[music] [music] We're welcome[clears throat] tonight. Hello everyone. Welcome to our regularlyscheduled schoolboard meeting uh Monday, September 14th, 2026.Um please stand if you are able and join usin the pledge of allegiance. After the pledge, please remain standing for abrief moment of silence. [clears throat]>> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to theublicfor it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justicefor all. >> At this time, I would like to to share amoment of silence for Katie Grout, a Rosemont Middle School nutritionservices worker who passed away on September 4th. Thank you. Okay. Before we begin, is there a motionto approve the agenda as outlined? >> So moved.>> Second. >> Okay. First was Robin, seconded bySaken. All those in favor?>> I >> I.>> All those uh >> opposed. opposed.All right, it passes on a one, two, three, four, five, zero.All right, glasses on.Uh, as you will notice, Corey is not chairing today. I'm the vice chair andas you can see, I'm still uh new to the uh position. So, um,>> your patience is very kindly accepted. So, Principal Bruce Miller. Okay.>> Right now, uh, we will move on to recognition by the school board. At thistime, I would like to welcome East View High School, uh, Principal Bruce Millerto the podium. He will introduce frequent board meeting honore MiaBattis, who has been named the region 3 teacher of the year by the Associationfor Career and Technical Education. >> Good evening, Vice Chairperson Williams,board members, and superintendent Bosone. I'm Bruce Miller, principal ofEast View High School. I am pleased to be here tonight to celebrate Mia Battiswho has been named the 2027 Minnesota Association for Career and TechnicalEducation Teacher of the Year and subsequently named the region 3 CTEteacher of the year. Region 3 includes of course Minnesota, um Illinois,Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, and Wisconsin. This is the recognition of the finestcareer and technical education teachers at the middle and secondary school levelwho have demonstrated innovation and in the classroom commitment to theirstudents and dedication to the improvement of career and technicaleducation. Mia is dedicated to her students putting time and energy intofinding meaningful career pathways for her students. She leverages our thrivingFCCLA organization. We'll learn more about them in a few minutes to provideleadership development while connecting students with industry leaders. She alsohelps to shape our future through her work to develop the next generation ofteachers, serving as a mentor to new teachers through the career andtechnical education teacher induction program where she provides support tonew family and consumer sciences teachers across Minnesota. We are doublyproud of Mia. She is a district 196 graduate coming out of Rosemount HighSchool and an inaugural member of the East View High School faculty and shealso taught at Dakota Hills Middle School before coming to East View. Miawill be honored at the ACT awards gala in December in New Orleans where shewill um also learn uh about the uh national CTE teacher of the year award.Mia, this is a well-deserved honor. Congratulations for your remarkableachievements and thank you for all you do to support our students. Mia [applause] All right. Thank you. Um, good evening,Vice Chairperson Williams, board members, and Superintendent Bull Sony.Thank you, Mr. Miller. Obviously, you know, my name is Mia Battis. Um, I havethe privilege of advising FCCLA and leading the family and consumer sciencedepartment at East View High School. Although we are the only FCCLA careerand technical student organization organization chapter in district 9 196,we are very proud to be the largest chapter in Minnesota, consistentlyrecognized for our local, state, and national projects and receiving tophonors in our competitions. Our chapter strives to meet the needs of our schooland community by participating and leading community service event projectssuch as desserts by FCCLA, providing child care for families during EVHSconferences, participating in various volunteer activities at the RonaldMcDonald House and the Minnesota Children's Museum throughout the yearand in competitive events. Students taking action with recognition are ourstar events. They are competitive events which members compete at the regional,state, and national levels individually or as a team. Students are recognizedfor proficiency and achievement in chapter and individual projects,leadership skills, and career preparation. These events allowparticipants to demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and abilities toactively identify an issue, research a topic, and develop and implement aproject to advocate for positive change. Our students projects this year includedadvocating for therapy dogs at EVHS, researching and teaching aboutmicrolastics, creating entrepreneurial businesses,creating a website, instructional videos, and a red talk. Also conductingcareer investigations, and creating per performance profiles for athletes, justto name a few. We qualified 34 members for our state conference this past Marchand qualified 25 members for the national leadership conference inWashington DC held July 6 through the 10th placing in the top 10 and excellingat the national level. I am proud to congratulate the following stateconference national qualifiers first alternates and national leadershipconference awardees who are here with us tonight. Sports Nutrition, KatherineAravea, Leah Zik, Entrepreneurship,Shasha Senapati, Chapter Service Display, FelicityDaniels, Sustainability Challenge, Lorraine Kanki, Sports Nutrition, EricChia, Promote and Publicize, Cifen Asafa,family members who are here in sharing, recognizing these fine young men andwomen, please stand so that we may recognize you for all that you have doneto support your student. Thank you very much. There we go. [applause]Thank you again for inviting us to come before you to recognize theaccomplishments of our FCCLA chapter members. We are proud to be supported byand represent District 196 and East View High School and all that we do. [applause] All right. Next, please welcome Directorof Elementary Education Jeremy Sorenson and Beth Perilla from the MinnesotaDepartment of Health. They will recognize District 186 Health ServicesCoordinator Coordinator Mary Langworthy. >> All right. Thank you very much. Goodevening, Vice Chair Williams, members of the board, and Superintendent Bolson. Myname is Jeremy Sasonson, director of elementary ed. And tonight, we are proudto recognize our district health services coordinator, Mary Langworthy,who has been selected as Minnesota's 2026 immunization champion by theAssociation of Immunization Managers and the Minnesota Department of Health. Thisprestig prestigious award honors Mary's exceptional leadership, dedication, andtireless work and partnership with her team in protecting the health andwell-being of our students and the broader community. Joining us to presentthis recognition is Beth Pill, vaccinereventable disease sectionmanager from the Minnesota Department of Health. I'm going to turn it over toBeth to present Mary with the award. >> Hi. Uh, thank you very much for theintroduction. Uh, good evening members of the school board. I'm Beth Pill. I'mthe vaccinereventable disease section manager at the Minnesota Department ofHealth. I am truly honored to be here tonight with all of you to present avery special statewide recognition, the 2026Minnesota Immunization Champion Award. Every year, the Department of Health inpartnership with the Association of Immunization Managers looks across ourstate for individuals who go above and beyond the call of duty.We search for champions that understand that vaccines are about communityresilience and giving every child the healthiest possible start in life. Ourimmunization champions create healthier communities through tireless educationand by actively expanding access to care, breaking down barriers so thatfamilies have the resources and protection that they need. Tonight, I amthrilled to recognize an exceptional leader right here within ISD 196 whoembodies this mission in the most extraordinary way. At the beginning ofthe last school year, more than 6,000 students in this district were behind ontheir back-toschool immunizations. For many districts, that number mighthave felt overwhelming, but our champion saw it as a call to action.Health services coordinator Mary Langworthy, alongside her incredibleteam of school health nurses, was determined to help those families catchup. They didn't just send out reminders. They organized direct, compassionateoutreach to families and coordinated an astounding 14 school immunizationclinics right where families needed them, removing hurdles like schedulingand transportation. because of Mary's leadership, herunwavering commitment to partnering with families, and her focus on providingclear education with empathy and professionalism.Just 7 months later, 99.8% of the district students had receivedall of their back-toschool immunizations or had submitted the appropriatepaperwork, which significantly improved health and safety across district 196.On behalf of the Minnesota Department of Health, it is my absolute privilege topresent the 2026 Minnesota Immunization Champion Award toMary Langworthy. [applause] Thank you so much. I truly am honored tobe the recipient of this award, especially given all the hard work andthe wonderful work that's happening across the state of Minnesota in thisarea and because this climate is really challenging right now with a lot ofmixed emotions around vaccinations and what's the source of truth out there.Um, despite all of those challenges, our team was able to pull together a reallyimpactful plan with a goal of reducing the spread of disease and the potentialfor an outbreak. I'm immensely proud of the hardworking and dedicated nursingteam we have in district 196. We have a few of them here tonight.Suzanne, Carrie, Joelle, Angela, Alicia, Kim, such wonderful members of our team.But across the board, our entire department touched this work. Everysingle one of them were dedicated and had a really great impact around thework that we were doing. Um, so I couldn't be prouder of our team. Um,while