Um, I'm absolutely thrilled to welcome Justin Hennes to the scene team, senior information officer. Um, did fantastic work in Minneapolis public schools, is exceptionally student centered, is always um very much about how can we do service to sites. Also has that instructional lens. also has a pretty significant background in um finance, particularly um helping sometimes to make sure payroll is done on time and coming into the rescue for that. Um and also um has uh extensive work also in building out CTE pathways. So we are just quite honored, Justin, to have you here. Um what day is this for you? Seventh. Seventh. Seventh day on the job. So, we're so excited to have you. Thanks for choosing Fredley. Next, I am thrilled to review the um 2024 Hall of Fame inductees for some of us in this room. I'm looking at Steven Keeler probably knows and Eric maybe knows some of these folks um here from your time in Fidley. So, our honores to the hall of fame for this year that were inducted on July 25th include Ron Arian contributed to athletics and activities class of 1964 [clears throat] Pat Barrett he's also our football game announcer correct um coach and class of 1975 Karen Tusent Vanderhar gymnast class of 1975 Mike C men football basketball class of 1976 Gary Assan, tennis, class of 1982. Amy Hinsburg Sinclair, basketball and tennis, class of 1963. John Swanson, a very familiar name as well as we know, coach. And class of 1975. Joe Zean, football, class of 1976. Mark O'Riki, wrestling, class of 1976. Tammy Breedall, basketball track, class of 1997. So, we're just so thrilled to honor all of our alums that really excelled in activities. This Saturday, we are having our back to school resource fair. Ala and Karen have been working very hard um at this as well as many others. We actually have 400 backpacks. Yay. We have over 300 families already RSVPd. I think the RSVP CL closes tomorrow afternoon, so there's still time to register. So, we are absolutely thrilled. If you recall last year, they were lined up, I [clears throat] think, at like 9:00 all the way across and it was just magical to see that and to see our families coming out. We have several administrators and leaders that will be there welcoming our families. So, this is just so exciting and a special thanks to Ala and Karen for their work. and I think they're coming in September to present on how the event went. So, we're thrilled about that. Next up, my favorite part of the superintendent update is Dr. Amy Cochran, principal of Fidley Middle School, who is here to recap RISE um for us. Thanks, Amy, for coming. Yeah, thank you for having me, school board. Um I'm really excited to come share with you our um results for some from summer rise. I think in the spring I shared with you that we were going to be launching a new summer program. Can you pause for one second? You're not on either. I'm so sorry. I could have did that. Sorry. So again, as I I think presented in the in the spring that we were really excited to launch a new summer program that was completely new for us um with our partnership with the Levvenia group. Um and so I'm excited today to share with you kind of what that looked like this summer and what our results were. Um, so first and foremost, um, I think we know that summer learning is not just about like, um, extending the school year, but it's really like how can we help kind of close those gaps, um, of students and really continue to make sure that students are making gains throughout the summertime. Um, we want them to continue to grow in their skills, preparing them for the school year to come. And so all of those things together um, really brought us to our partnership with Levvenia. Um, and we had a fantastic summer and I'm really excited to share with you what that looked like. We spent five weeks focusing on literacy and math with students with a really structured curriculum. So students from 8 to noon um Monday through Friday for the full five weeks had both math and literacy instruction. Um in addition to that like the students receiving the math and literacy instruction, our teachers received a lot of support from the Levvenia group. So a few things that were really big highlights of that. Um, prior to the start of the summer program, they had three days of onboarding to really learn the curriculum, really understand the curriculum. Um, and then every week they had professional learning with teachers from around the nation who were teaching the exact same thing. So, they joined Zoom calls, the literacy teachers joined with other literacy teachers that were teaching the same lessons in the same week, um, the exact same curriculum. So, they could really talk with one another about how's it going, what's working, what's not working, um, and really support one another. Um, we also were really fortunate. We had a Levvenia consultant come on site for two days um and spend time in our classrooms really coaching our teachers watching them um and see how they implemented their curriculum giving them direct feedback. And then after she left we implemented um something that I'm really excited that we will carry into this school year called the teaching channel where teachers had an opportunity to videotape themselves and then upload it to um this website and then the coaches and consultants from the Levvenia group were able to give them direct feedback on their teaching. So teachers, as much as this was phenomenal for our students and you will see the student growth that we had, this was equally as phenomenal for our teachers, um really to re receive that really kind of strong instructional coaching as they were um teaching the math and literacy. Students took a pre-EST and a post- test that were Minnesota State um standard align. So as they came in that first week, we administered a pre-EST. They also are it's administered really similar to what the MCAs are. So it's on a very um locked down kind of website called Edsite. students had to log into this. Um, again, the the pre-EST is all aligned to the standards. And then