I now call this meeting of the school board of independent district 624 to order. [clears throat] Uh will the clerk please call the role? >> Floyd >> here. >> Daniels here. Star >> here. >> Striji >> here. >> Thompson >> here. >> Aran >> here. Uh the first item of discussion item B1 bear care update. >> Chair. >> Yes. Since this is more of an [clears throat] excuse my voice informal session, can we add a discussion item which is update on corrective actions around the enrollment procedures at the high school? Can we add that to the discussion? >> You'd like to make a motion to add corrective [snorts] actions to that. >> Well, do I need to at a work? >> I think we'd have to we have to get board consent for that. >> How are these how are these agendas assembled? >> We we assemble them, but anything to change, I have to get board approval. >> Okay. So we have the motion to add update on Say it again please. >> Update on corrective actions around the enrollment procedures at the high school. Excuse my voice. >> Would that be under discussion items? >> Yes. >> Okay. So it would be D. It would be B1 I mean excuse me B5. Now if we have in front of us a a motion to add a discussion item corrective actions at the high school. Do we have a second? >> [snorts] >> Do we have a second? Do we have a second? We don't. So, we won't add that to the to the agenda. So, we'll go right now with discussion item B1, bear care updates. Lisa Orin and is it Jessica Mihi? [clears throat] >> Welcome. Good evening, members of the school board. Tonight, I'd like to introduce you to Dr. Jessica Mihi. She is the executive clinical director of Bear Care. Welcome, Jess. >> Yes. [snorts] >> All right. Thank you for inviting us today. We're excited to be here. My name is Jess Mi. Um, I'm also a parent of the district and a a a graduate of Whitebear High School, too. >> I'm Nelly Swanson. I'm one of the pediatric nurse practitioners in the Bear Clinic. And I'm Lisa Bornman and I provide mental health services and then have an intern at Bearcare. >> Um, okay. Just a little bit about us. So, we are a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Um we formed specifically to open a schoolbased health center in the Wiper Lake Area School District. Um we just kind of a little bit of um background information. So we're a nonprofit that operates Bear Care in partnership with the district. So we're a separate entity, but we have a contract with the district to provide services um for all all students in the district or or kids who are little and upcoming into the district. Um, our mission is to provide accessible and affordable health care to children of all ages to improve health and educational outcomes. So, we're located now in the new high school. We're located right in between the main office and [cough and clears throat] the school health office, which is a really great spot for us. Um, we have a a beautiful clinic space that allows us to see even more kids that we have in the past. Um, so it's functioning really great for us. We're open um before school hours, after school hours to try to be as accessible as we can to families um so that parents have fewer hours that they they need to miss for work or kids um can if they're sick during the school day, they can even come to us. School nurses offer referrals to us a lot. Um some of the services we offer I listed here sports physicals, wellness exams, um acute illnesses we see a lot immunizations, mental health, nutrition counseling, outreach and education and occupational therapy is a new service we're offering. Um and my colleagues will give some more information about that. Um, last year we had a student, Ben McMillan, I think he actually graduated last year, um, produce uh, this this bear care video. So, I think it will work. Should I go ahead and press it? Okay. >> The Bear Care Clinic offers a range of health services [music] right at White Bear Lake Area High School. We are located near the main entrance [music] next to the front office of the high school. The clinic can provide students with sports physicals and wellness exams, [music] illness treatment, up-to-date immunizations, and mental health and nutrition counseling. They can see, diagnose, and provide treatment if needed, all in the same day. Students are commonly seen for strep [music] throat, ear infections, influenza testing, and much more. The clinic is open to any child and student in [music] the White Bear Lake Area School District, and they see about 1,200 kids every year. When students feel their best, they learn their best. The Bear [music] Clinic seeks to take down any barriers that may stand in a student's way to receiving quality health care. Schedule an appointment on our website. [music] Call us at 6514446750 [music] or just stop by the clinic today. >> All right. He has a great voice for that voice over. >> [snorts] >> All right. Uh here is our clinic staff. So we have a wide variety of um very experienced expert staff. Um we're a nurseled organization which is a fairly unique model um different from a a traditional medical model. So we're we're staffed by many nurses. Um we have pediatric nurse practitioners, family nurse practitioners um in our clinic and then we also have um instead of using medical assistants, we actually have registered nurses to provide care so that um we can bring in clinical students. We have a partnership with St. Kate's and we bring in clinical students from nursing programs, um social work programs, nutrition programs, and then we mentor them in the clinic too to provide that care. Um, we also have Lisa [clears throat] is our our mental health provider and then we have a dietitian who um I'll get into a little bit more about what she does, but she does one-on-one counseling and then also does outreach and nutrition education within the schools as well. Um, am I forgetting anybody? I think that's about it. Okay. Um we we just invited or uh approved I guess um some new board of directors members for for this year. So this is a list many community members. Um so we're super excited for this this year to have a really uh a great board and full of um great ideas and people that uh contribute to Rise Up. We had a we had a very busy year. Um we we had a few achievements that I wanted to recognize for um that our staff have helped um achieve this this year. We were named the pediatric organization of the year by the Minnesota chapter of the n national association of pediatric nurse practitioners. So that was a big deal for us. Um we continue to achieve our gold standards measurements um through the association of free and charitable clinics. Um in we I think actually it was 24 we were voted the ve best pediatric clinic in Wiper Lake magazine. Um we continue to be a safety net com provider or essential community provider um that serves high-risisk special needs or underserved individuals. Um and then in in the spring we were highlighted in the Twin Cities Business Magazine um as an example of uh school-based health centers in Minnesota. Last spring, Mr. Gritsmacher's art class uh designed and created artwork for our bear care clinic. So, we have this beautiful space full of white walls. Um so, we wanted to make it more inviting and welcoming um to kids. What we have heard from families is that when they come in with their little kiddos, um it's not as intimidating. It doesn't feel like a doctor's office. Um so, we wanted to provide some more warmth and artwork and these kids did an amazing job. So, if you're ever in the high school, swing by and see um this very cool artwork that they did. We're hoping to do another round of this this year, too, with the high school students. Um our nutrition outreach has expanded quite a bit. So, this fall um Dr. Bumler, she um partnered with community services to offer cooking classes in Central Middle School. They had, I think, I don't know, 17 or 19, Tim, something like that. um students who came and and did some cooking, learned how to cook and created these amazing dishes. Um this fall we partnered with Lincoln Elementary um to bring in uh there's a garden club at Lincoln and a new community garden. So kids came and they picked vegetables and produce from the garden and then we created healthy recipes and taught them about the vitamins and the minerals of of what they were eating. Um, so that's been really fun. And then new this fall, um, we just added occupational therapy to Bearcare Clinic. Um, so we partnered with Onikica Elementary to offer afterchool OT sessions for for any, um, elementary student in the district. So, um, we actually, I think, had 29 maybe or 30 students sign up for this. So they come once a week on Tuesdays or Thursdays and um there's a curriculum each week to sort of develop their executive functioning, emotional, social learning skills, life skills. Um and then we do some sort of one-on-one activities with with students to help u meet their individual goals set by their by their parents. All right, Lisa. Okay. Um so mental health services we provide individual counseling to um young people in the in the district and we see young people um of all ages which has really been wonderful that they um that folks have wanted to been able to use our services. Um in individual therapy we use um we use play in as a part of the therapy. Um we also I um have been trained in Santray therapy. So I've been providing um that as an option. Um and then we also you know do interpersonal therapy talking as as young people get older. Um we've been able to provide some grief groups each year which has been nice. And so it's not necessarily a grief therapy group. It's more of a support group for young people to just know that they're not alone in the school and that other people have experienced loss too. Um, and so it's just a time when we gather. So we did we've had a couple in elementary schools and then this last year we did a couple of them in the middle schools and now this year the middle schools have asked us to come back and do groups on some other things. So on relationships um healthy relationships and um and like friendships and um I think we're also we might be doing one around anxiety and just sort of like coping tech, you know, coping skills and that kind of thing to help young people. Um and then the also this year because the intern that I've taken on this year is actually there during the school day, we've been able to provide more mobile counseling. I've done a little bit of it where I've gone over um I came over to um now Mariner but um when it was South High I was over um providing counseling to a student there but we have um a couple of elementary aed students who are receiving counseling. Um so it's been great and and we have an opportunity to collaborate and and help one another and um we just really appreciate the support that we've received. And I also wanted to mention um as we add these services, mental health services, occupational therapists, um we work really closely with the districts and the support staff who are already providing that care out in the schools. So we're really sort of um providing the gap that is needed. So um for example, occupational um therapy students who might not qualify for inschool services um but maybe need some outside services. So, we're there providing that that gap because um I think we're really lucky in this district that we have such incredible um student support services. Um so, we're we work really closely with the district to make sure that we are not stepping on toes or or taking away um from the work that's already been done. We want to support that. >> Okay. And I'm going to talk a little bit about the health services that we provide. Um so we're able to do kind of any of the sort of basic pediatric care that you might see in um a clinic but with some limitations of course. Um we did um recently expand some of our services. So we have the nlloxxone designation. Um we've started doing wart treatments um for some of those skin issues that that students will have. We have a special light now to help us kind of diagnose um different problems that uh students might have. And we also can um do kind of a basic eye exam um not for major eye injury, but um for example like a corial abrasion or some um sort of a minor um eye injury. We do lots of strep testing and we've even have um got some new equipment um in the last year. So, we have an even more accurate uh testing where we don't have to send out um labs on those. And then we also have a partnership with um a local pharmacy um where we can uh fill prescriptions for students and families who might not have access to um insurance or other sources of coverage for um their needed uh prescriptions. Um, and so just to kind of reiterate as well, what's so important about these services that we hear from families so often is that um, students would have to miss a lot of school in order for parents to be able to take them to appointments. Um, oftentimes uh, when students are leaving school um, sick, parents may not [snorts] have access to places to take them um, and may need to get like a strep test or something done quickly. And so we're able to really work in a lot of students um at the last minute. And many times those referrals do come directly from um staff within the school such as the nurs's office. Uh and so we hear a lot that parents are very thankful that this is available to them um so that they're able to get the care that they need without missing a lot of work or other um time in class. Um so just overall appointments are are growing. Um you can see in the last year