Good afternoon or actually good evening and welcome back to Burnsville Egan Savage District 191. I hope you enjoyed your school tours today and meeting some of our district students and staff. This round of interviews are uh will run similar to our first round interviews with each of us um asking or taking turns um asking questions. With that, we will go ahead and begin with our first question. Uh you have been asked to prepare a presentation with a 15minute time limit to share your proposed transition plan with our board. The floor is now yours. Good evening everyone. Again you know my name is Dr. Latana Daniels and I have prepared a draft 100day transition plan to share with you all this evening. It is in draft form because if selected to be the superintendent of district 191. Of course, I would like to vet it with the board and get your perspectives and voice around the plan before I finalize it and enact it. So, I'm going to begin with um sharing the mission statement, the core values, as well as the district's vision statement and how those three tethered together really present a strong foundation and underpinnings for this school district. Um, your vision statement is very aspirational. It talks about transforming learning experiences for students, elevating excellence, um wanting students to engage in rigorous um learning, also seeing the humanity in everyone and respecting those diver diverse voices and also allowing those to be curious students to be curious and to blaze their own individual um paths and trails. So with that I have um identified five priority areas that I would like to explore in the first 100 days of of the job. Um I have bucketed those areas as teaching and learning, climate and culture, operations and management, collaborative and inclusive leadership, community partnerships and engagement. As I talk through these priorities, I want you all to understand the process in which I walk through these. I am going to be discussing what I plan to listen for during this stage, learn as well as discern and act. Those are the pieces that will come out as I discuss these five priority areas. The first priority area is teaching and learning. And teaching and learning is basically the bread and butter of the school district. It is the sole reason for why we exist and it is um essential and important for ensuring student success. So in the listening phase, I will meet with the teaching and learning department, host listening sessions with stakeholders such as students, parents, teachers, administrators. Definitely meet with all departments that touch the teaching and learning department like the equity department, the MLL department, the special ed department, and others that work closely with the teaching and learning department. I want to visit sites to be able to listen to people's experiences this summer, all summer program programming sites, which I heard that you all typically have about 2,000 students engaged in summer programming in the summer. So, that would be a great opportunity to hear um from students and hear from teachers, hear from staff, and perhaps even meet parents. Um also visit with um principles and staff at schools. Of course, during the learning phase, I want to really disagregate the achievement data and disagregate it by demographic area over the last 5 years, review professional development plans to prepare us for the upstart of the school year around teacher workshop, around new teacher orientation, and around legislative requirements that are required for read act phase one, phase 2, and other pieces. I would also like to review the pathways model more closely in the district and learn the academic priorities that you all have planned for this upcoming school year. In the discern phase, I will synthesize the academic strengths and opportunities of each school and program. And in the act phase, I want to meet with each individual principal to discuss their achievement data. again to celebrate with them what is going well and to also discuss opportunities for improvement. The reason why I want to meet with principles is because I believe very strongly that principles set the floor and the ceiling for what happens in a particular building or program. Um and when I look at the strategic road map, it talks about leaders actively leading for diversity and equity. And so principles are the the leaders of the building. And so I want to understand how they plan to address the opportunities within within their buildings at a site level in order to improve achievement in their respective um buildings and programs. I also would like to finalize um PD for the school year especially around the fall plans and ensure supports are in place for students moving forward. The second priority is climate and culture. And what we know about climate and culture is it works handinhand with teaching and learning. If you do not have a positive and productive climate and culture, you will not have a conducive learning environment. So um that is very important and I want to listen and meet with um those who work in the student support services department. Meet with behavior personnel um administrators such as principles, assistant principles. You all have deans, you have behavior analysts. I want to understand their experiences and patterns around the that they've noticed around the work. Host listening sessions with administrators at the elementary level and the secondary level as well as a representative group of teachers and students at the elementary level, middle level and sec and high school level. In doing that work, I hope to learn behavior trend data. Um, I know that um, students of color are disproportionately represented in our behavior data. That is not unique to district 191. That is pervasive across the state. However, it does not mean that we shouldn't be looking strategically at how we attack that um, that issue. I would like to review school climate data, the annual survey data, as well