- I now call this meetingof the School Board of Independent SchoolDistrict 624 to order. Will the Clerk please call the roll? - Ellison.- Here. - Skaar.- Here. - Streiff Oji, here. Thompson.- Here. - Arcand.- Here. - Beloyed.- Here. - All right, we're gonna go on to Discussion Item B1, Early Childhood and Early ChildhoodSpecial Education Updates. Dr. Gillespie, did you wanna introduce who's gonna be speaking? 'Cause I got a bunch of names. - [Mr. Mauer] Well, I think Igot the mic today, Dr. Arcand. We are pleased to bringto the front table here Angela Drange, our Assistant Director of Student Support Services forEarly Childhood Special Ed., and Jennifer Chappuis,our Assistant Director of Early Childhood Programs. - [Dr. Arcand] Welcome. - Is this for me? Yes? Okay. All right. Good evening, Board. Thanks for having us. We're very passionateabout early childhood. I'm Jennifer Chappuis,like Mr. Mauer said. We're gonna get started. I am the Assistant Directorof Early Childhood Programming and I have with me AngelaDrange, as Mr. Mauer said. So our mission statement of the White Bear LakeEarly Childhood Program is to help all children reach their potential by providing the best possible environment for the growth anddevelopment of our children, strengthening families, andgiving them opportunities. So just a little bit about our enrollment, our '25-'26 enrollmentand what that looks like, a picture of that, 119students in our ECFE classes. So that's gonna be birth through age five. Approximately 291 preschool students. And 324 early childhoodspecial education students. Another tidbit for you is our 2025 kindergarten capture rate. So that means of all of the kindergartners in White Bear Lake, 47% of them have had our preschool experience. The other piece thatI'd like to let you know is our registration opened February 2nd. So we are just under a month. We are offering 26 preschoolsections next year. And out of our 290 available spots for three and four-year-olds,we're about 70% filled. I tried to do a littlehistorical data on that and I believe that we'rein real good standing just a month into our registration. What does early childhood look like in White Bear Lake Area Schools? First off and foremost is the importance ofearly childhood screening. That is a requirement beforethe entrance into kindergarten as a way to offer additionalsupports for our families. It is offered at no cost. Screening by the ageof three is preferred, but we are able to screenbetween the ages of three and the start of kindergarten, by law. They do get that really super fun three-year-old Screen@3 shirt. Pretty fun to see them inthat shirt when they come. Other early childhood programs, like I'd mentioned before,in our enrollment in ECFE. So these programs aregonna include classes, playgroups, single parent groups. There'll be home visits where we're looking at thatparent-child experience, that we're encouraging positiveparent-child interaction. Parents are offered a hands-onexperience with the children and they participate inparent education discussions, where their students are in a classroom playing with our staff, theparents are in another classroom learning about topics thatare of importance to them. We have an outreachstaff where home visits are offered to families withchildren birth to age five, where a licensed familyeducator would talk about resources for the familiesthat they might have and the appropriate ways that early childhood students learn. Oh, another one for me. Good. Our preschool options areavailable full-day at Willow Vadnais, Birch, Otter,Lakeaires, Tamarack, and Oneka. We have co-taught sectionsthat are half-day options, will be offered next year at Sunrise Park, as well as Oneka Elementary School. Families choosing thefull-day model have access to the wraparound careat our elementary sites and transportation withinthe local attendance area, where their school is located. - [Angela] All right. Early childhood specialeducation services, birth to age five-years-old, are offered throughout the district. They start with ourbirth to two population, which are home visits. We have 10 dedicatedstaff members that serve those students and families anywhere from their home totheir childcare settings. We also have a variety ofclasses, ages three to five, in preschool special ed. Some classes are center based and some classes are integrated. We also serve students in the community at area preschool programs or daycares. Just wanted to highlight ourearly childhood strategic plan, Strategy 3, we will partnerwith community organizations to facilitate access to services. Our specific results thatwe're excited to share about are resource sharing. So sharing information with families about community-basedservices and resources. Also community connections,really trying to facilitate those connections and partnerships between our staff and our studentswith community organizations. And then our final specificresult that we're very proud of is our mental health support. And we have developed a formal partnership with Natalis and North Homes this year to provide co-locatedmental health services for students in earlychildhood programming. And our future plans willcontinue this partnership when we move to Sunrise Park. Our early childhood midyear goal summary. By January, 2026, 70% of our 4-year-oldstudents will score low-risk on the FastBridge earlyReading Composite. This is new for us thisyear in early childhood. And we have achievedthose January results, with 70.1% of our 4-year-oldstudents scoring low-risk. So that's very exciting for us. Our second student highlightis our multilingual students. So by January, 2026, 40% of our 4-year-old MLstudents will score low-risk on that FastBridge earlyReading Composite. And our actual results are 64.1%. So we're very excited and veryproud of that result so far. And we will continue working hard. - [Jennifer] Our instructionalpractice focus area, through our building ISISSP, I'm sure you've heard that before, we identified some action areas to support teacherlearning and instruction. The first one was in our 5D, which are the 5 Dimensionsof Teaching and Learning that we hold staff accountable to. And that priority area wasmaking sure our learning targets are connected to thestandards for early childhood, as well as our teacher useof formative assessment. So when Angela and I aregoing into the classroom, those are two of the highlighted areas that we're looking for in particular. Within that we have somestudent-centered coaching cycles, four to six week long coaching cycles with our instructional coach, focusing on student learning, the evidence to make forward decisions and how that will impact student growth. - [Angela] We also wanna highlight our student experience goals. So by January, 2026, we aim to have at least 70%of our 4-year-old students to report that they feel valued, are building skills toadapt creatively to change, are contributing meaningfully to their school or broader community. This aligns with the elementary student experience goal as well. And so our results are82.6% of four-years-olds are reporting that they feel valued and contributing meaningfullyto their school community, as reported by student surveys. And that's exciting news for us. Future program goals and plans. We are just getting ready totransition to Sunrise Park. Our full transition will be complete in the middle of July, 2026. We will start that transitionabout the middle of June with our front office staffand then our entire building with our birth to two staff,that also work all summer long, will be full-time in thebuilding in the month of July. We have expanded instructionalspaces within Sunrise Park. So we have 16 dedicatedpreschool classrooms, five additional dedicated ECFE classrooms holding family ed and parent ed, and then enhanced student support areas, including a small motorspace, the auxiliary gym, and then two sensory rooms. So we're excited for those. - [Jennifer] And then we will be having four parent education rooms for continuing our familysupport and discussion. We have a new family commons, which if any of you have been to Normandy, it's gonna be amazing atSunrise to be able to have that place for families. And then innovative learning environments. We're pretty excited tohave an outdoor courtyard here at Sunrise to supportdiverse learning experiences and dedicated itinerant staff office space to support collaborative student services. And then just future forward with early childhood at the Hugo location, expanding ECFE offerings and program opportunitiesin the north area, adding a north end diaper closet, and continuing our partnership with the Head Start Early Learning. That is what we have for our presentation. - Thank you.- So, yeah, absolutely. - [Dr. Arcand] Can I just askone point of clarification? 'Cause I don't know ifeverybody will know. When you're talking formative assessment, what does that really mean? - Yeah, so the formative assessment is when we're checking in with students, engaging their learning. So we are using FastBridge right now and that is checking in with students, based on their age and wherethey would rank nationally, and whether they fall into a low risk, some risk, or high risk category. - [Dr. Arcand] Okay, soit's basically assessments that drive teaching and learning. - Yes.- Okay. That's what I thought, but I wanted to make sure we all knew. Thank you. - Thank you for asking that.- Any further questions from somebody? Ms. Streiff Oji. - No questions, but comments on your, I love that you're doing home visits and connecting with families in that way. It looks like in a lot of different areas. It's a great way to connect with them in their own environment. And then the partnerships that you shared are really valuable and important, 'cause we can't do this work alone. So thank you so much. And can you describe what apreschool survey looks like? - Oh, sure.- I know, right? - [Jennifer] Do you wanna take this on? - Sure.- Okay. - So we did work withteaching and learning. And so it's smiley faces,neutral face, and a sad face. So just asking three specificquestions to students and they align with theelementary questions as well. - Thank you.- Mm-hmm. - [Dr. Arcand] Other questions? Mr. Skaar. - Thank you. So you mentioned that we have 47% capture. So does that mean we have, of all the students available, we have 47% of that? We attract 47%, so there's another 50%that are going elsewhere? - [Jennifer] So the capture rate is a little bit difficult to explain. And the way I understand it is that, actually, if we were to take our population of preschoolers right now, 70% of them actually move on. It's actually over 70% move onto go into our kindergarten. But when you're looking at our entire kindergartenpopulation in the school district, 50% of them have had our preschool. I don't even know if I answeredthat question, but it's... - No, well I think it kind of answered it. So thank you. I get that. So do we have any idea of how many kids that we're capturing in our program versus the total populationin our school district? - I don't know if I have that. - [Mr. Mauer] As far asthe kindergarten class? - Yeah.- Capture, yeah. - [Mr. Skaar] Or earlychildhood, either one. - Yeah, so I only know the percentages based off what we looked up for this. I don't have the exact enrollment numbers. I don't know what the kindergartenenrollment numbers are, but yeah, our data forthis year would show that we're capturinglike 40, just shy of 48% of kindergartners havean experience with us. And yeah, so the other 50%are getting experiences either choosing to stay home or they're getting otherexperiences with other institutions or organizations around the area as well. - [Mr. Wald] Yeah, many four-year-olds are at a daycare center.- Sure. - [Mr. Wald] And they get their preschool through that service.