Good evening. >> It is November 19th, 2025 and this is our regular school board meeting. It is 6 PM and could I please ask Clerk Milner Milner to take attendance? >> Director Beer Meyer >> here. Director Michael Moulder >> here, >> Director Zuzac >> here, >> Vice Chair Dresley >> here, >> Chair Tate >> here, >> Director Bruns >> here, >> and Director Milner here. >> Thank you. Obviously, we also have our superintendent and our four student representatives with us at the table as well. And now I would like to ask all who are able to please stand and remove your headwear for the pledge of allegiance. 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. >> Thank you. Now I'm looking for a motion to approve the agenda, please. Michael Moulder moves to approve the agenda. >> Be my second. >> All right. Any discussion? Right. Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the agenda say I. >> I. I. >> All those opposed say nay. Motion passes unanimously to approve the agenda. Uh, next I'd like to to welcome our visitors in the room and viewing online. Thank you for being engaged in Hastings Public Schools. We appreciate your support. Uh, next we have our Raider spotlight. Yes. So, tonight I would like to, and this is a surprise, so I'm kind of excited about this. Um, tonight our Raider spotlight is for Miss Lindy Humble. And yes, and [applause] I want to say that, you know, she it was her first time running an election. That is a big deal. It's not easy. It's complicated. You have to make sure it's right. You have to make sure we follow the laws and that the timing of everything is accurate. She keeps the board uh timing of when they have to approve things, when they have to call special meetings. She does all of that. And as part of our system, that's very, very important work. And we have specific dates and statute that can't get missed. And she's kept all of that together. Not to mention having multiple sites where people could go and vote. And she had to make sure those were all set up and that the machines ran properly and that it ended timely. She had 36 hours in by the end of Wednesday. Yeah, it was a lot of work and she did an outstanding job. And I I just want to say thank you so much for your commitment to that. Um it means a lot to our community, Lindy. So, I just want to say I have a little medallion for you and thank you so much. [applause] Yes, we appreciate you, Lindy, each and every day and know how taxing it was. Um, and I I I kept trying to cheer on and and do an election countdown because I know [clears throat] it was it was stressful and timeconuming. So, thank you. [snorts] All right. Uh, next up we have our public comment session. We do have one person signed up for public comment this evening and it's uh Miss Lisa Hadine. If you want to come up, you'll be allotted three time three minutes. Sorry. And you will get uh Lindy will be warning you when your time is uh coming to a close. Welcome. All right. Welcome. My name is Lisa Hidden. I'm a resident of Denmark Township. I'm a former schoolboard member. I'm a current employee of the district and I have two children who graduated from the district from ECF through 12th grade. And I came tonight to speak about um the topic that was actually most recently covered at your work session and in the Hastings Journal is community engagement, community collaboration, transparency. And um the thing that caught my eye initially when I started looking at this is I saw that you had a vision card um update at the last work session and very briefly very briefly there was an attachment to that piece in the work session and the the piece that I saw looked a lot like an infographic and it didn't have historical data. It didn't have trends. It didn't have comparative data to state standards and I that was disappointing to me. marketing great info infographics great that's fine let's not lose that historical record and that trend data and that that like dig in and make decisions and I get it is not fun to publish data that does not say what you want it to say all right that is not a fun thing to do but it's it's a responsible and an authentic thing to do so I would encourage you as you go forward let's get that vision card back on the website so families can see it all the data you can look up on mte So, let's get it out there where people can see it and and let's be authentic about what we're going to do to resolve it. And then that leads to this piece about community collaboration, right? Like, so you had a work session. There's virtually no attachments in there. I presume some of those topics. This vision card piece probably had a had an attachment, had a presentation at the meeting. I get that sometimes it's like 15 seconds before it's getting linked. Let's have it on the website where we can look at it after somebody reads the newspaper and says, "Oh, I want to learn a little bit more about that. Let me look at that presentation. Um, put the data in there so that community members can engage asynchronously when they think about it and when it comes to them. Um, and this is a really big ask and I've been on both sides of this decision in the past. Um, consider videotaping or audio taping work sessions and or committee meetings. again for the point of hearing the discussion of what's happening and what's upcoming and what you anticipate working on in three months so people don't feel oh my gosh something's getting voted on at the board meeting and I never heard that it was happening and you're thinking holy Hannah the only thing we talked about for the last 3 months is fill in the blank so make that more broadly available to asynchronous online maybe people come in uh Bloomington does an audio recording and people have to come in and listen to it. Probably not the world's most convenient thing, but but they have a way that that that can happen. So, I just encourage you to look beyond a structured synchronous come to a school building on a Tuesday night at 6:00 and engage with us way of sharing what's happening and in turn hearing back. Let's like break down that formality and um deal with people in the way they sort of engage with data today. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um I would thank you for the the input. I would like to add just a clarifying statement. Uh so the discussion that we had at the work session to be clear, we've decided to move away from just having a single vision card with the data on it, but we're going to have instead we're going to have a vision card showing the just kind of a snapshot of where we are currently and then a data dashboard which is going to be hideously ugly, but it because it is going to have a ton of data in it. Um, so there's no intention of of hiding any of that information. It's just going to be two separate docu documents [snorts] moving forward. And uh, our next discussion on that topic will be at our December work session which is December 10th. If anybody would like to attend and hear um, and hear about that. Uh, and I know that uh, Dr. work camp and her team have been working diligently to pull together all kinds of numbers to put in that uh data dashboard especially because that will be a new a new tool for the district and for the board and everyone. So um but thank you. Uh next up we have our reports and discussions and we'll start with our student schoolboard representatives um first here and first up we have representative Beni. All right. So, this month in the middle school, we had some very exciting stuff going on. So, on November 3rd, many students and staff received level up awards for demonstrating growth and modeling the writer way. The staff are recognized for going above and beyond for students, while students are recognized for their hard work and achievements both inside and outside of the classroom. So, congratulations to them. And then on November 6th and 7th, the theater department presented Annie Jr., which from my sources, I hear was amazing. Maybe better than our talent from the high school. We'll have to see. And then the seventh and eighth grade dance on the 14th was amazing and my sources told me it's a very fun time. The middle school was lucky to send two swimmers to sections with the high school. Eighth grader Jenna Arnison and Amelia Krauss. They both competed in the high school swim with the high school swim team. And Jenna made it to finals for the 100 breast. And then students had a penny war November 10th through 14th and they collected spare change to bring in helping their grade level towards winning along with grade level trivia. about lunch. They raised money for the animal arc and it was a couple hundred dollar. Very exciting. >> Thank you. Any questions? >> All right. Well done. Uh next up we have student representative uh Hansen. >> All right. Kennedy students honored those who served during Veterans Day. The third graders welcomed multiple veterans into their classroom and they heard valuable stories and experiences. Others wrote letters, created artwork, and participated in discussions. And there was some cute pictures of those kids. And then first graders visited the Minnesota Zoo, which is super fun. And then three teachers received $1,000 Adopt Me classroom grants from the Ruth and George Dawing. And then those teachers are pictured right there. Super fun. And then at Tilden, the preschoolers visited the senior center senior center during Veterans Day and then sang songs to honor those who served and then showed the art they made for Veterans Day, which you can see right there is that little flag. Awesome. Thank you. Any questions? >> Yes, Director Bruns, >> did you get a sense on what those $1,000 grants would go towards in the classrooms? I didn't see exactly like everything that it would go towards. I'm assuming that it's like like stuff for the kids to learn with. Yeah. >> Thank you. Uh next up we have student representative Dery. >> All right. To kick off November at McCulliff Elementary on November 14th, the fourth graders were visited by a very special guest from the Hastings Fire Department, Jamie Stevens. Um, he taught the fourth graders about CPR, the circulatory system, the AED, and the Lucas 3 device. And they also participated in the kids heart challenge. Um, then following November 19th through the 21st, the second graders and the fourth graders are completing the standardized Kogat testing this week and Carpenter Nature Center is coming to visit the first graders with some with a few animal friends. So, that should be pretty exciting. Um then coming up later this month, November 27th to December 1st, uh following a fun and busy week, the students and the staff will be off for a well-deserved break. Happy Thanksgiving everybody. Um then Pinerest Elementary starting off in November with November 6th to kick off the month of November, the first graders took a very fun field trip to the Stages Theater Company and got to watch a play. Um, November 6th and 7th over the sixth and seventh and fourth graders or the sixth and seventh and fourth graders took a field trip to the carp then oh sorry then over the 6th and the 7th the fourth graders took a field trip to Carpenter Nature Center to see the wildlife which seems to be a pretty popular place um for the elementary schools to like to visit. November 7th, later in the evening, Pinerest held a muchloved family movie night where parents and students got to get some snacks and bundle up in a blanket to enjoy a film. I think that I should talk to Doran and see if we can get a high school family movie night. [laughter] November 11th, students honored our veterans for Veterans Day by creating some lovely mini posters to thank everybody for their service. Then November 13th, students and staff celebrated World Kindness Day by wearing some fun and bright colors and playing kindness bingo in the classrooms. Three staff members were also recognized as 2025 World Kindness Day winners. So congratulations to them. Uh November 26th, this next Wednesday, the students will participate in the much anticipated all school turkey bingo where they'll gobble up as many prizes as they can going into the Thanksgiving holiday break. Then finally to close out the month, Pinerest Choir will be closing out with a bang by performing the holiday hoopla at the Hastings Downtown Pavilion. So make sure you guys all get out to see that. It'll be a blast. >> Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? >> Nicely done. >> All right. And finally, we have student representatives Garcia. >> All right. So start with the high school. Um this month the high school had a career fair which was very informative to all students grades grades 9 through 12. A highlight from the fair was that was the different paths the students were introduced to instead of just the college route. Another big highlight was the new pet therapy program that is used with students receiving special services. This program is great to help students reduce stress and overall well-being of the students. And the hope is to expand this to more students. Oh, why isn't it scrolling? There we go. Um, and then as many people know, uh, we have a foreign exchange student named Toamaso from Italy, a dear friend of mine. Love Toamaso. He's a he's a great guy. Um, [laughter] and he, uh, he helped design, I'm pretty sure, the dish that we had for school. I It was last week or two weeks now. Um, it was like a baked pasta with a side of roasted cauliflowers. And those are just some pictures. That's um, our head chef, Tomaso, and then another one of my friends, Devon. Um, and yeah, those are just the things that were in in the dish part of it. [snorts] Okay, now sports. Some great athletic achievements were made for Hastings High School this month. Our boys cross country team took second at the MEC conference, competed at uh Nike cross nationals or yeah, the cross nationals race and sent Parker Stoultz to state. A girls cross country won their conference and sent Lene Ronic to state for the fourth time. Uh seniors Brooke and Reese Keller competed in their fourth consecutive state tennis tournament for doubles. Sophomore Nolan Stver, I probably butchered that. Dakota's United Hawks won the adapted state soccer state title where they won five to one and he scored all five goals which was insane. That's so crazy and what a great feat for him. Um, junior uh Zach Shadic broke the school record in rushing yards in a single game and season. And the most outstanding from this month is from our girls swim and dive team. Firstly, junior Greta Larson was the first athlete in school history to ever qualify for swimming and diving. >> Um, and then Khloe Ares took first place at state for diving and broke the school record by resetting her own record that she previously got. and she won state by like it was like yeah it was like 19.5 20 points or something which is insane if you know anything about diving that is that is crazy that's so amazing um and then scrolling down to the arts the arts had a couple concerts mainly just the orchestra concert um I was able to attend that and they sounded great um like 10 times better than how I remembered them from last year and it's honestly it's it they're doing really great work there. Um and then the play uh they the play was Our Town. Um it is about two kids in Grover's Corner, New Hampshire, 1901 in a story of two kids experience life together where they end up getting married. Its central message is that people often overlook the beauty of everyday moments until it's too late. Um and then that's just a picture from the play. And then that's a photo I took from the orchestra orchestra concert. Yes, I was there. [clears throat] Uh and then now the ALP. So some upcoming events are next week the students will participate in their DCTC tour which is a highlight um of the year for them. Uh this event is designed to help them explore the next steps in life whether whether through college or other career pathways provides a valuable opportunity to gain real life expectations of what college life is really like. The tour traditionally has high attendance with some students already have applied there and being accepted to DCTC. Quarter 1 has officially concluded, marking the first quarter with an increased number of students. Overall, things went very well despite the adjustment required to accommodate the larger group. Staff and students have adapted successfully, and improvements will continue throughout the year. Mr. Wag's physics class was able to launch rockets again this year, and the majority of them launched, and they were very successful. I was able to look at a couple videos of those, and they they they really went. It was it was a sight. Um, and then scrolling down, uh, it's not really about the schools, but it's about the event that me, Shil, and Avery attended for the, um, student schoolboard representative event. Um, some words I had was, uh, it was a great opportunity to attend this event, this event for the second time, I think that reflecting on last year's event and this year's, it's great to note that the topics were similar, but also different. It allows for a repetition of great themes, but also new and refreshing ideas on how to be effective while in this role. Uh, what I gained specifically from this event was identifying what a board issue truly is and what I can do about it. Speaking on the question posed, what can I do about it? As a group with my fellow student representatives, we found some ideas to help us gain student voice better than before. We are planning on creating like a Dropbox kind of a thing where students can leave an issue that they heard or even just want to be able to speak with us or just anything kind of the sort. Um, and was hoping that we could even put one in the ALP just so then we can have like a better voice for them since they are of like high school age and then we can still have them have them be included cuz their voice matters as well. And that was >> definitely just a great thing. I mean they cater to Panero that was great. Um but yeah, the the content of it was great cuz I mean speaking a little bit more on that um like last year was more focused about like kind of what is the role more or less and then this year is like what can I do well in it and not wasting a year like half a year being like okay well this is kind of what I actually want to do and what we should be doing and then kind of have that jumped like aboard easily and it's honestly I think it's a great thing and we should continue to keep going to it for sure. Awesome. Thank you. >> Good feedback. Thank you. Uh any questions? All right. Well done. Uh next up we have our superintendent report. >> Thank you. And I know some of our students are taking off for practice. Thanks for coming. Thanks for being here. >> Um I just want to say thank you to many um people in in November. we celebrate different groups and uh some of those are it's national school psychology week was November 3rd through the 7th. Of course we had Veterans Day and I do want to thank all of our veterans um currently from the past as well as families. Um families have to give up a lot too in that whole piece of sacrificing for our service members. So I want to thank everyone for their service. Also November 14th, National Community Education Day. want to celebrate all of our community educators and all of those uh community members that participate in the diff varying programs. And also November 21st is substitute educ educators day. And I really want to thank the substitutes that come in our buildings every single day to support us when we are in need. And I'd also like to welcome any community members who are interested in subbing to contact us because we can get you um either associated with our teachers on call or if it's a paris substitute we can talk through that directly with our HR department. So I encourage anybody in our community to reach out and I want to say happy Thanksgiving that's upcoming for everyone. I hope you get lots of rest and relaxation. Eat a lot if that's what you choose to do. I'm kind of on the fence on I I really want to but I don't think I'm supposed to. I don't know. Um, as you know, it's play and concert season. Um, we