Good evening. Uh, this work session of the school board of Austin area schools is being held in the media center of Cedar Island Elementary School on Tuesday, April 7th, 2026. The work session is being audio recorded. The recording will be made available on 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, schoolboard member, >> Peter Leatherman. >> Kala, executive director of community relations. Erica Foster, school board member. >> John Morstead, executive director, finance and operations. >> Ivon Glenn, executive director of a park. >> Brian Seb, executive director. >> Ma, principal. >> Anthony Paris, executive director of technology. Jer, coordinator prek through 12 operations. >> Jill K, director of learning and achievement. >> Brian Ba, assistant superintendent for equity achievement in high schools. >> Sarah Mitchell, school board member. >> Uh, Keith T, school board. >> Kelsey Dawson, school board member. Andrew Moore, general counselor. Kim High, superintendent. >> And hi, 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 and regular board meetings. Dr. Hy, will you please show your check? >> Great. Thank you, Vice Chair Brooks, chair Prince, and board members. We're thrilled today to be at Cedar Island. He was kind of volunttoaded, but he let us come. So, we want to um Yeah, I'm going to introduce elementary principal Alex Bird, who is the proud principal at this site, and they all expand. >> Uh well, thank you. Um thanks for being here. Welcome to Cedar Island. It's good to see all of you. A couple of housekeeping things. First of all, um when you entered and came down the hallway, if you're ever looking for adultsiz bathrooms on your right, um those I also wanted to point out the decorations here on the tables. Uh, and then these cards and then these flowers behind you. Our Kids Stop students um who told me they couldn't be in here today. They normally are. Uh, instead of being uh bitter, they decided to make you all right. So, you're welcome to take take some of those with you if you like. Um, and I also just will shout out the fact we're in our our newish media center. Uh, this was completed in the fall. Um, I joke sort of that that before this it felt like walking through a time machine coming out in like 1980. It was supposed that day. Uh, so it's really nice. If you don't know the before, trust me. Did you know the before your kids here, didn't you? Yes. Okay. So, you maybe saw it. It was uh it was a much needed u upgrade. And so, it's it's been great uh doing things with you, different activities, and it's cool to be able to host groups like you. So, again, welcome. Thank you. Um, so, uh, I thought a lot about how to sort of encapsulate all things, uh, Cedar Island in under 10 minutes. And I will stay under 10 minutes, Dr. I will not be the reason to that. Uh, but the two the two biggest story lines here from like an overarching level this year, systemic level would really be well, special ed programming and funding, which I had a chance to talk about last month, so I will leave it there. Um but the other thing is the boundary changes which we saw are on uh the agenda as well tonight. Um Cedar Island is poised to lose just over a 100 students uh which is about a quarter of all students and 24. So um and that that comes along with equivalent declines in in staffing uh and then also the families families of students. So it is a um it's a really significant impact here. I know that varies from school to school. Um, and and if I was totally honest, I would say it's it's been a bit of a cloud over things for the last year when we first found out this change was coming. Uh, however necessary it might be, uh, it still has a real impact here. Um, and you know, that's just the reality, I think, of what we've been navigating. I think the closer we get to the end of the year, things are feeling more real. Uh, we're working on transition plans for students to go to their new schools and that sort of thing. Starting to put names and faces with those losses and it's been challenging. However, in thinking about it, um I want to be real and honest about that, but I also think it would be a shame if if you all left here tonight thinking that things at Cedar Island are all doom and gloom because they're not not far from it, in fact. And I think it's really a testament to the community here uh and the way that staff and students uh support each other. And I guess that's what I really want to talk about. And then I thought better than talk, better than listening to me ramble on for four to five minutes about that, I thought I would show you. So I'm going to play a video uh for you here in a second. This is a video. We call these Monday morning news. We show these every Monday. I work on it throughout the week. Um and uh this this one in particular, this is video number 30 of the year. So this is not just like some showy thing. I create a just to put on a performance. It's a video 30. I'll do a YouTube channel if you want. Um, and the kids, the responses you've seen, those are all there's no plan, no stage of anything. They, this is truly how they responded in the moment. Um, but I wanted to show it because I think it highlights the emphasis that that we put on creating a culture uh, community here that is welcoming, that is safe uh, and where everybody, I mean, everybody feels valued. More than that, uh, it allows us to elevate the voices of students, really give them a chance to kind of showcase their thoughts, the talents, their gifts, and that sort of thing. So, uh, I'm going to hit play. Full disclosure, I don't know what the sound is going to do. It might be deafening. I don't know, but we'll find out. So, this is Monday morning news. Hello. And to our esteemed guests, welcome to Cedar Island. Now, normally during this part of the video, I would share important announcements, announce birthdays, and talk about what's for lunch. But I don't know if it's your birthday and you're probably not eating lunch with us. So, let's just get right into the video. >> What's the most expensive fish? >> What? >> A gold fish. >> Why can't Cinderella play soccer? >> Because she always runs away from the ball. What do you call a tomato that's losing a race? >> What? >> Ketchup. >> My talent is harder rescued in under 15 seconds throwing a race Bob. Ready, set, go. >> Oh, wow. How'd you do, Bobcat? Let's see. Not quite. >> What's your favorite thing about being a Cedar Island Bobcat? >> Um, I like how we learn as a community. >> All the nice teachers. like how they have a lot of contest and I like their kindness. >> Playing with my friends and doing math. >> I like uh playing a gym and playing outside. >> I make friends and everybody here is nice to me and it makes me feel happy. >> Love being a part of this team. I feel seen. I feel heard and I feel valued here. >> Love how everyone's so nice to me and that I learn a lot. Go Bobcats. all of the staff here, the teachers, the office staff, everybody's amazing. And the new Bobcat best assembly that makes everyone excited about being a Bobcat. >> Um, I like being able to make a lot of friends. >> The best thing about Sed Island is the custodians and that it's really clean. >> Going to speech. >> I feel here at Cedar Island, everybody belongs. We're a big family here. Everybody takes care of everybody in the school. They're all of our students and we really appreciate them every day. >> Goodbye. >> I love being with my friends at school. >> I like how the teachers are nice and respectful. >> My favorite thing about Cedar Island are the students and hanging out with them at recess. Ready? >> Go box. >> Go box. For our Bobcat best this week, I want to put the spotlight on our fourth grade students who last week engaged in a really cool activity in which they created their very own books. And I do mean created from scratch. They wrote them and edited them. Uh they created the design and the cover art. They gave it a title. And then on Thursday, uh, they met at Starbucks, uh, for a bit of a book taste. They were able to read their books aloud to their groups. Um, and from what I saw, it was really fun. The books were creative and thoughtful and really well done. And so, I want to say, uh, kudos to fourth grade. Well done. And with that, I want to say have a great week, everyone. And of course, Okay, so that's Monday morning news. Like I said, every week we do one of those. Uh, and I hope it just gives you a little bit of a a flavor kind of what we're about. And in spite of some of the challenges that us and other other schools are facing, um, it really we have stayed united and moving forward and positive uh, and supportive with each other. So, um, I want to thank you again for being here. We're not a huge school. Uh so we really do appreciate the opportunity to be heard from uh and visit anytime. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next we're going to have K Dilla um director community relations. You want to introduce our guests? >> Yep. Superintendent Chair Prince and Vice Chair Brooks, members of the board, cabinet members. Um with us today is Peter Leatherman. Um the great Peter Leatherman. He is from the Morris Leatherman company. Um and he um you might recall um the most recent surveys that um we've done with um Morris Leatherman Company were in 2022 in 2023 and that were those were both for our referendum. So this is a very much um a community survey to kind of gauge where things are at overall um throughout our school district. So without further ado, I'm going to turn it over to Peter. >> All right. It's a pleasure. This isn't After 32 years, I think I've done over a thousand more things. I think this is the only time the only district that goes from the school district to their building to building. That's really cool. It really is inde um so it's a pleasure to be here with you and um I have really really good news um about how the community is feeling about the school district. Okay. Uh to review with everybody what we did, we spoke with 500 random or 400 randomly selected uh uh residents across the district. Um and then within that 400, it's approximately 30% that have kids. So I pull those out and we call an additional roughly 280. Put that together. So then we have a representative sample of 400 of parents. So we can do an apples to oranges comparison on differences and attitudes between the community as a whole and parents. Interviews were conducted in January the 7th through the 23rd. Average interview time was 14 minutes. Non response rate was 6.5%. Both samples 400 sample is projectable to plus or minus 5% in 95 out of 100 cases. The margin of error is determined by the size of the sample not the percent of the population. So, a 400 in the district, a 400 in Henipin County, or 400 across the state of Minnesota is always going to be plus or minus 5%. Uh, putting up some demographics, uh, cell phone only households, 69%. Still got them 11% landline only households, my parents, they exist. Um, and then both landline and cell phones at 20%. Um I don't know if you're pushing the button push down. Okay, for the purpose of the presentation, the blue is going to represent overall. The green is going to represent parents. So if we look at the blue bars for overall, how long have they been in the community? Obviously had a lot of growth. Onethird of the people have been in the district for less than 10 years. Uh 41% have been in the district for over 21 years. The typical residents been in the district for about 12 years. Amongst parents, the majority have been here for less than 10 years. 51%. Now, 11% of the community has a preschooler or an infant. 32% have a child and 66% are empty nesters. Empty neester does not imply an age. It's just lack of presence of a child. So, if there's a 27y old in here, um, if they don't have a kid, they're classified as an empty neester. So your key constituency is about a third of the community amongst parents. Obviously there's no empty nesters 100% but 25% of current parents indicate that they have the next generation coming in uh to the schools in the future. Uh the age uh 20% are 18 to 34 year olds. Uh 19% are over the age of 65. typical residents about 47 years old while the typical parents about 37 years old. Uh the ethnicity the the just the parents it's much more diverse the community as a whole. So in the community 56% are white, African-American 21% AsianPacific Islander 11% 6% indicate a multibracial Hispanic Latino and then 1% Native American. Amongst uh parents 40% are white, 26% African-American, 16% AsianPacific Islander, 8% multi-racial, 10% Hispanic Latino, and 1% American. uh women outnumbered men uh by 7% in the main sample by 16% in the parent sample and you can see the geographic distribution. Maple Grove 50% uh Brooklyn Park 32, Clement 8, Brooklyn Center 6 and the rest the remaining areas of the district are 5%. Any questions on methodology or demographics before we go into the results? All right. Survey says, "What's the what what factor did public education play when they made the decision to move in to their to their current residents?" For the community as a whole, keep in mind 32% of parents in the community. 