as the survey that was given in search for the new superintendent. I would like to understand processes to support student and teacher engagement and involvement because um one of your strategic goals is ensuring that all voices are heard. So I want to understand what processes are in place in order to engage students and engage um all voices teachers in being heard and I also want to understand teachers workload workloads at the elementary middle and secondary level. There's a reason why I want to understand that at the discern phase, I want to determine patterns of practice across elementary and secondary levels respectively and determine gaps between um program implementation and outcomes. If there are gaps, why are there gaps and what can we do around programming to close those gaps? Um that's very important to me. In the acting phase, I would like to coalesce district level leadership as well as as well as building level level leadership to create greater efficiencies and effectiveness around disrupting in disrupting inappropriate behavior because inappropriate behavior or dis disrupted behavior in classrooms disrupt everything. I want to make sure we have a process in place to partner with the Burnsville Egan Savage Teachers Union to build a collaborative relationship around the work. And ultimately the goal is to plan towards a healthy, safe, and supportive learning and work environment for teachers and staff respectively in the listening phase for management and operations. And management and operations often gets overlooked. Um, but they are really the spine to a lot of what happens. and people, you know, don't acknowledge and appreciate all of the the the grit work that they do to make districts run. And so I want to see the management and operations people as well. I want to listen to their experiences and their stories and hear strengths and opportunities. I want to meet with all cabinet level leaders to understand their scope of work and what um deadlines they may have or work that they may have that um will definitely impact how we start the school year. In the learn phase, I want to again revisit the strategic roadmap strata str strategies and metrics to date. Review the facilities plan that you all said that you would like to hit any new superintendent to hit the ground running to address and so and plan for next steps. Review the status of our budget and understand the um the the extra monies or extra revenue sources that could potentially be coming in um into the district. I want to understand staffing levels at the site level so we can do a great job recruiting to fill those positions before the school year starts and understand those communication protocols when we have to make a difficult decision around weather or around some type of emergency happening in the building for management and operations. I would like to discern um and examine systems and processes to ensure greater collaboration as well as calibration and consistency amongst and between departments. and again identify strengths and opportunities for growth. I want to um in the acting phase ensure all departments, schools and programs understand how they impact the strategic roadmap and outcomes. Work with the facilities team and the board to understand the next steps in the facilities planning work and plan a transparent budgeting process that centers our students in the priorities as well as include all stakeholder groups perspectives. I want to enact a plan to fill all vacant positions in preparation for the new school year and begin to roll out the high action high alignment high accountability framework for all leaders for priority for collaborative collaborative and inclusive leadership. I am a collaborative leader. I do not go it alone. It is not effective. it is most effective to bring people along with you because you will have the greatest impact by distributing leadership and bringing people along with you. So um of course I plan to have a collaborative inclusive relationship with the teachers and leaders on my team but this particular slide and work is specific to how I would like to cultivate a positive working relationship with the school board directors. So, I will schedule um meetings with school board chair, chair Worb to review my 100 day transition plan to seek her feedback and input um before I finalize it. And I also would like to meet with each of you to understand your perspectives around um additions or maybe perhaps things I should take away in finalizing my plan and just understand your contextual knowledge of district 191 and where we are and where you would like us to go. Um in the learning phase, I would like to review the board's expectations of me. I would like to review board policies that may have just been revised and updated and also be aware of those that are upcoming for revision and approval. Um learn your preferred modes of communication. Um and also work um any work that you feel like I should be apprised of. That's very important. In the discernment phase, I would like to review all the feed feedback that I collect from listening sessions and roundt discussions with you all to discuss next steps. And in the acting phase, I want to develop an appropriate cadence for communication with you all to keep you apprised of what's going on in the district and also help me make critical decisions. Ultimately, the goal is to establish a collaborative inclusive relationship with the board around all the district's work in operations. Finally, we have community partnerships and engagement. And I've learned and and seen on video and actually discussed even further today that this district has over 200 partners. And that is astounding. That I mean for a district this size that is that is amazing. And I don't want to mess that up if I become the superintendent. So um we are going to definitely um meet with our community partners to understand you know what can we do to you know strengthen the partnership. certainly