have u had concerts and plays throughout this month. We'll continue into December. I encourage community members to come. They are outstanding. Annie Junior was great. Our the orchestra concert was very good. Um, so I just really encourage people to come and see our kids in action. It's really it's really fun. Um, also just to kind of give an update as well, our administrative team, meaning principles, assistant principles, teaching and learning department, myself are routinely now getting into different buildings doing our walkthroughs in classrooms. So, we're trying to figure out the walkthrough tool that's going to work best for us moving forward. This is part of our TDE plan that we're creating. And then, um, unfortunately, I haven't gotten to spend as much time with them as I'd like. I get about an hour, but they're spending about three hours an entire morning. So, they're getting in lots of classrooms, learning a lot, and hoping this helps uh not only with the TD&E plan, but vertical alignment, and everybody gets to see what others are doing. So, it's a really good opportunity for us. Um, also just as a kind of a career pathways update, um, as you know, we had the career fair, very well attended. Um, everyone really enjoys that. Also, um we have now finalized our plan and the layout for the pathways guide. So, that will have a new refreshed look. Um and it's hopefully going to be a bit simpler for uh students and families to navigate. Um so, we'll have our our guide updated. We also have finalized course descriptions that again include these skills for success will be listed in the pathways guide. Not every course is going to link to those yet, but that's still a work in progress for teachers. So, we're excited about the the new look and hopes that more and more uh students get opportunities to see the electives and and try new things. And then also 917 as uh director Zuzi had said I believe last board meeting was about their ability to offer some of our these certifications that students can get. So, our students will get access to those. Um teachers have already been made aware. We're going to have some training for them, a breakout session on some a staff person from 917 will be present to to give them information on what those certifications look like, how they can incorporate them into their classes or students can do them separately on their own. Those are all online courses. The only one right now, uh, they're all it's free to us, doesn't cost us anything. Um, the nice thing is there's a lot of them. One, however, OSHA 10, um, is already full from other member districts. So they're looking to try to find more seats to purchase so we can open more of those up. You that's a very popular one as you can imagine. So keeping that work going and um it's exciting. So >> absolutely. Thank you. Any questions? >> Comment. Do you want to eat a lot at Thanksgiving? Small plug for the gobblegate here in Hastings. >> True. [laughter] >> Burn some calories first. >> All right. Uh, next up we have our audit presentation. So, welcome Erin Nielsen. [clears throat] >> Well, very good. Thank you very much for having me here this evening. I'll try to keep the energy up, but I'm going to blame it on the uh topic I get to present. But my love for governmental accounting, I'll try to bring through. But I will assure you uh when you get a boring audit presentation, that's really what you're looking for. So, um so tonight we've completed I'm here to simply present the results of our audit for the year ended June 30th, 2025. Um you've received three documents this evening. The I'm going to refer to it as the ACEUR, but the annual comprehensive financial report. Uh the district went through the process of actually expanding your previous financial statement to include additional information uh for enhanced transparency and allow you to submit that for the certificate of excellence in financial reporting. We have the got the special purpose reports and then the management report. Uh the PowerPoint presentation I have before you this evening is simply to keep us all on the same page and uh some information I pulled from the management report. So really nothing to surprise you with and uh information you've probably seen already. Um I maybe I'll open by just sharing that I'm I will probably move through the sides slides pretty quickly. I know this group has seen the information a couple of times already and really my role is to assure you that it's fairly presented and consistent with what you've seen and to let the public know that the audit process has been completed for you. So, with that, I'll making my way through the slides here. Uh, as mentioned, my name is Aaron Neielson with uh now LB Carlson. I'm getting used to that change for us. So, uh we were were MMKR and we merged with a new firm on the first of the year. So, we've got a different look and name um presenting through this, but um still heavy background in governmental accounting and auditing. So, we'll start with our role. Which way do I point? Okay. Uh our role as auditors to provide you that opinion on the financial statements. Uh issue our reports on internal control and compliance. Um and I'll get right to it with the audit results. So we start with the district's financial audit. You'll see we noted uh unmodified opinions on the basic financial statements. So really exactly what you're looking for. They're fairly stated, a clean audit opinion, meaning that they're fairly stated as of June 30th, 2025. And for the year then ended, the results are fairly presented. Um, again, continued activities by the governmental accounting standards board. We had a new change this year with how compensated absences are accounted for. And I've got a slide later that shows some of that change. Um but really uh not a change from how the district was providing benefits but just how we account for them and present them. So we'll see that at a later slide here. Uh internal controls and compliance for the financial statement audit. As you can see uh we issued there were no material weaknesses in the internal controls identified and we had no instances of non-compliance to report for you this year. We also completed the Minnesota legal compliance audit. There's seven broad categories with many tests and provisions inside of that and pleased to report we did not have any findings or comments with regard to any of those areas and testing that was completed this year. Um the last point I'm just sharing with you is the federal single audit. Uh there's a compliance supplement that annually comes out that's used to help guide us in the testing that we need to complete. Uh we don't believe there'll be any major changes, but they haven't officially issued the supplement, so we're not allowed to issue those financial statements. So, we believe we've completed most of the testing. Um but we'll have to issue that statement later. Um I really don't think there'll be much in the way of finalizing it and wouldn't need a presentation, but we'll make you aware that we've issued those reports and hopefully we'll be completed before March 31st, which is actually the deadline for that. But if it's due to the compliance supplement not coming out, I'm sure they'll give you an extension for that automatically. We include a slide for enrollment simply to show that one of the biggest funding sources is directly based on enrollment and how the number of students you're serving. This past year, the ADM or average daily membership uh slipped just under the 4,000 mark of 3,985. uh each each of the years you can see here there was a decrease from the prior year but I know that was anticipated with your studies and and plans and the budget process we've got a slide on your general fund financial position really my comment here we put some key indicators with the cash and investments unrestricted fund balance and expenditures to show you the size of the operation uh as it grows with rising costs inflation and so one uh as you can see you again have been able to maintain a healthy financial position and really a stable financial position over all 10 of the years that we have presented here. The slide before you right now is simply a breakdown of the components of the fund balance or equity of your general fund, the primary operating fund. uh a slight uptick as you can see an increase in total fund balance a slight improvement in unrestricted which captures the components of committed assigned and unassigned fund balance components and then unassigned also saw an increase this past year. So continuing to meet your fund balance policy goals again in 2025 at the end of the most recent fiscal year. the general fund slide. I've just got a couple more for the general fund, but it is your largest and primary operating fund. Uh for to gauge the size of the operation, you can see uh we provide some of the details by individual category here, budget, actual, and prior year. The total revenues this past year for the general fund totaled approximately $71.9 million. Uh came coming in better than anticipated overall. I believe each source you see here was ended better than anticipated largely with conservative budgeting and and efficient budget management there. Um the increase over the prior year with improved funding uh funding improvements for general education, special education, the formula allowance and then there were some new categorical grants and aids and some grants that you were able to capture this past year. The other component I usually or comment I share with you every year is the focus of what the reliance of our general fund and how you finance and fund school district operations and educating students. Uh you can see that heavy reliance on the state. So uh always important that we know where where our state budget is because we're really reliant on the decisions made at that level. State sources made up almost 70% of the revenues of the general fund and then followed by your local taxpayer support and some of that by funding formulas that are set in legislation. But your property taxes coming in at about 23% of revenues this past year. My final slide for the general fund expenditures. Uh well for the general fund on want to hit on expenditures similar to revenues we show a budget to actual to prior year comparison uh this past year expenditures totaled 68.2% uh coming in under budget uh what was approved through the budgetary process. So good to see with responsible budget management over the prior year as anticipated through the budgeting process and negotiations for salaries and what what would be anticipated here. So uh as you can see that change from the prior year again another common comment we share and not unusual either one I've made for the general fund with that reliance on state aids. Uh and then in the expenditure side that cost of educating students primarily being that cost of personnel uh salaries and benefits making up 71% of the general fund spending in 2025. I've got one slide for a couple of your other operating funds. A food service special revenue fund, a community service special revenue fund. Um not that they're not un or not important. Uh we do include the slide here, but just the size and scale of the operation of that one in relation to the general fund. Uh both of these funds have maintained a healthy financial position for many years and uh coming in close to what was anticipated managing the budgets. Both of these funds you can see saw a reduction in that total fund balance as anticipated in the budget process. They had been building up some fund balance and they've been able to support capital costs in their individual operations, which isn't always the case with districts that we work with. Your internal service funds for your district. Uh you've you've got a couple of internal service funds that you're utilizing to self-insure for risks with regard to health and dental benefits. Uh as you can see the the trend reversed that we've shown for three with three and short term here three years uh where the past two years prior to 2025 you saw a decrease in that net position um turning around to having an increase this year largely with the claims expenditures going down for health which you know will fluctuate depending on the circumstances of a given year. Um the revenues increasing as anticipated um but seeing a positive change over the prior year with regard to your self- insurance funds [snorts] and then I always we end up saving the last slide the hardest one for last so we wear you out and and then we get into the most difficult one to get through. So to this point, all our slides have focused on the individual funds of the organization, what we believe are uh school districts and governments, how they're operating on a day-to-day basis, looking at the individual budget. Um with governmental funds and for schools, there's a short-term perspective in our financial statements for those individual funds because we're not capturing long-term obligations on those financial statements or or long-term assets. So in order to accomplish that, the current reporting model has a dual perspective and we've got entitywide financial statements that actually start your act for document. So um but they're the hardest to interpret with all the information going together. So uh we consolidate all your funds combining them all and then we incorporate the long-term aspects of that. And if you're flipping through the front of your financial statements, you'll see those two statements and then the governmental fund statements and then a reconciliation showing you the difference on that. We've tried to shorten it down to one slide here. And true to being accountants, we've got two breakdowns with the same total tie at the end here. Um the top half is showing you the governmental funds. So what we just previously spoke to uh when we talk about the governmental funds this year you saw a decrease of $13.8 million. Now what I missed is I don't have a slide on your debt service fund and that's where you saw the decrease this year. You had a large bond that you'd been making payments and saving and that payment occurred this last year to pay off one of the big bond obligations. Uh so you that was really the decrease as anticipated this year in 2025. Um that corresponds to the lower half where we're showing that net position component. So the restricted amount you see that decrease. So for years you've been putting money aside in a syncing fund and that was drawn from this year to make that debt payment. So that's largely that decrease. uh the net investment in capital assets that's largely related to that same transaction because we would net your capital assets offset by related debt and so with that payment then net investment in capital assets is up $14 million or $16.1 million. So we like to see increases. Um but what that's telling me is you're paying your debt off faster than depreciation and that's good news. Um but and that increase though is you know tied up in your infrastructure. So, it's not available to put right into a classroom or anything. So, it's, as I know the school board's well aware, but important for the public also to understand that that increase isn't available for new spending. And then you can see the unrestricted, which is everything else falling to that category. And this year, you're seeing a decrease, which is uh unusual with the results I just presented to you with improved financial position, the general fund, and the internal service funds. And the line that jumps out for that is that other adjustments line. And you may have noticed in your footnotes or in some of the detailed in that act for document the obligation for compensated absences. And I kind of opened up with that with the change in accounting principles. So there was no major change in the benefits offered to employees that caused that. It was really driven by Gazsby saying how are we going to account for that obligation? So to date before this past year that obligation was based on what would be owed to individuals if they were to retire. So one of the common benefits and to the largest group is uh PTO or better as a sick day for teachers um but you plan that in your budget process um upon retirement and you have sunseted that benefit for most of your teachers. There's not a severance payout with that. So the obligation, what we would record in the past was a very small amount for that group that got a severance payout. We considered it a severance benefit. Now they've lumped it all compensated absences. And does anybody get to carry over sick days that they'll use in the future? Um well, sure they will. They they get to accumulate them and take a day off in the future. So we have to accumulate all those days that are out there and project how many will they use in the remainder of their career. So there's a lot of estimates that go into that. Um many of our districts and your district did as well worked with an actuary to help provide that liability benefit um cost. Um and um so it's it's really not a change in what any decisions you made this past year. It's simply how we're accounting for it. And that's why the when you look at your financial statements, we showed it as an adjustment to the beginning balance and not run through the current year operations. So that beginning to ending balance, apples to apples, was very similar from last year. Um, but we had to do the one-time adjustment to get us into that, similar to what we've done many years ago when we had to put pensions into your financial statements. You may remember that. So, um, as you can see the other adjustments, it's kind of a one-time adjustment for that. Um, which then falls to the unrestricted just like that pension amount up above and the OPE amount up above. Uh, you can see those total amounts are negative. They fall to that unrestricted and and that's why that category is a deficit. Now, it the biggest number as you can see is that pension obligation. That's the PER and TRA and that that doesn't concern me so much because they're really accounted for separately with a separate audit at the statewide level and that's your proportionate share. Um they're funded over many years. They establish the contributions and and you're meeting all those requirements. So, it's really not an obligation. You'd set additional resources aside and sacrifice um to fund that because you're going to simply pay your share as required by contributions for retirement. So, with that, I probably rambled on about the entitywide stuff a little longer than I anticipated, but I wanted to make sure that was clear and if there's any questions, I'd be happy to try to answer that. >> Mr. Um, I remember that last year you worked with us uh with special ed and found some savings and I'm sure with other districts. >> Um, and we saw that in in our budget this year, at least part of it, and I know that part of it still has tales. >> I'm wondering is there was there anything this year that you know it wasn't right or wrong, but it's just useful for us to know about. I think it's I think we're in a great position in that [snorts] we've set some additional money aside in a let me get a if I can get this right an assigned >> uh yeah fund. >> Yeah, I think that that's a good thing for us to do. You talked about you know some of that uh the liabilities that we have, but I mean we've got some that are even closer to that with uh family medical leave and we still don't understand it completely. Nobody does, >> right? >> Um, so was there anything this year that you're particularly uh finding is useful for districts? >> Um, well, I think you've continued that looking at, you know, specifically special ed and capitalizing everything you can there. I think it's important to continue that practice of being conservative because you can't always count on it and it's it's not a winning game in the end to spend more to make more. And I'm absolutely not saying you're doing that by any means. It's just how you are able to generate the resources. And I I do agree with you've set aside that assigned and that's I wanted to point that out on the slide here. When they're onetime