Good evening. I'd like to call to order tonight's meeting of the ISD 191 school board. Uh the date is Thursday, May 28th, 2026 and the time is 6:30 p.m. I'd like to start by welcoming everyone who's here tonight. It's just fantastic to have this group. This is just a wonderful time of year. Our school community is celebrating our students and their achievements. Uh and I'd also like to welcome the folks that are joining us from home. Hopefully, we have some of those as well. Um next, we will turn to the Pledge of Allegiance and Director Anderson, would you please lead us in the pledge? >> I pledge 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. >> All right. Our first item on the agenda is to approve the agenda itself. Uh do I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Moved by Director Hume, second? >> Second. >> Seconded by Director Chester, any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed, nay. And the motion carries unanimously. Uh first on our agenda tonight is the athletics and activities recognition and I'd like to invite BHS associate principal and activities director Bill Heim to the podium um to join us in celebrating our students' accomplishments so far this year. Uh welcome and thank you for joining us. >> THANK YOU. THANK YOU, BOARD CHAIR ALT, SUPERINTENDENT DANIELS, and members of the school board. Thank you for this opportunity to share some of the wonderful accomplishments of our students in District 191. Each of the individuals we honor tonight will be recognized at the state or national level from this year's winter and spring sessions. The talent, dedication, and character that our students show as they participate in activities and athletics throughout the year is remarkable. They represent themselves, their peers, our community in such a positive light, and I'm truly grateful to be able to share their accomplishments. Tonight, we'll be starting with the dynasty of the Nicollet Middle School chess team. COME ON UP. WHAT'S UP, BUDDY? COME ON UP. >> DYNASTY. >> HUH. >> LOOK AT ALL that bling. >> The Nicollet Middle School chess team outscored Minnetonka East Middle School by 2.5 points to win its fourth state championship March 7th and 8th at the Minnesota State Chess Association 61st annual state scholastic chess tournament at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. 26 Nicollet Middle School students participated at state. Franklin Berseno led the way with a second place finish. Also placing in the top 10 were Khalid Asman, Rafa Avila, Charlie Dahl, and Grayson Matthews. Franklin defeated his nationally ranked opponent with only seconds to spare to help Nicollet clinch its first state championship since 2023. His second place finish is the highest ever by a Nicollet student. It was exciting, emotional weekend where all 26 kids poured their hearts out to take the title we set out to win we first met in September, said coach Brian Ribnick. I couldn't be more proud of these young competitors. The team went on to compete at the National Middle School Chess Championship May 16th and 17th in Austin, Texas. Nichols placed second in the under 900, U700, and U1600 Blitz divisions. Thiago Braceno was the school's top finisher going undefeated in the U1100 division on his way to becoming crowned national champion. Hamza Kadri placed second. YES. CHAMPION, NATIONAL CHAMPION. HAMZA Kadri placed second at the U900 and Grayson Matthews placed fifth in the under 600 Blitz tournament and 15th in the U1400 section. The chess team includes Marshall Abbott, Wana Villa, Jose Villa, Caleb Bittner, Ivan Boyce, Franklin Braceno, Thiago Braceno, Jack Chrisman, Charlie Doll, Christian Garcia, Zack Holiday, Alex Hildreth, Amaya Holiday, Clayton Jenstead, Hamza Kadri, Max Krasanouski, Mike Krasanouski, Megan Laffey, Happy Luong, Grayson Matthews, Hannah Myxell, Simon Nelson, Khaled Osman, Nina Powell, and Elijah Wells. CONGRATULATIONS TO THIS TEAM. IT'S POWELL, NOT POWELL. THANK YOU. I butchered so hard at my name. Thank you very much. Thank you, coach Ribnick. We're going to grab our team picture if you can hold on. Can I ask you to switch over to this side so I can get everybody together? Yep, both of you. And then can I get the board to stand up behind? 1 2 3 Perfect. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Next up is the Twin Cities Regional Science Fair. So, our advisor Mike Humer come on up with her students so I hear tonight. Eight Burnsville High School students advanced to the State Science Fair and two qualified as alternates for the international competition after presenting their research at the Twin Cities Regional Science Fair February 27th in St. Paul. Sloan Don, Sabrina Abby, Layla Nguyen, Cole Hegman, Robert Lee, Twin Ha Dinh, Sammy Porta, and Joel Sado qualified for state. Charlie Mitchell and Tessa Evans earned nods as state alternates. The State Science Fair was March 27th in St. Paul. Burnsville had a very successful science fair this year. Having the single not only a single student qualify for international competition is impressive, but we had two students qualify this year. In addition, many students won awards and advanced to the state competition. BHS science teacher and science fair advisor Mike Humer said, "He's very proud of the students' hard work and impressed by their science skills and hard work. Science fair is a rigorous competition in which it allows students to investigate real-world science problems and conduct statistical analysis on data to form logical conclusions. It's these exact skills which are so valued by colleges and businesses. Congratulations to our Science Fair. >> 1 2 3 All right. Thank you very much. Congratulations. >> Okay, another dynasty in the making here. We'd like to have our BHS Burnsville High School Drumline COME ON UP. FOR THE SECOND YEAR IN A ROW, BURNSVILLE HIGH SCHOOL Drumline took first place at the Minnesota Percussion Association Championships held at the Rochester Mayo Civic Center on April 11th. 50 students performed in this year's show called One Dot, which explores the journey from oneness and isolation to the realization that by coming together, our collective power can make something much more. Seniors Xee Sundara and Jacob Lara won MPA scholarships and junior Carrie Crawford was awarded a cash prize for her essay submission to the MPA Ideas Award, which stands for inclusion, diversity, equity, and social justice. By winning back-to-back titles, this is incredibly special and so hard to do because we compete against so many amazing, well-established groups, said Paul Connell, BHS Marching Band Drumline Director. The BHS Drumline includes the following students and staff. Here we go. Valerie Aguirre, Avery Aguirre, Aldo Castro Guzman, Joey Cannell, Ingrid Engdahl, Enara Freudenberg, Alex Hang, Elizabeth Holger, Edward Hoover, Oscar Hovde, Alex Krueger, Andre Menya, Jayden Rivera, Junnan Fietron, Levi Williams, Maya Zerbel, Montserrat Acosta, Archer Bodner, Lilliana Bolton, Lucy Brown, Alan Engdahl, Paolo Gutierrez, Israel Lara, Caleb MacArthur, Charlie Morgan, Tobias Olsen, Isaiah Tilbury, Aiden Tran, Alex Wenning, Chiara Angeline, Issa Fan, Elena Cortes, Carrie Crawford, Dylan Delafuente, Will Edgerton, Erica Mickelson, Max Wroka, Xavier Saxby, Landon Smith, Isaac Wenning, Ella Zerbel, Soliana Bane, Ryan Kennedy, Jacob Lara, Samuel Morgan, Alex Nation, Michael Oy, Brian Russell, XC Sundara, and Deacon Wenning. Let's give them a hand. I'm not done yet cuz we have to RECOGNIZE OUR STAFF. WE HAVE PAUL CONNELL, Audra Hakanson, Max Michael, Jordan Wine, Therese Leverty, Michelle Reagan, Nate Grenke, Blake Widness, Laura Connell, Jared Masati, and Alex Cole. Good job, drum line. One, two, three, and one more. Perfect, thank you. That's awesome. Congratulations, Paul. Next, you want more championships? We have more championships. We have our Burnsville High School Quiz Bowl. COME ON UP. >> BURNSVILLE HIGH SCHOOL QUIZ BOWL TOOK FIRST place at the South Suburban Conference Championship Tournament held at Burnsville High School on February 5th. The varsity team includes sophomores Emery Gerke and Charlie Morgan, junior Xavier Saxby, and Sam senior Sam Morgan. Individually, Sam finished first place. Xavier and Emery placed fifth and sixth respectively. Last year, all four students competed at Nationals winning five out of 10 preliminary games before falling one short of making the playoffs. We've gotten some new players this year who have performed really well in the junior varsity division. It's been really great seeing our new players jump in, said Quiz Bowl coach and BHS math teacher Andy Gerke. They've seen the level of competition and have followed the lead of our varsity team. I think we can build on the progress that we've made this year and develop a solid team for next year. In April at the High School National Championship in Atlanta, Burnsville tied for 65th place out of 320 teams. The team tied for the most wins in program history in the tournament with seven including winning four in a row to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2018. At the individual player national championship in Chicago in May, Sam finished 211th place out of 300 participants. Congratulations to the Quiz Bowl and coach Candy Andy Gerke. 1 2 3 Perfect. Thank you very much. Next we're going to present a National Honor Society scholarship. So, we'd like to have Faven come up here to the front. Burnsville High School senior, Faven Tesfaye who was named an Academic All American by the National Speech and Debate Association earlier this year, was selected from more than 16,000 applicants as winner of the National Honor Society's $25,000 scholarship April 19th at the National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference in Washington, D.C. 1 3 I got some more Faven. >> Perfect. Oh, you have more to come. 600 in the middle that time. Let's go go for a while here. >> It's been a really busy year for Faven. Last summer, she served as youth intern at the Minnesota Secretary of State's office. She served as a student representative on District 191 School Board, of course, and represented the Second Congressional District on the Minnesota Youth Council. She also participates in a variety of groups and activities at Burnsville High School, including speech, debate, Youth Service Advisory Council, and Student Council. She serves as a blood drive coordinator and is part of Burnsville Strong and Lean Crew. She is also a One District 191 Coca-Cola Volunteer Recipient. Congratulations, Faven. Athletics, we have Olympic weightlifting. >> What? >> Do we have coach here or the students? Well, we're going to talk about them anyway. So, So, our Olympic weightlifting team, really successful team. Um underrated, but they work really hard and they win they win a lot. So, they get better, bigger, faster, stronger. Abigail Erickson and Caroline Thorson, both seniors, qualified for state at Burnsville's home dual and then competed at the Olympic weightlifting state meet on March 7th in Cannon Falls. At state tournament, Abigail finished runner-up in the 58 kg weight class and lifted a total of 109 kg, 50 kg snatch and 59 kg clean and jerk. Caroline also finished runner-up in the 69 K kg weight class and lifted a total of 122 kg, 53 kg snatch and 69 kg clean and jerk. Way to go, Abigail. Both Abigail and Caroline have been in the program for a long time, said coach coach Justin Lerfeld. I'm so incredibly proud of the way they performed this season, but more importantly, the confidence they gained in themselves through the sport will certainly stay with them a long time after graduation. So, thank you to Abigail and Caroline for raising the bar. Congratulations, PROGRAM. THAT IS IT. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. >> AWESOME. Thank you, everyone for joining us. Of course, you are all welcome to stay with us and learn more about uh school district business, but of course, it is a beautiful evening out and we certainly understand that everyone probably has other things that they need to be doing. So, So, the next item on our agenda is the annual Q Comp reports and I would like to invite speakers Kamala Niffenegger outgoing Q Comp coordinator and Kristen Lorenz incoming Q Comp coordinator to the podium. Welcome both. >> Board Chair Alt Directors and Superintendent Daniels. Thank you for having us with you this evening. My name is Kamala Niffenegger and I am the current but outgoing Q Comp coordinator as well as a continuous improvement coach or CIC in our district. Tonight I'm excited to introduce to you Kristen Lorenz. She has been a CIC supporting Harriet Bishop Vista View Elementary Virtual Academy and a few staff at St. John's over the past 3 years. She is the incoming Q Comp coordinator for the 2026-2027 school year. The Quality Compensation or commonly known as Q Comp is built around four core components shown on the right side of the slide. While annual program review has always been required by the Minnesota Department of Education updated guidance in recent years has encouraged deeper analysis of one or two focus areas rather than a broad review of all components. Although we continue to monitor each component annually areas of deeper study are selected based on prior review findings alignment with district initiatives emerging district-wide trends and updates to state statute requirements. This year our review focused specifically on probationary teacher support provided by continuous improvement coaches or CICs within the career ladder advancement options as well as the implementation of updated rubrics with the teacher evaluation component. This evening we will share key highlights from our annual review and present recommendations for the 2026-2027 school year based on our findings along with program adjustments aligned to our most recent memorandum of understanding. >> In response to reduce budgetary revenue, structural adjustments will be implemented to self-sustain the Q-Comp program moving forward. Coaches in the Q-Comp program will now be referred to as Q-Comp coaches, replacing the previous title of continuous improvement coach or CIC. One coach will continue to serve in a half-time coordinator role. Five Q-Comp coaches will support both instructional and non-instructional licensed staff across 18 programs and sites that serve learners from birth to adulthood. This structure expands each coach's assignment to approximately four sites compared to the current model of two to three and is supported by a revised job description that narrows and clarifies the focus of the role. Q-Comp coaches will continue to conduct non-evaluative formative observations of tenured staff aligned to the Danielson Framework for Teaching. They will provide timely evidence-based feedback, facilitate reflective coaching conversations, and provide resources that support culturally responsive, standards-based, best practices. Within the three-year evaluative evaluation cycle, Q-Comp coaches will support teachers in developing and refining professional learning plans that align to student needs and using using data to write student learning goals that monitor impact on student growth. Q-Comp coaches will also provide structured support for probationary staff with specific implementation details continuing to be developed. Q-Comp coaches will collaborate with administrators to promote a shared understanding of instructional standards and aligned evaluation language. When requested, coaches will provide targeted support for teachers not meeting standards, including goal setting, action planning, and coaching aligned to improvement goals. This is the second year we've implemented district-wide learning walks to support the professional growth of our newest instructional staff. Participants visited classrooms to observe veteran teachers in practice, engaged in structured reflection, and were provided with opportunities to ask questions about instructional decisions to those they observed. In partnership with curriculum specialists, curricular look fors aligned to Danielson were incorporated into the elementary learning walks where observations focused on our tier one foundational literacy curriculums, Haggerty and Morphology. In addition, we modeled and observed instructional strategies in alignment with district initiatives, AVID in secondary and Catalyst in elementary. This year, coaches added an additional layer of support by conducting informal observations before and after learning walks. The purpose was to provide provision probationary teachers with actionable feedback and to support them with applying learning walk insights directly to their instructional practice. 81% of administrators, an increase of 28% from the previous year, reported clear evidence that teachers were implementing new strategies learned through learning walks. Administrators continue to highly value learning walks as a support for our newest instructional staff. 100% of administrators report valuing the process with 88% indicating they highly value it, an increase of 31% from last year. Next, you will hear directly from participants about their experiences with the informal observations and learning walk process. >> The informal observations have helped me One example being at the beginning of class, I have the kids doing some type of icebreaker question where I ask them the question while I give them hands and they discuss amongst each other that question, which is basically giving them an introduction to what is being taught that day. Something else that's really helpful to me when I started at the beginning of the year was changing my lessons almost like in a lecture type of way and with constructive feedback, I was able to kind of change that from going from just giving a lecture to getting the kids to interact a lot more. >> Um my facilitator was able to provide so much um a lot of feedback and strategies that I could use to um help with my teaching. Um she was actually modeled some uh collaborative strategies and just provided so much feedback to me. Um she was able to co-teach a literacy literacy lesson um and that was really amazing. Um that was really helpful to see in action how she was um structuring that lesson and managing the teams and just to see like how I could do and set clear expectations with the teams in my classroom. Um she also helped prepare resources like the visuals for my students for and that really helped me with the collaborative strategies in my classroom. >> Um as a universal teacher, I really found a lot of value in the learning walks because it allowed me to see my co-workers at work. It allowed me to learn the culture of the school and like the collaborativeness of our school culture. Um it also affirmed some of my teaching practice as I'm a more seasoned teacher um less of a newbie. And then it also was a really nice um provided nice information for me to help refresh and renew and improve my teaching practice as well. >> I'd say that the learning walk experience was really helpful um getting to see veteran teachers doing the content that I'm teaching and seeing how they did it, learning their tips and tricks, as well as getting to meet with other young new teachers as well, getting to see what's working for them, what's not working for them, and how we can Let's and make sure that we can be the most effective teachers we can possibly be. >> This year, we piloted two rubrics adapted from the Danielson instructional framework. The licensed professional staff rubric was a primary focus of this year's program review. Findings indicate strong overall effectiveness among administrators who evaluated staff using the rubric, 82% agreed or strongly agreed that it supported their ability to provide meaningful feedback on professional practice. In addition, approximately 81% of staff who were observed, evaluated, and coached using the rubric agreed or strongly agreed that agreed that domains two and three, the observable domains, were relevant to best practices within their roles. Domain four, which focuses on professional responsibilities, showed slightly overall slightly lower overall agreement at 75%. Though it received the highest number of strongly agreed responses. Domain one, planning and preparation, reflected the lowest agreement level at 70%. As a result of this review, the first recommendation is to further analyze quantitative and role-specific feedback to determine possible revisions to domain one of the rubric or needed professional development to improve clarity, relevance, and alignment. During the past two years, early childhood staff and administrators have expressed concerns that the current observation tool, the instructional rubric of the Danielson framework, does not fully reflect the developmental context of early childhood programs. This perceived misalignment, particularly within evaluative observations, contributes to anxiety among staff and a sense that early childhood practice is not fully represented or valued. In response, we recommend establishing a cross-functional team to explore possible adaptations to the instructional rubric to better reflect early childhood. We recommend continuing probationary learning walks to support the growth of new instructional staff and promote shared understanding of instructional instructional best practices. Cross-department collaboration will further refine probationary support for new to district employees, ensuring differentiated professional learning for staff entering with a varying levels of experience and serving in specialized roles. Finally, this year, we included a few tenured staff in learning walks when they transitioned into new roles within our district. For example, a former kindergarten teacher with strong student growth outcomes moved into a multilingual teaching role. Her reflection, highlighted on the right, illustrates how even highly experienced educators benefit from structured opportunities to observe, reflect, and learn within a new instructional context. Based on these finding findings, our final recommendation is to expand learning walk opportunities to include experienced staff who transition into new roles within our district. This can accelerate growth, strengthen instructional impact, and support successful role transitions regardless of years of experience. >> Thank you for your time this evening. