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Board of Education Regular Meeting - Nov. 6, 2025
Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School DistrictFriday, November 7, 2025
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Good evening. Today is November 6th, 2025 and the time is 6:30 p.m. I will now call the regular meeting of the ISD 191 Board of Education to order. Welcome to those of you who are here in the audience or those watching online. Thank you for joining us. Director Mickelson, will you please lead us in the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Is there a motion to approve the agenda? >> So moved. Moved by director Saxi, second. Seconded by director Chester. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Nay. The motion carries unanimously. Tonight we will start off with a school report about our Burnsville alternative high school and our secondary virtual academy. Presenting the report this evening will be Dr. Dr. Chris Belmont, assistant superintendent, and Kelly Ron, principal, along with several guests from their leadership team, who they will introduce once they get started. Welcome everyone. Thank you, Chair Word. Superintendent Daniels, member of the members of the board. Good evening. Um this is I believe session school three and four of our um school reports uh series. And so I'm very honored and excited to introduce Principal Ron and Burnsville Alternative High School and the Secondary Virtual Academy. >> Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for allowing us to be here tonight to present a few of the ways that BOAS and Secondary Virtual Academy utilize data in planning and decision-m. Joining me from the virtual academy building leadership team will be Pat Mosy, Landon Parkin, Elizabeth Eer, and Amy Hill. Molly Romano and Angela Slaniker will be presenting from the Bos Building Leadership Team. I'd like to invite the VA team to come forward at this time. Our virtual academy school improvement plan has three goals. A student achievement goal, which is reading improvement, a systems goal focused on assessment, and family engagement goal increasing the attendance rate. Although BOAS and VA are completely different schools with different staff, different leadership teams, and school improvement plans, some of the information on the school improvement plan is similar to both schools. For reading improvement, one of the action steps we are continuing to implement is AVID strategies schoolwide for schoolwide AVID. Teachers participate in professional development regularly throughout the year. AVID work is also present in teacher collaborative team meetings discussing AVID strategies and looking at student work. Our big three AVID strategies this year are focused note-taking, critical reading strategies, and questioning. Our other action steps for the reading goal includes increasing personalized learning through interventions and embedding grading for equity principles. Social emotional learning will also be increased this year in our high school VA program. Our leadership team has developed specific SEAL lessons for high school advisory which we began last year. Our target for reading is to increase the percentage of students for fast A reading and we believe these action steps will help increase students reading levels. High school students have not taken this assessment in VA in the past and we are implementing this assessment three times a year for all secondary students in virtual academy for progress monitoring. Students at high risk will also be taking an additional assessment following the winter assessment window. The action steps for the assessment goal involves planning for assessments and increasing the number of students who take state assessments. These state tests require in-person attendance which can be difficult to implement for virtual students. We have also instituted staff data review processes and databased decisionmaking protocols to enhance the student support teamwork. Finally, the attendance rate goal aims to increase student attendance by optimizing parent square by including more professional development for staff and tracking parent square data use. Also, our plans include consistent and increased advisor communication to students and families and implementing an attendance team. You will notice as we progress further on each slide in yellow, we'll show which school improvement goal the data that the person presenting is um linked to. Our first example is an example of how individual teachers use data. BLT member and sixth grade VA teacher Pat Mosy will share her examples. Good evening. Um, our middle school virtual academy weekly schedule consists of four core classes, ELA, math, science, and social studies, which are synchronous blocks of 84 minutes with a 30 minute block of win time built in to our ELA and math. They also have three electives which are asynchronous and have office hours available for one-on-one help. when is what I need time in middle school is a 30-minute block of time scheduled during ELA and math where intervention and special ed integration is available in both in sixth grade I have the opportunity to have the kids all day and I during my ELA win time they're spent in breakout rooms with guided reading ability groups independent reading time with a good book and one-on-one guidance with vocabulary and comprehension sped students are pulled for intensive reading fluency data was used from our fast bridge assessments. My sixth graders in math win time spend time in a breakout room. One group is in an accelerated math pre-alggebra identified group of students where they're at seventh grade ability. Also, a district math program that we invested in called exact path in which students were assessed using a diagnostic tool. This then leads students on a path through a lesson practice and mastery of skills for fastbridge. Also, assessments were administered in seventh and eighth grade. The EL teacher and the literacy specialist reviewed the data from their fall FastBridge through a group screening report. They grouped their students according to the skill plan that FastBridge designated to them and they discussed any outliers. For example, students who scored lower than expected. They have two groups of students in seventh and eighth grade that need to work on phonics and fluency with one slightly more advanced than the other. We also have another group in which students dedicated to vocabulary and comprehension. And the last group is any student that FastBridge deemed on track. The small groups are about two to five members each with the exception of the on-track group being larger. We also made note of their Lexile level and discuss what grade level the numbers correlated with. They included the information of spreadsheet that they could easily access and manipulate. Then they added a rotating schedule for when the interventionist can work with each group in win time. They decided they should work with each group over a two-eek