It is 6:30. I call this regular meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good evening, council board members, district staff, Richard, thank you for being here to represent our community. Uh the mission uh of St. Francis to equip all students with the knowledge and skills to empower them to achieve their dreams and full potential while becoming responsible citizens in a dynamic world. U member Worky is not present uh tonight due to a previously scheduled trip and Superintendent Anderson is not present tonight due to an appointment out of town. Our first item for tonight is agenda item two, adoption of the agenda. Are there any questions prior to a motion being made for the agenda before you? Seeing no questions. Is there a call to motion for the September 8th, 2025 meeting agenda? Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion on that motion? >> No discussion. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I and raising your hand. >> I motion. Thank you. Uh, next agenda item is consideration of visitor tonight. We have one individual. Uh Richard, you'll have five minutes to speak uh for tonight. Richard, please come forward. >> Good evening board members and everybody else who's here. Nowhere are lessons about our shared history and experience as Americans more needed than in Minnesota's politicized classrooms. Kids of all backgrounds, new immigrants, Native Americans, fifth generation motans, kids, kids of all skin colors, ethnic and ethnicities suffer from K12 pivot away from equality, academic excellence, and nondiscrimination toward its current obsession with equity, grievance, and favorite group identities. Advocates call appropriately call this reim engineering re-imagining re-imaging no reimagining education. We call it woefully insufficient framing of the complexity and potential of multithnic American republic radical 250ear experiment in democracy. Despite five years of brave, prohuman testimony, lobbying, in good faith persuasion by fair twin cities, individual fair members, and courageous others, Minnesota's K12 infrastructure has been breached by an illegal ideology. The day today the critical social justice thinking not only dominates K through 12 educator culture but also the mandatory professional development ecology, the credentiing and authorizing structures of Minnesota law and rule and even the technical assistant health and staff of state regulatory agencies. Ethnic studies as a way of studying history, government and society is not inherently illiberal by nature. It is easily politicized more so than the natural sciences for example and bent toward the liberal ends. One of the deepest incursions of critical social justice ideology in our state education occurred in 2023 when partisan majorities at the Minnesota legis legislature chose to define the new K through2 ethnic study requirements in a straightforward identitarian way. This perspective perspective was made persuasive. High schools will be required to offer a co course in ethnic studies and most comprehensively of all inject ethnic studies in K all K through 12 subjects at grade levels by 2728. A separate administrative action has required implementation of ethnic studies within the social studies at all grade levels by 2026. legislature also raised the creation of special new ethnic studies lenture for school staff and teachers. After consulting with activist activist, these legislatures divine liberated ethnic studies in a way in Minnesota statutes 12b.25 25. Ethnic studies means the interdisciplinary study of race, ethnicity, indigenity, and with focus on the experience and perspectives of people of color within and beyond the United States. Ethnic studies analyzes the ways in which race and racism have been and continued to be a social, cultural, and political forces and the connection of race to the stratification of other groups, including stratification based on the protected classes under section 363A.13. [Music] That's straight out of statute 12.25. Fair argues that the liberated ethnic studies drain all individually from students complex and often naturally contradictory identities leaving only the hollow shell of identitarianism and that single mind of focus on explaining different outcomes but exclusively by the oppressive pressure narrative unbalanced by the development narrative. shirt changes all studently particularly those most ten tenuous access to financial cultural and familial resources. That means that activist educators in preparation for the 2728 implementation are embedding a liberal and radical racialized critical social justice presumptions into your first graders social emotional learning games, your fourth graders handwriting lessons, and your ninth graders chemistry lab assignments. Thankfully, just in time, fair has completed the design of a sophisticated modern program civic curriculum for school districts and individual high school teachers to adopt. It's called the American Experience Curriculum and it is outstanding. This pedagogic antidote is needlessly stratified and alien alien for a needlessly stratified and alienated civic culture designed to help our people of all backgrounds contextualizing their own unique self in their shared stream of American society's best traditions and aspirations. No clapping tonight. Richard, thank you. >> I have a copy for each. >> There should be seven. >> All right, moving forward. Agenda item four, consent agenda. Uh we have four items on tonight's consent agenda. It will be a roll call vote. Are there any questions uh or requests to remove an item from the consent agenda prior to a motion be made? >> I had a question about on an expenditure and I sent it over to um Carson and did not get a response on it. So I don't know how you want to move forward on that. What's your suggestion? Oh, you can ask it. If the Mr. Kat can answer it, we will. If not, we'll just have to defer it until Carson back to you. >> Okay. On 829 2025, um we had an expenditure to CESO for $4,323 and it was ongoing finance manager support above contracted hours, mileage, and federal. I was just curious because it's $4,323. what what that encompassed was my question. >> Okay. So, we will continue to wait. >> I can I can try to dig into Skyward here while we're in the meeting and see if I can figure it out. >> See if you can figure it out. Okay, that's fine. That was the only question I had. >> Okay. >> Uh date again, Miss West. Um the expenditure was on 829 and the check number was 335033. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions prior to Is there a call to or a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Some is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Shrock. Any discussion on the motion to approve consent agenda. >> Seeing no discussion, this will be a roll call vote. First, if you're in favor, signify by saying I. If you are opposed, signify by saying nay. Mr. Humphrey, >> I. >> Miss Anderson, >> I. >> Mr. Shrock, >> I. >> Miss BL, I miss I and I as well. Motion prevails. Thank you. Next uh item on tonight's agenda is item five, information items and reports. Uh the first item 5.1 is facility ground committee updates. Member Shonrock and myself will provide you a brief update on discussions that the facilities and grounds committee has a proposed p plan moving forward. You'll see that in the board packet. Uh there's no action required for tonight's meeting. discussion and information. Uh but if the board is in consensus that this is a good idea to move forward, there will be an action item at an upcoming I believe it'll be the next one, but it may be uh further out uh for board direction for a community engagement task force. So, as you know, uh the facility and grounds committee has been meeting uh with the city of St. Francis uh understanding their long-term plan and goals which has stirred some discussion on district long-term plans and goals for facilities and ground. And what we are looking at doing is evaluating multiple uh pressing priorities here in the district uh from facilities, education, administrative needs across all of our facilities. Uh these needs directly impact our education environment. Uh so we want to not make decisions in a silo. So what we are asking is that we set up um a community engagement task force which will get stakeholders from across our district community not just one city or one area but across the district to help us prioritize the needs across the district. So, looking at multiple areas um with a somewhat of a lens on facilities and grounds and what that long-term plan would look like, but also uh it's not limited to just that. So, they will take a look at other areas. Um what we would like to do is with our staff as well as site logic has a team that runs um community engagements. uh they help with the process of sending out meetings um applications for people to be part of that engagement. Uh and really what it does is it it takes it takes some of the bias that we as board members might have on what we think a priority is and it allows us to get community input to build trust and transparency with our community. Uh so really what we're looking at is uh starting that task force um and working the next several months uh with that and doing facility tours um engagements reports them from some of our cabinet uh and getting data compiled from across different areas to help with that. So really what we're looking for is just if that if the board feels that that is a good idea uh if that's a consensus that we want to continue forward um in order for us to make future decisions uh using some of this information and those those key stakeholders across you have any >> Yeah, I think you did a good job summarizing it and I think this is a good way of getting the community involved in the process of knowing what's going on. Um and I believe site logic is going to fund it or it won't be a charge to the district or will it? So currently right now there is no charge with it. That's part of our agreement that we have with them and some of the other projects that we're doing that they will work alongside with us to help us in that prioritizing uh and that engagement. That's one of the departments that they have and one of the benefits we have with the current contract we have with them. >> Correct. I I have spoke to a couple districts that have used uh site logic for their community engagement. Um all of them are tied to a referendum or levy question at some point. Uh some of them are right away, some are years down the road, but they help with that. Every district I've talked to was extremely pleased uh with how professional they put it together, how open it was uh to the community. uh and how that task force grew um and they developed what that was and reported back to the board. So really it's giving us an option to have more information when we make our decisions which I >> um is the community engagement task force is it a set amount of people or how will that be defined? >> So they typically like to do no less than 15 individuals. They have done up to 50 individuals on that committee. Uh their sweet spot is that between 20 and 30 is what they have worked with in the past, but really it's up to our community and how many want to be involved. Uh they will open that up, but they they do the application process. They they help with the um selection. It's not superintendent picking. It's not, you know, any of us picking key individuals. They go through that whole process. Any other questions or concerns or comments on on that area? So, it's coming out of the facilities and grounds committee, but I think this is a more of a district-wide thing as well. It's going to help us as we work, you know, look to the future where this district is going. Seems like everyone's