[0:28] e [0:58] e [1:28] e [1:58] e [2:28] e [2:58] e [3:28] e [3:58] e [4:28] e [4:58] e [5:28] e [5:58] e [6:28] e [6:58] e [7:28] e [7:58] e [8:28] e [8:58] e [9:28] e [9:58] e [10:28] e [10:58] e [11:28] e [11:58] e [12:28] e [12:58] e e [13:39] [Music] [14:05] good evening i' would like to call to order this an okah henan school board meeting for today October 28th [14:10] 2024 please join the board in pledging our [14:19] Allegiance flag United States [14:40] all right our first order of business is to approve the board [14:46] agenda is there a motion to approve the board agenda as presented so moved thank [14:51] you director Simon um is there a second uh thank you co-chair Des Shane [14:57] any discussion hearing none all in favor of approving [15:03] the board agenda say I I any oppos say [15:08] Nay with six in favor and zero opposed the agenda is [15:14] approved all right members the next item on our agenda is item four the consent [15:19] agenda as normal members can remove items for separate consideration and discussion if that's their [15:26] desire is there a motion to accept the consent agenda as [15:32] presented is there a second so is there any discussion I um [15:39] maybe I should have said this first actually maybe it's out of order there's one item I wanted to pull off for separate consideration um it [15:49] is there's a lot of appendices I believe it's appendix H the new Middle School [15:56] courses just for separate consideration so with that item removed for separate consideration um is there a motion to [16:02] accept the rest of the consent agenda as [16:09] is soov thank you director Simon is there a second to approve the rest of [16:15] the consent agenda with that one item that we'll visit second thank [16:20] you all right hearing a second will all in favor say I I any opposed say nay all [16:29] right with six in favor and zero opposed the consent agena minus that one item is approved um and we I had requested that [16:36] we remove um item H I believe it was the new Middle School courses sorry I was getting a little confused so I thought I [16:41] think it might been listed differently in here [16:48] um so the I had pulled it so I'll just State [16:55] what I was going to State about it um [17:03] so init so what item H is it's the new Middle School courses um we had [17:09] discussed this at a previous work session where it was the idea of having um an alternative music class offered [17:16] for a number of students and parents who had you know requested you know essentially not to participate in the [17:23] ones that were offered which is totally fine the presentation given was great um I was in favor of it good questions [17:29] asked but ultimately it did seem like a good idea um so the reason I mention it [17:34] is because to at least for me um given that support that I just stated for me to [17:41] vote Yes currently on these courses puts me in somewhat of an awkward position because it was recently brought up by a [17:47] number of community members students parents teachers that there's concern some concern over math curriculum the [17:54] details of which are not going to be gone into right now but suffice it to say I had requested a solution at least [18:00] be come up with and at least for now that hasn't happened and what I realized [18:05] when I was looking at this band curriculum or not band music curriculum idea is it kind of is at least a work it [18:13] would have been to me a workable solution or something comparable to it for the math curriculum as well kind of offer an alternative option that still [18:19] meets state standards for the math students who are struggling in the in the existing course um but that's not [18:26] what we're voting on but the reason I mentioned that is because if I were to vote Yes on this it would kind of put me [18:32] in the position where I feel like I'd be supporting at least what I interpret to be a double standard which is we'll say [18:38] yes we'll allow an opot option for one one course but we're not going to allow [18:43] the same opot option or like an alternative instruction for a different course so I I'm actually like the idea [18:52] for this um it kind of it's frustrating to me that I don't feel like I'm in a position where I can vote Yes I be but I [18:57] I do think to be cons consistent and to be fair we have to provide the same opportunities for everybody whether that's we find an alternative solution [19:04] for the math kids and the music students or neither for both um but consistency is important just so I don't feel like [19:10] I'm supporting a double standard um but I would just in light of that like to reiterate my request since this was done [19:17] um it this idea was brought forward you know with the good intention of trying [19:24] to find a workable solution for a number of students and parents that had requested it it's a good idea um I would [19:31] just request that we do a similar thing for the math curriculum so that I can get on the same page and so that I can [19:36] support this in the future if it passes or doesn't pass um but that's really all I wanted to say that's where I'm at with [19:42] it um beyond that does anybody else have anything they'd like to add director Des Shan thank you co-chair Arco um you said [19:51] a couple things that I just want to address really quickly so you said it's like an opt out or alternate that's not the case so for music curriculum um [19:59] options we have band choir orchestra and this new one is a non-performance based [20:05] music curriculum so it's not the same as an opt out or an alternate it's just an additional curricular offering the way I [20:12] would think about that in comparison to math as you brought up we have algebra algebra 2 geometry trigonometry Pre-K [20:19] Kelk statistics Etc there's a lot of options for students who want to have Choice some are prescribed but some are [20:26] also choice and I think that's what's happening here with this music one it's not really the same thing as an opt out [20:32] or an alternate so I just wanted to to share that perspective out as as you're making [20:37] your considerations thank you any other [20:42] discussion uh director hulman thank you co-chair Arco um [20:48] according to the testimony that we heard at the work session there was a small number of parents um was the testimony [20:54] that we heard who were opting their students out of the course due to the performance requirement and so this is a [21:01] course that's being created to satisfy um that need um and I strongly support [21:06] parents rights to opt out of courses and um in every way influence the education [21:12] of their children so I think that's a strong a good thing for parents to do [21:17] it's also a per state statute that if parents choose to opt out of a course [21:22] then um the school board is not required to pay for the cost of that alternate instruction um so this happens with many [21:29] other courses and we aren't um as the testimony said a handful to perhaps 20 [21:35] students um we're generally not making new courses to satisfy that demand and at this time when we're at such a [21:42] financial impact or Crossroads in our district um that's really the fourth [21:48] thought of my consideration for this is the cost associated with developing a new course and we have many unanswered [21:55] questions related to how will this affect the music program what number of students will be taking it when added um [22:02] are we adding courses equit equitably considering all parents needs in this [22:07] District um to satisfy the education of their students and um just what will be the content of that class none of those [22:13] questions have yet been answered so for those reasons right now I have [22:19] concerns is there any other discussion from the board director langfeld [22:29] it sits on the side thank you I appreciate that as we think forward then here we here's a course that has been [22:36] brought forward to us and I just need a point of clarification um I I'm feeling it's [22:43] conflated with something else so I I would I'm hearing um director hulman [22:49] speak to a course at a time adding a course when we are all in a place right [22:55] now with budget reductions and then I'm hearing director Aro talk about the fact [23:00] that it's an opt out situation and something to do with math so just for [23:06] clarification purposes as we look at this course and um think about it in [23:12] terms of meeting the needs of kids and as we move forward my question to us is [23:18] then if we take it off this agenda and we don't support it I I'm I apologize [23:24] but I don't know what happens next with this course and where it goes so if someone could help me out with that i' [23:30] greatly appreciate it assistant superintendent broer is [23:36] here to answer any questions you have we did not receive any questions ahead of the meeting since the last work session [23:42] so we can answer those now if you'd like if you have them um because there is a distinction between a course that has [23:48] start started during a term and someone wants out of that course after this term has started versus a new course that you [23:55] register for as a new option in a course offering um of course catalog offering so I think there's some distinctions [24:01] there to be made so if it's the will of the board you we can try to answer some of those questions with M boier [24:07] certainly would be helpful for me I'd appreciate it if we could I don't know if I disagree thank you um I'll I'll [24:14] throw something out there real quick uh just to clarify my apologies if I misspoke so I I Ed the word opt out um [24:20] in a sense that is true but I don't