we've grown to over 1500 appointments. Um so this has been growing steadily. Um which is wonderful. And then if you look at um some of the patient ages that we serve um and the different appointment types that we're seeing um certainly the high school being located in the high school we do see the majority are coming from there. Um but we do get kids from middle schools, some who are able to walk over, some who need to be driven um in the elementary as well and and a small number of um early childhood um toddler age I would say is [snorts] probably the youngest that we see. Um and then you can see kind of the breakdown of the types of appointments. So vaccines make up a huge um proportion of the uh work that we're providing and um oftentimes, you know, students who've maybe gotten behind on vaccines um maybe don't have access for for places to go to get that care or need to kind of get them done urgently um because of deadlines. um were able to get that done. And we we do a lot of of work in reviewing records that students have and trying to uh figure out the best plan to get them up to date, you know, without duplicating if we can and providing lots of education and and health promotion around um vaccinereventable disease. So, that's it's a huge part of what we do. Um sport physicals of course we're always doing those almost every day but as uh the different sports come around and there are different deadlines for registration we'll see big influxes you know depending upon uh whichever um sport is coming up and we also um do open the clinic throughout the summer um on different days so that we can um help to get more of those sport physicals done for those earlier ones. Um and then of course the mental health counseling and then the illness and and sick type uh clinic visits as well. All right. So this is just some examples of um evaluation surveys that we've received and some direct quotes from uh families and as you can see that um many many families um in the district do face challenges in paying for health care and h and having access to those services. Um so we are definitely filling a community need for the students here. Um and also there are many people who tell us and the survey shows that if it were not for our service they may have had to go to an emergency room um an urgent care and in some cases they may not have had access to care at all. Um so that's uh certainly very important to think about um as we as we continue our work. Um and when we think about you know why they chose to use convenience as number one of course um it's it's convenient for you know parent schedules, student schedules and then also where they live. Um and then cost certainly and that they feel that we are providing high quality and thoughtful care for them. So, um it's it's very reassuring to us to to hear this and we do hear a lot of these comments um just in person when when people come in that they're just very grateful that they had the opportunity to be served. >> That's me. Okay. Um so, as we continue to grow, you can see from those numbers, we've we've grown significantly over the past handful of years. um we updated our billing practices um to ensure that we can remain sustainable um and available to the community. So for a long time we sort of called our services when we opened free um and now we're moving to a more sort of traditional um nonprofit um kind of federally qualified lookalike clinic. So we do have an internal billing system that we we built ourselves. um we sort of joke that we may have not ever done that had we known what it was like but um it's it's it's good that we have it [clears throat] in place. So what we are doing now is that is we are sending um a bill to families after we build their insurance if they have it. And if they are able to pay um that full bill or part of it, it's considered paid in full. If they can't pay it, no problem. We um still welcome them into the clinic clinic. We want them to come. So that's been just a shift over the last month or two. Um that that's been different and some p patients weren't expecting that, but we um are working through it and trying to really stay up to date with our communication on that and making sure patients and families know that we will never turn them away for their um ability or inability to pay. Um but this practice um will just ensure our sustainability. Um, with current grant funding the way it is, we don't know what will it will look for like for us in the future. Um, we're we're very financially stable at this point and we want to remain so. So, um, that's just a a little bit of an update on that. Um, so I guess the last thing we wanted to say is just thank you to all of you, the community, um, the district, the school board, teachers, staff. Um we're we're really overwhelmed by the amount of support that we have received. Um and as Nelly mentioned, um the feedback that we get from families is really um inspiring and we're thankful and we we know we're in the right spot. So um here's our our contact information if if you have questions or want to reach out, we're happy to talk with you or meet with you. >> Thank you. That was awesome. I think you're doing >> open it up to the board if we have any questions that they'd like to ask. Mr. Scar. Okay, Miss Bloy. [clears throat] >> Um, the mobile counseling, can you get a little bit more into that explanation of what that is? >> Yeah. So um what we've done this year, we just had we just have two young people, but we've worked with the family and then also once we got a release with the school about um the family has actually asked for it so that they can their child can be see someone during the school day and then we try to find the best time so that they're not missing coursework. Um and so we work with the school um once we have a release to figure out best timing for that. And then um that it's my intern right now who's been going over and meeting with a couple of different students. >> Okay. >> We also use um mobile health services. So we go out to every school in the district to provide specifically flu vaccines or school immunizations. Um, so I think we had maybe on a side we have 14 I think we just added one 15 different mobile clinics this fall where we go out to the elementary schools, the middle schools, um, the alternative learning center. Um, because we we know that not everybody can get to us. Um, so we try to meet students and families where they where they need us to be. Um, so that's a huge part of our work. Um, and and our it it it's really um been working pretty well. >> Yeah. Okay. Um, is there a schedule of costs for the services? So, for those that are paying out of pocket, do you have a set list of >> We do. Yeah, that's all listed on our website. And then um if they make an appointment in uh with with advanced notice, we can actually send that information to them ahead of time so they have an estimate of of what that would look like. >> Okay. Yeah. Is there any identification required to to get an appointment? >> Um, yeah. So, on our on our consent form, what we have is if if patients have insurance requirements um or they have insurance, we have them submit all that information ahead of time. Um, we for minors, we we don't um typically check their um you know, they don't have a license or or things like that. Um, but we rely on the families in the school in the school to make referrals and help us with that. >> So, can a [clears throat] can say a 15year-old at the high school, can they go in and have make an appointment for themselves? >> No. All of our primary care would require consent um based on Minnesota state law. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay, that's it. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Other questions? Okay. Go ahead. Straight. OG. I just had a question on the grant funding. It looks like that's a big portion of your funding. Is it state or federal or is it a combination? >> Um, it's a we don't have any federal funding. We have state funding and then a lot of private foundations as well. >> Great. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> All right. Other questions? Mr. Scar. So, [clears throat] with respect, I'm sorry, with respect to your financials, I [snorts] looked up your 990 and you had about a 30% deficit in 2023 and you only had net assets of 7,000. So, can you talk about the financial stability of this organization? >> Yeah. So, um, with grant funding, it's a little tricky because they come in at different times of the year. >> I understand. >> Yeah. So, so that might that's maybe not an accurate reflection of what we're doing this this year. Um, but we um we feel very confident about where we where we are as far as sustainability goes. [clears throat] >> So, given that um and given that you now um are getting insurance reimbursements, right? So, have we monetized the rent that you know you occupy space? Do you pay rent to the district? >> We don't. >> So, why why? >> I will maybe defer that to the district. We can get back to you on that response. >> Yeah, that's an our agreement with Bear. We provide the space and they provide the service. >> Okay. Is that is that legal that we're allowed to do that? >> Yeah, we can legally do that. >> How do how do I know that? >> I can provide that information for you. >> Yeah, that would be good. >> Not at this moment. >> Right. Thank you. >> I just want to say also that is uh the the typical model of schoolbased health centers. >> It is. Yeah, >> that's helpful. Thank you. >> The other thing I looked and I used AI so I admit this. There are 23 healthc care clinics in our immediate White Bear Lake area. 23 10 of them are income based. So I'm wondering, you know, are is part of the strategy here that this will eventually creep into the school district's budget, this this clinic? No, we're a separate nonprofit entity and that's be that's best practice to remain uh separate from a school for school-based health centers um within the state and nationwide. Um so so really best practice because schools follow fura um clinics follow HIPPA and to continue to make sure that that um delineation remains in place. We purposely do not want to take any any money from the district. [snorts] >> I understand. How long is your contract with the district? >> We renew it annually. >> Uh, do you end indemnify the district? >> Yes. >> So, >> yep. >> If somebody comes into your clinic, sues us, you indemnify it. So, you take the risk and you >> Yep. So, anything any of the the services, the care that we provide is our responsibility. >> Yeah. So you do enddemify the district. >> Yeah. And I think Tim can answer that. >> So [clears throat] one of the thing do do you typically reach out to the primary caregiver for the students if they're under if they're under 16 or if they're over 16. Does that make a difference? >> Um it 16 I'm not uh 16 is not uh besides for mental health care. That's not part of the state statute. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Um, and it would depend on the situation. So, we would need a release of information in order to talk to anybody about somebody's care. So, if they wanted us to collaborate or talk to their primary care provider, we would need a release of information from the family to be able to do that. >> I see. So, and this might seem like an obvious question, but I ask obvious questions. You're all accredited, including the me mental health. >> Yep. >> Correct. Right. So, what kind of um ethical commitment do you have to parents in the district? Do you have a code of ethics [snorts] related to your commitment to parents? >> Tell me more. I'm not sure what you mean by that. >> Well, you're taking care of the students, right? And the parents should know about this. They should be notified. Do you have >> we we can't provide any type of primary care to to students under the age of 18 with parental consent. There's certain services per state law that would require us to do so, but any of the care that we typically provide, primary care services, we need parental consent for that. >> So, um, given that we're captive, the district's captive to your, you know, you have a monopoly, so to speak, you're captive. >> [snorts] >> Um, why wouldn't we include parents on the board of your organization? >> Well, we have parents on our board. >> Parents of high school students? >> Yep. >> Can you tell me who they are? >> Sure. Um, well, besides myself, um, there are >> But you also work for the clinic, do you have any nonaffiliated board members that are strictly parents? >> Yes, we do. So, Josiah Lamb, um, and Chris Fowler. >> So, you have two. >> All right. >> There's other parents on the board, but they also, um, have some affiliation with the district as well. >> Okay. All metrics on success, whether we're doing well or not. I mean, our district's attendance, if you look at our surrounding districts, Monomid, Centennial, Forest Lake, Stillwater, Mounds View, were second to the last. So, how is this clinic helping attendance given those results? And that that's a trend. So, that's two years in a row. We're second to the worst. >> So, I I we can't take full credit for any attendance. um positives or negatives. However, what um Nelly presented is the feedback that we are getting in the valuation that we are getting from students and families is that we are saving them time, seat time. So, they're getting more seat time by using our clinic as compared to a clinic outside of the um of the school. >> That's entirely subjective. >> It is. However, we have participated in a national school-based health study about two years ago on an and on average um students were saving about eight hours of seat time by using our schoolbased health center, >> but that doesn't show up in any of our results. >> Yeah, I I we we don't have I don't have control over absences and and that kind of thing. We feel that our work is contributing to keeping kids in school, keeping them healthy. Um, I think that's maybe a school board consideration. >> Well, that's why I'm bringing it up. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. >> Um, just a couple questions. >> I am really grateful that you're here and that you provide those services. It sounds like the the families are also we have a culture of gratitude in our community for what you provide. Um, and I was wondering just I I'm really excited to hear that you have OT services now. >> And um, how do or is that a parent referral or is that a how does that how does that work? >> Yeah, it mostly so what we did is we advertised it to all the elementary schools and then the schools, the teachers, um, the support staff um, sent it to to families. Um, I think they made a decision whether they wanted to send it to specific families or the whole school. I think we had a combination of both. and then families signed up their their own kids for it. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Great. Thank you, >> Miss Thompson. >> Just a comment again. Uh you present to us every year and I'm so grateful for everything you all do for our school and for our students and our families. Um and I I'm just going to say thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. Well, thank you very much. And I just want to end by saying doing this for our for our students, it's the right thing to do to help out our families and that's I think that's the mission here, just helping our kids. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay, we're going to go to B2. Matosska International Update. Dr. Gillespie and Mr. uh Langer. >> Chair and members of the board. I'd like to introduce John Linger, principal at Matska um International Elementary, uh who will share an update on Matska. Welcome, John. >> Thank you. >> Sorry, just trying to get it flo full screen for you. >> Thank you. There we go. Should be good. >> Nice. Thank you, uh board members, district administrators. So, this is really exciting. I know this is a one of the exciting times of year for all of us principles to be able to come and present about our schools, where we're at, what we're doing. Um, lots of great things happening here um in all of our schools and also at MTOSA International. Um, for those of you uh just a a quick uh review, Mosska International, we are on the south side, not far from Century College and uh Festival Foods. We're a largely a choice school here in White Bear Lake. our families choose to come to Makoska. [laughter] Um when it's really excited to be able to offer these things to our our district uh our district families um and we're we're the largest elementary school. So uh we're so proud to to serve our our community. Our teachers and staff are hardworking, dedicated um as as you all know. So the mission here at uh at Moska International, we're an uh an IB international world school. Um and really we uh want to develop individual learners. we want to achieve their maximum potential. I won't necessarily read through the whole mission statement, but it's it's always available and and what I appreciate about our mission statement and what we do is that this was developed by us as a community. Um so this was um our parents uh included students, staff um staff, not just teachers but parents but the entire community um who feel strongly and passionately about what we do do for kids every day. So, um, and many of you remember, uh, I was here, um, not too long ago talking about, uh, the immersion, uh, immersion programs that we're starting. I know, um, we have an immersion program, um, at Matoska as well as Otter Lake. Um, and [clears throat] when I was preparing for this, uh, I was thinking I could probably spend a lot of time just talking about immersion, but this was really, um, a time for to talk about Matska. But a couple quick um, highlights. Um, in our MTOSA immersion program, we have 42 kindergartens. It's a really uh strong It's off to a really great start. We've had conferences, our first set of conferences last week, our next set of conferences coming up next week and our parents are just really excited um very delighted and hearing a lot of really positive feedback um from parents and families. Um we are that 8020 model. We've launched some um really great curriculum, a lot of hard work from um our our teachers and our staff, our district partners over the summer to really pull this together. Um when I first uh started this uh it was it was kind of fun. I'm a principal been doing a long time some interesting things. I said hey you know we're thinking MTOS emerging awesome that'll be great and then all a sudden I was like okay it got to summer it's like we've got a few things to figure out. Um, and uh, you know what, we we figured out nearly all of those things. And I think, you know, one of the things that I'm hearing as I talk about um, as I talk to colleagues around the metro area and other immersion programs is how I hear from um, from those schools how we're doing it right in Whitebear Lake. Um, a lot of people like, "Wow, you're doing that White Bear Lake already your first year." It's like, "Yeah, like we're figuring out benchmarking. We're figuring out the ReadAct. we're figuring how all of that applies to um our students uh at in our immersion program. So, um we will come I know um there I think we're going to be trying to find a time to come to the to the board again to talk more specifically about immersion. Um but there was just some of the highlights there. Um student achievement. I know we talk a lot about student achievement. Um and I'm really excited to talk about student achievement. Um our uh fifth grade class um did really well. our fifth grade students in literacy received a 75.6% met or exceed. Um, and it's important to get a little bit of context to some of some of these numbers. So, in the state of Minnesota, about just about 50% of the students score at a meet or exceeds, but that's 75.6. That puts us in the top tier in the state of Minnesota. Um, and I really don't like to like dive into comparisons, us, them, we them, but sometimes it's good to put us into the context. And a lot of times, you know, in the world of education, we refer to our colleagues in the west metro um who typically have some really good test scores and uh they, you know, they claim to be in the top. And when we look at our MTOS students like we are right in the mix of what uh the state of Minnesota would call a top tier program, the top, you know, some some school districts would say, "Oh, the top five." And said, "Well, actually, we're in the top five." And um anyway, like I said, we really don't want to um we really want to just acknowledge everything that uh people do in education, including our partners in the west. I think an important point that that we noticed here was that this particular group of fifth graders was um they entered first grade um during the pandemic. That was their first year. When they when they launched, 322% of them were low risk, which means only 32% were in that green zone. only 32% were ready for where they're going. They moved from that 32% grown to that 75.6%. So, as I uh talked to our teachers and staff, as we celebrate um our our fifth grade, our fifth grade teachers and the hard work, we have to remember every grade all along all the way back to the very beginning, every teacher, if we look at the data, move that notch, move that notch, move that notch every single year. So, um, as we, as again, as we are proud of our fifth grade teachers, we're proud of all of our teachers who every step of the way, um, brought us along. Um, I'd like to also think about the Northeast Metro. Again, you know, going back to, you know, it's not about us or them. Everyone around, uh, and our neighborhood, as I sometimes refer to, does works hard with the students that they that they work with. And our our MTOSA third through fifth grades with the MCAs are right there with um, you know, with our neighbors around us. They do very very well. They perform well. Um we're very excited about what they do. Um there's so many good things to think about in third through fifth grade in all of our grades. Um uh you know for academic achievement. Uh again proud of our students uh parents, families for making that happen. Another piece of the student achievement I'd like to talk about because you know sometimes we think about um we want to think about you know some of those students who are having challenges in school are students in special education. Um and when we look when we dig into the data it's kind of fun to dig into the data. Um we can see that um our special education students show some really good growth. Um I'll explain just a little bit. There's a what we call a CBM. Um it's it's curriculum based measurement. This is kind of the classic students read for a minute. Um, and you know, for example, in second grade, their benchmark, their goal is 101. The average start in our second grade was 34. By the end of the year last year, they grew 70 to a to a 72. So, we didn't quite make that benchmark, but a growth of 111%. Um, and you know, for students who uh have challenges, students who have special needs, um, that's really tremendous growth. We're not giving up on them. we're still going to go. But it really speaks volumes to the work that our special education uh teachers and staff do um in in in helping achieve that kind of growth. So, as we look forward um I like to say we are poised for success. Um our our graph on the left shows us where we are with the early reading. Um and we sometimes separate that that K1 and 25 because they're different assessments. So, just sort of keep that in mind. that we know that our our incoming kindergarten class um actually is doing, you know, really well. They're poised for success. Our incoming first grade class, um they've got a little bit of work to do, but we've got the staff uh to pull it off, to make it happen. Um and it's actually really a good place uh to to be in. Um but then we also look at our second, third, fourth, and fifth grade that the green part is those are um what we would consider low risk, and they are right at that point where we want them to be. Again, if we're going to hit the top tier, we we would be in sort of that mid70s and we are sitting in right around that 70s. So, when we look at our average growth every year with our um with our students, we're in a really good spot to do well. Um and again, our students are doing well. Our teachers are working hard. Um and lots lots to be proud of there. Not only as a school, but you know, as a district, it takes an entire it takes all of us. Our the support we receive from um you know, my colleagues uh and our district partners is is huge. So, what does it mean towards the future? Um, our students are doing great, but doesn't mean that there aren't things that we need to work on because I can assure you, you know, working in a lot of organizations. If if I were to come up here and say everything's perfect, everyone would know that's not true. Like, we have a lot to work on. We've got, you know, the largest elementary school in White Beer Lake, we've got a lot of things to figure out. We've got um our challenges along the way. Um, but we also have good plans and a and a and a really good thought for the future. We are now just started our [clears throat] third year of our new English language arts curriculum which is really exciting. You know you may be remember in a lot of the presentations about you know language arts and curriculum adoption. You know the first year is about just what are we doing. The second year is like now I understand how this works. We are now really excited because we can take um all of that um language arts curriculum and pair that with our data and beginning to dive down and to say okay this particular student that particular student what do they need? how do we find it in the curriculum and then how can we unroll that and put that into practice to make sure that every student is getting what they need. Um, and what I really like about that is you kind of um it's a it's a nod towards what we try to do here in White Bear Lake and make sure every child gets what they need no matter where they're at, you know, from kindergarten all the way through high school. Um, so another area of focus that we are is that early intervention in reading. We know that um if students um launch early in their elementary careers um behind it's really hard to get the c get them caught up. So what we're really trying to do is say what do we need to do in our younger grades to make sure as they grow they're ready for core curriculum. As you maybe hear educators say a lot you know we can't intervention our way out of you know a challenge in reading. We have to catch them early get them where they need to be. So, we're putting some uh some good energy uh into that. And then the other the other focus area in in the uh that we're working on with our literacy in particular is increasing our student reflection and ownership. We know that um the best way to learn is when our students own what they're doing, own what they're learning, thinking and reflecting about everything that they're doing