[music] [music] Good evening and welcome to ourregularly scheduled schoolboard meeting for Monday, May 11th. At this time,please rise as you are able to join us in the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag>> America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God,indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Good evening everyone. Goodevening, school board members. As usual, our first item on the agenda tonight isthe approval of the agenda. There are no additions or deletions to the agenda.Um, is there a motion to approve the agenda as outlined?>> So, move second. >> Motion by Katherine, seconded by Robin.Did I get that right? >> Yeah.>> Okay. Thank you. All those in favor of approving the agenda say I.>> I. >> Those opposed. Motion carries on a 6vote. The next item on our agenda is one of our favorites. It's the recognitionportion of the agenda. And I'd like to welcome Egan High School principalPaulie Rkowski to the podium to talk about our high school students of theyear program and introduce us to Egan students. >> Good evening everyone. I'm Dr. PaulieReichowski. I'm the proud principal of a wonderful high school, Egan High School,and I'm here just to briefly introduce the whole idea of students of the yearas each of our schools will then bring their students forward. ChairpersonJohnson, Superintendent Falsone, our board members, and all in the audience,including so many family members of students being honored tonight.Congratulations on being here. Tonight, we will all be honoring our own highschool seniors who have been chosen as students of the year by departmentswithin each high school. Faculty members in each department award this honor toour seniors for their leadership, their academic achievements, their resilience,and their persistence. Thank you for providing this opportunity to bring themto the school board meeting and recognize them.At the end of each of our presentations, the students will cross over and shakehands with our esteemed board members and our superintendent, and then theywill be moving to the lobby for a photo. I'm saying that so parents, if you wantto get a photo of the group, you can come out there too with us. Thank you.Egan High School's very proud to honor our seniors. Victoria Thomas, AlexanderRatitz, Kayn Strand Chrysler, Evelyn Okmpo,Auggie Borer, Amelia Whitelaw, Wendy Basilio Islady,McKenna Becker, Heidi Lindall, Kyle Erenss, Max Mongia,Mia Dherty, Anit, Muka, Muka, Padier, uh, Jude Miller, Ryan Groutman, EmmaStanley, and Spven Peterson. They'll now come across. Congratulations,Victoria. [applause] [applause]Congratulations. Congratulations.[applause] >> Congratulations.Congratulations. Great job. Congratulations.Congratulations. Good job. Good job. Congratulations. Good job. Good job.Congratulations. >> Congratulations. Good job.Congratulations. Good job. >> Good to see you.>> Excellent. >> Good evening. Our students of the yearfrom East View High School are Bashesta Amatier,Jesse Domowski, Micah D. Rocher, Nina, Katherine,Galendez, Kanda and Gutier,Heroay Kabidi, Rayana Lions, Amy Wyn, Sai Ready, AvaWood, Chloe Shabatada, Yasmin Clemente, and Lucas Young, LlayaBimemer, Eric Olsen, Angus Laska and Carter Sepel.You may shake everyone's hands. Go ahead. Shout out. [applause] Amazing job. Congratulations.Congratulations. >> Congratulations.Great job. Congratulations. Fantastic job. Congratulations. Great job. You'rewelcome. Great job. Congratulations. >> Good to see you. Thank you. >> Good evening. I'm Pete Robach, principalat Rose Mount High School. Here to introduce our amazing students of theyear. Anna or Anna Ojala, Cash Telcott, Milana Rudolph, Harper Shapi, GraceShank, Andrew Mesner, Juanita Gerky, Lily Nan, Kaia Label,Mallet Asha Gray, Ian Johnson, Ava Gors, Moss Schmeltzley, Ivy Goodwin, JakaiHolly, Nick Jac, Mike Janick, Sammy or Sammy Ducklas,Ariela Duza, and Joey Schilling. Congratulations.[applause] Go ahead. Congratulations. Great job. Great job.Congratulations. Good job. >> Thanks so much. Me too. Absolutely. >> Good evening. Thank you so much forhaving us. My name is Lauren Hasting. I'm the principal at the School ofEnvironmental Studies and I'm excited to introduce to you tonight our students ofthe year. We have Lily Everheart, Max Johnson, Leslie McCulla, Nat Mson, LaraPresnell, Maline Rosario,Abigail Schled, Elena Serbanenko, Zack Van Lanningham, and Leif Waly. [applause] >> [applause] >> Fantastic job. You're welcome.Congratulations. >> Congratulations. You're very welcome. >> Very impressive. >> Mhm.Good evening, Chairperson Johnson, school board members, and superintendentBolson. My name is Drew Mans, and I'm the proud principal of Apple Valley HighSchool. Uh, joining me here tonight as our students of the year, we haveAndreas Gada Espa, Amara Ame, Isaac I'll have you folks give a waiverstep forward so they know who you are. There you go.Uh, Juan Estabban, Barios, Arias, Kate Soladad Sanchez,Mason Hulgrren, Jacob Zarn, Miles Zimmerman, Ruby Wigrief,Lewis, Gustoson, Aaron Diaz, Mora, Christian Gunel,Sophia Johnson, Haley Lem, Amry Armbulu,Isabella Nogeras, and Owen Schultz. Congratulations.Nice work, Eagles. [applause] >> Congratulations.>> Congratulations. >> Congratulations.>> Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. >> Very impressive group. All right.Next, I'd like to welcome Will Finley to the podium, Rosemont High Schoolassistant principal, to introduce our Rosemont 2026 Excel award recipients. Good evening, Chairperson Johnson,Superintendent Balsone, and school board members. My name is Will Finley,assistant principal, athletic director at Rose Mount High School. Tonight weare proud to recognize an outstanding student athlete, leader, and role modelfrom Rosemont High School and the 2026 Excel Excel Award winner, Jacob Sts, akaStatsy. What is the Excel Award? It stands forexcellence in community education and leadership which is an award given tohigh school juniors who are who are active in school activities, leaders intheir school and are strong in giving back through community service. Of theroughly 68,000 juniors in the state of Minnesota, Jacob is one of 34 to berecognized by the Minnesota State High School League as a 2026 award winner.This award fits Jacob to the tea. He is remar he is a remarkable part ofRosemont High School competing on varsity teams since seventh grade inadapted soccer softball and floor hockey. He is a two-time state championin both soccer and softball winning titles in 24 and 25 while while alsoearning all conference honors in both sports. In the arts, Jacob has been anactive member of the choir program for the last three years and proudly callschoir his favorite class. He's earned the prestigious Irish award for choirtwo consecutive years, the highest honor in the program, and voted on by hisfellow peers, reflecting the respect and admiration of his of his peers. Jacob isalso heavily involved in Best Buddies and Special Olympics, where he hascompeted in softball, flag football, and basketball on both traditional andunified teams. Jacob loves the center stage because the chance of him doingsomething rare and great at the same time are very likely. In addition, Jacobvolunteers in the community by delivering toys to children during theholidays and helping pack food for local shelters. These experiencesum these experiences allow Jacob to model inclusion, friendship, kindness,and leadership for everyone around him. Jacob's impact reaches far beyondchampionships and awards. He is known as someone who brings people together.Jacob lives in the moment. As an adult, I've learned from Jacob that you don'twait for it to happen, you make it happen. And when it does, you pump yourarms in the air, your feet leave the ground, and you welcome everyone to theparty that's taking place inside of you. Jacob lives by a quote, "Never give up,"by Michael Jordan. He demonstrates that mindset every day. Jacob, thank you formaking Rose Mount High School and the city of Rosemount a better place. We areincredibly proud of you. Go Irish. [applause] >> Absolutely amazing. Congratulations. >> All right. Now, I'd like to welcome Dr.Pauly Ruskowski back to the podium to introduce Egan's Excel Award recipients.>> Good evening again. We are happy to be here tonight with two of our juniors whowere chosen for the Excel Award. This award, as Mr. Finley described, it iscertainly a prestigious one for all high schools in Minnesota. Students apply forit, filling out quite a bit of information, getting recommendations,and then a selection committee has to narrow it down to one one female, onemale student to go on to the high school league competition. We're very proud ofour two students this year. They're leaders in our school, both academicallyof course, but also with community service, with activity involvement, andthey're certainly regarded highly by their teachers and their peers. So,we're very proud of them and happy to celebrate with them tonight. Maya Rothand Gavin Yang are excel students for the High School League award this year.Thank you. [applause] Amazing[applause] job. Congratulations.Congratulations. Congratulations. >> Thank you. Hey, next I'd like to welcome RosemontHigh School Assistant Principal Calvin Keysling to the podium to introduceRosemont High School's Distributive Education Clubs of America or DECA stateconference winner. >> Good evening, Chairperson Johnson,members of the board, and Superintendent Balsone. Yes, my name is Calvin Keyling,and I'm the assistant principal in charge of activities at Rosemary HighSchool. It's my pleasure to recognize our state DECA winners. We had twowinners this year. Um, one who was not able to attend tonight. That's NickGarnsworthy who placed second in the entrepreneurship series at the statecompetition. The other is Lassia Pandari, an 11th grade student at RHSand one of our rising leaders in our DECA program. She's currently a DECAchapter officer. This year she is a leader of a young team and she placedthird in the Minnesota State DECA conference in our integrated marketingcampaign category with her Pura Lima campaign. Please join me incongratulating Lassia. [applause] >> Congratulations. >> All right. Next, I'd like to welcome DonErdal to the podium to introduce Apple Valley High School's DECA StateConference winners. Got to put the microphone down.