- Gotcha. Alright, thank you. And then you mentioned,in their presentation, that there was licensed family educators that meet with the parents? - [Jennifer] Yep. - Are those White Bear Lake staff people? Or is it outsourced to somebody else? - [Jennifer] To my knowledge most of them are all White Bear Lake staff members. - [Angela] Mm-hmm. - When you talked aboutthe wraparound care, how much does that, do we charge for that? How much is it? - [Jennifer] I don'thave the totals of that. That's a program I don'trun, but that's extended day. - Yeah, so it, it'll vary, 'cause we have different contract optionsfor that, Mr. Skaar. So it depends on whatthe parent needs are. If they go before and after school, if they go multiple days aweek, just a couple days a week. But it'll vary based on, I canget you information for that, of like what our contract ratesare, but it'll all depend on what the specific need forthe family's looking for. - [Mr. Skaar] I thinkit's on the website too. - Yep.- Yeah. - Yep.- All right. On your strategic plan, if you, wait, this thingjust went, on your, I think it's slide nine. So one thing, just a suggestion on this, when you're looking at thegoals, maybe look at like, can we make 'em a littlebit more measurable, like the specificresult, resource sharing, maybe we can get to the next step, you know, if that's still a goal, is to have somethingmeasurable like, you know, I don't know, a number or somegoal, something like that, you know, more specific. And the same thing withcommunity connections and mental health support, something that could be alittle bit more measurable. You know, when you develop these things, you kind of develop them in a broad way and then you kind of startgetting down to things that are more measurable. And then, you know, thestudent experience thing, I just ask my grandkids whether you like going to school or not, yes or no. And if it's, yes, I mean,kind of keeping it simple. So I'm glad that you guys arekeeping it simple as well, with the happy faces, that's good. Thank you. - [Jennifer] Thank you. - [Dr. Arcand] Otherquestions? Ms. Thompson. - Well, my questionshave both been answered. And so I just wanted to saythank you for the presentation. I thought it was very thorough. And I was gonna ask about the capture rate but I was interpreting it the wrong way. So now that it's beenexplained, I understand and I don't have any furtherquestions, so thank you. - [Dr. Arcand] Okay. Other questions? Thank you for everything you do and for all the little lives that you interact with every day. - Thank you.- Thank you. Thanks, Board, for having us. - We're gonna move on to B2, Alternative Learning Pathways Update, Dr. Gillespie and Mr. Shavers. - Good evening, ChairArcand, Members of the Board. I wanna introduce Jenni Sjosten, who's the Associate Principalin charge of the ALC, and Russ Reetz, our High School Principal. They're really here to make sure that we can answer all of the questions I'll be presenting on the information. So I thank them for being here. So tonight I wanted to talk through, if you recall last time Ms.Sjosten was at the board, which was actually the end of last year, we mentioned embarking on a program review and really looking at how we can enhance and build on the programsthat we are managing, which under our designation, which right now is AreaLearning Center or ALC. And really as I talk through this, the major point of this presentation is that we are recommending, and I'll ask for action later on, that we change our designation from an Area Learning Center, ALC, to an Alternative Learning Program. And I'll talk through what that means. But that really overarching big picture aligns with how ourprogram has been operating. You know, you think of,we've had an ALC here for many, many, many years,and over time you look at, through continuous improvement, how are we best meeting the needs of our communities and students? And really as we look atwhat designation we need and the designation is fromthe Department of Education, we are recommending that we shift to an Alternative Learning Program. And then I'm gonna talkthrough what that will mean if that goes through tonight in action. So essentially an ALP modelis a district centered model rather than a regional model. So it allows us to reallyidentify internally what grade levels do weneed to support at our ALP. It doesn't require us to bea 9-12 comprehensive program. It doesn't require us tohave a middle school program. It does allow us to supportour 10 through 12th graders and still support all thedifferent flexible scheduling that our staff is used to, our students and families are used to. One area that we're really excited about, and this isn't required to dowith the designation change but really we feel like it will meet the needs of our students better, is to enhance the partnershipthat we already have with 916 and utilize the Mahtomedi 916 ALC. Now, that name is deceiving 'cause it makes it seem likeit's Mahtomedi Public Schools. It's not. They kept that when theyabsorbed the Mahtomedi ALC. So it's Mahtomedi Academy,but it is an ALC program that's housed on theCentury School's Campus, and is a program that we're excited about being able to offer credit recovery to our high school and ALCstudents throughout the school, outside of the school day, andour summer learning program, which I'll talk in moredetail in a couple of slides. Really the program, the ALP design, the staff lead by Ms. Sjosten, are still finalizing their program review. But we were able to check in and make sure that thisdesignation change still supports and allows them to do what they're looking and are continuing to lookat around grading practices, master schedule design, lesson delivery. It also allows them andstill gives us flexibility. Credit recovery is one ofmany ways that you can use ALC or ALPs and has been the primary way that we've used it in our system. But we're excited about really looking at what other needs might students who are at the high school have or what other needs mightour ALC, soon to be ALP, that's gonna take alittle while to change, ALC students really benefit from as we're partnering with the staff. It still maintains thosestrengths that we've been used to. Year round structure,smaller learning environment, learner centered design, and would still be a stateapproved alternative program. So what are the newcredit recovery options that we're talking about? In partnership with 916, and this is similar that someother member districts do, in particular, our closestneighbor, Mahtomedi, partners with 916, and how can we createopportunities for those students who might've hit a glitch in term three, graduating seniors whoneed a credit or two, and really try to help themget across the finish line as soon as possible. And so we're excited about some of those last minute credit earning opportunities. I already mentioned, thesummer school session, is we're shifting from June to August, and 916 has really seen abetter success for students. They get a little bit ofa break, everyone knows, including families June,everyone's pretty tired and ready for some sort of pause. And then August activities start again. Our staff is back, it just feels like more of the school year starting. And so that would be whenwe'd run our summer session. It will be a combinationof in-person and virtual. So students who are stillin activities or athletics can absolutely participatein the summer school option. They'll be flexible with them. It runs the 5th through the 25th. We're working throughsome of the logistics in terms of transportation. They also are creating this opportunity for Mahtomedi High School students. So we're looking at ways thatmaybe we can combine resources and things like that to make sure that it's successful for our students. This year with the transition, what I've asked Russ and Jenni, is to let us know if there's needs for some sort of Junesummer school option, 'cause that's what familieshave historically been used to as we work with our counselors and then we would tryto figure something out, 'cause we do still have that flexibility to offer year round programming, even with a change in designation. So the next step for uswhen you think about the ALC in terms of its impact onour high school programming, would be that Jenni andRuss will continue working with the staff aroundtheir ALP program design, the ways that they'relooking at master scheduling and things for next year. We would work internallyand in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Education to officially changeour designation to ALP. Again, continuing to workwith the ALC leadership at 916 to get those programs solidified, and then continue leaning in, in terms of communicationwith our staff and families and things like that. One important caveat, so ALC, when we talk about it internally, or you might be used to, we often hyperfocus on the 9-12, because that's a lot of what we offer. When districts have an ALC designation, they need that designationto be able to offer K-8 targeted services, and that's services outside of the schoolday and in the summer for our elementary andmiddle school students. We are still going to be ableto offer that programming and that, too, is in a program review. But any recommendedchanges wouldn't be ready until the following summer. We really will have no major changes to that current programming. What will happen is, we'll utilize the ALCdesignation that 916 has and partner with them in the background. It won't change how registration happens and things like that, it'll just be how funding happens. And so they'll reallyhelp us with that aspect, and they do that with,I don't know exactly how many members of their districts, but this isn't the firsttime they've done it. I talked with Spring Lake Parkand they did this transition and didn't originally hold onto an ALP and now they have broughtALP back, so it really, we feel like is maximizingthe resources that we have, maximizing the opportunities for students, but also really holdingon to what we believe is really strong programmingand letting us focus it so that we're not trying tobe everything to everyone and really meeting the needs of our students in White Bear Lake. Alright, that was kindof fast and furious, but any questions you have for us? - [Dr. Arcand] Thank you.Do we have some questions? Ms. Streiff Oji. - [Ms. Streiff Oji] So itsounds like it's gonna provide a lot more flexibilityfor student programming. Is that correct?- Yeah. - And purpose?- Yeah, it does. Absolutely. And it doesn't require us to, you know, have those like 9th through12th grader, middle school. Those are big requirementswhen you're an ALC that we won't have to do.- [Ms. Streiff Oji] Okay. And then will there still be a place or is that gonna be CenturyCollege and the Mahtomedi 916? - No, just, really,the high school will be just the way you've seenit, they'll be there. That part is really a designation change. They're enhancing programming, but we could do that enhanced programming minus we'd have to offerit to a broader grade level and things like that, that we really feel likeit'll meet our needs better to be more flexible around that. - [Ms. Streiff Oji] Great.Thank you for your work on that. - Thanks. - [Dr. Arcand] Other questions? Mr. Skaar. - Thank you. Is there a cost to change? - It's really neutral for the most part. There's one minor cost withthat K-8 targeted services, which is an administrative fee. It's approximately 10%. We're still finalizingthat exact number with 916, but we would factor that into the budget. So really it's a neutral change, and based in the designation, to make sure we'realigned with those things. - So it's just the internal costs, the staff costs to prepare for the change. We're not using externalresources for the, like external third party consultants to help with the change at all? - No.- Okay. Because we transition onthe nine through 12 to, the program, ALP versus ALC, does that change funding? - No.- At all? So, the funding stays the same? - [Dr. Gillespie] Yep. - How many students arein what would be now the ALP nine through 12? How many students approximately? - [Ms. Johnson] We'reat about 110 right now. - 110. Of the 110, are all 110 from our district or do we import some? - [Ms. Johnson] We areopen to open enrollment. So it's not all White Bear Lake students, but primarily. - [Dr. Gillespie] And that wouldcontinue in an ALP as well, we would be in.