think it was the right word choice here because they are opting out of like band and like choir for example um it's more [24:28] that they're finding a a different modality to meet the same standards and a new Option a new class is being [24:34] offered to allow them to still meet the standards but in a really a fundamentally different way which is totally fine like I support that I think [24:39] that's great um so the the going back to my initial reason is is this has nothing [24:46] to do generally speaking with students opting out of one particular class mid mid semester trimester that's not the [24:52] concern it's it has everything to do with the idea that um an alternative [24:58] option is at least considered for f a future remedy to the problem and so so [25:05] and the reason I bring it up is because I had requested at least some solution be considered not adopted of course I'm [25:11] only one board member I can't unilaterally decide anything nor should I be able to but the a request was put [25:18] forward by me um to at least come up with some solution and the only answer I [25:23] received was that we can't redo the whole math curriculum not nothing I did not recommend that nor did I suggest [25:29] that nor did I think it would even happen but just to give an example of kind of what I was thinking of in in the [25:34] case this the band or this music class is the perfect example of this we're we're coming up with a creative option to offer a different class and satisfy [25:42] the standards we could do the exact same thing with the math curriculum we could have an alternative math class like [25:47] another geometry class that just emphasizes for example direct instruction more over the Collaborative Learning instruction not that the goal [25:54] is to pick and choose one or the other it's simply there's enough there's a at least in my per interpretation there's [26:00] been a critical mass of teachers parents students and even myself that have raised concerns over this that we should [26:05] at least be considering a possible solution to it and unfortunately I just don't think that's happened or is even [26:12] likely to happen which is why I like I said I'm at a point where if if I as an individual board member said yes to the [26:18] music students we're going to give you the alternative option but all of the math people who are asking for the exact same thing we're not going to consider [26:23] your concern I feel like I'd be in a position where I'd be supporting a double standard so that's perhaps a [26:29] better clarification my apologies for any confusion uh go ahead with that you [26:35] uh director langen feld's question just so I'm sorry can you repeat your [26:43] question I I guess I was trying to understand if this is tabled at this [26:48] time is it something that can be brought back and also uh there there are questions regarding cost now that may [26:55] not have been addressed in the past that people are requesting and then it sounds [27:01] like there's another curriculum concern in math which is not part of this [27:08] so I I I'm asking for clarity somewhere I'm not sure what I'm asking in that regard because it seems uh kind of going [27:16] in a variety of spaces that's all but in terms of the cost and bringing forward [27:22] uh this particular course was in fact as as director hulman spoke to the fact [27:28] that people were seeking an alternative and and certainly and I can certainly [27:33] affirm that having been in the district serving as a middle school principal for many years that in fact that was the [27:40] case back in the day already and now that there's some additional requirements around music This lends [27:46] itself to consideration I would assume that's why it was brought forward yes [27:52] thank you director lingenfeld uh the course was brought forward in order to better meet the needs of all of our [27:57] students unlike math music requirement in sixth grade is unique to a no canopen most [28:02] districts don't have a music requirement a no canopen does so we have three options that are performance-based and [28:09] music studies was brought forward in an effort to maintain a music requirement for all sixth graders but give another [28:16] option I wasn't prepared for this conversation tonight so I apologize I don't have the exact costs in front of [28:21] me but because the equipment is very uh there really isn't equipment as a non-performance based course [28:28] uh the costs would be relatively low um I'm sorry I don't have an exact number we can get that back to you um I do [28:36] think that this uh is again a unique requirement for an nanopin we have a long Rich history with m music education [28:43] and requiring that for all sixth graders so this course was brought forward in an effort to better meet the needs of our [28:49] families director hookman you mentioned the handful to 20 students I just want to clarify that's per School depending [28:56] on the community so throughout system you know we're we're talking about probably a 100 families that have [29:02] formally requested um while even though if they're not requesting I would [29:07] anticipate there might be um other students that would prefer uh this method of music instruction we don't [29:14] have those those exact numbers enrollment fluctuates from year to year um but giving families that option was [29:21] the goal of the of bringing forward the the request [29:28] thank you uh director adad I think just a comment as I'm getting up to speed here seems like [29:35] the the issues with the what you call the double standard of we are we are [29:41] creating an additional class at the behest of some group of people um which [29:47] again doesn't altogether sound like a a bad idea though there have been other [29:52] requests from groups of people to make alternative classes or different [29:57] offerings that we haven't always done so I mean to me the point that I hear you [30:03] making is if we're going to do that we should do that or we should not do that but we [30:09] should not have a double standard where we make a a course in order to satisfy [30:15] some group of people and then we we won't make a course in order to satisfy a group of people in all cases which of [30:21] course is is going to be tricky um it's I'll acknowledge but it's at least I get [30:27] the point you're making it's worth a discussion and does whether it's here or at another time but I guess we're having [30:33] it now direct IET not I don't I don't want to speak to the math question because [30:39] I'm not familiar with with that um we have over 400 courses in our secondary [30:44] level so we do do just what you're saying um the process for for new [30:50] courses comes through department leaders um so this wasn't particularly just [30:56] because families are requesting it but the system was requesting it so again I I don't want to I can't speak to exactly [31:03] what you're talking about with the math situation but I agree that we want to make sure that we have a clear process [31:08] for for that recommendation and I do believe this music class followed that process yeah I'm not speaking to the to [31:15] the math at all I'm I'm just I'm simply [31:20] saying and I and I don't know the group I I I asked actually is there a specific [31:26] group of people I didn't really get an answer to that it doesn't much matter to me my point is let's suppose somebody [31:33] came forward with a religious exemption or otherwise if they asked for additional coursework and we I don't [31:39] know if that's what we're doing here but if it is okay it's it's a reasonable thing if members of our community need [31:45] it but that type of accommodation that type of alternative course could be [31:51] proposed in other scenarios too and I don't at least I've raised a number of issues that I might suggest we could do [31:57] it for up until now we haven't done it [Music] [32:06] so no I don't have anything to add the math issues a completely different topic so that would take further discussion I [32:12] think at a more appropriate time it's not on the agenda tonight um what's on the agenda is this course so if the [32:17] board doesn't feel comfortable passing it tonight I think one of the questions was what happens next what's the timeline um you know I know the window [32:24] closes for any new courses so maybe that timeline comes goes without approval so [32:29] be it um the math issue is a different set of facts and really unrelated to [32:36] this thank you the timeline for this particular course would probably be by the end of November in order for us to [32:43] implement for the fall of 25 to include it into the registration [32:49] guide so what I would recommend board members is it can be tabled until uh um the next meeting in between now and then [32:56] we can provide any additional information that the board may want and get some feeling whe whether there's board support moving forward with it at [33:02] that point knowing that we can still have the potential to get that added to the the list of courses available is [33:08] that possible yes so uh it really isn't about math in [33:14] particular the what I'm trying to drive at yes math is the particular example here but is the idea that we have a [33:21] block of students I'd say it's some number of students and parents who have asked for this and rightfully we [33:27] responded to them and that's great we should do that which is why I'm generally actually in favor of this um [33:33] but when the same request I guess is made I had made a request for at least to have a solution considered not even [33:40] acted upon not even a timeline given but just a solution considered essentially throughout