in the classroom. So, that's another one of our goals um across across the board. Um math is a very exciting part as well. We know that uh we are in the middle of a pilot program. We are really excited. Our teachers have been asking for math. They're like, "Can we get to math?" Um they're they're super excited to work on that next step. Um so, as a district, we're working on that curriculum adoption process. Um 38% of our teachers have already done additional training just on their own because they're interested in math education, how children uh develop their mathematical understanding how to put those instructional um ideas and practices in into uh into their everyday. Um so I'm excited that our teachers are interested and excited. Um and um five of our teachers, a significant number are actually uh volunteered and are participating uh in in the pilot program. So lots of really great things. um happening there. So the other thing I like to to talk about is towards the future and this is um this is one of the graphics that we talk about in our IB part of our program which is the learner profile. Um and you know if you ever taken a tour with me u one of the things I really like to talk about um actually I pull out you know my device here. Super fascinating about this device is um our our high school seniors who graduated last year. this was like the first year it came out like like they were born at a time when these kinds of things weren't didn't even exist. So when we think about the learner profile I think about how do we prepare students for the future where it doesn't ex exist not just their technology their jobs their approaches how the world works doesn't exist yet for our young kids. So as we develop great learners for reading, writing, math, science, those are really important, but we also develop um the kind of learner that will adapt to whatever it is we don't even know yet and can't even imagine yet. So we're developing students for a future. And we sometimes say, we don't want them um we don't want them just to survive. We want them to thrive. We want them to engage. So, they're um they're inquirers, they're knowledgeable, they're thinkers, they're communicators, they're principled, they're open-minded, they're caring, they're risktakers, balanced, and reflective um so that they can engage in the future. Um that's going to be super awesome for everyone. So, that is a really quick [laughter] um a really quick view of where we are at MTOSA, but really appreciate our school board um and the commitments that you make and our district partners who help us every single day. Um and I'm open for questions or comments. >> Any questions, >> Mr. Scar? >> I would just say that [clears throat] I'm excited just to listen to you. Did you start that podcast career yet? [laughter] I almost brought my puppet shows back with well you 172 every year. So >> I have [clears throat] you know as far as the we do compete. >> So our district competes with the surrounding districts. We compete with private schools. We compete and we need to be the district of choice, the school of choice. And I think don't run away from looking at competitive stat statistics. It will make it it'll just make us better. >> I appreciate that. Thank you, >> Miss Bloid. I feel like a broken record, but whenever whenever we see these statistics, I always want to see the cohort over time, especially the um u when we hear how much success that the fifth graders are having right now, seeing them, what their actual um cohort was starting first grade, second grade, third grade, fourth grade. Um, just to see that over time, um, I think is super helpful in trying to kind of figure out and identify where things worked, where where we might have missed something. Um, and I'm I just think we need to build on the success [snorts] that your fifth graders have. And I think and I know you guys are looking back at those things, but for me when we're sitting down and we're analyzing the numbers, I like to see the cohort because I think that gives you a lot more information because it's over a period of time as opposed to just one year because you could have different students, you have different teachers. Um, so that would be super helpful if we could get another one sort of like that. >> Certainly. [laughter] And I I appreciate that. I probably wanted to clean up our fifth graders and where they started from from the beginning and and and you're absolutely right. Every every class and every group that comes in looks different. I mean, you could see it on that graph like like just different. And so that's where we get excited as educators. I mean, this is why we're here. It's like how do we help each group of kids, each child sort of find their path and and be their best. It would be interesting to see um to watch this fifth grade group as they move on to middle school and see what how they do sixth, seventh, eighth because that's going to be I mean eighth grade is going to be that really determining factor of how the rest of high school is going to go for them. So I look forward to uh >> they're going to impress you. >> I'm sure they will. >> Thank you so much. >> All right, Miss Strafe OG. So, thank you for sharing with us about MTOSA and also that fifth grade cohort and where they started and I hope that we can really look at what is being done and how that progress was made to get them to where they are. It's very exciting and I know there's lots being done across the district in the area of literacy. Um, but I'm also super impressed and want to thank you and your teachers um that 38% of your teachers also did additional training in math when the requirements around the read act are so intense right now and over the last few years. So, thank you and thanks for your leadership, John. >> Thank you, Miss Daniels. >> Thanks, John. Enthusiastic as always in your reports. I appreciate that. Um, I also appreciate the fact that you highlighted some special ed cohorts, [clears throat] some special ed classes. That's really great to hear that they're making substantial gains and we have a lot of uh what I want to say um wonderful teachers um regular teachers and special ed teachers and support staff that that make it all happen and great leadership and that is you. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate that, >> Miss Thompson. >> Yes. Again, thank you for your presentation. Broken record up here. I think we're all very grateful for all our principles do for the district. Um, I also agree that it is important to compare ourselves to what other school districts are doing and just see kind of what's happening in other districts. I just would like to proceed with a little caution that we are different than other school districts. We are not the same. So when we look at them, we need to take that into consideration. I get a um Mamemidai was my school district. It does not compare to White Bear Lake. It doesn't have any title one schools. it doesn't have it's not even anywhere near a comparison to what our school district is made up of. Um so those comparisons to me are not valid ones because we're comparing not even apples to oranges because it's not even a fruit. We're comparing an apple to a head of lettuce. It's not the same thing. Um so but I do find the importance in making sure that we are comparing to what is happening in districts that are comparable to our district. And I know that you all as professionals do that work and you get together as educators and you kind of look and say, "Hey, what is this district doing? How can we implement that here?" And I'm sure other districts are looking at what we're doing and saying, "Hey, let's look at what White Bear Lake is doing." So, I just wanted to recognize that and thank you for coming today. >> Thank you. Mr. Scar, if you want to quick comment, please address that. I think that's an excuse that I've heard many times. It's just an excuse. I mean, we should be able to adapt to be on top. The key to the key to being excellent is to adapt based on who you're serving. And we certainly can do that. And our students here are just as good or better than the surrounding districts. And we should do a better job. >> They are just as good. They have different needs than other district students. >> Thank you both. [snorts] Um, I want to end this by saying, "Oh, sorry. Go ahead. just delighted. >> I just back to the um I have a special place in my heart for the special education portion of this. >> Um have you found over the years that [clears throat] the the reading benchmarks for the third and fourth graders tend to be an accelerated growth as opposed to like second and fifth? I mean, is that kind of have you found that to be the sweet spot, so to speak? Um can you explain a little bit more like the sweet spot for >> do you see more growth from the special education students at least for reading >> um in that third and fourth grade time period? >> Well, you know, I would say I mean yes, it's a pretty important time. What uh what's interesting is when we look at our youngest, our kindergarten and first grade, what's really um what we really try to tease out in those younger grades is um which students actually have like specific learning disabilities, which students are just needing some more time to get caught up. So there's it's it when we reach that second and third grade, that's when we begin to sort of tease out and say, "Okay, some of our students just need a little more support now. they're catching up and taking off versus some of our students who actually have, you know, you know, state qualified specific learning disabilities. Um, you know, obviously, you know, you know, maybe not obviously, but, you know, we all work closely with kids. Our our our youngest kids are the our biggest sponges. Um, you know, as we sometimes say, I'll give a nudge back to like the uh the immersion program. It's one of the interesting things. It's like, you know, we talk about all of the new words and new vocabulary for our 5-year-olds in immersion program. It's like, well, a lot of their English words and vocabulary are brand new, too, when they come to school. Everything is new. And so, our our youngest are really are really sponges. Um, they kind of sort of gets teased out in that first and second grade or K K1 and then second and third grade, you really do begin to see some of those leaps. I feel like maybe you you kind of hit on it because third grade is typically at least when you look back back through um our our scores is when a lot of those kids seem to catch up from first and second grade. So >> the 100% growth is not surprising for for the third graders. Oh yeah, >> that's that's kind of why I'm wondering if that should have enforced. >> And frequently we'll say in schools when um you know when we do when we meet with our sped team in child study, you know, when we're looking at our particular like our third graders, if they're not quite missing the mark, we're like we should be digging into this a little bit more because we would typically see >> um some pretty strong growth. >> Thank you for the question. >> Thank you. I just want to say that I enjoyed your presentation and one of the things that caught my ear, you I believe you were talking about having our students reflect and to me that means a lot because we know that knowledge and our working memory lasts about 5 to 20 minutes and we know that thinking is learning and so if we're going to from that working memory to short-term memory that reflection piece can help them transfer it and then eventually get it into the long-term memory. So that is such a key these days for our students to learn. That was good to hear. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. >> All right, we're going to move on to discussion item B3 course proposals. Miss Babish. >> Thanks, Chair Arcan, members of the board. Dr. Casmerch. Um, we are here tonight to discuss our course proposals, changes to courses, and then any removals. and we'll have a discussion, answer any questions you may have, and then we'll come back to the board on November 10th for approval. So, um really I just wanted to give kind of a overview of um the kind of looking at the district view and metrics as we're thinking about college and career readiness and as we make decisions on courses for the high school, we really like to have some metrics. And so in the 2028 2029 school year, um we worked with the Greater Twin Cities United Way to help us define what does college and career readiness actually mean and how can we have metrics to really show our kids are going to be prepared for their next steps. And that's really where our career pathways took way. And then also we really wanted the metrics for um college readiness. And so, um, with the the help of the Greater Twin Cities United Way, we were able to come up with a metrics of by 2026 that at least 40% of our 12th grade students had um at least 12 college credits. And so, you'll be able to see that trajectory and we're um we're well on our way to 2026 to meet that goal. But you can see on the right hand side what courses or opportunities we offer to our high school students in order to obtain that college credit. And there's many different ways. We have our college in the schools courses um that our high school teachers teach that we have affiliations with local colleges and universities. We have our project lead the way um courses. We have our advanced placement courses. We have our students that choose to do post-secary enrollment options at the local colleges or universities. And then we also have articulated classes which means at least 80% of our syllabus is aligned to that um college or university syllabus and then um the colleges will look at that credit and accept that credit on their transcript. And so I just wanted to start with that as a metric. And we have a great team of high school administrators and educators here today. And I want to introduce Russ Reitz, our high school principal, and our associate principal, Carrie Bar. >> Thanks, Jen. Good evening, everyone. Uh, thanks for having us today. Excited to share some new innovative courses with you. I wanted to ground us first in just how we, uh, work to try to deliver on our district's promise. Uh we believe that at the high school uh we exist to influence student belonging first um student agency or ownership of their learning and um this thing we call efficacy for and of learning. Um and we do that by asking all uh students to say yes to these three questions. Uh each day we try to lean into helping our students feel a stronger sense of belonging. Um much of the work we've done with the new 5 by3 schedule as well as the new courses coming forward this evening is to help our students answer yes to is this meaningful? Uh and then finally um can I do this? Those four core values. Uh the word roar has become sort of synonymous with our student body and staff in terms of how we're going to support students in the way in which we're going to try to show up for them and for each other each day. Um, we spend a lot of time talking about the student experience and how that's changed over the years and and ways in which that we're trying to put students at the center of our decisions that we're um looking at ways in which we can improve how students feel about their time spent at White Lake Area High School and what it's going to mean for them um after they graduate. We really do care a lot about students saying they are happy and proud uh of their experience uh while at Wepper Lake Area High School. Before I move on, I just want to do one last shout out to our staff. We have um successfully transitioned to a new bell schedule, a 5x3 schedule. And uh we did so in the midst of moving and unifying our two campuses. It was a tremendous amount of work for our staff. they they came forward with some really great and innovative courses last year. We um we created our first 5 by3 trimester schedule and our staff is still adjusting to a 68 minute period um in 12 and 24-week courses and they've done so um really really well. Our our students um seem to be adjusting. our staff um has found lots of different um positive ways um to think about the new schedule and what the opportunities mean. The courses brought forward tonight are really our first attempt at um what we might adjust or what we've learned coming out of that first uh bell schedule. So, I'm going to start with language arts. Um we're uh introducing maybe the most significant changes uh in regards to this department. Did I lose my mic? I didn't do anything. Check one. Um, so I thought I would stay um start here and I'm going to invite um Caitlyn Held, Dr. Held, and Ally McCann uh to join the table in case you have any questions at the end of just language arts and then we'll get through all of the other courses. But this is really a significant change to how students are going to experience language arts um 9 through 12. First, in 9th grade, um, all students in the general courses are are receiving three full trimesters of English language arts, um, A, B, and C. If students choose the accelerated route, right now, that's called the honors route. So, we're changing to accelerated. They'll get all of those standards done in 24 weeks. Um and so we're calling it accel accelerated and replacing the word honors there. In 10th grade, um students will begin choice in their experience, um throughout this department. All students will be required to have a literature and a a composition component to their learning. Um but they're going to choose sort of their own experience or their own adventure starting in 10th grade. you can see um the two different options they have in literature and the two they have in composition. Uh any questions specifically about those courses or those experiences um these two amazing teachers will be able to help with that. We're also proposing um that we add AP seminar. This would be one of the few AP courses available for students uh in the 10th grade year. We currently have AP bio um and AP precelk. Uh but this would be one more course where students could earn their language arts credits in both composition and literature through the completion of that AP seminar course. And hopefully we fulfill that promise of 40% of our students graduating with 12 or more college credits. Um we continue those choices in 11th and 12th grade. there's more options for students on how they may fulfill their literature and composition uh buckets in both junior and senior year. Um and you can see there at the bottom we also have options for students that are interested in AP lit AP comp. Um as well as maybe taking AC seminar as a junior or senior. They can also choose to take CIS lit and CIS writing um in their 12th grade year. Um our last sort of slide with language arts and then we can pause and uh answer any questions you may have is in regards to some elective options for students. Um we went through a a pretty comprehensive process in um asking our students to participate in helping us uh better understand what it is they want to experience in language arts and what sort of electives they're most interested in um taking. We learned uh by listening to our students that we didn't have enough opportunity for students in like the performance or speech uh area. And so that's where a lot of the um the theater um um courses come from as well as some of our speaking uh public speaking courses. We also added lots of um lit and writing courses that students said they were interested in taking. So, that's sort of where we landed on um the the new courses that you see there with a star. I think there's nine of them that we're going to ask for approval on November 10th. So, I'll stop there and um if there's any board members that have questions for me or for our language arts teachers um then we'll get back to some of the other departments >> questions. Yes, Mr. Tripoi, >> I have a question on narratives of resilience. What is that? So, we had a lot of teachers come forward and students come forward with different lit topics um that were uh voices from um some underrepresented populations and it was really difficult to say yes to one but not yes to all. We really struggle if there's too many choices that none of the classes will run because it'll split interest. So that course came forward um to represent a bunch of different groups that are maybe at the margin and are underrepresented in other literature courses where um we'd still be able to deliver on some of the state standards that are required of us, but we would do so through a different lens of uh resiliency. >> Thank you. >> Yes, Mr. Scar. Well, I was just gonna I [clears throat] brought up um AI before because I know people that written books based on using AI chat GBT the the good version or the upgraded version, right? So, this isn't really a question for you you think I had asked to have that as an agenda item at one of the board meetings. I would strongly suggest that we add that. >> Okay. Okay. So, do you have a question about the English offerings that we have before us? >> No. Okay. I wanted to tie it in to a request that I made before. >> So, I think we want to focus right now on the English ELA requirements. So, we Any other further questions on the ELA? >> Yes, Miss Thompson. >> No questions. Just really exciting to see the list of all the additions. Um, [snorts] and several that I would love to take if I could. I don't want to go back to high school so I won't but um I'm sure the students will en enjoy [clears throat] some of these offerings and I did have a question on the narratives of resilience so that was already covered but thank you. >> Okay I have a couple of questions I want to forget. Um my first one is ELA accelerated nine. So when that's AB, is that going to be offered just AB or can I will you maybe schedule it BC depending or AC depending on how it works out because I know you have the three trimesters. Are you going to do it all the way through or is it just for sure AB? >> Um they they might not necessarily be consecutive. >> Okay, that's what I was wondering. >> Going to have it one and three or Yep. >> Okay. My other question was when I'm looking at these electives, many of them I assume will be able to actually meet their liberal arts requirement for the state. So they'll they'll earn those there at least a half credit of it at least. Do you know which ones you're going to designate for that art requirement? >> Yeah, [clears throat] I think um if they're in the board packet there is the descriptions of each of the courses that we're proposing and it says on there if it meets a requirement for graduation or if it's an elective. >> Okay, because even electives can meet the art requirement. That's why I was asking. Okay, >> so I see a lot of them here that I perfectly fit. So >> that is my only question. I think it's great. I think this is a great opportunity because we also know giving student choice have uh increases their engagement in school. So, any other questions on this? Yes, Miss Bloy. >> Why the change from honors to accelerated? What was the reasoning behind that? >> Well, we wanted to accurately describe what the experience was going to look like. Um the standards that are covered in general and in now accelerated are the same, but you're covering them in 24 weeks instead of 36. So that's the general idea behind it. Um we just thought it more accurately described what the students would experience. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we can continue. Thank you. Um, so we have other teachers from um, these departments here too that can step up and answer any questions as we move through, but we thought we would um, give you a quick snapshot of uh, these other new courses in each department and maybe an explanation why it came forward and then we'll um, answer any questions you have at the end. So, art is uh, proposing a sports photography and multimedia 2 course. Um we just um started sports photography and multimedia one this year and we had 10 sections um of students interested in taking that course. And um so this course would allow those students to continue their work and um hopefully start providing content um for all of our extracurricular programs uh including things like the video board um entrance videos all those types of um fun and innovative experiences that may lead to a profession down the road. Uh art is also bringing forward a print making course. Um, this course would also provide a service back to our students in um, students being able to produce posters or other print materials uh, and then easily duplicate those um, throughout the school year. Um, we're also proposing a jewelry course. Um really what this course is is it jewelry was combined with >> sculpture one >> sculpture one and so uh sculpture is going to become its own course and jewelry will become its own 12week course and the education course um this is the grow your own pathway um we partner with Minneapolis College for concurrent enrollment and we currently have an intro to ethnic studies course that we're proposing we replace with multicultural approaches to education. Um, this is the course that is more often selected um around the metro area for those schools that are um partnering with Minneapolis College in a grow your own pathway. Physical education is um proposing we add power basketball 2 and power volleyball 2. Um this these two courses would um focus more on the technical tactical uh coaching approaches to the sports as well as um many of the officiating um approaches to uh both those two uh activities. Science um is proposing we bring forward CIS intro to physics. Um, this would actually replace honors physics and give our students an opportunity um that maybe aren't as advanced in math. Um, the math really matters in terms of uh whether or not a student is ready for AP physics, but in this particular course they could earn college credit and be at the level of algebra 2. Um, and so we think it's a really uh neat opportunity to bring forward to our students um and would replace honors physics students in grades 11 or 12 could take this um they'd still have the option of taking honors chemistry or or sorry honors chemistry in 11 and then um CIS physics and 12 if they wanted to. Um social studies is bringing forward an ethnic studies YAR that's an acronym for youth participatory action research. Um this would be a project-based course where students would um have some guided research uh a guided research project with support from uh a teacher. They're also um bringing forward history through pop culture and debate 2 as options um for electives. Teched is uh proposing architectural design 2. This would be a 9 through 12 um trimester elective that would build on what our students are currently doing in architectural design one. World language has asked for um an ASL literature and film making course. This would be um uh a course that students could take after completing ASL1. Heritage Spanish uh would like to make a minor change. We are offering that class for the first time this year as a one trimester elective. Um