- Okay. And then under the K through eight, which is gonna operate under the ALC umbrella of 916. And then we're negotiating a fee. So that fee would be, what about, would the cost associated with that fee, is there correspondingreduction on our budget to recognize that 916 is doing this, the K through eight through their ALC? So then we don't have, we don't need theresources here to do that. So is there a reduction, a corresponding reductionin the district's budget as a result of that change? - [Ms. Johnson] I would saythat the total budget would be pretty much the same. As Alison said, we're in a program review and so for next year's programming,we would just put that, budget that cost in aswe're looking at the budget for that programming. - But there's staff peoplededicated in this district to the K through eight program. - Correct, so we're stillgonna employ those staff and we'll just, rather than getting the revenue from the state,we'll be getting the revenue directly from 916 going forward. - Okay, so those, thefolks that are working in the K through eight under our program, and when they transition to 916, then we will bill 916 for those costs? - No, we'll continue toemploy all of the staff for the K-8 programs. That'll still run through us. We'll provide all of the, like, all of the student data to 916 to report. The revenue will comefrom the state to 916 and then from 916 to us. So kids, teachers, theywon't know any different. - So we pay 916, 10% of what? - That amount is still to be negotiated. When they remit the money to us, they'll just withhold that percentage from what they remit to us. So when they get theamount from the state, they'll just keep the 10% and remit the 90-ish percent to us. - So what is it? So what are we paying the 10% for to 916? Is it to use their, like their brand? - To be able to use theirdesignation to be able to have, they're gonna be working with our data. Yeah.- [Mr. Skaar] Okay. So they'll be handlingsome of the administrative to the state.- Yeah. - So that's what that 10%, it's like-- Correct. - Okay. How many students do we havein the K through eight program? - I don't know thatoff the top of my head. We serve, they're large programswe could, you know, bring we do bring that programin terms of another summary and things like that, but it's... - Several hundred.- Yeah. - [Ms. Johnson] It's the wholeexhaustive summer program. - [Mr. Skaar] Okay. - [Ms. Johnson] And the Summer U, if you've maybe heardus talk about Summer U, or Camp Summer, Camp Summer now. - So what, how do you determine, what's the eligibilityfor the ALP and ALC? - The state has designatedcriteria and it's a wide range. So credit deficiency is one, when you're talking about the high school. If you're talking about, you know, K-12, it's based in, we look at academic scores. You can look at students who maybe are experiencing homelessness. You can look at families,students who maybe are parents. Students who, I just had one and lost it. But it's a wide range and the final one is referred by a district. And so we really, you know, work together to identify based on data what students would benefitfrom the extra supports when you think about K-8. And then beyond credit recovery,you know, many students, I was an ALC principalfor many, many years. Some kids have had lifejust throw 'em curve balls that are really unfortunate. - Right.- And the smaller setting and the ability to make relationships in slightly smaller class sizesis really beneficial to them as they, you know, worktowards graduating. So it's a wide range. - [Mr. Skaar] All right. Thank you. - [Dr. Arcand] Any other questions? Yeah, Ms. Ellison. - So, can you just walk me through the day-to-day changethat students will feel? - None.- Or is there gonna be none? - No.- Okay. So really for our students, the big changes they'll see will be in the lastminute credit recovery? - That will, yeah. And even then that expands opportunities. That really would be a change. We, you know, have offered credit recovery at the high school, oh yeah,sorry, that last minute, we've offered that for them, but often it's beyond the graduation. So having that window of some of our kids who are really struggling inMay have another opportunity, will be a new opportunity for students. - So they can walk?- Yep. - At graduation.- mm-hmm. - Okay. But the offerings at the ALPbuilding will be the same and the opportunities for the students, they won't see any of that sort of change? - No.- Okay. - The one that we would work through, and Jenni's working throughwith the staff, would be the, you know, independent study on Wednesdays that's been offered formany of our students who their graduation class has passed, we would then offer them opportunities, absolutely in our ALP, butalso at the Mahtomedi ALC. So really thinking about what would be the best option for them asthey keep all the different, you know, each program, what they offer. - Okay, so, on the frontfacing the students will see the same, but really it's for us in the background administratively to improve the way that wefunction in this setting. - It really aligns withhow our program has- - [Ms. Ellison] Hasalready been developed? - Has morphed throughout the years. It is.- Okay. Yeah, I think that that'sa really important point, that for our students,what they're gonna see is what they still, what they have now and what they continue to need. So, thank you. That's a lot of work. I appreciate it. - [Dr. Arcand] Okay.- I didn't have a question but now I just wannafollow up on Ms. Ellison's clarification on some things and just highlight one of the things that we had discussed whenI asked some questions regarding some of thesethings, an independent study, my understanding is thatwhen we were in an ALC, if you had independent studyand we had four or five, two, one teacher therewaiting for students to come on Wednesdaynights, it sounds like, and no students showed up, that didn't generate any funding for us. So that was kind of a loss. Right? And did we have a lotof students attending that Wednesday night independent study? - So independent study is stillrunning right now currently. And we do have students thatattend independent study. But yes, there is, an important componentof independent study is that we have to haveat least 20% of of time with the students with their teacher. And so, until we've reached that point, that is when funding or partialfunding comes into play. And so part of our programreview is really looking at all these different choice opportunities, which I think are really important in alternative programmings, to have different pathwaysand different choices, how they can kind of foldinto how we move forward. But, you know, any way that we go in terms of making some shifts there wouldn't have anything to dowith this designation change, it would just have to dowith like our program review and the things that come outof the process with that. - Well, because just onething I found interesting is, in MDE's, you know, information on this, if we have a state approvedalternative program, which I imagine that'swhat we'll be doing, and we have an independentstudy time slotted where we have staff thereand no student showed up, the teachers would get paid,we would get the funding to pay our teachers and wewouldn't lose that funding because no student came that day, which to me, I think is a positive thing, 'cause if they didn't show up,at least we're not losing out on having staff there readyto help those students. And then we could still get paid for those staff members being there. So I think that's a positivething to this transition. And then, to me it seems likemaybe we would save money because our ALC buildingwill be empty in the summer. - [Jenni] Correct, it will, yes. - 'Cause they'll go to the 916, right? So I mean that has to save us money for not running the air conditioning and not needing to have, you know, so I would think we're gonnafinancially have some impact that'll be in the positive by not having our ALC open in the summer. - Yeah, you know, Ithink as we look at that, we'll have to see the impact, really, the designation changesso that we can be aligned with what we're offering right now. And then as we work through, we've really, over the years, workedreally hard to say, okay, what are the needs of our students? How can we best serve them? The partnership with 916has been strengthened. Mahtomedi ALC is a reallywonderful place for some students and we also are reallyproud of what we have and then we have somethinglocally to offer. So how do we really lean into that? So yeah, I do thinkthere'll be some benefits. - Well, and we already partner with 916, so I think it's, yeah. Thank you. - All right. Anything else? Well, thank you for everything you do. We appreciate you coming in and your time. We'd like to, at this time, move on to B3, Mid-Year Update on Academic Progress. - Chair Arcand, Members of the Board. I have Disa Fabeck with me. We're going to present an update on our winter screening data that we just completed a little bit ago. If you remember Disa was withus in the fall as well. So. - Hi, good evening, Members of the Board. Before we get into the actual data, we're gonna just sort of establish kind of a common vocabulary. What are we looking at? Why are we looking at it? And so to do that, we're gonna talk aboutuniversal screening. And in education, thisis a very common term, but what this means is we'rereally evaluating our Tier 1, which is what all students receive. So all the programming,all of the materials, all of the training, right? And all students get this. And so that is what we'regonna be looking at today, our Tier 1. And then that helps us makedecisions further down the line for instruction and teaching and learning. So, we do this for math,reading, and social emotional. Today we're gonna focusreally on literacy and math. We heard from Angela and Jennifer with our littlest ones with FastBridge. So we're gonna look a littlebit at our older students, our K through 12. And as we look at the data, we're gonna see somethings to highlight here. And I wanna think aboutthis as a flashlight. So we're not seeing the whole thing, we're just sort ofguiding our understanding of where we're at. It's kind of gonna help usnavigate our next steps, like a flashlight is able to do. So you're gonna see somereally strong positive gains, particularly in our K-2,with math and literacy. Really thinking about whatwe're doing as a system is really serving those students. And when we're looking at screening data as we are going to tonight, that's gonna help us see actionable things for this school year. So when we talk about MCAs, that's at the end of a school year. Helpful information for us, but it doesn't give usaction during the year. We're also gonna seesome consistent growth in our elementary math,particularly K through four. Thinking about keeping pacewith those learning progressions throughout the year,that skill development. And then we're also gonna see some areas we wanna dive deeper. So we wanna know a little bit more. This is just that oneflashlight spotlight. We need more information. So looking specificallyat our upper elementary and our secondary with literacy and math, thinking about the rigorof those learning targets increasing for the falland the spring benchmarks. And then thinking about, this is the first year of high school we've been able to implement FastBridge, which is our screener for Tier 1. And thinking about how to rollthat out more successfully. Looking at the complexities of secondary and introducing a new screener. So you heard about FastBridge before, but something to think about too is FastBridge is gonnameasure skill development. So this is not necessarilystandards aligned, but it is aligned for theliteracy and math skills students need to achievegrade level benchmarks in these areas. So when we're looking at this,so kindergarten for example, how we would read this is thegreen is all of our students who are screened, in the fall to the left and the winter to theright, that are at or above those skill progressionsfor those targets. So hopefully you recall that in the fall the benchmarks are a little bit lower, they get a little higher in the winter, and then that grade leveltarget is the highest in the spring for those skills. So as we would look at this,we see 15% of our students that were a little bit belowor far below in the fall reached those targets for the winter. So what we're doing here,what we're targeting for our system wide in ourkindergarten is very successful, going from that 62% to 77%. Then the same thing with 1st grade. We can see the fall and the winter, the at or above thebenchmark is also in