the [33:46] course of the conversation the request was dismissed so if it's just a numbers game just boil it down to numbers you [33:52] have a lot of parents we absolutely should not deny them we should take their consideration seriously but each [33:58] individual board member represents something to the tune of like 40,000 residents in their area so I think a [34:04] request by any board member really should be taken seriously and even if the consideration is eventually rejected [34:09] by the board as a whole which is totally fine that's what the board is for I I just that's I think at the heart of the [34:15] issue for me is if there's no mechanism through which at least me or the board [34:20] as a whole can at least not even a in a public facing board meeting just request a [34:26] solution to be had or considered but this will just kind of happen on its own like I don't think [34:32] there's any one board member who asked that band be or the music classes have a new class added to it which again is [34:38] fine I have no problem with that but it wasn't requested it was done that's great now it's being considered but when [34:44] a board member I guess requests it and then at least how I interpret what happened is my request was kind of [34:49] dismissed I I don't feel like I can act in good faith to the people I was trying to represent when I say yes to one [34:57] change and then we're just going to disregard the request coming from a different block of people altogether if [35:02] that makes sense so either way is there any other [35:09] discussion um hearing none we will take a vote on whether or [35:15] not to approve it was appendix item [35:21] H will all in favor I or was it I think we need to move and second it probably [35:27] sorry about that um is there a motion to approve so moved thank you director Simon is there a second second thank you [35:34] co-chair Des Shane all in favor say I I all opposed say Nay Nay with believe it [35:43] was four in favor and two opposed I get did I hear that correctly um it does [35:48] pass so thank you um our next AG our next [35:54] agenda item is item five the communication delegations and petitions section of our meeting this is time for [36:01] community members to provide input directly to the school board about issues that fall within the school board's Authority we plan this agenda [36:07] item for 15 minutes our policy allows for community members to speak up for up to five minutes but if there are several [36:14] persons that want to speak the chair has the discretion to reduce the time to comment to hear from all and also to [36:19] keep the meeting on schedule during times of large committee input we have been Flex when allowing the meeting to run late tonight we have two cards to [36:25] keep the meeting on time um individuals can have up to five minutes or more if they need it [36:33] um and if you would like to comment um please complete a yellow card or and [36:39] provide it to miss kovsky so that we can provide a written follow-up a couple of procedural reminders our meeting [36:45] participation procedures are in place to ensure open and orderly public comments as well as to protect the due process and privacy rights of individuals under [36:51] the law if speakers use specific names of students staff or board members I will need to interrupt and or stop [36:57] speaker please remember to direct your comments to the school board chair myself members of the audience please [37:03] listen respectfully if the board cannot hear speakers I may reset the timer to allow the speakers to be heard audience [37:08] members that disrupt this portion may be asked to leave for the remainder of the meeting and with all of those [37:13] disclaimers being said the first yellow card is from James and Amanda my [37:19] apologies for the mispronunciation of the last name Jaden perhaps I got it look at that [37:38] all right sorry we are new to this can you hear me all right uh my name is [37:44] Amanda my husband James and my son am I allowed to name his name he's just here [37:50] for Mason um our family moved from Texas a couple years ago and we chose and over [37:58] because we were wanting to be part of a community that was a big motivator for [38:04] us to change our family tree and make a big move [38:11] um when we first moved here we were in a rental location that we were supposed to go to Andover Elementary School we [38:18] opened and rolled because where we were originally or where we were going to eventually live was in The Rum River Elementary School [38:25] borders we had a builder that was not very upfront with us about the zoning [38:31] and which wind we would go to they just said yep you're part of Andover you know you guys are going to be going to Rum River that's a great school and we kind [38:38] of were misled through that process it wasn't until later after our house had been already started and we had already [38:45] started to build our new life in Minnesota that we found out we would actually be going to Anoka Middle School [38:51] we would also be going to Anoka High School and then later found out our kid can no longer play hockey with his [38:58] friends that he had made and I know that it's sometimes hard when you're looking at numbers to sit there and say well we [39:06] can't make this work this is just a boundary issue my son has told me there's one bus that goes from Rum River [39:14] that won't be going to the element or the same middle school that the rest of the kids will be going to it is a very [39:20] small population but it is really affecting him I remember one of the first days that he came home after going [39:27] to school and said Mom I have kids in my class that are also on my hockey team [39:32] and that is so awesome he was grinning from ear to ear and he was so excited to be able to share that and that same kid [39:40] that was growing from ear to ear when we had to tell him that the district told us we can no longer play for Andover [39:47] Youth Hockey because we don't fall in the Andover High School borders was crying was tearing up and [39:54] said I can't believe I can't play with my friends I can't can't believe that these people I have built this [39:59] relationship with during this process of building the house I can't continue that with and as we're looking into the [40:06] statistics more it is a very small portion that is getting affected by this and we've been told well you guys can [40:12] just move we just built our house it's not even completely finished at this [40:17] point and we've been told to move we've been told that really I don't think they're going to matter it's such a [40:23] small percentage if you want you can just open and roll but I'm also hearing people that have opened asked for open [40:28] en roll and and wanting to be in District that haven't been able to because there are people from outside of [40:33] Andover that are getting those spots I as a mom want to protect my [40:38] kid he's not here as a prop but he's here to know that each of those decisions you're making is a person and [40:45] he has cried pretty much every night for the last 10 days and as a parent that is heartbreaking to know that your kid [40:52] isn't part of a community and within the boundaries and how they're set up it is [40:57] setting up kids to not be able to find a community because he's told for six years of your life you get to be at a [41:04] school that is 98% huskys and we're going to have spirit days we're going to have husky days we're all going to wear [41:10] black and gold and we're going to cheer on our team and you have 24 of those kids looking around going I don't belong [41:16] I don't fit in here and this is not right for those kids to have to go through that and Mason is a fifth grader so next [41:24] year he will be going to a middle school the way those numbers break out it sounds like it's about four or five kids [41:30] that are going to be going from Rum River to Anoka middle school I know kind [41:36] of if you're thinking about Middle School we all went through that awkward phase where we didn't know who we were [41:41] we didn't know what we belong we didn't know how awkward it was I've even seen Facebook posts of people who have just [41:46] recently gone through that transition and they said you know oh my gosh my daughter was so nervous when she went to [41:52] her locker but the second she turned around and she saw her friends they hugged and they were all excited and they skip down the hallway my kid [41:58] doesn't have that there's other a few other families that are in the same situation that are not going to be able [42:04] to he's going to a brand new school and he knows nobody and I was looking up just the [42:11] effects of how they're starting a program on middle school and how difficult it is to start middle school [42:18] and how we need to have programs to help that adjustment and now we're putting these kids in a place where they're not [42:24] going to be in the same experience as everyone else in there class most of theirs are going to the same class and [42:30] they get to go play with each other they get to see each other my kid gets to if he gets a chance to open an roll he can [42:35] do that but he's still not allowed to play hockey with them or he can do he goes to Anoka and he is an outcast he is [42:43] at the Billy where he might be get bullied because of these decisions that have been made and I get on a map it [42:49] doesn't make sense and it the numbers just don't work and I'm so sorry we can't really do anything about that this [42:55] is a family these are my kids these are my life and this is making a big impact [43:01] on them and I'm sorry I don't know what the rules are we