioned we look at a lot of data different types of data um lastly uh when we think about creating worlds of opportunity together we look outside of our of our doors and outside of the Four Walls of our classroom to our local community um so we invite community members in to our various committees um and we spend time connecting with local organizations um with our very active local organizations such as rotary Kanis um The Business Council multiple faith-based organizations um me different departments in the city of Columbia Heights um we also host every year annual resource fairs and which bring in about 40 different community organizations to provide resources to our families um College and Career Fairs and then different formal business Partnerships that directly support our schools and our students and you can see some of them listed there metronics Junior Achievement Eco laab the German Chamber of Commerce General Mills um and then with our local um local Representatives senators and representatives um we have school school visits um Regular communication and as you know annually they present to the school board so with that that is our uh 2023 24 summary report of the Strategic plan thank you any questions I have one Michelle um so I guess looking at the chart so there was a um there was um staff belonging chart and then there was the um the student um the family engagement and communication chart they were a little a little different um and so I guess I'm wondering for this year or for next time um have we gone deeper into like um like I don't know why staff may feel a little less supported um to try to figure out what we could do next for them or have you gotten suggestions from people on you know what would help them feel um or change that scale a little bit for us sure I can respond to that yes absolutely and I think we provided the context there of the date and and the number of staff that that responded so we were able to disaggregate that data and then meet with different groups um for the current school year a lot of the metrics are changing and we're just really excited about the the different the 29 different metrics for the new strategic plan um and so we will have you know we've recreated and and tweaked in different um survey questions and different connections so yes awesome thanks thank you guys for all the information it's really great Mary um thank you so much for this presentation um I know it's a very long one and I know it took a long time for you to put it together so thank you very much for that um I think uh I have a couple questions um but the first thing is just a statement um looking at the access testing I think it's really remarkable how consistent it is across our district um and I am guessing it's probably not like that on in other districts so I think it um it shows that the support uh continues all the way through from prek to post-graduation in some cases so uh kudos to everybody who worked really hard on supporting our students for that um looking at the world's best Workforce data um the one goal that was to decrease reading proficiency by or I'm sorry yes the Gap um by 5% do we have any guesses as to um why that wasn't um we weren't able to make that or um I don't know I know that we that superintendent St just asked uh or made a statement about how this is a new measurement and so I'm I'm just curious if you know what uh what played into that possibly and um if we have any ideas great question we are digging into the data we have it broken down by demographic we saw growth in some of the different demographics and not others so at the school level they really break it down by student and they figure out what's going on with a student what supports are needed and this school year we're excited for a lot of the things that are happening where teachers are focusing in on a small group of students to see big growth and so we're hoping to see a change in that this school year as we dig in deeper with that wonderful thank you and then just one more question um with regards to family communication I know that there's um a goal to have weekly communication um at all levels knowing that um our admin staff are incredibly busy and that it takes time to write newsletters do we have any support or um how do we support our admin to be able to meet that goal or do we yep so actually director embo and I conduct um Regular Walkin talks with the with the admin and as part of those um we do more than walking and talking we sit and look at goals and different checklist areas um and so that's those are some things that we're that we're checking in on um one thing that we're excited about is uniformity using the s'more tool which provides um translatability in multiple languages so as long as a family sets the language once it it the information will come that way so we're pushing trying to push that tool out more so that more people have access to that um but these are regular ongoing conversations about increasing our um you know clear and effective communication out to you know community members families students and whatnot um since you brought it up I will just note that recently uh actually director tuck and I were in a meeting and um there was a conversation about uh one of the communications that had gone out through our regular District communication and one of the staff members said oh that always goes to my spam so sometimes there are those s'more that s'more tool that we use is going to spam and so director uh director stunkle and I actually had a conversation this week about some strategies that we can um push out to make sure uh that people know that to look for it perhaps in their spam folder that way that these communications are going out so yeah thank you for that um I just want to say you know Mr burkus sets a really high bar to the point that again like I say um I have friends who have children not in the district and they're like oh is it Mr berkus's call um so you know he's got a following outside of our district as well so thank you very much for that information and thank you Julie I just have um a question on the all belong family relationships um we increased beautifully um where the students felt physically safe and um the teachers felt supported um I I was looking at that physically safe it went from like 78% in early childhood to 100% I mean we we improved significantly what was the difference that happened from 23 to 24 that gave us those kind of percentage increases does anybody I can't speak for director stunkle because she'll