green. And you'll see thatthroughout all of the graphs. Yes. Will do. aReading is another one of the FastBridge screener suites of assessment. So what this one, it mimicsmore of the, like an MCA test, where the questions get harder as the students answer them correctly and then they dip down ifthe student gets to a point where it's like, "Oh, I don'thave that skill quite yet." So we have 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th gradeacross the district, going from fall to winter for this year. Then when we get to middleschool, a similar assessment, but those targets areincreasing in complexity, those skills aredeveloping at a higher rate for those students. Again, this is a nationwide assessment. So they're based on nationwide standards. You can see 6th, 7th, and 8thgrade for fall and winter. And then as I previouslymentioned, this is the first year that we've been excited tooffer it at a high school level to get a better picture ofhow our system is supporting and guiding our learners atthe higher secondary level. And what I'd like todraw your attention to is for 11th and 12th grade, you'll see the sample size called the N located below for 11th and12th grade, fall and winter. And the reason why I includedit for just those grades is you'll see a bigger discrepancy than we have with our other grades. And again, this is that spotlight moment to dig a little deeper and see and understand why this could be. We know that especially upper high school, they have a lot ofopportunities for programming. Sometimes those opportunities are offsite, outside of the school, maybePSEO, something like that. So it is something Iwant us to think about as we dig deeper into the data, not necessarily tonight, but as we're going throughthis at a systems level. And then we've also opened this up to our TEC and ALC students. And so you can see thatnumber just switches just slightly for 11th and 12th grade. We have a very similarstructure with math. So our kindergarten and 1st grade is that one-on-one administered,it is not adaptive. So the students allget the same questions, not fall to winter, but all of them in that winter screening periods, the benchmark continues to move. So we see, again, we see anincrease with our kindergarten and 1st grade of studentsgetting those skills in math to be more at grade level trajectory. So here is our two through five, called aMath, adaptive mathis what that stands for. And then this is wherewe'll end our math data for this year. We stopped it at 8th grade. As I mentioned, we introduced the literacy for high school this year, so that's been a slower progression for rolling out our screeners. But you can see again the fall and winter for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. So give you a moment to look at that. So as we look at this witha really dissective lens, we wanna know where can wereplicate what is working, what skill development are we really able to target and scaffold? And so as we mentioned before, we saw all of the graphs, wesee a lot of that strength in our early grades forliteracy in particular and our elementary for math as well. So we see those studentsgaining the skills they need between fall and winter,which is our goal. Of course we wanna dig deeper. There's a deeper story, you know, they're not just these onesize students in a box, like there's multifacetedcomponents of it, which is our MTSS model inWhite Bear Lake Area Schools. So looking at really implementation, making sure that our rigoris aligning with the work that we're doing in theclassroom and the standards. Thinking about teacherprofessional development, which includes evenreading FastBridge reports, some people feel verycomfortable in the data world and some people that they need a little bit more support with that. And then really aligning what we're doing for that replication piece. So making sure we're puttingall of our resources, time, and energy into thingsthat are showing success and using data to drive that. - [Dr. Gillespie] Whatquestions might you have for us? - I just have one quick question. That last slide that youshowed, like for 8th grade, it looks like there was no change. But the question I haveism the benchmark move, or like, okay so the benchmark is moving, because I was wondering,because we're actually going to, where they need to be atthe end of that grade. So that's why we'reseeing no change because, they may have growth, butthe benchmark is also moving. - [Disa] Absolutely correct. Yes. - Okay.- The benchmark moves. So they may be moving with it, but maybe not as fast asthat benchmark is moving. - Thank you.- Yeah. - [Dr. Arcand] Otherquestions? Ms. Ellison. - Yeah, thank you. 'Cause that was a question that I had too. So I was just clarifying that it's not that the studentsare necessarily losing, it's that the benchmarks are changing. And then just a clarificationtoo on the adaptive questions versus what the kindergartner, so you're saying that thekindergarten and 1st grade, it's the same questions they receive in the fall and the winter? - No.- Is that right? - Thank you for asking that question. All of the students in kindergarten and 1st grade receive the same questions. It does not adapt to themwithin that fall period. And then once we get to the winter, the skill progression increases, so the questions are different,the subtests are different. Thank you for that clarification. - [Ms. Ellison] Okay, thank you. And then my other question is, do you, and you might not have thisdata off the top of your head, but how do you feel like this compares to the years that we've seen in the past? - Yes, that is definitely onthe top of my head, 'cause it was my first question too.- Okay, wonderful. Thank you. - So we do see a lot of similarities. So our early elementary has always been very strong the past several years, especially in literacy and math for almost all of elementary. But that secondary is where we wanna see some more growth than what we've seen. So replicating some thingsthat we've seen in the past. So it's been pretty consistent. And now we gotta dig deeper. - So just as a follow up, so the questions that are on the assessments, those change year to year in FastBridge? - For elementary earlyreadings, that's K and one, they're pretty identicalthe past eight years that I've been working with FastBridge. It's hard to know withthe adaptive assessments, they're pretty comparable, but I think they try to adjustthem every four years or so is what their communication has been. - [Ms. Ellison] Okay. Andwho writes those questions? - The FastBridge company is.- The FastBridge company. - Yeah.- Okay. Okay, so then as we'relooking at secondary, you mentioned things liketeacher professional development and gathering more information, do you have benchmarks thatyou're looking to achieve for those middle school,high school students? - Yeah, particularly withthe teacher development. I think one of the strongestthings for us has really been how to read the data so theyknow what scaffolds to help. Because we don't wanna lowerthe rigor in the classrooms. You know, we're going toshow state level standards, grade level standardsfor all of our students, but how do they access that? What skill do they need? Do we pull an AVID strategy? Do we help with moreindividual conferencing? So that has been a place that we've found a good entry point and a lot of interest. - Additionally with middleschool in particular, but as you know, K,really across the board, but this year they just implemented a new English language arts curriculum and so that's been helpful. So as you think about, weimplemented new curriculum three years ago now in elementary. So we're really followinglike that 2nd grade. It's not like we're notfollowing all of them, but 2nd grade is when teachers had all of letters training and have had, our students have experiencedour new curriculum. And so what are we seeing there? So when you think about that for English language arts at 6-8, they're implementing anew curriculum this year, which allows us to reallycalibrate on making sure we're ensuring we're holding students to high rigorous standards and then aligning around those supports. And then they're pilotingmath right now, K-8. And so we've reallyfocused on the strategies around math this year in termsof professional development. But next year we'll have new curriculum that will really align usin both of those areas. So those also have been key as you think about justrecalibration around standards and helping our educators havesome of the newer materials to reach students. - [Ms. Ellison] There'sa lot of moving parts. - Yeah.- Thank you. - [Dr. Arcand] Ms. Streiff Oji . - So thank you for sharing that data. Do we have systemicinterventions across the district at elementary, middle, andhigh school, would you say? - Yep. Yeah, that's what, as Disawas referring to, MTSS. So we think about that Tier 1, which is what we were assessing, that universal instruction for all. Tier 2, interventions that can happen in the classroom and outside. Those are smaller groups,those would be students, you know, and that's when we'veshown you different graphs, some, you know, thatmiddle almost there maybe. And then the most intensiveis what we call Tier 3. And a lot of that can bein even smaller groups or one-on-one if needed. We're continuouslylooking at those supports and aligning 'em to data so that that's really impactingstudent achievement. - Thank you. When you talk about a deeper dive or further systemic inquiry,what might that look like? - I think we're open toa lot of ideas right now looking at historic trends, like where can we replicate what is going, can we get into some classrooms? Can we see that learningin action, thinking about, as Dr. Gillespie said, what training have those successful teachers had and how can we make sure thatthat's being further pushed, making sure all of our staff, you know, we have a lot of staffsupporting students, right? So we have ML teachers, wehave special education teachers and we have that alignment, with understanding of the supports and how to best serve theneeds of the students. - The other piece that we're noticing, as you think about reallylooking at teachers specifically in their classroom,we've seen some really, you know, 20% gains in terms of students achieving low-risk inthe fall to the winter. Can we do more focus groups with them? What are some of the conditions that we could create across our system? And what we're finding isthey really are following our guaranteed and viablecurriculum, where you think about that guaranteed experiencefor our students. They're collaborating, and not just when we have kind of time, but that's how they really are leaning in. So what I'm curious moreis how to help that happen more consistently in terms of data use. Disa is fabulous and goesout and helps it make more, you know, user friendly, like okay, I understand what my kids, but what does that looklike in terms of practice now that I have this data. And then the other piece at secondary is just a little more complex. The kids, you know, have been tested a lot over their careers, andso, if you remember MCA, they were very blunt abouttheir thoughts around that. And so how can we helpthem understand the purpose of these assessments thatwe truly do use them. And then partnering with them, especially at the high school level, we're still working with Principal Reetz, but trying to figure out ways to make it meaningful for them, not a gotcha, but also understanding that if they choose not to take the test, it impacts us. And really knowing howdo we accurately assess how we're doing for them and their skills. - [Ms. Streiff Oji] And I sawthat part of your assessing is looking at the student experience. - Absolutely. - And getting that from them. Do we have any data on those that have attended ourearly childhood program and the impact on their success? - We do. We look at that specifically on how they're doing in kindergarten. I can't rattle it welloff the top of my head, but we could, you know, we tryto highlight that every year when we bring thecomprehensive achievement, formerly known as World'sBest Workforce to you. But we do see a positive impact and have been able toraise those standards. So we think of 80%, once we achieve 80%, you know, we wanna keep pushing it, but that better aligns thatour Tier 1 is effective, and then we look into those other tiers. They've hit very close to 80%. - And last question, willwe get any information on the social emotional? It speaks to that, that we have that data, and the kinds of thingswe look for with that data - We will, this year we'reimplementing a new assessment, we're aligning it to the FastBridge. And so what you're getting this year is, when those school presentations come, them highlighting what they did because as you've heard, wehave what's called mySAEBRS, and then we also are institutinga district wide survey that what we created. But this year being a transition year and some of the timing system wide, there's variabilitythat won't be next year. And so we'll report anykind of trends that we can and then it'll be moreeveryone taking a similar test. So then we would add it to thesein the '26-'27 school year. - [Ms. Streiff Oji] Great. Thank you.