were originally told that you guys will be looking at boundary changes in the fall of [43:09] 2024 we've been crazy we have a lot going on in our family life but we didn't find out until yesterday that [43:16] that was pushed to last year and that that's not even a consideration so I guess my plea as a mom that cares so [43:22] much about my kids I want it to be something that we're addressing I don't want want it to be something that we [43:28] can't talk about for another 3 or 4 years because it's not on the agenda I want to make it on the agenda because [43:34] these kids deserve more these kids deserve a chance and they deserve to have the same experience that their [43:39] classmates are having and right now it really doesn't feel like that's the case for these kids and again it is such a [43:46] small number I can't see 24 kids in the span of 5 years really affecting the [43:53] school boards where we don't have enough spots at Oak viw and we don't have enough spots at Andover High School and [43:59] we are members of Andover and we are so proud of it it's very hard when we're told and our kids are told that their [44:05] identity is so separated based on what grade they're in and that half of their [44:11] life they're going to be an and over husky in half of their life they're going to be more so focused on inoka and [44:17] they just don't belong in either group from what it feels like right now yeah I can also speak to my personal [44:25] experience uh I moved around a lot growing up um I was never in the same [44:32] school until I was in high school um that was 12 different schools [44:38] growing up and it is very difficult in that situation to know where you fit in and I [44:45] know as a sixth grader and that adolescent life you're trying to feel out where you where do I fit in this [44:52] world where what am I part of where where do I belong and a situation is being created [44:58] because of the boundaries that he he'll never figure that out he can't figure that out and he he doesn't have a [45:04] support system to help with that he does he's not even the cool new kid that has a cool story cuz he came [45:09] from somewhere else he's just a kid from another school [45:15] um I can touch on the bullying piece right now because he's actually scared he's scared of it he has said that if I [45:22] can't and we don't get the decision to be able to play four and over I'll play for in NOA but I'm not going to tell my [45:29] friends I I only have a small group of friends that I trust that won't make fun of me and won't say anything to put me [45:36] in a position where I'll be made fun of that's concerning moving forward yeah [45:42] and it's because of boundaries thank you for the comments um any final thoughts wrapping up [45:50] otherwise see thank you for your input you thank you [45:57] our next speaker is Natalie [46:08] Hansen hello thank you very much for your time this evening my name is Natalie and I am actually Amanda James [46:16] and Mason's neighbor my son Harry is in the back over there um and we all live [46:22] in the Peterson's Farm neighborhood in Andover Minnesota currently District Lines delegate that [46:29] our children will attend Anoka middle school and Anoka High School I am here today to ask the school board to [46:37] consider redrawing the district boundaries to include our neighborhood into Oakview middle school and Andover [46:43] High School areas I was recently told by a teacher at Rum River that very few kids at Rum [46:50] River will end up attending Anoka schools she thought only 10 or so per [46:56] year that will not end up going to Oakview that was really disappointing for me to [47:02] hear as my son will spend 6 years making friendships and relationships with [47:07] district teachers that he will not be able to make with will not be able to take with him to Middle School in a [47:14] transition for children that is already really hard making the leap from elementary school to Middle School it is [47:21] not fair to make a few number of children have it be even harder to to [47:27] have to make all new friends in the classroom and through Sports we have also heard countless [47:32] stories from friends who work at schools in middle school and high school that recount the many outof district kids [47:40] that are brought in and open enrolled kids whose families do not contribute contribute to our tax base in the area [47:48] kids that do not live in our city and really don't share any sense of [47:54] community meanwhile kids in my neighborhood in Andover trying to open and roll into these schools and we are [48:01] told that they are being denied in the city that they pay taxes in they're being denied school enr open [48:09] enrollment most recently while while trying to sign up for youth hockey our [48:14] family was told that my son was not eligible to play hockey in the city that we live in because he is in the boundary [48:20] for Anoka High School every other sport he has played he has played for Andover [48:27] he is an Andover Husky and now he is being forced to play hockey for a different city and he is not allowed to [48:33] play hockey and use a very expensive ice ranking Community Center that our tax [48:39] dollars pay for our neighborhood and close surrounding neighborhoods have started to gather and discuss this [48:46] boundary myself personally my family my close neighborhood community and my [48:51] friends ask that you please redraw the boundary in order to include our area [48:57] into Oak viiew Middle School and Andover High School so that our kids are not separated in an unfair way and that we [49:04] can attend schools within the community and city that we choose to live and pay taxes [49:10] in that's my Spiel I do also have a question about [49:16] how do we interact with you in like a back and forth type of way is there any [49:22] sort of forum for that or is it always just like this [49:28] um you are always free to send any board member or the entire board an email or give us a phone call okay so thank you [49:37] thank you thank [49:46] you all right our next agenda item is item six Board calendar and District [49:51] update uh superintendent McIntyre thank you co-chair [49:57] tonight I'll be presenting some items of interest for the board and their Community regarding activities and [50:02] events that we are proud of in our district we do this to celebrate students staff and community members who [50:09] are contributing to the accomplishment of our mission which is to effectively educate each of our students for Success [50:16] so to start us off tonight I think Jim and Heather are helping me here with some of the slides [50:21] for you to see the district was in attendance in support of the city of an noa's anti-crime Commission at their [50:27] annual meeting on Tuesday October 22nd this is a community- based partnership [50:32] organization that makes a positive impact for safety the school district benefits from a strong partnership with [50:38] our area law enforcement and the district has a history of some of our leaders being on and serving on the [50:44] board of directors for the Anoka anti- crime commission marching bands from Anoka [50:49] hanapin five Traditional High Schools collected High honors at the youth and music Minnesota state championships and [50:56] class championships at US Bank Stadium on Saturday October 12th Anoka High [51:02] School took the first place title in the class a division three other Anoka henpen marching bands secured top 10 [51:09] finishes in class A Andover High School played second and earned the percussion [51:14] Championship the percussion Champion award Rapids High School played seventh while also earning the colorgard [51:20] champion award Blaine High School placed eighth in class doublea Champlain Park [51:27] High School took second place so congratulations to all of our marching bands on a strong showing at this year's [51:34] uh state championships in addition I also wanted to mention that Rapids High School [51:39] Activities director Jeff Thompson was honored as administrator of the year for his support of the band programs at [51:46] Rapids High School congratulations to Mr Thompson and finally the district has a [51:53] strong tradition and we know this over the years of having EX in music which includes being named one of the best [51:59] communities for music education now for 10 consecutive [52:05] years all right the most historic School site in in Anoka hanapin is our newest [52:10] site as we formally dedicated Two Rivers transition program at Franklin here in October co-chair Des Shan had the honors [52:17] of cutting the ribbon and opening a new chapter for a a location that has served [52:23] as a School site since 1871 this is just 13 years after Minnesota [52:28] became a state and seven years prior to the formation of the City of Anoka Two [52:33] Rivers transition program at Franklin is a program that brings together two programs in one facility the former [52:40] Bridges program which relocated from a shopping center in Andover and Pathways [52:45] program which migrated to enoka from the Rapids Family Center Mall the [52:51] program serves over 225 students with disabilities ages 18 to 25 to learn [52:57] Workforce skills and life skills to manage Independent Living this move [53:02] provides a much improved education setting for our students and also saves taxpayers over $593,000 [53:08] annually from the cancelling of the leases for that space Anoka hopin remains committed to [53:14] maintaining facilities in the City of Anoka and the district across the board and has invested over $50 million [53:22] recently at schools located in Anoka including the two rivers location [53:28] State and