probably be able to break it down a little more but a lot of it had to do as we're thinking about postco and being back in person and feeling that sense of safety and togetherness again we notice that in a lot of our data but I don't know the exacts in terms of the Early Childhood what they figured out for that any other questions Jessica um not really a question but just a couple of comments I just I want to thank you for the time you took to put together to identify and put together some measurables um that kind of make sense in an overview format to kind of help us Bridge from the previous strategic plan to the new strategic plan um I think uh for anybody watching this is a lot of information and just to underscore that this is not the first time we as a board are seeing each of these data points that um we have opportunities for discussion and questions and governance on all of these pieces throughout the year and that this is really kind of an overview of that data within the framework we have of the new strategic Plan before we move to all of those new metrics and so I am very excited um to see some of the ways in which we're planning to communicate out about our new metrics and progress on the Strategic plan I think having that web page that's almost like a dashboard is really um giving a lot of transparency to um all of the data points but then also how that Universe of data works together like how all of those pieces are integrated when we're really looking at um continuous Improvement in all of these areas so around academic measurements around um you know measurements metrics around belongingness building relationships with our community um all of those we know all of those pieces are interconnected right and that interconnectivity is what advances Student Success so I'm just very excited um to see us continue to move towards that under the new plan um and I really just wanted to to um provide some context for people who might see this for the first time and see all these data points and be like Ah that's that's an awful lot so thank you very much thank you Laura um I I really like how this was all put together I mean we because we've done this before I've been through a number of these and uh and we have data here but we also have the context too and I like those extra layers that maybe we weren't seeing before although we' seen it at one time seeing it all in one place I think is it it just shows the the the amount of work that goes into it because all of these pieces work into this one into this one specific point um and I'm hoping that we can integrate that into the next year when we actually have the actual new data with the new the new metrics and everything and kind of keep maybe some of that because it feels it feels really good it feels full it's it's not just you know a little pie chart up there you got a little arrow and you know we're good you know or the 1 two 3 4 five yes we meet it no we don't you know it this feels a little bit more concept you know real thank you thank you any other questions thank you very much for your time at our work session last week on this um and tonight appreciate it thank you next we will move on to the Columbia Academy roof Bridge roof bid with director Henkin thank you chair Mueller uh members of the board and superintendent stenick um just give me a minute to end this presentation and get into the next one here somehow it disappeared from life for me I know I had it here all right here we go share my screen okay now we're cooking okay Columbia Academy roof bed um so the uh some of this will just be a quick review uh you've seen this presentation when we uh when I asked for authorization to um post bids um but our mission Columbia Heights Public Schools creating worlds of opportunity for each and every learner all belong all succeed and our core values of community Excellence collaboration Integrity respect courage and Innovation aligning with the chps Board of Education Equity statement um so this evening this is not governance um item is just information um and this come back at December 12th regular school board meeting um for action item so previously I presented um when uh we went out or I asked for authorization to post bid that we had three sections of roof at Columbia Academy that um upon further testing um were showing um large wet areas um within the insulation that um shown showed that they needed needed attention more immediately and we couldn't um um hold off on those sections any longer and the big question is is when we put those out for bid what would that look like the square footage is a little bit bigger than what we've done in uh recent years uh um at Valley View last year and or this past summer and Valley View or Highland and then Valley View um and so these are the bid results um so uh MC Phillip's uh brother's Roofing um is the low bidder at $987,000 it's a little bit higher than what we anticipated um but not a significant um increase by based on what we anticipated um and as you can see the bidding was fairly tight um and there was uh six um uh biders half of which we've worked with before and uh MC Phillips was the one that won the bid at Highland Elementary so uh we feel very confident in them um and then we have a recommendation from um Garland um roof company that we work with um to go with the lowest responsible bidder which is MC Philip Brothers Roofing with a base bid of $987,000 um again this is a long-term facility maintenance project so it'll be funded through those long-term facility maintenance dollars and this uh is just a repeat of the timeline um so uh this evening at uh information item and December 10th uh board School Board recommendation action and then this would be a June July August 2025 um wrapping up in August 2025 so that we can start the school year successfully we don't have any other projects at Columbia Academy this uh coming summer that would be in the way um we will have to reach out to the Solar Company and and uh work on moving the solar panels and putting them back um we've done that before at North Park Elementary um um so I feel confident that we can effectively do that and it will stay within cost that's it thank you any questions um thank you I was just wondering about the number of biders and if that was something like in the range of normal or what you were expecting or more than you were expecting or what we were expecting okay um so I mean if rarely if we' put a bid out where we've had 9 10 11 12 uh companies um if we only had two or three I would I would be a