dollars, which is important to remember, too. um you make that adjustment, but it you can't count on being able to find something new every year or that opportunity arising. Uh sometimes we'll just have good years because it didn't snow, right? And it's a good year in terms of one-time costs, but then you might get it back double the next year. So, it's being cautious with how you move forward with those one-time savings. And and I'll share with you, I mean, one of the comments that I've heard from this district was that, you know, how do we move forward with these onetime dollars? And it seems very thoughtful and in your plans to move forward using an assigned give you time how we're going to decide to use those dollars. And um you know, instead of making quick decisions, having the resources gives you that that opportunity to do that, right? um you know if if you wait and wait then it makes it much harder to make a bigger cut at a later day and doing those strategic plans year over year even though they're still hard that's easier than procrastinating and then it's a much bigger deal down the line. So I I really like that and pass it along to other districts. So, you know, and I think that's maybe that contribution that I like to believe I'm providing districts is seeing what one's doing and carry sharing some of that um between districts, the things that really I see as beneficial to them. So, but thank you. >> Any other questions? >> And I I did want to say one last comment is I wanted to thank your staff. I know another audit year and and I always forget and I'm not going to this year is that it does get beyond the finance department. You know, we talk about the federal single audit and getting into special ed areas and food service areas sometimes with that testing. Um the this year your staff implemented that new Gazsby which was challenging again. Um and then no current year findings which is always nice to be able to report. they were ready for the audit, which we appreciate with with the number of schools we do. Um it's hard to get the whole team back out again if it didn't work out and they were again prepared for the audit. Um and then added that they prepared that act for that annual comprehensive financial report. So I'm confident with the work they did. Hopefully we'll be sharing with you the award that they hopefully will have received with that work. So >> thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Director Beer. >> [clears throat] >> I just have a comment. Thank you, by the way, for clarification on a couple of the things that I did have questions about earlier. Um, you know, long time long-term viability in school districts is crazy. It's an unknown, right? And, um, with the things going on in St. Paul, we never know what's going to happen. Um, I would just like to say we are very blessed here with talented people with some um just good budget practices and uh thank you for what you do everybody. >> Thank you. Any other questions, comments? All right. Thank you for being here, Mr. Nielson. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> All right. and we will be voting on the audit uh later on tonight. So that will be up later. And next up we have Mr. Darren Severs to walk through our school perceptions survey results. Welcome back. >> Hey, good evening. >> So I'm glad to be back for our third year of working together and studying your your staff, parent, and student data. Um, it gets particularly exciting in year three because you start to see some trends of where where things continue to improve, maybe where there are some regressions, where things have kind of plateaued. Um, but it it it it seems um as though uh this relationship has evolved to the point where you're being very intentional with your with your work with the data and you're really motivated to try to improve areas that don't meet the Hastings standard and trying to protect and maintain the areas that are doing well and make sure that they stay elite. And so tonight's report is kind of a mixed bag of results. Um kind of we've got some areas that regressed and in in in some areas of concern. We have some areas that are just rock solid and then we have some that are quite celebratory. And so, um, I think just, uh, given given the nature of that, we're going to start with the the weaker data first in that report and then we'll move through to the the report that is as solid as can be and then we'll finish on a high note with the the data that is is uh quite quite strong and worthy of celebration. Okay, you know me well enough now that I don't want this to be a one-way conversation, so please stop me at any time. Um but um I also want to be sensitive to the fact that I'm not the only one on the agenda. So let's start with the staff survey. Um so for anyone listening at home, um the the the way we work with these presentations, all three of these reports, as we will study who took the survey, what they told us within the survey, and then I'll take questions after each report. So briefly, just a little background about our company for those that are new to school perceptions. Uh we were founded in 2002. Um and and our mission is to be a third-party uh research company. We gather, organize, and use data to help school districts and school boards, district administration make strategic decisions. We've been doing this for 23 years. We've conducted over 3 million staff, parent, and student surveys in all 50 states and five foreign countries. And now we've topped we had a very busy year in Minnesota this past year. We we've helped over 1,300 school districts nationwide with referendum planning, facility planning, um to the point of your audit, uh districts that are in financial trouble. We help them um make decisions about how to adjust their budget and and um correct their budget. So, let's talk about the staff results. Um the survey uh had a two-eek window, two weeks, two weekends, had a deadline of the 27th October and we had 328 respondents to the survey. Just to keep that in context, that's why I've got my laptop along with um compared to last year, uh we had 324 staff take the survey a year ago. So we're up by four employees taking the survey. 49% participation rate. Company average is 60%. So, a little below the company average, but I would tell you very acceptable. Very acceptable. I would always like to see it higher. Um, we're actually we launched a podcast series where we're trying to share best practices, not just be a data gathering company, but share best practices. And we just featured a district in Wisconsin that had a 96% participation rate. And she tells the tale about what she did to to increase participation. So if um we're on Spotify, Apple, all that school perceptions, we have a a educational forum. We launch a podcast every two weeks. Um I I was a guest two weeks ago where we talked about um the ins and outs of merit pay and um developing salary schedules and pay practices back from my 10 years as being a superintendent. Those kinds of topics, topics that educational leaders can get better together. So to that end, response rate maybe that we could talk about that um later in the month when we we get into more detail about how to get that up. That being said um as you know all these slides are ways we can study your data. We can study the results by site where they report to on a daily basis. We can report it by position and try to understand are there any groups that are are um um different than others. Um that was an annual practice in my district when I was doing the stain the same type of data dive. Um we can study by years of experience. So let's talk about your results this year. And and again um no easy way to say this but the results did backslide. So this first graphic shows you kind of your this is your index page. All the questions on the survey feed into one of these five areas. either the academics that the staff are providing um the kids engagement, how supported they feel, the student experience through the eyes of the staff and then their own staff experience. So the way we're going to report the results this year, um we're going to talk about the current score on that one to five liyker scale. I'm going to go back to that. All the questions are worded where we're seeking agreement. In a perfect world, every score would be a five. Uh we know that's not reality. Um, but that's our goal. Um, four points if they agree, five if they strongly agree. You notice we take the three out. Remind the group we take the three out intentionally because if they they they're kind of middle and they're not sure, then they're not telling you anything. We're trying to measure leanings. Um, and so the true median is a 3.0. So in a perfect world, we want as many above a 3.0 as possible. You did accomplish that with all of your indexes this year. But um what is what I'm sure is concerning to you because you're a very thoughtful board that really values this data is that that all five areas regress from last year. So that's the second column. Third column is percent change. And then what we wanted to be very intentional about this year is putting your scores in context and and having a percentile rank. So whenever your your teach uh teaching and learning leaders present data, you look at this the same way. In a perfect world, you're in the 99th percentile and um you don't want to be down the single digits on the percentile rank because because we're comparing you to a pool of roughly about 150 districts are in your comparison pool across Minnesota and Wisconsin. So, it's not a handful of districts, it's a lot of districts that are in that enrollment size like you. Okay, that screen doesn't tell you a lot. So, what's more helpful is to get in individual questions. And so we're going to look at the workday questions and and again as I talk about the report not being um necessarily the greatest of news, there are some areas that still are worthy of celebration here. So for example, let's just go through the work day questions. Know that these are all the the format for how we decided to present these tonight are percentage change from highest percentage change to lowest. So if it grew, we started with those and if it regressed, then we went through them and and the the lowest regression would be the last score on each section. So as far as how they view the job they're doing, our staff does a good job of educating our students. Very stable from compared to last year and in the top 14% compared to your comparison pool, 86 percentile. And that that cannot be taken for granted. I've given many reports this last year where districts are saying, "We don't think we're doing a good job." Because they're anonymously reporting and what they're seeing around their school. There's a lot of pride in Hastings about the job they're doing for kids. And guess what? Spoiler alert, when we get to the kids at the end of the report, your kids are really happy, too. So, it's not the staff just feeling it. The kids are loving their school experience. Okay? Our staff handles discipline in a consistent manner. slight regression, just 1/100th of a point, very stable, but you're in the top 15%. And that's one of the number one areas of frustration with the districts I work with is discipline. They want to teach, okay? And your district, in your district, they feel like they can now um because they're handling discipline in a consistent manner. And we get into some areas that slid back a bit and then don't necessarily meet the Hastings standard for percentile rank. um information important to my work is shared with me in a timely and effective manner. Most days I look forward to going to work. It was uh it's slid back by 2.3% has you at the 29th percentile. The amount of work I'm asked to do is reasonable, manageable. Uh regress by 2.8% but now we're down at at the fifth percentile on that on that measure. I feel comfortable sharing input and concerns with my supervisor administrator. Again, a little tough to have the takeaway there until we start to look at building by building and and try to understand which, you know, which where it's particularly problems some uh because this is a K12 report just for the generality tonight. That's something we can drill down on for you. I feel supported again. Same same here. I feel supported by my supervisor administrator when I make a decision that slid back by 7% ninth percentile and know this if you're wondering well what is a significant backslide or a significant growth we get excited about 3 or 4% progress because that's tough to do across 328 employees. So then likewise we get concerned when you see a three three to four percent um regression on a score too across the whole group and you're seeing some in the sevens here. Um we had quite a a lot of celebrating last year when we were talking about the big change in behaviors and when we were seeing double digit growth in a lot of areas last year. You're seeing here that we have some double digit growth or regression on some areas like the district seeking input from a broad group of staff members. Yes, sir. >> Just a a clarifying question to see if I would understand it correctly. >> Yeah. >> Um, if if we're out toward one of the tales, like for instance, if we're if we're toward the real affirming positive tail and we like where we're at and we see a 4% drop, that's not ideal, but it's it's hard to maintain. You know, when you're when you're out toward the edges, it's hard to maintain at at a high level. I would be really concerned if we were at a low percent and then we saw a a a low um >> yes a a lowering of 4% would be a big deal there. >> And thanks for bringing that up and I want to add to that Mark that's a great point. Know that our data is always changing. We are not comparing you to 2019 data. When we run your reports it always does a two-year look back. So all the other districts you're compared to are also chasing improvements, trying to get better. And the pool of districts because this is our fastest growing product in our company, it's getting bigger. For example, if I I may digress a little bit. I just gave a presentation Monomony. They're on an every thirdyear cycle. Well, their data improved, but also the pool changed. The first year I did it, my very first presentation with a company, they had 53 districts. I presented this fall at a staff in service. There's 157 districts in their pool. So when we talked about growth, that was incredible because all these districts joined the pool and are trying to get better, too. The pool's bigger and they're all trying to get better over the last two years and they hadn't surveyed annually like Hastings has as an annual getting better exercise. They had kind of st stood back and waited. they jump back into it with measures and all the data changed because all the districts in their comparison pool been doing annual exercises here. Now, not saying they weren't working on Monomony because their results were quite commendable and we're going to present in Wisconsin with them because they did some very concerted things and they gave me permission to talk about them because they're so proud. But the pool really changed. It really did. So, great point. percentile rank if it's solid even though it slid backwards at least your standing is really solid compared to other districts who are also chasing the same growth measures. You bet. But when we talk about um the the student discipline practices and policies being effective having that drop by 8% um it's not at the percentile rank we saw last year because an 8% drop definitely impacts that rank and then district seeks input from a broad group of staff members. You know the survey is a once a year exercise. That's not enough. They clearly are seeking something else and different forum where they have input. I don't know what that would be, but there's lots of things that we can talk about um when we're not just doing this overview. Environmental scores. Um I have training and support to work with students from different backgrounds. Slid some has you at the 15th percentile. In the last year, I received useful feedback to help improve my work. ironic we're talking about that tonight because um we just talked about the new walkthrough document or tool that you're you're you're the measures and that the administrative team is being very intentional about getting out and and doing evaluations and things of that nature. Um all stu students in our school are respected for their values and beliefs. um 3.9% u change 26th percentile um and I feel safe at work um change by 4.3% to the 15th percentile um other in environmental questions I'm recognized when I do a good job I have opportunities for training and professional development to to improve my work and then we get into some tough ones here administration doing what it takes to make our district successful. District heading in the right direction. And then my least favorite question of the night, the school board doing what it takes to make our our district successful. Now, our research department this summer did a correlational study to talk about see which of these questions particularly talk to each other. And one that really jumped out at us is when we talk district direction, we got a lot of questions about what does that really mean? We found out that really when employees answer that question, they really mean how am I feeling about my district administration and how am I feeling about my school board. They really feel like those two clusters of leaders together really set the district direction. So, no surprise when you see the results that they're kind of lumped together into a similar slide uh backwards compared to what you experienced last year. Okay. And then finally, support questions. Um better news here. um in in some areas um I have the materials and supplies I need to do my job well grew by 2.4%. Our school having a process to ensure every student has a connection with at least one adult harder to do in a big system like yours but um must be going well because it's very stable as far as the data and has you at the 69th percentile. I have the technology I need to do my job well. Minor regression there has the 40th percentile. Um, I have work healthy working relationships with my co-workers. Very strong area compared to others. Move backwards by 1.8% to Mark's point, but has at the 84th percentile. Um, all students in our school are given equal opportunities to learn, experience success. Our school supports students from diverse backgrounds. I have access to the technology support I need. And then our parents and community support the school district. Finally, the last three questions on the support section of the survey. The social emotional needs of all students are being met. Staff input is valued. And then the district's pay practices are fair. As we talk about equal opportunities for students, we do break them out by um more specific groups, whether it's cultural background, economic background, racial background, gender, or as what was referenced in the in the audit, special education. And all five of those areas experience a similar backslide too and and has you in the same percentile rank range which is not necessarily where I think you want to be but we'll we'll study that further down the line here. Um we did ask a question um advice for the new superintendent. Uh and and again we is it was pretty exhaustive list u but what we try to do is is uh summarize that for you and there's quite a dividing line there. Four big priorities jumped out. Um no no superintendent can accomplish all these because there's only 24 hours in a day and seven days in a week. So I was happy for Christine in the fact that a lot of these talk to each other and are in similar in nature um and complement each other. Staff want accessibility, engagement. They want to feel heard and they want transparency and all those kind of go hand in hand really with your communication style and your listening style but also then your decision-m style. Not that the others weren't important, but again, this is a starting point of what the staff are asking for. Overall satisfaction. Um, you've seen this question