meet with our civic as well as our political leaders in the community who support district 191. Um parent voice again is so essential and important to the work and so how do we leverage the parent advisory committees to hear their voices and discuss with them the strengths and the opportunities of district 191 in the learning phase I would like to understand more about your current legislative platform again understand community partner the community partnerships and how it's supporting our programming and our work review the methods in which we share the good news about what's happening in district 191 and also review other methodologies in which we can also get out the great news about what's happening in district 191. In the discernment phase, again, celebrate, celebrate, celebrate the strengths and also acknowledge opportunities to grow. And in the act phase, establish a schedule in which we meet with local legislators and continue to grow a collaborative and transformative and transparent rel transparent relationship with our external stakeholders. In conclusion, I feel like um my 100day transition plan, the draft plan, is one that would allow me to collect data comprehensively around each of those priority areas in the school district. It would provide an opportunity for me to build connections to build relationships with our stakeholders. Also, it would give me an opportunity to understand the landscape of district 191, but also even go a layer deeper and understand some things that's under the hood that needs to be addressed in order to move work forward to ensure that each student is future ready and we build a strong community. So, that is the conclusion of my presentation. Thank you. We appreciate hearing um how you will handle transitioning into this new role. Um, and now we're asking you to please share with us what professional challenges you might expect during that transition based on your current experience and how will you manage those challenges. I think off the top immediately a professional challenge is knowing that especially if you have a therapist background and I don't but I've learned this along the way that all change begins with loss. All change. It begins with loss. And so I have to acknowledge that with the changing of the guard here in district 191 from Dr. Terresa Battle, one who has been um so pivotal in just you know creating this strong foundation and legacy in 191 um that people will be grieving the loss of her her presence, her departure. That is a reality and I need to acknowledge that reality and respect that reality. And so with that being said, um I need to give people time and space to grapple with that. I was having a conversation with someone today who is going to miss her presence because this person has been vital um for um her to bounce ideas off of. And um that's real. That's the reality. And so I think that I need to um build connections and relationships with people, give people time to get to know me, me get to know them. Understanding that all change begins with loss is also acknowledging that you know what you have to go slow to go fast. So we have to be very strategic in how we move and how we bring people along in the process to um to to to move the district in the direction that the strategic road map and the the aspirational vision would have it to to move in. So that's one piece. Another challenge um I foresee myself having is again understanding the landscape. So, you've heard me talk about um what I would plan to do in my 100 day um transition plan, and it's all around getting to getting to a place in which I understand this district, how it operates. I was in buildings today, so I got a chance to see open concept, um classrooms, buildings. Um I got a chance to see, um you know, some of the architecture in the buildings, which which I'm sure is why we have a facilities plan. Um, and so I'm sorry. And so, but and so I think it's it's important for me to understand the landscape because one of the the worst things you can do is make a move and you don't really understand what's happening. So, I think it's very important for me to hear stakeholder voices and really move with people, them move with me versus me being out front and moving um on my own. I think another challenge for me is that I um have definitely I'm an instructional leader. Hands down instructional leader. I know instruction. Um I have been an instructional leader all my life as a teacher, as a coach, um as an assistant superintendent, um and etc. And I and I know how to get at instructional improvement and changes. I think that one challenge I will have is um understanding some of the operational pieces of a school district and working very closely with folks to um get that knowledge and understanding. When I think about how I would address that, for example, budgeting comes up and of course I have worked with budgeting in my school district. I have worked with my superintendent to move from a 2.5 um% fund balance to a 16% fund balance. Um we've done that work together as a team and certainly been a part of the budgeting budgeting process. Um but when I think about doing that work and doing that work at a macro level, at a district level, I think about the supports that I have. Um when I call people, they answer the phone. when I text people, they pick up the phone. I know you all have an award-winning finance team and I will work very closely with the finance team, but um those are some strategies that I would employ um to address the challenges that I foresee myself having if um I move into this role. Thank you. So all organizations need to evolve and and adapt. At the same time, the people are proud of their history and traditions. As a superintendent, how would you inspire change while respecting individual wishes and connections to their experience? I think people's experiences, in fact, people's experiences are personal. they're personal and they should be respected and people