this proposal would um provide a second trimester to students that were interested in taking um two trimesters at Heritage Spanish. And then our work-based uh learning, we currently offer um career seminar and work experience to our students in the grow your own pathway only. So that is how students have the option of working with our extended day programs and earning credit while doing so. Uh we would like to extend that to other pathway programs uh at the high school. So this would give students an opportunity to um earn credit and um earn some money out in the field. I'm going to turn it over to Carrie. Um Carrie is our associate principal in charge of staffing and scheduling and she's going to take you through course changes and course removals. >> Good evening. Most of the um course changes, a lot of them are just minor name changes. Um so if we add a second level of power volleyball, we got to kind of make the first one the first level. So sports and photography um and multimedia, we just needed to add a one to that since we're we're proposing a second class there. Um Mr. already spoke about um sculpture and jewelry, but ceramics um again we're just going to add wheel throwing to a course description. Some very minor changes. Um sculpture one is now a prerec for ceramics 2. These are uh changes within the language arts department. These are all name changes. They were on the previous document um in parenthesis. It maybe said like ELA 10A or 10B. Um these are just name changes. Um the courses really aren't changing. Um the name changes really facilitates the flexibility in scheduling for students. Um when you have an A and a B, they need to be taken in that order. Um the the change that they are proposing allows students to take either language arts course first. It does not matter um as long as they get their two in for the year. So, it just gives them more flexibility um in what they can take throughout their um school year. Uh first aid and CPR, that is a concurrent enrollment class that we offer with Anoka Ramsey. Um they uh require that you're in grades 10 through 12 to get that college credit. So, we're just aligning with them um on that one. the intro to exercise science. Um, again, that's a a first run this year and they're going to just propose that we take that down to one trimester um because they believe that they can get through that curriculum. Um, and again, that's going to give those students more flexibility of getting through it in one trimester. That's a college credit course as well. Um, and then weights for athletes. Uh they're proposing that um our athletes can take that multiple times for different sports um and that they can take that um multiple years depending on their sport that they're in. Same thing for that zero hour. That's just uh before school starts to give our students some flexibility. Um yoga, we're just adjusting to grades 10 through 12. Um and then the changes for the power basketball names one and two. Uh algebra is um for math we're just going to change that algebra 3 with trig to just straight algebra 3. Um planet earth and its climate we are going to incorporate our green foundations and sustainability class within that um to make sure that we have an opportunity to uh give students exposure to that. Um, chemistry A and B. Again, that's a name change. That's just a flexibility in the scheduling because those can be taken in any order. Um, they're not sequential. Um, and so that helps us there. And then heritage Spanish becomes heritage Spanish one if we add that second level. World history uh has requested social studies to add um this course as a hybrid option. Um, hybrid options mean that students attend in person with that teacher. approximately 50% of the time. Um the other time they are working independently and working on assignments uh outside of classroom. So um think more of a a college type structure of you're in class two to three days a week and then you work on your own um and do what you need to do outside of that. Our teachers are still available to students who need that help. They are in their classrooms, they are there. So if students do want to come, they are available but they are not required to. Um, we just have a name change for our adaptive uh, FIED class for our special education students. Just more aligns with some of the other name changes that we made last year. Um, and architectural design since we're looking at adding a second one, just making that one architectural design one. So, now we're going to look at um, our proposed course removals. Primarily these courses are courses that have not run in over three years um or just have not have lost interest over time. Um so within that we're looking at German um that has not run for multiple years. AP art history. Um that's a course that used to be a semester. We broke it into two tries hoping that it would get some traction this year. Um that did not happen. Um and so the art department is proposing that we remove those. um the consumer econ that's a attrition that has just gradually um declined over the years. Uh more students I think are just taking personal finance um and that's where their interest is. The computer hardware and tech course um is really uh students that are um currently in our service learning. So they will spend one hour a day working in their tech depot repairing computers with um our tech staff. And so we're just um going to remove that because we are already providing that through our service learning opportunities. Um percussion ensemble uh that's just incorporating back into our bands. That was something that they had pulled out uh for a while and done just percussion. Um and then the beginning instrumental ensemble again there's just the enrollment has not been there. um health and PE for 1112. That is a graduation requirement that is no longer needed um because of our new structure and how uh the grad rects are. And honors physics, as Dr. Reed said, would >> [snorts] >> uh be replaced with CIS uh physics. That's pending instructor approval. Um the environmental science and then the um green foundations course are two that we're looking to remove as well. In addition um honors US history because we offer AP history uh with college credit we are going to propose that we remove that we do have other options available to students. Um graphic arts again has not run. Um creative writing that's just uh being replaced with the introduction to creative writing and just a minor name change there. Um, same consideration with yearbook and then the intro to ethnic studies course dropping as Dr. Reit said, replacing that with the multicultural approaches to education. >> All right, thanks Carrie. Um, any questions? >> Any questions? >> Yes, Mr. Drafoji, >> I have a question on the multicultural approaches to education. You said it's a part of the grow your own. Can you is it >> Yeah, we have a >> people that want to become teachers. >> Correct. We have an education pathway uh where students are enrolled obviously at White Beer Lake High School as well as Minneapolis College. All the courses are on campus. Um each year you'll see we're adding an additional course based on the grant that we wrote. Um it's a five-year grant for around $500,000. Um last year we moved to add intro to ethnic studies education um and have been advised the better course to help prepare our students um when they get to the four-year school is to have them take multicultural approaches uh to education. So that's why the the change is there. >> Great. Thank you. >> Other questions? Miss Bloy, [clears throat] >> if um if we're replacing the um honors US history A and B with the AP, what are the you talked about the one that was a hybrid, another history class? What are the other history classes there are to choose from? >> Um students can take ethnic studies, US history, ethnic studies, world history as well. Um along with a a regular world history, regular US or sorry. Yeah, US history and then um also then the APs that they can take. So >> So the world history, the AB that was semester 1 and semester 2 previously. Okay. Um what so we must have Spanish, French, >> ASL, >> and ASL are that's the only three languages now. >> So [clears throat] we don't have Chinese anymore. We don't have German. Is the French uh attendance going back up? Because I we used to have um French CIS. Do we still have that? >> We still offer it. We weren't able to run it this year. Um so we were actually able to get some students access to that through another school district just through a contractal agreement. Um but we do actually have French uh at the middle schools this year at at Mariners. So that's a that's a really good sign. Okay. You probably don't know the answer to this because you're the high school, but in the middle school, do they have German or Chinese or any of those? Any >> that's No. Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Other questions, >> Mr. Scar? >> I would I [clears throat] would just say it's really sad that we're getting rid of German. We're getting rid of art history, ancient to medieval, renaissance to modern, um, US history, honors physics. I mean, I'm saddened by that a great deal. Concerned about if we're going in the wrong direction in terms of less rigor in our curriculum. Do parents know these classes that we're removing? How informed is our community that these classes are being removed? Um so I I can explain some of um those decisions when we move to the trimester schedule. Um we we've learned a lot of what can and can't run um because we offered so many different versions of US history. We offered honors US history, AP US history, um ethnic studies US history >> and US history >> and general US history. So, four different tracks of students all taking the the the same standards, the same course, four different experiences. Um, it's split and divided numbers. And so, we got to the point where we aren't able to run some of the the courses that students um would like us to run. Uh, a prime example of that is um uh AP chemistry. We've had um honors chemistry for a long time and students are choosing that over AP chemistry. And so we really have to decide at some point um if we never run the course, is it better for us to to choose one that we think is going to better prepare our students or are we um going to still have these expectations from parents that an AP course will run and and students just aren't signing up for it? Um if there's only seven students that register, we can't run the course. Um, so the more options we give them, um, the more likely it is that we have a course that doesn't run. Um, when we brought in CIS physics, we really considered how do we have honors physics, CIS physics, and AP physics? And if we do that, um, are we going to be able to to run any of them? And um when you're when you're looking at these options and you're trying to decide what might be the best option for the families, um in my mind, um you have an AP option that doesn't show up on a college transcript unless you score a three or four. Um and then we can offer a CIS option that um that grade is going to follow the student no matter, you know, what it is, if it's a A, B, or C on that college transcript. But um the idea of giving an option where it's not tied to a um a high stakes test at the end was I thought more meaningful than a physics option. So these are conversations that we're constantly having with students and with staff to try to determine what um the best course offerings might be. But a lot of work goes into [clears throat] it. And then your question about um what do parents know? Um we presented um all of this information at our systems accountability meeting um October 7th um and were able to gain feedback and insight. Uh in fact some of the the insight and feedback that we got from our community members and parents uh at that meeting helped uh trim some things down uh and helped us have conversations with staff about maybe other opportunities. For instance, CIS [clears throat] physics was one that came about um after that meeting occurred. So, lots of stakeholders have been involved. >> Well, you can understand like the optics. I mean, parents want to send their kids to rigorous curriculums and the optics look like it's going to be less rig rigorous. So, that and again, I'll mention, you know, we compete. So um you know we somehow we have to make sure that the rigor [snorts] around our curriculum is is still there right it's still there and make sure that people parents are comfortable with that students are comfortable with that >> and I I would encourage a parent that's frustrated about an honors class maybe not being offered anymore to consider the AP or the CIS option. We didn't remove any honors courses if we didn't have two rigorous options for our students to choose from as well as the general. So, they're all there. One last question. Um, in the in that multicultural um and ethnic studies, are the 2021 social studies standards, are they valid for 2025 and 2026 school years in our curriculum? the 2021 stand social studies standards. >> Yeah, I we might be talking about two different things, but those standards are included in our ethnic studies American history course. Um we also have some ethnic studies standards that are included in our ethnic studies world history course. The multicultural approaches to education is really about pedigogy. It's about how we might um bring ethnic studies to students um in general courses down the road. So it would be like our our future teachers are taking a