section tournament competition continues to over the next several weeks as students conclude The Fall season and [53:35] over High School boys soccer Advanced to the semi-final round of the state tournament with a win over number three [53:41] seed minaka they play in the semi-finals on Wednesday October 30th against Maple [53:46] Grove this makes the third straight and sixth overall appearance at State for the [53:51] huskys Champlin Park volleyball faces Maple Grove with a trip to State on the line [53:57] the section Championship is set for Wednesday October 30th at oio High School in section 7 four 4A Anoka and [54:05] Blaine are in the semi-final round with games played Tuesday and the championship match for [54:10] Thursday in football the road to state for Champlin Park and enoka both go through Lakeville the rebels are on the [54:17] road at Lakeville North and the tornadoes host Lakeville South Friday night in the [54:22] semifinals in the other 6A bracket Blaine travels to Forest Lake and in 5A Andover advance to the section [54:29] final where they play at top seated Oak River on Friday night cross country girl [54:34] swim and dive and adaptive soccer tournaments are set for November so best of luck to all of our student athletes [54:41] in these competitions also kind of a historic ending um and a gracious donation for [54:48] one of our schools Advent Lutheran church located across the street from Lincoln Elementary School for the Arts in Anoka recently closed its doors but [54:56] its Legacy of community support will live on through a generous donation of $124,000 [55:05] $4,195 to Lincoln Elementary School for the Arts so just an amazing donation members of Advent Advent [55:12] Lutheran Church have been involved with Lincoln for well over 50 years donating countless hours of volunteer service [55:19] food drives school supplies clothing and other items for students in [55:24] need school schools benefit from Partnerships like this and strong community support and this donation will [55:31] be facilitated through the Anoka henpen Education Foundation so thank you so very much to that generous [55:38] donation and lastly election day is set for Tuesday November 5th and students will not be in school in in Noah hanapin [55:44] as 15 elementary schools three middle schools and two Early Childhood facilities will be serving as polling [55:50] locations there are no school district elections on the ballot and I just want to say thank you to all who take the [55:55] time to get involved in informed in vote uh chair arle that concludes my [56:01] superintendent's report for this evening thank you thank you very much superintendent McIntyre um our next [56:06] agenda item is elementary and secondary education item 7A we're going to discuss [56:12] the Morris Leatherman Community survey welcome Peter Leatherman from the Morris Leatherman company [56:37] is this on y we're good yes all right it's a pleasure to be here [56:43] with you this evening to go over the results um it's the same presentation [56:49] that I shared in the work session so just sharing it publicly kind of go over some of the slides a little faster uh [56:55] than we did in the the work session if we go to the first slide and methodology we spoke with 500 randomly selected [57:02] residents across the community the 500 samples projectable to plus or minus 4.5% in 95 out of 100 cases we then did [57:10] a parent balloon so we could look at a subsample of parents because there were some specific policies uh the district [57:17] wanted to look at such as school start times and the middle school schedule um and so that 400 sample is projectable to [57:23] plus or minus 5% non-responsive rate was 6% average interview time was 14 minutes [57:30] and it is important to note the timing on this this was in August um so on the [57:35] questions about budget cut specifically and awareness there's really limited awareness going on on everything people [57:43] are tuned out during the summer um so that's going to impact some of those questions obviously those numbers would [57:49] be very different right now as you're in the midst of discussion of budget cuts [57:55] putting up some demographic iics uh first off how long has the person lived in the inoca hopin School District the [58:01] typical resident's been in the district for about 16 years 10% have a preschooler or an infant 28% have a [58:10] child attending the Anoka henpen school district and then 70% are empty nesters [58:15] and once again that does not imply an age it's just lack of presence of a child 177% are renters uh pretty even [58:23] divide between owners of homes under 300 100,000 and over 300,000 ethnicity 58% white 19% [58:32] African-American 10% Hispanic Latino 6% multi-racial and then asian-pacific [58:38] Islander and Native American the typical age of the respondant KE and WR at about 47 years [58:46] men and women were equally represented in the sample and then you can see the geographic distribution and those are [58:52] based on registered voter counts in communities if we go into some of the general big [59:00] picture view on how folks feel about the inoah henpen school district we've asked this question for probably the last 20 [59:07] years in doing this survey and that is how would you rate the quality of Education provided by the district um we [59:14] saw the decline just like every other District did in 19 from from 19 to 21 [59:20] with the pandemic uh we went from 33% excellent down to 21% that 20 [59:26] 21% was stable over the past 3 years we do have an uptick now it did go 5% uh to [59:34] the in the excellent category for a total of 84% rating the district favorably the state average and what [59:41] differentiate school district is the excellent rating um and that is at 11% [59:47] so it is moving in the right direction and I think the district's at a point now of going back to where it was before [59:53] the pandemic that the shift is now to get people more enthusiastic about [59:58] what's happening in the school district um and move them from the good position to the excellent rating now what do [1:00:06] folks value what do they like most about the district uh 18% point to the [1:00:11] teachers but if we combine the good education and excellent education uh we [1:00:17] actually have almost 30% indicating it is the academic quality that they're [1:00:23] resonating to and then if we combine the good the good programs the good college prep and the broad curriculum curricul [1:00:30] curriculum you have 25% that are reacting to what's being taught in the classroom so the hierarchy here is the [1:00:37] academic quality and the programs and offerings in the district and then the [1:00:43] teachers what do they think is the most serious issue facing the district well [1:00:49] high taxes high taxes has uh been the growing issue uh over 23 and remains in [1:00:54] 24 uh the norm on this right now is about 15 to 20% um so a little bit on [1:01:00] the Lower Side large class sizes at 133% uh you can put together the budget [1:01:06] cuts and funding that forms a coalition of about 23% that have concerns on a [1:01:12] financial level in the district and then if we look at the bullying and lack of [1:01:17] discipline that's a 16% one and six reacting to that sort of uh aspect um [1:01:24] you don't have anything hitting 25 30 35% um but you do have a series of [1:01:29] issues in the high single digits and low teens uh to be aware of now what is the overall [1:01:38] reputation uh in one or two words how would they describe the district it's good uh 24% say it's excellent 18% [1:01:47] average and 7% large that's been very stable over the course of the pandemic the excellent rating had started to [1:01:53] increase pre pandemic um and now it kind of just reflects that overall rating on the quality of [1:02:00] Education parent perspectives I'll keep this one simple it's a sea of blue [1:02:05] instead of a red rip tide on all of these things we've tested um and so you [1:02:11] know overall satisfaction in looking at parent responses on this uh the thing to [1:02:16] look at is the strong agreement versus the soft agreement and you have more folks more parents St softly agreeing [1:02:24] than strongly agreeing so once again that's an intensity an enthusiasm to [1:02:29] move parents into that stronger position one of the policies I mentioned [1:02:34] the district wanted to explore was start times um so first off we told parents [1:02:39] exactly what the school start times were for each level and we asked if the elementary school start times were too [1:02:45] early about right or too late a third said too late uh 60% said about right so [1:02:52] we follow up and we ask folks would you parents would you support an earlier start time only 39% would support an [1:02:59] earlier start time 11% would oo would favor a later start time so there's not [1:03:05] any sort of majority in shifting of Elementary School start time simply because the vast majority of people [1:03:10] think that they're about the right time similarly on middle schools it's even [1:03:15] more unanimous with 78% indicating that Middle School start times is about right [1:03:21] and we have basically an equal distribution on too early versus too late so then in asking the followup with [1:03:28] this would you support an earlier start time or a later start time we had 78 and [1:03:33] 89% opposition because there's satisfaction with the school start time [1:03:39] now in doing these school start time surveys for many districts over the past 30 years it's always comes to high [1:03:45] school start times is kind of the impetus for this discussion um you actually do have a majority of parents [1:03:52] though indicating that