um before where we say on a scale of 0 to 10, how likely would you be to recommend the district as a place of employment? Um, no surprise that that regress given that the the nature of the other data that we studied tonight. Um, and that's where you are this year compared to last year. percentage change and then where your percentile rank leaves you compared to other districts. And we ask this question on every survey we give whether it's a operating levy question survey or a a bond referendum. This is one of our placeholders on every tool we we use. So to summarize that was a lot of data. What we did a couple different ways. Five highest scores based on that liyker score knowing that we're trying to get as close to five as possible. There's some nice areas of strength when we look at that like rating scale. Then to give you kind of just a summary, these are the five that were the lowest on the liker rating scale. Then we did also rank them by five with the percentage change that was most favorable paints a little different perspective when you look at percentage change and then the five that regress the most. We do this because with 30 items, you can't chase necessarily improvements on every item. So, we try to do your homework for you and kind of summarize. There's a third way we could have done it, and I didn't want to overwhelm you with data. Some districts say, "Tell us the five where our percentile rank is the strongest and the five where our percentile rank is is the weakest, and that is something I can easily do when when we do our deep dive." But again, I I didn't want this to to be an exhaustive report knowing you've got other people on the agenda tonight, but this kind of gives you a summary. Okay. Any questions about the staff report? >> Yeah. >> Does your um survey have capacity for written in answers too for clarity of gather answers? Okay. >> So we did and again this is important for the public to hear too. We always start with the data because the data represents everyone. Everyone didn't take the time to write a comment but everyone answered the questions. So we give you a summary. We always say start with the data because what can happen with the comments is all of a sudden you start reading the comments and then you get distracted by that and then your mind is completely on that couple of painful comments or a couple of that are like oh you're guys are doing great that way. The data tells your story. We view the comments as kind of giving complexion to why the data is what it is. And so we've got all the comments and um in the next week I'm going to I'm going to download them and and the board will need to make a decision and I'd love your input tonight. Do you want them all >> or do you >> Okay. Or do you want what we call our comment theme analysis report where I'd summarize them into themes and say these are the eight topics where that we so the questions were worded. What do you see Hastings greatest strengths through the eyes of the employees and what are some areas we we need to improve. We could organize them into very um actionable what are the five strengths, five eight themes in the comments that they see as your strengths and to five or eight most um areas common areas of concern. So it's a little bit more digestible because you're going to have hundreds and hundreds of comments. I would just caution you, but you want them. Okay, >> Bruns. I just want to speak to the power of a [clears throat] of an entire point when we talk about recommending the district as a place of employment. If we had maintained our previous score, which is oftentimes impossible because the pool changes and responses change. >> Sure. >> But if we had maintained a 7.04, where would that put our percentile rank? When you think about >> 50th, >> right around the 50th, if I I could go to the report and and um but I if I recall, it was 49th 50th. So, seven seven tends to be right at that that and and that's right in the average >> right at the top of that bell curve. I appreciate that. >> Yeah. >> Anything else about the staff report? >> Um I just want I know we're going to talk about this, but I really would like to hear um ways that we can get more staff to take this. >> Um I know we can't force parents to take it, but I did talk to a few parents since this was done and asked if they took it. And multiple times I heard, "No, I didn't do it because I'm happy with how things are going, so why would I take the time to do this?" I'm like, >> "Fair, fair point." >> Um, however, when I see results like this, I wonder what percentage of that is the reason that people didn't take it when we have 48% or was it 49% of staff, only 14% of parents took it. um how can we make sure that this is I mean I I I hope that people who are happy with with how things are going absolutely took it but it makes me wonder right when I hear from multiple people that they didn't do it because they're they're fine >> and likewise likewise I I don't know that we can universally apply that to theory to that because I and while I I mentioned nominee before because we're going to present at WASB together I don't talk about other district data but I would tell you this is all I've been doing these last few weeks and I just gave a report a parent report recently where everything is in the 70, 80th, and 90th percentile. And so that tells me that the very happy parents for whatever reason in that district came out and said, "Let's take the survey because we're going to give them that good news." I don't want to un I don't want to underscore and say that the that the happy parents um fully stayed away in in Hastings, but that could be I I you know, it's hard to know, but I would love to see more staff take it for sure. this is their opportunity um to just be candid. This is I want anyone listening at home, this is completely confidential. There's there's no way I have no way of knowing who said what in here. There's only one person and that's our head programmer uh who could look look up who said what and um and and we take it very seriously. That's why it's under lock and key except for the one person that oversees our server. Okay. >> Yeah, I'm I'm excited to hear um to look at those comments um because I'm I'm a continuous improvement geek and I I love going after chasing after things that need to be improved and making them better for everybody. I mean, I I want our staff to want to come to work every day and love love their job and love being here. >> Um but I also see one of the things that was ironic to me is that one of the things that went down significantly is that we don't solicit feedback from people, but this is your chance to get feedback. [laughter] and we got, you know, less than half of our staff, you know, completing it. So, >> that that was that one was kind of a knife on the heart to me, too, because I only I I I really value this process on your behalf. I I'm passionate about serving districts. How can we work together to serve them better if they're not taking it? Um, would you like those downloaded and sent to you ahead of my arrival on December 3rd when we come back? >> Yes, please. >> You don't have them right now. [laughter] >> I'll have them. Well, then you won't be paying attention to I've got more stuff to share and it gets better from here. Phil, I'll I'll have those to Christine by the end of the day Friday. >> Thank you. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Will they be accompanied by the um those eight more like trends that we pull out of the comments because one of my fear about fears about having all of the comments is that you like hyperfixate and proceverate on one. But that's that's one. It's not the trend. And I think >> I'm glad you brought that up because I'm that guy. >> Okay. I did get 12 >> good comments and I would proceverate on the one that shredded me during COVID or when we were in negotiations back when I was still superintendent. So to your point, I'll do both >> if you'd like that. We'll do the the comment theme analysis report to summarize that takes some time because we're sorting through them and trying to make it a meaningful exercise, but by the end of the day Friday, Christine will have all three comment reports. We asked the kids for comments, too. And it's a it's a great question. I don't know if you reme remember the question, but we say if you were a new student arriving at Hastings, um, enrolling in Hastings, what advice would you give to a new student? And they give great advice about like join a club and just get a couple of good friends. Don't worry about having a zillion friends. Just find one or two good kids and hang with them, you know? I mean, they they really get into the world of being in school and giving their their their new classmate cool advice. It's fun. Yeah. Okay. All right. Parents 583. Um 80 less. Oh, I'm sorry, Phil. >> Um this is We kind of talked about this at the work session last week a little bit and I was gone, but I was um when you're trying to be good at something, we should all be able to be critiqued. And I don't think, you know, I don't think we should shy away from anything there. And I think I think a person who has a capacity to succeed um can handle comments um and not fixate on bad. Um we're going to have bad, but um I appreciate the ability cuz I I want to know why and how we can get more >> of that input from staff. We've we've talked about this. I I can't come to solutions without conversation and um we just talked about this last week and I I just passionately would request that please come to us and um please fill these uh perceptions out next year. I mean we need we need to know and um this is about making the district even better. I think we've made a lot of strides here. So, but you know, nothing's ever perfect and nothing's ever 100% right. And um but we need input >> and know this knowing that you want to double down on more participation in in in targeting areas. Something we do offer and I don't know that we've ever talked about this in Hastings because it's always been a fall annual fall exercise, but we have what we call within the company a dipstick survey. use the analogy checking your oil. If there are some areas that we come out of that data session on the third that you want to come back to the employees with, maybe Christine and her leadership team works on it with you for a few months and we want to come back to them in March, we could target 5, 8, 10 questions instead of the full 30 survey um inventory and just really target those questions, come back to them and saying, "How are you feeling now?" because we heard you, we're concerned, we want to see if what we've been doing has been working. So that's why we talk called the dipstick. It's very targeted on specific areas. Instead of taking 8 to 12 minutes, it takes three to four because it's a micro survey and we price it accordingly because we know we we don't want to just continue to go back to the well because you're you're a good partner and we we want to help you. So we really price it economically for you because it takes less time and then we can really hone in on areas of improvement. Think about that. We'll talk about a number of things as we study this. Okay. Parents um 80 less than a year ago, but a very acceptable 14% uh response rate. Two benchmarks that we look for as a company. 10% or more becomes very reliable. 500 or more becomes very reliable. You hit both for a district your size. Um we can study results by site here as well. um remarkably evenly distributed across all the grade levels. So we know every grade level is represented through the eyes of the parents. Uh we can study it by categories of support areas, special education, gifted and talented etc. We can study it by race and let's talk about the same rating scale through the parents and where your data is this year. much different report with the parents, incredibly stable and um in percentile ranks that all are right right in that average range. Um this is a snapshot um not a lot of movement as you can say see from the index side of things. So it'll be particularly interesting for you to to see the question by question results. But we did ask the question, we piloted this with you last year and now it's staple on every parent survey we do where we ask them planning priorities for the future. What are four areas that you'd like to see the district grow, expand, enhance? And Hastings parents um came out with some pretty compelling data at the top. School safety and security is most important to them for the f as you plan for the future. And I want to put this in context. If something's low on this list, it doesn't mean it's not important. It means that when push comes a shove within the limits that we just heard about of finance, these are this is what's most important for you to invest in for the future in their mind. Recruiting and retaining high quality staff love it when it's this high because that tells me the parents understand the talent pools are not like the early 2000s where I was an elementary principal and we had 621 applicants for a first grade job. And by 2022, my last year superintendent, that pool is 21 for that same first grade opening. Things have really changed in education as far as the depth of the pool of people going into it. I still think they're incredibly it's they're incredibly talented people in the pool, just that we're fighting over them now districtto district. Um mental health services shows that Hastings parents are very aware of the nationwide mental health crisis we're experiencing. counselor shortage and they continue to want you to to make student behavior and discipline a priority, which you're doing and you have been doing. Um, and then no surprise, I tend to say stop at the top four or five, just like with Christine's wish list from the the staff. Um, you can't chase all these, but teched continues to be on the minds of voters, taxpayers, and parents. I can't believe how many projects we're talking with architects and builders about districts wanting to update their tech programming and it tests as well as roofs, boilers and chillers because they see it as essential to learning. And then to a lesser extent, they're not saying that they don't want you to have sports. They're saying, "Hey, maybe just have the funding for sports be stable. It's not an area that we want you to double down and invest more." I think that's how you should look at at these some of online learning. I think we all learned that there's a place for it, but it's not for everyone. Co taught us that lesson, right? Um they're satisfied with the number of language offerings you have and transportation. They're satisfied with it. So, all right, let's go item by item with your parents. Uh first question we asked overall, how would you rate communications from school? Um very modest regression. Nothing I'd lose sleep over. you're at the 59th percentile, 79% of your parents rated your communication as good or great. That's very, very acceptable. And then we always are going to ask them just in case this has changed because it is changing. I want to tell you as we do, we did a lot of work in Minnesota, we're seeing paper newsletters making a comeback with some districts where they're craving something in their hand. Um, in your case, the parents are saying email is is their prefer preferred communication followed by that text or notification, probably most likely a windchill warning or or snow day. Um, those I know those are typically used for like something urgent. Uh, but then they're going to the parent portal, they're going to the website, they value school district newsletters, but they're still also valuing teacher meetings and administrator meetings. and then there's a significant drop off if you're spending a lot of time on Facebook. Um that's that's and and and other things uh that's not high in their list. Okay, let's talk about your scores. We did ask questions. The survey opened with questions about leadership and communication. Um district administration doing what it takes to make our district successful, very stable from last year to this year has hit the 43rd percentile. district heading the right direction. Um dropped by 5% and then you see the percentile rank and then again um now you see uh we're the school board doing what it takes to make our district successful. And again, as we did that summer retreat studying our data trends, again, district direction again through the parents, they link district administration and board as determining what that district direction. And no surprise, that's what you're elected to do. So, let's look at all the questions on the parent survey. Um, this is where things really nice and stable, steady, and um either modest growth or very minimal regression. Um, school has high expectations for my child. some growth and a very um solid percentile rank. I'm satisfied with how much my child is learning. Once again, school facilities are clean and wellkept. This is where I'm going to remind you. We had this conversation last year. Don't worry about that 22nd percentile here. You're at a 418. You grew it from last year. All other schools are doubling down in their cleaning practices. To Mark's point, let's not I mean, you're well above a four. you you move that to a 4.25 and you're probably at the 50th percentile. Everyone is making cleaning postco everyone really doubled down in their cleaning practices and they've kept them in place and so that is not one you're just it you're just lower compared to others but you're in a very good place on the like rating scale and you're growing healthy culture at our school grew by 1.1% has you in the solidly average range school staff treat my child with dignity and respect you're just about to the top quartortile compared to other 73rd percentile. I have at least one school staff member I feel comfortable contacting when I have an idea or concern. I have opportunities to provide feedback to the school and the teachers and I'm updated how my child is doing. Both very stable, both in a very nice percentile rank place. So the communication and that connectivity piece on on uh interacting on how their children are doing and and and what they need to know. I'm satisfied with our school's efforts to address bullying. A slight growth 39th percentile. My child gets help when they need it. Very similar to last year, 56th percentile. Feel welcome in my child's school. And then I know how to support my child's learning exactly the same as last year and in a very strong place. School communication timely and transparent. We asked it earlier in the survey. We come back to it asking it a little more specifically. How timely is it? 71st percentile. Exactly the same as last year. School teaches with materials that reflect my family's cultural and racial background. School provides opportunities for parental involvement. And then I would put this last question in in the similar conversation of the cleanliness question above four very similar to last year. Yes, 24th percentile. But if I'm going to spend a lot of energy on anything, it certain it would not be here. Okay. Overall, my child is able to handle the emotional challenges of school. Everyone's working on this one. This is one of the top priorities. Anytime we talk about planning priorities, mental health is a concern. My child breaks a rule at school, they're treated fairly. I was very pleased by this. Even though it regressed by a couple hundreds, 73rd percentile. So, your staff are seeing a concerted effort with behaviors and your parents are reporting back that that um the kids are treated fairly and uh the behavior management is is is effective. Most days my child enjoys going to school. modest regression but squarely in the 50th percentile. Ask a question about homework which is is is a always a challenging topic. What is the right amount of homework? Well, 72% of your parents say you're getting it just right. That's one of the highest scores I've been able to report this year. Okay. Extracurricular participation. You have a highly engaged student body. Um, I just did this report last night with the district where was 54 seven three out of four