All right. Good evening. Uh, this work session of the school board of AIO area schools is being held in the forum room of the educational service center on Tuesday, August 18th, 2026. The work session is being audio recorded. The recording will be made available in the district website within two business days after the work session has ended. With regard to the audio recording, our communication staff has asked that we share a friendly reminder that side conversations during the work session are picked up by the recorder and can affect sound quality. Also, conversations during transitions between agenda items are on the recording as well. The intent of the schoolboard work session is to allow for schoolboard discussion of topics. Work sessions do not include an opportunity for audience members to address the board. To acknowledge attendance this evening, I'll ask that all present at the table state their name starting with the person to the left. >> Tanya Prince, board member. Erica Foster, board member. >> Keith T, school board member. >> Kalola, executive director of community relations. >> Steve Fisk, assistant superintendent. >> Ivonne Schwarzland, executive director of HR. >> Amy Tiffson, assistant superintendent. >> Brian Severson Hall, executive director of community engagement. >> Anthony Paris, executive director of technology. >> Jason Mod, assistant superintendent. Sarah Mitchto, school board member. Kelsey Dawson, school board member, Nemore, general counsel. >> Kim Hile, superintendent, >> and I, Thomas Brooks, schoolboard member and present. The purpose of schoolboard work sessions is to build trust and teamwork, to exchange information, and when applicable, to provide direction in order to facilitate efficient and effective decision-making at regular board meetings. Dr. Hy, will you please share your check in? >> Thank you. Thank you, Vice Chair Brooks, chair Prince, and school board members. Our first um item this evening will be our extracurricular activities. I do want to share with the village we pull some additional items for you in your red folder. And in your red folder it will contain um activities that our schools have in regards to sports in regards to club as well as middle school. So we just want to make sure we have that information to observe. So this evening we're going to have Brian Stevenson Hall who's executive director of community engagement along with uh Mr. Stevenson Hall. We have assistant superintendent Tomson and then uh the brains in the room assisting us if needed is Key Sorenson, our lead activities. So >> yeah. All right. Well, good evening everyone. We'll get we'll just get right into it and Carrie Cave is also going to jump in if needed to. So we each needed a phone of friends. So, we're [laughter] but we're going to um we're going to do our best in in the amount of time that we have to um give a little bit of the landscape of after school in general in our community, but also then hone in a little bit on uh specifically elementary and some middle school opportunities that we do as well as some high school activities. and we have it in one of the slides in the future, but just a reminder, we have a work session dedicated to athletics and activities fees in January. So, we didn't give as much time to that on this one, but that will also be a work session in January. So, after thinking about out of school time or after school, uh creating pathways to belonging, exploration, and connection. So we know that students spend a lot of time in school but they spend a significant amount of their time not in school right and so on this slide I talk a little bit why they matter. When I think about out of school time I think about providing positive places, caring people and creative opportunities for um youth in their non-school hours. So that's kind of how I frame thinking about what is offered for um students in their non-school hours. So it serves a lot of um purposes. Safety and supervision certainly is one of them. Belonging both belonging with their peers [clears throat] but also with trusted adults. A lot of times you'll see after school programs offering exploratory or skill development uh courses for youth. Some sometimes those are called sports samplers. Sometimes they're um speech or drama or dance. Giving students a chance to try something new connects them to the school and it connects them to their community. These are kind of our broader ones before we get to [clears throat] some of our specific school-based things. So, there's a wide network that makes after school happen, right? We could talk a long time about that if we wanted to. We've got parks and wrecks. We've got boys and girls clubs, YMCA's Minnesota, uh I think most of you are aware of this. Um most states do not have community education in the country. There's only about three states that do. So when you talk when you go to like the National After School Association, it's a way different conversation, right? Actually, the military is one of the biggest providers of after school programming in in this country, right? Because they provide it for all their service members and their families. So it's way different depending on where you're at, but in our community, we listed some of the groups that do these u provide these opportunities. Certainly in the AI area school district, youth athletic associations play a big part in opportunities for students in their non-school hours. Uh scouting, 4, faith-based programs, all of those things. So multiple ways for kids to participate. Good news is um there's opportunities at all age levels. Um you know, if I was to do my own personal oped, I think elementary uh typically has the most opportunities. high school certainly bumps up their opportunities that you'll see in a in a little bit and middle school can sometimes be on the tail end of that, but you see um you'll see in our presentation our community at Targeted Services programming for middle school students. Uh and certainly we're excited about the Wood and Brooklyn Park, their teen center that they just opened. So diff all different groups going to contribute to making this be successful. We think there's different benefits for various groups. Certainly already talked about students, families, programs like Kidstop, that's a driver for working families, right? That's specifically set up to support families who are working and need a place for their young person to be uh when school is not in session. And we also think that communities and schools benefit from uh students being involved with stronger student engagement. Um, I believe most recent national studies, kids who participate in after school programs and activities typically attend school at a 5% higher rate than those who don't, right? Because there's a connection right there, right? I don't want to mess up my school uh a day and and uh wreck my chance of being on the soccer team or, you know, name whatever it is that they're participating in. And we certainly build strong community partnerships uh during the non-school hours. You saw that yesterday at Aspen Ridge with our partners partnership with OMGBA. Right? That's just one community example. Now, we're going to hone in onto what's going on in AIO area schools. So, when I think about the care and supervision aspect of after school, that's where you see kids, fourstar. Certainly, you heard all about our summer programs. We were proud again this summer to serve over 6,000 students in our summer programs. Summer programs are still going, by the way. They end on Friday. Okay. So, >> making you come in. >> Well, [laughter] we'll take those requests after. But the And then enrichment and exploration. Certainly, there's community ed classes. We we'll talk about targeted services. Summer learning camps and clubs. Um clubs during the school year happen too. And then I think these connection and leadership, I think service opportunities, etc. So we I think these three categories are a nice way to think about after school as a whole. I made some assumptions that folks like afterchool programs and support them. So I didn't spend a ton of time on that, but I I think it's good to be grounded in why we do it. Some of our programs are free and eligibility based. U some have fees attached to them, right? And those there's a whole range across this spectrum. Um [snorts] so some of our free and eligibility based programs, Camp Rocks, Academic Adventures is free, Targeted Services is free, credit recovery, ESY extended school year, taking your ACT test. Some of these programs, we'll touch on funding a little bit. Some of these programs are state funded, right? And then there's eligibility requirements to be able to participate in them. And I just did a smattering of uh different programs with different fees. So kids stop school year ranges from 15 to 23 per sess per session depending on early start school, late start school, etc. $46 daily. And those rates vary by schedule and service level. Elementary enrichment can be anywhere from $10 to $279. Now, that's based on dosage. A more expensive class might be a class that takes place over eight weeks and you have 16 sessions. And a $10 class might be a one time session only. And also school clubs and student groups vary. And we'll talk about uh athletics as well. So, there's really kind of a range. Some of it depends on if it's government funded or if it's not. Right. And on the community ed side, uh only 30% of our revenue is provided by state or federal government. The other 70% is feebased as it is a self-funded fee. We do offer uh a variety of scholarships and ways to work alongside parents if they need support. Certainly on the kids side, we use the childcare assistance program. help parents out work their way through that. And there's a wide range of how scholarships work. We didn't we're not spending a ton of time on that, but that might be part of our pause and reflect as well. So, for instance, in youth enrichment, if families ask, they have an opportunity of up to $200 per kid per year if they want assistance. Right? So, that's just one example. So, let's talk about uh what we offer. and kind of what participation looked like this past year. So, targeted services, uh you can see in the middle schools, we offered targeted services at Brooklyn Middle, AIO Middle, Maple Grove Middle, and North View Middle. Sometime some of these numbers can be duplicate count because typically targeted services is offered by a class. So, I might sign up for a class in the spring. I might sign up for a class in the fall. Um, I don't have the exact um enrollment numbers at each of the schools off the top of my head, but North View Middle is probably our uh most popular uh middle school community targeted services program. You can see this summer we had game on at Brooklyn Middle and North View Middle and we had the OMG program at Maple Grove Middle and AIO Middle and we had Kerry Camp Rocks was Zaywood. [snorts] >> Oh goodness. Elm Creek, >> Rice Lake, Zaywood and Elm Creek >> last year. So some sometimes in the summer um we aren't able to do it as perfectly as this year because you had Zaywood on the east side. You got an east side, west side, and middle, but it really is depending on construction when we consolidate programs in the summer. So, but the school years are representative of the actual schools. And you can see our targeted services program. Uh we offer that at Edinbrook, Parkbrook, Birch Grove, Fair Oaks, Palmer Lake, and Oak View. And you know that Parkbrook's a duplicate count, right? Because that's more kids than actually go there. So, Parkbrook is just like North View is probably our most popular community targeted services program, Parkbrook is our most popular community targeted services program. Uh, lots of kids participate uh in before and after school offerings at Parkbrook. Here's some youth enrichment numbers from last year. you can see um all the sites that we're at and I'm happy again this fall that we'll be at 16 of our 17 elementaryaries will have youth enrichment offerings once again uh this year and this sounds weird but Parkbrook's our only site that didn't offer them last year but that's because they didn't think they needed both because they have such high participation in community targeted services so but everyone else wants at least uh a smattering of youth enrichment classes. You can see participation varies. One thing that I didn't mention about well all of these programs are choice based, right? You don't have to attend any of these programs. That's one thing that's probably unique about after school and not a school time programming is they are uh I mean parents sign up. I do like to say the older kids get that they vote with their feet, right? So some kids really uh ask their parents to be participants and others kind of say I don't want to do that anymore. But that's why you even see things like um game on and OMG. We name things differently. We work with kids to come up with the names for their summer programs when they hit middle school. We might offer them in different dosages. you know, I might not want to get to uh game on at 6:45 like I used to have to for kids stop, right? I might rather ride my bike and start the day at 9:30 or something like that, right? So, we just bury it that way. And you can see this summer we did our mini camps. We had them all located at Rice Lake. Very successful mini camps uh this summer with over 2,300 kids participating. So, those are some of our youth enrichment and targeted services that are offered through community education. And these are um what do you call those? Real time numbers for kids stop for next year. You can see where we're going to be at. Aspen Ridge is on there for the first time. We've got 63 kids enrolled at Aspen Ridge. You can see the numbers so far at Kidstop. just shy of 1300 contracts to date so far this year. I'm I'll say this one publicly even though it hasn't happened yet. I'm nervous to put it on there, but we we almost pulled off a Zaywood hub site for this school year. Uh we're working with um Brooklyn Park and Wreck to add another hub on the east side for kids stop after school programming. We currently have one at Edinburgh uh because this any school that's not listed on here, we were unable to get more than 15 kids to register for that program. So then we create a hub. But one of the things we're excited about with the wood coming online this school year is to add a hub because then therefore what we'll have is a hub for early start schools to combine at and a hub for late start schools to combine at. If that makes some sense, right? Because right now, unfortunately, the hub at Edinburgh covers for kids that are both coming going to and from early start are to and from late start. So that staggers the busing, all sorts