>> Good evening. Uh my name is Don Erdol. I'm the adviser at Apple Valley HighSchool for DECA. Uh tonight I have the honor to present Lucette Lucet Laertietonight. Uh Lucy qualified for the state tournament by finishing first in thedistrict innovation plan and also qualified in personal financialliteracy. She placed third at state in personal financial literacy andqualified for the DECA ICDC's for the second consecutive year where sherepresented Apple Valley High School very admirably. Lucy also organizes mostof our AVHS DECA events including back to school recruiting, eighth grade visittable, a DECA table for the 50th anniversary of AVHS and our Cub Foodsfundraiser. She has also been just voted to be our chapter president for nextyear. Congratulations and thank you for having us.>> [applause] >> All right. Next, I'd like to welcomeLeah Lancowski, East View High School Business Professionals of America or BPAAdviser, to the podium to introduce East View's BPA State Leadership Conferencewinners. Good evening, chair person Johnson,board members and superintendent Baloni. My name is Leah Linkowski and I'm theadviser for Business Professionals of America. Business Professionals Americagives students an opportunity to compete in skills that they learn in thebusiness classroom. We had a very successful year this year. We had 12students qualify for a national competition. And I have a few inattendance tonight. Those in attendance tonight are Kevin Burch who competed insmall business management team, Megan Burie also in small business managementteam, Haran J, human resource management, Amy Wyn, small businessmanagement team, Anbe Patula, Jav Java programming and SQL databasefundamentals and Sophia Wei who is digital media production. So thank youfor the opportunity to recognize these amazing students.[applause] Congratulations. Congratulations. Well done. >> All right. Um, next I'd like to welcomeCalvin Keesling back to the podium to introduce Rosemont's BPA stateleadership conference winners. Good evening again, Sher Johnson, boardmembers and dire superintendent Balsson. It's my pleasure to present KaylaFreeman, who's a 10th grade student at RHS. This spring at the Minnesota StateBPA conference, she placed third and qualified for the BPA Nationals, whichshe just got back from yesterday. She had a strong showing and narrowly missedheading to finals and but we're really excited for the future of BPA atRosemount, especially with Kayla as part of the team. Please join me incongratulating Kayla Freeman. [applause] Right. Next, I'd like to welcome PaulKovak and Abigail Osborne, BPA adviserss at Egan High School, to the podium tointroduce Egan's BPA State Leadership Conference winners. >> Good evening, Chairperson Johnson, boardmembers, and Superintendent Palsone. My name is Paul Kovak and I along with myfellow business teacher Abby Osborne are the co-advisers for the Egan BPAchapter. Um I talked to Mr. Hansen and he said I had 30 minutes so I'll try tomake it kind of brief. Oh, three minutes. Um sorry. So for Egan, we had24 students qualify at the state conference to compete at this year'snational conference in Nashville. They just got home this morning at about12:40. So some of them are very tired. Um, and of the 24 that went, we actuallyhad some places uh, top three placement finishers for nationals. Um, and I havesome members here that I'd like to introduce. Um, just to name the teams,our parliamentary procedure team of Elli Clauss, Snig Mahra, Ani Peravari, MayaRoth, Maesta, and Isabelle White placed third. And we also had a financialteam of Rajinesesh Aravindon, Sheneas Ayar and Gabe Rubin also placed thirdand Raj also placed second in graphic design. My students here tonight justwant to recognize them and their families are Rajanesh Aravindan, ShereAvatali, Shernivas Ayur Vidanch Carnitak,Ayan Patel and Maya Roth who you met earlier and this is our team for thisyear. [applause] Congratulations. >> Congratulations.>> Congratulations. >> Congratulations. Thank you. >> Next, I'd like to welcome Ryan Rosine,speech coach at East View High School, to introduce East View's state speechwinners. Well, good evening, Chairperson Johnson,board members, superintendent BSON. My name is Ryan Rosine, and I have thehonor of serving as the head speech coach at Eastview High School. You'reonce again, 196 is definitely the cream of the crop when it comes to speech anduh how we performed at this state tournament. And you will see that frommyself as well as my other speech coaches from the other schools. Tonight,I want to recognize our state champions. First of all, I want to recognize RohanSerang. This year during the in the invitational season, Rohan competed inthree different categories, advancing to a final round 17 times. He advanced tothe state tournament in the category of extemporaneous speaking. In thiscategory, he chooses a current event. They have been pre-lugged and he choosesone that he that is given to him. And he has 30 minutes to prepare a speech anddeliver it where he must site sources and evidence. As you might expect, ittakes a lot of knowledge to understand this category. His knowledge paid off ashe was crowned state champion. A great way to end his senior year. He will alsocompete at the national tournament in June. Congratulations, Rohan. Next up isTess Dalma. Like Rohan, Tess is a senior with quite a speech team career. Duringher four years on the team, Tess made the most of her opportunity. She earnedfour trips to the state tournament, won three section championships, took homethree state medals, advanced to the national speech and debate tournamenttwo times, and to cap off her senior year in her career, she won the statemedal in humorous interpretation. Tessa's dedication and talent willdefinitely be missed on our team. I also want to mention Alina Ibrahim, who couldnot be here tonight. She was runner up in the category of great speeches. She'sonly a sophomore, so thankfully we have her around for two more years. Butplease help me in congratulating our East View state champions.[applause] >> Great job. >> All right. Next, I'd like to welcomeKelvin Keling, again, no stranger to the podium, to introduce Rosemont's statespeech winners. Good evening. This is my last time forthe record. So, good evening uh chair person Johnson and directors of theboard as well as superintendent Balone. It is my pleasure to recognize AnelRoshan, an 11th grader at RHS and one of our speech captains of a very young andupandcoming speech team with a consistent showing of top three finishesand placing second in the most competitive district and section atstate. Um, Anel placed third in the M Minnesota State Speech Tournament inextemporaneous reading. Please join me in congratulating Ana.[applause] >> Every time. Every time.[laughter] >> All right. Awesome.>> All right. Um, next I'd like to welcome Zel Longi and Scott Voss, speech coachesat Apple Valley High School, who will introduce Apple Valley's state speechwinners. >> Well,good evening, chairperson Johnson, board members, superintendent BSON. My name isZidle Voss and I'm one of the head coaches at Apple Valley Speech andDebate. Um we are so grateful that we have the opportunity to come here andrecognize some exceptional speakers along with our colleagues across thedistrict. Tonight um we are recognizing our top three state our state finalistswho ranked in the top three in this high school league tournament last month.Apple Valley Speech and Debate has had an exceptional season this year. As thesection 6A champions, our team qualified 12 students in 13 events to the statetournament where a total of eight students placed in the top eight in thestate. With me today are four of the five students on our team who placed inthe top three of each of their events. I am pleased to introduce you to thefollowing students. Junior Raniah Bunch, coached by Scott Boss, placed third ingreat speeches with a speech about racial disparities in healthcare.Junior Amelia Ugass, coached by Usuzo Nagu, a Apple Valley alum, placed thirdin pros with her speech about the Charleston shooting that took placeyears ago. Senior Maab Muhammad Ali was coached by Pam Wyoff and myself. Sheplaced third in informative with her speech about the power of human touchand haptics. Maab will be attending the University ofVirginia next fall. Both Amelia and Maab will be representing District 196 andmore specifically Apple Valley High School speech and debate at the NationalSpeech and Debate tournament in June in Richmond, Virginia. And we are very[clears throat] proud of them. And finally, our state runner up was juniorHamdi Muhammad, who was coached by Usuzo Nagwu in the state um in the category ofpoetry. And her poetry program featured information and poems aboutIslamophobia, specifically highlighting the hijab. Weare so so proud of the hard work that these students have put in intorepresenting our school and program well. Their success has helped AppleValley take home the second place in the state team sweeps trophy this year andalso keep very tight hold on that state record for the most medals won in thehistory of speech and debate in Minnesota. Our total to date 418.We are especially grateful for the ongoing support of the arts andactivities director at Apple Valley High School, Bill Blattheim, and ourprincipal Drew Monz. Again, on behalf of the students and the parents and thecoaches at ABHS, we thank the board and district 196 for the support you haveshown as we continue to help our students strive for excellence incommunication and education. Thank you. [applause] Congratulations.Congratulations. >> Myeticswas way off. [laughter] Oh. All right. Last but not least, I'dlike to welcome Cammy Sherat, speech coach at Egan High School, who willintroduce Egan's state speech winners. All right. Good evening, uh, ChairpersonJohnson, Superintendent Balsone, board members, and everyone that is still hereremaining in this room. [laughter] My name is Cammy Sherid. I'm the co-headspeech coach at Egan High School alongside Chris McDonald. Um, tonight weare here to honor Neiel Omat who is the 2026 MSHSLstate champion in poetry interpretation. Um, I may be biased in saying thatNeielle has a very very special place in my heart. Um, I've worked with her sinceshe was a 10th grader. Um, she is a two-time section champion in poetryinterpretation. Um and then her second showing um at state first her firstshowing being when she was a junior and she finaled then um but then this yearat the section tournament she got perfect scores in her prelim rounds andin the final round of poetry um and then made it to finals and took the firstfirst place um title that Egan has had in four years which is really exciting.um po um Neielle did a poetry program that highlighted the issues of codeswitching um and how that is something that exists in many settings that sheexists in. Um but I'm so very proud of her. Um the Egan High School team haduh 22 students go to the state tournament and we had nine and finalrounds. So we are so proud of that. And just as the other coaches were saying,196 has an absolutely fantastic legacy of supporting speech in the arts. And weare so grateful for the support of the board as well as the support of thewoman at the head of our ship, Dr. Paulie Reichowski. So, thank you somuch. And um so a big congratulations for Neiel Om.