the high school start time is about right uh 42% too [1:03:57] early 3% too late so it's not surprising then when we ask an earlier start time [1:04:04] absolutely not uh but even the later start time it's a 45 55% opposition to [1:04:11] it um there's just not clear consensus there's not the concern on the starttime [1:04:16] issue and basically if you choose to change High School start times then you have to Impact Middle School and [1:04:23] Elementary School down the line um and so there's just not appetite or desire or even the concern on the start times [1:04:30] at this point in time what about changing the Middle School scheduled to six periods uh we just gave them a brief [1:04:38] uh uh intro paragraph stating the current class schedule at seven and the district exploring uh the potential to [1:04:44] go to six um there was support albeit lukewarm at 3% strongly supported uh 57% [1:04:52] support 25% oppose and 15% % were unsure if we go back to the whole sample we had [1:05:00] 28% indicate that they are a member of their household had participated in a Community Education Program over the [1:05:07] past two years uh overwhelmingly High satisfaction including you can see the enthusiasm on this with 70% rating [1:05:15] saying that they were very satisfied what would folks advise the [1:05:20] district to improve the quality of Education 24% indicate small class sizes [1:05:28] 19% say go back to the basics 177% talk about better discipline and 12% better [1:05:35] spending less technology focus better teachers more Choice um but just a [1:05:41] second direct director Lang I'm sorry question given choice or or is it [1:05:49] all just open-ended this this one is an open-ended question okay so some are and some aren't [1:05:56] yes okay yeah the majority are close-ended okay I I'll make note as I go through the rest on what's openend [1:06:01] and what's not this is open-ended so they can tell us anything we collapse them down into categories so you have [1:06:08] three items that are about one and five are talking about class sizes the basics [1:06:14] and discipline what's the most important indicator of a high quality District now [1:06:20] this is close-ended they read this list and they're we asked them what is the most important indicator you have four [1:06:28] that basically tie reasonable class sizes broad curriculum the number of [1:06:34] graduates going on to further education and Safety and Security then down the [1:06:39] list it's up-to-date buildings and Facilities standardized test scores increasing property values Awards of [1:06:46] Excellence reducing the achievement Gap and state-of-the-art Technology um so those four items approach almost 2third [1:06:54] of the sample in indicating it's Safety and Security grads going on Broad [1:06:59] curriculum and class sizes now how does the district do un meeting the learning needs of all [1:07:05] students most only some or very few um I noted in 23 you were one of the few [1:07:11] districts that actually got over the 50% threshold of of saying you're meeting [1:07:16] the learning needs of all students um it's stay at 56% that's very strong in [1:07:22] comparison uh since the pandemic started you can see in 21 the all was down to [1:07:28] 38% um and following up with the most only some and very few is there a type of learning a student whose learning [1:07:35] needs are not being met it's the same everywhere it's The Underachievers and it's the struggling students um it [1:07:42] doesn't matter if I'm in babic or in Noah henpen that is the concern across [1:07:47] the state of who's getting left behind currently coming out of the [1:07:52] pandemic how does the district do in offering a wide range of uh educational opportunities well this is important [1:07:59] thinking back to what they like most about the district um it was 91% a bit [1:08:04] of a drop to 84% uh still on this one you know it is a soft yes and it's it's difficult to [1:08:12] have this conversation as you approach budget cuts um but it really is an important value in the district um it's [1:08:19] what they look at it's what they have an expectation for how does the district doe in [1:08:25] promoting high achievement for all um for all students there was a 10-point [1:08:31] drop and it went into most students uh no change in the only sum or very few um [1:08:37] so just a a a bit of a drop this is you know two data points that Trend does not make uh you need a third data point to [1:08:44] see where folks are where the differentiation is between all and [1:08:49] most overall quality comparison then and we set the uh uh comparison into 3 years [1:08:57] um it's not fair to go back before the pandemic and ask folks if they think it's better about the same or Worse um [1:09:03] last year 50% felt it was moving in the right direction this time 59% feel it's [1:09:09] moving in the right direction so even if there are concerns there is a feeling that things are moving in the right [1:09:15] direction it's actually a 59 to8 ratio it's better than 7:1 currently the norm [1:09:22] right now in the metro area is about 3:1 positive in getting better as opposed to [1:09:29] worse some perceptions of the district um and some of these are obviously going [1:09:34] to be impacted by discussions with budget um and funding in the district so [1:09:40] spending tax paars money effectively and efficiently uh 75% this year uh the norm [1:09:46] right now in the S County Metro is 58% do they trust you to do what's right [1:09:52] for the children unchanged 87% does the district provide a safe and [1:09:57] secure environment unchanged 91% does the district do a good job of [1:10:04] involving the community and on this one the district has always done an excellent job um this the pandemic uh [1:10:13] cut this rating because it became hard to involve the community for two years and certain sections of the community [1:10:20] didn't re-engage uh the 88% is outstanding the norm right now is was [1:10:26] 72% and that really does bode well and it leads into the bottom one in the [1:10:31] satisfaction with decision making that at least they feel they can have a say [1:10:36] accountability hasn't been an issue in the district for a long time going back to Jesse Ventura like I noted the [1:10:43] satisfaction with decisionmaking 83 to1 on that one it's a better than 7:1 ratio [1:10:49] Norm on that right now is about 4 to one um and that really is directly connected [1:10:54] to do they feel that they can be involved in what's happening in the [1:10:59] district a key question facing the district obviously in the coming years is a potential property tax increase and [1:11:07] this question asks folks would they support a property tax increase to protect their investment in the inoka [1:11:12] hopen schools we do have a statistically significant change and part of it is driven by the discussions happening on [1:11:19] budget cuts and and what could happen um we had 72% indicate that they would [1:11:25] support 23% oppose and 5% are unsure so that disagreement is core opposition [1:11:32] because we're not talking about an operating Levy or a bond referendum we're talk talking about a dollar amount [1:11:38] they're just against anything um so it means there's more of a willingness to [1:11:43] have a conversation of all my clients that are on the ballot this fall uh [1:11:49] unfortunately during a presidential election um the the norm disagreement is [1:11:54] at 30% at the outset so you're about seven you're seven points lower now [1:12:02] that's in concept and we're going to go in just a little bit on the tax tolerance question um the school bird [1:12:09] performance obviously with everything that's gone on a 10-point drop in favorable a 10 a ninepoint increase in [1:12:17] unfavorable uncertainty at 5% um there is a drop obviously associated with [1:12:22] what's gone on um but still the norm right now is 55% favorable to 40% [1:12:28] negative if we look at the superintendent and administration uh a similar drop Five [1:12:35] Points um this is a better than 3:1 ratio the Norman superintendence and [1:12:41] administration right now is 2: one and then if we look at teachers it's a [1:12:47] 90-10 um they're actually uh more favorable than they were pre pandemic um [1:12:53] and this is actually uh strong compar uh comp uh looking at comparisons uh [1:12:58] ratings of teachers have dropped a bit over the past four years A lot of it with discussions with unions uh and [1:13:05] people things that have played out in the media um so that the norm favorable rating on teachers and instructors is [1:13:12] between 80 and 85% so a very strong rating uh in a Noah [1:13:18] henpen are minus schools adequately funded 43% said yes 40 2% said no do [1:13:27] people believe in NOA henpen has sufficient funds to provide a high quality education 48% said yes 45% said [1:13:35] no this is the current state of where we are in the state on the question of [1:13:41] adequacy of Education funding we don't know um after 21 with education funding [1:13:49] increase in discussions from the legislature in St Paul uh we had 75% of [1:13:55] people indicating that districts were adequately funded now coming out of the 23 bium what happened there there was [1:14:02] discussion of money uh but now folks are hearing about budget cuts in school [1:14:07] districts operating levies during presidential elections people don't know what to currently think about the [1:14:13] adequacy of funding overall assessment of financial management then obviously impacted with [1:14:21] the current discussion uh but still 10 points higher than the norm of 52% on [1:14:26] the favorable rating the value provided by the Anoka [1:14:32] henpen School District this