of things. But overall, I think the having two hubs is going to be a good switch for us. That was a lot of quick numbers at you, but I wanted you to at least see where we offer programs throughout the district and what level of participation we get. Um, kind of the cost range of what takes place. Um, I'm of course a little bit biased, but I think a lot of our programs are pretty reasonable. Um, I do sometimes stats feels like you can manipulate stats, but even when I think about kids stop at $46 a day, you often hear about how expensive child care is, and it is. It's real money. U, but that's also $4.60 an hour is another way to look at it. And I'm only dividing the day by 10 hours. Kids stops actually open 12 hours a day, right? So for some of these programs, the per hour cost is a really pretty good pretty good deal, but it still adds up, right? Those are real that's real dollars for families. And just a little bit on this one before we go to high school. We get a lot of feedback from our participants and from our families. They define things differently why they like it. Scholars are more likely to participate when they feel physically and emotionally safe, have a trusted adult, have great experiences, have voice and choice. We often talk about uh in after school programs, we do choice-based curriculum. So, it's not you don't have to go to the gym from 3:30 to 3:45 and then to the art room from 3:45 to 4. We offer a smattering of activities throughout the session and children are free to make choices, right, and go back and forth. Some kids you try to say, "Let's leave the gym. You've been here 2 hours, you know, go let's go pick another choice." But if they're not experiencing an engaging place, they're not going to come back and they're going to tell their parents they don't like it and they're going to tell you they don't like it or vice versa, they're going to say, "I love it and want to come more often." real quickly touched upon it. We have family and student fees. General community ed supports offset some of the cost of some of the programs. Some of our programs we get grants or timelited funding. It's been a long time now, but for a while, you know, we had a wonderful number of years where we got the 21st century learning grants and those were eliminated, right? So sometimes federal or state funding goes away. um because we had a we had a good nine-year run there in the last three years. I think we're getting over $33,000 a year to support those programs. So, there is a legislative component to some of these programs and what you do get supported. And we do get some donations and sponsorships. Of course, major costs are staff wages, facility use, food, etc. I wanted to say I wanted to kind of talk about this for a sec a second. Access depends on more than whether a program exists, right? Because just because a program exists doesn't automatically mean people can participate. That's why you're always balancing how much you charge. A lot of our afterchool programs require parents to pick up the kids at the end of the day, right? So transportation's a barrier, even [clears throat] if the program's offered, that could be uh a barrier to participate. location and schedule don't work with every family. I think we're um we've done a couple things to try to get people more aware of where we do offer programs. We have site leaison at some of our schools to try to connect uh students to after school programs. I do think our new language access initiative is going to help as well. I think that's a positive thing that the school district's doing as a whole. So, I'm going to turn it over to Amy. >> All right. So, we um wanted to just give a little bit of overview around really starting with some opportunities and then um also just looking at some participation, some some real foundational information. And I think about high schools and our senior highs as being a place that never sleep because as you can see, you have lots of information in your folders about the wide variety. And so even when this question emerged, it's kind of hard to really wrap your brains around how to make sense of it because of just the complexity of all the different things that Brian has shared um and then just the wide variety of different kinds of opportunities um at the high school level as well. So really focusing around opportunity and then participation. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, if we just start to break down some of the different opportunities at um all of our high schools, there are some similarities and then it gets to be just a little bit more choice based um depending on interest and also um at high schools we have clubs which some of them are studentrun based on interest. So, if I happen to want to create some kind of an outdoor club, I would go and talk to my activity coordinator and say, you know, let's start this club and there you go, you can start a club. So there I'm not going to read through this, but you can really see a wide variety of opportunities from athletic participation um through different clubs like music um choir. We have things like robotics and model UN. We have club or clubs and sports fall, winter, and spring. And there's still lots of activity happening in summertimes for different practices. Um we have adapted athletics which is formally through the Minnesota State High School League. But then um a few of the high schools also have a unified club which is just activities um that take place in partnership between student receiving special education services and general education students. Um and there most of the high school athletics are open to students in grades 7 through 12. So you can kind of see some of the nuances between what is offered at each of like more broadly between the schools and in your folders you have some more specific lists as what's offered between each school. So here's just some very um basic participation numbers and these can be duplicates. So if I am an athlete in two sports then I would be counted as two in this particular count. This also helps to delineate um you know a question around opportunities for middle school students. So at the high school level um sports are available 7 through 12 and students grades 7 through 12. So here we see students in middle school that participate in athletics at the senior high. Um again here's just some additional participation numbers when you look at [snorts] the total number of students. Again, remember that student or that number at at Maple Grove Senior High, for example, has a total of 19 uh 1,977 students. That could be um you know, me participating two times, for example, if I'm a double sport or a triple sport athlete. Um but that breaks it down by race. So, I'm not going to obviously read through all those numbers, but you can just get a little bit of an understanding of what that looks like at each one of our schools. Uh we know there are some questions um that are emerging just around financial access and costs. So right now it is $190 for each um individual to participate in a sport. And if I am a three sport athlete then that third sport is free. And um just for reference, we had to go back and think about how long we've had that fee in existence. And it really hasn't changed um for about 9 to 10 years when we went back and um tried to think about when that time was. And um that change that happened was only um $10. So it used to be $180 and then it was raised approximately 9 to 10 years ago to $190. So um you know at that time obviously that was maybe a little bit of a bigger fee but in today's dollars that is not a significant increase and it stayed and that's been our fee for the last 9 to 10 years. Um in comparison which two of our high schools participate in the Northwest Suburban Conference um and that is 13 other districts and that the participation fee ranges that those districts um require range from $100 to $440. So again in our future work session that's something that we can certainly share out similar to um some charts that you have because we have access to that information but it is really varied across the different districts. Um and then we'll provide more information again in January. So, we want to just give an opportunity um for uh the pause and ponder or pause and process which you're all familiar with and just created some questions because I know that's been valuable time for you just to talk about all the information that you've heard up to this point. Um so, is five minutes enough or would you like more time to talk amongst yourselves? [clears throat] >> 10 minutes? >> We can we can probably just jump into it. >> You want to >> cuz we're limited on time. >> Okay. Um but before we jump in, I know this is a topic that was um a long time coming. Um and I know um Director Dawson had a big part in making sure that this made it on the work session agenda. So I wanted to >> Did you have anything that you wanted to to add to get us >> started? [laughter] Of course. Well, first I just want I just wrote some things down. I want to thank um Amy and Brian cuz you know we met and kind of talked through I mean there was a lot of things you know um this can cover a lot of different um areas in our district um with our community partners with our cities and I know what they we're having a future session specifically on athletics coming up but I just you know I asked for this work session because I'm very very passionate about this um and I believe that our extracurricular activities and enrichments are not extras because you know I really believe they are absolutely full part of the whole um educational experience and I I have four kids myself and a lot of times I think through that lens and I know what um participating in activities has done for them. I even look at my daughter who's a senior um college at Howard and like she was okay academically but because she had so many opportunities to participate it just kind of put her to that next level. Um, and but I also know having four kids like there's a lot of barriers, you know, and with costs and access and I know our district does so much to really ensure that everyone has access and I and I really um believe that if we anchor in and partner with, you know, we've done we've done a joint work session with the city of Brooklyn Park and Mayor May Winston and like and I love to continue that with our other cities to really have this as a forefront because I think about like I look at Cindy sitting there with Minnesota Chill my son participating um with with that with um that uh program and it's it's just um you just see how important these community [clears throat] partnerships are. And I think at a time when we're looking at technology, we're looking at all these things. Um we also have to make sure we are positioning our families, caregivers, and our students with resources and opportunities to engage, you know, whether that's after school, whether that's in the summer. And I think there's a lot of disparities there that um we we can unearth and we can kind of see in the numbers. Um and and then the other thing that just struck me is you know like you post things on your social media and I had posted about this asked this question about like you know what what do people think and I just like the amount of responses um I received was just really um was it was awesome like all the feedback all the stories all the experiences um all the barriers were you know barriers were named um you know people were like what about archery what about this and so I you know that's what is in your packet did I just like compiled the list of themes that I heard. Um and you know when I think about um I think my hope for today is just like what you guys did provide kind of the ground like the foundational kind of piece of it and I think as a board continue to think about like how how can we move some things forward in a way to kind of get some more feedback and I know I talked to Chair Prince and Vice Chair Brooks about even like looking at listening sessions this fall like do we have one that's really focused on our activities and like what we're doing and we hear that feedback um and and then Um, and like I mentioned, like really partnering with our cities in order to kind of better understand in in that capacity, what is what are their goals? What are they working on? Like how do we really [clears throat] support our youth and our young people and um expand our opportunities for all of our students? So, um I know Tur Brooks is like, "Okay, you're limited in your question." So, I [laughter] don't even But um but I just I'm super excited about this topic and I I just love the energy that um I can just kind of sense that I think our community is is really looking forward to to looking at this. I will Yeah, I will say even for example like middle school sports, you know, I think I look at that topic and I I [snorts] remember when we when I first my first term we talked about that and I know we got I think it was rid of it just because of some financial reasons. Um but I also think there might be some opportunity there, something to look at um in the future as well. >> Yeah. So um like director Dawson just said um so before we um everyone else jumps in, 35 minutes um is not a lot to absorb everything that was shared today um or dive deep into any particular topic. And so I'm hoping that um as you all are thinking about your questions and your feedback for staff um that you are also able to pinpoint um some topics that you'd like to dive deeper on in future work sessions. Um so some follow-up topics um would be ideal so we can continue this conversation. Um but with that said first I just have a question. I don't know if you can touch on this or get back to us, but talking to some of the high school coaches in the district. We're saying one of the challenges is finding really good qualified [snorts] coaches. Are there a lot of gaps right now just with the programs we have finding enough staff and coaches? Just if you can address that briefly. >> You mind having um depends I would say so it depends on what what activity are we talking about? um what's relevant in the communities that we're serving in. At the time, I can give a story right now. Um we started volleyball 2 days ago. Um and we hired two nth grade volleyball coaches today and we've been asking all summer. We've been reaching out to club organizations. We've been posting on LinkedIn, Facebook, putting it everywhere. So, it depends. Volleyball is one right now that's been difficult. Um but it really depends depends on the climate of the sport um and where it's at in our state or even in our communities and how I would answer that right now. So if we do run into it, not in everything, but we >> we do see it. >> Like can you touch on right now how