[applause] Congratulations. >> Thank you. Congratulations.What a great season. Congratulations. >> Thank you so much. Next, I'll turn the meeting over toSuperintendent Bosone for recognition of students and staff.>> Okay. Thank you, Chair Johnson. May is one of the busiest and most excitingtimes of the school year. Across the district, students are showcasing theirtalents, educators are celebrating milestones, and schools are recognizingthe many accomplishments that make our district so strong. Before I begin, Iwant to congratulate all of the students that we just recognized in front of theboard this evening. From academic achievement to leadership to speech,business competitions, and athletics, these students represent the very bestof District 196. Their accomplishments reflect not onlytheir hard work and dedication, but also the support of families, teachers,coaches, adviserss, and staff members who help them succeed. I also want tothank our educators and school nurses who we celebrated last week duringteacher and school nurse appreciation week. Our teachers help students acquirethe knowledge and skills necessary to become successful contributing membersof society. We also recognize our school nurses for promoting health and safetyand for taking care of our students. May is designated as Asian-American,Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The 2026 theme is powerand unity, strengthening communities together. This year's poster featuresbamboo as a symbol of strength, endurance, and resilience. In District196, we strive to provide students, families, and employees with experiencesthat honor the diverse cultures within our communities. This month, wecelebrate the students, families, and employees of Asian-American, NativeHawaiian, and Pacific Islander heritage. Congratulations to district 196 teachersfrom schools located in Egan who were nominated by their principles andrecognized last week at the Egan's Rotary annual teacher recognitionlunchon. Thank you to the Egan Rotary for honoring these outstanding educatorsand their commitment to students. Lastly, I would like to invite SchoolDistrict General Counsel Adam Watenburgger to the podium to introducethe newest member of our district legal team. All right. Good evening, Chippers andJohnson, school board members and superintendent Bullone. I wish I wasn'thaving to follow all the speech champions, but here [laughter] I am. Um,I am excited, very excited to welcome our new deputy general counsel, ShannonSmith. Um, just a little background on this position. Um, this was a vacantposition after I was selected to fill the general counsel role following JillCoyle's retirement. Um, this position fills an important role in our legaldepartment. We only have two attorneys and this is one of them. Um, it providescritical support to the general counsel and direct support to our schooladministrators and cabinet members to help solve problems that come up andalso proactively consider the legal side of things while we all work to fulfillthe district's mission and core values. This position also serves as ourdistrict's election official, which you're all familiar with. So, um, noneof that happening this year, but uh, she'll be involved in that uh, once weget to it. So I would now like to introduce Shannon um who has beenworking in this role for about a month now. She came on board midappril. UmShannon received her undergraduate degree at University of WisconsinMadison. Um she has some experience working in schools as a teachingassistant. Um and then she got her law degree from UNC Chapel Hill. Um, shespent a couple of years clerking for the Minnesota Court of Appeals and then thelast three and a half years working as an attorney at the Kennedy and GravenLaw Firm where she was practicing school law representing uh Minnesota schooldistricts across the state. It gives her a lot of great experience to step intothis role and and be really knowledgeable um about the things thatwe do. Um, she's an excellent attorney. She's already been a huge help steppingin to provide support. Um, and I think she's going to be a great asset to thedistrict moving forward. So, with that, it is my pleasure to introduce our newDeputy General Counsel, Shannon Smith. I'll let her say a couple words.[applause] >> Thank you, Adam. Well, it's great to behere. Um, I will keep my comments short uh and just say that I am very excitedto be joining the uh the legal team in the district. Um, as Adam mentioned,I've been in my role for about a month now. It's been an excellent experienceso far. I've just been uh so impressed by everyone I've worked with and by howuh warm and kind and and welcoming everyone has been. Um so yeah, I am uhvery much looking forward to supporting the district and being a part of thiscommunity. Thank you. [applause] Hey, welcome again. Congratulations. >> You done?>> Nope. >> Um, and that concludes my comments.Thank you. >> Excellent. All right, board members. Ournext item on the agenda is our consent agenda. We have 21 items on the consentagenda. Those items include minutes of the April 13th, 2026 regular schoolboardmeeting, minutes of the April 28, 2026, special schoolboard meeting, gifts,grants, schedules of investments for March 2026, summary of claims for March2026, revenue and expenditures reports uh for March 2026. Treasures report forMarch 20 26. Personnel termination and non-renewal probationary teachers.Confirmation of unrequested leave of absence for teachers employmentagreement. Probationary agreement for clinical experience with the Universityof Minnesota. Agreement for student teaching with Gustavis Adulus College.Agreement for student teaching with Lu Luther College. Agreement for studentteaching with Metro State University. Agreement with YMCA of the North for2026 school summer school aged care programs. 2025 202526 spring budgetadjustments. Non-public school counseling services agreements. DakotaCounty IRU for fiber to RMS purchase of Sentinel 1 MDR. Are there any items onthe consent agenda that board members would like to remove tonight?Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?>> So moved. Second. >> Motion by Robin, seconded by Leah. Allthose in favor of approving the consent agenda say I. I.>> Those opposed. Motion carries on a 6 vote. That brings us to our reportsportion of our agenda tonight. And I'd like to welcome Rachel Hughes, StevenBalcamp, and Stephanie Ooki to the podium to go over our the summary of the2025 Minnesota student survey results. >> All right. Good evening, ChairpersonJohnson, members of the board, and superintendent Bosone. My name is RachelHughes, the director of instruction and achievement. I'm pleased to be here thisevening with two members of my team, Steven Bellamp, coordinator of research,assessment, and analytics, and Stephanie Oaki, student support coordinator.Tonight, we'll be sharing a summary of the 2025 Minnesota student survey. Thispresentation will cover our district's data, state trends, and specificinsights into student well-being and student experiences in District 196. This presentation aligns with our corevalue of student centered and strategic priority of well-being. At this time,I'm going to pass it to Steven Bellamp for an overview for of the surveyadministration in district 196. >> Thank you, Director Hughes. Goodevening, board. Uh the Minnesota Student Survey is a partnership with theMinnesota departments of education, health, human services, and publicsafety. It provides schools, communities, and state agencies withdata to guide resource allocation, evaluate programs, and develop targetedsupport for student health, safety, and academic success. The survey coverstopics such as school experiences, activities, family and relationships,health and safety, behavior, and for our older students, sexual health andsubstance use. The survey is conducted every three years. Student participationin the survey is optional and responses are both confidential and anonymous.In the most recent uh administration of the survey from January 2025,district 196 students in grades 58, 9, and 11 participated. We maintained atransparent process allowing families and students to opt out. In total, 34families took the opportunity to review the survey questions prior toadministration. Perfect. Thank you. So, according to theMinnesota Department of Health press release, this was back in December 2025,we're seeing overall improvement in student health, well-being, and generalschool experience. Students reported stronger connections to their schools,better physical and mental health, less bullying, improved healthy behaviors,and increased feelings of safety compared to the 2022 survey. Measuresrelated to anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts showed positive trendsas well, including the lowest rate in over a decade of students consideringsuicide. Of note, this year's survey also included new questions thatprovided insight into technology use and broader risk factors facing ourstudents. And we're going to highlight a few of those this evening. Despite manygains, 37% of students statewide reported one or more adverse childhoodexperiences or ACEs. And technology use continues to affect sleep andresponsibilities, highlighting areas where support can be strengthened. Take a look at the um chart you see onthe screen. Our rates of student participation in the Minnesota studentsurvey here in district 196 remain significantly higher than stateaverages. The state participation rate has dropped to 45%and district 196 continues to see strong engagement. Notice we have over twicethat participation rate particularly with our eighth grade um cohort of over90%. What does this mean? This level of highengagement ensures that our data is highly representative of the students weserve. So I'm going to first highlight a few specific survey questions to reallydemonstrate the positive trends we've seen. Um it also really suggests that wehave returned to a lot of prepandemic levels um for many topics.So the first uh graph you see here, one of the most encouraging findings fromthis year's survey is the increase in students who who report feeling goodabout their future. So this first graph shows the percentage of