the last week, within the last like two days of of our fiveweek program, students took the post- test. And so that's the data that you're going to see um of just how students grew from kind of the pre-EST to the post test is how they measure those results. We um had 127 students that attended the full five weeks. We had close to like 180 registered, but by the time we got done, we really wanted to capture how many of our students attended the full five weeks for the full five days and stayed with us the entire time. We know summer also brings vacations and um different things that students kind of come and go, which was totally fine, but we had 127 um students that consistently attended those full five weeks. Um as I mentioned, we had 14 teachers um again who really were able to receive that solid um instructional coaching. And here's kind of the breakdown. Um we had four rising fifth grade classrooms which mean those are our incoming students. So incoming fifth graders. Um we had four classrooms full of incoming fifth grade students, two incoming sixth grade, four incoming seventh grade, two incoming eighth grade. And then we also were able to service our students that are heading over to the high school. Um that will be rising nth graders. The quotes that you see around this, we did a survey for parents at the end of RISE um just to ask how parents thought. We asked specific questions around the curriculum instruction, how engaging did your student find this, um what were some highlights, and then of course asking for feedback of things that we could do better. But these were some of the quotes that really stood out. Um 85.7% of parents said that their ch children found the lessons engaging and interesting. Um 94% said the academic content was really beneficial for their children. So parents really overwhelmingly thought it was a really strong um program. Of course, um being with friends in the summertime is al also really fun. Um being able to be in classes with mixed grade levels, which um what we did was students that were already at or above grade level, we still invited them to join us. We just moved them up so they were receiving instruction in the next grade level. So we wanted to make sure that this would meet the needs of all of our students. So really place them appropriately based on um their their academic data. And here is um what we saw for math. So, what you're looking at is the yellow bar is the pre-EST and then the blue bar is the post- test. And if you start at proficient, you can see in math, and this is for all of our students combined. So, this is not broken down by grade level, but all of our students combined. When we started on the pre-EST, only 4% of our students were proficient. And by the end, 29% were proficient. If you kind of go on that, say those figures again. So 4% of our students were proficient in math when we took the pre-EST and 29% were proficient when we took the post test. Okay, keep going. Sorry. [laughter] Which you can see also substantial results if you go all the way over where it says below basic. When we started, 47% of our students were below basic. We want that bar to drop. That dropped to 16% on our post test. So very significant. We want the yellow bar to we want the blue bar to go up as we move over to the proficient. So you can see those results. We saw a 25% increase in the number of students who achieved a score of proficient from the pre-EST to post test. And if we combine proficient and basic because basic is that they're meeting standards. We saw a 53% increase on that um from the pre-EST to a post- test in five weeks. Similar results in literacy. So this is our literacy results. So again when we started um altogether we had 3% of our students who were proficient um on the pre-EST and when we ended on the post test we had 24% proficient. Um and similarly the below basic which is is huge. Um we started with 31% of our students scoring below basic and ended with only 16% that were below basic. So students made substantial substantial gains um this summer. Um again in the five weeks we saw a 15% decrease in the students scoring below basic um which was huge progress in both math and literacy. I'm going backwards. Okay. I just highlighted the the charts here because I think the below basic is is as strong as when you can see students that are now proficient. But this is just like the below basics one. So again on the pre-EST and the post- test you can see students that were scoring below basic when we started. Again to have 47% of our students that's almost half of the students that were joining us were scoring below basic um in math and again when we ended only 16% were scoring below basic. So we were very very excited by our results. This really really helped students um in closing those gaps this summer. Something else um that we did this summer along with our summer rise. So summer rise was from 8 to noon and then from 12:00 to 1 students had lunch and then from 1 to 3 students were offered enrichment courses. Um again all of this at no cost to our students. So we were really able to expose our students to many different activities. This is the list of activities of the things that we offered. So, we had everything from board games to Legos, um, bracelet making. Um, we had fiber art, watercolor, pottery, calligraphy. Um, we had community ed come in and ran some community ed camps camps. They did a babysitting camp, a home alone camp. We had basketball come in and run a basketball camp. So, there was just a a wide variety of activities that students could participate in. Um we did our best to try to schedule students so that over the five weeks that they had a variety of different things that they were participating in. Um and when we gave when we asked for the feedback this of course also when we asked for like comments from families this was my student enjoyed the enrichment portion so much again being able to do things that they have never tried or just being exposed to different things. Um, and then two things that was really