period before um rotating to the next group. The remaining students work on an enrichment activity with the ELA teacher. Now the interventionist can make plans for meaningful and explicit teaching to help students advance in the specific skills according to testing data. We hope that this will bring up their overall reading scores to grade level with time. Many of our ideas were from the book about to complete the work were um the book called essentials of assessing preventing and overcoming reading difficulties which emphasize the importance of evidence-based teaching practice. Thank you. Thank you Pat. Our next example in is an example of teacher teams using data. BLT members and high school virtual academy teachers Elizabeth Eer, Landon Parkin, and Amy Hill will share how their collaborative team is using data. In the virtual academy at the high school level, we have only one collaborative team that includes all the teaching staff required that are required to participate in a CT as well as our counselor. Rather than having single subject teams like you would find in a larger setting, having a collaborative team that supports crosscategorical teachers is extremely helpful in using our data in meaningful ways. It also allows us to collaborate on supporting students with special needs or special circumstances that may impact their learning, providing them with consistent support across their whole team. One of the ways that we track data is through a four learners chart. This gives us the opportunity to track individual student performance and then be able to back that up against the performances of their peers in order to put together proper modifications and uh step in when necessary. Um so an example of how we use that data is this is actually an example from our CT that happened recently that we're all very proud of. Um, we were comparing each other's four learning charts and noticed a trend that asynchronously we had a bunch of kids on the one end that were just doing exceptional A work and on the other end students who weren't engaging at all and barely had a percentage of 0%. So that concerned us. So we started talking about how can we engage kids asynchronously and looking at some of the teachers in our CT who had seen a little bit more success and asking them what are you doing that I'm not doing and we had a really good discussion in that teachers who were making weekly videos of themselves talking directly to the students not carrying videos over from year to year but making it truly um personalized to that class we're getting more kids engaged and feeling a more of a sense of community. And then we were able to go back and adjust our uh CT learning goal and our action steps and um align it with with AVID. I'm also the AVID coordinator for both both schools. And I just want to end with saying very proud to be the AVID coordinator. Such great teachers. Um, but really I think this team is does an awesome job at keeping everything student focused. And then in addition, we've developed a spreadsheet to track our student contacts, data, and concerns so that we can all easily collaborate regarding any student between our regular meetings. Being able to take that whole team approach to student data regularly has allowed us to make significant differences in many students achievement. Thank you, high school VA team. I'd like to invite the Burnsville Alternative High School team to come forward at this time. The Bos school improvement goals also have an achievement goal of reading improvement. The Bos systems goal is database decision-making pro or data make decision decision-m and the family engagement goal is also to increase the attendance rate for reading improvement. Bos also uses the AVID strategies schoolwide personalized learning and integrating social emotional learning and student engagement. Much of the information I shared about the VA action steps are also being implemented at BOS. Database decision-making priorities include collaborative team data protocols which are similar to what the high school virtual academy team just mentioned. Uh social emotional walkthroughs which I'll describe in a future slide. Our continuous learning plans which will also be shared in a future slide. Our attendance rate goal strategies are also very similar to what I described for virtual academy with the addition of a bos student survey. An example of students using data will be highlighted. We'll be highlighting our continuous learning plans shared by Molly Romano, a building leadership team member and the BO school counselor. Thanks. Hello. I'd like to take a minute to talk about an important part of our school schedule, Strive. During Strive, our students are given the opportunity to focus on the credit recovery coursework, ensuring they stay on track for graduation. But Strive is more than academics. It's about connection. Each student works alongside an adviser who follows them throughout their entire time at BOS. Strive reflects our belief that every student deserves personalized support and every student has the ability to succeed. Our credit evaluation is a document that we carefully review and make adjustments to every quarter. The credit eval is designed to be simple, organized, and userfriendly. It shows our students which classes they have completed and which classes they are eligible to take through credit recovery. Once a student has passed a class, it is marked completed and the total number of credits is calculated at the bottom. In addition, we use a color-coordinated system that transforms a credit evaluation into a visual road map which creates a clear visual for our students. Lastly, excuse me, lastly, all students at BOS have a continual learning plan. This plan outlines how many credits are required to graduate, how many the students have earned so far, and how many are still needed. Each CLP displays the students estimated graduation date based on their current credit progress, their schedule for the year, which also uses the same color coordinated system found in our credit evaluation for consistency and clarity. Beyond academics, students create academic, personal, and post-secary goals with the support of their strive teachers. At the start of every quarter, students review and update their CLP alongside their strive teacher, reflect on the previous quarter, and set new goals. When the COP is completed, the students bring it home to share with their parents and guardians and return the signed document to their adviser. Through Strive, our credit evaluation and continual learning plan, we are not just preparing students to graduate. We are empowering them to understand their journey, take pride in their progress, and confidently step toward the future they are building for themselves. Thanks. Thank you, Molly. Another example of data use is leadership teams using data. Angela Slaniker, a building leadership team member and Bos English teacher will share about our student survey. Do you want to go to the next slide? Thank you. Uh this