connect to different experiences for different reasons and that should be acknowledged. Um, I think those that are grounded in the histories and the traditions of of of a school district, the pride that they have is because of how things were or what their experiences were when they were a student or a teacher in this school district or they currently can still be a stu a teacher or a a leader in this school district. And so I think it's important to um couple the change with acknowledging the history um acknowledging the legacy that has been um that has been that has been laid or provided in um the school district. I don't think you separate those two. I think you use history to either learn from bad aspects of history or to also inform how you move forward in the future. And so I think that there is a way to delicately balance um how you celebrate what happened in the past but also understand that today is a new day and with it being a new day we have new challenges. we have new opportunities to address. And so it's all about working handinhand with those who um have history, have knowledge as to what is happening in the district or what has trans um transpired in the district, but working with them to bring them along um and be a part of shaping the future. Um, another thing that I want to add to that is that a lot of people when I think about my experience as a high school principal in both of my sites, the people who had who who would return to the high schools to revisit the high school for a class reunion, they reflected on the good old days. This is how it was and this is how the building was. This is how the building has changed. And those people tend to be some of our biggest donors. They contribute so much to the schools and to the school district. So I definitely would want to sever that relationship. Um I would want to tap into that knowledge and that experience those experiences to help um understand um what their experiences were, why they were important and so meaningful to them and again allow them to help me shape the future. So I think inspiring change um requires people to understand what the future can can look like, the possibilities that the future can look like. I think that we would need to do a great job of painting that picture and painting that picture and and and developing that canvas and that portrait together. So, it's not just me who sees it, it's it's the team who sees it. And since the team would see it, the team would be a part of bringing it to um fruition and real realization. Thank you. Please explain the strategies you might employ to address fluctuating fluctuating enrollment. This is a this is a this is definitely a um an area of concern even in the current district that I am serving in. I think that I think that enrollment can fluctuate for um several several reasons. Um, I think that enrollment can fluctuate for things due to things outside of our control and I think that enrollment can fluctuate due to things within our control. Outside of our control, we have lower birth rates. Um, we so families are not as large as they were 30 years ago. And so because families are not as large as they were 30 years ago, that means that we see shrinking enrollment. We see shrinking class sizes. Therefore, we see shrinking um revenue to um run a school district. Those are things outside of our control. Um we also have um I would say um for Richfield in this school district as well where you know what Burnsville proper is Burnsville proper and so there is um very little spread out but I do believe that there's you know it's obvious that there is spread going up in facilities that are being homes and and um multi-dwelling units that are being built within the city. And so I think that seeing that is a sign of growth and an opportunity we have is to make sure that we are engaging those at those families at the earliest level possible sharing the good news about what's happening in district 191. I think that we need to court um families who have young children to make sure that they are um seeing themselves in District 191 and seeing themselves as a District 191 student. I think that we need to continue to um um shout the good news and share the good news about what what's happening. I was speaking with a principal today, uh, an administrator today at a school and he was sharing with me that um, a family just moved um, into the area and they were grappling um, with should we send our child to children to Prior Lake or should we send our children to 191 and they did the research and they decided and they did the tours and they decided to choose 191. Well, the news that you all have on the website is important in sharing the good news about what's happening in 191. So, I think that's very important. Um, things that um we need to also do to um impact fluctuating enrollment is to make sure that we are not the reason why people are not enrolling in our district. Which means that um when I became the principal of Richville High School, I would see a significant drop off from 9th grade to 10th grade. I would see a drop off of about 60 or 70 students. Um, that was the trend data that I was looking at when I first became the principal. And I was curious as to why am I seeing this drop off of about 60 to 70 students. Well, after about one year of being the principal, I knew why it was a drop off. It was a drop off because 9th graders were failing. And because nth graders were failing and we weren't providing adequate support, what was happening is families were choosing to go to other schools where they could be more successful. Well, I wouldn't want that to be the case here. And so, we would need to provide supports that because that's we are imposing that as an issue. We are making that an issue. So, how do we improve instruction? How do we improve supports? How do we improve progress monitoring to make sure that we are supporting our students to be their best academic selves and them seeing themselves