many open spots and these positions we need to fill in the district says we're >> we have so many wonderful programs and I love you know Kelsey's heart to add but it was just interesting as diving into this more and researching like this is a challenge finding good coaches. We want to have qualified um coaches and yeah, so >> I would say right now open positions for our current fall openings um are minuscu. There are a couple um I think but we're we're filling those at this point. So we're getting in a good spot. We're turning to look at what is winter and spring look at right now. Um, I'll touch on there's been a lot of work done with human resources and what we're doing to make sure when we get the people in the door and we get our coaches in the door, what training are we giving them and how are we walking alongside them to make sure they have the skills to be prepared and ready to step into that space because sometimes we do get someone that hasn't coached high school before >> but maybe has coached club or coached youth level and how do we bring them along? So, there's a lot of work there too. Um, I wouldn't say we're in a space right now of like dire need or freaking out. We're we're making it happen and here and there when there's an issue, >> we problem solve together and >> figure it out. But there are instances where people are busy and there's a lot on their plates, right? And so picking up an extra thing can be hard sometimes even though our heart might be in it. And that's one thing real quickly that we didn't this this started out as 40 slides and we called it to 23 because how much time we >> Yeah. You looked at me like this. [laughter] But to Keely's point, you know, even targeted services, right? A targeted service class only runs if a licensed teacher is willing to work outside of their normal school day and work after school because that's one of the requirements, right? So there we didn't talk about the kind of internal I I know we're talking about some external barriers, but there's also internal barriers based on the requirements of different programs, right? So it these, you know, hundreds of classes that you see are the result of people working beyond their duty day and taking a second job part-time to offer after school classes. So you know, we're we're so grateful to all of our uh after school facilitators and our after school our teachers who teach after school classes for us. It's great. They wouldn't happen without that. And I do understand they get paid, but you've already worked an 8 to 10 hour day and now you're doing two more hours for an after school club uh twice a week, right? So that's a part of our own uh what we do a lot of work to um say why we think it's important and that we would love you to help us out. You might have an area of interest that you like to do. So, thanks for letting me at least add one of the slides we had eliminated about how we go about getting [snorts] people to work beyond their normal workday. >> I'd be curious to hear what other internal barriers there are just because you guys are experts on the inside and we can kind of see most of the outside barriers. Um, that would be something I'd be curious about. The two things that I noticed were just the participation level is pretty amazing. Um, and then just the mix of clubs. And I'm pretty sure these these are the student brainstormed and then they lead it. So that's amazing, >> right? Is that what this is? The high school ones. >> Some of them are um I'm talking about the list. Some of them are led by um like advisors and then some of them are student less. So it's they're kind of all mixed >> and they're very unique. Like there's a lot of unique ones. I read [laughter] I read Cyber Fun and I'm like as a 40-year-old woman I thought something different. So I I was like oh wait no they're probably weaving. Okay. Um [laughter] so that one was good. But it's really cool to see their different interests come out and that they vary across the schools as they should based on who's attending our schools. So um I'm just >> leaving. >> I thank you. It [laughter] took me a few minutes but I got there. Um, but I'm just really impressed and thankful for the teachers that show up and are willing to supervise these. Um, and just the opportunities we're giving our kids. This these weren't available when I was a student. So, this is amazing. Um, and just even the sports looking and looking at how well represented we are across all the schools that a lot of the times that district-wide box is checked or it's two of the three schools. Um, and these are super unique, too, like clay target shooting. And I know somebody that does fishing and like it's just insane the offerings that we have. So, um, those were the two things that stood out to me and just as I've become a parent of older children been able to see. So, and the and I know we're talking about this later, but the fee comparison cuz I did look it up. My coworker was like, "Oh, you guys pay a lot for your fees. Just wait." And I'm like, "Are you sure?" And he's like, "No, it cannot be that low." and I'm like, it's that low. So, I it is and I know that's a topic for later and that's a neutral comment. I have no up or down on that, but it was that was an interesting note. >> So, for me, what struck me was the comment um about that the more likely a student is to participate in something after school, like how much it impacts attendance and um overall kind of engagement with [cough] school. And I know we've talked about that through Brooklyn Bridge Alliance for Youth and through our COVID conversations. And so to me, I think it's um really like ensuring that we've got good high participation by students after school. With that, I had one question with the transportation. Are the activity buses every day or are they on a reduced schedule? Because I know some districts have with cuts taken reduced. >> Go ahead. >> That's um they are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday right now >> at all sites. Um all high schools and then middle schools have them as well. >> Is that so that's because it's like that's the drop off after like after the activity. Okay. >> Yeah. So 4:45 pick up at the high schools. U middle schools a little bit earlier. >> Okay. Thank you. >> When did that do we know when that changed? [clears throat] >> Like that for majority of my time. >> Yeah, it's been a while. My daughter it was like that for her. Yeah. >> Yeah. I know because we were at a recent um Brooklyn Park city engagement and the youth um from BBE were there and transportation came up and I know Kennean's down only two days a week I believe. So that's a big one and um they actually had some really creative ideas about meeting that need through community or community partnerships. So that's that's a big one. Um but ultimately like um you know if it'd be interesting to understand I know we're doing the um some really great barrier work with leaders. So understanding if there's barriers to um at maximizing the number of kids that are staying after school. I know when we had our work session at BMS like it was just amazing like how exciting was how many kids were after school in activities. So I think to me it's maximizing that after school participation in in some in something and if that's onsite or if that's near site or I know Parkbrook's amazing and that struck me with that targeted services and that choice around no youth enrichment because like the number of outside groups that come there like girls on the run like all those >> like I I have to believe like every single kid is doing something >> there. [laughter] >> Yeah. It's amazing. So, so that helps me just understand like looking at youth enrichment numbers and why we have different things at different places. But again, to me, it's maximizing the number of kids that can participate because it ties to everything else so much. And then lastly, I'll just um from a personal point of view, um experiencing sports for the first time this fall with my son, like I really appreciated two things. One, like at least at Park Center, like we got an email as parents and it said like this is everything you can participate in. Here's the link. here's the person and like coming down to like the three C's like is that a consistent experience for everybody to kind of have that high touch. It it was very meaningful because it was so easy it it could just get him signed up and he's like I want to do this and do that. Um, and then like our co the first session with the coaches. Um, and I again I don't know if this is consistent across all, but the coaches really emphasize attendance and grades and that we're looking it up. We're watching, we're going to talk to you if this is becoming a problem. And I think that's just another avenue um with those strong mentors and coaches and following through on that. So I'd love to kind of understand if that's consistent and kind of coaches. >> Yeah, that it was really good. But I know there's been like a lot of co new coach training too. So >> that I thought was really meaningful for my personal experience. >> So that's what I got. >> Compliment the key like she sparks in hers. So [laughter] >> yeah, I just emailed like I don't know how to do this. Where do I need to go? Email back. Yeah, it was good. >> Erica to your quickly to your like one internal thing that I just thought of was how we talk about it. like I'm talking about it as targeted ser I'm talking about it how the funding stream comes in >> but really you know when we're talking to families and and youth it's what are the opportunities they don't care if >> um >> anime at Brooklyn Middle School is offered through targeted services they just want to know what's offered after school right you know so I think some of it >> to Tanya's point that's a communication thing how do we get consistent on even how we talk about >> this broad concept of out of school time and opportunities to to parents and to students. So that that made me think of that when you asked that question. >> And one of the exciting things here is is North Pew because they have a new dance studio and they also have inside Turf and you can just see on the middle school list how many dance clubs they have now. So, >> how well is she really? >> And that struck me as well, the percent of students like I think our mindset is because in our day and age like we were you always did a sport every single like um season like that's not how it is anymore. Like kids not not every kid wants to be in a sport. Um a lot of the kids are choosing like you said like when dances dance sport club um they're just they're not doing the traditional things we expected. So, I think we have to be sure that we're always bringing a lens to what our students and our diverse communities are asking for, which I think we've done like with the dance and with the turf. Um, and and sometimes we put these external perspectives on that aren't quite matched to what our kids need today. So, it's always a good reminder that it's coming back to to student choice and voice and and even think like I agree like more continue to talk with our cities. Um, it's only been about what six years since we built the dome with um with Brooklyn Park. that was huge and that has increased opportunities. So, um continuing those partnerships and it being based on feedback from our families which we do and from our community members which we've engaged in um is key. So, >> I'll stop >> just just one I think quick question. Um, so I'm looking kind of at the participation in athletics and the middle school is kind of about half of what the high school is like, you know, per grade level. Do we understand why that is? >> I mean, I think where I think it's coming from. >> Sure. >> That's okay. Um, I think being more intentional about we we're really trying to be more intentional about how you engage with your middle schools. So for us, Brooklyn, Middle and North View, um how are we building communication and partnerships with even the adults in the spaces to make sure the communication's getting out? I think there is a lot um that people don't know necessarily in those areas and I think it's hard because it's 7th through 12th and that can also be a dynamic that seven and eighth graders aren't quite ready for. >> So I think it's it's nuance. There's multiple aspects there, but um I think ultimately it comes down to not necessarily being right in the building with majority of the other students and trying to have to figure out what that pathway looks like. >> Okay. >> U key if I could add to that too. I think it adds so much identity as you're growing into high school together. Like there's a sense of belonging and identity when you're headed towards a team sport together and towards high school like seventh and eighth grade. You're building into that. So I think that's a really cool advantage of allowing our middle schoolers to try out. Yeah. >> Can I ask a question? Because but I do think like I do think I think our district does a great job with that. I've had my middle school kids participate in high school sports, but it depends the capacity of the high school sport and I know like my daughter wanted to do track. She was in middle school and like but couldn't cuz it was full, you know, which is totally that's great. Like I understand that. Um I think I for a followup though I would be interested to know like what other districts have middle school sports. And yeah, I would like to kind of have a better understanding of it. >> And again, for time, we just gave you athletics. We didn't give you activities. >> Oh boy. >> We didn't tell you band. We didn't tell you theater. We didn't tell you music. We didn't So those are out of school time, >> right? It's not just athletics. It's activities is really what we're talking about. So we just gave you one of the out of school time opportunities for high schoolers. But thank you all for your questions and your we'll we'll work with you on following up on some of these things that are of interest. So we appreciate the time. >> A couple things um just from from me um I'll keep it short because we are over. Um so there is a gap uh with our sixth graders um in this um I know [snorts] so I think for me um sixth grade is middle school is obviously a time where we really want to um engage our youth. I think that sets a trajectory for um you know their experience in high school. Um, and a lot of growing happens in that first year of middle school. Um, where, you know, they sometimes think they're older than they are. Um, and so I I don't know what the barriers are currently and and I know director Dawson just talked about some of that being capacity, but I don't know what the barriers are, but if we could find ways to engage all of our middle school students um particularly given that some of the friends may be in seventh or eighth grade and um you know they I don't know what the barriers are in terms of you know our associations in the community or whatnot but um that does seem to be a gap um in what I'm seeing so Um the second thing is uh for me is that I know that this topic is not unique to our district. Um in other districts it may be framed differently. Um I know in some districts you have parents that are maybe competing for different slots and activities, especially summer activities. Um and so that's also a barrier um in its own way. Um but I would be interested in the bigger picture. Um, I know we're kind of looking at what we can control here in the district, but um, I look at when you look at any community, like the hub of the community is either, um, a well-ran community center or it's the schools. And so for me, um, I would love to look at the bigger picture and just know like what are the programming that's being offered at for our cities, especially Brooklyn Park. Um, and then, uh, the park district. I mean, I know you mentioned that in the slide as potential partners or um even competitors um when it comes to youth programming, but um I think it's hard to know where we should focus our time and attention um when we don't have kind of all of the data in front of us, especially um you know, from our cities and and Three Rivers Park District as well. So, um I would I would love more information on that. Um hopefully that's easy enough to gather from them. But um that that would be a topic of interest for me. >> Sounds good. >> I apologize. I have to leave out situation. Um if anybody will come back. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you so much. So we'll go to our next one. Uh a mentorship and retention update. Okay. So, we'll have >> Oh, of course. No problem. >> Switch back. All right. So, our next activity as they're being set up is around mentorship and retention update. Um, this is director evening. So, this is also a subject that he wanted to know about. So, we're thrilled to have team here to share that. So, you want to introduce yourself and your team, please? >> [snorts] >> Good evening um uh vice chair friends Dr. pile cabinet and school board members. I'm uh here with Lisa Bostik, personnel director and HR and also Mela Anderson who is our recruitment and retention coordinator. And tonight uh we will be sharing some information about our mentorship programs and also some updates on our retention efforts. So I will um hand it over to Lisa first to start us off. >> Right. So for pres today's presentation outcome school members you will learn about all area schools mentorship and recruitment programs underway as well as analyze the results of current strategies understand key challenges and how we are addressing them. So why is mentor why does mentorship matter? It matters to our district by fulfilling our mission. This requires supported staff. And if you don't recall our mission, it is our mission to inspire and prepare each and every scholar with the confidence, courage, and competence to achieve their dreams. Mentorship creates a strong foundation that helps new teachers and staff feel welcome, supported, and ready to make miss that mission a reality. With that, I'll pass on to thank you. Um thank you for having me again. Uh this is our mentorship ecosystem. Uh currently right now we have four active mentorship programs. The special education teacher mentor is actually the first time this is the first year we're hosting a spad mentor is a dedicated special education teacher that will be um helping to on board all the first year special education teachers at OIO. Uh this is funded by the Minnesota Department of Education through the teacher mentorship and retention grant. Uh this is intensive role specific coaching and that will help in their classroom. This position is a FT position. So we recently hired our mentor is a full-time position. The other three they all go through stipen. So we have the teacher of color u mentorship program. This is probationary licensed teachers of color. we have the option is um that's optional mentorship and I'll explain a little bit more why um but this is our fifth year going towards our sixth tier and the funds it's we got a little bit of the funding through the teacher mentorship retention grant and um achievement integration partnering with the department of equity are helping to support our um teachers of color to continue this one. This is a a very impactful mentorship program. So we just focus on them to remain in the profession growing them as a leaders um and they meet on a monthly basis but they are available to help their um their mentees on a daily basis as well. We have now also new every site we have positions open. This is a stipen position, but we're going to have the ESP on-site mentorship is fully funded by achievement and integration grant that will be a everyday inbuilding support for for for ESPs. And the last one we have is our grow. Or we have three different pathways and any participants, staff, staff or teachers or students um they will be assigned a mentor when they go through the program. And this is just the focus is make sure that they have a clear pathways if they decided to become a licensed teacher. Um all right. So as we look into the results of our current um strategies, we see that a lot of our work has been focused on um go to forgot my glass. Apologies. Uh it will go through we refocus on filling positions after someone leaves. And right now that's what I call the reactive black filling. And we are shifting our mindset to also being proactive by investing right away in our employees in our employees the first year. So early on supporting their growth building the strong connection. So that's why the mentorship has been a proven strategy for us to support the retention. I will pass to Ivon. She's going to touch base on the diversity. >> Thank you. know we have of course um been uh in front of the board talking about um our metrics um uh the student body that we serve which is very diverse and the diversity gap that we have between the the student body um that we serve which is over 60% of uh scholars who are um scholars of color um versus um our overall workforce and our licensed staff of color. So we do want to address that. Um we want to focus on intentionally building pathways to recruit, develop, and retain um educators who are black, indigenous, and people of color um so that we can create a workforce that better reflects and supports the students that we serve. And so to that end, we did want to highlight um some of our u metrics. Again, we have again um um had opportunities to talk with the board about um our metrics and our goals, but we wanted to take a moment to revisit that. So, our overall um staff of color is uh currently 21% um with a 90% retention um rate for staff of color. Um our licensed staff of color, our current reality is that our licensed staff of color is about 11% of our overall workforce. um that uh we have had some steady um yet slow progress in recruiting licensed staff of color. Again, our retention um is quite high, but the recruitment is a slow and steady pace. Um that recruitment over the years um has been you know uh less of a you know less than half of a percent. So it's a very slow um yet steady recruitment. So, our short-term goals we're setting at um 1 and a half% um over the next few years. Um and our expectation is that with the pathways and the strategies that we're creating, we'll be able to start accelerating um that pace. Um and so, of course, uh we certainly acknowledge that we have uh quite a quite a bit more work to do. We know that um teachers of color in Minnesota represent only 80 88% that's a big difference 8% of the active public um school teacher workforce in Minnesota. So we don't certainly we don't have a silver bullet um to um uh you know to making those changes immediately. We have to be very intentional. We have to have a number of different strategies um to um tackle uh tackle the recruitment. Um, we want to take a thoughtful approach to diversifying our workforce aimed at investing in pathway programs, uh, targeted outreach and robust support, um, for teachers of color and educators of color in our system. Um, these programs represent an investment, um, in our staff, overall staff of color, our teachers of color, and we expect those investments to pay off uh, by allowing us to accelerate the pace All right. Um yeah, as a segue, so we have a little bit of our teacher um of color mentorship uh program. We this is equity centered. The focus is those three things on our screen. It's creating safe spaces, building the connection and also um strengthening the belonging. This has [clears throat] been a very successful program and a strategy for supporting and retaining educations. As I mentioned before, the teacher of color scholar mentorship program right now it's optional because it takes place um after the regular school hours. So normally they go straight from school um hungry so we're trying to [laughter] uh it's a long day so we understand that some of them they have families and they are not able to attend to every single meeting that we host on a monthly basis. Uh some of the impact that we have for this year, we were able to support 35 teachers of color to the TOC mentorship program. Uh we focused some of our professional learning sessions were focused on connection, belonging, building some their skills and confidence. Uh one of the strongest results we have is 100% of the participants they're eligible to move into continuous contract. 100% move into that. So was great everyone in probationary year three we only lost two of those participants um all the 32 are returning back to this new school year that we started in September. So this is this is a great retention rate uh we have very positive feedback. Um spoiler alert we have a few recorded testimonials um in a little bit towards the end that I would love to share. um moving towards our special education. Why keeping your special education teachers are so important? So we saw um you know it's has been or special education um student special education students the body of the students have grown significantly. I believe it's 600 uh 650 scholars in the past five years. So retaining new special education teachers remains a challenge. out of all the ones that we hired, we were able to retain 65% which it is a good rate but is not enough. So we are highlighting that they need to focus in the on estability and support for for our students. Um and this is partnership with the student services. So we as I mentioned we recently hired um oh we recently hire or new spat. So we have here um just how we are going to do this is brand new is starting this fall. Um we are adding the first full-time mentor. So once the special education teacher is hired, we're going to pair with the mentor. Our new mentor is K Cus. She's been with AIU for 24 years. um she's doing amazing as a spad mentor and she will be the one uh providing them intensive hands-on coaching right into their classrooms. She will provide [clears throat] them with the is you know the tools that they need and the confidence they need to handle the complex and um the high need environments that they are. U most of her classrooms are center bases are very complex and challenging. And the next one that we have the this is also our first year. So this data right here on our screen shows an increase in percentage of resignation involving ESP. So this is why it's so important uh the first three years why it matters the most for us. Um this is a steady increase that highlights every year there is a increase in resignations from the SPS and the ones who are leaving is within the first three years the majority within the first year. [snorts] So before we start to losing them and they become disconnected we would like to um provide the support they need and we have now for the first time on site guidance for each of them. So this slide shows just the how the program will work. We will partner with site leaders and as well as the department of equity to identify the experience and the high performing ESP. So we talking with every principal, assistant principal. Um I've been talking with the assistant superintendent but also with equity. We want to make sure that they have the training, the resources and the ongoing support. So we are going to hire the mentors who are going to be on site. you're going to receive in stipen and they will be matched with all the newly hired uh ESPs at your sites. So that will provide just a day-to-day guidance uh and the goal is to keep them confident um they can develop this sense of belonging because we know some of the reasons that we discussed in the past that they are um when they leave sometimes it could be career opportunity development. So we're trying to make sure that they feel supported. The last mentorship program that I have is through grow your own. We have the adult and this pathways we have is adult means general education. So K through 12 and then we have the special education pathways. So the staff who are part of grow uh working towards the lensure and going back to school they are assigned an experienced mentor that helps them to navigate through the teacher preparation program as well as lensure. And for the secondary student pathways, those are the students who um are interested in becoming a licensed educator before once they graduate with OSU if they do participate into the intro to education class at Park Center. Every um all our students in high school, they're welcome to take that class. So if they decide to complete that, they're welcome to be paid a paid internship. So it's eight weeks and it's a partnership we have with community ad. So, Camp Rocks and Kids Stop Post in a rotation. They they have two mentors. They're hands-on and they just gain ex, you know, hands-on exposure to the teaching as well as a ESP. Uh some of them they come back to us as a ESP and through Roy going towards the to the lenship. Um and my next step is the testimonials. They are two minutes each. >> And we may need to pause a moment just to make sure the audio is >> I'm looking at Anthony for [laughter] >> Hi, my name is Renee Troutman. I'm a fourth grade teacher in AIO. I've been teaching at Cedar Island the past three years and I'll be starting at Weaver Lake this upcoming fall. I knew I wanted to be a part of the TOC program because when I first began my teaching career three years ago, I wanted a mentor and I wanted someone who would give me advice and impart wisdom to me as well as help me grow professionally and personally and encourage me in this calling that we both shared. And all the meetings, everyone there