is driven you know the the key input here is the value is what you pay in property taxes [1:14:39] and we know that property tax uh concern has gone up since 2022 um and so it's 65% favorable to 32% [1:14:50] favorable that 2:1 ratio is right at the norm now everybody's District has been [1:14:55] impacted by perceptions of high property taxes coming out of the reassessment [1:15:00] across the state in 22 if they heard the district was going to ask for a funding increase are they [1:15:07] for all against all or persuadable you start out 1% uh in in the lead uh 28% [1:15:15] are against all 27% are for all but then the persuadables the largest section at [1:15:22] 45% the key obviously is going to to be what would the amount they would support [1:15:29] um first off the nothing uh we always want that to be under [1:15:34] 35% um so if we look at where folks are at that are willing to accept a property [1:15:40] tax increase it's between $8 to $10 a month um and I always School boards [1:15:46] always ask is that number set in stone it's absolutely not set in stone it's meant to give you an indication of where [1:15:52] the community is at knowing that the further you go from that it matters [1:15:57] greatly what the funding request is for there's a big difference between say mental health support and uh outdoor [1:16:05] athletic space for sports teams I I mean in the minds of the public folks are prioritizing and we're in the current [1:16:12] state right now that the districts that have the best chance of success this fall have prioritized the needs versus [1:16:20] the wants um and and assessing that and obviously maintaining program avoiding [1:16:25] budget cuts um all of those sorts of things are highly prioritized there's [1:16:30] not as much excitement for an enhancement or um expansion of [1:16:36] programming and services by schools currently I noted this the timing um [1:16:43] awareness was limited this number would be different now absolutely uh but 41% [1:16:49] in August were aware the district was facing $21 million in cuts [1:16:55] a new section that we added was a discussion of topics um and an emphasis on topics in the schools and this is set [1:17:02] up like a stop light too little uh there should be more emphasis uh red too much [1:17:08] stop yellow about the right amount and on this one just kind of go through it quickly if we net out the too much [1:17:16] versus too little on the too little Nets out the basics um then mental health [1:17:22] support Career Tech education um and then music and Fine Arts if we [1:17:28] look at where it Nets out too much it revolves around Dei slavery and racism [1:17:35] gender identity and lgbtqia plus issues this is the overall so how do parents [1:17:42] feel um on these same topics and they pretty much mirror the community as a [1:17:47] whole in fact parents are more intense on more emphasis on the basics uh more [1:17:54] emphasis on Mental Health uh Career Tech uh education really are prioritized by [1:18:01] parents uh similarly parents are a little bit more divided on the community with Dei and slavery and racism still [1:18:08] tips to too much uh but they reflect the community with gender identity and [1:18:14] lgbtqia plus issues and then finally the rating of school district Communications um this [1:18:21] is always in the summertime um there's always a tick down to traditional your [1:18:26] surveys were done in late spring coming out of the school year um so the 78% uh [1:18:32] positive rating uh is a summer rating uh typically we see that go to about 70% um [1:18:38] but still relatively strong and amongst parents it was over 85% rating the school district Communications is [1:18:45] positively um so I think with that I'd be happy to answer any questions you [1:18:52] have thank you very much for the presentation are there any questions or comments from the [1:18:59] board uh co-chair to Shane uh just a quick thank you for your [1:19:05] time uh and effort on presenting this to us in a way that we could understand and uh have at the work session and then now [1:19:11] so that the public can see the results of this I think you had mentioned that Anoka hennipin has done a survey of this [1:19:17] nature for an extended amount of time could you give us the exact like amount of history that we have behind um survey [1:19:23] results like this I believe we started doing this in the failed operating after [1:19:29] the failed operating Levy in 1996 or seven probably [1:19:36] seven uh with a regular check-in every year um and obviously it's changed over [1:19:42] the years you know some years it's much more I mean for a while you know in from 15 to 18 it was all focused around the [1:19:49] bond referendum you know we would have these core sections in it was kind of like we had the doughnut what's the [1:19:54] donnut hole this year we looked at the school start times we looked at the middle school change we looked at the [1:20:00] emphasis on curriculum um so it is evolved over time but those core questions it's quite an extensive [1:20:07] database going on with the inoka anapen district thank you well I I think it's it's really important for us as board [1:20:13] members to have statistically valid survey information reflection of our community voice uh and just stakeholder [1:20:20] feedback in this way so thank you [1:20:25] any other thoughts or comments uh director [1:20:31] langenfeld just a uh comment and first of all thank you uh as you think about [1:20:36] the school districts that are currently going out for referendum you mentioned the need versus want are there just like [1:20:43] one or two top things that that you believe will be um received well by the [1:20:50] community in terms of support like is it class size does it parallel what we saw in terms of [1:20:57] the priority typically is there any kind of alignment there it it class size is tough because [1:21:06] class size is in the eye of the beholder sure um with with specifics um for [1:21:13] operating levies I think the districts that have the best chance of success is a clear [1:21:19] message on what The Logical consequences are going to be if it doesn't pass we [1:21:24] are back to 2008 2009 with the recession in looking [1:21:30] at maintenance of what we have as opposed to enhancements if there are [1:21:36] enhancements that are supported it definitely revolves around mental health supports it definitely revolves around [1:21:44] improving reading uh programs those sorts of things to help lift the you know that [1:21:50] goes back to the foundation it doesn't matter what's being taught if the kids can't read um on on the bond side it's Safety and [1:21:58] Security and deferred maintenance okay the the half to Hales thank you I [1:22:04] appreciate that any other thoughts or comments or [1:22:10] questions from the board well thank you very much for the presentation [1:22:18] thank the next item on our agenda is item 7B the mshsl foundation resolution [1:22:24] solution welcome Josh Dr Josh delich the associate superintendent for high [1:22:33] schools oh good evening everyone uh good evening co co-chair uh D co-chair Arco [1:22:40] members of the board superintendent McIntyre uh tonight in front of you uh is our grant a from the Minnesota State [1:22:46] High School league through Minnesota State uh High School league Foundation the form a grant helps uh fund [1:22:53] extracurricular participation for our high school students in athletics and Fine Arts programs it's really awesome [1:22:58] opportunity for this grant uh to support uh schools and how it works as the [1:23:04] unduplicated number of participants who qualify for the educational benefits including free and reduced meals uh so [1:23:10] in this context just uh to clarify kind of what does UND duplicated mean it means that each student uh only counts [1:23:17] once um regardless of how many sports or activities that they participate in but it's a great opportunity and Grant to [1:23:23] help support uh our activities uh in our high school so as a member school we [1:23:28] have submitted that resolution to our governing board co-chairs and now I'd like to just turn [1:23:34] the mic back over to you uh co-chair Arco and I'm asking uh for a vote in favor of a resolution and the for thank [1:23:42] you very much are there any questions from board [1:23:47] members hearing no request for discussion board members we have the Minnesota State High School league Foundation resolution form a for [1:23:54] approval as presented in appendix K with no further questions the clerk will call [1:23:59] the role please Simon votes I hman I AET i langenfeld i desane i and Arco [1:24:11] I with six in favor and zero opposed the that resolution is approved thank you [1:24:17] very much for the presentation thank you all next on the agenda we have item 7c [1:24:24] October 1 enrollment report welcome Dr Joel verduin Chief technology in and [1:24:29] information officer thank you co-chair Arco um [1:24:34] members of the school board co-chair Des Shan and superintendent McIntyre um tonight I am presenting the October one [1:24:41] enrollment report uh just some basic information about it um one thing is I will refer to a couple of the um graphs [1:24:48] that are on the the hand out in the packet otherwise the um slides are pretty just straightforward words um and [1:24:54] I'll um point out where those um particular um places are that I'd like to um point out um schools in Minnesota [1:25:02] um are um submitting their enrollment counts on it's an October 1 process and [1:25:07] so that's the official date for Minnesota when schools do this we we perform two major things when it comes to enrollment one is this enrollment [1:25:14] report um and um my