as belonging to 191 and not just belonging to 191 as a student but as a but as a a scholar as an athlete as one that is tagged in and engaged in activities and feel a greater great sense of belonging within our school district. So, um those are some of the things that I have in mind to um um impact um enrollment. And I think that overall if we truly work on programming and um improve outcomes for students, the district will continue to attract students and families that are that will want their child to be a part of 191. Thank you. All right. Um staff recruitment and retention are becoming increasingly important and more difficult across the state. Um how would you lead to ensure a quality workforce exists at both the instructional and administrative levels in ISD 191? Yes, we have few people resources. Everybody wants to diversify their teams. You want the best talent. And as I thought about this question, I thought about you. So, one of the things that I oversee in my district is um student teacher placements. And um I not only oversee student teacher placements, but I also work very closely with onboarding new teachers. And what I have seen over the last five years um since I've been assistant superintendent is this trend where teachers want to come to Richville public schools. And you have to ask yourself why, you know, why why do they want to come? And so, not only have I explored why, but when I think about recruitment and retention, um, I think about who is actually getting out of teacher teacher programs right now. And those people are not people my age. Those people are not people necessarily your age. We're talking about Jenzers. Jenzers are getting out of teacher programs and they really really um aspire to have purpose in their work. Um they really aspire to work in a place where diverse perspectives are appreciated and respected. Um, another thing that I've noticed is that they um desire to work in spaces where there's work life balance and where they can have um a sense of mental and physical well-being. Those are some of the things that I noticed um in working um um in my school district. And so I think some of those are some of those things are the are, you know, the most salient things that we need to be thinking about as we recruit and retain um teachers and leaders for our district. Um did I say our district? I said our district. Um um so when I think about that, I think about when I think about recruit I think about recruitment. So of course we have grow your own programs. I think you all have a grow your own program. So, we can continue to maximize the grow your own program to cultivate um teachers and leadership within our system. So, we can certainly do that. Um we are um also fortunate enough to be connected to a network of colleges and universities. I'm very connected to colleges and universities again because of my relationships um in my current school district. And so, those relationships can be leveraged in order to recruit and retain. But retention to me comes down to support. It comes down to support and it comes down to workload. Um so when I talked about in my presentation that I wanted to know the workload and understand the workload at the elementary, middle and secondary level, I want to understand the workload because um Jenzers are not really into taking all this work home. And so how do we leverage technology? How do we leverage AI in order to um minimize um I would say create create greater efficiencies around the work. Another piece that's important to me is um the systems around how we have created efficiencies within our school district. I keep our school district um in developing curriculum that's aligned to state standards, developing assessments that are consistent across n consistent and aligned across 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, and 12th grade. Because imagine being a new teacher out of a teacher program, you walk into um a new school and they give you keys to your classroom and say go. you have no you have no resources. Teachers can sometime be territorial and say you know what I don't want to share my resources with you and the teacher this brand new teacher has to develop curriculum on his or her own his her or their own. That is not going to be a great scenario. And so we have this turnover in which new teachers who are not finding the work life balance, who are not finding the mental well-being, the support, they're leaving the field within two or three years. So in order to retain, we have to support. And we can support by providing professional development. But we can also support by working smartly within our system to ensure that we have standards aligned curriculum that's already developed, formative assessments that are already developed, summitive assessments that's already developed in in which we share, you know, communities like professional learning communities or departments in which they feel safe enough to be vulnerable and say that they need help to be um to to receive the assistance that they need. And um yes, I think that those are some strategies that we can use to recruit, retain, and actually sustain um new teachers in our system. Thank you. How would you handle a situation where a community member feels they have not been heard or had their concerns addressed, including those without children in our schools? I think that there is so much value and so much strength in just having the conversation. Let's just talk about it. If a person feels like they have not been heard and it's a community member um who feels like they have not been heard, their concerns have not been addressed and they don't even have children in our system, that person would not be blown off because word of mouth is still the greatest marketing tool. Period. So, I would want that community member to um feel heard. I would want that community member to feel seen. I want that community member to feel value because that community member is paying tax