24% said a lot, 24% said some. So, the district was a factor in their decision for almost half the community. Amongst parents, it's almost 80% indicating that the Ocio Area School District will play the role in their decision to move into the district. What's the reputation of the district? Um, both uh samples, it's over a majority statement, 52% and 56%. Um, those that have heard me talk before, motans, everything's good. It's very hard to get Minnesota to say things are excellent. They were just not enthusiastic like that. If you follow up with the good and ask them what would make it excellent, almost a third of them will say nothing. Good is good enough. It's just that. But what is interesting is you have one in five and almost 30% of parents saying it's excellent already. This is not prompted. uh 16 and 10% say average, 3% say uh large two% amongst parents and then uh responses uh make up what we see scattered on the quality of public schools. Now since the pandemic I only look forward from 2020 we're not going to go back and look at results in 2019 or before. It's an apples and oranges comparison on what's changed in attitudes and opinions about public education about everything. Um but but public education specifically. So what do we see? Uh the blue bar the overall you have you're at 85% rating quality uh favorably. You have 14% rating it only fair. Amongst parents it's 93% rating it favorably. Now before the pandemic it was typically the norm was about 90%. Um I just shared statewide the superintendent so I'm with MSPA group um where the quality of education now for the excellent to good is in the mid70s across Minnesota. Um so this compares very favorably. Also the excellent rating here is down to about 11% across the state of Minnesota in 2026. So that's almost two times what we're seeing. You don't have the shift that some districts have had now where people have gone from good to only fair. And that's going to be difficult because that actually is a conversion process. You have to change somebody's mind if they think something's unfavorable to get them to favorable. Um you're in the you're in a position that moving forward you don't have to change people's minds. You have to make them more enthusiastic about what's happening in the schools. Move them from good to excellent. That's much easier to do than converting from unfavorable to favor. Now, what do they like most? This is open-ended. They can tell us anything and we collapse them down into categories. For the community, it's good teachers, community involvement, and then we're going to combine a couple of categories. Good good education, high quality education is 21%. Variety of programs and broad curriculum is 22 uh 22%. So you have a statistical tie in the three major areas people point to. They'll point to who's teaching, what they're teaching, and the quality of your teaching. Now some different some districts are, you know, to your to yourself, it's a program. It's the academic quality. Other districts it's curriculum, others it's teachers. You have a statistical tie. But you do have an anomaly here that we don't see in the metro area. It's actually outstate Minnesota with the community involvement, the sense of community that the school district considering that your size that's amazing. I mean that's normally in the metro area if that goes over 5%. Um that's no you're 3x that amongst parents it's the teachers 30%. If we combine the some of those categories though good education high quality education it's 20% for parents variety programs and curriculum it's 20%. Um so your your your parents set a prioritization on the teachers the community all three are important but you do have this factor with one and six and one and seven pointing to the sense of community that the school districts create. Now if we ask what the like most we always follow up with the most serious issue. Um this this is kind of the first surprising result. You're the only district that doesn't have lack of funding above 25% in 2026. Um that used last year it was between 20 and 25%. In 2026 now it's between 25 and 30%. It still ties for number one at 15%. Um amongst parents it's 17% but the class size issue um and this varies from district to district uh depending on growth and everything. Um it is more pronounced here. Uh 15% of the community, one in five of parents. Uh budget cuts uh 10% in each. Lack of discipline that's typically right at about 10%. You're you're very low on the issue in Minnesota right now, which is taxes. As a top of the mind response right now, that is between 15 and 20%. only 8% of your community brings it up as the most serious issue right now. Declining quality is typically somewhere between 5 and 10%. Uh if we go down to the bottom though, there's a difference between unsure and nothing. Unsure is I have no idea. Nothing is, and this will be a surprise for you, there are no problems in the district. This is utopia. Um the 15% is about twice as high as we're seeing now. It's actually kind of what it was pre- pandemic. Uh what we found post pandemic is everybody finds more things to be upset about. Um so they're less likely to say nothing. So you do have a large larger booster score than the typical district amongst parents is one and five. What do they recommend to improve qual uh the the quality of education? Uh smaller class sizes. Now, on this one, I always put the cave in. Smaller class sizes means different things to everybody around the table from what your perspective was, where you grew up, where what your kids had, everything like that. We didn't test like we have in past surveys here where we go in and tell folks, here's the average class size, too high, too low, about the right amount. So, this is just their perception at this point in time. uh better spending back to the basics and better discipline all >> can you speak to you you've done a brilliant job of of sprinkling in comparisons to the state >> might you be able to do that with uh those top three >> the top the the top three the smaller classes we're going to normalize it across the state large class sizes aren't the issue uh that we see it's much more it's about either the better spending getting more spending the better discipline and then go back to the basics the the concern the the declining quality which is driven that we saw in the state by by test scores uh and what people receive. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> And feel free there's a lot of slides. You have any questions feel free. >> Okay. We know how they feel about the quality of education. 85% rated favor. Thinking about the quality 5 years ago, moving forward from the pandemic, 45% say it's better, 3% say it's worse. A 15:1 ratio. Right now in Minnesota, that is a 3:1 ratio. Um, so you have a tremendous feeling that even if they have concerns, things are moving in the right direction. Amongst parents, it's 50 to three. You can see back in 2022, we're only 18 months into the pandemic, it was a 3:1 ratio event. So, it is growing the the the feeling of it improving quality. What about quality compared to neighbors? This I think I mentioned the superintendent. There is there is something with your location and I was in Centennial West last you have a milk ahead to your north you have Robin to your south um there is something to be said of they're hearing the problems elsewhere and they're not hearing it here um and so the quality compared to neighboring districts look at it in 2022 it was 2:1 now it's 9 to1 Amongst parents it's 10 to one saying the quality is better compared to the neighbors. Did you ask what they considered neighboring districts when you asked that question? Quality compared to charter schools amongst parents 44 to five amongst or amongst the community 44 to 5 amongst parents 50 to2 say the quality is better here than the charter schools and even compared to private schools and homeschooling the community thinks there's a competitive advantage for the OIO school districts it's narrower 2 to1 basically Um but that is atypical. Uh typically when we ask this people when you throw in private schools people will say that the private schools are better. Um but amongst parents it's three of them better. Now we saw that the programming and the curriculum tied for what they like most. So how did they rate the district? It offers a wide range of educational opportunities. This is important to people. Uh 91% rated favorably amongst the community 93%. This goes in then to why they feel good about the district because what's important to them is being provided to them. What's the most important indicator of a high quality of educa a high quality education? We give them this list and they pick what's the most important indicator for the community. It's the broad curriculum, its graduation rate, it's safety and security and graduates going on for further education time. Uh then its test scores. Um you can see class sizes are the theme earlier on. But as an indicator for the quality of education, it's only 7% and 8% pointing to that as an indicator of highquality education, awards of excellence, state-of-the-art technology, reducing the achievement gap, up-to-date facilities, and high quality environments. Uh for parents, it's the broad curriculum and the safety and security. How does the district do on meeting the learning needs of all students? most, only some or very few. Uh, in 2026, 49% say all the norm on this right now is 40%. This has dropped post pandemic because it's a stringent standard to say all students learning needs are being met. Amongst parents, a flat majority, 54% say all students learning needs are being met. Now, we follow up with the most, some, and very few and ask what type of students learning needs are not being met. It's the struggling student, the average special income, low income, and at risk. Keep in mind those percentages are of the uh 50% following up with it. So, it's not 28%. It's actually going to be 14% of the community saying struggle. But overall, the takeaway is you have more people saying all student learning needs are being met than across the state. Have they personally graduated from the AIA school district? Uh just short of one in five have. Do they believe that their education prepared prepared them for success after graduation? 97 to three. Not going to be able to do much better than that. Did they have a child graduate from the OIO area school district? Over a quarter said they have so far 96.4. four. This one when we follow up is typically 80 to 85%. Uh of parents and especially the more recent graduates, they're kind of frustrated with how the kids are doing college. So going through a series and this is going to be the overall first. Do you rate the district favorably or unfavorably? Uh good year for sports. Sports is typically at the top in Minnesota. I'll say sadly. uh 93% afterchool activities 91%. Regular academics 89 buildings and facilities 86 music program they're not they're not going to add up to 100 because you're going to have people say I don't know uh music program CTE programs the theater program visual arts world language gifted and talented and special education if we normalize this which means take out the unsure and those that have an opinion what's their mean rating the rating comes in at about 84% which is about five points higher than the bet profit across Minnesota. Now districts will have different list but if I just normalize when they go through characteristics it's about five points higher. Now how are parents going through the same list? Uh even happier athletics 94 after school 93 the music program 93 regular academics 92. Um once again the parents basically follow and mirror the community as a whole but they are about three points more positive than the some specific perceptions and this some of these results are amazing. Uh first off do they trust the district to do what's right for children? 91% agree with that statement. 94%. >> Did you want to say that again? >> In the most recent state in the most recent statewide, the trust issue we it was at 73 or 74%. It's almost 20 points higher. Um, how does the district do involving the community? These two questions along with if you were having a referendum, we'd ask you spend taxpayers money effectively and efficiently. These three questions we've isolated in the database that if a person agrees with all three of these questions, they will support a funding request at an 85% level. They are foundational. The financial stewardship, the trust to do what's right for the children, and you listen to them. overall involving the community 91%. The norm on that is 75%. We just had recovered to where we were uh pre- pandemic to 75%. In 202122 we got down into the low 60s because it was hard. We wouldn't be like this in 2021 and 222. uh and amongst parents 94%. and and and motans always have a difficult time uh um making a distinction between can you have a say or did you get your way uh because I guarantee you 91% of people you involved did not get what they wanted or the answer they expected or anything like that but at least they had the ability to does the district provide a safe and secure learning environment that's up eight points from 2023 3 to 96%. Parents 97%. Are they proud and would recommend the schools up six points to 90% 95% of parents? We added the herd in value. Uh this time we did not ask this in 23 87 and 94%. Job performance ratings. Um, the school board is 25 points higher than the department. >> Did you guys want to say that again? >> Say it again. >> 60%. The administration is 82-6. It's better than a 5:1 ratio. the administration they do a ratio because they have more uncertainty when you talk about the superintendent um the norm is a 2:1 ratio. Okay. This also shows me even amongst parents 89 and 87 that people don't see a difference between the governance and the administration. It's like a hand in the glove. the dysfunctional school districts, the board will be here, the administration will be here, or vice versa. The people know the tension. Um, they just view you as one entity here. Now, the closer you get to kids, um, ethnically goes up, the teachers very well, 91%. That's about 10 points higher than the normal. teachers have not overall in Minnesota the pandemic took a toll on everybody. The attitudes of teachers went down about 10 points and that's probably a lot nothing to do with what happened here. The strike in Minneapolis impacted people's perceptions in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Um, so the 91% is about 10 points higher. And then the principles they obviously saw in your uh your video 82 82 and 16 overall assessment of financial advantage 72% favorable amongst parents 79% favorable the norm on this and it's been the norm for about 10 years is 52%. it doesn't change. Um, so you do have that financial trust in the district. Also, I honestly wish you were going for a funding request. This would be the easiest pass bond funds responsibly. Absolutely. In light of the funding requests that have been passed, 82% and 89%. And that is also something that to put in here is districts burn political capital when they go up for funding requests. So we typically see some drops here. We're not seeing those drops at all. So the value proposition when they think about the quality of education and the taxes they pay, how did they rate that value? Now, we know in Minnesota the number one issue is property taxes. So, this the value proposition has two things going into it. What am I paying and what's the quality? And how do I rate that? 80% favorable, 85% favorable amongst parents. The norm on this right now is down to about 60%. Because the worst thing is I think the quality is declining and my taxes are going up. Then secondarily you can have okay the quality is fine but my taxes are going up. Um so this is really taken a hit because of both of those things. It has not impacted. Is the district adequately funded? Um nobody knows. Um unless unless you're doing budget cuts, and even if you are doing budget cuts, uh then there's questions of you're not doing budget cuts, like your neighbors are closing schools or what have you. Um we're back to where we were back in the 1020 days where nobody knows. 