slide highlights the student survey we send to students during the second quarter of the school year. Uh it provides us a lot of valuable information. The survey is a great way for us to see which students feel they may or may not connect at BAS. So like in this example that 9.7% is um those students identified as not having any connection. And so this allows us to see which students answered that way and we can then make the necessary connections. Um a lot of times they are kids that have connections. They just didn't read the question correctly. But um it's it's a good tool for us. Um, another question we find impactful is when we ask students if there are any resources they need like mental health help, food help, homework help, and then we can connect them with the perfect staff member to help facilitate that conversation. Um, other topics that we ask are about their progress towards graduation, like do they know that they fill out the CL every quarter with their Strive teacher and that they know how many credits they need to graduate? And then um lastly, one of the ones I wanted to identify or point out was that we asked them how safe they feel at school both physically and emotionally. Thank you, Angela. Finally, I will give a few examples of leadership using data. Some of the ways that I use data at both BOS and VA. This year, we are doing periodic surveys and check-ins to staff on the implementation of new procedures such as the cell phone policy and attendance handbook. Other examples of my data use as a leader are that I track course completion rates quarterly by school, by course, and by individual teacher. I also meet with each teacher individually after each grading period so that we can reflect on their own individual data. Another example of collecting data is that as a school, both BOS and virtual academy, we do a unit recovery period after each grading term to identify students who only need a small portion of a class to complete. So we make individual plans to complete the work rather than having the student repeat the whole course. Additionally, this year the BOS BLT is conducting walkthroughs finding evidence detailing SEAL competencies such as self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Myself as well as all BLT members conduct a certain number of walkthroughs in other teachers classrooms during each quarter. And then we look at that data as a staff. Finally, other other leadership use of data occurs in BOA and BHS partnership meetings that I have with uh principal Sandival and I also have individual meetings with the BHS counselors where we look at data um as with along with my counselors at BOS and VA. And then we um use lots of data protocols and student support team meetings. Thank you for letting us share some of the ways that we use data in our programs. >> Thank you. Is there um any comments or questions from board members? >> Uh Director Mickelson. Um just want to say that uh I'm the uh board member representative that's assigned to BAS and uh so I had the great pleasure of coming to uh the campus uh earlier this week and speaking with principal Ron and uh it was really great to you know be there and hear some of the great things that are happening. Um and a lot of information that you had to try to jam in there short amount of time. Great job. Um, you know, and one of the things that I I definitely uh appreciated and think uh is a great strategy and a great goal uh at Bos is uh the effort to make every student when they show up feel seen and you know be greeted and you know and that uh really incorporating that uh as much as possible. You know, the goal to incorporate that into VA. Um you know, students want to be seen. They want to, you know, they want to know that they're going to be missed if they're not there. You know, that makes such a huge difference. Um, you know, with all of our goals in terms of attendance and being able to increase that and how that leads into graduation rates and and I think that it's a great uh kind of initiative um that you're taking um with VA. You've seen the success with it at BOS. Um so uh look forward to seeing what happens uh over time with it. And again, just really want to thank you for your time earlier this week. It was really great. >> Thank you. >> To be there. >> Um, so I just wanted to say thank you for your presentation and coming. Um, I really like hearing about the collaboration um, and the team approach that we apply to our students. And I kind of think about it this way because I've been in healthcare for 25 years. And you think about doctors and providers and how they have like a collaborative team when they treat a patient. And when you think about how we treat our students and having a team approach because when we look at our students, they deserve that same kind of care that you see out in Lake Healthcare. like we we should collaborate together as education ed educators to make sure they're getting the best education and focus and addressing all their needs as a student. I don't think we were always like that, you know, as a society. And to see that coming forth in the way we approach our students, I just think it's remarkable. and I appreciate all the time that we spend on um focusing on our students um getting the best education. So, >> thank you. And one thing I mean we have way more I could have shared for I could share for two hours. I'm so proud of my programs but the collaborative approach we do use for conferences now we do all team conferences. So um the everyone who works with the student is at the conference together at both bos and VA and ever since we started that in co we've continued with that because it is a great model. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. Yep. >> Our next report is the 2025 2026 fall enrollment and staffing report which will be shared by Stacy. Executive Director of Administrative Services and Aaron Tinklinberg, director of communications. Welcome to you both. >> Good evening, Chair Worp, Dr. Daniels, members of the board. Every year we bring to you a report on our uh enrollment as of October 1st. Um this year we will be going through the the information. I I don't intend to read every chart and every table for you. It is a lot of data but I will give you some highlevel information with it. Uh um what we do with this presentation is we will look at the population as a whole for our K12 as well as our early childhood programming. Then we also break it down by the composition. That'll be looking at our ethnicity breakdown. It looks at our free and reduce, our special ed, ML services, just different programming and what that looks like in the different areas. Also, we'll do a look back um for the fall 24 uh numbers to kind of see 2-year trends on some of the information. Uh other areas have longer amounts as well. And then we also look at the trend data. So for uh 2025, our October uh count was for uh K12 uh 7,66 students. That's uh cheeks and seats as we like to say. That's actual count. It's not reflective