dollars to fund our school district. And so I see value in just taking the time to have a conversation with said community member to understand and get at the root of the concern. And I would say, you know, typically when I I've engaged in conversations like this, I I I will ask the individual that I'm meeting with, you know, what do you plan for the outcome to be? What do you want the outcome to be before we start? I want to understand from the beginning, what do you want the outcome to be? And typically, they simply just want to be heard. They simply just want to be heard. They simply want to want to be understood. And that doesn't mean that we will necessarily agree. But I have given you the respect. I have given you the time. I have given you a sense of dignity by listening to your story, your nar narrative, your experience to hear what your concerns are. And if there is a matter that needs to be addressed, if there is a a a system that needs to be tweaked, if there is a process that needs to be changed, if there was students in your yard and they were throwing paper in your yard after school, whatever the situation may be may be, guess what? I would work to to to rectify the situation. I will work to address the issue so we will have another happy community member who wants to continue to support district 191. Thank you. School excuse me. School districts are responsible for providing a highquality equitable education for each and every student. What does an equitable education look like to you? And how will you lead with an equity lens? I lead with an equity lens just naturally. I can just see it. So, um I I had an opportunity to of course visit some sites and of course I'm a former former high school principal twice. You all already know that. And in stepping into those buildings, I could automatically see the inequities. I could see it with my eyes. I saw at Richville High School, I saw a segregated high school. I saw a high school that was 70% students of color, but when I went into the advanced courses, I saw 80% white students. That's an inequity. And in leading with an equity lens, you know, again, the quantitative data is important. Um the perceptive data is important. So what you see, what you feel, what you experience. And also those qualitative experiences are important. I want to understand the qualitative experiences. And so for me, an equitable education for each and every student, I've synthesized the work that I've done over the last few years and boiled it down to access, support, and success. Access, support, and success. So when I thought about the the flip of the high school being 70% students of color but 80% of white students were in the advanced classes. Immediately I went to what system is creating this issue. I want to understand the system. And so I talked to my assistant principles and I was like, "Please explain to me the registration process because that registration process has to be in some way, shape or form driving these outcomes and results." And so my um scheduling assistant principal said, "Well, in order for students," this is at Richville High School 10 years ago, "Well, in order for students to um access rigorous courses, they must ask for them their counselor." And I was like, "That's interesting because what if they don't have a relation a good relationship with their counselor? That becomes an impediment. And as an equitable leader, it is my responsibility to remove barriers, to remove impediments, to grant greater access. Um, so what we did was, and then also my first year as principal, the first problem that I had to fix as the principal was the school board chair's daughter at the time scoring in the 90th percentile on MCA's was not in the honors English class. Why was she not in the honors English class? because the eighth grade teacher didn't recommend her for the honors English class. So, my first problem that I had to deal with was managing this issue between the school board chairs, daughter, wife, school board chair, you know, so working through all of that and I was like, it's a different process. And what I learned was there was a process to enter honors in English. There was a different process for math. There was a different process for science. there was a I was like this is so confusing. If we want students to access honors classes then we need to create a clear and transparent process where barriers and impediments have been removed for them to access these classes. So what we did was I shared the data I shared the data with um students. I showed them the enrollment data, the demographic data of the school and I showed them the enrollment data in our um advanced classes. We put together a marketing campaign, invited them into the class, changed the registration process, and that's how we were able to move from 600 um college credits earned to over 2,000, and also have greater representation, about 65 to 70% representation in our honors class. So, it's about granting access at the district level. as an assistant superintendent, I've worked to with my elementary director and secondary director and work with them in order to identify students for um advanced academics using multiple measures. So, not just using one test score, but you know what, using multiple measures, do you show a gift in in music? Do you show a gift in, you know, science? and you know beginning to diversify who's in those advanced academics at the elementary level and the second level, secondary level. And so that work is about um removing barriers and understand removing barriers, providing the support and for them to ultimately be successful. I measure success and outcomes and results. That's what I measure I measure um success by. So how has the demographics changed in the honors classes? Can I see a visible difference? Um, do I see a difference in enrollment? Can I see um a less or more integrated um AP or seat college in the schools course? Um, do we have um more students of color