50% say yes, 44% say no. Amongst parents, 44% say you're adequately funded. A majority of parents say no. the boundary change process. How well informed did they feel about the boundary change processing? Keep in mind 32% had kids for the overall 61% uh felt well informed. Um on a if bond referendum or an operating levy, you you'll have 60% that are aware there's an election the next day. So overall, you're never going to have 100% that are well informed about any process or election. That's a strong result. But the key constituency, 84% felt well informed. What about the opportunity to share their opinion? Once again, the involvement piece. 59% said yes. 34% said no. But amongst parents 81 only 17% said no. And now this is where I say differentiating between having to say and having your way. You had more than probably 17% of parents that did not get the result that they wanted but at least they had their ability to share their opinion. All right. New session the importance of the strategic priorities. We went through and asked is it very important, somewhat important, not too important or not at all important. Well, the first thing is is everything's important. Um, I didn't even bother to put the not to or not at all because the lowest, if we just look at the very somewhat the lowest level of importance is 93%. >> If we look at intensity, it creates a two-tier hierarchy. Safe, welcoming, and inclusive. 73% say that's very important. Then the other six, it's a statistical tie, but they get very important. So they're all important, but if one thing's the most important, it's the self-welcoming inclusive environment. What about for parents? I'm sorry, but we're going to look. Okay, this is the importance. How do they rate the job the OIO school district is doing on that partial? Now the number one thing was the safe welcoming inclusive environment 92 to8. If you look at this the lowest level you have the culture of achievement 81 to 15. Um on this the goal is you're not going to change necessarily move this up higher the ratings. If you look and I didn't separate out the excellent and the good. It's going to be building the enthusiasm for how people rate the district on these. Keeping in mind they're all important. Now amongst parents, it's almost familiar to the community, but more intensity on the very important. Uh actually the lowest couple we have 97% all the way up to uh well 100% said timely relevant communication said it's either very or somewhat important but the safe welcoming and inclusive almost eight out of 10 parents said that is very important. So how do parents view the district on doing on these uh strategic priorities? Even stronger uh the safe welcoming the number one 95% overall uh communication rate it was 84% 90% rated the norm on this right now is 70%. So on this one, I'm always curious when you have results, how now this is self uh you're reporting self-reporting yourself on how important you feel. Um but they have high levels of favorability and they have high levels of information. Sometimes more information doesn't necessarily breed favorability. It can breed contempt. Um but it's not the case here amongst parents. It's 94-6. How informed do they feel? 79% of the community feel either very or somewhat informed. Uh 96% of parents with a flat majority say it was very informed. Is information clear and easy to understand? Absolutely. 93 and 97%. What is their primary source of information? District mailings for the community, the website, social media, word of mouth, local newspaper, and then email for the community. Um what we have seen as local newspapers have either disappeared from communities or they don't cover school districts or city government like they used to um is the growth of the grape. There there are metro area school districts where the number one source of information is the grade one because they don't do mailings and people that used to read the newspaper over 55 year olds especially men they're not going to go on social media they're not going to go to the website they're just going to get together and gossip. Um so you do have by having strong district communications it's kind of an insurance policy against that local degree. Now for parents they're more focused on electronic the website they still rely on district mailings but then you and email it really post pandemic it's set in it's you know parents lived and died with it dayto day uh in 2021 to see if the kid's going to be in school um and it remains a strong source of information how do they prefer to receive information this one I always say look at print versus electronic. 34% say mailings, 10% say the local newspaper. So, you have 44% that want to hold something in their hands. Uh, how many people want to push a button on a computer? 23% website, 12% local uh newspaper, 8% email. Um, so it's 43%. It's a top. Uh, you do have one of 10 and this is very small town. Uh, say I actually prefer milk. That's how I like it. um that's not metro area. Even those that the primary source of information is the grape vine don't want it to be the grape vine. Uh for parents it's for publish it it's mostly electronic. The website, email, social media is a flat majority at 54%. Going through and asking folks is it a major source of information, minor source or not a source of information at all? Well, now people are honest about the grade. Um, and so it goes to the top. It ties for district mailings with impact at 39%. Uh, for reach is at 84%, district mailings at 79%. And then all the others are just in kind of narrow silos of you know you have kids if it's teachers and staff uh text email messages it's going to be parents social media you watch the CCX news you read the script u so very it's the top two it's the grave and for parents teachers and staff are really really important in school 92% % read with seven out of 10 saying it's a major source of information about what's going on in the schools. Uh the parents text me text uh and email messages, the email newsletter, district website, but the parents friends and neighbors gets to 90%. It just doesn't have the intense the major the mailings still impact social media building newsletters will have a greater impact amongst this group also. And then at the end we went through and asked a series of statements of just parents. Ask them to agree or disagree with these statements. And we can go through the list. Teachers and staff care is rounded. That's why it's 101%. 100%. Emotionally safe environment 98%. Physically safe environment 95%. Positive representation of identity, 96%. Someone that could provide help when needed, 97%. Do parents feel welcome? 100%. 98% feel respected. 99% feel accepted. 94% say that the teachers challenge their child. 96% say the district the school communicates regularly. 98% say the school does a good job of informing. 97% said the dis the school has a good leadership team. 96% meet the individual learning needs and they provide a high quality education. 99% this is the one the individual learning needs that has been kind of accordion map for school districts because it is a way to overcome the perception of large class sizes is make the kids feel like an individual. on this one. The norm of her parents right now is in the Philippines technology. Finally, how important is technology for parents? 46% say absolutely essential, 40% say very important, 13% say somewhat, and 1% say not too or not important. the absolutely essential is higher than what we're finding across the state. Um if the community as a whole where we're finding it absolutely essential at it's it's down into about the high 20s uh low 30s is absolutely essential. Uh 10 years ago that was 60 to 65% in the absolutely essential. Um there's been a sea change for those that have heard me talk at all the accurate education acronyms. This is an issue education has to take on. This goes back to 25 years ago. Um when people got after Y2K, everybody got really scared about technology and it dropped and then education reintroduced technology to the public. And keep in mind um you know some a superintendent asked me so I put it in the segment. How many what percent of the district has ever been in the school building? Uh in the statewide 45% had never been in the school. Uh 25 years ago when they they would bring in senior groups in a classroom and show them what a whiteboard was. I mean if you ever been in a building uh 45% you still think there's chalkboards and erasers. Um and and show them what technology is. And I think it's time again because part of this perception is the concern of screen. >> Could I ask you a quick question? Sorry to interrupt. Did you um qualify what is technology? Like does it include just smart screens or smartboards or is it hearing devices? >> Broad perception. How important is technology to student learn? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Uh because the concern is our screen time and when kids you know when everybody sees a kid I see my kids on staring at their iPad or either doing YouTube or watching or playing Roblox. Um they people don't know that that's what the tactics are. This reintroduction can help uh overcome some of the concerns that people have on technology, but it does impact like districts like Mountains View last year and Roseville uh they had 25 and 27% of the essential category and they never talked about technology. it was capital projects because when you have something absolutely essential versus very important, it's a nice to have versus a have to have. Um, and so part of it really is getting people to understand how technology is used in the classroom. It's just not good experience. How do how do parents prefer to receive information? Electronic. only one and eight on any person telephone call. 55% send me an email. 33% say send me a text message. And then finally for parents, what is the most important factor when they're selecting the school? Open-ended. It's the quality of the teaching staff. It's the academic quality. It's the safety and security. Their concern is class sizes but it's very low as the primary factor our most important factor is to selecting a school. It's the teachers good quality and is the child sess overall then um you know just outstanding across the board. Um quite frankly uh very surprised with everything that I see how positive things were and like I said it's too bad you're not going for an operating led referendum um because these are extraordin out there with the atmospheric and part of it is when you go through those strategic uh priorities those priorities represent excuse me the values that the community and parents have and then you also are doing a good job of meeting those values that they have. So I'd be happy to answer any questions you have as soon as I recover my board members any questions >> just uh for clarification. So when you talk about the random sample of parents um when I look at the demographics um within the parent group we have the majority families it looks like of color. >> Yes. >> And so when you look at that 400 random sample of parents that representative of the those demographics. >> Yeah. I think they lined up pretty well with the the ethnic uh ethnicity categories from the district. Yeah. Within the plus or minus 5%. Do we have the cut of that data if we wanted to understand if perceptions were different within >> Absolutely. >> Yep. >> Did any Did you happen to look at that? >> I No, I've not run I can run cross tabs on any of those demographics. Just as long as we have large enough cell sizes like when you get down to 5% it's 20 people. Um, so you're going to definitely have large enough cell size of white AfricanAmerican. Um, and then the others perhaps collapsed down. You want a cell size of 80 or more to look at run t test to do statistically significant differences. But we can do homeowners versus renters anything. Well, this is great. Oh, it looks great. >> Well, and it is a testament to the hard work since the last time that we did this. There's a lot of people here who have either grown more into their roles, moved up in leadership. Um, our superintendent is new since the last time. Our board has put a lot of work into working collaboratively and um and I I think it's a testament to the hard work of the district and all the communication stuff. K. So um this is good news, but it's also I think the result of intention um with the work that we do and the communication and the engagement. >> Great. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you all. Thank you. >> Remember all the positive things you said in a couple weeks. >> All right. So, uh, thank thank you again, Peter. Uh, so we'll go on to our next um area here, vision card C and D. So, uh, Dr. Bass, you want to introduce your presenters? >> This is going to stretch my arms out for a second. >> I know. Time. All right. Was it me? It's your ride. >> All right. All right. That's happening. All right. So, thank you, Dr. Hy, uh, Chair Prince, Vice Chair Brooks, uh, members of the board, cabinet members. Uh this is that time of year where we begin sharing out our progress um uh towards the um strategic directions that have been set by the board. So uh we're not in per se order from left to right as we read our strategic priorities document. We are in CN D. Uh and so we'll get into that. Joining me this evening um is uh Dr. Joe Kind our director of learning and achievement uh K BLA and Ivon Schwarz Lynn. So our outcomes this evening is to share our progress on those two strategic directions and then also um I think it's it's uh it's so fitting that Peter uh talked about the confidence in our strategic priorities that the community has expressed and what are we talking about in the second outcome? We're talking about enhanced alignment uh across our system between the priorities, our strategies and the measures that show both implementation fidelity and the impact that these efforts are making across the system. So excited to continue to share this information with you. Um our vision cards are a part of the puzzle. So we have our uh vision, mission, values, and strategic uh directions. That's our that first piece there, the strategic road map. Our vision cards show our progress towards meeting those strategic directions. Then we get into our alignment work which happens in our school and department. Uh it says improvement plans but in our system we call it operational plans because we're operationalizing our strategic plan. And then that last part is the monitoring reports. Making sure that you have that deep data that goes down more granular to be able to see uh some of the other trends that that uh aren't as high level but go a little bit uh deeper. Dr. Best. >> Yes. Can you explain the trademark next division crew? >> Is that from Team Works? >> Yes. Okay. Yeah. A lot of a lot of districts will call them scorecards. Uh but that was uh Dennis Sheepro, the former owner of Teamworks. That was his trademark. Yeah. He he came out of engineering and so trademarks were a thing and patents. So he did trademark a few things. Uh so again um from our strategic priorities so tonight you'll see uh for C and D we uh thank you Dr. K uh tossed in the highest priority and focus priority because we want to make sure that we're seeing uh it's important that we see what are the specific things that we're doing that most closely we believe are going to help us achieve that strategic direction. So we have the highest priority and we have the focus priority. So that's the information we're going to talk about tonight. And then uh we did as you recall from last year, you may recall from last year, we uh dropped E as a strategic direction and reframed it as a continuous improvement magnifier because it really is how do we look at continuous improvement across our system. And so we had some very um engaging conversations with communications and with human resources. Um Anthony will be sharing more about technology later in a different uh presentation and uh John will be sharing more about build a better future in another presentation as well. But we're we're looking at what are the things that are interfering with our ability to have the momentum within continuous improvement. So that's what these questions are really getting at and how are we engaging in the in our continuous improvement cycles and those in those hard conversations to lift up what isn't working and then what are we doing to address that. So you're going to hear from K and Ivon tonight about what data they saw that they needed to address and what they're doing to address those things. Again, this is about alignment across the system. Are all of our initiatives aligned to the strategic priorities? And then last year, uh we we got to spend some time with a consulting group, uh Education Resource Strategies, um who originally came out of Harvard, um and work with school districts across the country to help us be really clear about return on investment. So, you have strategies and how do we know that those strategies are having impact? Well, what's the data that you're collecting? Is it showing are we having fidelity of implementation? Are we doing the things that we say we're going to do on the timeline that we say we're doing them? And then what's the impact that that's having? And so as you look at um at this this is us making the system strategy return on investment visual. Um so we we we talk about this a lot. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And so now we move into strategic direction C which is promoting inclusive participation of our communities provide and providing timely relevant and easily accessible communication. So as Dr. Bass sort of walked through that template here is an example of how that template plays out. One of the goals and strategic direction C is to increase awareness of AI school's identity promise and results among current and prospective families. This awareness is converted into trust satisfaction results. We have our the one on the left is our highest priority. The one on the right is our focus priority. Then we have our strategies, process measures, and outcome measures. So, how are we going to monitor the implementation for our process measure outcome? What's the end result? And with that, I'm going to turn it over to K. Superintendent Hy, Chair Prince, Vice Chair Brooks, member of the board, cabinet members, thank you for this opportunity to share a little bit more about the strategic directions tonight. Uh this graph that you're seeing on the screen is nearly identical to the one that you saw back at February's work session on the D district's operational plan update. Um the one piece that we updated a little bit is the outcome um column. Um and that's really based off of our community survey which you'll see here more in a minute. So our overall focus just to kind of do a quick review is on our communication planning throughout the district. Ensuring communication tools are used effectively. That messaging centers on clarity, cultural responsiveness, and accessibility. With regard to accessibility, that not only means that appropriate color palettes and navigation, those are all like visual type things, but also language um is a part of that. We've actually pulled out that language part on its own. So expanding multilingual supports. Um, you'll actually be hearing more about that next month when we talk about our language access plan some. And then last, but certainly not least, strengthening our brain identity to ensure we're recognizable um to our community, that our community is trusting us. There's a number of process measures. These can be digital audits, check-ins, etc. that we take a look at in community relations. Some of these we do weekly, some monthly, um even some annually. Uh you can find links to all that specific data in your monitoring report. Um just let's take a look at the vision card then for the detail on the outcome measures. So the five outcomes that you saw on the previous slide are shown here on the um vision card. Um for each of them our vision level was 90% or better. Um so that's uh when we uh have the percentage who were combining like um Peter shared we're combining that excellent and good um categories together. So, a positive rating. Um, and then so for all of our community survey type questions, you'll see some kind of throughout. Um, other vision cards here coming up too. We always use that same 90% as vision level. Um, so I just wanted to share a little bit um kind of pointing out so for the first overall so the first row of this is overall communication and fifth community trust us to do what is right for students. We have some comparison data to look at um with the referendum surveys. Um in both cases we moved from baseline to vision. And for our newer outcomes, rows two, which is communication being timely, relevant, and easily accessible. Three, community feeling included. And four, community feeling heard and valued. You can see we're progressing right out of the gate. I'd say this is good news. Um some even better news is these numbers were higher in all instances for our parently samples. So for the overall communication period for four percentage points higher for communication being timely relevant and easily accessible they were six percentage points higher for community feeling included um they were uh 3 percentage points higher for community feeling heard and valued they were seven percentage points higher and trusting us to do what is right uh six percentage points higher. So moving into our magnifier um as Dr. Vass described earlier, there are a number of communication tools available to staff. Um, one question that our community relation team gets often is kind of like there's so many things out there like what should I use uh when um so our communication plan um discussions with our schools and sites have really helped um with that and expand expanded the knowledge and usage has improved um providing more coherence and consistency. Um our team still observes gaps in the timely access of messaging to all families though. Um, for example, website updating, just keeping websites um up uh timely and multilingual messages to trying to get those out simultaneously as much as possible. Um, so moving forward, the team will continue to prog uh progress monitor with school site check-ins and usage statistics um at the district level as well. And I'll kick it back to Dr. Bass for our pause. I believe >> we we can pause here or we could move through D as well. Do you want to tackle C separately from D? >> I'm ready. >> Okay. So, we'll pause at the end on both C and D. >> Okay. All right. >> All right. So, strategic correction D create a system of operation, innovation, excellence, accountability, sustainability. And here again, we have the system strategy snapshot with the priority. Uh this is the highest priority and then each goal underneath that. One of the things that is uh different about strategic direction D is that you will not hear tonight about every piece of data on the operational plan for that because business services is in there. Uh technology is in there and they'll have separate presentations on that. So rather than being duplicative, we just narrowed it down to what was not represented elsewhere. And so with that, I am turning it over to Okay. Um same uh with this this this is strategic direction D goal one. This is very similar again to what you saw in February as well. We just updated the the column side a little bit um for the same reason with the community survey. Um the two focuses here is our enrollment marketing plan um and then boundary um changes as well. So when we talk about enrollment marketing plan that's essentially trying to increase student enrollment um and then maintain the students that we have in the district as well. Um, similar to go one and see, there are a number of digital metrics, audits, check-ins, etc. that we look at to see how we're doing with this, but the outcomes give us an even better flavor. Um, so you'll see that um, with the vision card. Um, this really tells an interesting story I believe. Um, lots of color here. So that very interesting um, so I'm going to start with the red. So that's the intervene. Um so that red row is our capture rate and that's the percentage of children living in our district that we service in our schools. Um so we continue to have an interven number for that. We're in the high 60s. Um you can see on our vision card though we're striving to go um over 70%. Um there are a number of reasons for this um which we can continue to dig into. Um, as you know from just previous presentations, we have one of the high school choice um, areas in the metro um, with several charter and private schools. But you can see looking at the other rows um, our November one enrollment number climbed between last year and this year. We're now at vision for that. Um, first year student retention is at a baseline. So that is a spot we can continue to focus on. Then our two community survey questions which we have some comparison data with with the 22 and 23 referrum surveys move from baseline to progressing with education quality and vision for uh proud and would recommend our schools. These were both higher for the parent only subgroup eight percentage points higher for educational quality and five percentage points for proud and would recommend. Um, now attendance boundaries aren't on here, but you heard from Peter that they were uh people were definitely feeling informed and heard and valued. And just the reason we didn't put them on the vision card is that it's kind of like one of those temporary projects. It's not something that we're going to have necessarily looking at those numbers each and every year. And I'm going to turn it back to Dr. Bass now. >> All right. Uh I can speak to uh the first row uh regarding our uh work around operational plans. So we can why don't I I'm going to pass because we talk about it elsewhere. I'm just going to hop straight to HR so we can talk about the retention strategy work. >> Um good evening. I'm going to highlight uh the strategic direction uh and uh for HR and then um as Dr. Con uh indicated um I'll highlight the retention data um tonight as well. Um so some of this again we've seen on the operational part um uh the focus being on retention and recruitment um with the focus on our mentorship program having uh having a competitive I think sustainable nation and um building our um especially our uh educators um and expanding and diversifying growing our own licensed educators and diversifying our licensed educators um in numbers and I'll highlight some of those. I wanted to just highlight some of the um measures. I do want to um point out that the measures highlighted on this card are the 2026. So we'll distinguish between the long-term vision um versus the measures and goals for um for this year. Um so um from a total compensation standpoint um we have spent a considerable amount of time um benchmarking. We partnered with a consulting company and now do that on a periodic basis. Um but we want to be at or better than market median as compared to our market peers and we have um we we do meet that goal. Um and we also are working towards and again this is a 2026 goal. We rounded to have been rounded to 21% in terms of increasing staff of color for this year. Again, we'll talk more about vision or vision momentarily. And then we do um have a goal of uh uh having at least 90% of staff of color and talking about that very close to the >> I don't know. >> I'll speak to this one. So, uh that that top row talked about the role of our operational plans. And so we talked about you all gave us feedback last year um in in terms of some of the areas we wanted to focus on improvements within student and staff stakeholder. Um and this one because we created a continuous improvement magnifier. It's like okay so what's a scale that gives us information to share across the show across the system whether or not our system whether staff across the system are experiencing continuous improvement cycles and processes no matter what we where you're at in our system. And so we uh sat down with members of the vision card uh steering committee uh Jenna John Shoy Aristad uh one of our two data and assessment coordinators um helped us go through a very nerdy process around construct validity um for continuous improvement scale. So we had this whole theory and then we we went uh sequentially to say okay our first one is we know how operational plans are used for continuous improvement right that's structured then number two um it's it's I believe improvement is possible through the use of our operational plans I know how we plan to measure the success of our strategies so this is for everyone no matter where you're at in the system whether you're at a site or whether you're at a department whether you're in transportation we are all engaging in continuous improvement work then we go on to say I have the skills needed needed to support our strategy. So I understand how my role is involved in that process. Um I