of our uh average daily membership. Um so that's a good number for our October one count. We'd like to maintain that uh as long as we can, that type of enrollment throughout the rest of the year. Uh just to remind you, we budgeted for 7,021 K12 students. So that's good news in that sense. We did lose students from our enrollment last year. However, we are above our budget at the moment. We have uh 570 students for early education. That'd be your birth through uh like VPK birth through 4. And so our total uh enrollment is 7,636. You can see the breakdown that we have for uh each of the grades throughout the district. This includes all schools. So when you look at secondary, that would include BOS, that would include the virtual academy for the high school as well as the high school. Um so you our 9th grade was a little bit smaller coming into this year. So they had a little bit of a pullback at the high school level. Um but our other grades are still above 500 which is is promising in that current uh elementary enrollment is 3,223 students with an average uh building size of 358. Again that is a little bit skewed when you throw in the virtual academy of 40 students. Um but that is what our look is for the buildings by building. uh middle school and secondary. You can see the breakdown for that. Again, the high school is just a little over 1,800, a little under 1,900. Let's go that direction. Um Nichollet and Eagle Ridge both came in a little bit larger than what we had projected and we'll speak to that a little bit later. So, that's kind of good news for our middle school programming. Current realities. So, again, we have the ethnicity breakdown. You can see the the the um breakdown for each classification of students, the percentage, what that looks like, as well as special education, uh ML services, and free and reduced um and what that is. Then we break that down by ethnicity per each building. So you can kind of see um what what the group the makeup is for each of our sites. special education programming throughout the district. Um jeez, >> thank you. Um breakdown for special ed. Again, our our average for the district is about 19% and the different programs throughout each of the sites. EL services is around 27% for the district and you can see how they uh populate each of the sites as well. Students with free and reduced um and the breakdown for each of the buildings. And now looking back to previous years, um, in our audit report, uh, you probably heard our our auditors say that our numbers was still over 10,000. They were referring to the residents total. And that number for the district has stayed pretty flat over the past decade, about 500 students fewer um, that are within our res, our boundaries. Then it breaks it down more specifically towards those who are attending our district. So that's uh 6,672 for 2425. Uh a number of students that attend elsewhere, that could be neighboring districts, it could be charter schools, private schools, homeschooling, um and other tu uh tuition based programming outside of the district. Also, you can see that we do attract a number of students that open enroll into our district around 736 students. And then it gives you as well the net difference between the two. So total students we serve 7,48 with 6,6772 of those are residents. 736 are non-residents. And again just a different way of looking at a breakdown of the information. You can see how many are attending the charter schools. uh residents attending elsewhere or our district. Getting a little bit uh deeper into that dive. Um like I said, some of them are going to our neighboring districts such as uh Rosemont Valley, uh Prior Lake, uh Bloomington, uh Shakipi Shaki had an increase this year. So, I'd like to dive into that a little bit more. We do actually have residents that are just there by the uh the Walmart and the so that still is our district over there as well. So we go far. Then again a little bit more uh looking at where students are attending elsewhere not only as districts but also either charter schools or private schools and break down even a little bit further and how that has trended over the years and our trend data. So, uh, definitions for you as we look at, uh, the early, uh, childhood programming. ECSE is the early childhood special education programming. Uh, VPK is our voluntary pre kindergarten and SR would be our school readiness. And you can kind of see what those uh, programs have looked like over the past 3 years. um as as we go through this will be some of the areas that I believe you'll start seeing some of our birth rate decline as well. So that'll be where we start hitting it. We are seeing it in our kindergartens. Our kindergarten classes are coming in smaller, but it also is reflective of our early childhood programming to a degree. Two-year comparison for elementary. Um most of the schools are fairly stable. We have had a little bit of pullback at Harriet Bishop and William Burn. Um but overall pretty flat across the the district and elementary secondary as well. We said we already called out that we had a little bit smaller 9th grade class. So the high school stepped back a little bit with that. But uh do want to call out the fact that Eagle Ridge was around 34 students more and nicollet was almost a hundred students more than what we were projecting. Both are really good signs there. So our 5-year uh enrollment trend um as you can see we've been pulling back over the few years here. Um again better than what we budgeted but we we have pulled back um a number of students from last year at this time. One of the things that we are also tracking is our grade cohorts. So what this reflects is coming in as a kindergartenner. We track them as they go into first first and second so forth. So we're tracking the same amount of kids. Looking at our cohorts, as you can see, we only had two grade levels, our two cohorts that actually stepped back. All of the other cohorts actually increased. Um, we really noticed that uh with our middle school going from fifth grade into sixth, 6th through 7th, and then our eighth grade going into 9th grade. That's important that we were able to retain students in those cohorts, especially through your transition years. going from fifth to sixth is a time in which families look at that as an opportunity different choices 8th to 9th. And then again, middle school is just hard. It always feels like you want to um maybe shop around a little bit, but folks are appreciating the experiencing the experience that they're having at our middle schools and we're retaining those cohorts. >> I'm just going to add a a point about this. Part of the reason for including this uh here is that it is one of the measures on the dashboard on the district strategic dashboard. Um it helps filter out a little bit of the noise that's caused by one large grade leaving 12th grade and a smaller grade coming in which might be you know based on just resident population. Um and this does represent about a 2% cohort growth year-over-year