students whoresponded with almost always or often to the prompt of I feel good about myfuture. Twothirds of high school students responded positively. We knowthat when students believe in their future, they're more likely to stayengaged in school, which is consistent with findings on the next two slidesthat I'm about to share. For the next prompt, about 90% of students respondedwith all of the time or most of the time to the question of how often do you careabout doing well in school? This is also a rebound um from to prepandemic levels.Students expressing care in their learning is a direct result of theauthentic relationships our staff have with students. Even when students maystruggle academically or behaviorally, this data shows that most studentsreally care deeply about their performance and future success. And thenthe next one, we see that about 75% of middle school and high school agestudents agree with this statement. I think things I learn at school areuseful. This is a testament to the effort our teachers make to createmeaningful learning experiences that are both highly engaging and connected tostudent interests. On the next graph, about 70% of middleschool and high school age students said they feel valued and appreciated byothers. This result reflects positively on the culture we are building in ourschools, one where relationships matter and students know they belong. It alsohighlights the impact of staff efforts to connect with students and createwelcoming learning environments. And then the last prompt before I pass itoff um really digs in a little bit more into the concepts or the topics of valueand appreciation. It asks students to respond to the prompt of adults at myschool listen to students. So while the results of this prompt have remainedrather steady over the past decade, we saw a large increase in the percentageof juniors or grade 11 students who agree with that prompt. So on the graphyou see there, note that green line, the increase in the percentage of grade 11students who agree with this prompt. The 2025 juniors had a more stable andconnected high school experience compared to their 2022 cohort that haduh let's just say significant disruptions due to the pandemic. Astable connected experience contributes to stronger perceptions of adult supportand listening. Junior year is one of the most important years in the studentsacademic journey. So seeing students report that adults are listening is bothmeaningful and impactful. So, at this point, I'm going to pass it to mycolleague, Dr. Oaki, who's our student support coordinator. All right. All right. Thank you, Stephen.Okay. All right. Um, a major focus of the 2025 survey was technology use.We're seeing a significant number of students reporting that they feel theyspend too much time on social media, which is indicated with the yellow barson this graph. Students also acknowledge the time they spend on social media isinterfering with their homework and their household responsibilities, whichis indicated by the blue bars on this graph. This technology risk is a growingarea of for student support at both home and at school. On our next slide, we're seeing howstudents are learning how to balance the integration of technologies influenceinto their daily lives. This graph highlights the challenge students facewith regulating screen time in the evenings. Roughly 50% of our studentssay they use technology on at least one school night per week between midnightand 500 a.m. And 25% of our students say they use technology on at least threeschool nights per week between those same hours. We bring this awareness toour community's attention because the impacts of disrupted sleep havedetrimental effects on the healthy development of children and youth. Ourshared partnership to collectively help our children and youth navigate thedigital frontier is essential and we will work to provide families withsupport to help their students regulate technology use whether online or in person. Bullyingincreases the likelihood of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse forvictims, bystanders, and bullies alike. Additionally, victims of bullying oftenface academic decline and low self-esteem. Bystanders experiencehelplessness and fear. And bullies frequently engage in violent or riskybehaviors. This slide tracks student reports ofbullying, which shows a decline from elementary to high school. We did notpresent the longitudinal results for this statement because the prompt fromthe survey had shifted significantly from previous years and we just didn'tfeel comfortable comparing those results. However, understanding theresults from this year helps us refine our prevention and interventionstrategies to ensure every student feels safe at school.Safety and well-being are always at the forefront of our district priorities andas such we provide evidence-based social emotional learning and bullyingprevention via our SecondStep curriculum. We can infer that our prevention andintervention efforts are having a positive impact. We see here this graphshows that 90% or more of our students report feeling safe in school. And related to feeling safe, we also seethat three out of four students would feel comfortable taking school safetyconcerns to the school resource officer or SRO. While our students report high rates offeeling safe at school, they also report having adverse childhood experiencesoutside of school. ACEs describe traumatic experiences in a person's lifeoccurring before age 18. The ACES score is a measure of cumulative exposure toadverse childhood conditions including mental illness in the household,domestic abuse, parental incarceration, verbal abuse, physical neglect, physicalabuse, sexual abuse, and drugs and alcohol in the household. While thepercentage of students reporting multiple ACEs has decreased from 2019since the reporting began, the correlation between compounded ACEs andincreased risk for poor mental health outcomes in adulthood does remain. Knowing that ACEs and mental illness arecommon, we take the opportunity of prevention and intervention seriously,knowing we can help our students now and in their life beyond school. Here, ourgraph is illustrating that 20 to 35% of students have reported receiving mentalhealth treatment. We're fortunate that children and youthincreasingly access mental health services through school-based programs,primary care pediatrician offices, and via teleaalth, which aims to reducebarriers like stigma and transportation. In district 196, school-based mentalhealth access includes a continuum of services provided by counselors, nurses,psychologists, social workers, school link behavioral health partners, and asallowed by teleaalth guidance. Our multidisciplinary team provides anetwork of care that includes academic advising, social, emotional, behavioralinterventions, daily medical attention, and family resource advocacy. In aneffort to ensure that the needs of the whole child are met, families interestedand in need of these services can access our website. While the profound impact of mentalillness and ACEs raises significant concerns for student well-being, schoolsdo have a unique opportunity to actively foster both individual and communityresilience by cultivating positive childhood experiences or PCES indistrict 196. This this begins with creating safe, inclusive, and nurturingphysical and social environments which are further strengthened by responsivecaregiving and peer friendships that build security, empathy, and trust.In addition to the powerful impact of positive staffto student andpeer-to-peer relationships, the district 196A philosophy acknowledges andembraces the importance of the academics, arts, and athletics. And ourstrength and connection and community propels our students forward withinfinite possibilities to learn, to grow, and to thrive. We very much appreciate this opportunityto present the results summary this evening. Information from the trienalMinnesota student survey helps provide student voice to our building levelleadership teams and site councils, our student support staff and ouradministrative and district level teams. The feedback from our students providesus with an opportunity to reflect on the needs and the assets of our students andhelps to inform and guide our work. There are many aspects of student lifecovered in the 2025 Minnesota student survey. Tonight, we chose items ofparticular interest. However, there is much more information and you can accessthe full report via the Minnesota Department of Education. Thank you somuch for your time. We appreciate it and we're happy to answer any questions.>> Excellent. Thank you so much. At this time, are there any questions orcomments from the audience? Seeing none, questions or comments fromboard members? >> Robin,>> I have a question and I'm going to maybe stumble through it a little bit. So onsome of the slides where we have the colorful lines um showing the differentum dates for the different grades, my question is are we is that fifth gradersfor each of those years or are we tracking PE like students in fifth gradeand then the same students in eighth grade and so on and so forth. Does thatmake sense? >> Yeah. Um I think it makes sense. Let'ssee if my answer makes sense. It's cohorted. So the fifth grade is thefifth grade of each year. So it's not that same group ofstudents. >> Not one way you can compare a cohortlongitudinally. Notice it's given in fifth grade 8th grade and then let me dothe math. 11th grade. So if you look at let's see 2019 fifth grade y>> that's 2022 8th grade which is >> and that's 2025 11th grade. Yes. And soI I wanted to make sure I was understanding that correctly becausethen my next question was while we're looking at them as cohorts, are we alsolooking at the students who have taken it in fifth grade, in 8th grade, and11th grade and looking at their results and how they're doing over time?>> I would say we look at it both ways. Yep. So tracking a cohort as well aslooking at fifth grade, fifth graders over time for both.>> Thank you. And then one other question I had and I know correlation does notequal causation. So, with that groundwork, um, we have a to me asurprising number of students who are up between midnight and 5:00 am on socialmedia. Um, and I'm wondering, can we correlate that to any of the other datathat we do on any of the testing that we do? I don't know if it's even possible.Um, but I thought I'd ask. >> I would say I'm with you on thecorrelation does not equal causation. And this was the first time that thisquestion was asked in the survey as well. Um, so there's work that happenson the back end between the departments of health, human services, and educationas they select the items. So, it's one we're going to continue to watch, butcan't make any cross inferences from. >> I didn't think so, but I thought, youknow, I'll ask. So, thank you, >> Leah.