exclusion was in our plan, it was only the end result when all of ourcollective efforts had failed. And that's when we were able to move fromthat 80% compliance up to 99.8. really focusing our efforts on providingongoing communication, reliable resources, and removal of barriers forour families. Unfortunately, this work is never done. So with new requirementsfor income incoming kindergarteners and seventh grade students as well as newdistrict enroles, our numbers began this fall at about 20 or at 1,200 studentscompared with 6,000 last year which is an incredible change and may maybe alittle sigh of relief for our team because it was a little less pressurethis fall. Um but already we have that number down to 900. So already greatprogress with all of their incredible effort at the building level and arecent clinic that was very successful as well. That clinic, we have a greatpartnership with Homeland Health sponsored with support from DakotaCounty. Um, but that's really invaluable to us and to our families to be able togive people that local access. At our clinic at Falcon Ridge, we vaccinated119 students last Thursday with 247 vaccines given. And we were al also ableto complete non-medical exemption forms because Robin Syria and Kristen Powellshowed up to be our notaries for the evening which was also very invaluable.Um so we appreciate both of your support at that clinic. Great turnout. Ourfamilies have really trusted us with this work and again because of the greatrelationships that my building nurses have with our families. They do show upand they come and they listen to our staff which is wonderful.Have an amazing team. Very proud of that work. Um, so while I received thisaward, it's only through their dedication and teamwork and trust thatwe've built with our families that we're able to celebrate our success. So, thankyou. I'm truly grateful. [applause] [applause] All >> [applause] [clears throat]>> right. Next on our agenda is the consent items. Um there are Oh, my apologies. Iskipped ahead um to a really important part of our agenda that is thesuperintendent's recognition. So, I'll turn it over now to SuperintendentBosani. My apologies for recognition of student and staff. Turn it over to you.>> All right. Thank you, Vice Chair Williams. Uh, good evening. We've had astrong start to the school year, and I want to begin by thanking the manydistrict 196 employees who made that possible. It's great to be back in ourschools and see students reconnecting with classmates, getting to know theirteachers, and settling into new routines. We'll share a more completeupdate on enrollment, hiring, and some of the work underway this year at alater meeting. But tonight, I want to recognize the tremendous amount of workthat went into getting our schools ready. We had construction happeningacross the district throughout the summer, and our operations team, uh,custodial crews, food and nutrition services, uh, and many other staffworked right up until the start of school to make sure everything was readyfor our students and staff. I'm grateful to everyone who helped to get the yearoff to such a great start. I also want to recognize, and some of these folksare here tonight, Falcon Ridge Middle School, Pinewood Community School, andThomas Lake Elementary School. All three schools received statewide recognitionfrom the Minnesota Department of Education for their continued successwith positive behavior interventions and supports known as PBIS.PBIS helps schools create positive, welcoming environments where studentscan be successful. This recognition reflects a lot of intentional work bystaff at each of these schools. We'll hear more about that work in a reportlater tonight. We also have some really impressive news from our high schools.This year, 1,124 district 196 students earned AP Scholarrecognition from the College Board based on their performance in AP exams. That'sa 15.2% increase over last year. Students must receive a score of threeor better on three or more advanced placement exams to qualify for thishonor. As Dr. Todd Beach reported at our lastboard meeting, we have more students from more diverse backgroundschallenging themselves with rigorous college level courses while still inhigh school. Having more than 1,100 100 students earn this national recognitionis something really worth celebrating. It reflects a lot of hard work by ourstudents, dedication, and along with the support and encouragement they receivefrom teachers, staff, and families. And finally, September is school boardappreciation month. So, I want to take a moment to thank our seven board membersfor the work each of them does on behalf of District 196. I appreciate theirleadership and governance through a shared commitment to our students. Thankyou for the time you give to District 196 and for your service to thecommunity. That concludes my report. >> Thank [clears throat] you,Superintendent Bone. Board members, this brings us to the consent portion of ouragenda. We have 19 items on our consent agenda. those agenda. Those itemsinclude minutes of August 10th, 2026 special school board meeting. Theminutes of August, we have a repeat. Same thing. Okay. Theminutes of the August 10th, 2026 regular schoolboard meeting. I caught that. Uhnumber three are gifts. Number four, grants. Number five, schedule ofinvestments for July 2026. Number six, summary of claims for July 2026. Numberseven, treasures report July 2026. Number eight, revenue and expendituresreport July 2026. Number nine, re 2026 27 legislative advisory councilappointments. Number 10, personnel. Number 11, employment agreementadditional FTE. Number 12, employment agreement probationary extension. Number13, substitute and temporary employee wage rates. Number 14, additionalservices assignment for transition plus coordinator. Number 15, agreement forclinical experience with St. Cathine's University. Number 16, agreement forclinical experience with the University of Minnesota. Number 17, agreement forstudent teaching with Minnesota State University, Mano. Number 18, permanentfund balance transfer for fiscal year 2026. And number 19, proposed MSBAresolution. Are there any items on the consent agenda that board members wouldlike to remove tonight? Um, I'd like to move are there is therea motion to accept the agenda? accept the consent edge items on the agenda.>> So move second. >> Okay. So there's a motion by Robin,seconded by Leah. All those in favor?>> I. >> All those opposed?Motion passes by a five to zero vote. Okay. Now we are moving on. There we go. Now we are moving on to thereport section of our agenda. First on um is the summer targeted services. Upto the podium right now is presented by Jerry Jeremy Sorenson, director ofelementary education, Eric Hansen, director of secondary education, andBrad Brad Schaefer, principal of Rosemount Middle School. >> Thank you. Good evening, Vice ChairWilliams, members of the school board and superintendent Pulson. Tonight weare here to share an update on our K12 academic summer programming,specifically focusing on elementary camp Propel, middle school and 9th gradesummer programming, as well as the high school credit recovery program.Tonight's report isformational only and there is no board action needed.Let's see here. Grounded in our district strategicroadmap, these academic programs focus directly on our strategic priorities ofachievement, equity, resources, and well-being. This past summer, we alignedour efforts around objective datadriven criteria to serve students with thehighest academic needs, support smooth transition between school levels, andkeep students on track for on-time graduation through our high schoolcredit recovery program. Tonight we will present information on identifyingstudents for elementary camp propel middle school and nth grade summerprogramming. We will also talk about how targeted instruction was delivered andwhat a student schedule looked like. And lastly, how we plan to use our fallassessment data to evaluate the impact of this new approach. We have alsoprovided you with a one-pager of participation numbers by school as wellas overall participation numbers disegregated by student groups. Joiningme tonight is Jeremy Sorenson, director of elementary education, as well as BradSchaefer, principal of Rosemont Middle School, who also coordinates oursecondary summer programming. I'd like to welcome Director Sorenson to provideinformation around our elementary camp propel program. All right, good evening again. JeremySson, director of elementary ed. Um, so this year we made an intentional shiftin Camp Propel to more clearly focus the program on students with the greatestacademic needs. The goal was not simply to provide a summer learningopportunity, but to ensure that we're using targeted services in the way thatuh was truly targeted. This meant creating stronger alignment between whowe invite, what our assessment data tells us, the instruction studentsreceive while they're with us, and ultimately the outcomes we expect tosee. So the biggest change to Camp Propel isthat we've become much more intentional about identifying the students theprograms designed to serve. Um rather than relying on a broader or moresubjective criteria, we're now using objective databased ele eligibilitycriteria including FastBridge to prioritize students who demonstrate thegreatest academic risk. One of the clearest ways to see this shift is inthe number of students we identified for Camp Repel. In the previous model, weinvited 4,142 students, which represented 48% of ourelementary students. When we went back to and analyzed those invitations, wefound that 37% of those students invited did not actually meet targeted servicescriteria or eligibility criteria. This year, by using our new assessmentframework and more objective criteria, that invitation number decreased to2,188 students, or about 50% of the number we invited previously. Thatreduction is intentional. It reflects our effort to more accurately identifyand prioritize the students with the greatest academic needs and to alignCamp Propel with the intended purposes of targeted services. So, we've also changed what happens whenstudents are in the program. Uh instruction is more explicit explicitand skill-based in both literacy and math with a