um as compared to last year which was actually a 2% decrease. So definitely a positive sign. Okay. Again a little bit breakdown then uh ethnicity over five fi the last five years you can see as far as the different classifications of students uh those that are ebbing and then those that are increasing um across the district. Special education trend our percentage is is fairly flat across the district over the last 5 years. the number of students has increased by about 150 that we're serving uh over a 5-year span. So again, fairly stable there. Our EL numbers uh over the last uh four years probably have remained uh pretty flat. Um we're right around that 25 to 27%. One of the things that I will point out is um the number of students that are served as uh level one has actually continued to decrease. So they're they're advancing through the system. They're their language proficiency is improving over time. Um so that's good. That's not always reflected when you just say EL students are the number that are served. We are progressing as as well in those areas. Free and reduced meals. um we are around 56% at this point in time. That number continues to decline over the past four years. So um good economically that does impact us though in other areas but it's good for families and staff diversity which is also reflected and I will turn that over to Aaron. >> All right. So um this is again a dashboard metrics for the uh board and for the district and our strategic dashboard. Um the uh numbers that you see here show an increase in diversity of the staff overall an increase in the number of staff who um self-identify as people of color. Um and just breaking it out a little bit. I always hate to um do any small groups and do some selfidentification, but superintendent was the largest percentage group. Uh and then other uh more diverse groups there you can see as well. um some changes year to year that uh either reflect larger changes or changes that I think are of particular interest. Uh the teachers um as a as a group moved from 8.4% to 10.6% um this year. Uh that's also up from about 6 and a half% the year before. So trending in the right direction. Um still obviously uh not representative of our community or our students but uh moving in the right direction. Um and then our custodial group also took a a pretty significant jump up as well. Um so and then this is uh just a little bit about what we're doing. This slide is actually the exact same as last year's slide. Um because these are the things we're doing and these are the things that seem to be having an impact. Um it's really important I think that we're not trying to do one thing. Um but that we're approaching it from a number of different angles. Um, one thing that is not on here specifically, of course, is uh our CPSS work as a district. Um, which is important for our students of course, but uh equally important for our staff to make sure that it's a comfortable um uh enjoyable working environment for everybody, for every staff member. So, I think that's it. Thank you very much. Are there any comments or questions from board members? Director Mickelson. Um, just a a quick question about the free and reduced lunch percentage kind of population. How much do you think kind of that descending kind of trend is not is because we have just free lunch for everybody and so they're not completing the questionnaires and things and and kind of a new way of identifying them like that the department of education has. Well, there there's a couple of things there. Pretty much it's direct certification, but also that the state did um sunset some of the numbers that were flowing through. So, we probably still have the same amount of needs. We just don't have the same way in which is being identified. >> Yeah. With that, >> I was kind of wondering if that's kind of contributing to that percentage >> as that kind of trickle through. >> Really? Yeah. >> Yeah. um that the actual needs. Uh and also just uh wanted to make the comment that you know the uh numbers with the cohorts as they're kind of transitioning with grades. I know that uh we've just had a lot of effort um put into the outreach uh for families and students as they're making some of those trans transitions to help them to feel comfortable with them and welcome. And it it's great to be seeing some of those results. So that was really great to see. So, thank you for the presentation. >> Thank you. Thank you, >> Director Alt. >> Thank you. Uh, yes. Dubtailing on Director Mickelson's um question, uh, there was a time when we proactively um had efforts to help families uh complete the um educational benefits applications. What are we doing now? >> I heard you. You're off. >> Uh, I was just going to say uh less than we did in the past. Um it's definitely just the case that uh with the um the fact that lunches are free and breakfast is free for every student, we just have uh had less response in part. Um we've also in terms of our outreach to families at the beginning of the school year. Um from a district lens, uh we've focused on some other priorities including attendance uh and around immunizations in particular. Um but it's still obviously a very important thing. So we still include it in the the information that we send out. Um I don't know if we've done any concerted efforts uh among like um school level call calling and things like that. Um that's obviously something we can try to look at again in the future as well. >> And I would argue that compensatory funding is incredibly important. Um and as an outflow of educational benefits applications um from a budgetary uh pers perspective that is definitely a high priority high priority in this board members perspective. So uh we certainly can do more um in terms of welcoming our families to uh complete those. Um I know that during conferences that was something that we had done. Um whatever we can do um because we know that budget compensatory um is definitely something that's um been an issue. Um we meals are free but compensatory is not. So um I also have a couple of other comments questions. Um let's see. Going back. Yes. On slide, it was more of a just a noticing on slide 26. Um the district composition um K12. It's just really wonderful to notice that um our district has kind of settled in and um we are very comfortably um a very robust um district in terms of ethnic composition. Um we have, you know, Hispanic, our black students, our white students, and then a healthy mix of other ethnic groups um that make up our student population. and it's we're not fluctuating necessarily, but um our students have a really uh wonderful mix of of other students to to learn with and families to to mix with. So um I just really appreciate that since 20 it's only 2024, but um you know looking back at our at our dem demographic trends over the years, it's just it's really nice to see that um leveling out. So, um, thank you for that and that's all that I have. >> Thank you. Um, I'm sorry, K. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> I was just going to add on to what Director Al was saying, just being part of the and chairing the legislative committee and um, putting forward our legislative agenda that we go to our legislators for to support our district. That compensatory is huge. Um, it's almost 1.2 million impact on our budget. So, it's something that I would stress. Um, and then I just wanted to to add on um in terms of the retention rate of the cohorts, hearing um Principal Ron talk um and you all talk about the data, it's very clear that the sense of community and belonging that students and families feel is what keeps them coming back. It's that's the retention rate that you're seeing. And so, thank you. Yeah. >> Oh, you didn't have anything? >> No, I was telling you about her. >> Oh, okay. >> Anyone else? No. Okay. Um, so I want to go back to the slide where we talked about um students that are coming in from other districts. Do we have I'm sorry, I might have missed something. Do we say does it say what where other students are coming from that are coming to our district? >> We do not have that breakdown on the presentation. >> No, we we >> you don't know where the other one the students are coming from that are outside our district. >> I'm sure we have that information. It's just not in the present presentation. >> No, I was just curious. Okay. Yeah, we I'm sure that's something we can find and share with the board. >> All right. Thank you. I I didn't have any I just had that one question, but thank you for your presentation. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh next in our agenda, we have our student representative report from Favven Testify. Uh welcome. Thank you. To begin, students have been wrapping up their procrastinated assignments as the first academic quarter comes to a close tomorrow. On the bright side, they look forward to a well-deserved day off this following Monday. Fall sports have been coming to a close, but not without some recogn recognition, specifically the cross country team, which achieved great success last week at the state tournament where Carly Lamont placed third and Liam Merrill 14th. Winter sports are also underway with try out tryyous starting across multiple teams as athletes prepare for the new season. Burnsville High School's theater guild has opened its production of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with the first show happening tonight and performances will be running for the next two weekends. Lastly, I would like to highlight Burnsville High School's affinity groups which have consistently created spaces for students to celebrate their cultures, identities, shared experiences. These groups include the gender sexual alliance open to all students to build community among LGBTQ plus unaligned youth. The Asian student association promoting cultural unity and hosting events such as Dwali. The Latinos Unos bringing together Latin X students to celebrate and shared common heritage. The Black Student Union fostering unity and celebrating African-American culture. Students of the Horn of Africa, a new club that launched this year to connect and celebrate students from the Horn of Africa. And lastly, the Ind indigenous student council open to all students. This group uplifts and shares indigenous stories especially during this month as it is indigenous people month. This now concludes my report. >> Thank you. Are there any comments or questions from board members? Okay. Thank you for your report. We will now hear a superintendence report from Dr. Latana Daniels. >> Thank you, Chair Worm. As we conclude the first quarter of the 2526 school year tomorrow, I want to take a moment to reflect on our collective progress and share exciting updates that signal the momentum we're building together. The first quarter has served as a meaningful baseline for the school year ahead. It has offered us insights into our strengths, surfaced opportunities for improvement, and laid the foundation for the transformational work that lies ahead. From classroom instruction to school climate, we are gathering data, listening deeply, and aligning our efforts to ensure every student feels seen, supported, and challenged. Additionally, in the last two weeks, I've had the privilege of completing two listen and learn sessions with staff, and I look forward to more in the coming weeks. These conversations have been rich with insight, canandoor, and care for the students, staff, and the entire school community. They are helping to shape our shared understanding of what's working and where we can grow. Next month, we will extend this effort to our broader community with the launch of our community listen sessions. I am eager to hear from families, partners, and neighbors as we continue to build a district that reflects and responds to the voices of those we serve. And finally, I'm thrilled to announce that we have determined the date and venue for the class of 2026's graduation. Thanks to the thoughtful work of our graduation planning team, principal Jesus Sandaval, Associate Principal Sarah Noble, Aaron Tinklinberg, Sarah Olsen Dickausen, Kyle Hinrichen, and Dr. Chris Belmont. We've narrowed our options to two sites with two potential dates. We then brought those choices to our senior students and families who selected. Drum roll, please. Sunday, May 31st, 2026 at the University of St. Thomas's Lee and Penny Anderson Arena at approximately 6:00 p.m. This decision reflects the collaborative spirit that defines our school district. I am deeply deeply grateful to everyone who contributed to this process and helped us arrive at a celebration worthy of the class of 2026's achievements. In conclusion, as we move into the second quarter, let's carry forward the energy, insight, and commitment we've cultivated so far. Together, we are building a district where each and everyone can believe, belong, build, and become with gratitude. And this concludes my report. >> Thank you. Are there any me uh are there any comments or questions from board members? >> Okay. Thank you for your report. >> You're welcome. >> Do board members have any reports they wish to share. Just a reminder, we have our committee report scheduled for our second meeting in November. Uh Director Alt. Thank you, Chair Webb. Uh the negotiations committee met with the BEA last night. Uh we offered a 2% increase in the first year and a 2% increase in the second year of the new contract. Uh we continue to advocate for a starting teacher salary of $50,000. Both represent a competitive salary for a district our size with declining enrollment. Our next meeting is with a mediator later this month. This concludes my report. Thank you. Um, okay. Now we will move to the business portion of the board meeting starting with the consent agenda. Although board action is required, it is generally unnecessary to hold discussion on these items. In the event a board member wishes to discuss an item, that item will be moved for separate consideration. Do board members wish to remove any items from the consent items. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Oh, go ahead. So moved. >> Moved by Director Anderson. >> Second. >> Second by Director Chester. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Nay. The motion carries unanimously. Up first under new business, we are being asked for preliminary approval of the DECA annual international career development conference field trip. Presenting the recommendation this evening will be Dr. Chris Belmont, assistant superintendent, Maggie Mayernick, teacher and DECA advisor, as well as some students. Welcome. >> Thank you, Chair. Superintendent Daniels, members of the board on behalf of Principal Sandovon, um myself, I'm here uh with Miss Marinick seeking preliminary approval for a field trip to Atlanta, Georgia. As the board might recall, um we come to the board seeking approval for any field trips that are international or could potentially result in students missing three or more school days. And um I would like to invite the student representatives to come explain what the field trip entails and its purpose. >> Good evening members of the school board and district staff. My name is Selena Bane and I am the president of Burnsville High School DECA. >> My name is Julian Zitnick. I'm the vice president of membership. >> My name is Abel Tinkushu and I am vice president of fundraising. >> Thank you for allowing us a few minutes to speak tonight. I first wanted to start by explaining really what DECA is. DECA is a student organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. At Burnsville, our chapter helps students develop real world business and leadership skills through competitions, projects, and community involvement. Each year our members compete at the district and state level and those who qualify have the opportunity to attend DECA's international career development conference or ICDC which will be held this year in Atlanta, Georgia in the spring. ICDC is the highest level of DECA competition bringing together over 20,000 students from across the US and around the world. It's a week-long experience filled with competitive events, leadership workshops, and networking opportunities with industry professionals. Uh we are here tonight to request approval for our chapter to travel to Atlanta and um if any of our students qualify for ICDC. The trip will take place over the course of one week this spring and we will work closely with our adviserss to ensure that all district travel policies and safety guidelines are followed. We also plan to uh raise funds to help cover costs for students so that every uh qualifier has a chance to attend regardless of the financial circumstances. >> All right. Okay, Superintendent Daniels, I think you have future executive leadership team members up here presenting tonight. Um so um so thank you again to our student presenters and on behalf of DECA, we are seeking that the board of education approved the preliminary application for the DECA annual international career development conference IDC field trip taking place uh in Atlanta, Georgia from April 24th through the 28th, 2026. >> Is there a motion to approve the DECA field trip? >> So moved. Moved by director Saxi. >> Second. >> Second. >> Three-way second. >> Second by director Chester. >> Sure. >> Is there any discussion? >> Oh, F. >> Uh, Deca. Uh, just being a student at Burnsville High School has just garnered so much support and love and it truly sets up such great leaders for, uh, the world one day. Director Al >> just wishing you all all the best. Um hopefully we do get a number of qualifiers and I'm sure you guys will represent 191 wonderfully. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> Any questions? >> Um just want to say thank you for coming and presenting to us. I know that uh that's great practice for speaking in front of people. So thanks for coming. Um, if there uh all those in favor say I. >> I oppose. Nay. The motion carries unanimously. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Up next, we are being asked to consider approving a concurrent enrollment. Oops. I'm sorry, I missed one. Yep. The next item on our agenda is approval of the financial audit report. Presenting this recommendation will be Tyler Denny, director of finance. Welcome. Good evening, Chair Worb, Dr. Daniels, members of the board. Bergen KDV presented the audit results at the last meeting. The highlights include an unmodified or clean audit report, no compliance issues, no material weaknesses and internal controls, no single audit findings, and no legal compliance findings. The general fund unassigned fund balance increased by close to $5 million and the total general fund increased by 5.25 million. Therefore, the recommendation is that the board of education approve the financial audit report for 2024 2025. Is there a motion to approve the financial audit report? >> So moved. Go ahead. >> Moved by Director Alt, seconded by Director Chester. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. I oppose. Nay. The motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Up next, we are being asked to consider approving a concurrent enrollment agreement with Minneapolis College. Presenting this recommendation will be Dr. Chris Belmont, assistant superintendent. Welcome back. >> Thank you, chair. Um, I'm I'm here uh presenting another concurrent enrollment agreement. These agreements um kind of vary and as the board can probably tell in timeline when they arrive. Um this particular agreement is with two institutions um providing two different course experiences for our students. Um students have the opportunity to earn uh four credits first semester via the concurrent agreement and another five credits through Inenver Hills Community College second semester. Upon successful completion of both semesters, students can then earn their certified nursing assistant assistant certification and work in a variety of health facilities or use the certification as a launch into a more advanced health sciences degree program. Therefore, it's my recommendation to the board that they approve that you approve the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities concurrent enrollment agreement presented between Burnsville High School District 191 and the state of Minnesota acting through its board of trustees of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities on behalf of Minneapolis Community uh Minneapolis College uh formerly known as MCTC and authorized the superintendent of ST 191 to execute the agreement. >> Is there a motion to approve the concurrent enrollment agreement? >> So move. >> Moved by Director Saxi. Second. >> Seconded by Director Anderson. >> I can't I can't win tonight. >> Um is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. I oppose. Nay. The motion carries unanimously. >> Thank you. >> Up next on the agenda is um to adopt a resolution to accept donations. Presenting the resolution this evening will be Superintendent Dr. Daniels. >> Thank you, Chair