>> Um, a few things. So, thank you. I think this is really always interesting andit's just so important to hear from our youth about what they're experiencing.Um, I completely agree. super alarming on the on the technology betweenmidnight and 5:00 a.m. I my question on that is ifwhat are the ways that we as a district can share that um with parents and andshare best practices or you know like the tools to address that for ourstudents. And I do have a couple other questions.>> I I think part of this is just even the awareness on this, right? Like I thinkthat that's like a starting point that it's included in the survey and that weincluded it in the report. Um because seeing that I think offers families thatopportunity for the reflection um to see if peers are saying this and what is mychild saying to me or what do I know about our technology habits at home. Sothat's part one. Um but here in the district we do have digital citizenshipum when that's at the elementary and at our um secondary sites where we do talkabout things like helping kids um learn about like that self-management and umlike the social skills that go along with utilizing technology in theirlives. So um really most of this um awareness to begin with right because itis a brand new question but then we do have opportunities for that digitalcitizenship growth um in our schools. And then just really quick is bullyingdefined in the survey? I mean I know we talk about it and maybe define it butdid do we know what they had in their minds when they answered that question? I have a copy of this survey so I canfollow up with you. I believe it is not but I will make sure to follow up withthe board. >> Excellent. Other questions or commentsfrom board? >> Anna,>> so I just took a stab at going through the survey itself and I'm only on likepage eight. Fascinating stuff. I mean fascinating. So I'm just I wondered ifas you were going through it if you're like if [laughter]so I started to I was really interested in some of the disparities just betweenum however we're defining gender male andfemale. Um you know how often do you go to classunprepared? It seems like uh there is a huge dispar not huge butat least um you know five pointsmen or boys seem to be going to class more unprepared than girls do. Um I'mcurious about why why is that? Um also um how often do you care about doingwell in school? Uh there's between a 14 and 18% disparity betweengirls caring more than boys. I want to know why. Why is that consistent? Why isthat between fifth grade all the way to 11th grade? I want to know why. Why isthat? Um why are girls consistently missing school more than boys? I mean, Ihave some ideas, but what do we need to do about that? What what are thebarriers? What's what's going on? Um, I mean, I have some ideas, of course. Um,but what's happening there? That's that's mis time in school. Um, what dowe need to do about that? Um, you know, it'sthere seems to be more um missing parts of school consistently more for girlsthan for boys. And so that's problematic.Um, and that's especially I'm seeing that uh as we get into 9th and 11thgrade and that I'm just touching the surface.Um, and so I'd love to hear I'd love to hear more. I'd love to see more and I'mcurious as I dig deeper into there. The other piece that I found again just onwhat did I say page seven or eight? This one really struck me and as I thoughtabout what our goals are and as we center our students. Um, this one had medisturbed only because my daughter recently went through school um recentlygraduated from from college. You know, has an adult in your school helped youthink about education options for after high school? 23%of males in the 11th grade said no. 18% of girls said no.I don't know if that's that's not that's not okay, especially when the majorityof students are getting a C and above. We're missing some students here. Imean, 4% are getting D's or below. That's a significant amount of studentsthat aren't getting a contact for the adults. So, what are we're missing somestudents? We're missing a significant portion of students. I mean, I don'tknow correlation is that necessarily cause it, but something's going onthere. And I just remember counselors had no time for my daughter junior year.They were all focused on seniors and getting into college. Well, getting themgraduated or, you know, into college. So, I just thought that was a huge miss.Um, and then has an adult in your school helped you find career focused fieldexperiences? 48% said no for males. 44% said no forfemales in their 11th grade. You know, I just keep thinking if we'rekeeping students at the center, should we have a goal behind that?Just thinking about that. Um I don't know. And then do what is our goal?Another one, you know, do we have a goal? I love that we have these numbers.Do we have a goal, which is great that we're better than all districts or mostdistricts across the state for responses. Do we have a goal internallythat we like to meet? Um it's great that we're surpassing students others. Do wehave a do we have our own goal? >> Those all great points, Chair Williams.Um and question, >> you don't have to answer any of them.>> Nope. [laughter] And I I understand that. Um, I do want to say thatbuildings now will be able to have this data by building.>> So, that gives them an opportunity as we're looking at school improvementplans to dive into that data to see the school experience and bring that tolight in those plans so they can really tailor it to and be intentional to theirsites. I also think that would be maybe a topic for a special board sessionsometime. >> Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah,>> Katherine, >> um, I'll just echo the interest in thisand, um, I love the MSS. It's my favorite. And I'll say if you want to goto the uh Department of Health, they have a place where you can go and lookby school district to ACES and how ACES are correlated with other results of theMSS. It's fascinating. And I think they sent us all a copy of a flyer withresults from the MSS, a report about 196. So I think we have access to that.It's a fabulous tool. >> Um, so with ACES, and this is a focus ofmine, um, professionally, do we do anything? It's similar to that lastquestion. You know, the more ACEs children and adults have, um, thegreater at risk they are for just like everything. Um, suicidal ideiation,overdose, substance use, um, being impacted by violence, you know, allthose things. And teachers tend to know a lot about their students. And I'mthinking about the different bar, you know, the bar program that exists nowwhere they really get to know students. Do we have any sort ofsystem or anything in place to identify students that uh you know confidentiallyand obviously not calling it out to anyone else but to track students whomay we may know they have greater ACEs and therefore they are facing uh a moreuphill battle um with some outcomes. do we do any way to flag them or make surethat they then have access to those protective factors that have also beenproven to really protect against all those outcomes that can come from havingmore aces. So is there do we do we look at that with our students and and makesure that certain students are introduced to greater protective factorsor perhaps encouraged to participate in protective factor activities. Um my brain's like oh going a lot ofdifferent directions here. I think the first thing would just be like umobviously like aces as you know there's so many things that are happening fromtheir like outside of the school environment right because it's abouttheir childhood experience. Um so with that in in the school setting we're veryfocused on like what the functioning is at school. So, if there's things thatare coming up where we're seeing an impact where a student's behavior orneeds is like interfering with their ability to access and engage witheducation, that would be a pathway forward where our our student likesupport teams would be connected to be figuring out what is going on. Itwouldn't necessarily be drilling down to like what's your A score and this, butit would be like we need to begin some investigation to understand what'shappening because we're seeing some impact on functioning and we want tounderstand what could be driving that and picking resources, interventions andsupports that are matched to that need. >> Other questions or comments from board>> I just wanted to uh quickly thank you and follow up couple points that's beenraised. you're not alone that my head is kind of going different directionsbecause the interest and uh uh the information provided is really importantto all of us all of us you could tell it I mean is a it lets us uh gives us likea window to the barriers that our students you know face and we hearingexactly what the issues are I mean it's good to see some of the data improvedfrom 2022 and now and I'm kind of going around what um Annamentioned about barriers too. So I just wanted to in a high level to understandI mean this is opportunity to kind of understand barriers also what the dataor how the data I mean the responses that's been provided I mean we'retalking to the data people this for the interest of it and you don't have togive us all the details but wanted to uh always struggle to uh let me put it wehave the good data and we get the responses what can we do what what youknow uh what's what's the impact or what's the summation of what how wecould use this right and we talked about in the strategic uh meeting that we hadworkshop but with the disparities I mean how does the data highlight anydisparities or any measurable differences that some of our districtprograms has been making I mean I know uh it touches again very broad importantplaces I mean it's not only academic emotional social all of this on a highlevel. What are common disparities that the data highlighted or on howmeasurable some of our programs are being impactful? >> I'll say at a very high level and and II believe um Anna you are looking at the board exhibit that the long attachmentwe included the full results. Um I think she just after a few pages she nailedit. I I noticed a lot of um disparities between gender that's primarily how thatreport is presented. >> Um we also have the raw data file wherewe can then start to disagregate by race and ethnicity as well. And I thinkspecial board meeting sounds like uh I mean we could go on and on. So um thatthat one I think really um sticks out to me right now. So>> thank you. Other questions or comments? Katherine,>> I just want to um uh emphasize, underline, highlight Anna's suggestionto look at how we can possibly make some goals with this because I thinkeverything is so connected to academics and I think uh you know by maybe pickingout a few places where we have possibly some dis significantdisparities or some you know some challenges to really dig into how we canuse our our time in school to um try to address that and and incorporate thatinto the goals to really show because I think 196 does a great job of all ofthese other athletics, arts, all that. And that's really where some of theseprotective factors come in and we get that other angle with with kids andstudents. And so I think it would be really great to look to see if we wantto incorporate a goal or two that's based on the MSS. It's very consistentand we have such amazing response rates that um you know it would be a reallygreat way to use this tool um that we make these kids do anyway and so we youknow we should really look to show them that we're using their information in apositive way. So I just encourage that. >> Anna, go ahead.