in mostly support of that. Correct. >> All right. Hear any no more questions? Mr. Link, do you have anything to add to it? All right, we'll move on to the next uh item, which is superintendent evaluation, summary, and report. Typically, we would do this with the superintendent here, but state statute says uh once we do a close session, we have to provide a summary of that evaluation close session at our next regular meeting. So, we will do it tonight, but we can save comments for the superintendent for the next meeting when he is here. Uh we did hold a close session on August 25th to talk about the 2024 2025 evaluation for Superintendent Anderson. I will go through uh just couple quick highlights. Uh it is in the board packet the full thing but we did talk on focused on following areas from MSBA suggested um standards for leadership when it comes to superintendent. We talked about vision leadership policy governance community engagement organizational management curriculum instruction and student achievement professional and ethical leadership and board superintendent relations. Um a few summaries of uh superintendent strengths were guided the district-wide assessment of facilities, technologies, and transportation. Maintain professionalism even when board direction differed from his recommendations. Established collaborative relationships with other local governing bodies and stakeholders, led budget saving initiatives, and started implementation of standard operating procedures across the district. uh oversaw and improved curriculum purchasing process and worked toward greater stakeholder input, stakeholder input and consistently model professional fairness and respect. Um we did list uh six areas for growth. Uh those areas align with some of the goals that we set for superintendent which is also in the board packet uh for this school year. A couple of those areas were long-term planning, continue to maintain focus on long-term planning and overall district stability, working with the school board for that, student achievement, strength and districtwide alignment around assessment practices, use of data to drive student growth, and consistent accountability. All areas that we talked overall performance, uh he demonstrated effective professional leadership during a challenging year marked by both opportunities and difficulties. His strengths in operational management, board relations, and ethical leadership have positioned the district for continued growth. And overall, the superintendent uh overall superintendent Anderson's performance has been strong, and the district continues to benefit from his leadership and steady direction. Uh so that is a summary. Any questions or comments on the summary that was provided? All right, seeing none, we'll move on to agenda item 5.3. I'm talking way too much tonight, but I'm going to fill in the superintendent's admin report tonight. Uh you'll see on this first thing, we're continuing to still meet with um our local city officials and elected officials. Uh the Oakrove City Council meetings are still up for grabs. If anyone would like to go to one, please reach out to me. The next available one that we do not have a conflict is September 29th and then we wait till March. So if someone has interest in providing that update, let me know and we'll talk through what that update looks like. If not, I think I will be able to attend that one. Uh Superintendent Anderson and myself have continued with our meetings with city officials. Uh we had one with Mayor Bethl the other night. Uh we have a meeting with the police chief coming up. Uh and really it's just about building relationships. We're not talking uh action items. We're not doing anything like that. We're just building that relationship and that open dialogue across our district. Uh and we have been received very well. So I applaud superintendent for reaching out and asking to do this as we go forward. Uh the first week of school is complete. I want to I want to give a thank you to all of our students, our parents, and our staff uh for getting through the first week. It wasn't perfect. There were some hiccups. Uh but it's all areas that our staff is already engaging. uh and ensuring that we're going to continue to move forward uh smoothly as we go. Uh I don't know what else he was going to say about the first week of school other than I know he was pretty happy when I saw him this morning about the first week being completed. Uh and there are some areas to work on and we know that we're adjusting as we go. But it's it's great to see those buildings full once again. Uh Chris will probably give a hoot and a holler for this one, but the bleachers at the middle school are complete. Um, my son said he actually got to go into the gym and see the gym and said it was absolutely awesome today. The bleachers were pushed in, so they weren't out. So, he couldn't tell me if they look good or not, but I'm sure they uh the auto lifts in the high school are operational. Uh, we're still completing that process. Clean up and finishing stuff is still happening. If anyone's got a shovel in the bucket, we got some dirt. Don't >> uh meet the candidate forum is September 23rd. There is a change. It will be at 8:00 here at the district office. Not 7 p.m. It'll be 8:00 where you get to meet the current candidate that is on for that election. Uh September 26 at the Performing Arts Center 4:30 Saints Hall of Fame induction. This is a all of them are important, but this is a pretty big one. We have a lot of really awesome individuals that are going to be inducted this year. uh we're honoring uh a few individuals that have a lot of ties to the district, to the school board, to other things. So, ask that all of you if you can attend September 26 at 4:30 and then you can walk right out to the football game afterwards if you'd like. Uh 6:00 football game starts. Our awesome, Chris, I