exciting about this week is we did an incoming fifth grade transition week and we did an incoming ninth grade transition week where they students went over to the high school that will be freshman. And then we had a week where our two fifth grade teachers um came in and ran a transition week for our incoming fifth graders and just some of the comments from um from families about how their students now feel comfortable being able to come to middle school. I actually got an email from a parent today that said, "My student's brand new, but they were at RISE and they are really excited to start and feel completely comfortable now that they attended RISE this summer." So, it's kind of fun to see that um direct imp that was a wise question. [laughter] She's like, "It's making big difference, etc., etc." I said, "You good with am is that better?" Yeah. And I said, "How about," and this is April, [clears throat] I said, 'Are you good with offering through all incoming fifth graders through 9th graders free of charge [sighs and gasps] in the morning, 8 to noon, and then um 12 to 3 with transportation and we'll do the enrichment part for as many kids as want to come. And she said, "Absolutely. Absolutely. [laughter] We'll make it we'll make it [clears throat] happen." And then I think I called Steven when I was up at Mace and then we worked through that. That was in like early May. And this is what Amy built. This is what she built. So, a couple things here. This is um Fidley Middle School has been doing Levvenia work and that's something that I think we'll have your team come and present maybe like October. Um, we're going to be continuing that work for next school year. It's side by side coaching. It's just it moves the mark as you can see. And you know how I always talk about we're not going to fillize this. This is what I'm talking about. This is significant. We had our transportation providers were [sighs] a little bit unhappy that we ran routes on July 5th, but the reason we did that is for what Amy said, 127 kids came every single day. Levvenia does a national program. It's all nationally normed. They do the exact same professional learning to every teacher. They do the exact same number, minutes of instruction, etc. And it's these results that we get. Um, last summer, Levvenia served 60,000 students across our nation. And this actually started at a tiny little um place called Silver Spring Elementary School in Montgomery County. And I started this with Levvenia and now this is where they have come. I also brought them to Grand Forks, brought them here. We are also in a position where we benefit substantially on discounted rates. Um, so Levvenia has partnered and partnered and partnered with us. Also, we are now doing a smaller version in our high school, which we're very excited about. What I wanted to talk to you about tonight is sustainability. I think the data speaks volumes, right? So, we [sighs] uh funded this all through ESER this year, which as we know is gone, right? [snorts] We um also um funded almost all of the Levvenia cost for professional learning for the 24 uh 25 school year through the ESRE dollars. What we will be able to do I think for obvious reasons this is something we need to keep right. Um if we look at targeted services, so certain students that enroll in summer programming generate aid has to do with their assessments and those pieces. The other piece is you often hear me talk about compensatory ed dollars. Those are those dollars that flow into school districts a year delayed based on the number of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch. That's why it's so important for our students that are not on direct certification for us to really get those forms in. That money can also be used for summer programming. [sighs] So, we're really going to look at how do we piece that together. A place where we all here as a cabinet and principal group will need to be creative is around the sustainability of the 12 to3 program. Um, we can't use combat dollars for that. We also can't use targeted services. So, I'm not saying it won't happen. We need to be creative. Some ways that we can fund that eventually will be with the 21st century grant. Another way that we can fund that is with the community schools grant, which we're going to try again. But I think you can see the data speaks for itself. I'm so proud of you. I'm proud of what you did. [laughter] and I was over there the very first day [snorts] and um you were just grace under pressure and the day that transportation didn't come that first Friday, you were grace under pressure. I'm proud of you. Thanks. I will just say our teachers were rock stars. I think really [clears throat] excited to go into this school year. Um about half of the teachers that um were teaching were like new to us. um many of them are international talent. And so to be able to give them that really strong professional learning as we move into this school year was just like phenomenal and we're super excited about our partnership with Levvenia working with math and literacy this school year. Um just again that sideby-side coaching that they do and really helping us um talk about best practice in our instructional strategies really looking at data. How are we making decisions grounded in data? So we're really excited about that. Awesome job. Questions, comments? Congratulations. Thanks. Yes. Thank you. Thanks, guys. And and please convey to your staff, too. Like, yes, I definitely will. Thanks for the Thanks for the notice that you gave her, Dr. Lewis. Uh, but I was there on the first day and I went to It was a month. It was a month. Yeah. [laughter] So much so much grace. But I was actually I was there on the first day and, [laughter] you know, I I wouldn't have known that this program was not in place for a number of years. You guys picked up the ball and and I think From my perspective, I'm I'm surprised on the impact that it had and and not only was it just five weeks, from the from the educational standpoint, it was only four hours a