- Thank you. - [Dr. Arcand] Ms. Beloyed. - [Ms. Beloyed] For theFastBridge assessment, does it specifically indicate like areas or benchmarks for the particular student? And if so, how fast does that information get back to the teacher to be able to use? - That's a great question. For the most part, unless we've seen someinconsistencies in student responses, it will give a nice suggestionfor a starting point for support of that student skill. We have found if a studenthas clicked through or their answers seem inconsistentaccording to the program, it doesn't offer that. But that's a separate conversation, right? "Hey, I'm noticing this withyour score, tell me about that. Can we have you retake it?" So that's a separate thing. But yeah, so there is some nice reports that we can use inconjunction with other things that we're seeing in the classroom, informative and summative, with standards that wehave that we can overlay. - So from the point in whichthey take the FastBridge, when is that informationthen available to you? - [Ms. Fabeck] I believe almost immediate. I've seen it very quickly. - [Dr. Gillespie] It'sin two different ways. It's uploaded nightly toour EduClimber system, which is how we house our data. But educators also haveaccess to FastBridge. And so often by thetime we're looking at it at a system level, principalsare already looking at it with their data teams,adjusting their interventions. They don't need us to help that part. Obviously the training andbridging any technical support that might be there, butit's available nightly. - So does the data team parse out the data in such a way that thisparticular teacher has a cluster of students thatare, this is benchmark, is the highest one thatthey're not meeting or this is the highest benchmarkthat they're all meeting. Does it dig down that deep into it that, and is that information providedto the teachers as well? - Yeah, and then theyprogress monitor it based on, so then they too arerunning assessments weekly to see how they intervention. So it's really centered around a skill. I would need Cynthia's, I don't wanna, my expertise is not literacy. However, like the literacy skills, when you think about phonological skills and what can they look atand how can they make sure as we're thinking about automaticity or something like that, thatthey're teaching the students, getting them to mastery andthen being able to move on. So that is the constantprogress monitoring and then they readjust those tiers. When you think about theTier 1 that I talked about, Tier 2, Tier 3, every six to eight weeks, and then they have bigger data meetings. And really, again, dive inhow their kids are doing and then site, through their WINN time, the What I Need Now time,they are supporting students and by they, I meanall classroom teachers, support staff, the schools. That's K-5, 6-8, and 6-12, there's a lot less researcharound interventions. And so as we lean in, each one of our middleschools has similar teams in a sense of wherestudents get pulled out. And then we're partnering withthe high school to figure out what that looks like insupport of the new data that we have with the READ Act. - [Ms. Beloyed] FastBridge isavailable across the country, correct?- Mm-hmm. - Correct? - So when they're settingtheir benchmark standards, what are they benchmark, do they do it againsteach state's standards? Do they update those? I mean, what are theirbenchmarks based on? - Their benchmarks arebased on the literacy or math progression of skills. And so they have moreinformation available, but they try to update itevery three to four years. But it is national skills. It is not state level benchmarks. - [Ms. Beloyed] Do we see any deficits in what FastBridge may beassessing versus say the MCAs? - When I looked at that in the past, I don't see significantdiscrepancies between them. FastBridge is a much shorterassessment, hence, fast. And MCAs have a little bitmore of that reading stamina for both math and literacy and science. And so I haven't seenany massive discrepancies between the two. But FastBridge even saysthere's a strong correlation between state testing. And they actually werestarted in Minnesota, so I like to think that theyprioritize state standards, but it really is that skill progression. - Are the tests timed in FastBridge or? - Some of the assessments are, so some of the fluencyones are, but otherwise no. - [Ms. Beloyed] Becausethat's a big difference between MCAs and that type, is that you're maybe not under the same type of time constraints that- - Yeah, 'cause we have studentsthat will take, you know, quite a bit of time ona FastBridge assessment. So unless it's a fluency, which we didn't talkabout specifically today, we do that at more of ourelementary, it is untimed. - [Ms. Beloyed] Is thereany way of identifying maybe processing times or processing time disorders based on how long it takesstudents to get through some of the FastBridge tests? - That's a good question. I have not dove into that personally yet. - I haven't either. - That's something goodto consider though, 'cause I know they layer it with some other assessmentstoo in the classroom to really understand. 'Cause I know with theMCAs you can get timing for students of how long it took them. - And when you think about our process, more identifying students whomight have learning needs, you know, part of this alsois part of our screening for characteristics of dyslexia or our student support teams. As students also arereceiving intervention at that Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3, if they're still not seeing progress, we have, you know, a whole structure around child study teams and teams that come togetherand really look in that. I would have to ask specificallyif they're looking at processing time in terms ofhow long the tests are taking, however, I would imagine that they are. But it would be more in that process, once you're kind of trying all these differenttypes of interventions, you have a lot of data and you're still notseeing student progress. - [Ms. Beloyed] I would just think that that would maybe be interestingor helpful to teachers to know if they have some outliers within their student groups and- - Absolutely. - [Ms. Beloyed] Those kinds of things could be more targeted. - Mm-hmm. Yeah. - [Ms. Beloyed] Alright,thank you for the information. - [Dr. Arcand] Any questions? Mr. Skaar. - Thank you. Thank you. On the K through three reading and K through four math, you saw improvements in those areas. Is there a separate person that's in charge of those two thingsthat we could point to, that, you know, thisperson's in charge of this and maybe they're doing it differently and it's improving outcomes? Or is it all overall just one program that you're trying to administerand get the test results? - No, we can point to the specific teacher and the results they're seeing and drill down to thestudents actually in our data. And so when you think about, as we look school by school by school, so for example, kindergarten, every single school saw positive movement so that we as a districtcan achieve almost 80%, that's necessary in all of our 80% goals. And so when you think about,then diving further into that, what teams had the largest growth? We have about eight or nineteachers that we've identified that had 20% or more growth. And so then from there,trying to figure out what did they do, how dowe double down on that? And in terms of the people that lead that with our principals and teacher teams, it really is the teachingand learning team. So I don't have them divided by content specifically like K-12. Like we have one person who'ssupporting our math review. We have a District Literacy Specialist, which is Cynthia Mueller, our Principal on Special Assignment. She's supporting that. But we really work with teacher leaders and then the principalsto dive into that data. But we can get down tothe individual teachers. - So, what about if, canyou stratify it down to, I'm sure you can, to students, to say this group ofstudents across the district showed a 20% improvement, irrespective of the teacher,but these students did this. And what did they dodifferently or the same or why did that happen? So can you do that as wellby small groups to find, kind of peel that backand maybe talk to the, not just the teacher, but, you know, maybe even the student, especially in some of the advanced grades, as far as what they're doing, triangulate that withthe parent or guardian to see if they're, youknow, that support structure is part of the answer at home, to improve these, to showthat type of improvement? Do you know what I mean?- I do. What I would say, wewould take the approach, that's really a school-wide approach, in terms of looking at what students across multiple teachers did that. What we have, our greatest levers, are really, really stronginstruction in the classroom, and then, you know, thesecomplementing support systems, and then also enhancing our principals' instructional leadership. So as we see these grade levels, we can click in with the teachers and you can almost seewhich kids went from, you know, green to yellow, which kids went from red to green, once they get through 5th grade and above, they also can be exceeding. And so we can really see those individual student experience. But in terms of collectingacross the board, across schools with those specific groups, sometimes there's so much nuance in terms of their classroom experience that it's hard for us to grab onto like, like what you're saying,kids across schools that have achieved in this exceptional, sometimes we can grab onto an experience that they all were in classroomswhere the teachers were, you know, really collaboratingand things like that. But what's faster for usto do is really dive into which teachers are getting those results and how do we double down on that. And then the schools wouldhave those conversations with parents in termsof identifying students for advanced learning. What other things might we couple with? What interventions can families do in terms of helpingtheir students succeed? We send home progress reports. So for us, grabbing ontothe classroom experience has been where we'veseen the fastest leverage in terms of ensuring thateach one of our students continues to increase. But I understand what you're saying, we could absolutely look across the board to see if there was othercommonalities and experience and to be able toreplicate those successes that students are seeing. - So besides the teachers that would need, like you know, if you're in a classroom and you're not, you know, your numbers didn't goup or they went down and you're having thatconversation with the teacher, who's having theconversation with the teacher and whoever else is part of that as kind of a coaching opportunity to say, "Hey, here's what your numbers are. You know, we need to improve them." Here's, you know, who's doing the coaching for the teachers? - We have instructional coachesat each one of our building, our principals do that. We also have professional learning leads for our teacher leaders that we coach. And so we really wrap around, we have district supportthat comes around. We have data team meetings and they do those in various ways. But the buildings have that,we have district level support, we do that with our principalsat our leadership teams. We have district instructional leadership. So that happens in multipleplaces as you're thinking about, okay, we're seeing thesepockets of success, which we're really excited about, especially in kindergarten,1st grade, you know, some of them maybe haven't yet moved exactly the way we want, but historically we maybe went backwards a little bit in winterand we're not seeing that. And so how do we dive into it with all of those differentgroups and then come together. It really centers aroundtheir school improvement plans and then diving in and saying, okay, this is what we're trying, these are our levers that we're pulling. And then how do we hyperfocus on what we're seeing is working. - So you're familiar withthe 80/20 principle, right? - Yeah.