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Um I will open it up for questions and comments, board members. No questions or comments? No? Um I just I don't know if it's a question or a comment, but I think um it'll come out. Um I this year I noticed um it what got me thinking was the fact that you highlighted the the difference between um new teachers versus experienced teachers. And And that's that's new to this report. Um and the importance of for fact that, you know, we as a as a district, you know, we do have our own culture and we're looking for um teachers that fit into our culture and at the same time when they get here, we want to make sure that we're giving them um the additional tools um to be able to teach and and it sounds like we have some more work to do with that. Is that Is that fair or there's there's there's additional fine-tuning? >> I think fine-tuning. We've focused a lot on instructional support of probationary staff, but probationary staff um ranges from school psychs, right, to nurses. So, that range is so wide um that we we have yet to like expand to like what does the best support look like for those specialized roles, probably. And it doesn't all live in Q Comp, right? There's also other positions that support those roles in mentoring and onboarding, but I think it's more cross-collaboration because we on the instructional side see the need for probably growth in support with like our special ed department. We've talked about what would learning walks look like with teachers in the resource setting or focus setting as well. Um so, we can continue to modify, I think, to best meet the needs based off the staff that we see. >> Awesome. Well, thank you both. Always appreciate the the teacher leaders that are in the Q Comp program um and the time that that um Kamali you have invested in the role and uh looking forward to hearing again from you. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> And next on our agenda, uh we will be learning about uh hearing from Dr. Daniels, superintendent, and um Julie Babe, Team Works senior consultant, on district priorities and the strategic planning process. >> Wait, I'm sorry. Thank you, Chair Alt. Yes, tonight I will be presenting the priorities that um our district will be engaging in next school year, and I will also be introducing to you Julie Babe, a consultant from Teamworks that Aaron and I have met with, and we've identified Teamworks as the partner we would like to work with um to engage in the strategic planning process for our district next school year. So, as a part of this presentation, the agenda will include the background and purpose, the why behind why we are presenting priorities, and talking about a strategic plan. Um the process that we engaged in to develop the priorities for next school year, um an overview of the priorities, the structure, um and how we came to that conclusion, and then we're going to zoom in and take a closer look at the work that we've done already this school year around facilities planning, um the new model around instructional coaching that we will have, which we call learning coaches for next school year, and taking a closer look at our strategic planning um process that we would like to engage in next year. So, um as you all are aware, I spent a lot of time, Aaron and I spent a lot of time listening and learning across the school district um to different stakeholder groups. And there were several resounding themes that I presented to the board and to the community that arose from those conversations, and two of those themes um were around a need for clarity and a need for improved communications with our internal stakeholders. So, the purpose of me um sharing the priorities for next school year is to be clear. Um you all probably are familiar with um Dare to Lead and Brené Brown, and one one phrase in that book that people repeat all the time is clear is kind. And so, we want to be kind to ourselves, we want to be kind to our our teachers, our staff members, and our community, and identify truly what the priorities are. There was also a need for improved communication with our internal stakeholders. People wanted to know what was going on, and they did not want to know what has happened. They wanted to be engaged in the process as we work through things and work through issues in our school district. And so, this is is also an opportunity to underscore this need for further communication and improved communication within our school district. This process in which we engaged in to identify our priorities was not a process in which my team worked on in isolation. This was a very collaborative process in which we engaged with members of the executive leadership team, also members of our principal leadership team, our coordinators and our directors were involved in the planning as well. And we also, as we developed the priorities, in sought input from stakeholder groups. We also worked with Wendy's BEA executive leadership team to present what we had come up with for them to ask questions and further refine what we were proposing to the larger district and to to you all tonight. And from there, we also took the show on the road and Director Buchanan as well as Assistant Superintendent um um Belmont, they I would say did a road show and visited with building leadership teams across the district to share the priorities for BLTs to provide feedback and input around the priorities. So, the the process has been and and the process has been an iterative one for us to come up with the final draft that we are presenting to you all tonight. Within the presentation, you will see um the priorities that we are presenting. Um I want you all to know and reassure you that the priorities are indeed grounded in our strategic road map, and also are aligned to the budget that I proposed to you all a few months ago. And we have bucketed the work and what is our identified technical work, what is the continuous improvement work we will be engaging in as a school district, our district level initiatives, as well as program and building level initiatives that have been identified by the leaders of those buildings or programs. So, technical initiatives are initiatives that um are operational in nature. They typically do not require a significant amount of new learning, and um typically we can just readily engage in some type of process or some type of technical learning in order to engage in the work. And so, one of our um technical initiatives includes the work around what we need to do as um a read act expectation and mandate um for students who are not reading at grade level in grades 4 through 12, and identify why they are not reading at grade level. And so, we have to give the CAP T basis basics screener to all students in grades 4 through 12 who are not reading at grade level to see if it's due to dyslexia or other um impediments that may be um in the way of them truly learning how to read. You've heard me say um we need to work on our internal communications, and so that is also a technical initiatives initiative. I'm sure you all are aware of the concerns that are coming up um in our community, across the country, perhaps, um around technology. And so, we are engaging in work next school year to ensure that, um, we are a district that is using technology, um, purposefully and not overusing technology, not over-relying on technology. And so, we'll be working on that as well. Educlimber is the data warehouse for the district and we are, um, using Educlimber not just to store data, but how are we using that data to truly drive what we're doing at the site level, at the district level, and at the classroom level, program level, etc. We will also be engaging in a math standards review process for grades K through 8, a math curriculum review for grades 9 through 12. Of course, we will continue the work that we've begun this year around safety, security, and facilities. And we will be working with the new, um, director of student support and engagement to ensure that we are shoring up our threat assessment process to ensure that it is clear and it is consistent across all sites. Continuous improvement work is the work that, um, is already in place. It may be a process, a structure, um, something that is already in place that's embedded within the culture of our school district. However, we need to continually work on it to refine and improve, um, what we're currently doing. And so, a few things that we are, um, doing under the umbrella of continuous improvement is working on our collaborative collaborative teams, which are our professional learning communities communities to make sure that we are truly leveraging data to determine what we need to do at an adaptive level to adjust instruction to meet the needs of our students and curriculum as well. Of course, leadership is where it is. Leadership sets the floor and the ceiling for everything that happens within programs, within buildings, um, within our schools. And so, we will be continuing to work on leadership development for our principals, directors, and building leadership teams. We received a grant to um relaunch our pathways. We celebrated 10 years of having pathways this school year, and we are working already to do the work of relaunching pathways. Looking at what we currently have in place, how do we refine, how do we support, how do we prune perhaps what we do not need, and um continuing to do that work um next school year. Also, we um are seeing a huge demand and push for more students in special education, and we need to determine is it truly a need, is that real, or are we over-identifying students? How do we determine if we're over-identifying students? Is making sure that our pre-referral process, our staff process, is tight, is clear, is consistent, um is equitable, um is data-driven, um so we are not um over-identifying students for special education. And of course, the meat and potatoes for why we exist, um instruction, learning. And so we will be looking at our instructional practices, ensuring that what we are doing at the classroom level is supporting um academics as well as the social-emotional learning of all students, including our special ed students and our ML students. Um and another thing that has been made very loud and clear um in listening sessions and in my conversations is how we are improving our co-teaching practices as a district. District-level initiatives are the adaptive things that we have identified that will be new learning. Um it will be new learning, it may require a shift in mindset, a shift in beliefs, a shift in paradigm, and this can be heavier, weightier work. And this is the work that will be happening across the district at all sites um for us to move the needle around achievement and experiences for our students. Um some of the district level initiatives um are AI guidance, which you will hear a little bit about tonight in our work session. Um, our learning coach work, our learning coach process that will be driven by um coaching cycles and what we've identified as priorities at um the secondary level, the elementary level, and middle level as well. Um, our strategic planning process, which you're going to hear more about, and we're going to continue to work on the facilities planning process work that we've begun this year. In early childhood and communica- in community education, um we are seeing our smallest learners come in with um multilingual needs. And so, how are we providing those multilingual supports? And so, that has been identified this year as a priority for next year. Um, continue to work on social emotional learning for our earliest learners or earliest learners and the best practices around that work. And at the elementary level, common formative assessments for the new literacy curriculum, we um have rolled out Haggerty. The new literacy curriculum we will be implementing, which is um um I think EL Foundations. We'll be implementing how are we doing that and implementing that with fidelity to make an impact on our student achievement. And then the new science curriculum that we will be implementing at the K-5 level. With our I think is with Is it with our um I I I don't want to make anything up. I won't make anything up. So, digital learning specialist. >> Yep. Yep. Yep. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. And then for secondary, grading for equity, the seven principles um in grades 6 through 12, the new social studies curriculum through grades 6 through 12, Read Act phase two. Our um leaders are already engaging in training, strive training to move from balanced literacy into what are the the structured literacy practices that we should be engaging in and leading at um a leadership level and seeing in our classrooms. Um at the middle school level, um how do we take our learning targets and develop success criteria to truly target feedback and understand if we are on track to attain for our students to attain the learning target. And our school within a school intervention model in which we are partnering with um community education in order to fund that at the middle school level. Then principals and program leaders have developed initiatives for their buildings and programs. And in community ed and early childhood, um they will be innovating around the KinderSpark program, um continuing to um um build out grade six project kids, and continue the work around pathways development and adult basic education, which you heard about a couple of weeks ago. At the elementary level, our teams have done a lot of work around Catalyst, which is a um a framework to truly engage students positively um in the classroom. It helps the teacher develop um routines um and um use use their bodies and use um certain strategies in order to um maximize engagement of students and minimize um confusion and disruption in classrooms. And so that is something that we'll be engaging in at the elementary level, grades K through five. At the middle school level, implementing Avid schoolwide structures. And at Nicolet, they will be um piloting the data wise protocol to look at their data. At the high school, at Baas and VA and grade nine in our ninth grade academy, they will be engaging in the SEL pilot that we'll be rolling out next year. Another priority next year is how we are truly um encouraging students who are not typically encouraged or not typically seen um in our rigorous courses to access those rigorous courses and be successful. And how we are working across the high school to improve student engagement. Um we need to move from passive engagement and engaging um through Schoology and truly actively engaging students, activating their brains in order for them to learn. Um I would like to focus us on the facilities work that we've done um this year and preparation for next year. This year we have include and completed the internal discussion with our building and program leaders, the third-party study, and we have completed the staff survey. However, for next year we will continue to work to evaluate needs, um continue to engage our staff and community, and develop options to address the um needs that have been identified for us to move forward with that facilities planning work. Another area I would like us to focus in on is um the instructional coaching or the the learning coach model. You all know that that is a structural change and uh uh an addition and I see it as a value added um for our school district um next school year. And we will be truly working to support that position to build teacher capacity, um also strengthen grade level alignment, and again, it's about student achievement. Um we also want to improve the experiences of our students with this model, and um last week we announced the 11 hires we made, and my team is preparing to do another round of interviews to identify the remaining coaches we need for this model. And last and certainly not least, um I want us to focus on the strategic planning process because as we talk about priorities, um and I know that the the the district has um a strategic road map, and we have aspirational parts of a strategic plan like our values and our mission our vision but I would like these priorities to ultimately be nestled under um strategies goals and strategies and so we will be talking about a strategic planning process to determine the goals by engaging our community engaging our staff engaging students engaging stakeholders to identify what those goals should be and to move to specific action in which we leverage our priorities um as opportunities to get to attaining those goals. So with that I'm going to wrap up my part of the presentation. I'm going to invite Julie Babe up to share with you what she has shared with Aaron and me and we want to share this with you all. Um she's going to give an overview and I will be working with the board to determine the elements of what she's proposing that we will actually roll out and present to the larger staff and district um as result of the board's decision. So Julie thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Daniels and and thank you so much um members of the board for having me here tonight. Um I came on a good night. You got I mean it's it was fun to hear all the seriously the celebrations. I'm like wow wait and I I live in Minnetonka and your chess team beat I was LIKE WAIT I'M SUPPOSED to root for my team. I was just I I was just really blown away. So um wow I mean you guys have an incredible district and I and I'm just here to share with you a little bit about Teamworks our strategic planning process what sets us apart um and uh and with that just you know we work with school districts of all types and sizes rural metro um around the Midwest primarily Minnesota we're based here in Minnesota. Um but with all the districts that we engage in um our goal is to help districts move from directional ambiguity to directional clarity and we do that in a variety of ways. Strategic planning is one of those ways. We also do um board development work. We do leadership development with admin teams. Uh we have uh data analytics team that helps with enrollment projection work for um long-range planning for districts. Um and then we have a really uh robust guiding change process and decision-making framework when a district is faced with a boundary change decision or even the middle school bell schedule is changing. We have a really nice process to help districts engage their stakeholders and come up with innovative solutions that work within the confines of the their budget and um and you know, the needs that they have as far as timing, etc. But with everything we do, the desired daily experiences of students, staff, and families are at the heart of all of our work of delivering on those needs and making sure those are met. And we do that through excellence, supporting excellence in governance, excellence in management, and excellence in engagement. We have worked with over 300 districts, mostly in the Midwest here in the state of Minnesota. Um our team of seven senior consultants and uh seven associate consultants have a collective 400-plus years of experience in education. We all come from different experiences, backgrounds, um but we all come together to with this purpose of serving um our school district clients. Um and and through all these ways that I've just described. I have most of my So, I'm a senior consultant. I guess I didn't really give much of an intro, but I'm a a senior consultant. I've been with the um company for about 4 years. Um and uh most of the work I'd say about 90% is strategic planning facilitation. And when I wrap up a strategic planning process with a district, I love to just sit with the superintendent and ask kind of an exit interview, "How did it go? What Like after maybe 3 to 6 months, what's sticking? What What are the friction points? What And so, this was direct just notes from one of the district um superintendents I talked to after he had gone through this process. What he really liked was the alignment he's feeling and seeing now instead of operating silos, we're