day, right? So, the fact that you guys were able to to up those test scores and those proficiencies by for 127 kids, that's pretty amazing. So, thanks. We and we will for sure celebrate as we go into the school year. Excited to share the data with all of our staff, those that weren't present, and our students because they were the ones that did the hard work. So, we're excited about that. Well, I think that'll excite a lot of people that weren't there as well for next year. Mhm. I think so, too. Why am I having so much problem here tonight? One of the things one of the things that Levvenia do will do with us is track these students. So, these 127 students, they will have a marker in our new Aubry system and we'll be able to track to see that longevity over time. Then we'll be able to decide to like some of the students for summer rise everybody was open right some got more taps than others. So that'll be um some of the pieces that we do too is of the students that we're seeing that had this um pretty intensive in intervention. Let's track those as they go along. And then also see if they were fifth, fourth going into fifth, [gasps] then [sighs] are they someone that we say we extra invite, fifth going into sixth. So that's the power of using this data and it just I have seen a lot of the Levvenia work. Um and I told Amy, Levvenia gets results point blank. And you'll hear much more about that this fall when the team comes. The level of results that Amy got with her team is really unprecedented even for Levvenia. So great work. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I am now excited to welcome Michelle Cox to give us an update on all of our construction projects. Hello chair and board directors. It's great to be in front of you again um as we wrap up our summer projects. So, I have a big belief that what we do with the physical environment for our students makes a big difference. And Amy and her work this summer is such an inspiration to keep us going as we go into these last few weeks of construction. Um, I'll start with our high school. Um, we have moved our alternative learning center program into our high school. It's going to give our students a great opportunity to take elective classes, to be part of the school. Um, our ALC move is complete. We have a few last minute things like mounting TVs, um putting doors on and signage for them, but we are in place. I went and visited this morning and um things are looking really good there. We have had a big fire alarm project at the high school. So, if you've been there at all, you might have heard one of our testing alarms go off or maybe one of our false alarms go off, which we had yesterday for new teacher workshop. So, we got that first drill already in. That's what I told um the principal. So, we'll see how that goes. So, we are doing some more testings and we'll have our final run through this week as we switch over to our new system. So, we're really excited about that. We're getting used to the different alarms and what they sound like. There's it's voice activated also. So, a voice comes on and tells you this is an emergency. You need to evacuate. And so, that was kind of an interesting thing that we're going to have to get used to as we move forward. Um at our middle school um we are currently looking at two rooms that need some remodeling. We've had a lot of growth uh there and so we are getting quotes for that and we'll work this fall to get those projects do uh done to make some of our rooms for uh staff and their offices a little more comfortable for them. Um at Stevenson's we've completed a major flooring project and um it looks beautiful tile, there's carpet um looks amazing. that is all complete. Um, and as you can imagine with a big flooring project, we've had a lot of moving happening. So, was over there today and there's a lot of teachers um who have had some extra time available to them to come in and work on their classroom. So, that was really fun to see. Both at Stevenson's and Hayes, we're doing special education room remodels. Um, those are almost completed. Um we are um waiting for some wall padding um for some of our students who receive special education students just as a safety um measure for the classrooms and those are on back order but we'll have those in soon and they will not hold up any of our programming at our community center. You might have seen the parking lot as you walk by. We're getting really close. Um we did have a little uh moment of needing to backtrack. Um we as we as you know that project was really um put in place to decrease the flooding that was happening. So as we were finishing our sidewalks of the project we realized the elevation and grading was a little off. Um it wasn't quite up to the standard we needed. So we did have to rip that out and replace um at the cost of the builder, not us. Um and uh so that sidewalk is redone. Our parking lot and drainage systems are pretty much completed. The lines got on. We're just curing now over the next couple days. Um, we have temporary lighting light lighting installed, but that will be not a big deal to pull out and replace and put as we had a supply issue for that. Our window replacement project will be starting next. So, I'm looking forward to starting an actual project and kind of seeing it through the end. So, that'll be really fun. And finally, as our ALC moved out, our Vista program for our students who receive federal setting 4 programming um uh came in, a total redo. I mean, this place is beautiful. Um it's probably one of the most calming school environments I've seen in a while and really thoughtful um in the work that went into that. So, they are completely done. I was actually over there this morning also and it was just fun to see as they're getting ready for students. And finally, you might have noticed outside we've been mulching like crazy all around our schools and weeding. Um just want to make sure that our outside is as appealing as the inside um as we move forward. So, we're looking forward to finishing up that project