>> Thank you. Yeah, all I was going to say is I love this data. Um all the datadoes and and I appreciate you putting into a summary. It's just letting uslook at it to see if there's anything that piqus our interest. That's all it'sdoing. And then I want to dig deeper and like what's going on here? Um so I lovethat and I love the suggestion that you had to about possibly maybe this is aboard thing cuz like what do we want to look into and why is this happening? Umthe other thing I want to say which I'm and and maybe Katherine you can explainthis to me later. [gasps] [sighs]I'm I'm disappointed that there aren't other kinds of trauma in there. Um,racial and ethnic trauma should be in there. It's a real thing. It's beengoing on and it's not in there. Um, as a survivor of school, as an adult, I cantell you it exists and I'm unpacking it today as an adult. My daughter will beunpacking it. Uh, microaggressions exist. It's not intentional. Theyhappen. Um, but they do end up coming out as kids get older. they happen andit's not a marker that I can see that's showing up and that's reallyunfortunate. Um it's happening in our schools. Um oftent times students aren'trealizing it that that's happening to them until they move on and then it'shitting them. Um I've witnessed it in our um EAC that's come up a couple timeswith students and they thought they just kind of brushed it off because that'swhat happens sometimes with microaggressions. it's okay. Um, butwhen they look back in the sum total of it, there's kind of this breaking point.Um, it should be in there. I don't know how I don't know if we do our ownassessments around it, but kids are experiencing different kinds ofmicroaggressions and race isn't just one of them, but they're experiencing it alot. Um, I mean, it's kind of bullying, but it's not consistent. It just kind ofpops up. So, anytime you have a marginalized identity, um anytime youare not typical, um it could be size, it could be, you know, how you show up, umuh how you present more feminine or more masculine based on your gender. There'sall, you know, you're if you're beautiful enough, quote, if you're atypical beauty or not. I mean, they're showing up in different ways and thatover time can build up and that's not showing up in here. And I would thinkthat would be a factor in your mental health. We call it bullying, butbullying is a very specific thing over time. These are little things that popup. Um, and if they're untreated, you know, they they build up over time.And I'm it's disappointing that that's kind of not in there. There's not aplace to really show that, but it's a real thing. Anyway,>> other questions or comments? I think I'm trying to absorb all thecomments I had on this topic and I think my one what really comes to mind isespecially like when we get survey results like this they are reallyimpactful but at the end of the day I think what the board is more looking foris not what the results were but how are we using those results to influence ourstrategic plan and I think like in the future that's the connection I'd like toteam made at the board table a little bit how these results are influencingwhat are we doing about them as well. Um and I think that would solve a lot ofthat would bring up a lot of uh bring a lot of the questions I think we have toclose because some of these results I think are alarming and of course wheredoes all our mind go? Well, what are we doing about that? But right so I thinkit um that might be what we'd like to look at if we do a special board meetingin the future. I'd like to see more of less of just what the numbers are andmore about how are we using that to impact our resources and influence ourresources. Good.>> Good job. >> Thank you. All right. Thank you verymuch. All right. Next, I will turn it over,speaking of strategic framework, to superintendent Balone to talk about thatframework. >> Kristen, I'll have you do something. >> All right. This is actually a perfecttransition. So, good evening, Chairperson Johnson, board members. umdidn't plan it to come right after this in the way of a conversation, but itactually does flow pretty well into thinking about what we do as a districtand how we make decisions about what we do and that is based on data. So, I'mexcited uh to share an update on our district 196 strategic plan and ourpriorities adopted in 2023. Our strategic plan guides our focus andresources through strategic priorities set for our district. I also want toemphasize that our strategic plan is a living and evolving plan. Just lastmonth, as mentioned earlier today, we had a visioning meeting with a coreplanning team to discuss how we move this plan forward into the future. Andeven tonight's input can impact that. So, let's take a deeper look. Ourstrategic road map gives us clarity and direction. In a district as large anddiverse as ours, a road map is essential. It provides focus,transparency, and accountability. It connects our day-to-day work to ourlong-term purpose. So, we're moving forward together in the same directiontoward the fulfillment of our mission and goals. Together, our mission,vision, and values and priorities make our roadmap both aspirational andpractical, ensuring we stay rooted in who we are while continuously growing tomeet the needs of our students and community.District 196 is a large organization with multiple communities built insideof it. Each year, we serve over 29,000 students and their families, provide 4.6million meals, employ over 4,400 staff members, travel approximately 2.9million miles to get students safely to and from school, and maintainapproximately 4 million square ft of learning space. That scale shows whyplanning matters. With thousands of people and millions of moving partsworking toward one shared purpose, a clear road map keeps us aligned. Itensures that whether you're in the classroom, whether we're driving a bus,serving lunch, or leading a department, we're all contributing to the same goalsand the same vision of success for every student.Our AAA philosophy, which we celebrated earlier tonight, academics, arts, andathletics, is part of our strategic vision. It reminds us that education isabout developing the whole child. their intellect, creativity, and character.Our strategic roadmap keeps this philosophy front and center. As we plan,budget, and innovate, we continue to create learning experiences thatchallenge, inspire, and connect students. Not just prepare them for thenext grade level, but for lifelong success.Our roadmap isn't a one-year checklist. It's a three-year cycle of continuousimprovement. It begins with learning work where we explore new ideas,research, best practices, and pilot strategies. Then comes implementationwork where we put those ideas into action building systems and structuresthat support our priorities across our system. And finally, we move intostandard work when those practices become part of our culture and our dailyroutine. This year we have been studyinginitiatives in all four strategic priorities as part of our learning workand that includes well-being, achievement, equity, and resources. Andso for example, in the area of well-being, we are piloting a socialemotional screener at 12 of our 20 elementary schools for possibleimplementation across our entire system next year.As you can see in resources, we have transportation study there. In the caseof transportation, that's one example of where learning work um started thisyear, but was quickly implemented um due to some needs that we had um thatoccurred um after the um winter break. Each of these areas reflects the roadmap and action connecting data, people, and purpose to improve outcomes. We lookforward to sharing more specific recommendations in future meetings aboutplans for these areas. And some of what we just talked about in the Minnesotastudent survey could easily be implemented uh into many of these areas,especially into well-being. When we go to implementation, um that'sthe second stage. And once initiatives have been planned for systematicsystemwide adoption, they move into implementation. Our first strategicpriority is achievement. This work centers on strengthening and aligningcurriculum and instructional practices across all classrooms to improve bothstudent outcomes and staff efficacy. Using Minnesota's multi-tered systems ofsupport framework, which you might know as MNM MTSS, we're focusing oncollaborative teams that connect teachers and leaders in studyingachievement data. This includes teacher voice on school instructional leadershipteams and data literacy, ensuring that educators can interpret data effectivelyto impact instruction. As Bruce Miller shared at our last meeting, when scienceteachers correlated literacy data with achievement in science, it was clearthat stronger literacy um skills support higher levels of learning in thosescience classes. And this can be applied to all departments and grade levels whenthey start using data to inform instruction. Today, our assessment datais being used more systematically to inform those decisions. All of thisstrengthens classrooms consistency, classroom consistency, improve studentoutcomes, and support teachers with the tools they need to succeed.Reading and literacy are so fundamental to learning that they are a primaryfocus for all of our teachers and classrooms. We have a short video withRosemont Elementary Principal Tom Edstrom and his staff talking about howtheir data drove a change in our literacy curriculum. Our data didn'treflect the growth and the learning that we were wanting for our students [music]in kindergarten through fifth grade in the area of literacy. So we shifted moreto a structured approach. District has changed curriculums. So that level of[music] assurance that children are learning based on data and based on theproducts that students are showing the teachers [music]the growth that they're showing that's evident that learning is happening.