am carrying out the actions needed to support our strategy strategies. Our team reviews data for our strategies three times or more a year to monitor the success of our work. So we're all looking at data across uh the system. And then our team values data as a tool for learning, not compliance. And then we go deeper. When our team meets to review data, the process helps us decide what to continue, adjust or stop doing. And then the last one there is our team is willing to change or stop strategies that are not working without assigning blame. So this was this was a this was a real fun uh activity to engage in. And so this will be um tested and piloted this year in our staff stakeholder survey. So we're excited uh to get that feedback. I'm going to try to be as energetic as possible kind of hard. Um so, uh this recruitment and retention slide reflects our updated goals. One key difference in this year's vision card, um as compared to last year's, uh vision card for recruitment and retention is um previously the vision goals reflected that annual goal. And when we've worked on um uh on our data and our metrics this year, we wanted to make sure that the vision the revision column, but the vision column reflects our long-term goal. Um so again, there's a 2026 goal uh for this year, and then the vision column reflects our long-term goal. Um and that aligns with u our strategic priority and having a a workforce that is more reflective of the students that we we serve. Um, in terms of 2026, uh, the percentage of staff um, of color is up to, um, 19.2% um, which is about 5% up from 5 years ago. Um, we continue to trend in the right direction, but of course have considerable way to go to meet our long-term vision. And I'll speak more to this when we talk about the disagregated data in the table below. With respect to the overall retention, um we strive to retain at least 90% of staff of color, people who were or greater than. Um last year's uh data was uh just shy of 90% um from a retention standpoint. Um looking at the disagregated um retention data in the table below. Um and that's broken down by licensed staff of color, non-licensed staff of color, and administrators of color. um with the you know um longitudinal data there. Um so what you can see certainly is that we have made um considerable strides in terms of increasing our staff of color and the non-licensed and administrators um categories, but we are um it's been relatively flat for um the licensed staff of color. Um and uh so the recruitment um challenges demonstrate that um we have a immediate need for investment in um the programs that help us increase the licensed staff of color. Um and that's done in a number of ways, but one of the things that I want to take a moment just to mention and highlight again and you heard in the last work session were strategic investment in our grow your own programs. Some of those programs are um an investment of overall educators um and some are um for targeted educators of color as well. Um I did want to highlight just a couple of um some data points there with regard to the brow program. So as a reminder, we're about halfway through um several grants. Uh so our investment in the brow program started three years ago. And in those three years um we have increased um the number of participants um from from 6 to 7 per year up to 24 this year which is a uh about 250% increase in participation this school year when we compare that to prior years. We also continue to explore new um pathway programs and we're in the early stages of um joining we just have uh joining a new teacher apprenticeship program. So that would be starting uh this next school year. So more to come on that and I'll go to the next slide. Can I just ask a question? >> Yeah. >> Um how many staff do we have total? >> Like 20% of what how many stitch? Um, so this is not uh we don't count the casual. So we're looking at you know full-time staff it is it varies. So usually around 2300 23 to 2500 for people that are considered benefit eligible. >> So 20% are the 23 to 2500. >> Yes. questions. So, moving on to the um uh continuous improvement magnifier. Um historically, HR did not have meaningful or consistent data to better understand retention trends. Um so, one of the um improvements that we made was digitizing our exogen data and processes. That's allowed us to um better utilize and build a stronger system with meaningful data. Um the longitudinal data also helps to ensure that we are understanding why employees are leaving. So we were able to identify uh trends better. Um some key improvements include um higher participation through um confidential and more accessible survey more consistent and reliable data with streamline with the streamlined focus tool. A stronger feedback loop uh by pairing surveys with exit reviews. real-time insights to quickly identify trends and turnovers and tame them um and data driven driven access uh excuse me action using cult analytical tool to help us inform on our uh inform us on our programs. Um uh so again uh that includes our mentorship programs on boarding trends and strategies as well. Um overall that shift has allowed us to move from a more reactive appro reactive to proactive approach. Um it's allowing us to identify trends um uh and create more targeted retention efforts and programs as well as strategies. The longitudinal data also allows us to track progress over time and measure what is uh what staff is considering to be um more effective and supported in retention. Um next year uh we'll prioritize uh state interviews and that will be part of our line work for the next school year. >> Okay, we are actually ahead of schedule here in terms of the time. We were I think 7:15 and 7:45 and we're at 7:20 right now. So would you like to pause and have about 10 minutes to to split into some conversations about the data you received tonight and formulate some questions? Should we partner up or do we want to go three and three? You have a preference for how big or small you >> three and three. >> Three and three. Okay, so we got three here, three over there. Okay, we'll take 10 minutes. I'll set the timer. What did they say? the highest like it took a while to read it but now yeah there's not This was curious to see me like how big it is. So only >> okay it's just So we should actually lower. I was just curious what the average >> I thought or not a change of culture. If we're below Yeah. question or whatever. I agree with that. I think I just wanted to know like >> I think she said >> I know everywhere they go. I mean they get the same but I mean they wonder Okay. I do think it's interesting that maybe that's Thank you. I do remember that I So% of the state is licensed 39% students. That's how many licensed teachers there are. >> Well, I can just kind of see like it's like a letter. Well, and there's like answers. No matter how much percent of >> Yeah. looking at for a while. We all sit back. >> It's boring, >> right? Ready to come back. Dale's so worried about the money. >> Maybe we should just give everybody a bucket of rush. >> We won't we'll come back together again. Thank you, Dr. Hy. Director Mitchell has volunteered her group to >> We had a few questions. One, Ivan, on the one of the last slides, you were talking about um mentorship being vital. We were just curious about, you know, it with retention of our new teachers, um teachers of color. I mean, are who is what percentage are receiving mentors? You know, can you tell us a little bit more about that? Yes, >> it is. >> And like what are the mentorship programs? Like I know I missed the last work section so I know you talked about that but >> yeah although last work session was grow your own and we are coming back to um highlight mentorship um as well. Um so the we do have a teachers of color um mentorship program um that's been uh going on for a little over 10 years. It is very successful. Um I may have to I have to like I may have to go and pull the um the data uh we do know when we're doing our data data dives um we have a really high conversion rate of um for those teachers of color that participate in the program throughout the entire probationary period. Right? It's not a one year and you're on a three-year probationary track and you only do it halfway or for one year, but if they participate and they um have that support throughout the entire process, um we have an over 90% success rate of them um achieving continuing contract. Um and so frankly when we were just pulling that data um or when we are aware of um someone that may be um you know maybe having some some struggles that is and they're a teacher of color that is one of the questions we will ask. um we'll say is this person in the program because we do know that that is um another aspect of support that really translates into high conversion rates to continuing contract. So like how many like do how does that work though? Are there like are is that somebody's like job or is that like an addition to being a teacher? >> It's in addition to being a teacher. We do have um we have multiple grants and one of our grants supports um a stipen um for uh for um mentors. We do have um two individuals that have um uh who do um the professional development as well. So they um you know that is additional responsibilities that they're compensated for. And then we have several teachers who receive um mentorship sessions um to participate and mentor uh you know continue to engage and develop um probationary teachers. So they sign up as well. So essentially that's paid for through grants >> and is that similar? So like I've also heard that we've talked about you we also have like the mini teacher mentor program or something like is that the same or is that a different like How does that work? So, we we we currently have a new teacher mentor program. However, um and you you know may or may not recall that uh you know we that grant is coming to an end and it was not renewed. >> Um so we did have two full-time new teacher mentors um that were you know um kind of broadly applicable and Dr. Kai may may have more. Um those teachers are still in our district and they will continue to be in our district because of continuing contract. However, the new teacher program is going away. Um the new teacher mentor program is going away. So um we'll we are continuing to look at other programs to support um new teachers and you know have a number of you know conversations with learning achievement to see if there's opportunity to redesign. Um every year there are opportunities uh new opportunities for um grant-f funded development and retention programs. So we continue to partner with um Dr. Kine and her team on on just evaluating what is possible and um do a lot of grant writing. I mean, it just seems to me like, you know, as I listen, it's like mentorship seems so vital and it seems like such a strong >> um kind of benefit coming into a district as a new probably a new teacher whether you're a teacher of color or not, you know, but but even I think when I look at the staff with teachers of color, it just seems like >> both of those kind of like a both and. Yeah. It's such a I I mean I would advocate for the investment um to continue because that's just I mean I think anybody going into any probably field but especially teaching like you know we're a big district um there's a lot going on um and just to have that extra support like here it's really vital and so that's something that I know we just talked about um just the importance of that piece and so I know that one kind of the grant ended um but >> so LNA still has an SDS staff development an assessment specialist who is dedicated to new teachers and >> one person. >> Yep. So >> for our how many? >> Well, that's one of the things that we are doing right now sort of rebranding is how do we layer support for new teachers coming into our system in their first three years of service in particular. So how do we use our instructional coaches and the rest of our staff development assessment specialists, but also how do we make connections to sites, which is where they're going to have most of their questions to make sure everybody is connected at a site to get an answer. So my department is actually equity transformation challenge is actually rebranding our new teacher program. So it's not just one person that it's everyone and that this person uh you know does the you know if you think about it as like student pyramid the tier three the really high level I need one-on-one ongoing daily check-ins and coaching and support. So that's some of the things that we're engaging in. We have a meeting coming up at the end of April with Learning Forward, which is a national organization on professional learning, who's put a lot of energy into the teacher mentoring. So, we're partnering with that as well. And if I can just piggyback on on one of the things, um, Kelsey, that you and in that doc, you talk about layering support. Um, there are a number of different types of resources. And so, and I and I agree with you. I mean, if we can have um more grants, right, to to ensure that we have to increase the mentors. That's that's that would be fantastic. But in addition to, you know, SBA mentioned, there are instructional coaches um at the central like the system level and then also instructional coaches in in at buildings and they're not um evaluative. They're there to for development purposes. they're not used. Um they're there to give them help them develop and get feedback and they're not those uh that development is not it doesn't show up in the review. Um the the different sites also have instructional leadership teams as well and other other you know different types of support and resources. So the mentorship is part of the the fabric. Um and again it would be great if we were able to obtain an advantage. But I do wonder to your point there's choices and tradeoffs. If this has a really strong ROI, >> should we rebalance what that support looks like to prioritize mentorship? Just a question. >> Yeah. >> Well, we see a correlation with um what uh Ivonne shared about teachers of color who participate in the mentorship experience through you see over a 90% retention rate. I don't know that we have that data for our new teacher. um >> it's invitational in the like uh I don't have to contact my the new teacher mentor team whereas teachers of color mentor program is much more uh one on one so rather than the three people who are serving 200 teachers are the one person hey if you need this reach out to this person whereas teachers of color it's hey we're meeting at this time and there's