course that they would take in college if they were getting their teaching degree. We're just providing it here at Whitebear High School. >> So are the benchmarks the same? For example, in fifth grade, uh analyze anti-colonial and anti-racist resistant movements of culturally, racially, and ethnically diverse people throughout the world. Is that still the benchmark in fifth grade? >> I can. Do you want me to take that Russ? [laughter] >> I don't spend a lot of time with you. >> Okay. Yeah. You know I So there's the overarching standards for that are K12 for social studies and then when we look at the benchmarks those are more developmentally appropriate based on the grade levels. So they're grade banded. So we could get I could you [clears throat] know share that information with you from the Minnesota Department of Education what the social studies standards and those benchmarks are. I think it would be very important for the parents to understand what those benchmarks are and that we publish those publicly so people know. >> Yep. We do have those on our website. So it goes directly to the Minnesota Department of Education. If um parents or families go to the teaching and learning department on the website that um they have each content area and then it's linked >> that easier so that they can see clearly what the benchmark is for ninth grade >> 10th grade. Okay. >> Yep. >> Then I'll if you can point me to that that would be >> absolutely I can do that for you. >> Okay. Is that it or >> No, I must before I move on. >> Yeah. I'd like to move on and let some other people have an opportunity if that's okay. >> Sure. Okay. Sorry. >> Miss Thompson, you have a I mean Miss Daniels, I mean, sorry. >> Um, college and the schools courses um the teachers that teach those courses have to have a special training, right? So, the the courses very similar to what a student would take if they went to a on a campus, right? So, in talking about the rigor, I mean, I think this important for people to know that the the certification, I don't know if they call it a certification, is an addition to what they already have as a high school teacher. Correct. >> Yeah. The instructor approval. Um, and our teachers that teach CIS have to apply to our partnering university and they have to meet the university's requirements in order to teach that course at the high school. And so when we talk CIS physics, that's pending our instructor approval. Um, so that's the application process and the demonstrating that you have that level of knowledge to teach that rigorous course. >> Yeah, I think that should give us some comfort to know that a lot of those classes are still available to [clears throat] our students even though we've had to, you know, remove others that didn't fill. >> Okay, other questions? Miss Bloyd? >> Um, I just my two cents. I I really like the idea of moving more to CIS as opposed to AP. Um [snorts] because even in AP they have to take a final at the end of the year in class and then they go take another test that they have to pay for >> and then I I I have so many stories of kids that have done really really well in college in the same course and couldn't get the credit for the AP class because either scored a three and they had to have a four or above or you know, they they didn't score, but they did well in the class. So, I I'm really encouraged to see moving in that direction. Um, I also think you the honors shows up on your transcript as um rigor, so to speak. Um, but if you're going to go for the rigor of an honors class, you don't get um any college credit for it. And you don't get um extra um GPA credit for the honors classes either. So you're the only benefit you're getting from the honors classes is it says honors and it looks like rigor where if you can do those honors classes you should be guided towards taking the CIS class [clears throat] then you get the double whammy of the credit because you're see whatever better then you then you get that and you don't have to take a paid for test after you've already had a final. So, I I think that's that's a good move. I think the rigor is still there because you're gearing them towards college. Um, and it's if it's just the acceleration, um, that's what the CIS course is going to be as well. So, I I I support that wholeheartedly. Thanks. >> Thank you. And I think it's important to remind everybody that on on the AP each postsecondary institution calculates what they're going to accept a three or four or five. So we don't have any control over that. Miss Thompson, now it's your turn. >> Uh yes, thank you for all of this and and you know um AP art history ancient to medieval. I would have to imagine it's probably been longer than three years. I mean, maybe we did have enough to have a whole classroom full of students excited uh to do that and take that test at the end of the year, but um I I I don't see how that would be an exciting course for our high school students today. Um we're a little past those times. Um I just uh am grateful for all the work that is done here. And I see, you know, where we're moving, which is into the future, where students live today. Things are changing. and they're always evolving and we have to evolve with them. So, I'm grateful for that. And then I just have to call out a teacher who's here maybe, you know, I might have went to conferences and while my child is not in his class this year, she is a team manager of our debate team. So, we have our uh we have one of our debate coaches here tonight and he was so excited to talk about a class that is being presented tonight that I thought, well, he should come and tell us a little bit about this course. So, you know, >> Alex I'm just going to call them out. I wouldn't want them >> debate two course. >> I wouldn't want them to come tonight and not get the opportunity. [clears throat] >> Can I just jump back to um your AP art history? Um we do offer AP 2D studio art and AP 3D studio art. So they do students still have AP options within the art department. They're not all they're not gone. >> Yeah, we're very lucky. We have a wonderful art community in Whitebear like to have for our students who love art. So grateful for that. >> So I didn't hear a motion to add that to the agenda. I'm just kidding. >> Yeah, they're they're presenting. So it's part of the presentation. Thank you. >> Uh so [snorts] Alex Ducet is a social studies teacher at the high school and um helped proposed the course for debate 2 and is also um our first debate head coach. >> All right, Alex. >> Yeah. Um and as an aside, as a medieval historian, uh you you wound me about the medieval art. uh uh [laughter] but uh that being said uh so last year I was offered the chance to be able to teach the debate course uh which has been growing in popularity over the last several years kind of out of nowhere uh which is wild and I was able to take it over and I revamped the entire thing to be uh heavily into debate and rhetoric and uh taught them all sorts of different basics and I had a lot of success. We had one section last year about uh by the end I had taught them far too much and they had uh put forth a wonderful argument to that I should be a head coach and that they wanted to go and compete. Uh after great deliberation uh they convinced me and uh it has been an incredible opportunity this year. About half of the class that I had taught last year found interest and I have 17 who are now registered in the debate team. uh for competitive debate through uh the National Speech and Debate Association uh competing in formal circuits acquiring all sorts of speech points and merit points so that they can have uh just an amazing opportunity to provide this this uh level of skill for them. That being said, I have to be as flexible as possible with these students. They are amazing amazing young people who really enjoy talking. Uh and because of that they find every opportunity to do so including things like the fall musical which had prevented this past weekend was our first formal tournament. Uh and a lot of those people were rehearsing for our incredible musical and I want to make sure that they can still do things like that. Uh and so this second debate course uh came up as an opportunity uh inspired by our um uh athlete weights course that this would be something that would run only during the season. It would run in our fall trimester during debate season. They would be able to take it year after year in order to gain credits and continue to work towards these goals of competing at higher and higher levels. uh and that they would be able to uh have time during the school day where they would be able to do research because we we don't always have the resources after school available in our libraries which have you know depending um whatever access they may have for that and more than an hour and a half twice a week for them to be able to practice and get feedback specifically have time in class uh for them to write arguments do really good research uh practice different debate styles so they can figure out something that they really enjoy. Uh and and between uh my brand new uh you know debate team and the fact that we've doubled the debate enrollment this year for to two full courses uh instead of one. Uh I saw a huge uh opportunity to be able to uh to provide that to them and they were all if you could have seen them after Saturday, it was wild. Uh they got up and got to the school at 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday. They looked miserable about it at 7 a.m. Some brought blankets. Uh boarded a bus, drove an hour out to Minnotonka into a place they had no idea what it was going to look like. Uh they were told that both of their coaches were tagged to judge at the same time because they were short on people and yet the resiliency that they had was incredible. They went forward horribly confused for like oh no trying to figure out all the things and by the end I wish I was exaggerating. There were leaping lunges happening with this joyous uh look on their face of of accomplishment and that that level of thing. I mean, that just, you know, fired me up and my uh my assistant coach and I went home and uh had only energy to order pizza. Uh but proceeded to just talk all night about how amazing that whole experience was. And after our first one, uh there was a four-way tie for third place in Lincoln Douglas debating and he received an honorable mention because they had to go so far down the statistics to actually iron out who was there. So, um it's been an incredible opportunity and I hope that we can continue this. Thank you very much. And so I appreciate you sharing about debate too. And I'm going to like to get us back on track with uh the new courses. [laughter] >> I talked too much >> and changes >> and good luck. >> Uh are there other questions? >> I just have a comment. [snorts] >> Okay, Miss Daniels. >> I think um just appreciate the staff flexibility as you mentioned early in your presentation and the scheduling that this must have. I mean, that's a huge lift to the scheduler, to Carrie Bar and all the work she's done behind the scenes to make it happen on paper. So, I know your staff and administration has done a lot. So, congratulations on making that transition. >> Okay. I just have a couple of quick questions and I'll let you go. I promise I'll be brief. Um, when I look at the multicultural approaches to education, the uh, ed uh, 2350, I believe, isn't that on the minstate transfer curriculum. So, the thing we're not saying is if I take this to get the credit and I go to Morehead, I'm part of the Minstate, that credit follows me. So, it's not I don't have to go to the Minneapolis College. This goes anywhere in the minstate system. And that's the one advantage that our students have that these classes are taking. anywhere they go that'll go with them and they'll be able to use it without having to worry about will it be accepted or not as long as it's a transfer transfer curriculum it'll go that's great for our students the s second question I had when I heard about your workbased learning seminar and work experience what are the plans to partner that with a student organization because they fit well together whether we're talking DECA BPA FCCLA any of those uh Skills USA they fit well with those type of organizations because the leadership and those parts fit well with the seminar. So, have we given that thought? >> Yeah, I think it'll be an opportunity that we um lean into a year from now. Um we have some work to do. We have to have at least one more teacher in our building um >> get certified to teach the career seminar course and um then we need to talk about what capacity do we have to get out to job sites. Um but as we move through all of that um we have to start thinking about how we might get more students interested. Um some students we know are already out in those career um having those career experiences but they aren't yet earning credit. So um through all those clubs and different activities that we offer. I think that's the easiest way to determine um what we might next on board. [clears throat] >> Okay. Thank you. Any other quick questions or we'll let you go. You know what? >> Just a quick sorry just a quick followup on just cuz that was wonderful. Thank you for sharing. >> Anybody else up please? >> I'm not coming. [laughter] I mean they are here to present to us. So I decided it'd be great to hear how debate has done for us already and and I see a great um asset to our students [snorts] to have this skill building that is so important in life like being able to talk in front of people. Debate is a great thing for that. being able to have a debate between two people who have differing opinions, but to be able to walk away and go, "Okay, good job. You know, you took it this time. Maybe I'll do better next time." I think it's great opportunity for our our students to um build in those skills. And they did not get home until I believe it was like 5:40 p.m. So, it was a a very long day for them. So, thank you. >> Thank you. And thank you for everything you're doing. We appreciate it. >> Thank you. Um, we're going to go on to discussion item B4. Dr. Gillespie is going to talk about calendar updates. >> Members of the Chair Aran, members of the board, thank you for having me. I hope you're feeling as much enthusiasm around this topic as the other topics. Um, every year I bring our calendar way um, far in advance. Um, and so we're talking this year about next year's 2627 calendar and the 2728 calendar. And I just want to remind you of some of the calendar parameters that we use. We um, our collectively bargained contract parameters guide the um, calendar. So that's how many days we have in the calendar along with obviously Minnesota state statute on how many days students need to be in session. My goal is to provide two years to the best I can in terms of working with all the different people that we do internally and externally. But the most accurate is now I'm giving you all the details on 26 27. 