kids are involved in something which makes my heart go because I was a big when I was a principal of the high school I just wanted kids to get involved in something. I don't care if it's ice fishing team forensics or you're the football team just be involved after the learning day ends. That's where friendships are grown and you you you get mentors from those adviserss and coaches. internet, your community is well connected, which is still not the case for all of our our accounts, particularly some of those North Dakota accounts that we're we're working with right now. Advice for the the new superintendent. This list is going to look pretty similar. Maybe not quite the definitive cutline, but very similar themes from the parents. The only thing that really popped for me here that was different from the staff was where focus on student achievement hopped into the top five. They wanted you to keep learning a priority. They want to be heard. They want they want availability and approachability and engagement, all those things, but they want to make sure the kids continue to get a great learning experience. Okay. >> Yeah. Phil [clears throat] question. Why do you think that's not higher with staff? >> Um, well, we did ask a question earlier on on how they feel the learning experience is going. And I think again when there's they're they're they're asked what's most important, I think they feel like they are focused on student achievement. They wake up every day thinking about student achievement. So, I think when when they think about what they need from their new superintendent, they're saying, "Well, I got that. That's what you pay me to do. This is what I need from her. It's a little bit of a different mindset I think from the staff. Yeah. Overall satisfaction nice and stable compared to last year. Um, uh, this is, you know, we take that three out of all the other questions. We do allow a five here. And I think sometimes Minnesota nice herz districts, you've got one in five survey takers that just they didn't really give you an opinion. They just said neutral. Otherwise, that score would be higher and your percentile rank would be higher. I would say look for the pockets. There's no pockets of frustration and anger in Hastings. Look at the the zeros, ones, and twos. We always look at those, particularly when we're asking a tax increase question. We'll study those. But look at that the the double digits in the eight 78s, nines, and tens. Topheavy report here. hurt only by the fact that you have a bunch that just said uh five summary and analysis top five raw score. A lot of environmental things which is great connectivity to staff and behaviors. five items with the lowest scores on the liker scale. This is where the context um you got to be careful because communication is one of your strengths. It just so happens that com that on the liyker scale it's lower here but compared to others you're seen very favorably. So let's talk about percentage change. five that grew the most and not big spikes, but I love the stability in year three. I think this is this is good news. Parents are seeing this as a really um stable operation and a stable experience for their kids, but we did have some areas here that we'll talk about further. And the parents have the same questions as the staff. areas that they see as significant strengths, areas they'd like to see improved. That was a closing open-ended comments for the parents, too. Okay. Questions about that parent report before I talk about the kids? I guess what I want to say is regardless of what we talked about with that staff report, what I'm really excited about and proud of here, whatever they're feeling right now, >> the kids are not. And you're going to see this with your data. >> Thinking back to the demographics of the parent survey, did that what's the correlation with our district demographics? Are we hearing more from from one race racial group and maybe less of the rest or disproportionality in the types of who's responding? >> Oh, we we'll we'll break that out for you and look at that. But and I'll need a little help from the district, too, to say, okay, how representative is that of your distribution because I can show you what data we gathered on race, but I would need to contrast this with whatever you can run from your your parent or your parent portal or what what your your CMS system tells us. But let's look at that. If you can have an IT person um run that in advance of our meeting, I'll tell you what I've got. Okay. All right. The kids 78% participation rate. That tells me that the the staff worked very hard to create an opportunity. If we ask the kids just to voluntarily take it, we'll get 40%. Where districts are very intentional about providing the kids an opportunity within their learning day. Hey, this is this is a meaningful activity. Let's take the time. And they set aside the time. That's the only way we get a good response rate like this. Um and and it was and if I'm just curious to tell you here um what how that compares to the last time we surveyed the kids. I know it's very close. Yeah. Within 17 um you had 17 less than last year. 2148 last year. Company average is 75%. So you exceeded that very nice balanced uh grade level distribution. Not uncommon for the sophomores, juniors, and seniors to maybe less motivated to do so because they're kind of they're they're winding down their career. We use a little bit different language, but the same scoring philosophy. Definitely sort of not really know or don't know. It doesn't apply to me. Look at these indexes. Again, the questions fed into either how connected they feel, their learning experience, their environmental experience, um their the environment of their school and their experience overall. So, let's talk about individual questions again. Um my teacher's calling me in class. Again, it's ranked by percentage change. Much like the parent support, not big swings, but oh my, very favorable percentile ranks. My teachers explain things in a way that I get. My teachers make their classes fun and interesting. I can relate to what I'm learning at school. I try my best at school. And interestingly enough, to Mark's point, so one question that regressed by by just a bit at the 91st percentile, you're in the top 9%. And then we rewarded this question this year from last year. So it's the first time we asked it that way, but this is this tells me that they've adjusted now. They understand cell phones. You were just a front runner because now it's 31 out of 50 states. Um Wisconsin just passed it too. You were just you were just a leader in that area that it's just too much of a distraction. and and um and so we've we've we've uh corrected their mindset about how essential a cell phone is for learning. Most let's talk about their life at school questions. Most kids at school follow the rules. Nice growth there. 3.7 um that's that's really really good growth and has the 60th percentile. [clears throat] Students treat me with respect. It's 83rd. I feel safe at school. Look at how high those scores are. and you still grew it. Teachers treat me with respect. Look at how high those scores are. And again, um I can't say enough. There's sometimes where we see the the staff data is down and the student data has followed because the kids are sensing it or the experience has regressed for the kids. Not here. This is really good stuff. Um I know my teachers care about me. That grew 84th percentile. I can be myself at school. I feel safe answering in questions when I'm not sure I have the right answer. Raise that hand anyway. If I were bullied, I'd feel comfortable talking to someone about it. Two 100ths. That doesn't that doesn't keep me awake at night. I like to learn new things. I like working in groups with my classmates. That's definitely heading the right direction. We've kind of got beyond that whole isolation mindset of co and now we're back to doing robust group work. I like helping other people when I can. My parents and guardians help me with school as much as they can if I ask. And I love this result. If there's a if I have a big problem, there's an adult at school I can talk to about it. 87th percentile. I have a friend to sit with at lunch or hang out with the school. And again, these two slight regression, but look at your percentile rank. I have friends who help me when I can and I talk to people outside about what I'm learning. That's the highest score I can recall um reporting on that question for the accounts I oversee because you think about it. You say, "What'd you learn today?" Nothing. No, they your kids are saying, "Hey, I talked to people outside of school about what I'm learning." It means that they're taking their learning home with them. and and they're energized about it and they're they're sharing it out because um it's meaningful. My learning, we ask the questions, "What makes learning hard for you?" We cluster it by fourth through 8th graders. Not uncommon. I would tell you 19 out of 20 reports I give distracting behaviors of other students is number one. Test anxiety is always in the top four. stress. Breaks my heart that fourth through eighth graders are that stressed out, but and not so unlike that list, but reshuffled in in rank. Um, for the the high schoolers, they maybe don't quite agree with their parents about the homework being just right because they've got that listed as fourth on their list. But who really likes homework? Um, homework in in projects I'm assigned are more than just busy work. Commendable. Look at that. Grew by 3.7% and has you in the top 14%. So when really pressed, does the homework have meaning or is it just something to punch a clock and fill time and fill a grade book? They're saying it's meaningful. That's another one where I've never seen a score that high on the projects I oversee. Overall satisfaction grew slightly and has you in really nice company. 69th percentile. And again, look at the top score, the neutral score. So it'd probably be in the 80th percentile if we we pushed some of those fivers to really think think a bit more and instead of just clicking real quickly. So summary and analysis top five raw score. Lots of good things here. Parent staff and their peers. bottom five scores. But again, remember the context. You scored very favorably on kids following the rules [snorts] and talking to people outside of school about what I'm learning. Percentage change, nice growth on some areas that are not easy to change. following the rules and how they view homework and regressions very minor. You're talking about a hundth or or two 100s on that five fivepoint scale. So nothing that alarms me. This is truly a celebration this report. So, that was a lot of me presenting slides. Any questions for this group? I know we're going to get back together, but I also want to be available to you tonight. I know I've got my homework um in the days ahead to get you some more and then we'll go even further in a few weeks. But any questions before I wrap up? >> Yeah, I kind of have a comment. I guess I I I hear the the perceptions of the different categories. I feel like the one that seems to be most beneficial for us is the teachers because I I read and this it can be reflective of everybody in the district, but I listen to the parents and the students and I'm like the teachers are doing a really kick- butt job. >> And um I think that I think we all think that. I know [clears throat] we all think that. Um, so I guess I'm I'm eager to drill down a little bit more on the teachers. And um, I think that it seems like from the perceptions that there's some kind of communication breakdown between the teachers and us as the board. Um, because we've said this and Phil said it before, we just we haven't heard what these issues are. We haven't heard issues. And I mean, I've only been here since May, so I can only speak to that. But so that that seems like I mean that's [clears throat] something that I obviously we're gonna want to drill down on but also like we can we'll have to drill down on that too because other is it that they're not hearing being heard by the administrators? Is it being hurt they're not being heard by I mean there is a chain of command up to us. Um where's the communication breakdown? I'm really eager to talk to that to to for us to come converse about that and even when the principles maybe when they come in and um to figure out what's what's the issue. Does it stop at the communication between the teachers and the principles the principles to the superintendent or the superintendent to us which I don't think would ever be the case because your communication is phenomenal. So there's there's a communication breakdown here. Um I mean it makes me really anxious but um obviously I say this to say uh I think this is something that will need a lot more love and effort and if teachers you know like I said there is a chain of command but where wherever you feel that there you know we could be of assistance in whatever way obviously we are we're available to have that kind of conversation. So, and the only thing I would tell you doing this probably a hundred times a year >> with boards, >> keep that mindset. >> The very fact that you're thinking that way and feeling that way already sends a message to the staff that this does not meet the Hastings standard for what the board wants. >> I've been in meetings where the board said, "Too bad. Our job is not for them to like us. We don't care." And I've I've I've had to sit through that and walk out humbly like, "Okay." No, you care. You're concerned. I can tell just by the looks on your faces and you're saying, "Tell us more and I'm going to get you more." And sometimes I do push those theme reports because they're they're more efficient. But I agree with you. We'll download them all, but just try to not get hung up on the too many of the one-offs. We still have to come back to the masses and look at some of the themes that are actionable because if you chase every comment, you'll get nothing done. That would be my only cautionary tale. I'm just talking from experience. I lived it as an elementary principal, high school principal. You can't chase every comment because you're going to have hundreds from all three groups. We're going to focus on the staff clearly because that's the report of concern. But it's going to be a lot. >> Okay. >> And I do want to just make a point. Um, you you said teachers, but it is all staff. So, >> sorry. Did you hear the answer? No. And I just want to make sure. >> And but I would but I and Carrie, by all means, that's what we can do, too, is is we're going to we're going to look at the data across by building. We're going to look at it by position. We're going to look at it by position within the building. But a reminder that our confidentiality cuts off is within a building five or less. We won't have data on those because we we take it that seriously. If it's a pool of five or less, then we don't have the data because then you kind of know who that cluster of people are and that's not fair to them. We really take that seriously. But there's enough trends within a job category across the district. We'll know. And because you're new, I don't know if any of the board members shared this story, my district, I had teachers that were pretty satisfied. I had pair of professionals that were hostile and I didn't know until school perceptions came in and told me. And then we drilled down so far we knew it was just the special education pairs. It turns out their case loads were way out of joint and I just didn't know and we could do some we could do something very intentional about that just by adjusting you know you see the workload score is down at the fifth percentile I mean workload affects mindset too there so many things we can do once we come back together and really work together on this >> and come up with some kind of commun communication after we have that conversation to to frame the issues too because if there's issues that come up in the comments that we clearly have no power over I think it would be worth it to have some kind of communication to say, "We heard you. We this is this area we we actually have no power as a school board." You know, addressing it so they're so they know that they're heard, but that we're also framing, you know, concerns that could potentially have risen that we might not actually have power over. Um, I think that would be a worthy pursuit. >> So, I will be presenting these results to all staff. So, I go to each building. I'm working with department heads to for their department. So, I need to get that data out to them first. >> Um, and I also I think it's it's really important to get them talking and coming up with solutions. And I I've already talked at two uh buildings already uh staff meetings about it's a wei. >> So it's it's really important to always be thinking that you know I I I don't want to come in I don't think I think it's really important not to be defensive right and so to really listen and to hear what they're saying and and really own our own actions and then we problem solve together. That's how >> our model districts are doing exactly what Christine is doing. They take the K12 data and then they go side by side by side and and just really break it down into an intimate conversation about the data and a lot of just listening and note-taking. >> Sorry. So then after that happens, do we have something on our agenda or our calendar where we go through what you found or what was report like what your findings were? >> Absolutely. I'd bring that I can bring that back but we have to still talk through even at this you have to know that because part of this is around this board. So we have to talk about what's the role >> and what's everybody the Wii is the Wii. >> Yeah. >> So so yes absolutely that D will come back Phil. >> Don't have a question here. Um I just want to thank the students for uh for to lead from the front is uh pretty impressive what they did here. Um first and foremost it is about the students. Um, and we can care and we can handle this. And I I but I want the students engaged that I want the engagement to keep up. Thank you very much, students. Um, and we're going to continue to get better for you because first and foremost, it's about student excellence. >> Um, I did want to Well, okay. So, I I of course wrote a data geek, right? Yeah. >> I of course wrote out a ton of information and had it all and it's at home. So, [laughter and gasps] um, one thing that I did look at because I'm curious, rate trends year-to-year and because I know last year we talked about just the exponential growth from the year before was just phenomenal. Multiple double digits, like crazy crazy high scores. When I looked at all of the data, the the different categories, we are still up across the board versus two years ago. So, >> and I will have a spreadsheet that'll show your three year all three years trends fantastic and in an Excel format for our data dive. >> Good. Good. So, I'm I'm glad that we we have improved since two years ago because if you if you recall, we had students were high. Last year they went higher. This year they went even higher. So, that's phenomenal. Um parents were in the middle and they've just kind of hung there. And staff that first year we did it were really low. Last year they went significantly up and now we went down a little bit. So it's like we got to figure out what's going on with staff and >> it may have looked a little differently tonight because you you had not always seen those percentile ranks. Yeah. >> But that was because year one was so low. >> We kind of made a a decision just let's start with the like rating scale because because the percentiles were like >> I mean those your baseline year, right? Y >> but in talking with Christine I we both kind of felt very strongly that to give context to those scores those percentile ranks kind of gives you a sense of urgency of what's what's most important but you're right and you'll see >> 23 24 25 side by side on Excel documents again with tabs for every building every position >> you bet for sure um and then I did just want to ask one or did you want have something you wanted to say okay I did just want to ask one question so we give this in October every year >> is that a good spot. And the reason I asked that this year especially, we we started with a brand new superintendent. She'd been, you know, our our staff had been back a couple of months. Parents are just getting into the group for me at least. I know October is a very busy time of the year. And I'm wonder questioning too if that's the 14% if that's why. Not that there's not a busy month of the year, but typically I'm going to say October, December, February are kind or I mean sorry, May are like kind of the crazy months in our house anyway. Um just questioning if if if you have any input on time of the year. You >> bet. So 30% of our our um educational partners uh do an Octoberish timeline. 