in the next couple days. Any questions for me? It's a from the outside, Michelle, it's aable difference. Great. Like I I've had several people in the community say things about just what our curb appeal looks like. The grass looks greener. The mulch looks great. It It looks inviting from the outside. So, uh, you and your team, fantastic job. Yeah, it's really looking good. Thank you. Appreciate that. I just want to honor Michelle as well. She started working on our projects before she actually started work here and did a lot of construction meetings. And the sidewalk piece that she talked about, the portion that she left out is multiple people that [clears throat] are trained in the profession, trained in slopes and grading and all of that. Told her, "No, we don't have a problem." And she was very persistent. And as you heard, that was replaced, not on district dollars and redone. We would have ended up not to the severe level with the same exact problem that we're trying to get rid of. So, I appreciate how you've just jumped in and you've really been there to demand excellence um in all of our projects. And I think we can see the difference between peacemealing together and maybe doing what is cheapest in the moment versus doing right that costs you far less in the long term. So very much appreciate your work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Tomorrow night is our fall sports parent meeting starting with hot dogs at 5:30 and then the meeting at 6 o'clock. So, this is for all of our student athletes and their parents. So, we're excited to see them there. I think many of us will also be there as well. [sighs] So excited. Oh, sorry. In FHS auditorium, correct? I made that up on the spot. Okay, great. That sounded convincing though, right? The right spot. [laughter] Um, I'm so excited. Our marching band is going to be featured in the state fair parade at 2 o'clock on the 25th. We're big time. I'm so proud of our students. So very excited. [gasps] All right. Thanks, board. Much appreciated. Any questions or comments? Anybody? All right. Great. Thank you, Dr. Lewis. Um, so next up we have uh our business action items. And the first item is a resolution accepting gifts. Uh, we received a donation from an anonymous person to the Stevenson Elementary School for $58. Ken Vicken in honor of Tyler Christensen donated $100 to the Fidley High School. We also had anonymous donor $14 to the high school and Living Faith Spiritual Community donated 1,000 pairs of socks for the back to school resource fair. Chair would entertain a motion to accept these gifts. And we'll move to accept the gifts. Motion made by Meiser. Do I have a second? Second by Keeler. This is a roll call vote. Miss Jones. I. Mr. Carop is I. Mr. Keeler. I. Mr. Meisner. Hi. Miss Stark. Hi. Miss Amed. I. Miss Shoe. I. Motion passes. Next up, as we've all read the handful of first readings, I'm just kidding. There's several dozen. [laughter] Uh but as we had a chance to to to review them uh and discuss them and ask questions uh looking at these first readings, the chair would entertain a motion to approve the meeting the first readings of policy. So moved. Motion made by Jones. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Keeler. Just a question. So we're doing them all as a batch. Yes. Yep. Would you like me to go through them all? No. Okay, good. Just wanted to be clear. Okay. Um, uh, just no no need for a roll call vote here. So, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. All those opposed. Uh, next up we have the consent agenda. The agenda includes the meetings of the work session and business meeting held on July 16th. Monthly financial reports for June and July, new contracts, amendments, leaves of absence, resignations, approval of the meal plans for the 202425 school year, and approval of the FCC window replacement bid to CM Construction Company that Michelle had made mention that hopefully we can start soon, right? Get Steven some new windows, right? Uh, no need for roll call here. All those in favor of accepting the consent agenda signify by saying I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes. Uh, lastly, we have important future school board dates. Um, as Dr. Lewis had mentioned, we have a fall sports parent meeting uh on August 21st at 6 p.m. in the Fidley High School auditorium. We also have, as mentioned, the back to school community resource fair on August 24th from 10:30 to 12:30 p.m. at the Fidley High School parking lot. Preschool open house on August 28th, 4 to 6 here at the community center. Um, and then also the Vista open house on the 28th from 4:00 to 5:00 at the newly remodeled Vista Education Center. Our Fley High School and Fidley Middle School open house block party will be on August 29th from 1:30 to 5:30. It'll be in both locations this year at the high school and the middle school. Um I'll be cooking hot dogs if anyone's interested and helping out. We have our Hayes and Stevenson family orientation meetings on August 29th um from 4 to 6. Those will be at Hayes Elementary and Stevenson respectively. And then on that same day, also on the 29th, we have Tiger Club open house from 4 to 6 again here at the Fidley Community Center. Uh first day of school on September 3rd for ALC, preK, K through 4, grade 5th, grade 5, and new students in grades 6 and 8, grade 9, and grade 12. And then also the Vista Education Center for all students. All students will essentially be in school effective on September 4th. And then lastly, we have a Fidley Public Schools board meeting. The next one scheduled is September 7th here at the Fidley Community Center. Uh the work session will start at 4:30, which is different than usual. We'll have a 7:00 public forum and a 7:30 business meeting. Did I miss any dates? Okay, with that, the chair would entertain entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Motion by Stark. Sec. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Keeler. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes and we are journed at 8:08. Thank you everybody.