>> All right. Our second strategic priority is well-being. And we just looked at alot of data around well-being. Learning happens best when students feelsafe, connected, and supported. And our focus this year is on expanding socialemotional learning through positive behavior interventions and supportsknown as PBIS. Building assets and reducing risks, a program known as BAR,and non-exclusionary discipline practices, keeping students in academicum classrooms um um throughout the day. Just last week, I had the honor ofserving on an expert panel at the National Bar Conference. As we havereported in prior meetings, this is an assetbased model that helps identify andnurture students strengths. It is being implemented at all four of ourcomprehensive high schools for 9th graders this year. Also at theconference was assistant principal at Egan High School, Peter Zach, andteachers from his team. They reported on how bar has transformed theirconversations and meetings around student success. Ourequity work allows students and families to access opportunities and support.This year's initiatives include cultural family advocate model improving outreachand communication with families through check and connect which is anevidence-based program to improve student and family engagement. Alsomultilingual communication increasing language access so every family feelswelcome and informed. Also, our American Indian Education program is piloting theDreamcatchers Initiative that provides culturally responsive support for ourNative American students and families. And finally, web content accessibility,ensuring that all of our digital materials meet accessibility standardsso every member of our community can access information. This month, ourAmerican Indian Education team had our second of two annual consultations withthe Tribal Nations Education Committee, known as Tene. During the meeting, theteam shared its three-year student success plan, which aligns with ourstrategic roadmap and outlines priorities such as native languagerevitalization and expanded cultural learning opportunities.The f the focused actions for implementation under this priority areaare intentional in bringing students the support they need to succeed. Indistrict 196, equity is not a standalone effort. It is integrated into everysystem and decision that we make. Our final priority is resources. This isabout ensuring that our people, technology, and facilities are equippedto support learning. This includes strengthening recruitment and retentionto attract and keep top talent. Expanding our use of parent square forclear and inclusive communication with families. Implementing the 2025 techlevy renewal and increase to expand access to devices, secure networks,digital learning tools, and provide digital learning tools for staff andstudents. Standardizing emergency response and reunification proceduresfor greater safety and coordination. And managing ongoing bond projects tomaintain facilities that reflect the excellence in our programs. resourcesare the backbone of our work. You and many are all familiar with our 2023 bondprojects and especially if you drive around the district, you'll see them uhin motion as as we're working on them every day. The management of theseconstruction projects across all sites in our district over a five-year periodis a significant focus and we look forward to a full board report at ournext regular meeting on our progress. As you saw today, our strategic roadmapis operationalized into a three-year plan through learning work,implementation work, and standard work in each of our four strategicpriorities. It's a continuous process informed by data with a focus on thefuture. It's our commitment to living our mission every day, educating,developing, and inspiring our students for lifelong success.At this time, I'll pause and take any comments or questions you may have.>> Thank you very much. At this time, are there any questions or comments from theaudience? Seeing none, questions or comments fromboard members. >> Sakoden,>> I just wanted to uh make a quick comment just to say thank you uh Michael for thepresentation. I mean the strategic road map and whenever we talk about strategicframework this is really uh a very good uh just to in a leadership that gives usdirection and something that we could as a board I mean myself we reallyappreciate uh all the input and then that youoperationalize this and you bring it's strategic you know priorities orstrategic documents usually they kind of borrowing that collector dustersomewhere. But you know, thank you for making this like a living document thatwe get it every presentation that you guys show up, the reports that we getreminding us and then making that association. Not only that, alsoincorporate it with real data, measurable data that we could at leastlook and just say what we have accomplished or what we, you know, theimpact or the difference has been or what areas we could deepen or allocatemore resource. things like that. So, I just wanted to say thank you forbringing this to life and then uh uh looking forward as you guys implementall your reports that you know always you know tying back to the strategicframework. So, thank you. >> Thank you. That's really helpfulfeedback. Appreciate that. >> Other questions or comments from theboard. Um, I'll just say, you know, kind ofechoing on Sakin's comments too, you know, if I had to rewind time many, manyyears ago and somebody asked me what our priorities are, I'd say, there's a lotof them. Let me think. Right. Um, but as we know, when everything's a priority,nothing's actually a priority. And I think what you've really done here istaken what is important for this districts from a strategic level anddetermined what is going to be prioritized in that. There's a lot ofother things out there that we know are important that we want to learn aboutthat we want to study but that just is not our priority right now. Um and Ireally really appreciate this level of detail. And what I love about it is whenyou when you look at these slides, whatever 10 slides they were really likethe core, there's maybe four slides that were really core. Looks like this isn'ta lot. And that's a good thing because this you're saying right now, this isour current focus. And these are all big things underneath that, right? But thisis our current focus that we want to learn to study. Um, and that has that'ssomething that as a board member, I didn't always know what our focus was.So now I really really appreciate these regular updates we get that tells boththe board and the public what are what is our focus and where do we want tohead next. So thank you for putting this together and for the updates.>> Absolutely. Thank you. >> Absolutely.All right. That brings us to our old business portion of the agenda. So Iwould like to welcome Adden Watenburgger to the podium to go over the secondreading of policy 508. All right. Good evening again,Chairperson Johnson, school board members, and Superintendent Balsone. Um,I'm here with this agenda item to introduce a second reading of some minorchanges to policy 508. We discussed these at the last board meeting. Umthese changes that we're proposing are essentially just um some clarifyinglanguage to help ensure that our nutrition services language is compliantwith all of the federal and state requirements. Um some emphasis on USDAsmart snacks and nutrition compliance. We added several references to those toclarify that all of the food we sell and advertise in our schools is going tomeet those standards. included a three-year evaluation cycle that'srequired and updated all of the statutory references. Um, happy to takeany other questions, but otherwise I recommend approval of these changes.>> Excellent. Thank you very much. This is an action item for the board tonight.So, before I go into questions, is there a motion to approve policy 508 uhwellness as presented? >> So, moved.>> Second. >> Motion by Robin, seconded by Sakoden. Atthis time, are there any questions or comments from the audience?Seeing none questions or comments from board members.Seems pretty straightforward. Uh we have a motion to approve by Robin, secondedby Sakoden. All those in favor of approval say I.>> I. >> Those opposed. Motion carries on a 6-0vote. Thank you very much. That brings us to our new business portion of theagenda. And Adam, you can stay right there at the pol at the podium to goover policy 503, student rights and responsibilities.>> All right. Good evening again. Um, so I have now before you a proposed uh changeto policy 503, our student rights and responsibilities uh policy. We're goingto talk about the rights and responsibilities handbook in the nextagenda item. Um, the policy change we're bringing forth specifically relates tosmart glasses. And we might use the term smart glasses to refer to any of the newfangled devices that you can wear on your eyes that have various levels oftechnology embedded in them. Um often can record uh video, take pictures, butalso can assess surroundings, gather information, transmit information to theperson wearing them. Um we have been receiving a lot of feedback from schooladministrators at all levels um over the past several months that they areconcerned about these devices and specifically just the inability to tellif a student is using them in an inappropriate way. Um a lot of concernsabout potential privacy violations when students are wearing these. um you knowwhat can they take pictures of at any given moment in the classroom in privatespaces, restrooms, locker rooms, things like that. Also, academic integrityconcerns. If we can use these, you're wearing them, you're taking a test, canthey analyze the test and just uh give information there? Um, so various thingsand these are things you can do with other devices as well, um, that studentsmay have access to, but the the sort of sneakiness of it all with them beingpart of the glasses is something that really makes it difficult to, um,enforce those expectations if students are using these. Um, so some context forwhere this fits