a stipen involved which meeting with the the nutrition mentors there's none of that >> a good time for us to study Yes. >> Can you confirm that we're supposed to talk about this more in August? >> Oh yeah, we are in August the uh teacher mentor program. >> So we looks like we do have a session dedicated to talk about mentorship. So hopefully this discussion can help inform that presentation. Um but we have um 8 minutes left for this discussion. So I don't know if you have Just another question. Um talking about the awareness converted to trust. I know that's a big a big one and I know how communication and trust um well in any relationship right are the most important but the parameter or the measurement trusting to do what's right on the community survey. Are there any other I don't even know who I'm asking this question. >> Are there any other ways that we're measuring that other than the um trusting to do what's right? Um, that's probably the best. Um, I mean, trust can be so many things to so many people, right? So, I do like kind of like how you saw like what people are liking about our school district, right? Um, I think that's helpful to kind of dig into that a little bit. But, um, otherwise, it's just kind of people's like reaction to that question about do we do they trust us to do what is right. So, um, overall, so we can definitely, I mean, connecting with parents more and digging into that a little bit, like focus groups are a good way to do that. Um, we can definitely do a little bit more of that to to find that out. So, I think that'd be helpful. That's good, but it's just that's really general. >> Okay. Wait, one question, I guess. Um, how are we thinking cuz like after this, you know, every you know, people love the schools and they're better than private schools and all that. thinking about that capture rate of, you know, 67%. It seems >> doesn't seem to make sense now, right? >> There's opportunity there is kind of what it shows, right? Like there there's uh you know, student age uh children living in our community that are not coming to our schools and there's a fair fair chunk right out there. So, it's definitely um an opportunity. So, it's kind of showing that our enrollment really should be if we were capturing, you know, I don't I mean, decades ago, right, when when there weren't as many options, um, you know, people kind of just took it as like you were going to go to your assigned home school, right? Um, there wasn't as much choice, whereas now it's like there's there's lacks and it's more of a discussion obviously in the community as well. So, um just in talking with many other school districts, um you know, here and across, um the nation, like it really needs to be above 70%. um to be healthy. Um so, we're we're definitely in that intervene area. Um but it could be I mean, it's not apples to apples looking at other school district, but we are like the like maybe other like first rig suburbs would be experiencing something different. So, it's something that we're always looking into and you can kind of tell in the community survey that Peter showed to we really were trying to dig into like why was were schools like a determining factor like why what was that cuz that list of things is a lot of the things that we hear from people on like why they're choosing a school like how important are those things. So, we're really trying to understand kind of like um our like the person that we're almost like selling to. Like that's kind of what schools have become is we need to like pitch it. We need to sell it more than just kind of like we're just accepted. And >> I think I asked before, what is our percentage of religious schools that we have cuz we're not gay. Correct. >> Well, so I was thinking about this. We >> we compete. So I think we talked about this when we did the enrollment presentation in December. We kids from our district or from our area >> attend 160 schools outside of Austin. and it's like 81 private and 79 other public. So that's our competition. That number used to be like 50 and now it's 160. So there's lots and lots and lots of options. We see charter schools pop up all the time and also or you know retreat and or clubs. Um, I think the same thing tends to as the economy is generally strong and and or at least holding um solid right now, you tend to see more private um enrollment and if who knows if gas prices drive and and um you may see some of that retract the next year. So there's there's so many factors that are a little bit out of our control, but um you know I I would say I know Minneapolis is a district that just has a ton of competition because of everything encircling them and so many charter schools within it that there it's comparable. We we have that unique blend of a ton of charters and a ton of private on top. We talked about that question as well and I when we look at kind of funding and our funding being limited this seems like a really great place if we increase our capture rate that will generate dollars. So it as you look to next year and the the strategies I think we should really think what specific strategies to increase that capture rate. we're talking some of it's branding because the charter schools have no better performance but they use words of excellence or you know like so is there something we can do within our schools especially where the capture rate is being hit and um that where we can brand some of the programs inside our schools or talk about it and market the heck out about what the parents said on this recent survey and what parents at our schools say. So I think going forward this should be a key strategy for for funding um as well >> like even like the video that we saw like I mean that is like so inviting and it's like I don't think people would just know like you know that that's like insight you know even for me like you know >> yeah we've done a lot I mean there's so many things that um behind the scenes too that that marketing wise we've been focusing on we I mean just to name a couple like we've done some secret shoppers ers um over the last couple of years to kind of really understand um sharing we've done some professional development with our front office staff and like after learning about that right customer service and the kind of like like I've been saying really that importance of teaching instead of um and just kind of assuming that you're kind of taking care of someone and really doing it in a really good way. Um we've gone ourselves um to some base anchor stoppers at other schools as well to kind of really see and there is a difference on like on what you experience if you're going to go to a local charter school and check it out compared to us. So that's what we're trying to teach like that. So >> I think that a big part of it perception verse >> that is very true. I agree. >> I have seen your the ads on Facebook or >> lots of ads. Yeah. >> Yeah. We like really I think the Oh, employee survey. Um we were curious because these these are really great questions to ask but our participation in by staff is low. So, we've been we've talked from time to time about should we have an external company administer our um surveys because of that perceived notion that it's not not anonymous and we heard that at one of our last work sessions that staff doesn't believe that it's really anonymous. So I I would hate to have such great questions and great focus but only have 30% participation in the surveys which I think is what we're at on the staff survey. Does that sound right? >> Yes. >> Yeah. So I I think this is something that we should have future discussion about because most um corporate organizations use a third party and have 70 80% participation or maybe even research like it's not a directive right now but research and understand like are other districts utilizing a third party what does that cost do they see better participation not I think it's time to think about that because we're getting so good at the work and and the feedback from staff is just so critical and even like the work that we're doing in culture. So, how can that all pair together? >> The last thing um we wanted to acknowledge uh like finally getting our head around this. So, like understanding like the the highest priority, the focus priority, and the metrics that are tied to that. So, like this doesn't feel so hard or confusing now. So, we're there. I hope. >> Thanks for being patient, please. I guess I I guess so on the topic of the employee survey, is there anything that you all are needing from us to move forward with a third party? That's something that you can look into and get back into us. We can look before we start our next one. The one thing that we forgot to tell Alex was you didn't have to stay. Like seriously, pack up and go. It's okay, sweetheart. Seriously, get up. >> You're welcome. You're also welcome to stay. >> He's like, I got children at home. I think that's why you stay. I was going to try to slip out. That's so easy. >> Okay. I'm I'm trying to help you. Just >> I do want to just give a a correction on the numbers of my you know, we total out licensed staff is about 2500 staff. It's a little over 3,000. Okay. So fulltime benefit eligible. Some of >> them are Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. So, we're going to go right in to our time. I'm 2 minutes uh late. Um class sizes with boundary changes. And um John, you want to introduce BJ as well, please? >> Yep. Jump in. >> Thank you, Dr. Hy, Vice Chair Brooks, Chair Prince, and board members. Uh this evening we're going to be presenting information on the district's class sizes for the current year along with a historical comparison of um previous year's class sizes and we will also take a look at some of the effects of boundary changes or at least proposed effects that we know at this time. Um all the data for the information we're going to discuss this evening was provided by Bright Works U which is formerly the Metro XU ECSU group. um they rebranded and so um one of the studies the 2122 study was still under the old um name but the other two are are under bright works. Um their study that they do is a class- size study for metro area schools um where they're we're providing information BJ and his team provide that information and then they um send us back the report. And typically we've been doing them every other year. Um so we're going to combine three studies to to show you this evening. um as you're looking at the information in the data, it's broken up a little bit differently depending on main um area. So in elementary it's broken down by specific grade. And then as you get into secondary, there are two areas. There's junior secondary which is grades 6 through 8, senior secondary, grades 9 through 12. In both of those areas, it's broken down by class grouping. So art, business and marketing, um family and consumer ed, health, so on. Um So you'll see that some of that information as we get through it here. And now I will turn it over to BJ Hermader, the coordinator of preK12 operations. I get that right. >> You got it right. I always get it right. Thank you. >> And BJ will walk you through the information here. Just give me a n word. >> You got it. Uh thanks everybody. Um what we're looking at here um on this slide is displaying uh average class sizes across the metro region um as recorded in the 25 26 flight works class as John mentioned um and you can see uh where our average where the averages across the metro I write in the mid20s um they also as part of the report data collection uh collect on minimum and maximum class sizes I personally can't explain minimum class sizes Um but they uh they do exist. Um and you see the maximums there as well. Um those large maximums in junior and uh senior secondary uh typically apply music classes pretty consistent across the regions as well as okay across the region. uh you can see uh actually you can't see but we'll tell you uh the 23 24 represents a region like more point for average class sizes and just we had a dip in class sizes across the region uh that year you know of uh coming out the post pandemic um what we're seeing this year is a return to baseline and it's not necessarily growth um elementary averages follow uh as you can see about a valley pattern down and up and that's very uh very common where you see uh a dips as uh you move through the grade span at elementary. Uh secondary special ed uh you'll see uh show a peak uh in 23 and 24 and that kind of peak uh reflects temporary factors like enrollment shifts um that happen across the region minimum class sizes. So that small class size of one and those high class sizes uh minimum class sizes are rising and the maximums are falling. So those are tightening up across the region and uh you'll see this throughout the presentation. Oio remains well aligned with uh the regional norms and class sizes. So here are displayed oio class size averages uh by the grades span for the 25 26 school year. Um and uh you'll see here that again we're right in the mid20s. Uh the junior and senior are a little bit higher than the region. Uh elementary is pretty high. Here we're looking at elementary class class size averages by grade and uh you have the class size targets uh along the right side. I think in our last work session talking about uh how many class sizes there were some questions about how the targets come into play as a distribution factor for how we allocate staffing and now you're seeing how the averages turn out as uh when students actually show up in classes and school operations are underway. As we know averages do not alone reflect the full student experience. This is just a snapshot in time. Um again, uh avenues are pretty well aligned with the region. And in my history of compiling this data, uh I started compiling class size data for this school district in the 2012 2013 school year. Um AIO has always remained right in the middle, right in the middle third of class size as we compare across the region. And that's remains consistent today. this. Oh, this is minimum. Sorry, minimum maximum. They look the same. So, this is what osteo minimum and maximums look like. I'm I'm going to display this for elementary span, but not for the secondary cuz I don't think it's helpful. Um, but here you'll see our uh minimum class sizes are in the teens. And some of our maximum sizes uh sitting uh just above target. And I need to remind folks that this is a snapshot uh in time. We collect this data based on October one data. Um, a lot of the enrollment data we look at in the school district is based on November one data. So, a lot has changed