stronger connection to thespecific needs identified through our assessment data. And finally, we updatedour continual learning plan or our CLP as we often call it. The CLP isstructured is the structure that connects an individual students need totheir participation in targeted services. Our CLP process this yearestablished clearer eligibility criteria to create greater consistency in howstudents are identified across schools and strengthen the connection betweenassessment data and instructional planning. Um, I believe there's a copyof the CLP in your packet. While students are not identified forCamp Propel specifically based on social emotional learning needs, we recognizethere's often significant overlap between academic and so for that reason,Camp Propel intentionally includes programming and experiences that supportsocial emotional learning, helping students build skills that support boththeir well-being and their academic success. Collectively, these changesmove Campbell from more general summer learning experience to a much moreintentional and targeted intervention program. So now that we have identified thestudents who'd most benefit from from camp propel, the next question is what'stheir experience actually look like? Uh we intentionally designed that day tobalance targeted academic instruction with engaging summer learningexperiences. Uh the morning had a stronger academic focus. Studentsreceived targeted instruction and literacy and math using our district'scurriculum and instructional practices rather than providing a broad academicexposure. Teachers are focused on specific skills and areas of need andthis goal is to pro provide this explicit instruction in smaller groupsgiving students more opportunities for practice feedback and support. Then theafternoon shifted more towards a theme-based activities and projects. Wewanted Campel to provide additional academic support but we also wanted itto feel different from simply extending the regular school year. Uh theseactivities give students opportunities to collaborate, create problem, create,problem solve and apply their learning while keeping the summer experienceengaging and fun. Ultimately, we're trying to strike that right balance,giving students additional instruction uh they need while creating a summerexperience that they're excited to attend. So this is the first year ofimplementing campel in this targeted way. So, an important part of our workis going to be evaluating uh what we learned and using that information tocontinue improving the program. So, first we will be evaluating studentoutcomes when students return this fall, which they have, we'll review theirfastbridge literacy and math data and look specifically at whether studentswho participated in camp propel were able were able to maintain theiracademic skills over the summer. That will give us an important first measureon whether the program is accomplishing what we've designed to do. Uh just anote on that, we started assessments last week and I think are going throughthis week. Um so we'll have that information by the end of September,October and we'll start digging into that information.In addition, we want to understand the experience of students, staff andfamilies who participated and we have some initial feedback from parent andstaff surveys that we provided. Overall, families reported positive experiences.They shared that students were excited to attend, enjoyed their teachers andthe learning activities, and they valued the additional academic support CampRepropel provided. Families expressed interest in having Camp Repropel occurlater in the summer and closer to the start of the school year. Anotherconsistent theme was a desire for more communication and greater visibility towhat their children were learning during the program.We also surveyed staff and our staff highlighted strong leadership andadministrative support, good organization and preparation ofinstructional materials as strengths of this year's program. They also sawimprovements in the organization of curriculum and recognized that ourrevised identification process resulted in Campropel serving students with someof our greatest academic needs. Their feedback also indicated that we need tocontinue refining the curriculum, instructional resources, and supports sothat we are even more closely matched to the needs of the students we're havingcome into the program. These surveys give us an initial picture of theexperience. Our next step will be to add the fall fast data so we can begin tounderstand not only how students and families experience camp propel, butwhether the program helps students maintain their academic skills over thesummer. Our goal is to learn from this first implementation, identify what'sworking, make adjustments where needed, and use that information to build aneven stronger campel for 2027. At this time, I'm going to hand it overto Brad Schaefer, uh, principal of Rosemalt Middle School to speak aboutsecondary summer programming. Put your first slide. Thanks. Good evening, members of the schoolboard. I'm Brad Schaefer, principal of Rosemont Middle School and also uhcoordinate summer secondary summer programs. I'm excited to share thesuccess of our district's middle school and high school summer programs withyou. Starting with the middle school summer academy.This three-week program is tailored to specifically support our middle schoollearners, our incoming sixth, seventh, and eighth graders during the summermonths around three core goals. First, we focused on targeted skill building inreading, writing, and mathematics, giving students small groupoup supportto strengthen core academics. Second, the intent of the program preventssummer learning loss. Keeping students actively engaged over these three weeksaims to provide retention in key concepts and return in the fall withoutlosing too much momentum. Finally, summer academy acts as a bridge forgrade level transitions. This is particularly vital for our rising sixthgraders transitioning out of elementary school and into middle school. Theprogram gives them a supportive environment to become familiar with themiddle school setting, build confidence, reinforce routines, and prepare for aseamless start on day one in the fall. our identification process.Moving to our identification process, alignment across our district, districtlevels is key. The middle school summer academy utilizes consistent objectivedatabased criteria to identify students who will benefit most from thisadditional support. These criteria are explicitly spelled out in our staterequired continual learning plan, the CLP referenced earlier by Jeremy, whichwe have directly aligned with our elementary camp propel framework. A copyof the CL has been provided for you as well in your handout. Specifically, ourqualification process looks at combination of key data points.FastBridge math and reading screeners, the CAPD literacy diagnostic and MCAmath and reading. Both MCA math and reading. By grounding our our decisionsin these comprehens comprehensive assessment metrics, we ensure ourstudents outreach is intentional and targeted. what a day looks like for a middleschool summer academy student. Here's a look at a sample schedule for a daily uhfor the daily middle school summer academy student between the hours of8:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. To support our families, our district transportation isprovided for eligible students and both breakfast and lunch are served daily atno cost to all participating students across all six middle schools. We aim tocreate structured morning that feels like a traditional school day whilekeeping learning active and engaging. Across all MI all six middle schools,every program provides consistent daily instruction in core academic subjects,math, reading, English, language arts. Beyond those core subjects, you can seethat each school site has the flexibility to offer unique exploratorycourses based on their buildings, resources, and staffing for the summer.Across our district, students engage in hands-on classes like teched, art,facts, STEM, or physical education, and sometimes with the popular swimming.Additionally, our middle school sites counseling staff lead sessions onpractical organizational skills and social emotional learning to helpstudents build confidence for the fall. This balanced approach ensures studentsreceive high impact academics, valuable academic skills, and an exploratoryhands-on experience. All wrapped up by 12:30 p.m. Middle School summer reflection. Turningour attention to our program reflection and impact. A major highlight thissummer was our approach to literacy instruction in collaboration with ourinstruction and achievement department in the district. We utilize aspecialized learning literacy resource uh delivered through schooly uh aschooly course that was piloted last school year in some of our schools. Whatmakes this tool so effective? It was its ability to deliver true individualizedlearning based on a student's CAPY assessment score. The system assignedindividual school skill work practice and directly to them within schooly. Ourlanguage arts staff received training prior to the summersession, allowing them to support students as they work through theirtailored learning paths at their own pace, getting targeted practice in theexact areas that the students needed most. As these students take their nextCAPY assessment, which is going on right now in our middle schools, we willanalyze those scores to evaluate student growth and attempt to determine overallimpact of the summer literacy resource that was piloted this past summer. Inaddition to academic measures, student voice plays a critical role inevaluating our program. We administered a survey survey across all middle schoolsites to gather feedback on their summer experience. Turning our high uh turning to our highschool programming. Our high school credit recovery program is geared toward10th through 12th graders, helping students to earn high school credit tokeep them on pace toward on-time graduation. This summer, our highschools enrolled a total of 673 students who collectively earned 1,526high school course credits. These numbers are slightly down from previousyears, which would support our experience in