was so friendly and welcoming. They wanted to connect with me even if they weren't my mentor. And the leaders also focus on helping us understand the probationary um period as well as observation processes and licensing requirements. All the above. But I specifically felt supported by TOC this past spring when I found out about the budget cuts in my school and I was being let go. And so I reached out to my mentor to ask about next steps uh when to apply to other schools within our district um and how to move forward. And he immediately reached out to other leaders in TOC and from there they reached out to even more people without me even asking. So some of them reached out to other principles and schools to see who was hiring where it might be a good fit for me. Others reached out to HR and really advocated for me and I felt so valued as a person as and as an educator because they saw my gifts that I bring to teaching as well as AIO and they were fighting to keep me in the district and HR actually ended up offering me a pocket contract and I got my top choice of where I could be teaching in AIO and so I'm just really excited to continue growing in this amazing community and district. Um, I recommend joining TOC to anyone who's considering it. It's a great community and I'm been truly blessed by it. >> Team, I'm smiling because I met her mom at a career fair. >> Her mom's a teacher at a charter school and during that time when she was given notice, um, her mom was like, "My daughter works at your school." And she got noticed she's not going to have a job. So, I recognize the name and I'm so glad we're able to keep her. And her sister also teaches in our district as well. >> Her sister's the next >> one. They're not they're not twins, but they [laughter] also the [clears throat] next one is not the same person. >> The first I try to get their mom here, too. Hi, my name is Elsie Ames and I'm the third grade teacher at Garden City Elementary. When applying for districts and looking for districts to teach for, OIO really stood out to me because of their teacher of color mentorship program that told me that OIO really values teachers of color and already have things in place to support teachers like me. This program has made a large impact on my adjustment into OIO school district. It has supported me being a teacher and also all the responsibilities that come with teaching such as relic lenture, insurance, report cards, difficult behaviors and anything else. But it's really grown my confidence as an osteo educator. of her video is on a second. >> The most rewarding part about the program is having a mentor. My mentor was able to observe and watch me teach multiple times over the past few years and gave very constructive feedback, which is exactly what I needed. They also supported me throughout the school year with difficult student behaviors, making lessons more engaging and molding the curriculum to really fit my class and my students needs. I also had the opportunity to observe my mentor teaching and was able to see some of their strategies and their practice in action. This program has made me feel supported and connected me with other members across the district in a variety of roles. I'm very grateful for the relationships I've made because they have really gotten to know me, encouraged me, and are there for me even on the toughest of teaching days. And that reminds me that I'm not doing it alone and I have a huge support system behind me. If you are considering joining teachers of color, I would highly recommend because it's a great community and it will really challenge you to be a better teacher. Just have one more testimonial and this one is um a mentor. [clears throat] Hello, my name is Melissa Kazonei and I am the ATPPS facilitator here in OIO area schools. The teacher of color mentor program is a program that is near and dear to my heart. I have been a mentor in the program for the last five years and during this program I have seen a tremendous transformation of our teachers who have really found the program to be a place of guidance of mentorship um building confidence and also leadership skills. I truly believe that representation can be a bridge and often change the trajectory of students lives and being able to invest in teachers of color to help diversify our workforce really can have a lasting impact on students. Um it's supported me and my own personal career and I have seen that transformation as well with many of our teachers who have not who have now gone on and taken on many leadership roles. I truly believe that if we care about our communities, it's important to invest not only our time and our um ears and listening, but also our resources. And so um I've seen the impact that this program can make, and I hope to see that um impact in this program continue for many years to come. >> [clears throat] >> So that with that being said, we're pausing and reflecting on the questions that we have. We have couple more minutes as well. So we have in front of you or you have it on the screen. >> All right. Um board members, questions, comments. >> I have a question. The 90% attention rate. How does that compare to our overall staff's attention rate? question. >> So we will have that. >> Thank you. >> Um so um so what stood out to me? Um awesome presentation. Um I was excited that you brought testimonials. Um so yeah, all good stuff. Um, I think one question I had for [clears throat] you all, um, can you remind me, are we partnering with Blackman Teach and how is that part of the mentorship? >> Yes, we do have a partnership with Blackman Teach. Um, right now we are to renew our contract with them. Um, but we do have one person. They the way that I understood when I first started there was already a contract. they they partner with just some of the schools who have uh these student bodies who are black males. Um so then we do have one which is in north no wood sorry wood is one of and press view used to be other one but then um due to the changes we currently have one now. Um the the thing is we to continue uh we have to apply for new grant so then we can support um the partnership with them. Yeah. >> One of the pathway programs that we're working on and um this was something that we uh um spoke with Dr. How in the spring to prepare for um and and we're working to build this next school year is the program called the teacher apprenticeship program. and that is a consortium. Um, one of the um entities involved in that consortium is Black Men Teach. So there are a number of school districts that are um joining that program. It's they are grant-f funed programs and it's an apprenticeship model. Um so uh again uh typically ESPs to a licensed staff model with um the first two years being um hands-on experience in the teach in the classroom with a they call it a journey teacher um you know the experienced teacher watching and then that is flipped the last year where the experienced teacher watches um they're basically modeling [snorts] and then they watch um the apprentice uh the apprentice um teach and then they're there in the classroom as well. So, um we have to um so we've been in conversations and um uh um with um the main point person for that. Um but we've got to build the selection criteria etc. and make sure that we have opportunities to engage our stakeholders in and setting that program up. >> I like to share a good story. Uh this spring, Commissioner Jet had called me and I was on vacation. He had ran in to two of our black male students. They graduated from Maple Grove Senior in 2025. The twins, they won a big award or something that M senior gives out. >> The twins did. So we he finally we were able to get together and he came brought the boys the gentleman here and they were interested in becoming Yes. elementary um elementary teachers. So at the point that we started talking about it and say shout out came right over. She was like, "Oh, I didn't know it was commissioner. I'm not dressed right." But but um came over and talked to them and the interest and started talking about the grow your own program and they have to be employees for six months. Was that >> uh it's 90 days? >> For for 90 days then they could apply for grow your own. So uh so then it was like okay she's smiling. So, so there were kids positions open. So, the sea took them over, showed them how to do the application. They did the application here and we're proud to say that then they were hired the kids stop. So, we have both of them and all they have to be is there for 90 days and they can apply for it works. Um the only other um question I have for you um which maybe doesn't need to be answered today but um the special education teachers. So there was a slide that um kind of talked about the um kind of retention of our special education teachers. Are we capturing where they're going? Um are they career changing or going to other districts? Student competition. Um, is that something that's part of the larger retention efforts? We can we can we ask that's part of when they do complete the resignation form if they so just so you know some of those I need to confirm if they all left due to designing or if they're you know some prop performance um but we do capture um if they would like to share where they're going yes we do have >> okay >> I will say I mean so we don't have that data in front of us but that can be part of the data that we follow up. Um sometimes the attrition is um you know for good reasons. Um we do um our uh student services administrators for instance who are at the coordinator level at the ESC they are um you know um have a special education background. So sometimes we are promoting people from within the system which is a good good reason but obviously with then we have back bills to um people to f find those positions. Um, I just want to I this is I love this. I love how you kind of have it as a ecosystem around mentorship because I can imagine I'm not education but I can imagine how important that is when you come with just feeling kind of like confident and kind of having that support to kind of navigate especially a district our size. Um so I I couldn't remember when we we were talking about this briefly before which is why this came to be but um how many is the mentors for the teachers of color are is it the statement or is there a >> statement? It is a statement. So how many mentors are there? >> So this year we can hire up to 20 mentors and um two lead mentors. Okay. >> So 22 of them. Last year we had a budget cut through FDE. So we only we're only able to have 10 mentors and a different integration department of faculty um help us to combine budgets and help to hire more. >> Is it a one-on-one mentorship or >> ideally? Yes. >> Okay. >> Um and I love this special ed teacher mentor. I think that's so important to have um the ESP grow your own. And I just think it's all that's just the direct, you know, that's just um I just think it's so foundational and I appreciate like what you said and there's not a stable silver bullet, you know, all of this. And so I know you guys have put so much work into this and I really really appreciate it. Um I am curious, Tom, thanks for bringing that up with black men teach like what are the I'm just curious of what are the requirements to partner with them? >> Yeah, so the um and I I might be speaking I don't know the full details. Um they they they actually didn't charge us. Uh the superintendent um prior to Dr. High was the one who signed that contract. They said that within the two schools they would turn into 20% of the black to bring 20% of black men each um because he wasn't able to achieve the goal. We end up not paying them. I think we do have to pay a fee. The staff goes through goes through school once they complete they are placed in our you know in your in our classrooms as a licensed staff. We do have I've been in touch with them. Uh one of their partners is actually the one who are introducing the apprenticeship program as well. Uh so that's how we connected all the dots and we do have one of our grow your own uh the adult which is a general education is focused for by uh bipok staff. So we have about six of our staffs of color male who are going through your own back into school um you know hopefully soon they're going to be graduating. I can add on to that as well. Um initially prior to the superintendent Dr. child come in on at that time that that contract um there was a financial commitment as well to onboard um the black male male teachers in addition to that there are criteria that black men teach does have where for us to participate is at least 50% or certain percentage of the students have to be black males for us to work with black men teach so that's why we're able to identify Zanewood and crest you as part of the criteria. >> Great. Thank you for ask >> Yeah, thank you. This is great. And thank you for the glossery of acronyms. >> Yes. >> Always helpful. >> There's a lot of [laughter] with the grants. >> There's a test at the end. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Yes. >> Yeah. >> We had a couple more members of learning achievement. Thank you for coming in particular such short notice. Um so before we get started I'm let you all introduce yourself but I do want to just start with some just basic information. So the purpose of this pres presentation this evening and the discussion this evening is just a follow up from all all the discussions that we started having in the spring. So just a quick reminder that uh with the mile 5th we had the original technology presentation and then we did meet um with our parent group in June and then in July we did start a work group to start working on what are some of the short-term what are some of the long-term things we can do and then we are here today. So we also uh has have constantly uh taking in um uh reading our own articles and reading information and also thinking our parents are offering books and things for us to be able to read as well. So I just want to put out how important this partnership [snorts] is. I also wanted to share today that the information today is just a start of what we need to do and the reason why we're saying it's a start is because um at the time that we entered into the summer our staff wasn't here our teachers weren't here. So one of the things we do have in our area schools all voices valued and heard that we need to make sure we get more teacher voice in staff voice in uh student voice in uh gathering that data and getting additional stakeholder voice in if we need. So one of the things that uh when we did meet with the parents in June they had mentioned like do we have to wait till the end of the year? Can we have some information? Can we do something to start off the year? So that was one of our main goals when we come in and the reason why you see a short term and the reason why you see a long term that we went through to create that short term and what can we create without teachers input as much and other people's input. So that's why you see the difference. So I just want to let everyone know here it's our start and we're nowhere near finished and I'll let the team introduce. >> Good evening. Thank you Dr. Hile. Good evening uh Chair Prince. Well, she's stepped away. Vice Chair Brooks, members [laughter] of the board, cabinet, and community members, uh thank you for the opportunity uh to bring this work forward. What you will see this evening reflects a cross departmental partnership between information technology and learning and achievement as we work together to answer a central question. How do we ensure responsible use of technology for learning? Our short-term recommendations and the proposed long-term guidance are being developed with both sides of the equation in mind. Our network and information technology expertise as well as our high quality core instruction framework and our understanding of what makes learning meaningful and effective. We are genuinely excited about the opportunity to that this work creates to partner across department and ultimately with our broader stakeholder community. The long-term guidance will be shaped by instructional purpose with technical safeguards and mindful of the lived experiences of the people closest to the work, especially our students and educators. As we move forward with an instructional technology use steering committee, stakeholder feedback, and continued study, our goal [clears throat] is to develop clear, thoughtful guidance that helps ensure technology is used intentionally to enhance learning while preserving the human connection and highquality instruction at the center of our work. Joining me this evening is our director of learning achievement, Dr. Jill K. I don't know if you want to introduce the rest of your >> And joining me tonight is our assistant director of secondary education, Rachel Schmidt, and digital learning specialist for high school, Becky Fritz. Our presentation outcomes tonight. Um we want uh you as board members in the community to learn about our um key recommendations for responsible use of technology for the 2627 school year. [clears throat] Really, our short-term recommendations that we're going to start the school year with. and then learn about our high quality uh high quality core instructional framework and how technology uh plays into that space as we talk about instruction and pedigogy. And of course, we're going to provide uh a couple opportunities for uh processing and and feedback with you as a board. This timeline that you see here provides a highlevel overview of the work that we started since last spring and and Dr. how kind of uh [clears throat] um and as we get further into the presentation, we're going to provide a more detailed timeline around that long-term um study and recommendation that's coming. But essentially in the spring, uh we started with initial information gathering. So we had our board work session as Dr. Hy mentioned. Um we've had uh district tech advisory committees which several of our parents have been engaged with as well of providing information and input to us. Uh we've had parent meetings. We had a district listening session in the spring that focused on this topic around screen time and edit tech. Um, and as Dr. Hy mentioned, uh, we've been kind of reviewing through a variety of literature pieces, um, both through our research and, uh, from the parent groups that have shared with us as well. During the summer, we had an amazing uh core team of leaders uh representative of elementary through high school, but again, just core group of leaders um to really start processing through that information um and develop some uh short-term recommendations uh that we're going to discuss here further and then develop uh kind of the guiding change process that will guide our long-term recommendations and and put us in a position to really bring in teacher voice, student voice, and greater community voice as we look at um how we want to move our organization forward around technology. Uh in the fall, what you're going to see and we're going to discuss here real shortly is our short-term recommendations. Those are actions that we can implement um for the start of the school year and then that will set the stage for our long-term study and recommendations where we're bringing an instructional technology steering committee together um who will uh study current practices in alignment with high quality core instruction. So if you see HQCI that stands for high quality core instruction um and the role of technology within that space um as well as uh developed updated technology guidance. >> I think the only thing I would add to that is that really centering on the high quality core instruction and technology is a way to support and enhance that not [clears throat] as a way to replace that. I mean it's really [laughter] about the teacher in the classroom as the instructor. This is our guiding focus question which is overarching as we started to dig into this work around short-term and long-term um practices and it's uh the kind of the summary of this question is how do we ensure responsible use of technology for learning and we think about responsible use this is really uh for us defined by a commitment to the balance of evidence-based practice and human development. This question while simple in in reading it is very nuanced. Um at the core this is about instructional practice and pedigogy and the question is about how we appropriately align resources to support and enhance that technology is only highlighted because that is the resource under specific review and alignment to our instructional practice. As we start to dive into our short and long-term recommendations, I want to re-emphasize that this is a partnership between learning and achievement and technology. Learning and achievement is leading the work around the instructional practice in alignment with high quality core instruction. Technology is leading technical configuration of technology resources aligned and in support of instructional outcomes. The short-term recommendations for consideration is the start uh it's to start a tighter alignment uh to our desired instructional practices, limit distractions from learning and be mindful of the impact for the start of the school year. These recommendations are being considered recognizing we need more teacher, student, and family voices as part of a larger recommendations in order to understand impact and provide staff time for any possible transitions. This is where our long-term planning process will come into play. As [snorts] the summer work team came together, there were kind of three core areas that we focused on um kind of processing through information. Um one of the original uh pieces of information we reviewed is around the desired state of the digital learning for all in 2017. So we've had this arc around digital learning evolution. 2013 we launched uh our digital learning for all plan with onetoone technologies. In 2017 we had a significant reset of what that meant in our district and it really framed around these three core items. Purposeful technology use that enhances learning, consistent highquality learning experiences across classrooms and educators being confident in making intentional instructional decisions. And of course since 2017 a lot has changed. So we uh spent some time processing through our current reality. So 2020 we had the pandemic that had a significant shift in how we engage uh with technology and and learning and practices. Um we have this rapidly evolving digital and AI landscape. Uh in particular since 2020 we have growing opportunities for choices for technology use both within schools and out of schools that are impacting the lives of all of us. Uh we've got diverse stakeholder perspectives on technology and screen time. Um and we've got variations in implementation as our practices around uh technology in schools uh continues to mature. And the last uh component of information that we reviewed in working towards our short-term and designing the long-term process was really around that parent feedback. Now this is not comprehensive of everything that we've uh heard from families and ga gathered through stakeholders but there are four core themes that have emerged consistently um through our various stakeholder groups. uh to summarize it's really around minimize the minimization of distractions for learning limit uh the limit of social media YouTube and entertainment that uh doesn't necessarily have that connected instructional value and potential um uh for negative impacts and really this balance around non-tech options with technology in the learning space. What does balance look like and mean in in today's learning experience? um as well as training and professional development for educators. So if we really want to ensure um where and when technology is used appropriately that our educators are supported with effective training and resources to ensure that that they can be successful in our space. So I will just reiterate that these short-term recommendations were done by leaders without teacher input. And so it's a start and it is the starting point for the steering committee that Anthony and I will talk more about. The very first one is turning off K5 students ability to create Google sites. Uh what I learned is that you can create a Google site and it's a workaround for embedding games that may be otherwise blocked. And so by turning this students ability to create these off, they won't be able to do that on district devices. Uh the short-term recommendation again is only for elementary because what we know is that some secondary teachers have students create Google sites for portfolios or to other ways to demonstrate their learning. So in thinking about the steering committee, one of the uh early outcomes could be investigating to the extent that Google sites are being used at secondary and then making recommendations to uh potentially turn those off even next year during the school year. But again, bringing teachers together and finding out what has actually happened is really critical stuff step in partnership. Additionally at K5 turning off uh all uh AI including Gemini which is our Google tool uh that will be blocked uh for K5. Additional YouTube will be blocked K5 uh except for teachers will have access to it to broadcast videos in their classrooms and then on asynchronous or e-learning days they can embed educational approved clips into Seesaw. uh secondary students access again will be part of that larger conversation because we also have teachers who are making videos to support student learning alongside of their instruction. So maybe I didn't understand a concept, here's a video that a student can use at home to reinforce that. So understanding how those videos can be housed and students can access those videos seamlessly is something important for the steering committee to do. Um lastly, at the K5 level, we want to reiterate that we've had a lot of practices in place um already and some things will continue to clearly uh continue. And one of those is uh all of our student devices at the elementary level will continue to be uh cartbased and stay at school. They will only go home under limited circumstances such as e-learning days, asynchronous days, or very intentionally designed uh learning activities uh where they may need to go home. Um so that practice will be continuing at the K5 level >> and then at middle school looking at uh restricting AI to AI to only Gemini notebook LM and so in Gemini notebook LM it differentiates different differentiates itself from other AIS is that it doesn't search the wider web students have to plug in a resource in order for it to generate something. So I can plug in five resources that say explain to me uh my daughter's learning about the constitution the US constitution here are five resources and it can create a video or other things but I have to give them the resources. It won't search the internet for the resource. Uh and again that is AI something else that we need to continue to study with that larger group to find out what is the implications of it are for students at high school in particular our PSO students who use district devices to complete coursework that may require access to AI >> and I was going to jump in with middle school as well is to uh we even had suggestions or one of the questions were do middle schoolers need to have their Chromebooks with them all during the Okay. So, that's something we're going to be immediately looking at. I know we have K12 as well. It's kind of easy for us to do K5 and figure out K five quickly. So, for grades uh middle school, I just want to say um we may not be by June of something if we made that decision. It could be as quick as coming September, October. We just need input from our middle school teachers of how they're using it. So, I just want to put that in the s. >> Now, we think about uh K12 digital resources as a whole. Um we've got a lot we still need to unpack with a lot of stakeholders, but there are a few things that we can get started with right away for the fall. And one of them is uh blocking the remaining social media sites um on our K12 district devices. So, most social media has been blocked from student issues devices, but we've had a historical practice with accent Instagram being open because of athletics and student activities. It used to be a primary method that those groups would communicate back with students. But again, as our technology systems have evolved, um, our athletics and activities have different modalities that they communicate with students within clubs and activities that do not involve social media. They still market and advertise in social media, but it's not a communication platform uh for those student groups. Um, the other one is around tier three applications. We've got a lot to unpack in this space and what that means um with classroom instruction and design. Um so one of the things we wanted to be very cognizant of is um how do we ensure that we can grapple and get a handle on what's happening in that tier three application space but also out causing um significant disruption for the start of the school year. So we're putting in a moratorum on any new tier 3 applications. That's going to give us the time as we dig into the long-term study to uh get a good handle of what is happening in that space and process through uh what additional recommendations or practices we need to put in place um in alignment with with um what aligns best with curriculum instruction