since October 1. These are displaying minimum and maximums as of that time. So, most of if not all have been addressed to uh either enrollment shifts uh additional support and staffing. Um, and if we were to collect this data now, we would not see the same uh typically the same numbers. real quick question. Uh so before we were talking about region wide class sizes so much about the the max is maybe like a music, right? That's not the max here. Uh we're not going to see that for elementary. Uh the elementary data only collects for uh the the grade levels, so K through five. Um and then they do ask for some specific type of classes that we don't offer at the elementary. um they'll ask for special ed which we do include um but there's some other type of classes that we don't offer here. So you'll see that fireed music at the secondary level. >> Yeah, it's not unusual that large that 155 choir is typically one of my classes. >> So BJ just real quick so if there's a centerbased classroom are those numbers in these grade levels >> in these uh they are not. >> Okay. Elementary trends as we compare to the district. Um based on the current class size patterns our kindergarten shows the most notable difference uh from regional averages. Um it doesn't necessarily indicate a problem but it may warrant a closer review if uh lowering class sizes is a strategic priority for the board. Um so you can see uh the AIO uh average for kindergarten 21.61 uh compared to the region of just uh just under 20.1. So it's about a student and a half higher than uh the region that's the largest variance we have. Um but our average is still under under the 22. Grades 1 to five uh are very closely aligned with the region. Class peaks remain within typ typical regional patterns. Our highest maximum are in grade four and grade five with our class sizes sitting right at the targets of 32 and 33. Um again the implication would be that kindergarten would be the primary area to monitor if exploring class size reduction is a I just you know I'd like to say like I I do think that is something that we should focus on because I anecdotally I mean my son was in his kindergarten class was he was at 27 and you know that's the time where our kids like learn to love school and when you're in a class man it's a lot for five and sixyear-olds like that's a on for a teacher to handle. And my son did not have a great experience because there was so much going on in the classroom. And I think it just sets their trajectory. And I just I do think that kindergarten is so fundamental. Like that's where you learn to like love your teacher and like have friends and like when you when you when a teacher is feeling stressed and like it it's you know not it's hard to manage. It like does impact a student's learning and a parent's ability to build relationships with the school. So I would like to just advocate that we do look at we'll take a closer look at kindergarten in the next. So as we compare over time um you can see where uh our current average 21.616 uh as it has uh as we compare it to prior years as we rank with the region does rank 26 out of 30th for kindergarten uh region low being 16.27 and region high 13.75. Um again the variance is small. Um kindergarten class sizes can vary widely uh as again as you can see and this spread shows the district districts operate across a range of class sizes while remaining within a pretty common regional practice. Here's where we take a look at uh middle school class sizes. Um, and class sizes at the middle school by subject remain below the district target of 33 and show this consistent and stable staffing patterns across both core and elective courses. All subject areas below uh again are below the middle school class size target. You can see the range there from 23.75 low in facts to 29.3 in music. And I think this is also one, sorry, I know it's a trend that you're going to get to, but like Kelsey brought up, I think it's math is such an important core subject, but that's something to worry about a little bit. >> Something that you're not seeing in these numbers, um, as we look at class size targets, which distribute the amount of staff that we have to our students, there's also a scheduling implication that comes in here. So, a lot of what you're seeing in terms of class sizes um comes down to the local level in terms of how they scheduled our students. And so, where you may see a high math number at 28.4 as an average, what you're not seeing are intervention classes um pushin opportunities, a lot of opportunities for students that aren't impacting this number. And now, those are all going to occur differently at our different middle schools. Um and you'll see the same thing in high school. So you're not seeing those other pieces that come into play. And these are some local decisions maybe to run the core math uh core math subjects at a higher class size and provide some intervention supports around that. I don't know specifically for all of these numbers, but those are things that you don't see when you're just looking at the snapshot of a class size average is all the supports that come around that um and all the other decision makings and scheduling um that have an impact on what is showing up on a flash roster. And that would be an interesting thing to study at some point like our core classes and how it's done locally because I think we've talked about um doing things districtwide versus at our sites site specific and like would you even have like if you have the smaller math classes like would you need all the interventions if you have you know a teacher like to be able to really focus on yeah so I I agree I think >> just even studying it I don't have the decision It is a wondering I've had is um if we if we reduce class sizes would that improve outcomes and we wouldn't need as many of the other support or interventions. Just a curiosity and I don't know enough about comparing different systems or approaches or I am curious. >> Thank you for sticking Um as you can see here our core academic areas cluster in the upper 20s uh with language arts, math, science and social studies as well as uh fire averages between uh uh in the low 28 and these averages reflect typical secondary schedule again scheduling patterns while again remaining below the target. Elective courses follow show smaller averages such as art, facts, health, music, teched and computer science. Um that suggests greater flexibility in the enroll in the enrollment of the buildings or additional sections being offered at the at the school level. Special education averages are substantially lower as you see uh just under eight. That's reflecting instructional model designed to meet the individualized student needs rather than target based class size for special education classrooms. Um a target functions as a ceiling not as an expectation. So the data indicates that current averages are comfortably within the target range. Um and at the middle school level uh we are not seeing any comparable pressure points. Next I just talk through that slide. >> Do you want the high school one? >> We can go to the high school. Thank you. Um, senior high class sizes across all subject areas again remain below the district target with consistent patterns across core elective and specialized programming when we compare them to the school class and again no immediate pressure points identified and compared to overall the data suggests that our master schedule tend to support smaller and elective and exploratory classes at the high schools and middle schools while core academic the courses carry higher student enrollment. This reflects instructional priorities and program design choices rather than a single class size issue. Um, >> sorry, can I interrupt? I'm so sorry. Um, which that implication is kind of concerning if we're still trying to get our kids to read and do math at grade level. Um, and I'm curious I'd be curious to hear more about that if when we talk about the broader subject of it. um like how that looks at specific schools. I mean, our job is to make sure kids leave being able to read at grade level and do math. And I know there's so many more wonderful things we're offering, but are we making sure we're doing the core things? Excellently. At the same time, like we need to ensure that our kids have opportunity to show their brilliance in other ways. It's not just math and reading. Yes, I think we overest on certain things to say this is a measure of capability. So I would say like it's something to understand. Um but I I would say it doesn't alarm me to say that we are seeking to prioritize offering more electives which ultimately then results in smaller sizes um because I think that gives students more opportunities to show their capability which then generates confidence to do better in other subjects as well. I don't think it's an either >> or you can be completely frustrated in a core class and really struggle and then give up and decelerate in your academic learning which that's been an experience we've had in our family and it's it is really challenging to come across that with larger class sizes where you can't get that individualized attention. So I totally hear you. I think it's awesome. We have so many great things our schools say. I'm not or offer. I'm not saying eliminate. I'm saying are we paying attention to this trend? I think it's something our school board needs to understand more because I don't think we've ever gotten into these conversations. I think we have a lot of assumptions without a lot of information. So, I I think it's something we should keep talking about. Any other questions? >> Thank you. Sorry. No, not not at all. Um, so the core academic courses here, ELA and math are showing higher class sizes compared to the average. Um, signaling signaling higher uh higher loads on the core academics. Elective and experiential courses consistently run smaller uh with smaller class sizes than the region. uh science and social studies within closely mirror uh metal norms and special education averages are modestly higher than the region but aligning with certain program delivery models. Overall scheduling patterns suggest intentional prioritization of smaller electives alongside larger academic subjects and again that has to do with master scheduling uh rather than allocation. Can can you talk a little bit more about the special education and the larger? So I know again I'm so sorry for missing the last session but um so we just made a strategic investment in special education knowing that the numbers were um peaked. So will that will that invest in alleviate because I I've I've not been a special education teacher but I would imagine like even one or one student I mean is you know if it's larger than you know kind of the average or the region I mean I think it seems like that would make a difference in the class. Um, so I'm just curious, will that alleviate the class size for special education? That investment. >> So, uh, >> or is that not even >> the investment is trying to protect the range that we currently that we currently hold and we are in the middle of the pack. >> Yeah. >> So, we're not we're not we don't have the lowest we don't have the the the largest. Um, but that investment was to protect the range that we have. Right. Okay. So for high schools um our high school class sizes suggest that these schedules are reflected strong enrollment in CTE and experiential programs while poor academic classes remain closely aligned with regional norms at certain elected areas slightly higher. Most poor academic subjects align closely with regional averages and several elective areas on modestly smaller. Um seeing that career and technical education and experiential programs are showing higher enrollments and overall high school scheduling reflect strong student participation in experiential learning alongside balance for Um overall themes here as you can see one overall district 2799 279 class sizes closely align with regional patterns at the system level with early learning kindergarten class sizes differ more from regional norms and other elementary grades. For middle school, it's the core academics, ELA and now show modest difference differences from regional benchmarks, but uh those class sizes are higher. For elective and exploratory courses, we're seeing um the class sizes trend modestly below regional uh regional benchmarks and high school and CT work experience courses are showing substantially higher demand than our regional peers. Uh I one question I think we had asked when you came in with previously and presented um was about yes we have our targets what is not necessarily best practice but what is if this is a pain point for everybody and it's coming up in surveys that class sizes are a huge issue or they're a concern um what is that look like? How do we quantify what a smaller class size would be to people? um like kind of how he was asking the question of this is where class sizes are. Is that good enough? But then what how are staff experiencing it? And is that maybe that's something for our survey what they're what how that's going? I don't know how that even get to that question, but curious if the real world experience matches the target as a best practice. Does that make sense? like is this really a good practice how we're doing it or do we need to re-evaluate our class sizes >> or Hadtie's work? You want to speak to Hadtie's work? >> Eddie's work shows Go ahead. >> Well, um I mean the number one effect size is collected teacher efficacy. And so it's the extent to which teachers are able to sit down on a on a consistent basis and look at student data and look at student work and be able to plan instruction around that data. And um in teams that do that really well, we see the most significant improvement outcomes. So >> not necessarily tied to class size. >> Class size is not as significant as as teachers having protected planning time to review student work. >> So even that perceived I think it's the perceived notion of the class feels out of control or like it feels like chaos a little bit for safety reasons or things like that. I think that's the most feedback I've heard um is around that. Um curious and so if that's not the day-to-day impact then we did ask in 2023 when we did the referendum um survey we did ask some specifics about class size. Now that's you know 3 years old but we did ask it kind of as Peter was explaining like this is our class size. What do you think about that? We threw in some of the dollars piece to it. Like if we were to add one student per class, right? Like knowing the