accessing our more rigorous pathways at the um at Burnsville High School? Do we see more students of color really taking advantage of earning that associates degree, that early college model that you all have invested a lot of resources in? Who's actually earning the the associates degree? So, I I measure um outcomes and results by looking at the numbers and using perceptive use using perceptive data. And so, I think it's all about access. is about support because I also learned that when you grant access to a space in which a student has never been in, they do need support to be successful. So, it's about coupling the access with the support to ensure they're successful. And that's what um an equitable education looks like to me at all levels. Thank you. Examining and determining facility needs is a priority for our district. The board knows we need to revisit options and may return to the voters for support. How would you help us with this process from beginning to end? Um so when I think about this question in Ridgefield I have been a part of about two to three say yes campaigns. Um when I think about how I would um organize this from this process from beginning to end, I think it starts with this is why community members being happy and being supportive of the school district matters. It it starts with um working with community members and parents who feel a commitment to the work to be able to sacrifice their time and energy to share the good news about what's happening in the school district. Sharing, you know, determining what those questions are that we want to ask of the community in order to generate more revenue and more funds. It also um so it requires you know getting community members and parents engaged and involved around the say yes campaign. Um getting teachers involved and those involved um with phone banks to reach out and call people and share the work that is happening and also encouraging them um to go out and vote. We can't tell them how to vote but we can tell them that we do need them to vote. Um I'm I'm trying to share this in as as in in some type of linear linear order. It also requires um the leaders, the superintendent and others to go out and share the message as to why it's important. And this is what this campaign will do for us. Um it will allow us to you know maximize our operating our operating funds in order to best serve students. Um in Richfield we have gone from um receiving about $400 per student in operating referendum to maxing out at around $2,200 plus inflation. I have been a part of all of that work. I have gone to schools and presented in schools. I have gone to community organizations and presented at community organizations. Um I have worked with the union and their support of um our say yes campaigns. And so I just think it's about getting the right people involved and on message really explaining to them the why why this is important. this work is important and this revenue would be important for us to provide greater support to students, for us to provide greater opportunities, for us to stabilize um um our our revenue revenue um streams in the district. And so I think that once people understand the why, um I have seen and and especially when you have been fiscally responsible with the the resources that you do have, I think that they will easily say yes to support um a referendum um if we need to go to voters. So that that is what I can recall right now around some of the work that we've done in order to increase revenue per student and our operating um referendum dollars in our district. Thank you. Many students are suffering from stress, mental health, and behavioral issues. These are just a few barriers they face to reaching their full potential. Other than hiring more staff, how would you implement a support system for students, parents, and staff to reduce these and other barriers hindering their full academic and social emotional growth other than hiring more staff? This is real. Mental health, stress, behavioral issues we know um were further exacerbated by the pandemic. Um and you know many districts in response to that um definitely did hire more staff and now that we see um an improvement in students mental health and stress in in a lot of ways and um a contracting um dollars we have begun to um reduce the supports for students. So, one thing that I've seen, several things that I've seen work um is that, you know, it starts with building relationships with students. Each of us, no matter who we are, we go into spaces assessing risk. We we want to know that a space that we're in feels safe. Um and I am aware of a brainbased program in which and it's a brain based it's trauma informed and it's adult first and um we leveraged that program in our current school district and it's um conscious discipline and it's taught me taught me so much about how managing my own behaviors and regulating my own behaviors. So self-regulation helps with student regulation. And that is a way to build efficiency into how we are working to support students, staff, and parents around mental stress and behavioral issues. We need to understand that it starts with us first. We can trigger a student if we're triggered because we're human beings. We're human beings. So we need to be mindful about how we are how we feel when we walk into spaces because how we feel and how we are guess what it can be transferable to students and they and they can pick it up. So when you think about the brainbased work that need that happens um and needs to take place to understand where students are you need to understand that not only students but we as well as adults we we want to figure out am I safe in this space? Am I psychologically safe in this space? Am I physically safe in this space? That is step one. Then the next step which gets to um relationship building is do I feel cared for in this space? Do I feel cared for? There's a saying that may be trit but it's true. And that is you know what