increased graduation ratesand course completion data. Lastly, in your handout, we have included a summaryof student participation by school with more detailed information aboutrecovered credits. Thank you. All right, one last slide kind ofreviewing. We just want to try to summarize some of these things, but welooked at some of our strengths for this summer is improved alignment betweenelementary and secondary programming. There was a lot of collaboration betweenthe elementary and secondary programming specifically around adding clarity toour eligibility and using objective databased criteria and updating thatcontinual learning plan or CLP. Um, we think there are some opportunities toevaluate the new things, new structures we put in place, um, which there is aplan for. We're excited to get some of our fall data and start looking at thatum, along with the survey information. And then our next steps are reviewinguh, current programming, consider necessary modifications, uh, as we gothrough our information. So, we had a successful summer of learning. Um, welook forward to digging into our our data. At this time, we'll open it up toany questions you may have. >> All right. Are there any questions um orcomments from the audience? Seeing none, are there any comments orquestions from the board? Robin, um thank you for this presentation. It'snot necessarily a comment but uh or a question but a comment and that is um asyou were outlining all that went into this all of the coordination for boththe elementary and middle school levels all the coordination with instructionand achievement with uh busing with all of the different sites with nutritionservices. Um, I just think a lot of people put a lot of effort into this andto see all of these credits that were recovered for our high schoolers, um, isjust really amazing and so I just want to thank everybody for all of that workand I'm very interested to see what the data shows in September or October. So,thank you. >> Yeah, I appreciate that. You know, Ithink this year is the first year we had a a um kind of a mass reflection meetingwith all the different people with facilities, transportation, foodservices, all in a room. And it was really good to have that and we'realready thinking about next year. We had our first meeting with technology todayalready around summer programming for next year. But um I appreciate yousaying that because there's an awful lot of people that put a lot of work intothe program. >> It's awesome. Thank you,>> Katherine. Um, I echo it sounds like it's a greatprogram and I've heard from families how um how well-run it is and effective itis. So, um, very excited. I was wondering if at some point you could umthis is great the data that you're sharing. wondering if you could do it aspercentages so that we can see like of the number of people that of studentsthat we recruited, how many actually participated because I think that willgive us just a little bit of a an idea of like our recruitment strategies andare we really getting all the kids that we want to get um and allow us to um seea little bit more about the impact of it. But this is great. Thank you forsharing it. >> Thank you,>> Leah. Uh most basic question ever. Umso when when we're listing the schools likeI'm looking at camp Propel and obviously we have additional elementaryaries. Sothese numbers reflect the host school but I imagine we recruited from every>> so our schools pair up. So we split them in teams of two um and they kind ofswitch who hosted every year. But yes, that would be>> and just for uh when we were looking at the data, it was amazing how consistentum they were in the invitation process. When I say 48% across the elementary ayear ago, that was our district poll and everybody was within a percentage pointor two of that. So it was quite interesting. We'll look at thatpercentage again this year because we do invite a certain number of people andthen a certain number accept that invitation or not. So we can get thatinformation for you. Can I do a followup again?>> Yes, Leah. >> So, just out of curiosity to do you keepan eye on with that rotation? So, like forexample, Echo Park didn't host. Did we lose like do we drop off some familieswhen it's not there? >> Yeah, we work uh with facilities on thatrotation and some schools do do it more. Echo Park usually does it becausethey're usually one of our our our food sites in the summer. they just had somuch construction this year. Um, so to answer your question, I don't know ifthat impacted our families. We can go back and look at that, but we do havecertain schools that do host it more regularly than others because of some ofthe other things that are going on there. Yeah,>> sen. >> Thank you. Just wanted to uh say thankyou for the update and the numbers that the report that you provided is reallygood. Um, I really appreciate that we're using the data and fastbridge and all ofthat to strategically I mean to target the students that are in need. One thingI wanted to um ask a question about is the uh on-time graduation is reallyimportant. I think our numbers are on track. We did pretty good but there arestill I mean we are always above the state average. with high achievingdistrict but there are still num few numbers that do not graduate. I mean, itkind of, you know, feels a little bit of a, you know, see what we could do tohelp graduate at least everyone. And my question is, how what plans do we haveon utilizing using the credit recovery data? I mean for looking forward toearly intervention or how we can detect the students that might need some sortof help to get them graduate on time. >> Yeah, thanks for the question. Uh sofirst of all, our credit recovery numbers of that summer are down a littlebit and the the good news is our course completion data in the last three yearshas risen. So more kids are passing more courses, getting the credits they needtowards graduation. Uh and our graduation rates as you referenced inthe last three years have um have become to or they continue to climb um which isgreat. Our credit recovery program uh is offered all school year and so wecapture students that need uh additional time uh to recover credits that theymight be falling behind. Our counselors and our administrators meet withstudents who are targeted for the summer who need credits. They send home lettersabout inviting them in. And in the past, we haven't always had our middle schooland our high school programs aligned. Right now, they are aligned fortransportation. So, we are able to transport kids for the high schoolprogram to receive credit recovery. So, I think it all goes back to your to youroriginal point. What are we doing to intervene early? And we're reallytalking about systemwide with our tier one um learning, our our tier one, ourinterventions, etc. that help kids stay on track in the class during the schoolday when they need to. So, uh we keep working through that.>> Thank you. So, uh, just a quick followup. Is there any way that we couldutilize the credit recovery data that we collected in the summer to identifystudents that might be at risk early on? >> I think absolutely we could take a lookat that. >> Okay.>> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Well, I do haveI do have what is it on? Yeah. >> Okay. Sorry. I do have one question. Um,thank you so much for this presentation. Um,I love that there's an opportunity for twice exceptional children, too. Um, inthere, uh, those that might, uh, be doing well in some areas, but might bestruggling other other areas, but academically, but definitely needsupport either in emotional areas or social areas. So, I love that you wereincorporating um that support system or that that support area in um CampPropel. Uh I did have a child that did do Camp Propel many many years ago andit was amazing as a parent to actually have some time in the summer. Umuh where there were experts who were providing additional support for mychild. Um and then I actually got to spend some time with my other child justa break. um but also getting the additional support that that childneeded. So, it was great for me and it was great for my child as well. Um thatwas my comment. My question was um were there any challenges in getting staff umat all levels uh uh to work or to um yeah to fill those roles during thesummer this year? >> I'll speak to elementary. I think Idon't we filled our staff with our entirely owned staff for elementarylevel at least the licensed teachers and those kinds of things. I think when itcomes to challenges some of that new legislation requiring us to provide kindof a consistent day to the school year for hourly employees that's why we're atthe front end of the year with the elementary. So I think that's just achallenge in itself right some of the feedback when you were talking aboutyour Camp Propel experience that was probably July August.>> Yes. >> Yeah. It used to be end of July.>> I thought you were going to say the year. I was like, "Whoa, whoa, wait. No,don't do that." [laughter] No. Um, but I So, we're we're consistently looking atthat. How could we make that happen? I know that's a that's a desire. So,that's the one big challenge, but we we're fortunate. Our staff really stepup and and show up uh to these pieces, and I think we are hiring um district196 employees um for this uh almost exclusively.>> All right. That's good to hear. Thank you.