- So what's the 20% that delivers the 80% of improvement? Is there, I mean, ultimately who's most accountable for improvement, besidesthe student, right? Who would be most accountable? Is that the individual teacher? - I would say our whole system is. Yes, of course the teacher is, but when you think about the 20% and helping people identify it, you know, we have a lot coming at us. It really, when I talk aboutthat collaboration piece, to me that's the 20% that moves 80 in terms of how do we, A, as leaders create the conditions for teachers to be able to collaborate more, make sure they have the tools they need, how do we provide instructional coaches? 'Cause as Ms. Beloyed's asking,you know, "I see this data, but what if I don't know whatto do with it as a teacher?" And so ultimately it's theteachers, the principals, all of us accountable to make sure our students are achieving, - Right. Well, it's hard to makea system accountable. So ultimately we've gota, you know, I guess, I guess it would be theprincipal, the teacher, yourself, and you as well areaccountable for these results, to improve them. - [Dr. Gillespie] You got it. - Thank you.- Mm-hmm. - [Dr. Arcand] Ms. Thompson. - [Ms. Thompson] When dowe do the winter test? - The window is... - Typically in January. We have a two-week window thatwe ask sites to do within. So I don't know thatoff the top of my head, but typically in January,mid to end of January. - Mid to end of January.- Yeah. - So this year's resultscould have a lot of impact based on things happeningduring that timeframe. - Yeah, absolutely.- And there has been a lot of things happening inthat timeframe this year that could have impactedtest results, which is part of our achievement andintegration goals, right? When we look at the additional information we were all providedand how we're reducing disparities in our academic achievement among all of our students,that is a big piece of this. And I wish I had had time to look at our past FastBridge results, 'cause I feel like theseones are a little different than what we've seen in thepast, as far as the growth not being, and maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like in the pastwhen we did the fall to winter, there was even more progression of students going into the green and not, where it looks a little moreeven or leveled out this year. Or sometimes if we look at it and we're not understandingthat the questions have changed and the rigor is gettingmore, higher up there, that that will have an impact on it too. But I do wanna just make surethat we're also realizing like where we were and where we are now, where we were in January,where our students were, the things they were going through, the things their familieswere going through, that definitely could alsohave an impact on this that are out of our control. And this is something thatI know I talk about a lot, but it is a passion of mine and is directly relatedto the work that I do and the families that I servein my job outside of this. And just knowing wherethey were in that timeframe that I think that thatpossibly, I would imagine that did have an impact onour students' ability to focus and really do their best work while they were takingthose FastBridge tests. So I don't really have any questions. I just appreciate everythingthat you're all doing and I think everybody elsereally asked some good questions, so I'll just leave it atthat and thank you very much. - Yep? We're done? All right, well thankyou for everything you do and thank you forpresenting to us tonight. We're gonna move on to Discussion Item B4, the 2026 through '29 Achievementand Integration Plan. Discussion, Ms. Gillespie and Mr. Shavers. - Chair Arcand, Members of the Board, I'd like to introduce Brenton Shavers. Together we will present on our Achievement and Integration Plan, the new rewrite of that for July 1st, 2026 to July 30th, 2029. We will bring this plan back for action at our next school board meeting. - All righty. Well, thank you for having us here today to talk about this plan. As you know, this isthe meeting that we have every three years as we write this plan to get your approval. So achievement andintegration, by statute, is to increase racial andeconomic integration of students, to increase academic achievement. Also, in order to be a part of this plan, it's really racially isolated districts and districts with aracial identifiable school. For us, this means Willow Lane Elementary, due to the fact that they have a 20%, their protected class is20% of the district average at the same grade level, and that's also by Minnesota statute. For this plan, we have three goal areas. So since we qualify based on Willow, the district has three goal areas. Each goal area is, one of the goal areas is achievement, reducing the disparities, integration, increasing racialand economic integration, and then the third one isthe teacher equity goals. So those are the three goalareas for the district. And then Willow Lane Elementary also has the same three goal areas. The goals are written assmart goals, meaning that they're specific, measurable,attainable, that they're also, I stumble always on the R,but realistic or reliable, and that they're time-bound. The goals are also student-centered, really making sure thatwe're focusing on all, each and every one of our students. And that it's not focusing on programs, staff members, or ourpartnering districts. And also that they align with our district'sComprehensive Achievement and Civic Readiness, or formerly World's Best Workforce goals. - [Dr. Gillespie] Sowe've worked really hard to make sure our goalsalign across our system. And so I wanted to takeyou through, again, the Comprehensive Achievementand Civic Readiness. We call that CACR. And it's formally knownas World's Best Workforce. So those of you who'vebeen around and heard that. We have five goal categories for that. All children are ready for school. All racial and economic achievement gaps between students are closed. All students are readyfor career and college. All students graduate from high school. And all students are preparedto be lifelong learners. So this plan, I'm gonna highlightthe district level goals that we have, specificallyaround the all racial and economic achievementgaps that you'll see, also the achievement across the board and how we've aligned ourachievement and integration goals so that we can have thegreatest impact on students and their experience. So the first goal, our district academic goalacross our whole district, and you've heardprincipals present on this, me reference this, is that eachone of our grade level bands achieve at least 80% in the low-risk for FastBridge earlyReading Composite, FastBridge CBMreading,which is a fluency exam, and then that aReading two through 12 that Disa just presented on. We also added math. Now that doesn't mean we're not, we're solely focusing on math6-8 right now with FastBridge, but as you know, as we continue to grow, and next year we'll have anew curriculum in elementary, we will focus on that, just like we have and will continue around literacy. So you think about thoseas our overarching goals. Our CACR achievement goal thenis to dive in and see what, after that 80%, what are thegreatest gaps that we have and how do we close thosegaps among groups of students by at least 50%. And you can see that. Really, to meet that goal, the overall proficiencyfor our whole district has to increase so that wecan then close those gaps. So then the A and I goal,building off of that, focuses on our black students. And the reason it doesis the black students are our greatest percentage interms of numbers of students. And right now also thegreatest disparity that we have in terms of a gap around our achievement. It's highlighted and starred there because we're gonnause our June, 2026 data as our baseline data. So then you'll see that goal become more specific instead of the 50%. Additionally, we have astudent experience goal, and the wording on this is aligned, as you heard with our four-year-olds, can be pretty broad for students. But the assessment gets down to them feeling valued in school, but also aligns to some ofour strategic directions when you think aboutstudents being able to adapt to an ever-changing worldand things like that. So as we think about that goal and having 90% of students report that they are contributingto their community, able to adapt to change,and also feel valued. We really have looked at alot of our credit attainment in terms of post-secondary credits. And I wanna highlight,that's not solely our classes that maybe people think about translate into a four year degree. That also there are opportunitiesin our career pathways. We have articulated credit. We have a lot in our trades. So we really are tryingto always emphasize that we want students tobe college and career ready and there's multiple ways forthem to earn those credits. We've often, and we willcontinue to track 12 credits and the percentage ofstudents that earn 12 credits by the time they graduate. But we wanted to expand it this year to make sure at least 80%of our graduating seniors have earned at least one credit. And so then when we reportthat to you as a board, we'll be able to give you even more data. But thinking about thestudents having that experience in at least one course, which would translate intomore credits than one. I misspoke. So then as we think aboutA and I aligning to that, we wanna focus as wepartnered with our AIPAC, our American IndianParent Advisory Council, and then again lookedat our black students in terms of the greatestracial percentage of students that we have, but also at times the greatest disparity thatwe had in terms of ensuring that we have each one ofour students aligning. We'll report again annually these things. But as we look at it, you can see how they're all coupled together and that's really purposeful,'cause we have a lot that we're trying toaccomplish as a system and making sure that our educators and our principalsunderstand they're aligned. - [Mr. Shavers] So with Willow Lane, they also have these goals as well. So the academic goal is the same as the district goal around that, with the exception itbeing an elementary school, so it's grades two through five. And then it also has an integration goal. So this one's a little bitdifferent as we're looking at it. So it says 80% of Willow Lane's4th and 5th grade students will report an increase in academic and social emotional leadership skills on a student pre and post survey after the conclusion of the relevant and integrated learning experiences. This one is, when we'retalking with our integration, we are partnering with, or Willow Lane will partnerwith Birch Lake Elementary within our district to do activities and integrated activities, but they will also partnerwith Linwood Elementary and Forest Lake to also do some of these integrated activities withthem at their location. And then the other and last goal for each of the district plan and for Willows are identical as well. And this is the teacher equity goal. We really wanted to focuson an increase in the use of instructional practiceswith our education staff, our educators, based on the5D Dimensions of Teaching and Learning Instructional Framework. So we'll be looking forthat increase each year, 80% or more of our teachers will be demonstrating an increase, and both for Willow and for the district. - [Dr. Gillespie] And if you remember, this goal talks abouteffective teachers as well. So that's what we're aligning towards in terms of ensuring thateach one of our students has access to effective teachers. - [Mr. Shavers] So when weare looking