70% do spring. It really depends on your admin team and I think um that would be a great conversation for your your leadership team in the buildings and at the district level to talk about. The reason folks do it in the fall is because they get the data before Christmas and they can make in school year improvements. The 70% that that that give it in the spring get their data in April or May and they do summer retreats and do summer improvements and launch new initiatives and practices to start the new school year. The one I would tell you don't do was what I did and that I I launched it in February, which the holiday buzz is over and the days are short and dark and the weather is still cold in Minnesota and Wisconsin, no one has a good attitude about it. So, I would tell you right after spring break is a really good time, right around the 1st of April, something like that, because there's plenty of school year left. I can get you the data by May and then your leadership team is ready for but some districts are like we have so many other things going on the summer. Some of our districts that are under construction and they're having to run around with with with flooring guys and furniture guy. It just depends on what your capacity is. Those are the two mindsets in school improvements during the school year or summer improvements that launch a new school year. And honestly, sometimes what they have me do is they'll they'll have me come and present at the end of a school year and kind of announce the staff this the data and then the superintendent saying we're going to work on this all summer. It's kind of this handinhand thing so that the staff are like they're really listening to us and they're going to take this and we're going to hear about it in the fall. It's kind of a neat it's kind of that refresh reset model. Yeah. >> I just caution that our this is a we need to work with teachers. Teachers aren't here in the summer. So, >> I I just caution that. And um the fall you're fresh, you're just starting out. Um it that spring you're starting to it's depending on what the timing of spring break >> would be important [clears throat] with that. Just be thinking about that when you consider staff. >> Yeah, we've we've been we've been setting company records for the number of fall surveys we've been launching this fall because so many are doing it that way because they want it in real time during the year. No right or wrong. And then you work together with your teams as your entire district to make the necessary changes that you want it. Again, it's not a >> do unto it's a with >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> The only thing wrong would be to continue to shift when you did it from year to year to year. I mean, we data and and it doesn't sound like there's a compell compelling W that's strong enough to move it off of uh >> No, I would tell you um then you're going to be back to reset because you want the consistent mindset. I always say stay within a week to 10 days every year of when you've launched it so that they're exact in that same place. >> Or we could do we could consider that dip the stick dip. Yeah. [laughter] Dip stick. Whatever. >> Are you calling me a dipstick? No, don't. [laughter] >> Um, just consider doing that maybe in the spring. Yeah, >> we're going to take that the dipsticks survey. [laughter] >> Yeah. Yeah, by all means, that's something we can do. Um, very very efficient, very targeted. >> Mhm. >> All right. Any other questions, comments? >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> My pleasure. Yeah, >> and I'm going to echo Lindy is the rock star because she on top of everything else she got the awards for, she's helping launch these surveys and helping Christine and I do all get this all together for tonight, too. So, >> thank you. >> Thanks. >> All right. Um I Well, >> I'm just We're just about at the twoour mark. I'm thinking let's let's do a seven minute break if folks are all right with that and uh come back at at 8 o'clock here. >> Come back at 8 o'clock. Sarah, um, we want to we want to speak in a language that they can relate to and just find that because they're on their phone so much, they're on Instagram so much, the emoji kind of helps them relate to their feelings. We're trying to get inside their head about how they feel about the question we're asking. reli right in the survey. Just a little bit of a graphical env. this broad that is why I think that's why the board is already having the data attorneys get into job by job category building by try to really understand why I don't quite have the why right now. last year. Why? Because they changed so many disciplinary policies, practices and protocols and also behaviors management. >> [clears throat] >> But they just study this room. I tell you what to districtwide level. >> How's your readership? Uh, it's under 30,000. We do these surveys all the time. What's your preferred communication source? >> 2%. I was mad about that. >> [laughter] >> But I would tell you >> small werene that's actually very important. Appreciate you being [laughter] none of us. So were you. Good. Good. We were just Thank you so much. We'll see you in a couple weeks. It's been really helpful though. I didn't realize Keep in mind I'm not principal. Okay, >> I'm just took care of >> No, no, no. I think tomorrow. >> Extra fluff. >> Yep. All right. I didn't use the gavvel to close, I guess. But, uh, we're back. Uh, it is 8 pm and we are first going to hear on our comprehensive achievement and civic readiness presentation with Andrew Hajes. So, welcome. [laughter] >> Thank you, Chair Tate, directors of the board and superintendent or camp Herman. My name is Andrew Hodes and I serve as the director of teaching and learning and I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you this evening. Uh I am starting out speaking about the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness. I will say the second part of this presentation also touches on the addition when we added uh policy 425. Uh we added the update every year now that connects to this uh report of the previous year's um financial update on the uh staff development report. So that will be the last like four slides of this as well. There's also like the impact of that like what did teachers feel about the staff development. So you'll see that part on here as well. In future years there won't be like a cut off slide. It'll be part of the report on here as well. Uh just the background of the uh comprehensive achievement civic readiness which I'll shorthand to CACR from now on. Um it is which Lindy got candy. Not only she awesome, she got candy because she remembered what it stood for one time in a meeting when nobody else could. Um, it is formerly world's best workforce and it replaces that uh back in 2024 and it kind of reframed one of some of the goals if you'll also remember uh the read act also took one of the goals out as well, all students reading on grade level with the addition there at the bottom of preparing students to be lifelong learners. Um, and so it changed up these goals. Another thing I'll just mention is a difference here. The CACR really is all about having a strategic plan to meet the goals. Yes, there's like setting goals, but really it's all about all children, all achievement gaps closed, all students ready, and it's about having a strategic plan. Last year, we talked about carrying the previous year's goals over because a strategic plan was being developed, and we had a lot of other areas we were looking at. So, this will look at those previous goals, our progress. Um, but I do want to focus on the new the CACR really is about having a strategic plan, which is what was developed last school year and uh has is now we're really working on how are we going to progress monitor that. So, the first goal, all children ready for school. Uh, this was focusing on how are our prek kids coming into kindergarten? Um, even if they didn't go to prek, how are they coming into kindergarten? you can see uh that trend line really progressing over the years. We're continuing to have kids coming to us knowing those uh uppercase lowercase letters, those eight letter sounds, those those important aspects. Um what I'll say here is the important part from when we convened on October 22nd the curriculum advisory committee to get some feedback on these goals and the data is they said it's a really small group of kids who come from Tilden that then go into our our kindergarten and so we have very little inputs to be measuring some outputs on this goal area. So, what are some areas we actually could be monitoring to see are all kids ready for kindergarten, ready for school? And so, is it outreach? Um, is it percentage of early childhood screenings that we have each year? Is it some measures of the TS Gold from Tilden that we could be looking at? Um, which is an interesting thing that maybe we could look at adding to our dashboard possibly. Uh, that's information we gather on a regular basis. So, that was some of the feedback there. Are those are there different measurements we could be looking at? And I do have a recommendation that I'll I'll be talking about later. Goal two is actually four goals all coming from our achievement and integration plan. Um a number of these really looking at again all racial and economic achievement gaps closed. These goals really looking at um our APCIS CTE enrollment. We have blown that goal out of the water. Looking at teachers being trained in culturally responsive teaching practices. is we had 125 secondary mainly secondary teachers. We also had some elementary teachers trained in bringing Native American voices into the classroom. Uh we had our our middle school students attending the leadership stump summit last year. Um and our graduation rate amongst our free reduced lunch students um increasing over the last few years. What I'll say about these goal areas is really the goal is about are we closing the achievement gaps? These four goal areas really from feedback of our group said we should be focusing on are we actually closing the achievement gaps looking at MCAs and looking at fastbridge we should be gathering that data disagregating it and looking at how are students growing now they didn't say we should be looking at normative to individual groups they said we should be looking at trend lines over time of each group and are we seeing groups actually grow over time so I thought that was an interesting thing dimension. Goal three, are students ready for college and career? Repeat goal of goal two, one of the four here was, are we having those students um students of color, American Indian students enrolling in our APCTECIS courses? Again, that goal blown out of the water. But what they said is, and this was from our uh our parent and staff group, was really we should be looking, and this also comes from legislation, which was interesting that they said this, really we should be looking at our 12th graders and did they take a college level course or did they gain an industry certification by the time they graduate from us? Uh, and so then I kind of went back and looked and said, well, actually legislation says we should be tracking if our 12th graders are taking a college level course, whether it's an AP, CIS, PSO, um, or are they getting an industry certification. So, that was a really, I thought a really cool idea and dubtales with some legislative things we already need to be tracking. Goal four, all students graduate. We need to make sure all students graduate. our graduation rate in the class of 2024. Remember this is a one-year lag data goal that we get um was 93.1%. Um the discussion from the committee was they they would like to see different student groups data disagregated like how are we doing with our EL students, how are we doing with our special education students, um American Indian students, various student groupings. Um, but ultimately they said the goal really should be that we're making sure every single student's graduating. Goal number five, all students are prepared to be lifelong learners. This is that really kind of more difficult goal to kind of figure out how do we want to track it? And last year we said we should survey kids. Uh what ended up happening is we really only got 12th grade data even though we initially set out to get the 10th to 12th grade data. And so we wanted 90%, we got 89%, which is great, but the feedback from the committee was that's only one question. We need to be looking at multiple different ways, a more robust information of how kids are feeling about their support for uh you know, are they being supported in their college and career interests? Are they being supported in their learning paths in high school? So like how are they actually getting support in high school because that's going to then translate into them wanting to be learners beyond high school. I wanted to touch on the two goals that we had as part of this uh report historically which are not part of CACR and I would recommend that we don't continue reporting on these in this report from now on because we report on them in other parts of the school year. We report on the reading goal during when we report on the um the read act and the literacy report and then the access to excellent teachers is included in our um vision card and our dashboard as well. So the reading at grade level by the end of the year we wanted 57% of all third through 8th and 10th graders. Our result was 49.2. Uh so we did not hit that mark uh last school year. There were, if you remember looking back at that data, we did have some bright spots in some of our younger grade levels. Um, and so we do have some bright spots that we're hoping continue to grow there. Access to excellent teachers. You can see uh that's continuing to have excellent access to excellent teachers. We don't have a lot of tier one or tier 2 teachers in our system. So most of our teachers are highly qualified teachers that are in front of our students. So the recommendation really is we should adopt what the goal areas say. It should be all students. Now some of them we do have to get a little more nebulous because it says all children are ready for school. So how are we going to track that? Right? Is it going to be fall fast screener results? Is it just of students from Tilden or are we looking at uh we want to see all students at the 50% norm nationwide um uh norm score meaning they're at the kindergarten fall readiness level in FastBridge. That would say they're ready for kindergarten. Uh all racial and then we would track that, right? But then winter would be 50, spring would be 50, right? That would be all um all racial and economic achievement gaps between students are closed. We we would say they should all be closed and we would track it every year. What's our progress towards that? And our strategic plan then would be what are we doing to make sure that that's taking place. Same going for all students are ready for a career in college. But inside of that it would be um that percent of 12th graders successfully completing college level course or certification. uh all students graduate from high school tracked it with our four-year graduation rate and then having a survey about students feeling supported and their college career interests uh for prepared to be lifelong learners. >> I do have a question before we move off. Um, so do we provide our incoming kindergarten get kindergartener families with resources as far as what we hope that they know how like the letter recognition and all of that before they get here just so maybe parents have because I'm just thinking as a especially with my oldest, right? I didn't know what was expected. I mean, of course, I worked with her all the time and everything, but as a parent, especially of a of your with your first kid, you don't necessarily know what they should be ready for once they get to school. So, do we provide families with resources or could we or >> I think I got this one. You can tell me if you know more. >> From what my understanding is, um, our the children that come through our preschool, they're getting prepared for what our kindergarten looks like. We do not have we have not been meeting. I guess in the past there was more regular meetings with area preschools and ours all coming together talking about what they're doing. I don't believe that's been happening in the last 3 years or four years. So they wouldn't necessarily know at least from us. >> Meaning if they happen to have um some other connection I don't I don't know. But >> yeah. Well, I'm even thinking like parents who don't send their kids to preschool, right? Like if if they can get a newsletter or something and be like, "Hey, we're hoping that, you know, before when your kid enters into their enters kindergarten, they can recognize, you know, letters, they can print their name, they could, you know, I don't know, anything like that." >> I think an opportunity for that could be the community catalog that they could put in because they everybody in the community gets that. Sure. So it's mailed to every single person where none of our other mailers ne are, you know. >> So that one would and so we could I'll talk with Carrie and we can look at putting something in there a blurb on early child and they may do it already but we can be maybe more strategic. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Question. >> Oh yep. Director Bruns >> with that first goal on the CACR. It's difficult in education when we are tasked with a goal that we have no service we can provide for. And even some of the things we're suggesting are very passive like take this as you it's kind of like feeling around in the dark. Is there a consensus or a a way some districts are going in trying to satisfy that early learner component? >> No, [laughter] I I I searched around quite a bit. Uh you know um Lakeville all the way to Adina. Um, the district whose name I screw up all the time. W A Y. >> Yep. Every time. Minnetonka. All over. I It's It's all different. It's all different. Some of it is just looking at the screeners. Some of it is looking at like incoming um scores. Um some of it is touch points with families. And so it's all over the map. And I will say of all of the goals, the top and the bottom are the ones that are the least data focused of all the districts I've I've been looking at. >> I have a question following the perception survey about the racial and economic achievement gaps. Is there something would it be appropriate to in the proposed tracking also um like tracking professional development around like surrounding because what was the question that we just saw that teachers didn't feel like they had appropriate or um appropriate levels of personal professional development to address different cultural and economic um stances or backgrounds, brain. >> We could um I think >> I don't I don't know how that would I I'm just like saying like how what would that would that even be appropriate in there? You know what I mean? >> I don't know if it would be appropriate there, but I think it's room for study on what we provide with staff development for sure. >> I'm good. because it seems like yeah, if there's an if there's a an issue getting it closed and we have teachers saying that they don't have appropriate, you know, resources or whatever, it might be like, oh, well, that might be a contributing factor. >> All right. Anything else? We're good. Thank you. So, next is the staff development board report for the 24-25 school year. Um, and some of the staff development highlights are we had 68 total offerings in the 2425 school year. These are unique PD offerings covering five continuing education unit categories. So, there there are more offerings, but some of them were more meetings or more like uh things that you could not get a CEU for. These were all offerings that teachers obtained CEUS for. Um, that meant that there were 4,884 total sessions attended last school year by Hastings certified educators, teachers, and administrators coming to an average of 9.7 uh during last school year. So, lots of professional development throughout the school year. It varied greatly. a lot of our elementary teachers doing core training uh whereas a lot of our secondary teachers had a lot of smaller trainings. So the amount of hours per training uh varied pretty significantly uh last school year. Feedback uh staff appreciated those opportunities to connect with their colleagues, do a lot of curriculum planning with their colleagues to align it and complete this meaningful work. Um relevant practical training where they could actually do something with it uh and have supportive culture. The growth area is similar though. They wanted more time for that collaboration, curriculum work, and training that was a little more tailored to their areas. And that was very more prevalent to teachers and specialist roles, PE, music, art, social work, counselors, where you're don't have uh as large of a a colleague group. Um they also expressed a desire for clear goals around what the professional development was going to be especially before entering the professional development like a month out what are we going to be doing in that development what are we getting out of it what do I need to be prepared for uh stronger alignment to district priorities and continued followup and I'm going to touch on that in a minute the staff development budget uh the top areas here heavily spent on salaries on our PD days that's our biggest area of expense followed by curriculum PD and consultants. People we bring in like our wit and wisdom. Last year we spent a lot of money bringing them in to train teachers, bringing consultants in to train our principles on how to go in and work with teachers. Um and then also on vouchers. That's how we pay teachers when they do committee work, when they work on peer coaching of teachers, um and also when they mentor other teachers. There's other ways they get vouchers that count towards that as well. uh those are our biggest areas of expense with staff development. So I want to go back to the changes based on feedback. One of those was how are we closing the loop of staff development? How are we providing professional development? Teachers implement professional development but then what? So one of the pieces we've been working on is how do we then go into classrooms uh and see what are we looking for? How do we then provide feedback from what we're seeing in the classrooms and then provide that feedback to teachers, provide additional professional development, and then go back and do it again? So, the high school is a prime example. They've been providing avid professional development on engagement strategies for teachers. They've been doing it to all classroom teachers. Uh 90minute session on staff development day. They did it uh in uh September. Uh we went into classrooms and there are like four or five of us AP principal our AVID uh consultant myself there six of us our AVID director and we went and walked through classrooms with look fors of what we should be seeing. We then provided the feedback to teachers in a uh staff meeting. Then teachers went back and kind of like implemented again. Then they had more professional development on it. We went back and looked again. Did we see any change? We did see change. That was positive. We saw more engagement strategies. We saw a change in what teachers were doing in the classroom based on that feedback. And now we planned an additional staff development based on those changes because now staff are ready for a next level of that training that they'll receive on um on December 1st. Uh so that's one of those ways that we're implementing some of these changes. We're also doing walkthroughs uh in all buildings like you heard uh Dr. work and perman talk about those are specifically tailored to what buildings are looking for and what professional development teachers are getting. They're also helping us with our TD and revamp. Uh so it's a little, you know, doing both things there. Uh we're also adding additional collaborative professional development uh curriculum planning time for teachers at all levels. Elementary really wanted that and asking for it. More prepare training. Oh, sorry. More uh training for crisis prevention, which is a prepared training. This was for social workers, counselors, and assistant principles, those working uh with students who might be going through some mental health crisis. Uh it's aligning the practices across our district so that they're having a common language and what they're doing. And then elementary PD, not just on English language arts, last two years heavily on that. Now we are adding math catalyst which is some um what the practices in the classroom should be uh around like behavior and how you present things and then English learner. So any questions on that part? >> I have a question. Can you just touch on what you're doing for the kind of specialist teachers like that you were saying music art because I have heard some rumbling there. Uh so specialist teachers have been meeting together to do curriculum uh vertical curriculum alignment together. So elementary has been joining middle and high school uh during the staff development days on uh the last two of them to do some vertical alignment planning around the standards. Um a lot of their standards shifted postcoid um and so they haven't really gotten together since then. So looking at what are the standards and what are they doing about them but then also looking at what are the transfer skills in the standards. Uh what is the common academic language they need to be emphasizing across kindergarten through 12th grade um that are embedded in the standards and uh what are they what are they teaching inside of each of their units so that we're not having kind of like that overlap. Uh and so they're kind of at a in each department's doing this in secondary. Elementary is in in the specialists are joining secondary. Um it's a little of a choose your own adventure in the sense that there are are three different three or four different areas you can work on and you start where you want to start knowing that you have to hit every area eventually. So if they have if let's say a choir teacher has a proposed idea for PD they could they could come as long as it kind of meant met one of those benchmark goals or whatever >> that's is that is that the process? >> Yes. Yep. And we also have uh a lot of our staff development dollars that go through our staff development committee every year. And I say a lot, but every year um our our art and music teachers receive funding through that committee to attend uh professional development outside of the district when they apply for it. >> So they don't have to request that money, they just give it. Well, they request it, but every year they do receive priority because the spe the the professional development inside the district, we don't have specialists like we do in reading and math and other areas to provide it to choir or orchestra or band. >> All right. Anything else? >> Your no questions. Just thank you. This is awesome. I really appreciate it. This is this is absolutely great. So [laughter] really appreciate what you put together here. Yes. Thank you. >> All right. Now it is the language access plan. Should have brought my water. Sorry. Um so this is the Hastings public school language access plan and this is new. Um every school district is required to have a language access plan and ensures compliance with uh state statutes and federal requirements. provides the roadmap for equitable communication um and supports staff in ensuring that they have ways to have multilingual communication strategies. I kind of went over that part just then, but it identifies and meets the language service needs of our families, trains our staffs, and then monitors and evaluates this plan annually so we can see what else we need to do. I will say since writing this plan, since developing this um our tech um department has already identified additional strategies and tools that we can start testing inside the district. So those are not in this plan, but they've already I started to identify some other ways that we can use communication tools. Uh we have some interpretation options that we have available. We have language line for phone calls home. Uh it's a live interpreter that speaks with families when you speak um and back and forth. We have in-person interpreters that we use for parent and family in-person meetings. And then we have some translation tools like talking points for texting and emailing um over 150 languages it can it can translate. Transact we use for more official documents uh where we can translate them. Um, and then our district website, which is right now available in Spanish and English, and we're working on identifying uh and getting it translated into our top our our next top languages. Um, so we'll be looking at our language survey and then adding those languages as well. Our role of our English language educators, we have them across our school district. Um, and they provide specialized instruction to develop English proficiency. They progress monitor students um who are receiving those services uh and provide family support to help multilingual families navigate school systems and resources. Uh they also provide that to to the teachers who have questions as well like how do I communicate with families? They'll help navigate the resources as well. They also provide professional learning, including on December 1st, they're providing 30 minutes of professional learning on our language access plan to train teachers on the best practices to communicate with multilingual families. Uh because they do it so often, uh they're our experts and so they're going to be uh sharing their expertise with their fellow educators. Uh myself and our director of communications uh are provide the oversight of this plan. Um, and we use the preferred language capture during the enrollment process that's in Infinite Campus. Uh, and teachers are encouraged to confirm that throughout the school year as well. We know that something that might have been um put in when a student enrolls in kindergarten. That can change over time. So, teachers and office staff are encouraged to confirm that over time. uh notice of services and are communicated via the family handbook, back to school events, and interpreters can be scheduled in advance through uh the office and through teachers. So families can always ask for interpreters or if we know they need them, we can always schedule them in advance. Uh like I said, December 1st, we're providing staff training. After that, we will be providing staff training during workshop week every year and then also including it in new staff hires. So, if a staff member gets hired, a teacher gets hired throughout the school year, we can include that in their new hire training. So, we'll be developing something to add into that. Uh, and then we'll be updating this plan every year uh as we need to. There's a link right there to our Hastings language access plan. uh we utilized the MDE provided a template for districts to use. It was quite extensive so we didn't use every part of it because it was really really long. Um and then also looked at a lot of surrounding school districts. How are they developing their language access plan as well uh to kind of collaborate with them? Any questions? >> Nope. >> Thank you. >> Thank you >> very much. All right, next up we have bills payable update. Miss Seart, uh just a quick update that we have added some trend reports into that bills payable packet that will um let you see revenues and expenditures for funds 1, 2, and four. for our major funds. Um, we use it monthly as kind of an internal review process, but we're also sharing it as part of the board packet to provide a clearer picture of our financial uh data year over year. Um, these reports will help us identify areas of that need some additional review or areas that are like potential budget adjustments in the next cycle. So, right now, Lindy has it up and I can just touch on a real just a couple quick ones, but if you look at that revenue and then the um local revenue, so that includes like fees, interest, some miscellaneous stuff, but you can see um what the actuals were for 24, the actuals for 25, and then what our budget currently is. So, keep in mind this is our adopted budget that was prepared like last May or June. Um, so we're already at 67% almost 68% of our budget and it's related to interest. So, we've kind of heard through the audit that we earned more interest than what we had budgeted for last year. So, in this revised budget, I'll be updating interest. Um, one other kind of just higher area to note is if you scroll down a little bit in the purchase services, you can see right now that uh the percent of the budget that we've expended is about 20%. And when you look back at the last two years, we were at 18%. Um, you were in the right spot, Lindy. Yep. Right there. Um so that is related to kind of two things. One, we had some open positions for um speech and school psych that we were not able to fill. So we had to contract out for those positions. So you're seeing it in the purchase services. Um and then it's also in that purchase services is our subs. Now that we're going through teachers on call or Kelly services, we're seeing those costs in there. So again, those items will all be updated when we do revised budget. So this report will be included going forward. Any questions? Thank you. I appreciate the the new report. I really do. Um next up we have our building construction fund project update from Miss Subert again. >> Okay, so this one is really quick. Um, there were really no updates since last month other than the monthly interest that was earned, but overall this account has about 560,000 in it, and we're just continuing to work on closing out those projects. Um, we've talked about before, but there are some excess funds in there that we'll be using to pay the arbitrage fees that we are well aware of and planning for. potentially there'll be some additional funds even after that payment's made that at some point will come back to the board to help determine how to use those funds. >> Great. Any questions? Thank you again. All right. Next, we have our data request update from Miss Mullen. >> Good evening. Um this evening we do not have any legal costs that were due to data requests in our November bills payable. We have had um three new data requests since the last board meeting and right now we have four pending including those three new ones. >> Thank you. Uh next up are our schoolboard representatives and our committee updates. Uh first up is 9:17 with Director Zuzac. >> I don't have a document because the meeting was postponed twice and just happened last evening. So, um it'll be a couple of days before we get the summary notes, but I will say this. Um it's good news that 917 has reached a tenative agreement uh with their teachers group and it's within the the constraints that we had as a school board. And so it's and it's public data as of last night. So it's about it is 2% and 2% uh with a total package cost of 8.8% 8% which uh it's within all of the um expectations that we set. >> Thank you. Any questions? >> All right. Next up, we have AMSD with a whole lot of attachments and a fantastic newsletter. Director Bruns. >> Yeah, we'll start with um the fantastic. So that we are the lead story in the connections newsletter. Thank you, Lindy. Um and the animatage table. Um, so read up on that. That's now out across the metro area for them to know the good work that's happening along with that. So deep dive, enjoy it. The next several attachments are all draft position papers that AMSD is considering adopting. There are revisions featured in there that are highlighted and bolded. You'll notice a lot of alignment with what we were looking for in our MSBA um I want to call them platform planks >> resolutions, >> but there you go, resolutions. So that's that feels really good to see that overlap and see like both hands and both gloves come together. I want to point out as we get close to the legislative session because it'll be here before you know it, especially if there's a special session or if there's things going on with paid family medical leave, the the tools for advocacy. So they teach you how they give you guidance on social media, how to get the biggest bang for your buck, and then how to approach your legislators um for face-to-face advocacy. Both of those are great tips. um that if you run for any level of office too, they'll they'll teach you some of the the um the ways to manipulate those social media platforms to get to amplify your voice. Um they point out here Facebook has a shelf life and the more things get commented on and shared, it moves to the top of everyone's feed and so it lives a lot longer. If anyone's still on Twitterx, it is immediate and then it's gone. And one of the best ways too is to tag and hashtag anyone that you think is going to have a connection to that issue and then watch them share, like or post and move that up. Also, don't fight on social media. It's wasted energy. No one ever changes their mind in the comment section. They all go there with their mind fixed. So, make a point, feel it like believe it, go with it, keep it positive, and get out is what I would take away from that. Thank you. Any questions? All right, moving on. Community collaboration committee update. Director Milner. >> Yeah, we just met and uh kind of recapped our last meeting and then set um some thought processes on our upcoming meeting which is going to be the 12th of January at 6 p.m. in the middle school cafeteria. So, different location to try and reach a different subset of people. And just like the theme has been tonight, we want collaboration. We want people to come. So we are inviting staff, you know, teachers, parents, anyone in the community because we all have a vested interest in our students and how our community is doing. So um please, you are all invited. We want your input. Um we talked about who we could promote it through better. So there's a list of that attached on here. And really what we're going to be going through is the school perception survey. So, we are transparent. We want to talk to people. We want to hear your feedback. We, you know, we welcome everybody to come and and communicate with us. So, um and then our next one will be April 1st at 6 PM. And as of right now, that's scheduled for the lecture hall at the high school, but we um can switch that up if we find that the middle school works better as well. Um and that one's going to be focused on student successes and growth uh for 2627. >> Thank you. Any questions? Dr. Zusk, you're just getting ready. >> I am just getting ready. Okay. Sorry. So, no, it's all right. I've got two reports. One is [snorts] uh from the what is the joint powers meeting, and frankly, we talked a lot about it last week, so I'm not going to uh comment a lot here. I I'll just make one note for the public to know it. This is um interesting news and it's really important. It's sad in some ways and necessary. and that is that uh the the fees for the senior center have, you know, been held at $12 per year for a very very very long time. It's gone up to $20. And so, and there's uh scholarships available for people that need uh help and support with that. But that that goes a long ways toward making that