financial impact would that make? >> So Hadtie's work uh John Hy's research indicates that reducing class sizes has a small positive effect on student achievement. But smaller classes can help. They only improve learning outcomes significantly if teachers change their pedagogical approach rather than teaching the same way as in a larger class. But we can share some of that information. >> Yeah. And I'm just curious for teacher experience too what that looks like. >> That's an important piece of >> Yeah, I'd like to better understand that. And I I guess I'm really stuck in the special ed because I know I understand that we made the investment to kind of keep the status quo, but I think my question even at that board meeting was is it enough? And I I still ask that question like I I really do I'm really concerned about where we're at with special education and I um I still I guess I I still have that question. I mean, I I just feel like if we're going to make an investment, we should make it to ensure that we we do what we can to make special education whole. And I feel like, you know, it's really hard cuz I know at the legislature, you know, they're asking to cut cut cut. And I know we're in a hard position, but also we are fortunate to be in a position where we do have a fund balance. we can I mean I think that's what chair Simon uh Prince is trying to do is like figure out like we're as a board are we strategically trying to invest and get those processes aligned you know so we're not having these conversations like where we have to go like do a special kind of request but we're kind of thinking through that um so it's more of a common and something to just I think consider um moving forward because when you talk about a moderately higher average in special education I mean it is concerning And I do think that that's something. Okay, for my uh for my last slide here, I just have some talking points that might uh district 279 remains right in mind of class size norms. Overall, we are neither symptomatically large or small. Kindergarten is our most elementary variance and a predictable play where families feel class size more acutely. Uh in middle school, our core subjects run larger which may impact instruction and support needs to research. Elective areas at both middle school and high school run smaller than the German average averages suggesting possible scheduling efficiency. Our high school CTE and workplace learning program shows strong demand in our new visual norms and ranges in some secondary subjects uh such as math, music suggest uneven section holding which address current master schedule. Another question. All right. Thank you. Um so we will take a kind of a quick look at the impacts on boundary changes and what we did is we broke it into the two phases. So phase one corresponds with the um temporary closing of Cresby Elementary. Again, as a reminder, students um who were returning were given the opportunity to pick from three neighborhood schools, Edinburgh, Zanwood, and Fair Oaks. And as you can see on the slide, that was overwhelmingly about 100 students went chose Edinburgh and 15 each at the other two. Um boundary changes went into effect September of 25 for Edinburgh, Woodland, and Zaywood, which picked up pieces of the former Crest View area. And um those alignments were intentional to make sure that students in those areas don't move twice when we get to this next year's uh boundary adjustment. So for reference, we did put in here the the two new maps for starting with fiscal 27 forward. Um so you can see Aspen Ridge on the list now. Um and the the adjustments here. So here's the elementary followed by the middle schools. Um, as we move to phase two, the expected impact of boundary changes are kind of highlighted on this slide. We're showing buildings with changes of more than 100 students. So, the largest changes um in elementary, obviously, Aspen Ridge coming online is projected at 570 students. Fernbrook is projected to lose 342 students. Fair Oaks would gain 157. Rice Lake would lose 131 and as um principal here mentioned he they would lose 103 students out of the school. Um middle school largest change is North U middle bringing up their capacity by 286 and creating capacity space at AIO senior of 182 for projected growth in the future. Um again as note there is a moratorum on ind district transfers that runs through um the 2728 school year and so as we get into spring of 28 that's when we can start taking applications again for the following year. Um but by then we will have good data on the results of these boundary changes. Um the other area I would talk about is is pressure points. Um the boundary change process is is fairly unique and and projecting enrollment based on that is certainly uh not an easy task for for I've been projecting enrollment for 15 years and it's hands down the hardest enrollment projection I've ever had to do. Um I pride myself on being pretty good at getting that number within 1%. Um and have done that and every year I've done it. I don't know if I can do that this year. Can I ask a quick question? >> Yeah. >> In a district transfer, you say spring of 28, not 27. >> It's it's for the 27 28 school years where it's it starts back up. Sorry, I did get my numbers right. >> Okay. Wait, people can >> Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So, so it's it's 2627. It's still in moratorium for 2728. It's open again. >> And then we will as an enrollment committee, we're we're evaluating that process to see how we want to handle that going forward. >> Okay. Thank you, John. >> Thank you for clarifying. Yeah, one of the if I could add this it's going to be an important date Kelsey because we've been telling people no for a year and a half, right? Whether that's going into transfer or we've made the boundary changes. Yes. Uh we appreciate you're advocating for your kid and you're making a great case why your kid should stay and not have to do the boundary change. We've not made any exceptions to any of that. So, I think when we do get to that point, January of 2027, I believe it is, we're gonna I would I don't know how to guess it yet. Are we going to have a flood of people asking to go back to their previous school, right? Or how are we going to manage that? So, I think that's going to be important. You know, we might that might be something to add. To John's point, we're acutely aware of it on the enrollment team that's watching it, but we want to get everyone settled. We want them to be at their schools before they're asking to transfer back. We don't want to club. We did all this work to get boundary changes. We don't want everyone switching, right? So, it's going to be a tricky island. We'll see how it goes, though. We hope they get We know they're going to get welcomed to their new school. We hope they become a part of that community and it's not an issue, but we'll see. So, uh, with the pressure points in the middle of the boundary change process as we were doing it is when the city of Brooklyn Park came out with their announcement that they were going to be want to focus on developing the area near the targets target campus for growth. And at the time, the estimated number of new housing units they um announced was 10,000. Um, if you think about that area, and if you're familiar with it, in order to put 10,000 housing units in there, there's only one way to do it, and that is high-rise, highdensity apartments. Um, and I'm talking not a four or five or six story building. I'm talking a 15 or 20 story building. That's the only way it would fit in that area. There's also a a desire to increase their the technology hub that is kind of commercially in that area. Um, and so we don't know how to react to that yet. And that's a big wild card for us. So that's why I kind of list the pressure point in the schools on Thursday. >> Yeah, you can bring it up. Have it. >> Kelsey, you can take >> um the So the concern that that I have knowing that is starts with the two elementaryaries that are in that area, which is and we kind of made a little adjustment to try to balance between them, but it's Elen Creek and Edinburgh. Uh and Parkbrook sits just below. So, those three are the ones that are already um showing signs of being near capacity. So, we're going to want to keep an eye on them. Um this is information that we'll bring to ECMAC and make sure and like they're already aware because they've seen the new projections. >> What about Woodland? >> Um Woodland's okay right now. They're they're far enough east um that that I think that that is has the potential to be a a pressure relief point if we needed to. And one of the things that, you know, I don't think, and I I'm not speaking for K, but I would tell you that I I don't think the desire to go do a massive boundary change is really high on the list um in the near future, but I think it would be prudent as a a board to keep aware of minor tweaks that may be needed if something like this comes on. We're starting to see you don't have to change everything. We can say, you know what, I want to adjust these two schools, cut a little from this to give capacity. Um, I give you the example of Rice Lake now has a little bit more capacity. So, if they had to pick up some of Elm Creek's area, they could do that. Or if they had to pick up take back some of where park is, they could do that. So, so those pieces are built in for for a minor adjustment versus a whole system. Um, the other area that or another area to mention is open enrollment. We have seen a very noticeable uptick in open enrollment applications and open enrollment requests for coming in having tours of schools. Um pretty directly related to the financial circumstances of districts around us as they have more issues and we hear about schools closing and um you we have two districts that boundary us that are in statutory operating debt. That's a big deal. they're going to be forced by the state to make reductions, which means, you know, you saw in the community survey, people are going to look down the list and go, "What's important to me?" and then look around and go, "Where do I want to go that matches that need?" So, if we're starting to feel that pressure and again, again, goes to the enrollment center and being able to be cautious about managing that because open enrollment once we give you the path to say you're in, you're in for the rest of your high school career if you want. We can't take it away from you. So, we have to be very diligent about doing that and not overwhelming our own system. So, it's just an area to keep a close eye on. Um, and we'll obviously continue to monitor the results of both boundary changes um and our different enrollment opportunities as we get a little bit farther down the line. So, I have the easy part, but any other questions you might have, we'd be happy to entertain. So just going back to our previous conversation about class sizes, but I think ultimately the question for us is focused on achievement and what are the best forces of actions including class sizes to improve achievement. So I don't want to overemphasize or focus on class sizes because we hear about it. I think it needs to be in the larger conversation on maybe things that we're not as close to all of you um and like understanding we're we're doing this we're learning that we know that this is the best um investment we can make. So I think we need to continue these conversations so that we can be informed on the levers that are best driving outcomes for our students and to be able to make strategic decisions around that. So I don't want us to get hyperfocused on one of those levers. if you already have information, you already have things you've been working on and now we're trying to push you in another direction. So, I just I just want to balance out some of that focus today because I think it I think it's about achievement. I don't correct me if I'm wrong, but other board members. No, and I also think that will help us relay that to the community like when we do, you know, if if there's more to it kind of and how we can kind of talk about it because like I think the last time maybe we talked about it was it's hard to say like you know it's like well if we do this it's going to increase millions of and people are like what are you talking about how is that even possible and like maybe for us to kind of explain that >> better have our can't afford. So, I do think it's achievement, right? And I also think it's that safe and welcoming, that priority that people had on that survey, the top three, is people want to know there's room for their kids and they want there to be that attention. >> Um, that there's safety in the classroom. So, I think it's like a yes, it's academic, but it's also that experience in our classrooms, too. I think between our family surveys, I know that's just coming out again, our staff surveys, I feel like we have the right approaches to keep measuring. Um, and it's also compelling information that our parents are saying we are hitting those marks. um even though we kind of have class sizes that make us can make us feel uncomfortable and that if we have $5 million to negligibly impact class size or to do something that's going to have a bigger impact, I think we just need to have more conversations so that we're coming together and understanding the strategies and choices. For sure. I mean, I'm so proud of like even work session was to hear those survey results especially during I mean he did those during life time. I mean that to even have that is pretty incredible. Um so I'm really proud of this distance. >> All right. The pressure to bring it home. >> All right. disaster. Can we just go back to my L? I'm just one more minute this way. >> Uh just real quick, uh one of the things that has been brought up for from the last two meetings as well as chair vice chair meeting um we're going to come into August and we're going to talk about this. We talk about everything we do the next day at cabinet by the reborn. Um we're starting to look at the future of budget planning, return on investment, communication on anything that may be happening. So uh you mentioned it's going off a cliff or things like that or how do we share that? So we're going to start working on that and that's going to be in our August um presentation. You want to add >> Yeah. No. Yeah. Um, so as we look at the projected deficits, I think it has to be a key priority for us to understand our choices and um, potentially look to slow those versus what they're projected out to be today. >> Back to you. All right, this work session has adjourned at 8:27