through the goals, they're also, we have to have the goal, we have to have strategiesthat we are looking at as well. So we're really looking andfocusing on what are we doing and currently doingthroughout all of our system. So collaborative inquiry teams, really making a concerted effort to make sure these aregoing and functioning well. Intentional student, family,and counselor engagement, as we're looking at ourplanning with course selections, really engaging withfamilies and the counselors, intentional meetings with students to better align their careeror college expectations that they have as as a family unit. Student experiences withmulti-district college tours. We're also looking, this one we have a collaboration with Rosevilleis one of our schools that we collaboratewith our college tours, as well as Forest Lakeand Inver Grove Heights. Intentional and focusedprofessional development, which you've heardspoken many times today. But also really looking atdata and decision making. And that student centeredcoaching, really looking at that, taking away from how we can fix teachers, but really digging down deeper into academic success of students. Questions? - Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and start. I have a couple of questions. I'm looking at your Aand I achievement goal and that's to reduce the achievement gap amongst black students by 50%. I was curious, have youbroken that down by gender and is the gap greater forone gender than the other? Or they're about the same? - That's a good question. I have not broken it down by gender. We took a look at the data from, it was the spring data last year and we looked at the fall data this year, just to really as a whole. But that's a good question.We could look at that. - We do look at it system wide. I don't have it off the top of my head, but it often depends on grade levels, if there's a disparity there, yep. - [Dr. Arcand] Okay. The other question I have, when you talked about 80% or more of White Bear Lake School educators will demonstrate an increase. What does that look like?How much of an increase? I mean, how do youdetermine that increase? - For which one are you speaking of? - I'm looking at like teacher equity goal. And then it says by June each school year, 80% or more in the White BearLake Area School educators will demonstrate an increase in the use of instructional practices. What institutes thatincrease? I'm just curious. How do you know? Every day I have to use it,every lesson, every third day? What is the expectation of the teacher for those 5 Dimensions? - So part of their 5Dinstructional framework is that they have a self-reflectionthat they do as well. So it's really based offof that self-reflection, if they're getting, from our PD that we'regiving them as well, to really be effectiveteachers in the classroom. So it's based off of their own judgment on the skills that they'veacquired to be more effective. - And that self-assessment. So you think about, okay,they're self-assessing, we're looking at that, but then that couples intoindividual goals that they set, which aligns us for our teacherdevelopment and evaluation to the requirements of the statute. But when we think aboutcontinuous growth and development, there's coaching that occurs,visits from principals, and then at the end of the year they receive a summative evaluation, and all of that is based inour 5D Instructional Framework, which is rigorous classroom experiences. So we're excited to align it with that. That's something thatwe've been working on the past few years. - [Dr. Arcand] Alright, thank you. Other questions? I'm sorry. Ms. Streiff Oji. - So just on the last thingthat you just talked about, how many observations are done each year on teacher's classroom? It's every third year sort of cycle or? - It is, yeah. So probationary, we have todo at least three a year, but they do walk through,so it's more than that. And then we have, our tenured teachers are divided into different levels. And so each year they're getting visits from a coach or principal,but the more concentrated year are at least three observations and then we work through an inquiry cycle. We've really done alot of shifting towards how is this about growth and development? Well, giving clear feedback, but partnering with oureducators on this is, getting them to try different strategies and this is what's based in the data. So it is more frequent thanit has been in the past. So, I would have to really look at it to get the exact numbers. But it's multiple times a year. - [Ms. Streiff Oji] So it's a combination between their self-evaluation,their teacher observations, coaching cycles-- Yep. - [Ms. Streiff Oji] Things like that. Okay. And then the cross district collaboration with Roseville, ForestLake, and Inver Grove, is this the first year? Have you done this in the past? - We've done this in the past as well. Really mainly with ForestLake and with Roseville. So it'll be something newthat we're doing with, well not new, but it more intentional with Inver Grove Heights. - Great. I think there's so much to gain from cross district collaboration,so good to see that. And then the partnership, the relevant and integratedexperience that Willow students will have with likeBirch and then Linwood. Do you know what those are? - With Birch Lake it's Starbase that they will be attending with Birch. And then with Forest Lake, it's really, they have, I'm not evensure what that is with, it's 200 acres of woodedland that they have on the campus of Linwood. So it's really doing those environmental, being out in those wilderness areas and different learning projects that they will be able to do with them. I took a tour of the school with the elementaryprincipal at Willow Lane and it was amazing justto see what was going on. Actually I think we went onthe coldest day last month. But the students were stillout there and running around and they were doing a mathproject at that point in time and it was really cool to see that and trying to figure outhow we can really partner and engage in those activities as well. - So who fosters that collaboration, that integrated experience? Is it the principals or the teachers? - It's the two principalswith the teachers. They'll be doing that with5th grade with Linwood and 4th grade with Birch Lake. I think I have that right. - [Ms. Streiff Oji] Thank you. - [Dr. Arcand] Other questions? Mr. Skaar. - So with Willow Lane, that's our one school that we need to have this plan for. Did the boundaries recently change for Willow Lane in the last five years? - Our boundaries changed. I don't remember how longago they did, but yeah. It didn't change the designation for Willow Lane in terms of, that's not a new designation. And I would have to, it's been, I'm in my ninth year, as a district we've changed the boundaries in the past nine years and we've always been a part of, Willow Lane's always beenracially identifiable. - Okay, thank you. And then, in your plan, you mentioned an academic engagement specialist. So is that a school district employee or is it outsourced? Is it shared? - [Mr. Shavers] They'reschool district employees. - How many of those do we have? Are they all in, are they at the school or at the district level? - They're all out inschools. There's five. - Okay. Okay. And then have we ever donea parent/guardian survey in terms of how satisfiedthey are with this program or this plan? - Not specifically with this plan. I know there are parent,we do as a district, get feedback from our parents, but not with this specifically. - 'Cause all of these activities are intertwined with other ones. So Willow Lane would do parent meetings, in terms of your thinkingabout Willow specifically, around some of their, you know,programs that are centered around different otherfunding streams as well, which might impact this. But in terms of a specificachievement and integration, we have not. - [Mr. Skaar] Okay, thank you. - We do parent engagement events, which are IZIs, in theintentional social interactions, and I know they seekfeedback from families during those as well. All of our buildings do that,but Willow does it as well, so they get that feedback from parents regarding those type of activities. - Alright, thank you.- Mm-hmm. - [Dr. Arcand] Ms. Thompson. - I just have a couple of maybe comments. And one thing I noticed in the actual plan that's attached in ourpacket for us to review that you guys have to submit to MDE, and one, I was veryhappy to see that there's a key indicator of progress for our American Indianstudents and our black students, like for parents to participate more in the PTOs and the AIPAC committees, and to have that like increase by 10%, which I'm very excited about, because it is hard to get parents to participate in those things. So I'm excited to see how that, or what you guys haveplanned to make that happen, 'cause I think it's very important. It helps our parentsparticipate more in things. And then one thing that I noted on, 'cause we have the two areas where we had to list the committee members. And in the first set wehave our AIPAC director and then two parents. But on the second listing- - Which is Willow's-- That's for the Racially Identifiable School Community Collaboration Council. It does not have them listed on there. So just something I noticed and thought I wouldbring to your attention, 'cause it does say at the top of that to make sure you list andidentify any AIPAC members. - [Dr. Gillespie] Got it. So on the Willow page where we identify the committee members?- Yeah. It's page 12 of the MDEdocument you have to submit. - [Mr. Shavers] I can add that on there. That was just a-- Just wanted to- - Thank you.- We all miss things and so, yeah.- No, thank you. - You're welcome. - Yes. I presented this to AIPAClast week actually as well for their, this would bethe second time with AIPAC, so thank you for catching that. - [Ms. Thompson] Yeah. - [Dr. Arcand] Okay, Ms. Ellison, - This is a tremendous amount of work, so I really appreciate allthe time that you spend in talking with thecommunities to get this done. I think this is the third achievement and integrationplan that I've seen since I've been on the board. And just two observations. When I first started on the board, I think that was the first time that we were focusing on the number of post-secondary credits, like in a really focusedand intentional way. And to see that it, you know,80% is what our goal is, I think that's incredible. That's growth, even in the years thatI've been on the board. And then my question is aboutthe student experience goal. 90% of students reportingthat they feel valued. Is that something, that I don't remember from the first time. Is that something that's newer? - It is. As we think about how to, if you remember, I can't rattle them off thetop of my head right now, but we have some directionson the strategic plan that have always been harderfor us to collect data. So we aligned it there and then also thinkingabout how do we hone in on that belonging and how students feel. And so we have some moresummative lagging data, the Minnesota StudentSurvey, we have SAEBRS, and mySAEBRS, which iswhat we use in FastBridge, but we wanted a way to acrossthe board survey our students. Our principals were doingit a lot individually, but how do we streamline that so that we can reportthat data to you as well. So that is, it's a newfocus for us to align, really, the next step inaligning data collection. - It's so important. It's just as important as, you know, if kids don't feel valued, theydon't feel like they belong, they don't wanna learn orthey don't feel as invested. So I think these are all integrated and I really appreciate seeing that there. So thank you. - Yeah, we wanted data that we, it's just like the FastBridge. The FastBridge, we can collect it fast and then do something about it, where we have all thoseother lagging, you know, which are also important,but they make it hard for us to adjust to it, so that- - Education is a long game.- Yep. - Thank you.