into our policy. Um, the cell phone policy that we adopted lastyear under 503. Um, we know that we have sort of a off and away all day for Kthrough 8 and then off and away in the classroom for the high school level.Policy then says that students can have other electronic devices on them. Um,but they're expected to comply with all of the other um behavioral expectationsthat we have. So, we can take action with other devices if they're causing anuisance or using it inappropriately. Um what we're proposing to add is anexception to that that says smart glasses are going to be fully prohibitedto use or wear um during the school day. Um and we've included some language thatkind of describes what we mean by smart glasses um but to protect privacy rightsand uphold academic integrity. That will be a blanket um nonwearingum rule in in our policy. Um, and that's something that again we got feedbackfrom lots of different administrators at all levels. Um, and was something thatthey wanted to move forward with. Um, and we'll note that there are some billscircling around the legislature that would also potentially address thistopic, potentially would go farther and apply to other devices. um we willmonitor those and if something does pass um in the next couple of weeks here Ican certainly make any adjustments before um the June board meeting if weneed to go farther than this or something in a statute conflicts withwhat we're doing here um we'll make sure that what we're doing is is consistentwith the law of course um but for right now assuming nothing changes this is aproposal that the administration is recommending uh to to move forward withum this is a first reading uh but I'm happy to take any questions.>> Excellent. >> Thank you very much. At this time, arethere any questions or comments from the audience?>> Seeing none questions or comments from board members.>> Excellent. Thank you very much. But don't go yet because you can now go overthe 202627 overview of student rights and responsibilities.>> But wait, there's more. [laughter] All right. Um, so I'm here now to uhpresent the 2026 27 uh draft of our overview of student rights andresponsibilities. This is more [snorts] commonly referred to as our studenthandbook is a shorter way of saying that. Um, this is a kind of a longdocument, but it provides um a notice um to of various policies and expectationsspecifically that apply to students. And while it is long, it's much more userfriendly than just our policies themselves, which are even longer andand more difficult to um find where you're going. And so this is kind of ahandbook that compiles a lot of the those that are most relevant to studentsin one place that can be accessed by students and staff and families. Um italso there's several notices that were required by law to put out every year.Um and so this gives us an avenue to to do that to include all of their legallyrequired notices. Um, a big portion of the handbook is a kind of a continuum ofresponses chart for behaviors where we kind of provide a list that students andadministrators can reference on what behaviors are prohibited and what thetypical uh consequences will be for those behaviors. So, it's a valuableresource for that. Um, and this is something that a couple years ago weshifted from um sending out paper copies to doing electronic distribution. So wewill make sure that a link gets sent out to all families and then it is alwaysavailable on our website. Um our communications team has actually beenimproving that page in in recent months to make it uh more ADA compliant, moreaccessible so it's very userfriendly now uh searchable um and can be accessed uhquite easily. We will also make uh several paper copies available for eachbuilding so that um if families do have a need or even just a request for apaper version um we'll have um some of those available and I know a lot ofadministrators like to have them on their desks as well to to flip through.So we do make some paper copies available but primarily distribute itelectronically. Um this is a document that we update every year. Um there area few different things that we look for. First of all, if there's any legalchanges um or policy updates that we've um enacted throughout the year, umthat's something that I focus on making sure um is up to date in there. And thenbeyond that, um we take a wide range of feedback. Um I specifically reach out toprinciples um from all the buildings who themselves can, you know, gather andsolicit feedback from other staff and families and students about potentialchanges and updates that they would like to see um in the handbook. and then Ibring those through cabinet for further discussion, potentially back toprinciples meetings if there's um other items to discuss through the policyreview committee and then um to the school board. Um this year I will saythere are not a ton of of big updates or changes that we were making. Um one ofthe most significant ones would be incorporating that smart glasses ban uminto the language. if that's something that ends up getting approved nextmonth, we will um include that in the handbook and incorporate it into the umcontinuum of responses rubric. Uh otherwise, just some updated languagehere and there. We updated the description of our language access plan.That's something that was updated and that the board approved um severalmonths ago. So, we have an updated description of that. Um an updatedlanguage regarding the use of AI and and how that applies to students. somevarious additional detail added to the uh data practices section and andhandling the student data and then just other technical updates throughout thedocument. There are a few things that we will also update once it's finalized.We'll make sure the page numbers all line up with all of our edits um andupdate the forms that are in the back. Some of those are still waiting ongetting um but those are the the main changes that uh we are putting forththis year. Um and again, we will be I'll be back with this uh next month. Happyto take any questions. >> Excellent. Thank you very much. At thistime, are there any questions or comments from the audience?>> Seeing none, questions or comments from board members? Robin?>> Um, thank you for compiling the big rights and responsibilities book. I, um,it's a very big document. Um, I'm thinking of you highlighted that we arefocusing on letting people know about our language access plan and because wewant to make sure families can access this. When it's sent out electronically,will it now be sent out through parent square and will people be able totranslate it into their own home language?>> Yes to both. I believe Janet's nodding. Uh parent square is yeah the method thatwe would distribute this for sure and it should be able to be uh translated umthrough there on the well the website. Yes. So the link will take you to thewebsite. The website is then translatable um in any languageessentially. Um so it will be available there. Um, we'll still probably preparea full PDF version in Spanish and Somali. We kind of predet thoseprofessionally. I guess I shouldn't commit to that, but that's generallywhat we've done is we have the three versions that if you want to downloadthe full PDF, we have those in the English, Spanish, and Somali, but thenthe web uh the web page is also translatable into any other language.So, >> perfect. Thank you.>> Other questions or comments from board? >> Seeing none, we will see you back nextmonth. >> All right. Thank you very much.>> Thanks. >> All right, that brings us to schoolboard and superintendent updates. I'll turn the meeting over to SuperintendentBosone for district updates. >> Okay, thank you, Chair Johnson. Uh, lastSaturday, May 2nd, many of us on our team attended the South of the RiverPowow supported in part by our American Indian Education Program hosted atBurnsville High School. It was a highly successful event. We estimated over 300people in attendance and events like this require the support of many staffmembers and volunteers. I want to thank everyone in 196 and across the southmetro who helped make the day a success. This week, all of our high schools arecompleting the last of the advanced placement or AP exams. Approximately2,400 students in grades 9 through 12 are taking more than 5,550AP exams this year. AP courses expose students to college level rigor andprovide opportunities to earn college credit based on exam performance. Wewant to wish all of our students the very best as they complete their examsthis week. Tonight is the last regular schoolboard meeting before the last dayof school on June 4th and the start of the class of 2026 graduation ceremonies.On behalf of the administration, I want to congratulate our more than 2,100seniors who will graduate from District 196 this year. We recognize them fortheir hard work and perseverance in achieving this milestone. We wish themall the best in the next chapter of their lives. This week's This week alsomarks the beginning of our graduation celebrations. We'll kick off thosecelebrations with the Native American cultural honing ceremony this Saturday,May 16th, at 1 p.m. at Central Park in Rosemount. Commencement ceremonies forour four comprehensive high schools will be held on Friday and Saturday, May 29thand 30th at the University of St. Thomas. Graduation for several otherdistrict schools and programs will also take place later this month and in earlyJune. A complete list of graduation ceremonies is available on the districtwebsite. Finally, if you have not already doneso, I encourage families to complete their plan my ride form by Thursday,June 4th. The form is for the 2627 school year and lets us know whetheryour student will need transportation services. The form is available inparent square for current students and on the district website for familiesthat are new to district 196. And finally, as we enter the last weeks ofthe school year, I want to thank our students, families, and staff for theircontinued partnership and support. We look forward to celebrating the manyaccomplishments of the class of 2026 and all of our students in the weeks ahead.That concludes my report. Thank you. >> Thank you, Superintendent Bone. At thistime, are there any board members with updates they'd like to share? Seeing none, that brings us to the endof our time together. Um, is there a motion to adjurnn?>> Still moved. >> Second.>> Motion by Saken, seconded by Leah. All those in favor of adjournment, say I.>> I. I. >> Those opposed. Our next regular schoolboard meeting will be Monday, June 8th. I look forward to seeing everyone then.We stand adjourned. >> [music]