people don't care what you know until they know you care. And so if students and parents don't feel seen, respected, and they don't feel like that that we care about them, then they will act out, they will act up. But if they feel a sense of connection, if they feel a sense of care, a feel a sense of belonging and they feel safe in the space, then it gets them to the front of their brain, which is their prefront frontal um um cortex, and that's when they can engage at the highest levels as learners. So understanding the brain research around how students best show up in spaces is counterproductive for us not to allow students to feel safe. It's counterproductive to not work towards ensuring that we see and respect each and every individual that walk through the doors of our schools in hallways every day. It's counterproductive because if we don't provide them the space in which they feel um safe, in which they feel cared for, guess what? They're not going to bring their best selves to teaching. They're not going to bring their best selves to leading. They're not going to bring their best selves to learning. So, that's one thing. Um, I talked about um building relationships. And, you know, you all have in this school district, you have um principles, assistant principles, deans, you have counselors. And so, it's also around building their capacity. So without adding staff, how do we build the the capacity of the current staff that we have to provide supports, mental health supports is embedded in their work every day and help them learn how they need to and how they can best serve the needs of students that may have traumatic experiences that may may have some um some some mental some mental dise equilibrium that we need to address. So I think it's about us understanding ourselves and how we trigger people, us understanding human behavior and human um interactions and also I think it's about us building capacity in the staff that we do have versus um and that's not only our support staff but that's all our also our instructional and leadership staff for us to best support um students, parents and staff to reduce stress. Thank you. As superintendent of Burnsville Egan Savage, what do you need from the school board to succeed in that role? A [Music] chance. Um I I I in all earnest in all earnestness, I I really want to understand the vision which you all see for the future of District 191. Um, I'm a visionary leader, but it's not just my vision. It could be our collective vision. And so, I would want to understand, you know, there was a reason, there was a purpose behind you running you taking the time out of your busy lives to run a campaign to become a school board director. So I want to understand what was that motivating factor and the why behind you um carving out this time in your lives to serve the students of district 191. That's very important to me. So I would want to understand that. So your vision um certainly your partnership um again going back to being um a collaborative and inclusive leader. I understand that this wouldn't be the Lata Daniels show, but this would be our show, bringing people along with us to do the work, the important work of advancing um students social, emotional, and academic um greatness in this district. um your support [Music] um you all have historical knowledge about this district in which you can provide context that I don't have um coming new into this role. though I would like your contextual knowledge and you can tell me and lead me around some of the landmines that I might step in in trying to move move the work in the district. Um constructive feedback, constructive feedback um feedback that is going to help me grow and not tear me down as as a leader. I think that would be important. And then time. I think time um and understanding when I say time I believe that there is a balance between urgency and time because these are lives and people's futures at stake. And so I take that very seriously um as a leader. And so um just finding that fine balance between um what should be our most immediate next steps and what can be delayed for at a later time. So those are some things that immediately come to mind around what I would want from from you all as a a school board. Thank you. Okay. Finally, what questions do you have or is there anything else you would like to share with us? I don't think I have any more questions um for you all but I do wanted to sh I do want to share that um you know I've been blessed I've been fortunate to to lead at different levels and to transform um schools transform um experiences that transform outcomes for students that also transform outcomes and experiences for the team for the staff. So, I would want you all to know that although I'm aspiring to be the superintendent of the school district, I'm a human first. I'm a human. I'm a human first. And and before I see director, I see I see Anna. I see Leslie. I see Abigail. So, I see you as that human being. I see you as that person. And that is the same way I would see the team or the people around me. I see the human first, then I see who you are in your role. So, I wanted to share that I'm a human- centered leader and I work balancing high expectations with um accountability and care for for my for my team. Um I have been successful with that balance in order to bring out the best in the people around me. People either choose to stay, stick around and be on my team and sometimes people choose to leave. It's their choice. Um but I believe I am a fair leader. I believe I'm a firm leader. Um, I have high expectations and um, I have typically delivered on um, expectations to, you know, improve experiences and outcomes for students. And I would want you all to see the possibility of me doing that within District 191. And I would get the bonus of working across the street from Jensen's Cafe because that's that's my favorite breakfast spot. So, That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you.