27 28 is almost complete. We still have a couple days that we'll place next year at this time and they're really professional development days as we learn each year. We kind of have different nuances on where those are placed. Um we uh so then like I said I'm presenting our detailed and final calendar for next year. Tonight I'm going to ask for action at our November 10th um meeting. All of our non- studentent days must be includive of K12. And that became a parameter a few years ago. We used to have one floating day that was solely K5, but received feedback from families that it's much easier having all their students at home, especially with the younger ones possibly needing support. And then in determining non-placement days, we really look at as many factors as we can to be inclusive of community. I've had people reach out and ask about different religious accommodations. And we we do a variety of things of trying to be inclusive. Also really following what makes sense to not have too many disrupted weeks for families or not have um we really what I'm believing is a collective value for everyone I've talked to is to get out as early as possible in June as we can. And so kind of some of those other considerations can make delay us into June. Um, so I've mentioned all that it isn't really great data to look at other districts there nuances. I obviously talk to other districts, but there isn't a guiding parameter beyond what maybe our contracts look similar or the number of days is absolutely the same, but it can be a lot of different things that factor into other districts calendars as well. Um, so I have a calendar committee that has representatives from various different leadership departments, our um, and educators and then some paras. Then we also bring this and really what I'll talk about today we started last year some conversations um trying to get as much feedback as we can. Um and then again the final um determination for calendar is done by us at district leadership because almost always we're about at a 5050 um give or take on what people want. It's really hard to get consensus on topics. And so then I bring it to you at a work study session to get any feedback that you might have. And then um we'll bring a recommended calendar for action at the next schoolboard meeting. So the big change for this year is that we are we will bring forth the 2627 calendar and the 2728 calendar to provoke proposed starts before Labor Day and this is the conversation that we started last year and really what triggered it is and you'll I wrote brought this so I have the exact dates but it's just really a day different from this calendar what we did for 2526 but Labor Day which is always the first Monday of September goes a full week later and so there was conversation at the legislature um that we knew about a little bit. So, we did some surveys, which I'll talk about in a second, um to gather some feedback around it. Really, what what went into this decision are these benefits. Four instructional days before Labor Day um still keeping that Friday off, which families and staff value to still have that long weekend really helps us with being done earlier in J in June, but that's not the sole reason on why we would make this decision. that's um ending in 27 June 4th and 28 June 2nd versus what would be a full week later and for us that would be later than we're used to. Um that it really allows for more instructional time before state testing. It improves alignment for trans trimester transitions and so 4 days doesn't feel like a lot but it is for example trimester 1 ends the day before um Thanksgiving if we're able to do this before that break and it's 57 days. If we were to push four days, it's it it's like we would have to have either some trimesters that aren't equally distributed or have families have an interrupted week and then another interrupted week sometime in in December because of those four days. The same thing with with spring break naturally falls on those breaks. So, it really allows us to I think and the feedback I've received, it feels more logical in terms of how those breaks fall. The other thing is it allows better scheduling for our extended school year programs. we have significant programming that occurs in summer um especially around hiring and big programs for students who qualify for extended year and that time difference will allow us um to just stay on track and so again I presented it to our staff I even got student feedback um it really is a day difference but it'll [clears throat] feel different for us because as far as I can remember I it's always started after Labor Day um community feedback so last year we added a question to that community survey and community members were 63% in favor and 28% % like strongly opposed. Um, and then parents were really kind of a 50/50. The ones that indicated that they were strongly opposed were 39%. Um, we did a survey of our educators and anytime we survey our educators on the calendar, it comes up 50/50. Um, really I've I've done a lot of them now. Um, the other piece that I think is interesting, we brought it to systems accountability and their feedback wasn't necessarily on whether we would or wouldn't start before Labor Day. was more questions around we don't love the two-day weeks if you can avoid those or what about the three-day weeks. Why can't we get two weeks at um winter break and all of that really we can be as flexible as we need to be. It just really anytime you add additional days it causes us to go later in June and I do believe most people are supportive. Families are ready for their kids to be done. Um kids are definitely ready to be done. they they were they they clapped for me when I gave them this calendar and I I I rarely get a reaction when I present to people. So, um that doesn't happen. The other piece that is new is the legislature did change that we could start on or after September 1st for the next two years to alleviate. That really doesn't help us because that would only allow us those three days or we'd have to talk about coming back on Friday. It just really caused a lot of conversation and there's always been this statute where um you can have a little bit of wiggle room depending on the construction projects that you have. So really um what I'm looking at is having us and I know these are small and I'll make sure you get actual copies before the board packet. It would be the first day of school for 26 would be August 31st and it would be the same staggered start sixth and 9th graders that day. This year we started school on Tuesday September 2nd. So that it'll it feels weird when you talk about but when you look about it it really is only a day difference. Our teachers came back last year Monday August 25th and they would come back Monday August 24th for us. um 27 28 there isn't any other notable changes between now what you what our families and students are experiencing this year compared to next year um the one thing is there's a little bit of room around some professional development that we were able to have a day we connected it to the day that we have off um for Martin Luther King Jr. And so that Tuesday, which that has been historic that we have something, especially when we were at semesters and it was just the way um some of the uh spring break fell and different things that we weren't able to do that this past year. Um that has us ending with the last day for students, Friday, June 4th. Staff then come back that Monday for a work day and then that would allow time. Do you want me to pause for questions on specific calendars or go to this 2728? >> Keep going. I don't see hands up. Um, same thing with 2728. Essentially, it's one more day difference. We'd start on Monday, August 30th. Um, and then end on Friday, June 2nd. Um, that is the week after we observe Memorial Day, which I think is what got the applause from the students. That's the earliest I can remember finishing in my uh, as far as my memory will take me in my career. But it does allow us again for me what I felt the most um compelling was those alignment of our trimesters are 57 days for each trimester which matters for sure as you see at the high school but even as we think about um getting as many days as we possibly can before we give our statemandated tests. >> Can I just ask you a quick question? >> Absolutely. >> How does pushing the date back a week affect our summer programming opportunities? It will allow them more time. >> I mean, but I'm saying if we had to go a week later into June, that would mess with those summer opportunities. >> Yeah, it would. And depending on the length, we would have to talk about whether we shorten the length or or really think about because they hover over two budgetary years. We figure that out often, but it's it's it's also hard to get staff wanting to teach into July. Most people that's kind of a pause point. We It's really nuanced, but that people were very excited about that additional week. >> Other [snorts] questions? Yes, Mr. Scar. um [clears throat] who is on the system accountability committee. >> Each building has a principal, staff, and parent representative that they bring. And so it represents every single one of our buildings and programs. >> Is who who selects the parent? >> The principal does. >> Okay. >> And then we have two board representatives. >> I understand. >> Okay. Other questions? [clears throat] We will see you at the next meeting. >> We'll be here. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. We have gotten down to agenda item D1. This will be I mean, excuse me, C1, action on tenative agreement for the White Bear Lake Area Educators. >> Good evening, chair and school board members. Thank you for having me tonight. My name is Cindy Gust and I'm the assistant director of human resources. Oh, sorry. I turned it off. >> It needs to be green. This is a good visual. Would you like me to repeat that part or is it okay? Good. [laughter] >> Uh I am here tonight uh the district has reached a tenative agreement for uh with our Wer Lake area educators for the 202527 contract period. I do want to thank everyone that was involved in the negotiations process. We meet over long days during the summer and a lot of hours of work go into reaching this agreement. The teachers voted in early October and I am here today to seek your approval and I do so by asking that you pass the resolution that is included in your board packet. I'm happy to entertain any questions that you have, but I do thank you for allowing me to be here tonight. Any questions? >> Miss Bloyd, >> can we ask what the vote breakout was? >> That is not something that is usually shared with us. It's just that it passed. >> We're hearing nothing. Um, >> yes, >> chair. What wouldn't this typically be on the um open board meeting agenda on Nove when is it? November 10th or is it typically on the work session? the work session because we discussed it in the closed session. So, >> and we knew it was coming. So, that's why we put it here. >> Um, and so what I'm going to say right now is the recommended action is to approve the proposed 2025 through 2027 White Bear Lake Area Educators Tenative Agreement by passing the following resolution. Do we have a motion to uh for the resolution? Okay, we have Miss Thompson. Is there a second? >> Second. Uh, I think Miss Bloid had her hand up. Miss Bloyd, now we're open for discussion. Any further discussion? Okay. Hearing none. This will be a roll call vote. Will the cir clerk please call the role? >> Floyd. >> I. >> Daniels. I. Scar. >> I. >> Strifoji. >> I. >> Thompson. >> I. >> Aran. >> I. Motion carries. Congratulations. We're happy. Thank you all. Thank you to everyone on the >> We're happy to have our some of our most valuable employees under contract. [laughter] >> So they do a lot for us. All right, we are at D1 now at the adjournment. Can I get a motion to adjourn? >> So move. >> So by Okay, by Miss Daniels. There's a second. >> Second. >> Second by Miss Thompson. Uh all in favor by saying I I oppose. Same sign. We are now finished. Have a great day.