really walking together with the arrows pointing in the same direction. And that gives him a lot of comfort and confidence, um, in decision-making when the fires come up. Um, he said, you know, I just would feel overwhelmed, but now everything feels achievable. I have this plan to come back to. I have a sense of clarity and an understanding of our why. And I asked, okay, what were the not so great parts, you know, what And he just, well, it's a lot of time. It is. It's a big investment of time, but he said it was worth it. So, we did go through an entire school year of, you know, of work and commitment, um, but I'm so glad that we did. And what is different about our process, we set you up with a system for continuous improvement, not just a static plan that starts to wither away and becomes irrelevant. Cuz as we know in education, things change. The read act comes up. There's We don't know what's ahead, but we will set you up with a system to be responsive to those emerging influences and changes. Um, and the other thing the superintendent talked about is the outcomes of the process that came from us. It's not a TeamWorks plan. It is your plan. And I'm seeing all this great work that you guys are doing, that will be acknowledged. We're not going to start over. We're going to say, okay, look at all this great work we're doing, but we're going to start to align it by strategic directions and incorporate the voices of your stakeholders so that we are truly delivering on their desired experience when a staff member comes to work, when a student comes to school. We want to understand what they need and make sure the plan acknowledges that. The other thing about our process that everyone in the district has an important role to play, but at TeamWorks, we're really mindful of, um, roles and responsibilities and having you come to the table at an appropriate time, right? So, for instance, we don't have parents on the strategic planning team. We do That is the, um, professional educators of the district who sit on the strategic planning team, but we do engage with parents when we facilitate our focus groups to understand their desired daily experience. What do you want to experience on a daily basis and through surveys and providing opportunities for feedback on the strategic roadmap and other steps in the process. I'm going to talk about more about roles, the role that the board plays, the role that students have and families play. This is a graphic that shows you all of our pieces of the the components of our strategic planning process with the strategic roadmap at the top. That's your mission, vision, core values and strategic directions and that's your North Star that sits on top of all of this work. And I know you guys have a strategic roadmap and many times when I facilitate this with districts that have a roadmap, we will look at it and we will um you know, acknowledge all the work that has been done by the strategic planning team and talk about should we some districts will do a little revision to the roadmap after going through the process. We do this last by the way, not first but last. So, we call this process classroom to boardroom because we literally start at the classroom level talking to students, talking to staff, talking to families to understand their needs. That's the beginning of the process and we call it classroom to boardroom because we end with the board when we look at your strategic roadmap and all the assessment work that's been done to be able to wrap up that process and do that roadmap at the end. On the left-hand side you see the district three-year continuous improvement plan. So, that is a tool that will be developed and is overseen by the office of the superintendent. It's aligned by your district's three to five strategic directions. We recommend that this is updated annually. Again, it's a system and it's informed by your district vision card. The vision card is our measures and metrics, um, to track the district's continuous improvement. Um, and it serves as a communication tool between the board and the office of the superintendent. Using that vision card, it provides new inputs for your your continuous improvement plan. So, when when, uh, a year is up, when you've, um, you know, your three-year plan, and when a school year is over, you'll look at your district vision card to look at opportunities and gaps, um, that can then be added as initiatives on the three-year plan. So, it's a key part that keeps it a system, um, where you're identifying gaps, opportunities, and things that you can add to your three-year plan. And then we also help the board of education develop a three-year governance plan. So, that is organized by your five key roles of the board, and that works in partnership with the the three-year continuous improvement plan that's overseen by the office of the superintendent, um, to drive continuous improvement of your district. And then at the center are those desired daily experiences of students, staff, and families. Um, that really sets the vision for the plan, and is something that's not just, um, and I'm going to kind of share some examples. Actually, I'm going to go ahead and go right here. This is a screenshot of a district's vision card, the desired daily experience section. So, these are statements that came directly from students, staff, and families from this district, and then they did a survey to measure level of agreement with those statements. And then you see that vision card performance score, one through five, and the lower scores will give the district a kind of a, you know, okay, we're we've got these twos here. What can we do in the upcoming school year? What can we add to our three-year continuous improvement improvement plan to address these needs? Things like sufficient planning time for staff. Um, you know, my teachers use a variety of methods that are engaging, interactive, and fun, and that was 64% of students. So, this is data for the office of the superintendent to look at opportunities to add that continuous improvement work from a culture and climate standpoint. So, these statements they they start with focus groups. So, we we do meet with students, staff, and families here directly from them. And the question is simple, what do you want your when you come to school as a student, what do you want that day to look like, sound like, feel like on a daily basis? And same with staff and families. And with that work, we look for themes with the help of the planning team looking at all of that input, and we share those statements back out through a survey with students, staff, and families to validate those themes. And this is something that we recommend measuring on an annual basis, the level of agreement with those statements. What I think is really helpful about the desired daily experience as part of the plan, it really anchors your mission in real lived experiences. It helps promote alignment among the adults in your system, and it really helps the district stay accountable to what really matters in terms of experience for the student, staff, and families. I mentioned the vision card, and this is just a screenshot of dashboard, and we custom design this for every district so they look different for every district, but they all have an achievement section. We always recommend a desired daily experience section. Some choose to have an initiative implementation section. And then we have a section typically on operational measures. That can be staff retention, financial health. So, these what you see on this dashboard are composite scores. Behind the composite scores are individual measures. So, for instance, achievement is for this district, you know, MCAs, FastBridge. I believe they, you know, so there's different kindergarten readiness, on track to graduate, and that creates a composite score that's then weighted. And this is that cover page. Um so, this is a just an at-a-glance look at district continuous improvement and all of these ways. And again, it helps inform updates to your 3-year continuous improvement plan. The 3-year continuous improvement plan is organized over 3 years by the three to five strategic directions that come out of this process that are that are identified through your strategic planning team. And really it it's it serves as a superintendent's table of contents of all the continuous improvement work that your district is doing organized by these strategic directions. All of the bullets that are on here are supported by a what we call an action card. So, it's a um One second. Apologize. I had an alarm going off on my phone. Like, oh, somebody's phone is going off, but that would be mine. Um So, our action cards identify the who, when, why, what of every initiative. So, it helps as a implementation tool to carry out these initiatives. And it is a dynamic living document. There is that link as I mentioned between the vision card and the operational plan. Each informs the other. And this also helps your district recognize capacity and what needs to leave the system in order to implement well. And this is just a screenshot of the action card. And I mentioned roles and responsibilities. And so, each part of our process different people come to the table depending on the the deliverable or the part of the plan. And we do engage, as I mentioned, students, staff, families, and the community. We have a really great at the beginning of the process a session um we call story walls. So, it's looking at your district's history. Um we invite alumni and former staff members, your you know, current staff, um uh leaders in your community. And so, and administrators and we tell the story of your district going back to the person who has the most history in the room. I've done this with people who can talk to the 1960s, whether they were a student in the 1960s or a I had a session this fall with some former staff members who I think graduated in the 70s and then worked in the district and you know, in the late 70s and onward. So, um we get that historical context early on um to understand where you've been to be able to pave that path forward. Um and the environmental scan is another opportunity where we invite the community in in a a greater um bigger group. Um and then your uh strategic planning team will be developing that three-year operational plan, the vision card, um your school and department improvement plans. And then working with the board, we'll develop that strategic road map, your three-year governance plan. Um and we also do a session called um board structure and workflow. So, we look at it's kind of PD, but it's a really helpful um kind of add-on at the end of the process to look at how you guys are working together and how to um up-level that to best support your strategic planning work. And this is just looking at the the work in phases. So, um we're proposing that we would start in the fall um and the process would wrap up in the spring. Um typically most districts take about 6 to 9 months to comfortably go through the process um meeting you know, once or twice a month um to be able to complete that process. Um so, just wrapping up um our process is a system, not a static plan. That really sets us apart. The vision card is uh works in partnership with your plan to um be able to keep it up-to-date. We're really mindful about roles and responsibilities and who participated at what point about involving your entire community and making sure everyone is involved. The desired daily experiences are a key element as well, which really grounds your plan in the needs of your students, staff, and families. And this process is really adaptable. I've worked with districts of all sizes. Literally like as small as 300 to thousands. And we work with you when we design this up front to really understand where you're coming from, starting from what your needs are to make sure that we're truly meeting your needs as we go through this in partner on this together. Um and being able to, you know, engage in this, it's a system and um I think that uh it's something that will help you guys uh kind of set you up for success in the future um with the tools that we provide in this process. So, this is just a little snapshot of our team and um I thank you for the time and I'd love to hear what questions you guys have um for me. >> Awesome. Thank you very much, Julie. Um so I I think so we have kind of two two different presentations that we've heard tonight um so far. Um and how about if we start with Dr. Daniels communication and clarity first if there are questions or comments about Dr. Daniels portion and then uh we'll move to to the teamworks part. Are there any Yes, Dr. uh Vice Chair Human >> Whatever. >> Yes, you. >> Me? That was a lot of information. I was thinking as while you were talking, we could probably have an entire report about each individual slide, maybe even each individual bullet point on that. So, the depth and breadth of what you're talking about it next year as far as the priorities is a lot. Which is great. And it's a lot. >> It's a lot. >> It's a lot. You're going to have your hands full. Um >> Oh, yeah. >> I'm sure I've got a question. Not sure how I'm going to ask it, but I'm just going to throw it out there. >> Just ask it. >> If we get to a point where you perhaps realize that I was right how might one go about saying, well, this might need to wait until year three because you can only do so much in year two? >> Mhm. >> What what's your thought process if things come down where you have to prioritize >> Mhm. >> among the many great things that you want to do in the next year? >> Yeah, and and and I want to be clear is not what I want to do. >> You meaning >> Yeah, it's your team. It's what's It's It's really us organizing in a lot of ways what's already happening and what needs to happen. Um so, it's it's putting it in a package in a container. I mean, this doesn't even include everything that we are are doing, but how do we identify the drivers of professional development and the things that we really want people to focus on next year? And I would um to answer your question, I would say it's adaptive. And so, as with learning period, we have to collect data. It's a It will be a data-informed process. And how do we adjust if it does appear to be too much? How do we adjust and um manage those adjustments? And so, that's how I'll respond to your question um directly to you is that this is what the team, which is why it was important for us not to do it in isolation. Um my team is nodding their heads because we brought as many people to the table as possible to say, "You know what? What are the priorities? What do we need to focus on? Um what's happening that um we need to bring into greater focus?" Um and what do we know? Like we know we have to implement a new literacy curriculum next year. We know we need to continue to work on catalyst strategies to make sure our classrooms are physically and psychologically um um safe and orderly for students um to learn. And so those were um things that the team identified, and we just continue to refine um that, but it will be a data-driven process, and we will adjust where necessary. >> Sure. One more. Um as with any change process, I think the communication and implementation piece, you know, the devil is in the details as they say. Um again, this is a lot of information. Um so your my unsolicited advice for you is whatever we can do to communicate and make sure that we're bringing the staff, bringing the families, bringing the community, bringing the students along with us is going to be extremely important for the success of all these initiatives. >> Yes. >> But I know you know that. >> Yes. Yes. And so um Director Hume, and you shared that you I mean you shared that all along even with what I've proposed with the um budget, um how we bring people >> a broken record with that. >> that that's it and it it is it is. It is. Um change should be managed, and we are um working to improve in areas that have been identified as areas of opportunity for us. Um so the team this is why the team has worked with principals, worked with directors, worked with building leadership teams, worked with the executive leadership team of the BEA. Um and actually tomorrow all of the priorities will go out to the larger staff. So there is an understanding of this is what the work is um for next year in these buckets. So, people are aware and as we onboard our new um directors, they will understand what the work is as as well that they will be responsible for in partnership with their supervisors. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. >> And I saw another yes, Director Mickelson. >> Um so, I just want to ask and kind of be clear that um Teamworks is is new working with the district on this. I mean, it's like they haven't been doing that the last 3 years kind of thing. Are they replacing someone else? This is kind of new. Bring in. Okay, that makes >> It it from what I understand in meeting with I met Julie Bay probably at the beginning of the the probably in the winter. I met Julie Bay. But the beginning of the school year, I met with um Aaron and I met with Christine Robleski from Teamworks and she has and Teamworks have done work with the district and this is why you have the frameworks, you know, guiding change documents and etc. This is why those um pieces are in place. I would say that the strategic planning process that we will be engaging in perhaps will be new with Teamworks. I think that that is something that is new, but I we do have an existing relationship with Teamworks. >> And um so, I'll I'll have a couple of questions here throughout this. Um that kind of with what Director Hill was talking about in terms of having a long list, there's a lot of things there. I mean, is that one of the reasons just in terms of resources why we're bringing in Teamworks? Is that or is that long list something that was a result of starting to talk with Teamworks? I guess chicken or egg, which you know. >> I you know, when as you listen to her presentation even perhaps as you listen to mine, You know, I want to be clear and I've shared this with um Chair I want to be very clear with the board and with the district that the work we're doing is not the work that Dr. Daniels wants to do. >> Mhm. >> I think that there needs to be a process in which we engage stakeholders to identify, going back to what Julie shared, the desired daily experience of students, of staff, of parents, and how are we building around that goals and strategies to accomplish that. Um and so I want to be very clear that um I am not 100% driving anything. This is a collective a voice I mean a process that has been very intentional about getting collective voices to determine where we're going. So it's not about this is what Daniels and her executive leadership team is doing. This is what we are doing. This is what you all have identified as priorities for us to work on to improve achievement in the experiences of students and families and staff in our district. >> So Two Marks was kind of that facilitator of that back and forth and that communication kind of thing, kind of being into kind of do that. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Um and I'm just kind of curious. I don't know. As far as sometimes it's very easy to have a lot of cool looking charts and a lot of cool looking stuff and messaging and you know, all of that, but yet the day-to-day doesn't really change. >> Mhm. >> Um you know, there's there's you know, some some you know, fun and meetings and and things that might be happening. So I just as a comment, I'll look forward to over the next year year two kind of hearing, you know, have how things are are changing and what's happening as a result of this kind of more at that granular, you know, at all the different levels. Um, you know, not only just when things are being communicated to staff or administrators or whatever, but but what we're we're really seeing um uh happening and and I think it'll show in the data. >> What I hear you saying is you don't want a performance. Right. And I I I don't either. I don't want a performance. Um, I want what we do to live in the daily practice. And so I say that to teachers um and I had to say that a lot in my former district when I would visit classrooms. Oh, Dr. Daniels is coming to the classroom. I want to I like I I don't want to see the performance. I don't want to see the show. I want to see the practice. And so that's what I hear you saying. And so um I think that that will be clear and evident in as you said in in what you hear in presentations and uh again how it bears out in um data and um other metrics and indicators that we will identify. >> Mhm. >> Mhm. So, thank you. >> Mhm. >> Great. Thank you. Uh Dr. Chester. >> Yeah. Um, just to being in the non-profit sector, um, we go through a lot of strategic planning because in order to and just thinking about what you've unveiled and in collaboration with with Teamworks is like you >> could say, "Yeah, I want change. I know change is coming." But you need a process to be able to get there. >> Mhm. >> And being able to have those kind of conversations and it really does benefit having an external organization who is actually skilled in in helping lead and direct um than doing it necessary I mean, once you sometimes Okay. So, caveat, uh 917 unveiled what they were doing for their strategic plan. They did it internally. Which isn't bad because I think they had team works before. So you set a great example in which they kind of took some of like we can we can do it internally. Um that it really does help identify what those goals are. Breaks it down into buckets into what you want to achieve or learn in year one to year two to year three. And kind of like Dr. Dr. Dr. Hume was saying was what you presented is a lot and I figured it's layered. So that yes this is kind of inspiring and there's things that we're going to need to do to address that bullet. And it I don't know if it was like definitive like this is accomplished in this year as much as this is what we've identified that we need to address this year and you will learn in the process. >> Right. Thank you for saying that Dr. Chester because for example you saw K2 literacy the implementation of that. Well that is what that we're doing right now. Heggerty that will continue. So some things are in year one, some things are in year two like Catalyst training. That's work I mean I want to say William Byrd they've been doing Catalyst for a while. Other elementary schools they are new to Catalyst. And so for William Byrd Catalyst may be at year five implementation. But where is it in practice in the classrooms across the across the building. Whereas in other schools it's in year two for next school year. So again we took things that we are already doing or things that need to be done due to legislation or curriculum review cycles and standards I mean curriculum implementation and said you know what let's put in this container, let's organize it and present it to the staff to to share with them exactly and very clearly what the work will be next next school year. >> And and then I going back to communication cuz like it was clarity and then like really framing up internal communication and I would say external and to some degree, too, is that um and I'm assuming this will happen anyway, um is that anything that is being communicated is going to be addressing back to those bullets or those highlights. It's like, "We're doing this because of this." So then that becomes the the common language, that clarity piece that I think will help with um keeping everybody informed and on the same page. >> Yes, so some of the priorities that we've identified, I've heard from my board of directors that, you know, you all want to see greater consistency in school reports next school year. So I would expect that you should expect to see how some of these priorities will be in all of the school reports next year. Again, for clarity, again, for alignment, for consistency. So, yes, Dr. Chester. >> Mhm. >> Thanks. >> Mhm. >> Thank you. And Director Ware, I saw you had your hand up. >> So, I just wanted to present kind of like my take on all this because um when I look at what you're doing and I look at what we have done, I feel like this is a huge shift and something that we we didn't have previously as far as when we were um creating our um strategic plan with with this much depth. There wasn't this much depth. And that was what it was lacking. Because I mean, just like when you um create goals, they have to be attainable. And so I don't think anything that you've put in here isn't attainable. And just I would be I get I guess I would be concerned if we didn't have a long list. If we had a short list cuz I would be like, well, then there's something wrong because there's so many things that constantly are changing and we need improvements. So, I'm not scared by the list just to make it known. I'm not scared by the list. >> Oh, I'm not scared of it. I'm just saying there's a lot. >> I know, but it's But, um I believe that with having a firm like Teamworks, that's the the piece that was missing before and they will help us with mapping this out and making sure it is attainable. That's what I see. I mean, that's what I'm sure you see as well. >> Thank you, Director. Yes. >> Yeah. >> Mhm. >> Because they'll help us lay that foundation and put it forth to our district in a way that it's makes sense and then I fully believe that the communication will be because that was another thing I felt was lacking with our prior uh rolling out of the strategic plan. It just it didn't seem very like it didn't have any oomph. >> Thank you, Director. >> You're welcome. >> Director Saxby. >> Thank you. Um agree on the the list is long and that's okay. Um I think it's important that at least in the background if the list is going to be that long, we need to have it prioritized and at least into tiers of priorities. Um there's so much of it and then once that stuff actually starts happening and then something bizarre happens like operation metro surge and throws all everything into chaos, you need to be able to go back and all right, these are now the three that we're going to focus on for the rest of the year because otherwise if it's all equally important and it's all it is all important, but if it's all equally important, we're >> going to struggle when we get off plan slightly. So, I don't know my one question and following from the amount of information we just went through, I'm surprised I'm going this far into the weeds, but I was just curious about the grade six project kids vision. Is that Is that before and after school um site at the middle schools? >> You know, I need to uh let me find out. >> Okay. >> It's It's yes. It's yes. >> If you would like those details >> We'll get We'll get you more information. No rush. >> I don't I don't have a whole lot more to say than what has been said. Um I a thing that I hope could come out of this as far as clarity and communication goes um is that not just that we are telling everybody the things, but that we're s- we're giving the information in a way that is understandable to the lay people >> Mhm. >> so to speak. As a parent uh if you're not an educator, you're not you don't know the biz, you don't know the jargon, whatever you want to say, you know, um some of this can just mean nothing. >> Mhm. >> If if we don't really um have it presented in a way that um is um understandable. >> I I hear that. And Aaron and I have discussed what that could look like. We even talked about perhaps even building a a What is it? A webpage? A a a landing page? A landing page a landing page around um this, but I received that, and that's something we work on. >> Mhm. All great comments. Thank you. Um so, on this first part, I will have my own comments as well, and then we'll go to specifically the the teamworks portion of the of the conversation. Um one thing that did strike me and that I would just really delighted me was the fact Dr. Daniels that your leadership has sparked um real energy to create this list. Um in it in addition to the fact that much of it is already ongoing and and you know and your team came up with this very long list. And so so you know kudos kudos to the team um and just know that you know what I'm hearing is you have our support and you know however it needs to morph whatever might come our way um you have our support and and understanding and it sounds to me as though there may be along the way conversations around either retreats and or work sessions so that we can so that we can understand what all is going on um and just in terms of the strategic planning I appreciate that doing doing the strategic plan in house is always tough because our our team has limited resources limited time and so bringing in an outside firm kind of lifts that burden off of our staff's shoulders and you can really just focus and do that um with the support of our team to kind of help facilitate internally. Um and also I appreciate it's it's never lost on me that the fact that we're very data rich. We've always been data rich. What we do with that data is so very important and I'm really excited with at the at the prospect of what we are going to be able to do with that to make a difference for our students and our families. And also to divest ourselves again because we've gone through this before um the divest the divestment process and I think we're probably right for that again and I'm glad that that's in our in our parlance that, you know, there are probably some things that we're just kind of doing and maybe we need to look at them and say, "Yeah, it's it's time to put this one to bed, you know." And maybe there's something else either that we're already doing or uh well, probably we're already doing it and it just needs a little more energy. >> Right. Right. >> Um Now, for the team works portion of the conversation, um do we have specific questions for Julie? Director Werb. >> So, when does this process process begin? >> Exactly. >> Well, with where we're at right now, I mean, my recommendation would be uh we start with a co-design process with the office of the superintendent just to map out logistics, the timing, and um the communication. We have a lot of template invitation letters. All these things are kind of ready to go that you can customize and make your own, but we would just share all of the logistical pieces sometime this summer with the idea that we would kick off early in the school year with there is a session we call the educational leadership system that we do with your administrative team leaders and the board to kick the whole process off. Um and then we would go into focus groups and you know, you have just hit the ground running at the beginning of the school year. Um depending on the district, we um as I mentioned, the cadence is usually maybe one to two meetings a month and get you into the spring and you'll have everything wrapped up in the spring. Um So, yeah. It it's yeah, but start the beginning of the school year. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Raven. >> Yeah. How often, if at all, are you going to be meeting with staff, students, or family members? Are you a main contact with the board and um members of the administration, or are you facilitating conversation, or is it you give advice to the board and administration and they talk to family, staff, and students? >> That's a great question. So, I will be your district's facilitator for everything. So, I facilitate the focus groups. Um so, I meet with um you know, I'll meet with maybe 30 uh well, it depends on the district and we have to map all this out, but I'll focus groups about 25 to 30 middle school students, high school students, families of secondary students, families of elementary students and so, I am that facilitator and um and and what I recommend is it it is just me and not administrators or principals or board members so that they can feel free to share very freely with me. Um and then I also facilitate the strategic planning team. So, that's a cross-section of staff members and administrators who represent all of your programs, all of your schools. Um uh and uh I will lead them through a process um to assess your district's current reality. What are your district's strengths? What are your district's needs? That Story Well workshop um where we look at your district's history. So, all of that work, I am your facilitator, um but I'm facilitating different groups. Sometimes I'm facilitating the board, sometimes I'm facilitating with your administrative leaders, sometimes it is the community, sometimes it's student, staff, and families, but I will be the common thread throughout, which is kind of cool because then I get to see um you know, it's kind of like I'm across the river and there's like all of these different um people painting pictures, but I'm seeing all the canvases. I'm seeing all the different, you know, versions of so I get to get the big big picture of what everyone is um, sharing and thinking and and I'm able to bring all that together as your facilitator of the process to to get you guys to the end point. >> Thank you. >> Good question. >> Quick detailed question. Do you bring a scribe? >> That's a great question. So I Okay, so for instance, for the focus groups, we do I we have a system where we self we create kind of self-facilitation moments. So I'll put people in groups of three or four with chart paper and they are going to share their desired daily experiences with their small group and then I move around the room, ask clarifying questions. I get it all scribed. So they scribe for me. But then I'm able to be there for everyone, hear what they have to say, try to clarify so I understand, but then we can get a lot of volume, you know, of input at the same time. So But yeah, then I use a lot of digital tools, too. So sometimes I'll use like Mural or Miro. I don't know if you guys are familiar with those tools, but so like digital whiteboards so that I can work quickly. Sometimes I do like old school paper and post-it notes. It kind of depends, but um, we have a a lot of different ways where we capture the information. Story wall, I literally put butcher paper up and people literally draw and write in their teams and they literally present the story of the 1970s and 191 and the story of the 1980s and the story and it's just filling the room and they are the scribes and they are the artists. Some people get really into it. They will go up to a printer, print stuff. But but they get to create that story wall and share back with the rest of the group. So Thank you. We we in in different ways. Yeah. Great. >> Other questions? Dr. Mickelson. >> I just want to say maybe I sounded a little negative before or what, but I I just I just I I I do want to say I'm very excited about this. I think that, you know, having you here to be able to have that I I think will help with consistent messaging and to be able to have the bandwidth to really dig into some of these things. Um you know, I I think part of it is you know, you'll have some really wonderful ideas and some things and then it's that the accountability for that implementation, you know, into that day-to-day kind of thing and and being able to really use all of the, you know, cool fancy stuff that you're going to be able to, you know, show us is is kind of that thing is how can we make sure that it's trickling down and and really getting used. So, um I I do want to say that I think it's, you know, I'm looking forward to what it is that's going to be happening over the next, you know, 3 years. So. >> There's thing we we definitely are continually learning from our clients, too. So, there's parts of our process that came from our clients. Like we have we call it the strategic planning hub, but it is just a one page of your current school year initiatives organized by the strategic directions with all of your strategic you know, planning components all linked in this one Google Doc. This just came from a district who said, "I just want to cuz we have the 3-year plan and that and that's a great tool." He's like, "I just want to see just this year and then he you know, then his team linked all the action cards just on one page. This is what we're focusing on." And we were like, "That's a great idea. Can we share that with our clients?" And of course so, it's something that those we we have continual dialogue with our clients like, "What are you actually using? What is working? How are you embedding this?" And then we share that back out with our clients. This is something that a district is using and it's helping them to keep track of things and it is there is so much beyond once I'm done with this process to embed it in the way you work on a daily basis. Um and so we we provide those tools and and share those best practices and give you examples. Here's what this district did, you know, so just that you have some you know, ways to to carry it forward. Even with communication, too. You know, here's how our districts have talked about strategic plan on the website when they kick it off. Like I'll get I'll provide all of those um things so that you guys aren't starting from scratch. So. >> It'll be nice cuz I think, you know, it'll be great to to not have, you know, all of the feedback that you'll get, all of the back and forth and the communication, you know, that it won't fall into like a black hole, that there won't be that kind of feeling, you know, just kind of what I'm hearing is yes, there's a lot of communication. There's a lot of um messaging that goes out with all of the different stakeholders, between them, you, us, you know, everyone. And so, you know, um we won't have that that feeling of I've shared all this, but I don't know where it went, what happened to it. >> Mhm. >> So. >> Yeah. So, that'll be nice. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Other questions? Comments? >> Cheryl, can I add one thing to to um also um respond to Director Hume's concerns about how much it is and, you know, for those of you. Um I wanted to just share that the reason why my team meets with um Wendy's executive leadership team, we co-created this group um in which we come together to discuss I mean, we met with them to even, again, review the um priorities. But next school year, we will be meeting with that group about three or four times next school year to gather input and data from them as to how things are going in order for us to adjust, if we need to adjust um our plan for next school year. And so, we will have checkpoints um throughout the year that you will hear about in a retreat or in my um um board update um in which I will share with you all, but we have built out checkpoints for next school year to check in to um see how things are going. So, I wanted to add that as well. I I forgot to add that, so I wanted to let you know that we're building in those um checkpoints to collect data. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. >> Any other comments? All right, I have a couple. Um Mhm. So, I'm sure this has come up before. Um in your focus groups, you had mentioned that you of course meet with students, staff, and families, and also the community. Um and as you were talking, I was thinking about our pathways program, of course. And the pathways, of course, bleeds into the community with our community leaders. Um so, we have both academics and community kind of in that Venn diagram. >> Yeah. >> How does that fit into your process? >> We sometimes do um and this is district-specific, not always, but many of our districts do um so, when I do the desired daily experience focus groups, I also we can do a community focus group, but the questions are different because they're not engaging with the district on a daily basis as a student. So, our questions are different for that. We ask about um what changes they'd like to see for students, staff, and families. Um so, from their lens as a community leader, what would they like to see? Um so, it's a bit more of a uh just getting their input from their role in the way that they engage with the district, what would they like to see change, what would they like to see happen. And so, we just we we set it up differently um the questions in that focus group, but we do have There's opportunities in our process to engage with the community. Also, in we we love to invite invite the community to be a part of story wall and this session we call environmental scan. So that's a scan of your present day. Um, what is uh, you know, edge kind of coming up uh, emerging fully established and ebbing and we love to get community voice in that. So I will facilitate that where I will have staff working in community and then we bring it together and so there are we do have uh, steps in the process where we invite community leaders, community partners to be a part of the process. >> That's great because um, as I'm sure you know, we're a K-12 pathways school district. So it's not simply the the secondary level that that we're talking about. Um, so that strategic planning process would need to address that as well. Um, so thank you for that. Um, yeah, and I guess just just really appreciating, you know, I think back to um, the first time that I engaged in the strategic planning process and really appreciating um, well, I it's both of you really just um, bringing in the student staff and families into the process because creating a strategic plan um, at at the at the leadership level it it's one way to do it. I think it's probably best grounded when we have the whole school community involved. Um, particularly um, you know, you know, of course their age, you know, at secondary we we want to make sure we hear from our students. Um, and then also the community. We just get really good feedback and we know that we're really headed in the right direction. So um, thank you both for um, Team Works and also Dr. Daniels, you and your team for for bringing that to us. Anything else? No. Thank you so much Julie for time. Yeah. you so much. >> All right. Uh next All right. Uh next portion, we are turning to committee board assignment and school assignments. Um we will start with the legislative committee with Director Tester. >> Yes, um we had uh nothing uh pertinent to meet this month, so we nothing to report. >> Very well. Thank you. Uh