- Mm-hmm. - [Dr. Arcand] Ms. Beloyed. - Mine's not really, well,I guess it is a question. I agree with Board Member Ellison. I think that this is the third iteration that we've been through. And I took a little bitof time to look through the '24-'25 report on it. I was wondering if you could put together, it's a moving target all the time, so it can be a littledaunting to try to figure out where the success has beenand where it hasn't been. So would it be possibleto put together something that combines thedifferent subset of years so we can see what kindof progress we've made in the last decade? I know it's, again, it's a moving target and there's gonna be different goals, but, and our demographics have changed as well, but would it be possible toput something simple together to show what the differentprogressions have been in the different areas? - Absolutely. And we can work with Dr.Arcand, if that's, you know, the board wants us to present something, we're more than willing to putsomething together, for sure. - Thank you.- Mm-hmm. - Thank you. - [Dr. Arcand] Any questions? Hearing none, thank youvery much for your time. We appreciate it.- Thank you. - And we're gonna move onto Operational Item C1, Action on the Purchaseof Electric School Buses. Mr. Wald. - Good evening, ChairArcand, Members of the Board. This is an action item for the purchase of three electric school buses, all of which are partially,well, significantly funded, through a couple of different grants. We've leveraged state and federal grants to get to this point ofthree electric buses. The Clean Heavy Duty VehicleGrant through the MPCA, through the MPCA'sapplication to the EPA Grant. We were included in that, or we applied for and wereincluded in that grant, that partially fundsone electric school bus. And the Minnesota Department of Commerce had the Electric SchoolBus Equipment Grant we applied for andreceived partial funding for two electric buses through that grant. We conducted a formalrequest for proposals and had submissions forthree electric vehicles. One was the RIDE Electric Bus at $394,800. That's the one we'regonna recommend tonight. The Blue Bird Vision Electric Bus. We run a lot of Bluebird buses, and it's probably the mostcommon bus in the country, at $411,303. And International submitteda proposal as well, but withdrew because their demand, their production was notable to keep up with demand. So they withdrew their proposal knowing that they wouldn't be able to fill the order anytime soon. It's good that the RIDE buscomes in at a lower cost, but it's also the superior bus. It's a good combination of lower price and what we believe is a superior product, At $16,500 per bus less than the Blue Bird is a savings of about $50,000. It also has a superior battery system. The Lithium Iron Phosphate battery is a safer battery, significantly safer. It has a longer life. It's more eco-friendly. It's more stable. You hear about batteriesburning or when there's, they're potentiallydangerous in an accident, the lithium iron phosphateis significantly safer than the NMC battery. So that's good news for us. The warranty protection on the RIDE bus is 50% longer than the Blue Bird bus. At 12 years, that's aboutthe life of a school bus. So the concern is howexpensive do electric buses get when they get, you know,later in their life? And with the 12 year warranty, that gets us pretty well to the end. In cold weather, if your bus is cold, it doesn't matter how it operates, you gotta have a warm bus. And so this bus is designedso that the bus warms up while it's on the charger. And so it leaves the lot warm and you're not sucking the battery to warm the bus up when it leaves, although this bus willhave a backup heat too. And then it's, we will purchase it locally through United Bus Sales in Big Lake, so we'll have local support. The finances of it, it's a $1.18 million project. At $394,800 per bus timesthree brings us to 1,184,000. The grant covers the majority of that, over a million dollars in grant funding, leaving the district cost at $125,240, less than the cost ofone diesel powered bus. You know, we funded withinour capital projects to purchase buses, so we'll certainly be able to cover that within our budget. Yeah, that's it. So, the recommendationis that the district, or the school board moveto authorize the purchase of three RIDE Creator 77passenger electric school buses at a unit price of $394,800, plus applicable tax and title plate fees, for a total of $1,184,400.00. - [Dr. Arcand] Okay. We'veheard the recommended action. Can I get a motion to approve? - So moved.- By Ms. Ellison. Second?- Second. - Second by Thompson. All right, open for discussion. - Yes.- Mr. Skaar. - [Mr. Skaar] But she can go first. - Okay, go ahead. - How much of a need do wehave for additional buses? And I'm wondering how thisis gonna figure in to, do we get some type ofcost savings overall for having the additional buses? Does it relieve some of the bus lines where we're having to goback and forth between, you know, the different levels of school? I mean, what's the need and what's the impact? - [Mr. Wald] Yeah, so weneed to continue to buy buses because buses, you know,some of our buses are old, so we'll replace someolder buses with these. We'll be in a pretty good place for buses. We can add more routesas we can add drivers. We have, you know, we'llbe able to add more routes. Does that answer your question? The operating cost ofthese is a little bit lower than a diesel bus. - How did we qualify for the grants? I mean, what school districtswould qualify for it? - Well, any school districtcould qualify for it. The two grants haddifferent qualifications. The Department of CommerceGrant was a percentage and it was based on number of criteria, one of which was free and reduced lunch involvement within your district. And so that determined howmuch funding we qualify for, an 85% level of fundingfrom the MDC Grant. Some other districts may have qualified a little bit higher percentage,some a little bit lower, - [Ms. Beloyed] And we can service these in-house at our facility? Like if we have the- - Yeah, there's gonna be a learning curve. Our mechanics are gonnaneed to get some training. The battery systems themselves would be, you know, would berepaired or serviced by, you know, someone who's gota certification in that. - So would that require additional staff in the Transportation Department? - No, actually electric busesrequire less mechanic time because there's just less service to do. They have about 20 movingparts on an electric bus. A diesel bus has about 2,000. And so there's a lotless parts wearing out. They have regenerative braking, so your brake pads don'twear out nearly as fast. So they just require less service. They go through tires a little bit faster, 'cause they're heavier. - Okay. Alright. Thank you. - [Dr. Arcand] Mr. Skaar. - Did we do a risk assessmenton the vendor RIDE? I mean, how big are they? You know, are they susceptible of going outta business inthree years or five years? - No, they're a large manufacturer, primarily transit buses. But they provide, they have a lot of buses running along the West Coast, up through California, Oregon, Washington. They have some in Canada. We talked to a vendor, someone who uses those buses in Toronto was really happy with them. Yeah, some of, like theBlue Bird bus has struggled a little bit with their newestversion of the battery, so, yeah, we spent significant time with them. - Are they North American based or are they Chinese basedor where are they made? - [Mr. Wald] They're madein Lancaster, California. - Oh, okay. - Yeah.- Good. Do we have, are these, these aren't bi-directional charging, they're just one directional,you just charge it. We can't power anything off of these? - Right.- Is that an option? So that we could park buses for events and use the power off of the bus? - That's a good question. It's not an option through Xcel. So we looked into that and Xcel doesn't havethe capacity to do that for us at this point. - Sure. What type of, so when we talk, the charging infrastructureis not built yet, but that's gonna be builtat the District Center over in Hugo, correct? - [Mr. Wald] At thetransportation site, yeah. - So are those going to be likeLevel 2 or Level 3 chargers? Do you know the different,the high speed versus- - [Mr. Wald] Yeah, we're goingfor the fast charging system. - Is that Level 3 then? Or is it Level 2? - [Mr. Wald] I think it's Level 2. - Okay. - Yeah. Our Operations team's working on putting an RFP out for that right now. And so we'll get, when this is approved and we know that we'regoing with the RIDE buses, then we'll start lookingat the charging system and getting requests for that. - So I suppose there's, there's no rate with Xcel to do, to get off-peak charging forelectrical vehicles is there? I don't think there is.- Well, we get off-peak, I mean, we have an agreement with Xcel to utilize off-peak energy as, you know, to the degree that we can. So these buses will chargeat an off-peak rate, which would be significantly lower than if they were charging during the day. - Okay. When did we, overall, you know, we'rein the education business, but transportation is a big,you know, a big part of it, getting the students A to B. But how often do we do the, looking at how much weoutsource transportation versus insourcing it? How often do we look at that? I'd ask you or the Superintendent. - Well, yeah-- To look into it. - Yeah, for sure. We just completed an RFP processfor transportation vendors. - Yep, I remember that.- Yeah. And we, in, our goal is to manageas much of it as we can, to insource it as much as wecan, provide our own routing, which gives us some more local control over how our buses run. But yeah, we look at it annually. - What about the adjacentschool districts? Do they kind of do it thesame way or do they outsource? Is it similar? Like what does Mahtomedido versus Forest Lake versus Centennial or Mounds View? - Yeah, Mahtomedioutsources all of theirs. Forest Lake does a combination. Yeah, it's really all over the place. 196 does most of their own buses, but, school districts that do allof their own busing right now are struggling withgetting all their routes covered every day. - [Mr. Skaar] Right. So we do, what percentage do we outsource? Is it like 30%, 20%?- No, it's more like 60%. - 60%?- Yeah. - [Mr. Skaar] Okay. Alright. Thanks, Tim.- Yep. - [Dr. Arcand] Any questions? Okay, hearing none- - Oh, I'm sorry, Scott.- Yes sir. - You know, with how crazythings are these days. I saw that we got an EPA Grant. I mean, do we already have the money here or is it at risk inthe pipeline somewhere? - That did slow this down a little bit. So this process, yeah, it took a little bit of time for MPCA to be able to confirm that those funds werenot gonna get locked up. But they, and they didn't, you know, they didn't sign the grant agreements until the funds were released. So they have the funds.- We're 100% percent, we're 100% on your numbers. There's no risk?- Right. - [Mr. Skaar] Okay. Thanks. - [Dr. Arcand] Okay. Well, this will be a roll call vote. I'll ask the Clerk to call the roll. - Ellison.- Aye. - Skaar.- Aye. - Streiff Oji, aye. Thompson.- Aye. - Arcand.- Aye. - Beloyed.- Aye. - Motion carries. - [Mr. Wald] Thank you.(gavel taps) - You got buses. Next we're gonna go on to Action on AlternativeLearning Pathway Design. That's gonna be Operation C2. Dr. Gillespie. - Chair Arcand, Members of the Board. Earlier this evening, Ipresented on the proposed updates to the district's alternativelearning structure. And so I ask that you approvethe recommended action. I'm gonna read it becauseit's multifaceted. Move to approve the transitionfrom an Area Learning Center to an Alternative Learning Program, affirm the K-8 targetedservices partnership with Intermediate District 916, and authorize staff to implement the alternative learningpathways transition and implementation plan as presented. - Okay, we've heardthe recommended action. Can I get a motion? - So moved.- Okay. I think Mr. Skaar had it. Mr. Skaar. And then second Ms. Beloyed. Any discussion? - [Mr. Skaar] You did such anice job there's no discussion. - All right, hearing none,this will be a voice vote. All in favor say aye. - [Members] Aye. - Opposed same sign. The motion passes.(gavel taps) We are now on to the adjournmentsection of our agenda. Can I get a motion to adjourn. - [Ms. Ellison] Mr.Chair, I move to adjourn. - Ellison. Is there a second?- Second. - Second by Thompson. This will be a voice vote. All in favor say aye. - [Members] Aye. - Opposed same sign. Thank you very much. (gavel taps)We are now adjourned.