and our pedagogical practices. >> Could you clarify what a tier three tool is? >> Yes. So we have uh tools that are classified in three tiers. So a tier one application is the district provided curricular resource. So we adopt a curriculum resource and CTE. This is the um the 3D printer software that supports the curriculum and the application from a district level with what we're doing in that curricular space. Uh Google apps um are you know Windows email platform. And those are tier one applications that support core universal instruction operations of our system. Tier 2 applications are department or site specific. So a school site um who's working on a particular intervention with students. EXL is a common uh tier 2 application. The school site might purchase um as part of a resource or tool for the school site to use. Tier three is everything else. So, these are the tools that um usually are unique to different classrooms. Teachers will bring them in um uh to uh as they're looking at what tools might enhance what they're doing within that learning space. Um Prodigy and Epic are probably the two we've heard the most that teachers use. Those are tier three applications. Um so they go through they're not through the the the normal process of how we identify and ensure um tight curricular alignment with tier like tier one and tier 2 applications. >> Thank you. >> And then lastly as we talk about um parent and staff resources in particular we've heard a lot of requests from parents to have um greater ability to control student devices when they go home. Um so light speeded is our filtering tool that we use in our district and actually is a is a international industry standard within the filtering space both in private and public sector. Um and it's also got a large a large component uh within the K12 space to support what happens in in K12 schools. uh in January they released a new tool set that allows for a parent um it's called a parent portal but really a parent login so that they can go in and outside of school hours provide additional controls on those devices. Uh so we'll be launching this this fall with all parents. They can go in they can actually turn off the internet on that device. they can put in custom schedules of when the internet is on or off that device uh while they're outside of school as well as add in additional sites that they may want blocked. Um again, our district devices continue to be filtered regardless of where they are. This is an additional layer that parents will have um to provide some more controls while they're at home um with those devices uh in that space in addition to what the school army does within those devices. I'm thinking about supporting teachers in this. In 13 days when we welcome teachers back, uh we'll be launching some uh virtual professional learning on the recommendations here, our drafted AI guidance as well as reminders of our current guidance on the use of technology in classes, which includes not using it as a reward or during intervention time. So that will be some reinforcement training that we'll be doing starting in 13 days. So now we want to kind of pause and give you some time to process on these short-term recommendations. Again, we are going to next step talk into kind of some of that long-term recommendation process. We wanted to be very intentional on what we could bring in for the start of the school year um without causing significant disruption um to teaching and learning practices. Well, we can bring in greater stakeholder voice um to design those those long-term recommendations and make sure that we've got the runways needed for for any significant changes that that may come. So, the two guiding questions that we have is again what questions might you have about these recommendations? And you've asked some great ones already. Um and what other questions uh should we monitor as these recommendations are implemented? I um right off the bat just want to want to thank you all for the presentation um and all the work that's gone into this so far given um how important of a topic this is to the board and the community [snorts] um and um also listening um you know the legacy parent portal um you know we've been we've been talking about that we're around that for quite a while so um you know my kids are getting old now but I put a smile on my face So thank you for for all the work and I do have a ton of questions but I'll start with the rest of the board about that Thomas what you said how will the light speed portal how will that be communicated to parents is it ease of use about that and when will parents know about that? >> So I I will talk about um ease of use and I'm actually looking over at Ryan because Ryan was our big parent to go through the process. Um the tool is is very easy to use. Um it it is very tight. It's assigned to um the parent with education rights. So or parents. You might have multiple parents or guardians with education rights. And it's associated with their email on record. So you can't have other strange individuals get into that space. Um once they get in, it's a pretty userfriendly dashboard and you can to just quick toggle switches on and off inside that that platform. Um we are in the process of working on documentation and videos for parents um and communication um for parents um targeting to try and get all of that package by the end of next week so we can work on communication delivery plan for that week before school gets out. So the team is rapidly building those pieces out. So we don't have the full details on that but it it is it is in the works >> efforts to make it very user friendly. Good. >> Yeah. Um and then a lot of questions you know about YouTube and from the parent survey that that was a top concern. So for grades 6 through 12 is there going to be any limit or how are we help us understand kind of the clarifying around that. >> I think that is part of bringing that larger stakeholder team together to figure out what is being used what's currently being done and how can we still have teachers. So I've created a ton of videos for staff that are housed on YouTube because that's where it is that's where it's stored. So, how can we still have videos like that, but maybe not on YouTube? So, where can we store them? What's the protocol? What's the process? And how will we teach teachers how to do that? So, I think it's part of that working group that we're going to bring together to make that recommendation. And again, as I think about, you know, there's Google sites and then there's YouTube. I think those are the two top priorities that we'll start the year off with. >> And then once again, director mentioned, we'll be looking through 6 through 12 with emphasis on speedier for six >> through. That's right. >> Yeah. And there's some technical configurations we've got to process through in that YouTube side. [clears throat] Um, you know, just pulling videos out and storing them somewhere else. We've got individual teachers with terabytes worth of video content that they created. >> So, that's not something we can necessarily take and pull and stick on the server because of the cost implications with that and even space. So, um, those are part of the things we need to unpack with teachers and then look at from a technical perspective of how do we achieve this in a way that that supports the system. And can you give us some kind of a timeline just to ensure you know parents that are you know taking time to address these concerns that the 6 through 12 that that would be addressed and re-evaluated um so we're not just having you know so much unsupervised. So I think there's a a couple of pieces. uh one is that you know getting school started and then getting bringing that group together which I can envision coming together in the middle be middle of September and coming up with those short-term what's what do we need to have [clears throat] answered and I know there's a plan to bring this group back in February but also are there things we can do with in collaboration with teachers in the meantime and so I don't have a a definitive date but um we're looking to see what else is possible in the in in the meantime like between now and January. >> But at this point, our goal is to come back with recommendations early February. >> Yep. >> Did you say I must have missed the meeting. Did you say teachers were engaged in this or not? >> No. >> We had staff. >> We had staff serves. >> So, how do we know this isn't going to impact them? So, one of our digital learning specialists who works for elementary, I you know, she is the primary contact for teachers when they want to do a project around using a Google site and there were no teachers who were using Google sites based off of her uh collaboration with them. >> K5 K5. >> Yeah. >> What I would say >> I just like I just get like you know like I like get a little disagree. I'm just saying like whoa. >> Yeah. >> And it's so close to the start of school. I think about is this going to impact our students who are relying on techn or some think any of this with IEPs, 504s, behavior management like I'm like ah like you and like when I hear that teachers haven't been engaged I get a little >> so I think assistive tech we sort of separated out assisted technology from regular technology use because those may be requirements of an IEP or a 504. So that is not included in these short-term recommendations. So if I have in my IEP that I can use uh Google to do XYZ that will remain. We're not going to take away a student. >> Do you feel like this is going to be like a shock to the teacher? >> I don't or >> we did go to the union. >> Yeah. So we did check with you on [clears throat] the short term before that. >> Okay. >> And of course we're going to listen to alter to do whatever. And then I think I might always my thing is I'm I I I think that you know we h you know there's a lot of interest in in in this like at board level for sure. I I still think that um there's 24 hours in a day and kids are students are with us for what seven six seven hours right >> and then what and I feel like the issue more is their personal devices too and having parents having some education around like I'm sure some parent I mean I literally just learned how to like control some things on my own kids stuff you know I don't know like I had no idea and I was like except when I look at their screen time and I'm like oh my god I'm like, you know, but I'm just I do think there is this like I just always I always like have like a little like kind of not red flag but just kind of like I'm just aware of there's so much on our schools and sometimes I think like what problem are we trying to solve and so I I appreciate this and I think it's kind of a bigger problem you know like I mean just screen time in general and I do think there should be like there or there's opportunities for continuity around um educa or offering a little bit more like parent education around what are some [cough and clears throat] of these recommendations um and um how do you kind of support that healthy use of technology and screen time because I don't think it >> sure the school can be one thing but it's I don't know you know what I mean there's still this like disconnect I think it's for a lot of families like I see some of the young parents here from the group and you're very engaged you know you you do research and not all the parents do, you know. So, I think that that's it's a huge um I think it's a disparity in our communities and I think, you know, um it's something that it's the onus is not on the education system. >> We can also at some point we'll talk about caregivers academy. But Kelsey, to your question, we wrestled with that question around teacher impact at the beginning of the year because we did not want to set up that teachers are coming back workshop week with five days and now they have to retool complete lesson. >> So um well while that doesn't mean that this these short-term recommendations aren't going to have an impact on some staff. Um, we're we're confident in being able to work with staff around these short-term recommendations to make them work successfully to start the school. And our digital learning specialists have been involved in this work. They were part of the summer team. So, they'll be the ones who are out there supporting teachers who may may need access to something that has been is part of the guidance and can help with a new strategy. >> Okay. I have one more wondering and you may not have answered this now but I'm curious of like when um when somebody goes to school if you have a teacher >> like what are they teaching now like are they teaching like is it like how to teach in a digital world or is it like let's go back to the teaching like writing curs books like what are they even teaching now they're writing >> it depends on the program right so I was with principles and teachers today and talked about how teacher prep programs are really about lesson planning still whether it's lesson planning in the digital world lesson planning on paper uh they haven't yet moved to even the science of reading right so how do we when we bring in new teachers so new teacher academy was today how do we talk about that and help them understand what it's like in AIO and so [clears throat] I think and to an's point it depends on where you go to college >> and I think there's sometimes just this a little bit of an assumption as you know a younger teacher comes out of college because they've been in the technology experience world that that will automatically translate into you can't use that in the Well, there needs to be some intentional training and professional development on what that actually looks like because your normal schoolwork technology use is not the same as how you would actually do something in the classroom for instruction. >> Thank you. >> Um I think the couple questions I had were just about the AI guidance at the high school level. I noticed that that's not there. Um, and I appreciate the slow and steady pace and thinking that this is a big ship to turn back as far as like um, what came out of co, it totally changed the pendulum. Um, but the AI is probably my biggest concern both as somebody who works in a private sector and understands that we're seeing the impact of students coming out and relying on AI um, and what that's done to their work product. Um, so that I it's not a very big question. It's a broad question. There's no pointed answer I'm really looking for, but um I think the AI use at the high school is still concerning. Um, and then the question around and it's more like a what's a like I understand we have the some basis for how it's recommended to be used. Have we done an audit on how it's actually like tech in general, not