next we'll go to the policy committee with Chair Nicholson. >> Um the policy review committee met last week. We've got a number of policies uh on the agenda today. Um and of course we have our work session with the AI policy. Um um MSBA came out with a uh a model policy a couple of months ago. There's been work that's already done. It's well, continue to kind of be done, but yes, we're uh moving on a a brand new policy with some parts of that process happening even tonight. >> Awesome. Thank you. And negotiations with Director Saxby. >> Uh we continue to be in quiet season, so no recent meetings and no further report. >> Awesome. Thank you. Uh any other assignments or uh whether board committee or school assignments? Director Chester. >> Yes, uh 917 met on May 5th. Um we were presented with a preliminary budget for FY27. Um looking very good. Uh wonderful. Like we do have wonderful finance team and and we're addressing and have been addressing concerns or issues related to finance. And so then the next budget looks well. We'll be voting to approve it um next week on Tuesday. Um when the board meets again. Um and then in addition to that, I um shared uh they were unveiling the initial um um priorities coming out in their strategic planning process. They did do a comprehensive one having um like circle focus groups and and such. And so really we're bringing in all that information to then create those priorities. There's going to be more to be presented cuz there'll need to be another layering from those priorities. It's like, you know, for year 1 2 3. Um and then in addition to to that, um the strategic plan Oh, yes. Coming up uh in our uh new under new business, too. Um they we were presented with um the long-term facilities maintenance request from 917 towards the member districts. And we're presented with that in which I know um Dave Lake, director of operations, will be presenting to that in new business. >> Awesome. >> Thank you. All right. Any other reports? All right. With that, we will move on to the business portion of our meeting uh to 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. Are there any items that board members wish to move for separate consideration? Hearing none, uh although uh I need a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Moved by Director Saxey, seconded by Director Anderson. Uh all those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed, nay. And the motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Uh moving to new business. Uh, we are being asked to approve revised 191 long-term facility maintenance program budget for FY28 with Dave Lake, director of operations. Welcome, Dave. >> Thank you. Good evening, board chair, all superintendent, Dr. Daniels, and members of the school board. Each year we come to the board seeking approval for long-term facility maintenance plan. This plan provides a comprehensive 10-year outlook of anticipated facility maintenance needs across the district. Projects include in the plan are generally those estimated at $100,000 or more. Although we also complete approximately 50 to 80 smaller maintenance projects annually. Board approval is needed prior to August so the plan can be submitted to the state of Minnesota. The state uses this information to calculate the district's proposed tax levy, which will return to the board for final approval in December. The levy approved this fall will be taxable in the upcoming calendar year and payable in the following fiscal year. The LTFM plan serves as a flexible 10-year road map. While it While it identifies projected priorities and timelines, adjustments are made as needs evolve and priorities shift. The intent is to provide the board and community with transparency regarding the district's long-range facility planning while maintaining flexibility to respond to changing conditions. It is my recommendation that the Board of Education adopt the resolution approving the revised long-term facility maintenance program budget for FY2028. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, I will take a motion. >> So moved. >> Moved by Director Hume, second? >> Seconded. >> Seconded by Director Mickelson. Uh, having been moved and seconded, uh, since this is a resolution, it will require a roll call vote. So, in a moment I will ask Sarah to call the roll and when she calls your name, please respond with either an I if you are in favor of the resolution or nay if you are opposed. Sarah, will you please call the roll? >> Director Chester? >> I. >> Director Werb? >> I. >> Director Saxby? >> I. >> Chair Alt? >> I. >> Director Hume? >> I. >> Director Anderson? >> I. >> Director Mickelson? >> I. >> Having seven in favor and no one opposed, uh this resolution was declared duly passed and adopted. Uh next, we are being asked to approve the long-term facilities maintenance for Intermediate School District 917, staying with Dave Lake. >> Thank you. Uh the explanation for approval of the District 917 long-term facility maintenance plan is very similar to the district plan presented already. This approval is also required so the associated costs can be reflected in our local levy process. Intermediate School District 917 provides educational services and programming for students with unique needs from its member districts, including ISD 191. Because District 1 or because District 917, excuse me, does not have independent levy authority, its long-term facility maintenance costs are allocated back to its member districts. Our district's portion of those costs is then incorporated into our levy process. It is my recommendation that the Board of Education adopt the resolution approving the ISD 917 long-term facility maintenance program budget. Thank you. >> Thanks. I will take a motion. >> So moved. >> Moved by Director Chester, second. >> Second. >> Seconded by Director Werb. Is there any discussion? Having been moved and seconded, I will once again ask Sarah to call the roll. Sarah, will you please make the call for this roll? >> Sarah, I'm on this side tonight. Uh Director Mikkelson? >> Aye. >> Director Anderson? >> Aye. >> Director Hume? >> Aye. >> Chair Alt? >> Aye. >> Director Saxby? >> Aye. >> Director Ward? >> Aye. >> Director Chester? >> Aye. >> Having seven in favor and no one opposed, this resolution was declared duly passed and adopted. Thank you, Dave. >> Thank you. >> Uh next, we are being asked to approve the Minnesota State High School League resolution for membership for the 2026-2027 school year with Dr. Belmont, uh Assistant Superintendent. Welcome, Dr. Belmont. >> Good evening and thank you, Chair Alt, Superintendent Daniels, members of the board. Um this is an annual um exercise where we present the um resolution asking for uh board approval for membership in the Minnesota State High School League. The MSHSL um has over 50 ath- um athletic and arts that we provide access to for our students. Um I believe there's um over 600 member districts. Um it provides governing support, rules, and um and access for those member districts. Um So, therefore, um I'm recommending that the uh the Board of Education approves adopting the 2026-2027 resolution for membership in the MSHSL, the Minnesota High School League, um totaling annual membership fee of $10,400 $10,478.50. >> Thank you. I will take a motion. >> So, moved. >> Moved by Director Saxi, second? >> Seconded. >> Seconded by Director Mickelson. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, uh having been moved and seconded, um I will again ask Sarah to call the roll. Sarah, will you please begin the roll call? >> Director Chester? >> Aye. >> Director Worf? >> Aye. >> Director Saxi? >> Aye. >> Chair Alt? >> Aye. >> Director Hume? >> Aye. >> Director Anderson? >> Aye. >> Director Mickelson? >> Aye. >> Having seven in favor and no one opposed, this resolution was declared duly passed and adopted. Thank you. Ah, and the next item up for business is to approve on a first reading basis changes to policy 503, student attendance, with Dr. Belmond. >> Thank you, Chair. Um the student attendant uh changes to the student attendance policy 503 were presented by Director Petrowsky and I to the policy review committee on May 19th, 2026. Um as the board may be aware, we're in year two of a statute-driven pilot from um from Minnesota that it included resources to help strengthen our systems, making sure that our systems are reliable and coherent across our district um in regards to attendance, and then really looking to align our practices um to increase engagement and um and effectiveness in attendance. We um we recognize that um policy plays a pivotal role in that in making sure our practices are consistent and um and have that high impact that we seek. Um so, some of the changes that were presented include conclude some um technical updates from the Minnesota School Board Association, um some additional language to um increase and strengthen the alignment to um our content standards and practices and policy. And then um we added some additional language around reporting um absences when students leave um before our reporting period ends. So, therefore, I I recommend to chair that um the board approves on first reading basis changes to policy 503. >> Thank you. I will take a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Moved by Director Hume. Second? >> Second. >> Seconded by Director Anderson. Is there any discussion? Uh I just had one question. Um on page 503-3 at the top. Um just a clarification on striking uh an excuse from a physician or licensed mental health professional is is no longer considered a a valid excuse. Um can you elaborate on the background with that change? >> Thank you for that question. I would have to double-check, but if I recall from the the policy review committee and what I've heard from the district attendance team is this redundant. It exists in another portion of the policy. >> Okay. >> I think under legitimate exception >> above it on the previous page, the very end, which is just noted in italics. >> Oh. >> Thank you, Director Hume. A member of our >> I asked the same question in policy. >> There we go. Any other questions? Good job. All right. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed, nay. And the motion carries unanimously. Thank you. And next we have uh we're being asked to approve on a first reading basis changes to policies 427 workload limits for certain special education teachers, uh policy 530 immunization requirements, and policy 615 testing accommodations modifications and exemptions for IEPs, Section 504 plans, and EL students with Amy Petrovsky, director of student support services. Welcome, Amy. >> Thank you. Good evening, Chair Alden, Superintendent Dr. Battle, Dr. Daniels, and members of the board. I can't believe I said that again. Um I am here to um talk about the changes in the policy to um the workload limits of certain special education teachers. The um the policy change there is specifically in section or paragraph three, where indirect services can be provided to not only special education staff, but also other staff and related service providers, including general education teachers, paraprofessionals, anybody who works with the student can get some indirect services on how to work with the student through the special education related service provider. Uh the next policy I'm here for is policy 530 for the immunization requirements. In the policy here, the major change is that um parents are are we are required to get consent to share um uh FERPA information or medical information with other agencies from the um parents, like for example, if they were to go to a different district, we would need to make sure that we have consent to be able to share um immunizations and information with the other district. Um we typically do that. That is part of our process when we check it off that when we get um information that we have a student that is enrolling into another district or moving to another district, it's already in there and the parent signs off on it already. So, um it's already part of our practices, but this actually puts it into policy. Okay. And then in 615, the testing accommodations, there is um several changes here. Um the first major change is that the Minnesota um test of academic skills are called the MTAS. It has been changing its name. Um last year they changed the name from the science MTAS to science alternative MCA test. This year it went to the reading alternative MCA test. Next year it'll be moved into Right now it's the MTAS for math, but next year it'll be moved into the um mathematics alternative MCA. So, there's some changes there that we needed to address in our um IEPs due to the changes of the um state assessment. Um the other uh um changes that were made um not necessarily a change, but the process still continues when determining if the student qualifies for an MCA alternative assessment or um or what accommodations and modifications the student needs in order to be able to access the actual MCA. So, that process will continue to happen through the MCA or excuse me, the IEP teams. Um the um one of the major differences is that now we need to also address why um why the MCA might not be appropriate even with accommodations. And so, the MCA is the grade level standards for third grade level. If we have If we're working with a um a student or family that has significant disabilities, then that that assessment is not appropriate even with accommodations and modifications to that assessment. So, um we have to address that in the IEP and then address why the um MCA alternative assessment is a is appropriate. And then it continues to be the same thing with the alternative access testing. For our students that are EL, they get the access testing that you are aware of, um but we also have an opportunity or we have access to an alternative access testing. So, that students with significant cognitive disabilities also access that assessment to um measure their speaking, reading, writing. Can't remember the fourth. Okay. Listening, yes, listening. So, um but that is those are the changes to the policy, the main changes um that are going in there. Everything else is pretty much re-aligned, so um I recommend that the board approve the first reading basis changes to policy 427, workload limits for certain special education teachers, um 530, immunization requirements, and 615, testing accommodations, modifications, and exemptions for exemptions for IEPs, section 504, and EL students. Thank you. >> I will take a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Moved by Director Saxby, second? Seconded by Director Werb. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. >> Aye. >> Opposed, nay. And the motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Amy. >> Mhm. >> Uh staying with Amy, uh we are being asked to approve uh the Washburn Center for Children's Services agreement. >> Mhm. Yeah, so this year um this is our third year uh with Washburn Center for Children, and if um last year, if you remember, um we got board approval to increase by one therapist, so we went from 12 therapists to this year, 13 therapists. And so, um that has definitely right-sized. We've been able to get um mental health services um access to more students who need it and not putting as much pressure on the system as as we have in the past. So adding that additional therapist was very beneficial for the our students and our families. Other than that, we're going to continue on with the 13 therapists throughout and so I recommend that the board approve the agreement for the mental health services with the Washburn Center for Children for the 25-26 school year totally in $628,000 and the board authorize the executive director of administrative services to execute this agreement. >> Thank you. I will take a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Moved moved by Director Mickelson, second. >> Second. >> Seconded by Director Chester. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Those nay. And the motion carries unanimously. Next, we are being asked to approve a resolution to accept donations with Dr. Daniels. >> Thank you Chair Alt. Before I start to present the formal resolution, I just wanted to say thank you to the many community organizations and partners that support education along with our students and families in ISD 191. The resolution I am presenting tonight includes a list of donors who have made contributions to our Brain Power in a Backpack program. This is our community education hunger relief program that provides free weekend food packages to students each week. It is an essential service that couldn't be offered to our families without the generous support of our community. I am also thankful to the following individuals and organizations for their contributions. Alyssa Fears, Minnesota Valley Electric Operation Roundup, US Bank Foundation Cyber Grants, Wells Fargo Employee Savage Rotary organization, Give Minnesota Mighty Cause Foundation, YSA classroom grant, Walser Foundation, and the Burnsville Breakfast Rotary Club. With that, it is my recommendation that the Board of Education adopt a resolution to approve and accept these donations to our district in accordance with our school board policy and Minnesota statutes, and to permit their use as designated by the donors. >> Thank you, Dr. Daniels. Uh I will take a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Moved by Director Chester, second? >> Second. >> Seconded by Director Hume, any discussion? Having been moved and seconded, Sarah, will you please call the roll? >> Director Mickelson? >> Aye. >> Director Anderson? >> Aye. >> Director Hume? >> Aye. >> Chair Alt? >> Aye. >> Director Saxby? >> Aye. >> Director Ververb? >> Aye. >> Director Chester? >> Aye. >> Having seven in favor and no one opposed, this resolution was declared duly passed and adopted. Uh next on the agenda, we are being asked to adopt a resolution relating to the termination and non-renewal of the teaching contract of probationary certified personnel at the close of the 2025-2026 school year with Stacy SoVine, Executive Director of Administrative Services. Welcome, Stacy. >> Chair Alt. Dr. Daniels, members of the board. Um every spring we go through the process of uh non-renewing contracts for our probationary staff. Um it is our hope to do that all at once. However, it is not uncommon through the process that different names pop up. It's like, oh rats, they weren't included on the list from either the buildings, whatever. So, this will be the last time we're bringing a proposal like this for this year, but it is my recommendation that the Board of Education adopt the following resolution. Be it resolved by the Board of Education of School District 191 pursuant to Minnesota Statute 128.40, that the teaching contracts of the following licensed probationary teachers in Independent School District 191 be terminated at the end of the 2025-2026 school year. Be it further resolved that written notice is sent to said teachers regarding termination and non-renewal of their contract as provided by law. >> Thank you. Um is there a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Moved by Director Hume, second? >> Second. >> Seconded by Director Saxby, any discussion? Hearing none, um having been moved and seconded, once again Sarah, will you please call the roll? >> Director Chester? >> I. >> Director Werb? >> I. >> Director Saxby? >> I. >> Chair Oh? >> I. >> Director Hume? >> I. >> Director Anderson? >> I. >> Director Mickelson? >> I. >> Having seven in favor and none opposed, this resolution was declared duly passed and adopted. Uh the last item, I believe, on our agenda is uh we are being asked to adopt a resolution relating to the termination of non-licensed staff hours at the close of the 2025-2026 school year with Stacy Sullivan. >> So our EAs are the last group that we normally bring forward in the spring for reductions. Um the the buildings receive allocations or they have title allocations and they're constantly re-evaluating their needs, what they can afford, where they need to make adjustments. Uh this year it is a pretty minor adjustments with just the three individuals. We do thank them for the service. Two of them will continue on with us. So, it's just a reduction in hours for them. But, it it is my recommendation that the Board of Education adopt the following resolution. Be it resolved by the Board of Education of School District 191 that the non-licensed personnel in Independent School District 191 be terminated at the end of the 2025-2026 school year. Be it further resolved that written notice is sent to the said non-licensed staff regarding termination of their assignment for 2025-2026 school year as provided by law. >> Thank you. Is there a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Moved by Director Anderson. Second? >> Second. >> Seconded by Director Hume. Is there any discussion? And again, this is a uh resolution uh having been moved and seconded. Sarah, will you please call the roll? >> Director Mickelson? >> I. >> Director Anderson? >> I. >> Director Hume? >> I. >> Chair Alt? >> I. >> Director Saxby? >> I. >> Director Werb? >> I. >> Director Chester? >> I. >> Having seven in favor and no one opposed, this resolution was declared duly passed and adopted. Uh this concludes new business. And as many of you know, it is Faven's last night serving us with us as our school board representative. You didn't think you were going to get away without some sort of recognition, did you, Faven? Um you have done just a fabulous fabulous job uh serving with us this year. Um your reports have been impeccable. Questions have been just really outstanding and thoughtful. Um and I'm going to start us off and then everyone else will get to go and we'll conclude with Dr. Daniels. Um so, thank you so much for um being so thoughtful to serve with us. Um and I know you're off to great things. You're going to do wonderfully. Um please remember us, come back to visit. Um let us know how you're doing because we know you're just going to you're just going to wow the world out there. >> Thank you. >> Are you next? >> All right, I'LL GO NEXT. UM I'M NOT GOING TO SAY A LOT. I WILL JUST SAY THANK YOU. It has as as Chair Altschuler said, it's been a real pleasure and an honor to have you with us this year. Um I was thinking earlier tonight when you were standing right there. Um we've been blessed with a lot of really outstanding school student representatives in my years on the board, and I'm happy to say that you definitely have continued that tradition. You've been outstanding this entire year. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> And best wishes to you at Columbia? >> Yes. >> Awesome. >> I gushed over you last time. But I am going to say uh your contribution to the board specifically um is really impressive that uh you share your opinions, you ask questions. Um I love that. Um and I'm just thinking Life Works probably going to be um wanting alumni, she said. Just saying. You have You have more opportunity to share. >> Um yeah, definitely to to second everything that's been said already. Uh just have really um been impressed with the kinds of questions and the participation that uh you've you've shown and and that you've had um in your year uh here on the board. And you'll have you know, next year they're going to have some big shoes to fill. Best of luck to you. Um you know, definitely uh looking forward to having you come back to visit us because, you know, if we have to, we'll go and drag you over here or something, probably, uh, so that we can keep up with what's happening with you cuz we'll look forward to hearing all of the great stories. So, congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, likewise. Um, thank you for serving on our board and being with us. Um, your leadership skills just pour out of you. Um, and not only here at the board table, but hearing it, um, being spoken of, just the impact you made even in the high school and likely the middle school and likely the elementary school. That that, um, there's so much, um, that we look forward to seeing as you continue on in your journey and, um, yeah, we want to hear from you and and have your voice as alumni in in inspiring, um, the, you know, improvements in our district or just bringing that leadership back here, too. >> Thank you. >> Um, I have to say, Fav, and I've truly appreciated your input and perspective as a student board rep. You really asked some great questions and gave some really thoughtful insight, and I really appreciate that, and I've really enjoyed getting to know you and talking to you. So, you will be missed. >> Thank you. >> Um, ditto all of that. I think you set a you set a new high bar for student rep on our board. Um, it's been fantastic getting to know you and hearing your reports. Um, I don't think your classmates could have asked for a better representation, um, here with us. Um, and your future is tremendously bright, and you represent not only your classmates, but I think the entire district and community very, very well. So, thank you. >> Thank you all, and, um, y'all set me up. Um, Favon, you have just been a joy for me as a new superintendent to work with. Um, I believe wholeheartedly in student voice and the way you have shaped voice and brought it to this board and it doesn't just live on this board. You are in action in the buildings and I'm able to see you in action. And you know what? You make it very clear and you make it very known that you are a proud student in ISD 191. Um, I appreciate your your light that you bring with you and girl, I am a fan. I am a fan of Faven and I just look forward to you shining your light even brighter out in the world and I look forward to seeing um, what you accomplish. And so, on behalf of the board, we would like to present you with this um, token of appreciation and I am so honored I get to introduce you also on Sunday as a speaker at our graduation because you are that girl. So, CONGRATULATIONS. >> AND THANK YOU ALL. AND DON'T you worry, I I will definitely keep in touch and this will not be the last time you guys see me. >> Yeah, there's always one of these seats open EVERY TWO YEARS. >> BETTER GET TO COLLEGE FIRST. >> AWESOME. WELL, THANK YOU. All right, and I think that Yeah. Um, next up we have a work session uh, to review legislative impacts on the budget as well as to learn more about artificial intelligence in District 191. Uh, before that, I believe we do need to take a brief recess. Um, the time is now 8:38 and we will reconvene at quarter to. Um, so we I will take a motion to uh, adjourn for now to to go to a to go to a recess. Motion Chester Anderson all those in favor okay in recess. >> Mhm. >> All right, we are ready to begin. Time is now 8:45 and we are going to Director Hume. We're going to start the work session doing a preliminary review of legislative impact on the budget with Stacy Selvine, Executive Director of Administrative Services. Welcome back, Stacy. >> Thank Good evening again. Um Not a lot. That's pretty much how it's summarized. Um you know, the supplemental funding for holding our compensatory harmless is going to be less than $15,000. It really doesn't hold us harmless. Because of the way that the law is written and the formulas in which it's being used. There was an adjustment from the February run to where we are right now. So, the district will see an increase, but that happens every year as they go through the adjustments. So, the compensatory isn't really going to be much. Um the constitutional amendment for the fund trust, the land fund trust for schools, that will occur in November. That would be about $200,000 to our benefit. But, we won't see those funds until at least FY28. So, it won't impact this upcoming budget for us. We're still waiting on more information around and clarity. So, the legislators passed the law and then the departments interpret. And then we then it comes back down to us as to and this is what it means for you. So, we're in that phase right now in some of these things. So, the the the ability to use capital revenue for utility cost Okay. Maybe in some years that would be fine because when we get to a certain point where our capital is growing and we have other needs, we might want to tap into that. So, um our capital funds we get an allotment every year for a certain amount of that. A lot of the capital will go towards projects, building projects along those lines, but um also goes towards like curriculum and textbooks and such. So, those would be the different different areas that we would be able to pull for utilities. Probably more of a windfall for smaller districts out west north than for us, but every little cent helps in that sense. The other thing is some clarification on Title 1 paraprofessional qualifications. So, this goes way back to No Child Left Behind as to what the qualifications are for the paras and for buildings or districts that receive Title 1 funds. So, they have to have at least a AA 60 college credits, um a bachelor's degree, again more along that line, or pass what used to be like the ParaPro test at a certain qualifying score, state established score. Those were the basic criteria on the front end. Um so, we'll see what that looks like. In statute or in the law originally as it was written, there was also another pathway to demonstrate skills through experience. And that pathway for a number of years has been missing. So, hopefully maybe they're addressing some of that as to other options. Because it is difficult for many of our EAs in our community, our it is difficult for our community to become EAs because of the barriers that are established with the college credits and some of the different criteria that are in place. Although, they would be great folks in our buildings. So, hopefully this will give us more pathways to establish that as well. And that's about what I have. Any of the we're not going to add any assumptions into the budget that you'll receive here in June until we get actual numbers which will show up in our revision come next January. >> Okay. Great. Uh questions, board members, comments? >> Just going to say that I like your use of the word pathways. >> Completely unintentional, but you're welcome to use it. >> There should be a pathway. >> Me too. >> How late is it? >> I'm hungry and tired. Any other comments, questions? All right. Thank you, Stacy. Appreciate it. All right. Let's see. Next, we are moving to uh the last topic in our work session, artificial intelligence in 191. And um just to kind of set the groundwork. Uh Of course, everybody I'm going to say this, it's really obvious. This is a really big topic. And so, uh this is something that I think we should all become accustomed to seeing periodically coming before us. Um it's if I remember correctly, I think it's probably the first time that we've discussed this as a board, um at least with with you, Rachel. And I probably that means it's the first time we've talked about it as a board. Um so, for this first gander at um at AI, um I think what I'd like to do is just ask folks to think about the AI, you know, when you as you're listening to the presentation. I'm going to structure it a little bit in part because we know that we have a closed session to go to, and I want to be respectful of everybody's time. Um So, as you're listening to the presentation, let's think about the AI values. There's a There's a slide that Rachel provided us. If you if you need to look at it before we begin, please do so. Um think about the AI values and kind of keep that in your mind as you're as you're listening to the presentation, kind of thinking, you know, how are we doing in terms of AI with the AI values? That's kind of where we're going to start the conversation when Rachel complete concludes the presentation. Um the next part will be um I'm going to hand the conversation over to Policy Review Committee Chair Mickelson to talk about policy, you know, kind of handle the policy conversation. Then, we're going to wrap up with Q&A. I know usually we start with Q&A, but we're going to end with Q&A. I think because we know that this is going to be coming back and we're probably going to have to parse it out. So, um I wanted to make sure that we could have a good conversation, get the good information from from Rachel and team, and um and move forward from there. So, without further ado, welcome. >> Thank you very much. Um good evening, Chair Alt, um Board of Directors and Superintendent Daniels. Um so, I'm we're I'm excited to be here tonight to talk about AI. It's a pretty big topic, um especially late in the evening, but there's a lot of different components to it. Um so, we're going to go through a few slides because we want to present some of the things that have been happening over the last few years, as well as now in February, um MSBA released a model AI policy um that is pretty comprehensive. So, if you've seen it, it's 14 pages. Um so, it's a pretty comprehensive policy. And so, kind of talk about how that aligns to the some of the things that we've been working on. Um before Sorry, I jumped a little bit early, but um before I want to make sure I introduce um our Instructional Technology Coordinator, um Katie Saumala. Um Katie has been really instrumental with a lot of the work around our AI cohorts, which you're going to hear a little bit about, um, and our professional development. And then you also saw, um, met Paul Connell this afternoon or earlier tonight with the, um, the, um, drum line. And Paul is also a tech coordinator or a tech TOSA at the high school and does a lot with our AI, um, and working with a lot of our teachers. And so he's a really good resource for answering questions. And I want to also acknowledge that what you're seeing tonight is not just the three of us. There's a much larger group that works, um, that has been working on AI in the district now for the last couple years. Um, and that's including folks in our, in our, um, C set department and teaching and learning with, um, Amina Oftedal, Colleen Coleman, with, um, Katie Ness, as well as some of our principals, um, Jesus Sandoval and Lyle Bomsta. Um, and then, um, some other folks as well. So it's a it's pretty comprehensive. >> Yes, it is very complex. So a good starting point is just to make sure we kind of have a shared definition of artificial intelligence. So, um, I'll give you a moment just to look at that definition. And what you see on that slide is an example of a vocabulary card that is used in the digital learning classroom with third through fifth graders. So starting to define what is artificial intelligence. Um, and AI, right? It's already really deeply integrated in our lives. And on this slide there's just an image of different technologies that we encounter likely encounter on a daily basis and all of them utilize AI. And we know and anticipate that we are going to see huge advancements in AI in the next few years and it's really going to change the way that we work and the way that we learn and the way that we live. And future ready is going to mean, um, knowing how to navigate that landscape. And that's why we really think it's important that we are moving towards this culture of informed use. So, back in 20 late 2024 and early 2025, we were really starting to have more conversations and this started in like the EdTech or educational technology side of things. It hadn't yet kind of moved over into more of a larger context within um districts. Um and we were looking to try to figure out how do we start framing the conversation for staff, uh for teaching staff, for operational staff, for students, and so forth. And so, we came up with uh kind of this core value alignment. You'll notice like AI with guidelines and guardrails. We really wanted to say start saying this isn't this can't be the wild west. We have to start putting some things in place um when we're working with um whether it's staff working with student data or whether it's students that are in AI. Um um so, we came up with this and I think a couple of the pieces that we really want to highlight are things like um with caring community, we really adopted that human in the loop in the model AI. You'll see that it is um it is like H A I H, right? Human AI human. But, the concept, right, is that the people are the most important piece of the puzzle and you can't take people out of the equation when you talk about like AI outputs um and use. The next thing I like cultural proficiency is that we acknowledge, right, AI AI is human developed and it has human biases that are in in um embedded in AI. Um but, we also have cultural tools of cultural proficiency here in ISD 191 that we can utilize um to identify those biases and um respond to them. And then also student agency. I'm going to drop down to the student agency one. Um Katie was talking a little bit about, right, future ready and how do we go to this culture of informed use and really have um student um agency and um advocacy for them their own learning as well as a real understanding. We're going to talk a little bit about um AI literacy for students and that importance that students really understand what AI does um and where it also fails, right? So, there's really powerful um positive sides of AI and there's some also really negative sides of AI that we have to address. I'm sorry, jumped in. >> Um next, we designed this AI guiding framework. And so, you can see it's a four-part approach and and then it has the human in this in the center and really to to represent, right? The human needs to be in the loop in at the center of AI use and in control. And we designed this because we really we wanted people to have a framework that would help them guide them through thinking really carefully and critically about how they're using AI. Um and then I want to also note the credit, so the red arrow, the credit. We we included that because in the student handbook, it already talks about the need for students to explain if they've used AI and to give credit and cite AI-generated content. And um the model policy from MSBA, it it actually our our framework aligns really well with it because the policy also talks about the importance of, right, keeping the human in the loop, being transparent with use, and giving attribution to AI-generated content. >> Uh so, in February of this year, MSBA released a model policy. They worked with a company called Quantum Business Solutions and one of their um primary well, the founder of the of QBS um is a former superintendent. Um so, has um you know, understanding of of the K-12 education in Minnesota. So, they released this policy. It is quite comprehensive um and they I've done multiple webinars um with them to kind of understand a little bit more of their thinking behind what they put into the policy. Um and they really were looking if there's if there's no other framework in place, they wanted to have something that could stand on its own. Um, and so they they've been very open with the fact that there are things that are redundant and that's kind of one of the themes that we're bringing out is um, this policy um, is extremely comprehensive. Um, with our reality, we do have things in place. Um, and so things like an example is that in the model policy, it defines PII, our personally identifying information. Well, we already have that defined in our policies. And so that kind of like there's there's overlap. Um, So in there, there's a couple different things. The policy scope is one. We've talked a little bit about that. I think agility is one of those is that even the language in the model policy just from February is already a little bit out of date um, in some areas and it's changing it so comprehensively. So one of the kind of recommendations as we move forward is to really think about this with a concept that there is a um, policy for governance and then we really look at a procedures manual. Um, so similar to like how finance, right? There's finance there's policy and then there's like a fiscal responsibility um, uh, procedure um, guide that we use as kind of that um, that flexible and and and um, movable um, piece as things change. And then the other one is I just called out some of these things that kind of are redundant that we already have in policy and that we want to make sure that um, it doesn't diminish their importance um, and it doesn't diminish the fact that we do want to address them as we work through um, our AI um, pieces, but we also do have them in other places that we we may want to consider just um, referencing those. And then finally, one of the big tenants of the um, of the model policy is this concept of a of an AI guiding committee. And the one that they're proposing is actually it would be far larger than any other um, district committee if you look at it kind of in its whole. Um, we have had a core group that has worked and I mentioned some folks earlier that has been working now for a couple years um, on AI and then reaching out to various stakeholders. Um, and as we kind of go into the next um um slide, um, one of the things I'm kind of like when we look at leaderships, teachers and staff, families and students, the one area that we haven't addressed as much as families. Um, and that is definitely something that we've identified that we need to start reaching out more um to our families. But here are some of the things that we've done over the last um two years. Last spring was very a big launch. That's when we launched a lot of those kind of frameworks. We did operational leadership training. We did instructional leadership training. Um, and then over the course of last summer and into last year, we provided a variety of training opportunities for various groups. Um, I want to call out one of the things that are kind of interesting is that Notebook LM department demos. If you know what a Notebook LM is, you put a bunch of content up um and then um and then you can you can query and prompt it for all sorts of different things. An example, so I we created like Notebook LMs for every department so that they could see kind of it was a first a first adventure. So for finance, we put all of the UFARS manual, the fiscal um policies, our fiscal responsibility um manual, all of that in together and said, "Okay, go for it. You know, I'm looking for a budget code that can do XYZ." And had them just play around with it so that they