>> It'd be the same for us in secondary. We haven't seen a um a challenge in hiringstaff and usually they're repeat people year after year that come back andsupport us. >> Okay, that's great. Thank you so much.All right. Okay. Umso next is the PBIS report. Um so I woulduh presented by Rachel Hughes, director ofinstruction and achievement. Uh with her will be StephanieOaki. Okay. Student support coordinator. ShoaCheddy PBIS Tossa. Leah Hackey, principal of Pinewood Elementary School,and Becky Melville, principal of Falcon Bridge Middle School. All right. Good evening, Vice ChairWilliams, Superintendent Bosone, and members of the school board. My name isRachel Hughes. I'm the director of instruction and achievement. I ampleased to be here with some of the many team members involved in the excitingwork of implementing positive behavior interventions and support or PBIS herein district 196. Tonight isformational only and there's no action needed. Our strategic priority of well-beingfocuses our continuous improvement on increasing our skills, structures, andexperiences and social emotional well-being. Tonight, you'll see and hearhow implementing PBIS framework isn't just an initiative. It is the drivingforce that puts our well-being priority into practice across District 196. Some of the most positive feedback wereceived from our family survey was around safety, care, and respect. Theseareas have a strong connection to the work happening through PBIS. While 89%of our families said their child feels safe at school, 75% said school rulesare consistently enforced. So while we have a strong foundation of safety, careand respect, we have an opportunity to strengthen consistency.That's where PBIS comes in. PBIS gives us a framework for making expectationsclear, teaching them, and responding to behavior consistently. Our goal is toclose that consistency gap and create an experience where students know what isexpected of them and families see the consistency across our schools. Toground us in the PBIS framework, I'm pleased to introduce our district 196internal coach for positive behavior interventions and support, Sha Chetty. >> Thank you. Thank you, Director Hughes. Positivebehavior intervention and supports or PBIS is a framework grounded inevidence-based practices that provides instruction and support to improvesocial, emotional, and behavioral outcomes for all students. It centersaround five interrelated core elements shown there. Systems are consistentsupports like teaming, training, and coaching that we provide to our staff.So they have clear guidance and protocols for responding to studentsbehaviors. Practices are evidence-based strategies we use with students to teachand reinforce positive behavior. Data guides our decision making anddrives continuous improvement. Data collection helps us with objectiveinformation to select, monitor and evaluate whether our systems andpractices are actually working. Outcomes are tangible, measurable goalswe want to see like academic and behavioral growth. At the center of itall, integrating equity ensures that the systems, practices, and data all alignto improve social competence and academic achievement for every singlestudent. PBIS is really about getting everyone in the school community workingtogether. It is exciting to see how our school teams come together to engage inlearning and action planning during their PBIS cohort participation tocreate and then implement the PBIS framework in a way that is unique andpersonalized to their learning communities by intentionally reflectingon their students and the school culture. They collectively want topromote our school. PBIS teams have been doing important work and creatingpositive learning environments in their schools. We'll be hearing more about howPBIS is shaping and sustaining positive school culture at both Falcon RidgeMiddle School and Pinewood Community School. Starting first with a glimpseinto the student experience at Falcon Bridge. Hi, I'm Becky Melville. I'm the proudprincipal at Falcon Ridge Middle School. We support students physical, mental,and emotional as well as social well-being by helping them when they arecommunicating through behavior. So, how do we respond in a way that's caring butconsistent and upholds high expectations so that the environment and climate hereis really about learning? What is the expectation for how we treat oneanother, how we interact with one another, how we do school? And wedevelop those expectations through our school culture that is inclusive ofeverybody's culture. So no student has to leave part of who they are at thedoor. And here at Falcon Ridge, that's the Falcon way. Be safe, be respectful,be responsible. If school was operating the way that felt good for students andfor staff, what would that culture be? How would you teach it? How would youexplain that? The teachers would say the crux of PBIS is that we all have thesame language about what is expected and we all have a system for how we respond.Not only to reinforce positive examples of behavior and communication, but wealso have a consistent way of responding to help students learn from theirbehavior. And we know it's working here at Falcon. Just look at our behaviordata. 87% of our kids have three or fewer behavior incidents. That meansthat almost all of our kids are doing exactly what we want them to do. Theyare following the Falcon way every day. I think it is a good measure ofwell-being when your behavior incidents are low. Good evening. I'm Becky Melville in reallife and I'm still the proud principal at Falcon Ridge Middle School. Schoolsimplementing a PBIS framework succeed by focusing on two vital components.Establishing a clear, common language around expectations and then proactivelyteaching them. Through the Falcon Way, we'veestablished a uniform language across sixth, seventh, and eighth grades thatexplicitly links daily actions to our core values. Showing students howwelcoming peers creates a sense of belonging. Being open-minded fosters agrowth mindset, and setting goals build vision alongside authenticity, respect,responsibility, courage, and leadership. To keep these expectations consistent,our updated Falcon Way matrix uses positive what to do language rather thanlisting the rules across each of our settings. We post these matrices onpaper rather than laminating them so we can continuously refine the languagebased on staff and student feedback. Students learn behavioral skills thesame way they learn academic ones, through engaging, structuredinstruction. Our staff explicitly teach the Falcon Way in real time throughguided class discussions tailored to every space, whether in the hallways,the cafeteria, windtime, or academic classes. In science, for example,teachers directly connect respect to inclusive lab collaboration,responsibility to equipment care and safety to proper lab protocols byproactively teaching students how their choices shape our classroom environmentand climate. We empower teachers to manage minor distractions within theclassroom. And when students need extra support, trusted adults step in to helpthem reflect and learn from their choices. This proactive model reducesour off discipline referrals while fostering a warm, highly effectivelearning environment for all of our students. I'll turn it over to mycolleague, Principal Leah Hack at Pinewood. Good evening. and I'm the proudprincipal of Pinewood Community School. At Pinewood Community School, our PBISsystem of support centers on how we acknowledge positive choices and how werespond when things go off track. Acknowledgement starts before a single ainteraction. Our teachers do a quick composure check. Composure check to seta calm, encouraging tone for the room. From there, we notice, name, and respondto positive choices early and often using proximity and simple reminders ofour shared expectations. Our Pinewood Pod tickets that you cansee on the slide give students explicit individual feedback tied to our valuesof be safe, be kind, and be your best. And those tickets also build towardclassroom and schoolwide celebrations. Just last year, thanks to our incrediblecommunity supporting the idea, we officially launched the Pinewood GameRoom. This amazing space was intentionally designed for nonelectronic gaming entertainment and includes a plethora of card games andboard games, all made possible entirely through generous parent donations.We proudly showcased this idea at our PBIS table during our Pinewoodcurriculum night and it has been a massive hit ever since. Now, whenever aclass reaches their PBIS goal, teachers can sign up for a 20inut special sessionto celebrate. The best part, while our students see the time as an exciting,well-earned reward, our staff loves that it doubles as a fantastic hands-onopportunity for kids to practice essential self-management, socialawareness, and relationship skills. It's truly a win-win for our school.When behavioral missteps do occur, we transition seamlessly into a retachmindset. Instead of defaulting to punitive measures for minor disruptionsor non-compliance, at Pinewood, we turn misbehavior into to a constructiveteaching moment with direct instruction on the specific skill that is missing.All of our Pinewood learning spaces have a safe space. Safe spaces are designatedphysical areas of the classroom where students can go to calm their bodies andbrains. Pinewood students use wonderful self-regulation tools such as breathingballs, stress squishies, and emotion starts charts to reset and re-engage inlearning. For situations requiring deeper connection, teachers guiderestorative student conversations. We walk students through key reflectivequestions like what happened? What were you thinking at the time? Who has beeneffective? And what do you need to do to make things right? We know that learningmeans there will be mistakes and we support and help our students grow inthe school year ahead. We are excited to have student representatives providinginput for the planning of our schoolwide assemblies and we remain grateful forthe support of our Pinewood community to build a positive school culture. Ourrecognition for exemplary status insight in inspires us to be our best every day.Thank you. All right. Good evening. I'm StephanieOaki, the student support coordinator here in District 196. Falcon RidgeMiddle School and Pinewood Community School are two of our newest District196 school sites to attain exemplar recognition status from the MinnesotaDepartment of Education for their implementation of PBIS. They joinedThomas Lake Elementary who has been honored with this recognition again inthe year 2026. As you just heard from Principal Melville and Principal Hack,PBIS comes to life when the unique culture of each school building spendstime with their framework. From a district level, our primary focus isensuring that every school site has the system level backing, tools, andtraining that's needed to create the PBIS framework with consistency.We're thrilled to share that our district-wide momentum is acceleratingrapidly. Back in the 2425 school year, 50% of our district 196 schools hadbegun or completed their PBIS cohort training. That grew to 71% last