little bit more concerned um uh concerned so what our timeline was for putting the bids out um were we too late um but um I think we're getting out the right time and um having that six or seven I think is a really good amount um the consistency in the bidding makes me feel pretty good um and uh there wasn't a huge range um but uh so it's a pretty straightforward project there's not a lot of rooftop units a lot of things in the way um they the roofing company doesn't have to worry about the solar will be handling that so I think that's why it was so consistent so but it'll be a little bit longer it's a little bit more square footage so it'll take them most of the summer but again there's nothing going on over there so I'm not worried about it thank you is this a fiscal year 25 expense or fiscal year 26 or both both so it'll it'll be yeah fiscal year 25 carrying into fiscal year 26 most of the expense will come in fiscal year 26 thank you any other questions we will see you back on December 10th action item thank you thank you um next on our agenda we have the policy first reading um uh policy 722 was up for annual review um so that's policy 722 public data requests and there were um no changes to this policy so um we have policy first reading so that is available on our website um if anybody would like to take a look at that and make any comments before approval any questions all right next we'll move on to action items our first action item is the educational assistant contract so we'll welcome back director Henkin and director Bennett chair Mueller members of the board superintendent stenvik um we did meet over a month ago in a Clos session to discuss the education assistant Master agreement since then we have come to a tenative agreement and the union has ratified um the contract so some of the changes include um including building monitors into the contract an increase to longevity bement leave which matches the other um contracts for 284 and increase to the 403b match um a big change is we removed all the steps and have just one step for each job category um which will help with some of the differentials we had before in confusion and payment so this will be your categor is a special ed setting three and it's one rate or um home school Lea on just one rate um and then the mini Adventure Adventure Club and prek4 assistance they remained as part of a memorandum of understanding um we were able to add some additional items including 403b match longevity bement leave and also just having one step for each category so tonight we're here seeking approval of the contract thank you I realize as you're talking I should have brought up my cover sheet but do that all right can I get a motion to approve the master agreement between Independent School District number 13 Columbia Heights and the Columbia Heights education assistant SEIU local 284 covering the school years 2024 2025 and 2025 2026 as presented so moved Mary and a second second second by Julie any discussion hearing none we proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed abstain motion carries thank you both thank you all right our next action item is our school board Representatives um so as we all know um we had um a number of really great applicants for our student School Board Representatives positions we have two um open positions and an alternate um we had eight applicants um I think we had talked about during our work session that there wasn't one of those applicants that we wouldn't have selected um so they made it they made it pretty hard on us um these were Anonymous applications so we even to this day do not know um who um The Who these people are um so truly um electing Merit um we electing them based on the Merit of their um of their application so um at our work session we had had conversations um and discussed um moving forward with applicant number three and applicant number six to serve on the um and uh to serve as Schoolboard Representatives um applicant um number four would be the alternate um so at this point I would um entertain a motion to approve applicants three and six as student School Board representatives and applicant four as the alternate and a motion to move that forward move Michelle in a second second second by Julie any discussion I think I think you guys are going to have really great student School W reps so it's awesome chair mu yes can I provide a little bit of the timeline um so upon approval this uh principal win and I will be contacting the students um on Monday so in school so they'll be notified and then once we receive their permission their parent permission um then we'll be able to make the big announcement so we're really excited for that so we will contact the two that were chosen the alternate and then we'll also be contacting all of the applicants to to let them know how great their applications were um and encourage them to try again great thank you very much Julie um I'd just like to mention to anybody watching that um we feel that these positions are very very important for the students to learn and we've we're offering a letter for them to participate so I just wanted that to be in the public yeah definitely great any other discussion all right hearing then we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed abstain motion carries thank you all very much and we're very excited to hear who our school board representatives are who the mysterious applicant number three and number six and number four are next we'll move on to board topics does anybody have a board topic Mary um yes thank you uh I just want to remind people that uh we have our upcoming truth and Taxation meeting here um at my house I know we received our um preliminary tax uh increase decrease uh from the county and um thank you again to the voters who PID you know who voted for this and you know so we can continue to grow um our students and support them in the ways that they need um I was very pleasantly surprised my house price did increase but when I pulled out the cost for um what the school district was we actually um are paying less money than we had been historically so um I think that that's a really important thing for the voters to know too that um again we're being really good stewards of the financials and it's very possible that your house may you know you may benefit a little bit from a decrease even though we've provided um it was voted in that we would have uh a lot more support so thank you thank you any other board topics all right hearing none we will adjourn the meeting at 7:15