could start to see it. That launched them into, "Whoa, there's some things here that we could do to be more efficient." Um, another example is that um um I put all actually all the district policies um in a Notebook LM because I I was thinking like, "Okay, let's let's think about how we can use this um for a tangible way for people to get comfortable." Um and then we also did some um AI uh for differentiation, creation of common assessments, and standards unpacking. And that was really led by our C Sen department and we supported them um as they went through that um, including some information and Katie I'll talk a little bit about, uh, when our social studies department started doing curriculum review. Um, how can you we use AI to, um, uh, dig deeper in some of the topics. >> So these next slides are just they just highlight some of the foundational guides that our current AI committee created and so you've seen this one. Um, and then again I I just mentioned the guiding framework. Um, and then we created these common language tools for staff and students. And so, um, after hearing from students and and learning more about AI, one of the things that we heard is that they really need they really want clear guidelines. Like they don't know when they can use it and when they can't and so they're kind of maybe using it secretively. And so, um, that was one of our big messages this fall to teachers was that we you really need to communicate your expectations to students in a way that's clear. And so we created these common language tools to give teachers that common language, right? And then also to help um, there's a staff guide to help teachers think and staff think through their own AI use. There's a student guide so that they can help students think through when they're using AI. And all of them are aligned to that framework. So you see the the the circular four-part framework there in the center. Um, the model policy from MSBA also calls for a lot of training for staff. And our our current AI committee we agree that that training is vital and important. And so this slide just highlights some of the PD and awareness training that we did and so we did um, Rachel mentioned some of that. So we kind of grouped them. So we had AI AI for all and that was all teachers. We had some training that was AI for leadership including operational leaders and instructional leaders. And then we had some specialized sessions. So, you see like the social studies steering committee, um third through fifth grade teachers were working on creating common assessments that were standard aligned and also aligned to their report cards. And then on April 6th, there was a teacher PD mini conference and we offered quite a few um AI sessions there, too. And we also provided PD, really intensive PD through AI cohorts. So, Paul Connell um and I led those cohorts and we had two of them. And one was called the first was the mixed cohort and we just called it that because it was a mix of educators across all different grade levels, departments, and content areas. And that cohort was really focused on learning about AI, exploring AI, thinking about how they might use it for instruction, and then sharing that learning with colleagues. to get them to disseminate some of their learning. And then the other cohort, the AI literacy cohort, was really a targeted group of educators. So, um K through 8 digital learning specialist, a success 191 teacher, and media specialist. So, educators that are already teaching about things like uh digital citizenship and computational thinking um and some of those key topics. Oh, can you go back once? And so, these cohorts were four half-day sessions, so a total of 12 hours of learning for the participants. And those four sessions centered around those big ideas in that gray box on the on the slide. Um oh, I forgot to mention. So, that AI literacy cohort, the difference with that group was yes, they were learning about AI and exploring AI, but they were also really focused on and thinking about AI literacy for students. And what do students need to know? And so, this slide just talk shows a little bit about AI literacy because it's a big term and it's an umbrella term for lots of things. So, in the those those six blue circles, those are all different components of AI literacy. So, you can see, right? It goes all the way from data privacy and ethics to algorithmic thinking. And then it also shows how those components connect to other subjects like digital citizenship and media literacy and computational thinking. So, the the AI literacy cohort members, they're already teaching, right? They're already teaching about some of those subjects like digital citizenship. So, they were working to identify, okay, what are we doing and how can we build on that so that we're also including these elements of AI literacy. >> Another element of the model policy that MSBA put out was the idea of a district approved tools. And this is actually outside of AI. This is also been a trend in general, right? Is that as data privacy and security have become more important, that's been a trend as well. So, we early on again kind of thinking about that people want to in to test out and use different AI, but we wanted to do it with those guardrails and those guidelines. So, we're we used Google in our district. We have a Google Workspace for Education account. There's terms and services with that. And so, we partnered that with Gemini. So, Gemini is a Google product and NotebookLM is also a Google product. And so, we rolled those out to staff and then eventually to students when Google brought that under the umbrella of our terms and services. And then we also knew that there was interest in having a class a learning centric tool. And so, Magic School was chosen. We implemented it for teachers in January of 2025. And then last fall we were it up for students as well. And Magic School is designed for K-12. It's designed for students with security in place, and it also has a lot of prompting. So, with AI, when you get into prompting, it can get very difficult very fast. But Magic School has like very simplified prompts for students and for teachers that are really focused on K-12 education. The other thing that's super interesting about the last few years is that almost every single tool that we have now has AI embedded into it. So, when we talk about AI tools, we're really just talking about all of our digital resources, and that includes operational as well as instructional tools. And so, really there are no AI tools, although there are things like your LLMs that you when you think of like ChatGPT, Claude, those types of things. But the reality is that this is embedded into almost every tool that we have. And if it's not, it's probably coming soon. So, sometimes something that wasn't there on Monday is all of a sudden part of our lives on Thursday. So, it's an interesting place. As far as plans for the next, there's this is a kind of a busy slide, so there's lots of stuff that we have in place, but it's really that continuation of ensuring that we're keeping conversation about appropriate, ethical, and responsible use of AI in front of staff and students, that we're building our understanding as a whole. I think that there's some really interesting operational uses for efficiencies out there. I know that we all use it and have found quite a bit of value to it. And then there's also, of course, those things that we have to be careful about and make sure that our data privacy is is front and center. And we are we're also dealing with some interesting things right now with the fact that one things are changing very quickly. So, when you talk about things like doing a review, right? Like releases are our new updates and releases features are are being rolled out all the time. And so we're kind constantly feeling where we're going back and trying to figure out like what does that change? What does that do? We're also dealing with things about that are some new security concerns. So things like um if I'm on a personal device and I bring up a district data, right? Like it's not a controlled browser. Like what do we do about that? Like we we need to be considering um those elements. And then there's been a pretty significant uptick in fishing email that is very specific and it's very good. Some of the things that we used to say, you know, here's how you identify a fishing email are no longer true with AI because it is so easy to replicate things. And so there's some interesting changes that we're working through with those as well. So kind of going back to that model policy recommendation. So those things on the left we really think that those are fundamental pieces to keep and some adjustments that you might want to consider as you're as you're thinking about a policy for our district those referencing versus repeating and potentially simplifying some of the language around the AI committee and continue some of our existing structures. Awesome. Thank you. All right. So if we can go I think it's slide 10. >> Slide 10. >> It was the AI values slide. >> Our alignment? >> There we go. Yep, there we go. So in terms of and I think the reason that jumped out at me just in terms of starting our conversation is kind of that's where we were starting with our strategic planning conversation with our values. Board members do we have any comments or questions or thoughts about the AI initiative as it relates to um the values that have been ascribed to our AI initiative and their development. >> I I will admit in my day job I have been accused of being a little bit of a Luddite when it comes to AI adoption. Um I think one of my concerns is around ethics and morality of AI use and what I like about this slide that we're showing that we're talking about right now is that we're trying to stay as ethical as possible. We're not As much as people some would like to the genie's not going back in that bottle. So it's like learning how to use it in an ethical and responsible manner is what we have to do at this point. So I really like that this is kind of where we're starting this conversation and um really trying to think through how the use of AI can align with our with our core values. So thank you for that. >> I would agree in that I think just having this core value alignment kind of just speaks to the situation we're in. I mean the future readiness part there's no way we can talk about future readiness and not tackle this issue but then at the same time as Director Hume was saying it's incredibly important to get the cultural proficiency part right and all the other pieces of it right to make sure it's ethical and being used in a good way that benefits the entire district. >> I mean I would agree to I actually really like the next level that you showcased where it was like um like teacher question conversation, you know, what does the student need to think in in and that and that other circle where it had that that credit, you know? I mean, yes, AI is technology, but I also remember being a little kid and being told I shouldn't copy directly out of the encyclopedia. You know, so >> Same might >> when when we had paper books, you know? It's It's just now digital and much easier to find >> It'll write it for you. >> Right. >> than the encyclopedia or, you know, the Dewey Decimal System system. Um you know, and so I I like that how it's how it's coupled that way. So it like starts with ethics and values, but then it kind of like that that practical piece, especially for for our students to think about how they're going to use it, how they're going to reference it. Is it Is it actually still my voice? You know, and then and then most recently I was helping my son with his scholarship applications for DCTC and they had like a narrative question and and they're like, "We will know if you use AI." Like if if it if it if if we even suspect it, your your application is null. And I was like, "Wow, that's interesting." And then with 917, they're actively utilizing AI even in their strategic planning process um because there was so much >> data >> Mhm. >> so much data, they needed to put it somewhere to to to analyze it. And again with security, it was interesting to say like, "Okay, we're we have it in this secured environment, so then it's not also publicly out there." And so I I appreciate how we're framing this right now. >> Mhm. >> Other comments? >> I'll speak again cuz I have a just thought of something while you were talking. The human It's not on this slide specifically, but the human AI human thing I I think is really important. Just to use a recent example for my day job, I was decided to cheat and use I consider it cheating. >> It is. >> Use using AI to summarize some survey results. And I looked at it, and I thought, "Hmm, this summary doesn't make a lot of sense." And I looked at the responses, and I was like, "AI just made this up. This is not at all within the survey responses." So, I think we have to be very careful not to lose that human element, cuz you do Maybe it's a shortcut, and maybe it'll help you like do a first draft, but if you're not going back and checking your work, like you said, they'll know it's AI, and they'll know that it was wrong. So, I think that's that's a really important piece to keep sight of, also. >> Yeah, to comment on that, you know, you do anything with a tax technical kind of question, they do international tax for a job, and oh, yeah, no, AI can't get anything right. But you try to like get a quick like Google answer for something, oh, no, 90% of the time it is wrong. If you really take the time to then go in and dig and look at the code and regs, and it's yeah, it doesn't replace but for certain things, yeah, it it's definitely got a ways to go. Yeah, you have to be sure to verify and double-check, and without a doubt. Yeah. >> Um I mean, AI is only as good as the information you put into it, you know, you you have to put put it in to get out what you want to get out. I mean, I use it consistently, I use it a lot. Not just at work, but in personal life. I use Copilot. Um and I think the key is learning when is it okay to use it, and when is it not okay to use it. And especially with my concern is with students, like I mean, I I I appreciate that we can say, "Please cite when you've used AI in your school work." Do we have a tool that says, "I can tell when you used AI is in your school work"? Like, if even if they don't say they did because I had my son tell me he did he used AI to do his homework and I was like, "Well, that's not right." No, don't do that. That's wrong. Um so, then I'm like, "Okay, what are we doing to identify when kids are using AI instead of actually doing their homework?" That's what my my big question is because you can say, "Okay, we did a project. I did this paper. I used AI to do this." Well, what if they're taking their homework and just saying, "I'm going to put in this question that I need to answer on this piece of paper and then tell I'm going to write down what AI told me to told me. You know what I mean?" >> Mhm. >> Yeah. Yeah, that's that's um that like the the idea of uh plagiarism or cheating comes up a lot. Um on this one where it says how AI can be used. So, we have those for the course level because we were this was early last we we rolled it out in September of last year and we knew that there were some teachers that they were just going to kind of make a um a decision for their whole class, right? They may not they they either were ready or they were not ready to have a students use AI. We said, "You know, whether or not you allow students to use AI is your discretion, but you can't ignore it. You got to like right going back to what Katie was saying is students want clarity of what's okay and what's not." And there are a lot of different ways um to use AI. I don't know Paul if you want to share. You have a couple of really good examples. >> Mhm. >> You want me to speak to seeing the AI in my classroom and what what teachers do? >> Uh yeah, and specifically around the question of like, you know, how do you like plagiarism and cheating? >> Yeah. >> So, yeah, I can speak to a couple things. Um you know, one, there's a tool that um anytime students are using any um Google Workspace items, um there are certain extensions that teachers can use that say, "Here's how many times a student copied and pasted into this document. Here's how many times they um you know, here's how much time they spent on the document. Here's how many revisions they made." Um and so, that's a tool that uh when I talk to teachers, like, "This is then you start a conversation with the student, like, 'Hey, I noticed that you spent you know, a minute and a half on this, and other students spent 20 minutes on this assignment. What was your process for working through this?' Um but we also have had to be very careful with um not with yeah, um directing teachers to not use many AI checkers, uh because many of those have been found to be very problematic. Um because what they're um generally looking for is uh neurotypical language. So, those have been found to flag students where uh English is not their first language, um or students who, you know, um you know, are not considered neurotypical. Um special ed students, they they tend to be flagged for a lot more of those things. So, a lot of the like something that says they're an AI checker, um you know, those have been we kind of have steered uh teachers away from using some of those things, and more towards, you know, helping to get to the bottom of like, "What's the process that students use, and what information can we use with our digital tools to understand their process?" And then, start that conversation, and maybe there was a reason that they had all these large copy and pastes into this document, um or maybe it's like, "Yeah, I I didn't I didn't follow the right process. I didn't go really through through the learning process." So, that's some of the direction that we've been able to give um teachers so far um on this issue. >> All right, thank you. That's very helpful. >> I'm kind of intrigued long term by the flip side of it. So, we're thinking rightfully so, we're thinking a lot about what is the appropriate use of it and when is it okay to use it? I'm thinking down the line of like, do we get into a scenario where the expectation is you're going to use some level of AI for something and now students going to have the option to not. And it's certain like It just kind of came to my head that way. I'm I sort of like Director Human a little bit where like I'm annoyed multiple times a day that I have to dock that stupid co-pilot thing anytime I'm in a Microsoft Office tool. Like, I know how to build this slide. I don't need this. It's the same thing and like >> write a paragraph. >> To allow people like to make sure students are still doing some of those skills when it may be an acceptable use of AI, but if we're doing everything that way This There's not an answer for that right now, but I'm just kind of interested in that. >> I think one of it's it's That's an interesting idea like with um, I think about that on the staff side, right? So, if I if I came to present to you our the tech budget and I came with crayons and whiteboard paper and started drawing lines and rows and columns and started writing in, you would look at me and think, "What?" Right? We have tools for that. We have spreadsheets. We have pivot tables. We have like, you know, there's things that would be expected and so I I wonder that same thing is will at some point, right, the efficiencies that can be had from AI drive us to a place where it's actually an oddity not to use them in some manner. Like, and then thinking about that on a student side in the learning, like what that could look like. >> I like what Director Chester was was saying about, you know, the encyclopedia and everything. I mean, that reminds me of, you know, whether or not you use a calculator or not, you know, back in the day. That was the big question and yes, when do you use AI or not? And you know, yeah. When do you come back to this >> that's coming out on um cheating around AI is showing no statistical difference now with AI than it was before. Very interesting research because the the perception is that there's an increase. Um but it it's morphed. Not necessarily increased. >> They were Googling it 10 years ago. 10 years before that they were copying the encyclopedia. Those who were going to cheat were going to cheat. It's just a new avenue. New tools to do so. >> And I guess my like I am really impressed with the work that you've done this far and there's so there are so many ways that you could have gotten distracted given the breadth of the topic itself and really stayed focused to what our students need, what our staff need. Um I do however cuz I get distracted. Um I will admit that. Um and it's it's it's for good in this case. Um I do wonder and maybe this comes out in the social studies side of things. Um when I think about future ready and um AI Um yes, there are some downsides to AI and we want our students and our school community to be eyes wide open about the implications of using AI. Um you know, leading