program viable. And it probably isn't the last time that fees will go up in in that program. I'm going to skip to the next one which was the uh finance committee one and the the the biggest the biggest news in that that second one which is the joint powers facility joint powers meeting from 10:31. The biggest change on that one is that we we and we talked briefly about this on at the work session. Uh Jen talked about setting money aside for um a kind of a specific rainy day. We don't know exactly what the rain's going to look like, but we know that a specific uh there's enough unknown things right now that we know that in probably the next 16 months we're going to need some money. Um and so that was set aside with a specific intent. And I think that that's probably the most important thing from that meeting that I want to take a moment to highlight. Everything else is in the is in the the minutes. And that next meeting is going to be on Friday, December 12th, 1:00 in the district office. >> Any questions? Thank you. Uh next up, we've got our NAPAC committee update with Director Bruns. >> Yes. So we will start with some stuff at the top here. So, there was a Native American craft series. Ribbon skirts were the theme. Some of those ribbon skirts made it to the Met Gala in New York City, and they're featured in that story there. I think from NPR is where that'll hyperlink to. Uh, so they started in the humble grounds of Hastings, but they made it to that exhibit because there is a deep connection of that artist to this area. So they were flown out to participate and they are wearing ribbon skirts that were crafted here in the 55033 um kind of sticking within the culture. We did a review of how indigenous people's day went inside the buildings and they felt like it was very peacemeal and not and that they would like to see a lot more intentionality next year. So we did gather some resources and hyperlink them in there. Uh, but how do we make it feel longer and um connected within the content so it doesn't feel like a oneoff or leaving it to some staff performing that task or that instruction really really well and some not doing it at all and honoring that probably more than a day uh as they move through it. They recaped um tenic professional development. Again, that was um three different districts coming together and sharing their strengths with their NAPAC and what they had done. And you'll like the the cases are all totally different. But what I think is really cool is that 196 neighbor of the west, they have aligned their strategic plan with their NAPAC work and just built out the things that they want to see happen within that. And all of them have like really interactive and strategic um websites that direct that NAPAC work, but they also have a more robust staff around it because we're talking about Robbinsdale, St. Paul, and 196. Um I brought our district up updates back to them, but I brought the same question that we got stuck on at the work session. How do we hear from each other in a different capacity? and and we spun on some things like number one is foster a social media star or like one thing we can do is clean up the district website like now that it's updated and is very visually appealing just making it more navigable for families and they thought something as simple as a board feedback button on the family page would be highly effective as just a start like if you figure out what that form is or where you want to link to but have that family page work for folks but I will acknowledge just on the tech side like maintaining that website and updating it from the from the ground up was a huge lift. So, like that's almost like a full-time job to just get in there and make that work the way folks wanted to. Uh we acknowledge the hire of the new Native American leaison, Cyan Peacock Hail or Cyan. So, that is incredible to have that role filled. Um cherry lift that role at the end of the year. So, to have someone back in there and to carry that torch is incredible. And then um director Hajes reviewed some of the curricular purchases that were taking place as a part of the curriculum review um tied to each grade and what their those goals were and just knowing that we're significantly under budget within NAPAC because of the opening in that role. Oh, and we unveiled the new logo and is sick. It again is designed by the same person who designed the Heritage Month artwork for the Minnesota Twins and also the Minnesota Timberwolves >> and they're um Dakota artist from Prairie Island. So incredibly close. >> So some future events I Oh, so this already happened. So maybe I can ask how this went if it went. Uh Willie Jet was in town on the 17th. >> That got changed. >> Okay. >> So um something came up. I'm sorry. something came up that was changed and so he was not here. So, we're hoping he will be coming. We just don't have a date. >> Wonderful. Our next meeting will be at uh the curriculum center on Thursday, December 4th. >> Awesome. Thank you. Oh, >> I I do want to add there they're feeling the same thing like how to get that feedback to and fro and to get their message out there as well. So, we talked about things like having some kind of banner that would go on every building's newsletter that gets pushed out. Like just trying to figure out where people are actually looking for information and trying to know that impact on the back side of that. But everyone is feeling that. How do I find the right way to communicate back and forth with our constituency? >> Thank you. >> Um, all right. Student school board committee, no meeting. Do you guys have another one scheduled or not yet? We do not. That'll pick up um with the turn of the new year as we start looking at new candidates. >> Yep. Of course, we're not there yet. >> All right. Thank you. Uh next up is policy committee with vice chair. >> Okay. So, we've met twice since the last board meeting, but since our since the work session, we've only added two more um policies to the agenda here, and they're both new policies. student um student use of parking and of motor vehicles and patrol inspection and search. We didn't have that policy previously. So what we did is we took MSBA's model policy and use that as a foundation and added the language from our existing student handbook. And then video recording policy 712. This is also a new ISD 200 policy developed with MSBA's model policy again and added clarifying language. So, our first readings this month are 511 student fundraising, 527, student use of parking, and 712 video recording. We had no changes to second and third readings. Any questions? No. Oh, no. I do want to mention the successes of the policy committee and the board since we started this three-year review cycle. So, since we started this, we have reviewed, let's get down a little bit further here. We have reviewed 142 policies in full of the district's 148 policies and we [snorts] plan to bring five more policies forward in December. So, we're right there on the cusp [laughter] and the board has adopted 261 policy recommendations over the past three years. So, just great work all the way around. >> Yeah. >> Yes. And to be clear, the goal is to review every pol I mean, we have some annual review policies, but the goal is to get through every single policy within a three-ear cycle. >> And um I will say Vice Chair Dresley is the driver behind getting this done because she's the one like four years ago, right? She's laid it all out. She's like, "This is when we need to get this done and that's it." And she's just kept charging on. So, thank you for keeping us on task. All right. Any questions, comments on policy tonight? There's a lot. If anybody didn't notice, our agenda tonight is 601 pages long. Um, and a lot of that [laughter] is policy. A lot of it was audit, but there's a lot here. So, um, anyway, good work. Uh, action items. We are on to our consent agenda. So, I'm looking for an a motion on this item. >> Motion to approve the consent agenda. Zuzi. >> Second, Dresley. Any comments? All right. Uh, seeing none, all those in favor of approving the consent agenda say I. >> I. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes unanimously to approve the consent agenda. All right. Sorry. Now I got to scroll all the way through all these policies. Sorry. All right. Okay. Where am I at? >> Oh, she's not. >> No, I'm not there. I'm on the other one. Okay. Holy cow. All right. There's a lot in there. Uh items for individual action. Here we go. Uh we have donations first up. Could I get a motion on this item? >> Michael Moulder moves to receive the donations >> and wave the reading of all the donations >> of the resolution [laughter] >> of the resolution. >> Thank you. >> All right. Can I get a second, please? Second, Dresley. All right. Any discussion? All right. With that, uh, Clerk Milner, could you please take a roll call vote? >> Director Beer, >> I. >> Director Michael Moulder, >> I. >> Director Zuzac, >> I. >> Vice Chair Dresley, >> I. >> Chair Tate, >> I. >> Director Bruns, >> I. >> And Director Milner, I. >> All right. And once again, want to thank our extremely generous community. This is over $20,000 worth of donations this month. Uh so we appreciate all of your support and uh obviously donations. Thank you. Uh next up we have our 202627 revised district calendar. Uh so and the following item is the 2728 district calendar. And you can look on here and see that there was a survey done. Um per the legislature in in this session they have given schools the option to start before Labor Day for the next two years because Labor Day falls incredibly late and overwhelmingly over 50% um we got the responses for both years that parents uh and staff are in favor of starting the school year early. So uh next up as I mentioned are we have our 2627 calendar that's been revised to vote on. Uh, do you have anything to add? Is that good? >> No, just that I I think the calendar committee took some time to really make sure it was laid out to what they thought would work. And I appreciate those that [clears throat] took the survey and the comm the parents that took the survey. I appreciate that feedback because it helped guide that decision. >> Yep. So, uh, so the new calendar is starting the week before Labor Day. Uh, and you can see that we do we this next year we will get out fairly early in June. I can't remember the date. It is June 3rd will be the last day of school. So, uh, early start, early end. Uh, so with that, I am looking for a motion on this item. >> Brunsw make the motion to approve the revised 2627 district calendar. >> Sus seconds. >> All right. Any discussion? >> All right. Uh, seeing none, all those in favor of approving the revised 2627 calendar say I. >> I. Post say nay. Motion passes unanimously. All right. And next up, we have the uh 2728 district calendar. Could I please get a motion on this item? >> I move to approve >> I move to approve the 2728 district calendar. >> All right. Could I get a second, please? >> Milner seconds. >> All right. Uh any discussion? All those in favor of approving the 2728 district calendar say I. >> I. >> I. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes unanimously to approve the 2728 calendar. So, this is new for Hastings. I don't remember ever starting before Labor Day before. >> No, that's probably true. >> I think this is a first. Uh, all right. Next up, we have the audit report. Can I get a motion on this item, please? >> Zuzac makes a motion to accept the audit report. >> Michael Moulder seconds. >> All right. Any discussion? >> All right. Uh the only thing I would like to say is I would like to commend our uh finance department, Miss Subert and her team and our superintendent for having excellent financial controls in place uh to have us in a solid uh solid spot with our audit and with our finances in this district. I appreciate it. All right. Any further comments, discussion? All right. Uh with that, all in favor of approving the audit report, say I. >> I. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes unanimously to approve the audit report. Next up is the CACER comprehensive achievement and civic readiness approval. Could I get a motion on this item, please? >> I move to approve the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness 2025 2026 plan >> report. Thank you. Could I get a second, please? >> Be my second. >> All right. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor of approving the CACR plan say I. >> I. All those oppose say nay. Motion passes unanimously. Next up we have the Hastings public schools language access plan. Could I get a motion on this item? >> Motion to approve the Hastings public school language access plan. >> Milner seconds. >> All right. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor of approving the language access plan say I. >> I. >> I. Those oppos say nay. Motion passes unanimously to approve the Hastings public schools language access plan. Uh next up we have our joint powers agreement and addendum A. As has been mentioned, uh we do have one more agreement that is still being worked on regarding our joint facilities maintenance building. Um but this is progress. So could I get a motion on this item, please? >> I'm happy to uh support that. and [laughter] >> Michael second. >> Make a motion to approve it. >> Thank you. I would like to second this one [laughter] myself. I never do this, but this has been a lot of work. So, I second the approval of the joint powers agreements and addendum. [laughter] [snorts] Any discussion? >> All right. Those who went through the torture sessions got to go first. All right. All those in favor of approving the joint powers agreement and addendum a say I. >> I. All those opposed say nay. All right. I might meet out back if you said nay. So, a motion passes unanimously. Pass [snorts] those. All right. And then we have uh an updated Amy Brown contract on here. Did you want to say something? >> Yeah. I just want to say that we brought this I brought this to our attorney because it I needed a outside counsel review and um we didn't have out clauses and just was not some protection language in there. just what you would normally have whenever you're in a contract with another organization or institution. So that's why it was rewritten. The services all stay the same, the hours stay the same, the financials are the same. It's just more language. >> And thank you for being diligent on that. Appreciate that. All right. Uh could I get a motion on this item, please? I move to approve the AB counseling service contract. All right. Uh could I get a second, please? >> Seconds. >> Any discussion? All right. All those in favor of approving the AB counseling services contract say I. >> I. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes unanimously to approve the AB counseling services contract. And finally we have our future meetings coming up here. Um we have our facilitated board retreat with uh Mr. Severs to go through the details of our school perception survey and that will be sorry my computer's not behaving. That will be on December 3rd at 5:30 in the district office conference room. Uh then we have our work session or I'm sorry, we have a community collaboration meeting right before our work session at 5:00 p.m. on December 10th. And that's also in the district office conference room A. On the 10th, we have a 6 p.m. work session. You'll note again that this was swapped with um with the facilitated board retreat. And the purpose for that was we needed to know when Darren was available and he was unfortunately not available the 10th. So that is the date new date of the work session. And uh let me look at what's on that agenda. Uh for that night we have Dr. Favor from uh ISD 917 will be visiting with us and we have the revised 202526 budget. We'll see the principal reports. Um, and then we are going to discuss uh the board will need to discuss what we want to do about committees for next year. If we want to change any committees, if we want to add any committees, if we want to combine any committees, if we want to um dislodge any committees, if we want to change uh who wants to be on committees. Um we, if you recall in J the organizational meeting this year, we did vote for committees committee assignments to be a two-year thing. Um, however, obviously with we have a new board member here. Uh, so that changes things a bit. So, I think we will need to um revote. And one thing I want to point out, we will have two board members absent uh for our January 5th organizational meeting. So, we'll want to make sure that we're clear on on what uh folks want communicated at that meeting um ahead of time. Uh we will also be talking about or we'll be going through our 2026 board calendar for our board meetings. Uh we'll get an update on the status of the second SRO. Uh we'll be talking about our board self-evalu evaluation and how we want to handle that and timing. Uh we'll be reviewing the schoolboard handbook and then we will also be going through, as mentioned um earlier tonight, we will be going through our new updated vision card and the data dashboard um draft. And then we have a policy committee meeting and a finance committee meeting both on December 12th at noon and then 1. And then we have our regular board meeting along with truth and taxation will be December 17th um right here at 6 pm. And as far as we have on that we have like I said truth and taxation uh we have we'll have oh I should talk about this a little bit. The delegate assembly will get an update at that meeting. The delegate assembly is December 5th and 6th and if any board members want to um review that happy little packet that's um very lengthy uh to give any input to your G delegates. Delegates again are myself, Jessica and Mark. um give us any input on resolutions because how it's framed is we go through each and every resolution and every single person in the room gets a chance to talk on every single resolution and give their opinion and feedback uh to before we vote. So, and then whatever is voted on is what MSBA creates as their platform and what they're going to uh push at the legislature. So, if anybody wants to go through that, the packet's about yay thick and you'll see me at sports practices and such with my highlighters and my packet when I have free time to get these things read. But appreciate any and all input from other board members. So, again, that is December 5th and 6th. Um, and then we will be approving the board handbook. Uh, we will have the teachers contract. we have reached a tenative agreement on that and so we will have the teachers contract for approval um as well as an updated Taher contract and that's kind of the highlights and then following our regular board meeting we'll be going into a closed session to talk about our midyear superintendent evaluation uh so folks are aware I um I will be sending out the I create a form I will be sending that out next week for everyone to provide their input So, uh, and that's it for the end of the year. And then we have our January 5th organizational meeting at 6 PM. That is a Monday. So, that is off our regular schedule of Wednesday nights. >> Can I just add something? >> Yes. >> So, we have our next policy committee meeting on the 12th. So, if anybody has ideas that they want updated in the handbook, if you could email them to me prior to that so that we can talk about them during our policy committee meeting then because that's how they that's how they'll flow through to get back to the board. Um, that would be great. So, if anybody has any ideas, something that's not in there that you think would be helpful for future board members to need to know or even for us to need to know, that would be awesome. >> Good reminder. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Thank you for that. All right. Anything else anybody needs to add about upcoming meetings or tasks that we have going on? A lot going on to finish out the year strong, right? >> All right. Next up, could I get a motion to adjurnn, please? >> Motion to adjurnn. Dressley >> Milner seconds. All right. Any discussion? All those in favor to adjurnn say I. I. >> I. >> All those opposed say nay.