AI? an audit on how it's being used because there's very like the consistency is not there and I think that's what I I'm hoping we can eliminate spots where there's inconsistencies and so that each student gets the same offering and um and the same rich education that we are required to provide. So, um I think that's my major thought in terms of how we go forward. And then just around durations, timelines for like Dr. Hy already touched on timeline for what's next. Um cuz it feels urgent as a parent. >> Um just knowing our kids are going to go back to this soon. So, I think those are just the major takeaways from me. But I appreciate you guys taking the time to um really dig into this because I know it's a big big ask >> and your question and comment is you know exactly what's part of the long-term study as well as you know continue to unpack what the current reality is as we kind of reset what is the long-term guidance that needs to happen both on a an AI instructional and a technology configuration side. My last question was actually why didn't we do more kind of in the short term but then I also rephrased it to be is this what was able to be implemented and so I appreciate the thoughtfulness behind it and that there's um I know you guys put so much effort into this so I appreciate that >> I so one of the things that you all didn't include in this presentation that you often do is um data um especially around engagement Um and I was curious if you know even off the top of your head um how many parents were involved um in this process. So you mentioned um DT DTEK community conversations community survey um parent meetings um I'm trying to get a gauge on how many parents have already been involved in this conversation um and how much broader it needs to be. >> That's a that's a great question. um you know DTAC I'm looking at all the parents that are sitting in here at some point or another they were all at DTAC so we've had a core engagement with that when we think about surveys more survey had two questions around technology um so that had kind of broad community outreach um the community stakeholder survey parent stakeholder survey had questions specific to technology on that which had a broader um kind of outreach out there and then of course just participation in that um community conversation that we had had this spring. Um, but I I do think there's opportunity for greater community engagement to ensure that we've got wide representation across the system. >> Yeah, we haven't talked to Katie yet, but there'll definitely be larger stakeholder voice um because we're very good at that now. So, um so I think we need to have it out there and even um through social media. said we're trying to get this information on the input because we I believe I believe I know we need more stakeholder voicing just like we need you all's voice. >> I do as we kind of think about that and this might be newer for us but I feel like the lens of a parent is very different than the lens of an employer. Um, and one of my biggest concerns with all of this, um, and I appreciated you all moving slowly, particularly with our high school students, but, um, I think one of my biggest concerns is things are changing so rapidly that I don't want to pull back too much and our students aren't prepared for the workplace that is heavily rellyant on AI um, already. So, um, that's so that's my concern with all of this. um just kind of balancing this going forward. Um and I would love to have some sort of data point as to what our employers are expecting from, you know, their future future employees. So >> um so yeah, that's uh just kind of one thought for me. Um lastly, DTAC, we don't hear a lot about them. Can you give a breakdown of like who's involved? >> Yeah, I'm actually Ryan, thanks for being in the audience. I'm going to back on here for a bit because um with the restructuring over the last two years, Ryan has taken over the leadership of the district tech advisory committee, but it it is a community based comm uh committee, you know, both students, staff, um and parents, community members um that we meet four times a year and kind of market and advertise. Ryan, you got anything? >> Uh each year we uh I've been a part of it, which makes been there for 20 years, my third. um we kind of do a thematic approach and so first year we looked at um uh different structures around equity and technology. Uh this last year we looked at the theme was the driving K12 innovation framework that's done nationally. We took that at a more local level. Um and then Anthony and Gerald and I are reviewing uh theme concepts for this next year. We're probably right now we're leaning towards focusing on our our career operational planning and how we gain input and feedback from some key areas. But we we usually bring a topic for discussion and we pair that with an update from the district. For example, October um is cyber security awareness month and so uh Gerald and Anthony have presented information around what we do with cyber security and pair that with an input session and we'll do that four times throughout a cadence. So this last year we do have a a report document report that we drafted um as a committee and the committee had that uh the DTAC committee had that final kind of review and input and screen time and and potential use of technology as part of that that conversation. >> Thank you. >> I mean I kind of along those lines. Thank you. Um what Thomas asked about like engagement. I mean, I do um I do appreciate the intentionality and kind of the easing into this because I don't I just don't think we know the impact. >> Correct. And I think especially for families of color >> and I am like where we saw in co already like this disproportionality there and now we like switch gears again and I'm just like I'm highly hyperfocused on that piece in a district as diverse and as big as ours and I do not want people getting left behind >> and it is I need we have to have >> we have to have more voices in this conversation. We don't know what the impacts of it and we just do not you know and I think I think probably universally there's consensus of like yes like screen time technology we got to like slow pump the brakes but like what does that look like and I just don't want to add more barriers to people I don't or for families I don't I just am like I don't know like I just thank you for this piece I'll say that we can even do we can even do conferences code next to the teacher we can get. >> So we're actually getting information from individual school as well. So the first perspective >> yeah cuz when I think about it when you know I remember some kind of research and stuff that was talking about you know the kids that are actually doing better with tech are the ones that have their personal device at home that they see as like a toy that they're able to play with and do something that kind of stuff rather than the thing I submit my homework on. Um, so yeah, I I just kind of want to echo what's been said. I like the measured approach because I don't want to swing too far to the right and we're just, you know, kneecapping our kids and from a tech perspective. So, >> all right. >> Continuing on, >> you want to go do you want us to go through the framework or we can go right to the long term? >> Let's skip to the long term. >> Okay. So, you know, as we think about the long-term guidance, um, again, we've talked a lot about this, but we want to ensure that we have a lot of stakeholder input from across the system between staff, students, and families. And again, while our question focuses on technology as a resource being reviewed, the core of our conversations are around practice and pedigogy with high quality core instruction. Uh, as we dig deeper into our work around this, um, the continued partnership with LNA, uh, and the instructional technology team around aligning resources to practice um, will continue, um, in ways that best support and amplify our work moving forward. Um, so this is a little bit of a zoom in of of some of that guidance. And what we wanted to be uh nuanced with is as we're digging into this, there might be recommendations [cough and clears throat] that can come in prior to the start of next school year. Um, but but it's really a year-long study that has recommendations that will come into play by the start of next school year, [snorts] if not sooner, based on on what we learn in the conversations. >> Will be supported by data. So go ahead. >> Yes. >> Okay. Uh so we've already kind of talked about what has occurred over the summer. Um in the fall uh we'll be forming the instructional technology steering committee. Um that'll be a core team that will be digging into this route uh this work. They will be engaging with the stakeholders uh stakeholder data getting that feedback in uh to design and build out uh draft recommendations as well as build out um the guidance uh around our work with technology and instruction moving forward >> and including student voice. >> Yes. In the winter uh we're we're going to bring forward another uh an update on our recommendation at the February work session with kind of finalized draft guidance. Um, so while some of these things might not come into play until the 2728 school year, we want to be able to have kind of recommendations ready to go in draft form for you all to see in that winter time frame because then it also means we need to have time to prepare teachers, prepare technical configurations, and make any adjustments that that need to occur. So the course of the spring of next school year, we'll finalize that guidance and recommendations. And then over the summer, we'll continue to work through the implementation and prepare for possible uh training and professional development that needs to happen in the system um in preparation for for the fall. The slides that we're going to kind of jump through quickly um yeah are are really the high quality core instructional. It's the framework. So this is Jill can speak best to this, but this is the last three years what teachers have been framing instructional practice around. And I don't know if you want to get like a thousand foot summary. >> Thousand foot summary is there are four components and each component uh is you want to see technology enhance that component not replace a human in that component. And so you'll see on your on the slides design divided into pedagogical approaches and then the technical safeguards that support that pedagogical approach. And again the technical safeguards are just the short-term recommendations because we wanted to make sure that we had a wide range of stakeholders to talk about those implications. Um the big theme of these slides is really about balance, intentionality, and alignment. Uh and making sure that we have really clear uh desired results for those long-term recommendations and that there's the professional learning to support teachers when these results come out because we can have lots of great recommendations, but it's the learning for teachers and the ongoing coaching through our digital learning specialists and our instructional coaches and other staff. >> So, as uh Dr. kind goes into the desired results. This is really around the this isn't the actions that are going to happen, but the framing of the thinking as we engage in the work to to develop the next layer of recommendations. >> Yeah, I like to think of them as the the bumpers that you put up in a bowling alley when you are going bowling for the first time with little kids. These are the guardrails that are going to define the work of this long-term team. Uh and they're again balanced, intentionality, and alignment that we have clear expectations for technology use. we know the when, the where, the why, and the how for families, students, and our educators. Uh that we have consistent highquality learning experiences. Uh that it's intentional regardless of school grade or classroom. Uh and then balanced and intentional learning. That technology is adding value to our students experience in Ocio area schools while maintaining appropriate opportunities for the hands-on, the face-to-face uh and the non-digital activities. The other two desired results uh include uh what director Burks was speaking to that f ensuring that our students are future ready graduates that they have the skills for success college career life and collaboration communication creativity and critical thinking. And lastly the consistency align sustainable systems of support. How we can't put something in place if we can't support it ongoing with professional learning uh resources and other support that is needed. So, we do have another moment for pausing process, but I'm going to jump to just these next steps and then if there are any final questions, you can you can fire them away. Um, but just to kind of reiterate, we're going to be working on forming that technology use steering committee, which again is going to be a core team. It's going to be a smaller team to dig into the work and draft the stuff. Um, the guidance on the recommendations, but do that in partnership with stakeholder groups and information as they gather that and bring that in. um which leads into that gathering stakeholder feedback, preparing our long-term guidance and then again present uh at to the school board and at the 30-year review session. >> All right, >> thank you there. >> And so just real quick on the one-year calendar, um I'll put in my superintendent updated view. We do have of course room to add more topics. Um, retro being topically added activities up on that. The added activities fees are on there. Um, the healthcare clinic is on there. So, please share the information that you have. >> Yeah. And just so the full board knows, um, one of the requests, um, that I had was that we move the DPAC presentation to a work session. Um, so that it creates more opportunity for an actual conversation with them um, versus kind of the awkward formal discussion happens. So, >> um, hopefully you all are supportive of that, but that was my request to vote it down. All right. Um All right. So, we are not too far over. Um thank you staff. Um presentations today were all >> um yeah, meeting is adjourned at uh 8.3. >> We're recording. >> All right. At this time, the board will take a brief recess and then reconvene in the forum room for a closed session. The board will convene a closed session pursuant to Minnesota statute 13B.05 subdivision 3A to evaluate the performance of the superintendent. The first portion of the closed session that was noticed for labor negotiations with custodians, school nutrition, ESPs, OAPS, uh nurses, and Kittop instructors has been cancelled and will be rescheduled for next Tuesday, August 25th. Right, Cammy, we need to clean up quite