up to this conversation I did some reading. I've been listening to some younger voices and I had to educate myself. Um and the use of you know, water and the carbon dioxide that's created and you know, there's potentially you know, and then there was one article from I think it was MIT that was talking about the potential to maybe turn that around with you know, new jobs that are going to make the output of carbon dioxide and the usage of water maybe a little less. And so, you know, there might be some upside, but how do we as a school district, and I guess this gets to the the values, how do we as a school district make sure that in addition to doing the great job that you guys are doing, staying focused with making sure that that we're preparing our our students and our staff to be able to manage in the AI age to be eyes wide open about all the other things that are happening with every single query that we're making as a system on the environment. >> Right. I don't want to do the city council's job, but I don't want to do the center. I like the I like the advantages of AI, but I don't want the data center, and I'd rather have water and affordable energy than the profile pic with flying monkeys around me. >> Because I don't I don't want to set our set our students up to think, "Oh, this is just another technology." Um and and maybe it will just be an eventually, you know, hopefully glass half full, you know, this is a technology that right now it has a lot of unknowns, a lot of unknowns that appear to be problematic. Perhaps they'll be changed. Maybe we'll be able to get beyond them. Um how do we as a system make sure that that we're giving our students the information that they need as they're working through this? >> Well, well, interestingly in our AI cohorts, we spent a lot of time on this topic because staff are concerned about it. Um and they've expressed their concerns about the environmental impact. So, we spent a lot we spent some time unpacking that um and and really thinking and right I don't think anybody would argue that the data centers and and their impact on the environment, right, that is a a serious concern. Um but we also took time to talk about the bigger picture of our carbon footprint, right? And and how our AI use connects connects to that. And so we talked about, you know, the according to Google, one text prompt with their Gemini tool and a like an average prompt and the output from their AI is about five drops of water. And so that's what their That's what what they >> According to Google. >> Right. And their tool. Right. >> Okay. >> Well, we But, you know, we talked about, right? And how much water does it take to to um make a manufacture a pair of jeans or a hamburger, right? And we we talked about all of these things because they all have impact. We also talked about ways that, you know, some people are really concerned about the the impact, right? So we talked about things like, "Well, if you if you're looking for an image of a dog to put on your Google slide or whatever, don't generate one. Like, use one that already exists, right?" Um and so we talked about some of those pieces. And I think too, like, part of the the common language tool's big piece of that is that first arrow, the orange arrow, the understand is first of all, understand why would I be using AI? Do I even need to use it for this? Right? And thinking about that piece because sometimes, um you know, we don't need to. And especially if we are concerned about the environmental impact, um we might choose not to use it. And Paul, I think um you you recently witnessed a really great um in Molly's class that kind of ties to this. >> Yeah. Yeah, so uh before I jump into that, it was it was I think it was I think the the lesson that we did with their AI core it was was great um because so many people are like, "Oh, I'm just going to use a piece of paper. We're going to do everything on paper." And it's like, you know, paper comes from I do understand that all the water that is involved. Paper didn't just show up, let alone electricity for the photocopying and all those things too. So, that's something that that's Rachel has charged us with is like thinking about the full environmental impact of everything that we do. It's not even AI, it's even scrolling Instagram and posting on TikTok and all those other things like we're overlooking those impacts for sure. But, I was really lucky that Molly Bosu was she was in our AI literacy cohort successful 191 teacher and my daughter is in her AP Human Geography class and they did a great very interactive unit after they took the AP test in early May where part of the class was the city council and then they split into four other groups and there was a proposal of like should we build a data center? And so, there were two groups that were like pro to build a data center in this fictional town and two groups that were were against building a data center in our town and so, all these groups had to come together and they they did a lot of research into like here were some of the positives job creation and other things and two other groups were looking at the negatives and the downsides and so, they had to present in front of Miss Bosu and the city council eventually had to like rule whether or not they they wanted to have a data center in their town. So, and she used AI to help develop that lesson and to give her ideas on you know, structuring it and some of those things as well. So, that was that was a whole bunch of different layers of AI and it was you know, my daughter was super highly engaged. She doesn't talk about a lot of her school things, but she was excited to do this presentation and and work with her peers and look into it because you know, the data center stuff could definitely be a bit of a a boogeyman sort of thing that people are very afraid of and rightfully so to to certain degrees as well, but it was really cool that she had those students um into that in an engaging way and um have a debate over it. >> And I would I would say Dr. Daniels, this would not necessarily be a committee conversation. Um I I think it's bigger than the AI committee, myself. It's It's a curriculum conversation. Um I appreciate your perspectives. I do. Um I don't think that uh saying that it equates to paper production is necessarily a fair assessment. Um I don't know enough about it to be able to to judge either way. Um but I think it is new enough and there's there are enough there's enough out there in the news and debate about it that I think it's it's worth investigating and I think we owe it to our students um given the rapid adoption of AI because certainly we don't I'm not saying this is simply understanding and knowledge. AI is going to happen. Right. >> It's happening. >> It's happening. It It is happening. It's going to continue to happen. How we as a district handle it on the other hand is within our control. >> I'd I'd add though that I I would agree that we would have to I think it and maybe it's in social studies, but it's really under including AI. Carbon footprint. You know, cuz I think be because AI is such a hot topic, it's now more um in our heads like, oh, this is an issue. And you know, until something else comes to somebody else's awareness, they're like, oh, that's also an issue. You know, like watching fast fashion. >> Mhm. >> And the impact the clothing industry has on the environment. It's like Hm. You know, and so it's like just continuing to build awareness including the impacts with AI. >> And I would imagine, it's been a long time since I've been in high school. I imagine that there are conversations about environmental impacts already ongoing about these kinds of things that this would be folded into. It's not for me to figure out. >> But what I'm hearing is I'm sorry. >> Sorry. >> That was interesting. >> I think it's incredibly unfair to say that just because these other things have an environmental impact, um therefore we don't have to worry about the environmental impact of AI. Um we we should be trying to um consider that in all the things we do as a district. We don't make clothes. Um we wear them and then as individuals we can wear them, but as a as a community we are talking about this thing that we're all going to use as a community, then we have to be responsible as a community. Um that was the number one question I wrote down during all of this is um if we are going to encourage our staff to use AI, we're going to allow our students to use AI, then what kind of um things are we going to do to offset our carbon footprint as a district? Um We could we could use it and that might be a thing, but then we need to ethically we need to do something else to make the environment better some other way. Uh otherwise it's we're hurting ourselves. We're hurting our future. We talk about future ready. If we don't have a planet, we're not future ready. Um I also think I'm sorry, I haven't talked this whole time, so I'm going to just blurt it all out while I have a chance. Um I also think that there's um you know, you're talking about when and where to use it um and whether or not it's plagiarism, but all AI is stealing information from original creators. Everything it has, all the information it has, came from someone else who did not give permission for AI to use it. So, every time we use AI, whether we choose to or not, because we we don't have a choice sometimes, right? We are plagiarizing. We are using someone else's um creativity. That's just the way it goes. And students need to learn that. That has to be part of the curriculum. Um and also um if we don't have to use it, then maybe we shouldn't. Uh and there are times when we don't have a choice and we have to use it. And there are times when maybe we can spend a few more minutes doing our jobs and um and not cheat. Thank you so much. >> And your job. So, there's the things I was going to say I just had to get out before cuz I couldn't get words in earlier. Thanks. >> Thank you for sharing. >> Yeah. >> I I think, you know, as the superintendent, what I'm hearing from you all is for the guidance. Um as I hear how you passionately have passionately responded to um the the the great work Rachel and the larger team um have done to bring AI this far. I think that what I'm hearing from you all is how are we um in how can we rather embed this into curriculum to teach our students um about responsible use of AI, to give them the guardrails, Rachel, that you said that um that they want and that they need. Same thing for staff. Which is again, I had to pull up my my presentation. Um this is why when we created priorities for next year, um Rachel was um um adamant about advocating for AI to be listed as a priority for next school year. And um I know it seems like a lot, but from her lens as a technology director, she knew that this was important work that we need to really um engage in next school year to begin to really put some um guardrails around this. And so I'm hearing that um we should be embedding it in curriculum. So I've written down, where can we embed this in curriculum to teach our students about responsible use, environmental impacts, etc. Same thing for staff, and I know that this will um also be a driver in our professional development. So what I'm capturing thematically is we need to continue the work we've done, but then how are we again um teaching students and staff about what our values are to this as a district and how those values shape how we want them to use artificial intelligence. Does that make sense, Rachel? >> Yeah, absolutely. Thank you very much, Dr. Daniels. >> Are we good to move to policy? Do you >> Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, that was going to be my thing is is maybe yeah, if we're ready to move. >> Policy. >> Yes. So um kind of to dovetail off of what Dr. Daniels was just talking about um is there's the very specifics of how we're using AI day-to-day, staff and you know, students, you know, what we're teaching, all of those specifics. That's not policy. You know, policy is I I kind of was thinking about this, you know, how how to kind of talk about this, you know, policy is like the walls and the roof of a house and then everything else a a of the things that we've been talking about here are picking the colors and what furniture is going to go inside and you know, the pictures you're going to put up on the wall and everything is a lot of those specifics. Um are around AI and so I think you know, we want to we've had a really good discussion and a great kind of kind of morphed into a Q&A you know, earlier. Um but that you know, let's take a step back and looking at then the policy um to be honest, you know, everything with the policy and the presentation, it seems to me like we're already doing a lot of the things in the policy. We've already got these things there. Um you know, and you know, the idea you know, talking about teachers for example, um and whether or not students use AI in the classroom and things um and and how students may use AI within the classroom. In the policy, it talks about teachers can drive that decision. All it is saying is that the teacher needs to state and and provide how AI can or can't be used or or kind of their own individual parameters around it. Like the policy doesn't take that decision away from teachers. It is saying it is something that the teacher should be aware of or or be ready to answer or that you know, I think so it's it's allowing that flexibility I think in you know, could provide a couple of other examples you you where like with with training that and with reviewing our AI tools. It it'll talks about, you know, reviewing, you know, just reviewing regularly. What does regularly look like? You know, what does that mean? We get to, you know, you guys get to determine that um with the policy. So, I think that's where, you know, we'll want to kind of again take that step back, look at the frame. Does the frame make sense? And so, that's kind of my first question kind of to the board is did you see anything in the policy you know, this model policy that raised red flags, that was of a particular concern um you know, that that we would need to be sure as a committee to look at, to address, to work with um you know, again using that lens of this is the framework. This is the the frame of the house. You know, anything that really you saw in this that that jumped out that was a concern. Okay. I'm not saying you know, no one's going to have anything up with, you know, anything um to mention. Um so, so that's that's great um with the policy. Um you know, this is a 14-page policy. There is a lot here. Um my perspective is that you know, um for multiple reasons and it was mentioned in an MSBA webinar that this policy is going to be revisited, is going to be rewritten, is going to be revised regularly. Because as has been mentioned, AI is evolving and continually kind of changing. Um and so, yes, we will be expected to be looking at this policy on a regular basis. Um and I I think with that comes the fact that maybe we don't have to be aiming for perfection with this policy the very first time. Knowing that is going to be something that we're going to be revisiting, you know, MSBA is going to come out with a new redlined, you know, AI policy at some point and probably sooner rather than later. Um and so with all of that, again, also um in the interest of time and because this is such a large topic um you know, the uh my next question basically is um our next step and um does it mean doing another work session? Uh to be able to discuss um some things getting into a little bit more detail of the policy. Um I think particularly a topic will be um the AI committee that's mentioned in the policy. Um and in the MSBA webinar and actually mentioned in the policy. This is something that they do recognize is up to school districts to kind of work with, you know, how do our cohorts, you know, how do we change this AI committee language and and structure within the model policy to in work with the cohorts that we already have. You know, how what what do we do with that? You know, that's definitely not something to talk about today. Um and so my question is does that mean another work session for us as a larger group or do we revert this back to the policy review committee and have the committee kind of working through these um details and you know, bringing it forth? My personal opinion is that that would end up having a lot of back and forth between the policy review committee and the larger board that we'd end up having essentially the equivalent of a work session within a school board meeting. Um and so my recommendation would be in you know, maybe a month we have or whenever it makes sense we have another work session with the larger board to help to give some more specific kinds of direction um so that then when the smaller policy review committee meets we we have a little bit more um specific kind of guidance and ideas of of what that uh language might be. Um and so what are people's feelings about work session versus having this revert directly back to policy review committee? And again, my recommendation is another work session. >> Scott. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Um couple of things. The MSBA model policy is I think it's 14 pages. We don't have to adopt any of it if we don't want to. MSBA is very big on local control. I see from the presentation that we've already discussed there's already some specific changes that they want to make to in order to apply and that they want to recommend in order to apply that policy in ways that make sense for 191. I think it's important we listen to the experts within our district when they're making the recommendations for the policy that we ultimately eventually likely will end up adopting. Um I guess just given how big this topic is um I wonder about maybe we start at policy review. And then if we feel like after that conversation we need to have a a full work session with the board before we can make a final recommendation. I don't think it needs to be like months of back and forth but maybe doing one about maybe having it at the policy review committee to to kind of do some of the initial legwork so it's a little bit less of a blank slate when it comes to the board for a work session and then after the work session it could go back to policy to tweak any final details and adjustments before coming back to the board for approval. That's my thought. >> I I would agree with that. I was I was kind of thinking of it how we kind of how the legislative comes up with the platform and we have like we take AMSD, we take scale, we take MSBA, we take you know, we take what we've done and then kind of come with ideas and then bring it as a draft to then get feedback and and especially being 14 pages maybe there's targeted areas that you want to um board discussion on or board input >> Yeah. >> that would influence any further edits. I would I would agree. >> Other thoughts? >> Fully support that. >> Yeah, I agree, too. >> All right. >> Same. >> Okay. >> Consensus. Committee first. Back to the board if needed. Back to the committee if needed. >> Eventually we'll approve it. >> Yeah, eventually we will. Um I did promise Q&A. Are there any unanswered Do you have what you need, Rachel? >> Yes, sorry. >> Yes. >> Um Q&A. Any other Q&A before we wrap up? Okay. >> Just a comment that is really well done. I appreciate the work and what you've done already to this point to be able to get us to where we can take this to the the policy committee and have really good guidance to get started. >> I want to just quick say that even though I'm passionate about it and I and I get salty, I think your work is great. And I think this is not a reflection >> I share your concerns. >> I'm sure you do. >> Yeah, we've had extensive environmental >> You literally hear them because you hear them from other people, I imagine. >> Yeah. Yeah, and that those relativity things are are tough. It's it's a it's a really important issue. >> And thank you for being our second to the last agenda item tonight. We appreciate you staying and great report. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. All right, so we are I think there's something I need to read. >> Yeah. >> There is. >> All right, uh The time is now 9:50 and we will move to Oh, no, wait. >> Yeah. >> The final item on our agenda is a closed session as permitted by the Minnesota statute 13D.05 to hold the superintendent's mid-year evaluation. Um >> Mid-year interview. >> End of >> End of the year. >> End of year end of year evaluation. I shouldn't read literally. Um >> Did I have it right then? >> I will It's a mid-year. Yeah. Um is there a motion uh for us to I'm looking >> So moved. >> Second. >> Uh seconded by uh Chester. Discussion. All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Okay. So the time is now uh 9:51 and we will move to the HR conference room to discuss the superintendent's evaluation. We'll 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 dais upon completion of the meeting. Thank you and board members, please make your way to the HR conference room. >> Yeah. Woo. Free. >> Hey, bro. >> What? >> Hey.