Worb. Before I present the formal resolution, I just want to take some time to say thank you to the many community organizations and partners that support education in ISD 191. Their support of our programs are essential to our operations, and I am deeply grateful for their gifts. Tonight, I would like to start out by highlighting two recent donations that directly support our pathways programming. Thank you to the Greater Twin Cities United Way and to the Robert Bosch Community Fund for helping us continue to develop this key district initiative. As many of you know, Brain Power in a Backpack is also an impactful program here in District 191. And I would like to name those organizations that have contributed recently to this program. The Target Employee Giving Program, the Cyber Grants Charity Aid Foundation, Dakota County Ship Food Shelf, Give Minnesota Mighty Cause Foundation, and US Bank Employee Giving Program. Our community support of our schools is a tremendous strength for us here in District 191. Thank you to the following for their back- to-school donations to Sky Oaks Elementary. Carrie Canu, Dale Barbara and Pam Johnson, Lorie Stander, Marsha Lewis, Digi Key, Burnsville Women of Today, Elite Professional Services, Northern Tool and Equipment and PEO Chapter, El Burnsville. Finally, I would like to say thank you to those families who made donations to our food and nutritious nutrition services program. Once again, thank you to all our donors for their generous support. Therefore, it is my recommendation that the board of education adopt a resolution to approve and accept these donations to our district in accordance with the schoolboard policy in Minnesota statutes and to permit their use as designated by the donors. Is there a motion to adopt the resolution to accept donations as presented? >> So move. >> Moved by Director Chester, seconded. >> Seconded by Director Mickelson. Is there any discussion? Having been moved and seconded, this resolution will require a roll call vote. When Sarah calls your name, please respond with I or nay. Sarah, will you please make the roll call? >> Director Saxi, >> I. Director Anderson, >> I. >> Director Chester, >> I, >> Chair Worb, >> I, >> Director Alt, >> I, >> Director Mickelson, >> I. >> This resolution was declared dually passed and adopted. Up next, we are being asked to approve on a first reading basis changes to policy 208, development, adoptions, and implementation of policies. Presenting the recommendation for this policy will be Superintendent Dr. Daniels. >> Thank you again, Chair Worb. We did review this policy in the policy review committee on October 21st, 2025. And what we are recommending is that we include the personal electronic communication devices, including cell phones, to the list of policies required to undergo annual review. And so with that, we are recommending that change um for the board's approval. >> Is there a motion to approve policy 208 as presented? >> So moved. Moved by director Anderson. >> Second. >> Seconded by director Saxi. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Nay. >> The motion carries unanimously. Uh moving along with policies. Up next we will consider approving on a first reading basis changes to policy 509 enrollment of non-residents. Presenting the recommendation for this policy will be Stacy Sovine, executive director of administrative services. >> Good evening again. I'm bringing to you policy 509 with a minimum amount of changes um just uh removing the um process for the district lottery. Uh for those who are enrolling from outside the district, uh we're removing the established by schoolboard policy and posted on the district's website. It's the policy piece. It's redundant. You do establish the highle lottery piece under section D, but we go actually a little bit further in and offer lotteryies throughout the summer, not just on January 15th. So that is posted on our enrollment web page for that. So, uh, this did go before the policy review committee on October 21st, 2025. And it's my recommendation that we approve this for our first reading. Is there a motion to approve changes to policy 509? >> So moved. >> Moved by Director Anderson. >> Second. >> Second by Director Saxi. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Nay. The motion carries unanimously. Next, we are being asked on a first reading basis to formally resend and remove regulations for policies 509 enrollment of non-residents 715 purchasing and bid requirements and 401 equal opport equal employment opportunity. Presenting this recommendation will once again be Stacy Sovine, executive director of administrative services. I again we have a number of recommendation uh recommendations a number of regulations that have been kind of dormant now for a number of years and they're getting to the point where they no longer align with the policies themselves or law or our practices. Um we do currently post all of these different regulations online. Um as far as like uh the financial piece, we have that under our business and operations web page. Again, the enrollment is under the enrollment area. So, and the bids, well, that was the bids is within the finance piece. We want to kind of hold on to the policies as the policies and allow the administration team and the departments to implement those and practices that are outlined in policy and not have two different documents that sometimes fight with one another. Um, is there a motion to approve rescending and removing these regulations? >> So moved. >> Moved by Director Saxi, seconded by Director Anderson. Is there any discussion? Oh, I'm sorry, Director Alt. >> Thank you. Yes, there was one caveat with uh the purchasing and bid requirements um that uh there would be conversation and discussion with the board about um making sure that uh we're bringing our community along with um being transparent and public with how the purchasing and bid requirements are handled. um not having looked at it myself in the website it is >> I I don't know but um we'll we'll have those conversations and make sure that that we are being transparent with the community >> and it is posted so >> all those in favor say I >> I oppose nay the motion carries unanimously The final item on our agenda is a close session as permitted by Minnesota statute 13D.03 to discuss labor negotiation strategy. Is there a motion to close the meeting at this time to discuss labor negotiation strategy? >> So moved. >> Moved by director Alt. >> Second. >> Second by director Chester. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I oppose. Nay. The motion carries unanimously. The time is now 7:34 and we will move to the HR conference room to discuss labor negotiation strategy. We will return to our open meeting immediately following the close session. However, please note that having no further agenda items after the close session, we will not be returning to the dis upon completion of the meeting. Thank you and board members, please make your way to the HR conference room.