year.And entering this 2627 school year, 85% of our schools are actively engaged.This includes all of our elementary and middle schools, our ALC and transitionplus programs, and our high schools will begin their implement journey nextschool year. Beyond these cohort numbers, our schools are earning theirstate level recognition for exemplary implementation, a direct result of ourschool teams and the district support team working shoulder-to-shoulder on thejourney. Looking ahead, our commitment moves frominitial roll out to deepening practice, monitoring fidelity, and directlyclosing the loop on the family feedback that we shared earlier. To keep thisgrowth sustainable, we are expanding both internal district coaching andexternal professional development in partnership with the MinnesotaDepartment of Education. Importantly, we are implementing ongoing fidelitymonitoring at both the building and district levels. This allows us toassess how effectively our PBIS systems are being applied using real-time datato drive our strategic action planning and target our co our coaching supportswhere they are needed most. Additionally, we continue to track ourbehavioral data to understand needs and respond supportively and effectively.Finally, we are intentionally elevating family and student voice. You saw in ourfamily survey that consistency across schools is a top priority for ourcommunity. Our schools are making their PBIS frameworks more visible, focusingon hometoschool communications and inviting families into their PBISplanning processes. Together, we are building inclusive,predictable school cultures where every student feels supported to succeed inlearning and in life. We are grateful to the Minnesota Department of Education'sPBIS Metro Regional Implementation Project for their ongoing support to usas well as sending our congratulations to our district 196 exemplar sites,Pinewood, Thomas Lake, and Falcon Ridge on their exemplar recognition thisschool year. Thank you so much for your time with us this evening. We do welcomeany questions you might have. >> Thank you. at this time. Are there anyquestions or comments from the audience? >> All right, seeing none, are there anyquestions or comments from the board? Catherine,>> just a comment. Thank you so much for all of this work to make the schools sowelcoming and um provide a structure for uh rereentering children when they're having a tough day. Um it's really evident inthe school cultures when you walk into the buildings and when you talk to thekids about how they experience their school day. So I just really appreciatethe work that you're all doing. >> Thank you. Anyone else? Um, I just want to say this is amazing.Um, I love this work. Uh, I think about how um my daughter whenshe was young came home and said that practice makes better and I love thisgrowth mindset and I'm a DI practitioner and I can in my head I'm thinking aboutall these kindness practitioners that are walking aroundum and uh accountability practitioners that are walking around at uh FalconRidge Middle School and um or practicers, however you want to callthem. Um, and uh, safe safety practicers or I'm practicing my safety on a dailybasis. And I love that. And I love that. Um,they are, you know, mistakes are made and it's a growth mindset and that theyare learning to to be in that discomfort that it's you do make mistakes. Andwe're going to talk about what you were thinking and how why were you thinkingabout that or what was going on at the moment and kind of processing that. umyou know there are so many adults that didn't get the time to do that orweren't encouraged to do that and um I think that's a wonderful solution to umuh developing uh adults or children that are coming better adults than some of ushad the opportunity to become when we were younger. So I think that'sfantastic. Maybe that will um put some therapists out of a job, which I wouldlove. [laughter] Um so, thank you for all this work. It'svery exciting. I love it. I love it for our kids. I love it for our families. UmI did have a question. Um has there been a lot of push back when I was outcampaigning? Um I did have quite a bit of push back around PBIS. I think therewas some misunderstanding or or not a lot of understanding around what itmeant. So, I'm just curious with some of the families or oryou know, in the community, is that still happening? Do peopleunderstand it? >> I I think um because it's somethingthat's been around and um has evolved over time and PBS has been um around forlike three decades. Okay. Um and so as the system is as the what people haveknown but it's also evolved in both the training approach and um integration ofreally trying to integrate like student and family voice along the way. Ibelieve those things have changed. One thing I consistently hear is the valuethat our staff members have to be with their teams during the trainingexperience because it's little bits of training with portions of time to getinto the work and really have dedicated time for teams to think about howthey're taking the evidence-based framework and internalizing that for theschool site. So there's always very positive feedback for us from our teamswho go through the cohort training. >> Okay, fantastic. Um I love that. So,thank you so much. >> Okay. Um, moving on. Where's myAll right. Thank you so much. Uh, next on the agenda is the staff surveyresults presented by Janet Schwikowski, director of communications.Thank you. Good evening, Vice Chair Williams, members of the school board,and superintendent Balsani. I'm pleased to be able to share tonight the resultsof our comprehensive employee experience survey that was the district conductedin April of 2026. We first initiated this survey in April of 2025.So we now have two years worth of data um after inviting all employees and allemployee groups to share their experience and challenges in working fordistrict 196. By way of background, uh, let me sharehow the survey was administered. First of all, all employees are invitedto participate in the survey over a two-eek period in late April.They were invited to participate in an online Qualre survey using proper surveyadministration techniques and protocols. They received at least three invitationsto participate via email and text. And posters with QR codes were available foremployees that are not regularly on their computer and may um need to accessum just from a paper poster. We had more than 60% participation rate on thesurvey with responses representing all employee groups in the district. We alsotook great care um to uh protect anonymity and in order to solicit openand honest feedback responses. There is no way that any one employeecan be identified in this data. Tools in Qualrex also protected the data fromthings like ballot stuffing or multiple responses by any individuals. Um sowe're confident that this data is reflective of our employees sentiment.We were also interested in race and ethnicity demographic questionsparticularly as they might represent a different experience. So demographicquestions were included but optional again to protect confidentiality.Finally in drafting the survey questions related were related to ourdaily desired experiences that our district developed in uh coordinationwith our strategic framework. And we also added a few questions that arecommon on national and state employee workplace surveys so that we could havesome credible benchmarks for comparison. On each of the comparable measures,district 196 exceeded state and national workplace averages. So, let's jump in tothe survey results. Overall, these results are incrediblypositive. Employees are proud to work in District 196. Our employees are highlyengaged, find joy in their jobs, and believe this is a great place to work.This should not come as a surprise. Back all the way back to 2023, District 196was recognized by Forbes magazine as a top workplace. And we know that we enjoystrong employee selection and retention strategies.93% of our employees reported they're proud to work here. 91% would recommendour schools for families for their children to attend. 90% find joy intheir job. And 80% or more believe we live by our district 196 values. Andwe'll jump farther into those specific values next. Our top value is that weare student centered and 85% of our employees recognize and report that welive by that student centered value. 85% report living by empathy, our empathyvalue. 80% and this is the lowest on all of them. 80% believe that we um live ourwellness value every day. 83%believe we uh live by integrity. 89% believe we live with our achievementgoals. 85% believe and see collaboration. 87% report a sense ofcommunity. And 85% report that value of lifong learning.A couple of the other highlights from the survey.99% of our staff report that in their building staff demonstrate care forstudents. 98%of our instructional staff, this would be our licensed educators, teachers, andadministrators, feel they have a strong sense ofresponsibility for student learning and development.85% believe our schools communicate to students high expectations for learningand achievement. 88% believe our organization valuesequity and inclusion and 79% believe our district is going inthe right direction. Areas for growth or improvement73% feel appreciated for their contributionsat work. This is an area that all businesses can grow on and we continueto strive to work on. 74%would like more opportunities to provide input and get feedback.Only 63% feel well informed about decisions inthe district. Again, as a large district with not everyone following all of thedecisions that are made, we're making intentional efforts to boost this up uhwith more visibility and more um targeted conversations aroundparticularly our strategic priorities. 