love that the state did that. It's actually really nice to see our athletes and everybody out there when it's not super late. That's it for the admin report. Any questions? Uh if you do, you can email Superintendent Anderson if you have anything specific and I'm sure you >> I can I can do the 29th if you >> Perfect. If no one else wants to I'll go. >> Okay. Uh next agenda item is uh agenda item six, action items. Again, I'll make sure you all have a chance to speak if you want, but before you get your second one, everyone gets a chance to talk. We have two action items for tonight's meeting. The first one is approval of policy 503. We had the first reading last meeting. Is there are there any questions prior to motion being made on 503 which is student attendance. All right. See none. Is there a call to motion to approve resolution for our policy board policy 503? >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Sher. Any discussion on that motion? >> I'd like to thank the fact that we took into account cultural um because that was especially amongst the APAC uh group. Um they had requested that you know how their culture deals with the death of a loved one can vary from what we normally and sometimes it takes many days of travel or being there and things like this. So I appreciate that consideration on part three and part five. Four. >> Perfect. Thank you, Mr. Humphrey. Any other discussion? All right. Uh, all in favor the motion signify by saying I and raising your hand. >> I motion prevails. Thank you. The next agenda item is 6.2 approval of nutrition managers work agreement. Uh a summary of the agreement is provided uh in the board packet and Brandon is here if you have any specific questions. Any questions for Brandon prior to a motion being made to approve? >> Mr. Sh, >> I really don't have a question, but this meeting is going too fast. I know some people want to get to the biking scheme, so I fig >> slow it up a little bit. >> Consider >> But yeah, thank you Brandon for all your work on this. At least it wasn't cute talking cuz that would have been okay 10 minutes [Laughter] >> yes >> I mean >> all right no questions on the nutrition manager work agreement seeing none is there a call to motion to approve the nutrition manager work agreement >> so >> thank you Mr. shown off. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion on that motion? Seeing no discussion, if you are in favor, signify by saying I and raising your hand. >> I >> motion prevails. Thank you. All right. Next agenda item is item seven, upcoming meeting topics. You have any questions on upcoming meetings or topics that were presented before packet? All right, none. We'll move on. Agenda item eight, school board member report. Mr. Humphrey. >> Uh, no, I'm just kidding. I would just like to make note that Chad nor the superintendent are here and this is the quickest meeting ever. So, I don't necessarily know if it's me, but um I'm very I'm very thrilled of how the year has started. I'm getting feedback from parents, from students, from uh everyone across from bus drivers to teachers, the whole gamut. And it really seems like things are off to a great start. So looking forward to it. And uh that's all I have right now. Thanks. >> Thank you, Mr. Just want to thank everyone for the first week back to school. heard nothing but compliments about our bus drivers, our EAS and staff and how for the success we >> Thank you, >> Mr. Sh. >> Nothing to report. >> Nothing to report. Um, just wanted to mention that I attended a prayer circle outside of the high school on uh Labor Day, Monday, and I was pleased to see quite a few community members, students and future students there um taking part in the prayer circle just, you know, praying over the school grounds, all the staff, all the students districtwide. It was it was really good to see. So, thank you for everybody and I'm glad to hear that we've had a good year so far. >> Yes, that was a a news report on WCCCO. Uh they did do a short report. We had a a prayer circle at multiple >> facilities. So, it's nice to see some good news stories coming out of our district. And there's we're anticipating another one from the middle school as well. Another story coming out as well with our web leadership team. >> Uh CCL reached back out today that'll air Sunday night the 14th at 10 o'clock and then it'll also reair the following Monday. I think she said at 4. Um it's not going to be so much on web as it is going to be on our anonymous reporting system. >> They're tied together. But the uh they interviewed three of our kiddos, eighth graders there. Um and the kids were just rock stars. Dax comment immediately afterwards how he's seen has witnessed college athletes who can't perform that well in front of the camera. The kids are really really good. >> Hopefully a really positive story. >> Keep doing it. We like seeing the positive stories. Uh, I attended EA negotiations, the third one. Um, Brandon is working hard with that team to work through all of our um all of the language and the other areas that they're focused on. Uh, I talked about the meeting we had with the Bethl mayor already, super awesome individual and super supportive of our district. uh have the facility and grounds committee meetings and then uh just about what everyone else was saying. Uh it's absolutely awesome to see what how great our buildings look as the start of our school year. Um our facilities, our fields, everything and what that looks like. Uh it's fun to see uh kids out there constantly. Every time we drive by, we're seeing people doing stuff. So great first week and I can't wait for the next 39. Mhm. >> Uh, next agenda item is adjournment. We will need a motion to adjurnn this meeting. Is there a motion? >> Is there a second? >> Any discussion on that motion? >> No discussion. All in favor of the motion sign. [Music] No, >> no, not >> uh the one