77% of our instructional staff reportour school's leadership provides a unified vision for continuousimprovement. This is a critical area uh um assessedthrough MT MN MTSS our multi-ter systems of support and this was a focus areaover the last year particularly with our instruction and achievement team and ouruh Minnesota MTSS team and this is the only question on the survey thatactually had a significant change over last year's result. This was animprovement of four points over last year's survey.Finally, our organization values equity and inclusion. As we said, 88% believewe um value equity and inclusment and inclusion.However, when we disagregated the results,then that number drops by 10 points to 77% among staff of color.We also asked open-ended questions. What do people most like working here? Andwhat are the greatest challenges they faced in their job? 88% of our employeewould recommend working in district 196. Uh there's strong appreciation for that.This is no change over last year's results.We also asked what's challenging and I want to be clear on this question. Alljobs have challenges. Um and this is what is challenging within your jobworkload, the lift over our elementary curriculum implementation that is stillcontinuing. Uh responses to student behavior and again opportunities forinput into changes that are made. It is important to note that the elementarycurriculum imple implementation is now in its third year and severalrespondents specifically praised the new phonics and science of reading approachto literacy even as many express concern about the heavy lift of the curriculumchange. Each of these areas of challenge aredirectly related to strategic priorities that are a focus for our schooldistrict. Ending on a higher note, we asked whatpeople love about working in 196. Over and over again, working withstudents was the toprated response. Employees frequently mention theirstudents as a primary highlight, citing the opportunity to challenge students asthinkers, watch them grow in small groupoup settings, and contribute totheir overall education and daily success.Second, they talked about colleagues and leadership. There's a strongappreciation for the people they work with, including supportive teammates,paraprofessionals, principles, and supervisors. Employees describe theirco-workers as caring and dedicated from the top down.Last were the district itself and some of the job perks. Additional positivefactors include the variety of daily interactions and and work experiencesand a general respect for the district, specifically noting that the districtmakes an effort to listen to its staff. Elementary teachers also especiallypraise their the culture and climate they are building in their buildings. The next steps with this data.First, we now have two years of data points with very little movement fromyear 1 to year two. Overall, these are extremely high results. Although webelieve we can always get better. In August, all of our supervisors andprinciples, we hosted two workshops to take a deeper dive into both the familysurvey data that you heard in June and the employee survey data. We'll also bemeeting with individual employee groups to share the results of the data and getadditional feedback. Districtwide, we're continuing toredesign internal communication processes, look on and work on employeeappreciation, and this year we'll be evaluating um a knowledgebased system tobetter enhance internal communications. We will also rerun the survey again inApril of 2027. With that, I would take any additionalquestions. >> All right. Thank you, Janet. At thistime, are there any questions or comments from the audience? Seeing none, are there questions orcomments from the board? Robin, um, thank you for all of this goodinformation. Um, I was trying to quick find the place onthe um, presentation where um, there was um, aconcern about response to student behavior. that was an area ofopportunity for us. And but I'm also wondering with um our PBS presentation,PBIS, excuse me, presentation that we just had um do those dovetail at allbecause PBIS is only in um not quite 80% of our schools if I'm remembering thenumbers correctly. Um and so I just wonder if and how those connect or ifyou're looking at that. Um we certainly are and again that is an area that doesdovetail with our strategic framework and some of the priorities we areputting in place across the district. So this is an area that this data informssome of our planning. >> Okay. So is the hope that as PBIS getsimplemented districtwide that that number on concern over response tostudent behavior will then improve. Okay. Thank you. Anyother questions or comments? Okay, I do have um I have a question umor maybe one or two. Um do we have goals that we set for the survey?>> The employee >> response rate?>> No, not response rate. uh not the response rate itself but um for examplelike we are living our goals um do we have a like we're trying to reach apercentage >> a benchmark of what we would determineto be successful. >> Yes.>> Uh when we compare this we don't have a specific we're going to increase by twopoints this year. >> Okay. Um but when we compare our surveyresponse data to other like data whether we're looking at uh nationally Gallupdata some of these questions align with Gallup questions or the Star Tri Tribunestop work top workplaces um when we look at that uh we do want to be a place thatpeople want to work >> okay>> uh so we don't by individual question have specific goals with the exception Iwould say of the MN NTSS that are directly aligned to the MN NTSSframework. Um so uh buildings may choose to put inbuilding improvement goals or site improvement goals that support their umMM NTSS structure. Overall, when we think about the exemployee experience, our goal is that our employees want to work here,>> right? >> And that we will attract more>> highly qualified employees and this gives us a benchmark or a measure ofwhether we achieving that, >> right?>> And we're doing very well, >> right? Yeah. No, that's amazing. Um myother question maybe there is a there's a benchmark uh if we were everto go below you know would we be like that that's inthe red we never want to be we never want to get below this amount um thatwould be a another way to yes I would encourage us if there are particularquestions that we are concerned about as the communications director I'mconcerned about 63% feel informed about decisions.>> Yeah. >> Um so that is an area that we're lookingat how do we continue to improve internal communications. Got it.>> Um so certainly if there were anything after our first two years of data thatstarted rolling backward >> um next year's data if we were going uhwith less uh agreement on these statements that would be an area ofconcern. >> Right.Um, and then one final uh question and not even question necessarily, but umI'm always interested in in demographic data um just because I'm always want toout of curiosity and this isn't necessarilyit's fine that we didn't do it. Um, I'm always interested in gender as well andsometimes that gets into gender identity, too, and that's hard tocapture, but I I know I'm not even sure what ourgender gender demographics are. Um, but I love that you did it by um theemployee group. Phenomenal that you did that. That's great. I'd love to see whatdifferent employee groups are experiencing. Um, I thought it wouldhave been interesting, maybe not interesting, but to see if at least ourare the the different genders experiencing having a parody ofexperience. Um, uh, that's not something that we need tosee as board members. Um, but hopefully someone is making sure that thoseexperiencing the experiences are the same. So, I don't need to see it. I'mnot sure the public needs to see it, but as long as it's there and available andsomeone's looking at it just to make sure that the experiences are similar,I'm happy with that. >> Yeah. Um because we asked uh site andjob classification, uh gender was not one of the demographicquestions that we included. Um again, sometimes when you're in a small group,>> Yep. >> Um that could become identifiable.>> Yep. I understand. >> Yeah.>> Thank you. Oh, uh, Katherine has a question.>> Sorry, late breaking. Um, you tr you reminded me of something. So, do we havea plan to address that drop about Whoops. Oh, shoot. Ah,about clicked. Um, about um, our organizationvalues equity and inclusion. just to dive a little more deeply into thatabout why there's that change from 88% to 77%.>> Yes, but in the demog demographic breakdown it was the same last year. Soit is holding its own. We have not decreased in those areas but there is agap um in that area and there are a number of um items uh that are includedin different action plans uh across our framework particularly under the equityarea um that we are working on um making sure that everyone um has a positiveexperience. >> Yeah. Thank you.Oh. >> Oh, Saken.>> Sorry, you started. So, just [laughter] no, I did not have my presentationpulled because it was asking something some my phone glitch. But you I think uhyou already looking at it. I mean, very informative overall. It's really goodthe direction that we have. Uh but then I think you raised it, but I'm not surewhere uh in the presentation. uh I think I caught it in a way that 63%is it not connected to the decision and then there was also 74% somewhere thatuh some of the staff members feel that no opportunities for sort of uh input isthat am I capturing that right or is it the same thing>> yes so 74% of our employees report that they feellike they have opportunities to provide input into decision making and to getfeedback. >> Um so that is an area that I um we'veidentified as one of those areas for growth. Where are the opportunities foremployees to have an input into decisions that impact their work? Uh anddo they know those opportunities exist? Um, we have a number of curriculumcommittees and content area committees and the teacher leaders group anddifferent groups that work with different directors, differentdepartments and give input. Uh, do all employees know that those exist and theyhave the opportunity to raise their hand for them? Um, and if so, um, is there areason that there's a deeper problem? um if they um know they exist but don'tfeel listened to. So that is something that right now we believe that people uhdon't always know that the opportunities exist for input and don't always raisetheir hand to participate in input um because we do people are overloaded withcommunication information opportunities. Uh there is a lot out there right now.>> Yes. So thank you that you're looking into it and is also action that we havesome actionable concrete things to follow but my thing was that you know itwas there some sort of like the non I'm trying to understand the data is it morelike the non-licensed staff members or is there some way that the survey kindof a discerns or separates it is it specific buildings compared to like youknow I mean we know we have a lot of information out there there's many waysto you know forward or put you know provide input or is it this districtwidein a cabinet level I mean or is it specific building is there any way thatwe could tell from the survey >> we do have the disagregated data bybuilding we also have the disagregated data by employee group for everyquestion on the survey >> I cannot pull that out of my head rightnow >> uh for that question but we cancertainly follow up with you. >> Thank you for looking into it. Thankyou. >> All right. Thank you so much. Um Janetis going to stay at the podium as she will be uh talking about the permanentschool fund constitutional amendment portion of the agenda.>> Thank you again, Vice Chair Williams, members of the board, and superintendentBanani. Uh frequently when I uh have been in meetings recently, I have asked,"Do you know there is a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November?"And overwhelmingly the answer is no. I don't know anything about it. Uh so we'dlike to take a few moments. You passed a resolution in June um to uh make surethat we are communicating about the constitutional amendment. I'd like totake a few minutes to share this publicly so that our general public isalso well informed. So there is a thing called Minnesota'spermanent school trust fund and it was established when Minnesota became astate. The question on the ballot in Novemberis a a proposal to modernize how that fund is distributed anddispersed to schools while still protecting it for the future. So, whatour purpose tonight is to give a basic explanation of that ballot question, uhhow to learn more about the ballot question, and certainly how to vote inNovember. I'd like to play a quick news report.Minute and a half. They encapsulate it pretty well uh to show to explain thequestion. >> On this fall's ballot, there is aconstitutional amendment that could increase funding to public schoolswithout raising taxes. Fox 9 So Young Kim has been diving into this for ustonight. And so Young, this has to do with the state's permanent school fund.So I think a lot of people probably need an explanation.>> That's right. And the amendment is not to change the fund itself, but howrevenue from it is distributed. The amendment has bipartisan support andadvocates say investment income has grown significantly in recent years, buthow much schools can tap into it has not.>> In Minnesota, that permanent school trust fund has not been updated in howit's distributed since the beginning of the state in 1858.>> So, how does Minnesota's permanent school fund work? School trust landsgenerate revenue. Those funds are invested and grow over time. Then eachyear, some of that money is distributed to public schools. The fund now hasgrown to $2.3 billion. In November, voters will be deciding on potentiallyamending the distribution formula written into the Minnesota Constitution.Currently, roughly two and a half% of the fund is paid out annually to publicschool districts and charter schools. If voters approve the amendment,distribution would be increased to up to 4 and a.5% of the fund's profits basedon a three-year average of money made. Supporters say this could mean anaverage increase of $30 per student. Well, it's not going to solve, you know,anybody's budget crisis, but it's a modest and it's a welcome um increase toschool funding. Something that we really need. It really is going to affect uhevery school in the state, right? Every public school, every charter schoolbenefits from this. And it's important to note for a Minnesota constitutionalamendment, if a voter skips the question, it's counted as a no vote. Abipartisan coalition will be sharing more about their campaign to buildawareness for this ballot question coming up this week. Kelsey,so that news report uh came out during the state fair on September 1st. Uh andI think a lot of people were still at the state fair. Uh so there have beenmany news um reports and coverage about the state um uh the constitutionalamendment that is on the ballot. Um it is important to know that this is astatewide ballot question. This is not just district 196. It has gotten a goodamount of media coverage. Uh but people still seem to be uh unaware. So we'llkeep working on that. There are 10 things we'd like everyonein our community to know about the permanent school fund amendment. Numberone, it is a fund that has existed since we became a state in 1858.Number two, that fund is exactly for public schools.As they said in the news report, the fund has grown significantly uh fourtimes what it was 10 years ago from 675 million in 2010 to 2.3 billion today.But the distributions have not kept pace because of an outdated formula in theconstitution. The amendment modernizes thedistribution formula, but it does not raise taxes.The fund will remain dedicated to public education,and every Minnesota school district will benefit.Finally, the proposal, not finally, I've got three more to get to 10, but theproposal uh received strong bipartisan support. It was a unanimousrecommendation out of the task force that uh considered it, the bipartisantask force, and it passed the House with unanimous support, which if you thinkabout the House last term, there wasn't much that um they agreed upon.Finally, or not, we're still at only number eight. Voter approval isrequired. This is not something the legislature can change by themselvesbecause it is in the Constitution. Our voters must vote to approve it to makethe change. As they said in the news story, a blank vote equals a no vote.The reason for that is for any constitutional amendment, it is based ona majority of all voters who voted in that election, not on that ballotquestion. And our goal and the goal of thisproposal is to support both current and future students. Now, we have a websiteand news information and are starting a social media campaign as well um to getthe word out. Uh we want people to know what the question is and then make adetermination. So, as I said, it had a unanimousrecommendation of the task force, unanimous approval in the House, and abipartisan campaign uh launched on September 2nd. The ballot questionitself is, shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to increasefunding going to all school districts from the permanent school fund, which isa fund that already supports all school districts, without raising individualincome or property taxes. and it would take effect July 1st, 2027. And it is asimple yes or no vote. We'd like everyone to learn about thisimportant issue and to be a voter. You can vote early or in person or by mailor you can vote on election day. And we do have the information about pollinginformation on our website as well. You could also visit the county's electionpage or the Secretary of State's office. I do have good news. I saw the ballottoday and the constitutional amendment is on the front of the ballot, not theback. Um so that will help people see it in um right in front center as they'revoting. I would happy to take any questions. Thank you. At this time, are there anyquestions or comments from the audience? Seeing none, are there any questions orcomments from the board? All right. Thank you, Janet. This wasvery informative. Thank you. All right. Uh we are now on to the uhschool board and superintendent updates. So now I will turn it over toSuperintendent Bosani for district updates.>> Thank you, Vice Chair Williams. Uh our high school fine arts and theaterprograms are busy rehearsing for their fall performances which begin inOctober. As a reminder, the first performance of each production is aspecial senior citizen preview where District 196 residents and retirees areinvited to attend a free afternoon performance. East View High School kicksoff the fall theater season with Our Town, followed by Egan High School, withThe Miracle Worker. Rosemont High School with Clue and Apple Valley will finishthe fall productions in November with the Adams family. We also have somegreat opportunities coming up to see our students in action and to visit ourschools. This Saturday, September 19th, Rosemont High School will host the 36thannual Rosemont Marching Band Festival. This festival begins at 11:00 a.m. andbrings together outstanding marching bands from across the region, includingour own District 196 students. Then the following day, is that right? Followingday, yep, September 20th, East View High School is inviting the community to anopen house into their new activity center from 4 to 6:00 p.m. Families andcommunity members can tour the new facility, enjoy activities on thecourts, and see this new great space that will serve our community andstudents for years to come. We have incredibly talented students and staffacross our schools and I encourage everyone to come out and support them.More information about these and other upcoming events are available uh on ourschool and district websites. And this concludes my report.>> All right. Thank you. Uh are there any board members with updates to share?Robin. >> Um I want to thank Michael formentioning the Rose Mount Marching Festival this coming Saturday. East ViewMarching Band just had their marching festival this past Saturday. Bothfestivals are a chance to see 190 school marching bands in action and they'rewonderful fundraisers for those programs as well. So, I just wanted to thank you.>> Thank you, Robin. Anyone else, >> Catherine?>> Um, I will just thank all the teachers and administration for um fabulous firstfew weeks of school. I know my kids have been really excited, so happy to be backin school, and I'm so happy to have them back in school. Um it's been um justreally great to be reconnected with teachers and in the school buildings umand everyone is just doing a fabulous job. So thank you.All right. Anyone else? All right. It's time to adjourn. So I'mgoing to ask for a motion uh to adjourn this evening's meeting.>> Seconded. So Leah uh the motion was made by Leah,seconded by Katherine. All those in favor?>> I >> I>> I. >> All those opposed. Okay. Motion passesby a five to zero vote. Oh. [music]