departments do all of the student data accounting um but [1:25:19] then secondly we do a projections um and we do that sometime in the January time frame just just ahead of Staffing [1:25:25] because it is what drives the Staffing um process by taking a look at our um students and predicting where our [1:25:30] enrollments might change this enrollment report you'll you'll see and and we'll point out a few things on here um there [1:25:37] are um the differences from projections because it matters um for a number of things um but also I'll give you some um [1:25:44] change from the last school year so I'll talk about some of the statistics in terms of what was it like last year what [1:25:49] are what are we looking at this year um so my goal is to provide some um information on some on key demographics [1:25:56] um to let you know of any Trends and changes uh in the data and describe any of the potential impacts um try to make [1:26:02] a few connections to things that go on um districtwide one um additional item [1:26:07] I'll add is we had a um we had a commission Study last year it was just before new board board members came on I [1:26:13] think we presented in December of last year um that is a much more detailed um [1:26:18] enrollment projection but what I would say at the outset and I'll summarize at the end is most of what we are seeing [1:26:24] is um found within that 10-year study that was done some of the implications such as smaller class sizes at the at [1:26:30] the earliest levels um being one example of what that 10-year report says um so [1:26:37] uh moving on to the next slide I will talk just a little bit about um the idea that the enrollment report there's um [1:26:43] there's several things that are related to it the impact on facilities and programming um our projections are our [1:26:49] staffing um our implications to it and then uh there are items that we keep [1:26:54] close eyes on most recently we read uh we met to talk about Open Enrollment um [1:26:59] and uh uh boundaries uh as we're watching some of the schools um getting [1:27:04] filled up and um we will make a decision usually in this November time frame as to whether or not we need to close [1:27:10] schools to open enrollment so that's something that we brought back to you around that time um each year so there [1:27:16] are um some different um broader implications and just the numbers and how they [1:27:21] change um so the summary of the main points in the different parts of this is [1:27:26] that our enrollment declined slightly from last year um our K12 projection was [1:27:32] off by uh negative .8% so we projected a decline but we didn't project as much of [1:27:37] a decline as we actually saw um and I'll go through more details in this changes in enrollment um does vary by level so [1:27:44] this isn't unusual sometimes our elementaries go down our middle schools go up our our high schools are um are [1:27:50] sometimes off and and it seems like there isn't necessarily a pattern to that but um it is essentially the fact [1:27:57] that um our students don't stay the same from year to year and sometimes where students come and where students don't [1:28:03] come is it can be a little bit unpredictable but not by a great amount as you'll see in the the total um [1:28:08] percentage that that we uh we off um ethnicity does continue to change in a [1:28:14] very steady pattern so that one has been fairly um predictable our multilingual learner numbers um are are decently near [1:28:21] steady just a little bit of an up uptick this year and our free and reduced populations um actually had a slight [1:28:27] decrease this year so those are the major um takeaways for that we'll go more into detail um into the K12 [1:28:33] enrollment so our enrollment is down by 358 students from last year um we [1:28:39] projected a 66 student decrease um which also means that our staffing was built [1:28:45] on that so we staffed for more students then actually showed up and essentially [1:28:50] um just for for information I think for for board members um that Staffing process kind of corrects itself the next [1:28:56] time around so when we look at Staffing if we've overstaffed one year we bring it back down to the level that it should [1:29:02] have been at and then build on that Staffing so that we try to rightsize the Staffing numbers for the students it [1:29:07] isn't really possible to I think on our best um year we actually were like one [1:29:12] student off or two students off but across the schools um it it varies so we do our best to to determine Staffing for [1:29:20] the schools um our associate superintendents keep a close eye on those numbers and we do make adjustments [1:29:25] where where we need to um the next slide our um our K5 [1:29:32] numbers have decreased by 224 students from from the last year so that is [1:29:37] essentially where most of this um decline actually occurred and it's mostly at kindergarten um the [1:29:43] kindergarten class is at 2402 and um kindergarten uh our [1:29:49] kindergarten classes have been have been in the past fairly stable around the 2500 to 2600 number um but this one most [1:29:56] recently fell down to 20 um 24 or I'm sorry 2402 as a kindergarten [1:30:02] them so that's low that's um in our um 20year history and our um kindergarten [1:30:08] classes were much larger in the 90s um in our in our history of keeping these numbers for um the years that are in [1:30:15] this uh packet that 2402 is the second lowest number next to um co uh the the [1:30:21] pandemic year and so this is a low number for us that number the kindergarten number is a really [1:30:27] difficult one to predict we use um we use all of our birth rates from the two counties um and then we keep track of [1:30:33] every kid that's born we we track them um in terms of uh having lived here but [1:30:39] we obviously don't know what happens to them between K and and four or five and then we take all of our preschool [1:30:44] enrollments and we roll those forward to try to figure out what our kindergarten numbers are like and so we do um vary in [1:30:51] percentage wise from the birth rates but the birth rates are in a downward Trend and that is part of the report that we [1:30:57] heard uh last December and it's been true um if you looked at our enrollment um history and I will point that out on [1:31:04] on page four that kindergarten history um you can see that um on that graph [1:31:09] there's kind of a line you could draw that would just sort of be a slightly declining line on page four of the [1:31:15] enrollment packet as they're numbered at the top um that one shows the kindergarten going across we graph the [1:31:22] um we graph them for 20 years but there's enrollments that go even further back and you can see they were up in the [1:31:27] 3000s um back in 1994 so the declining birth rate is is probably the biggest [1:31:32] driving factor in our enrollment and then moves ins outs open enrollments those types of things kind of modify uh [1:31:39] that number to a degree um the K5 uh so I'm sorry I did actually state that last [1:31:44] Bullet thank you you move to the Middle School um uh for the Middle School [1:31:51] enrollments they were actually up 78 students Middle School school um has had a bit of a a trajectory that is that has [1:31:58] um been down the last couple of years um they've went back up by 78 students um [1:32:03] what happens at middle middle school and high school is we get an influx of students at Sixth and nth grade um this [1:32:09] is something that's very predictable that number for sixth graders tends to be maybe 3 to 4% and for ninth graders [1:32:15] it tends to be five or six% new students um and those are likely students coming to us from other programs that have made [1:32:21] a decision maybe that's the right time to move um maybe there's other driving I imagine there's a multitude of driving [1:32:27] factors but that number is consistent and that's pretty common for schools um across the state for them to have a bump [1:32:32] in enrollment in those years um so our Middle School enrollments were up by 78 students High School enrollments were [1:32:38] down by um 22 students another very predictable pattern our high schools [1:32:43] tend to lose students as the year goes on um it is um something that's not seen at the other levels but it's just a very [1:32:49] predictable program some kids exit um in their after their first um first or second try if they're returning for for [1:32:57] work um school work and so that is a a piece of sometimes what we see there so [1:33:02] not a lot of change for those for those um secondary schools um our ethnicities uh there is [1:33:11] something that I would draw some attention to in the um ethnicity part of the report um while our ethnicities are [1:33:18] actually um continuing to follow the same trend lines that they have been a have been following we tend to tick up [1:33:23] um in the number of students in in um almost all of our minority care uh categories and um that's true in this [1:33:30] report as well um we do have um two we added a new page to this report so for [1:33:37] the very first time we were reporting um the state um level E ethnicities um they [1:33:42] are beginning to be reported on when it comes to the Minnesota accountability system which is State reporting um for [1:33:49] for testing and um we wanted to make sure that we included those here and to let you know what the difference is [1:33:55] between them and so in 2017 the legislature approved a statute [1:34:00] that um asked for the Department of Ed to um be more granular about um [1:34:06] different ethnicities and finding out which ones as as an example with Native Americans how many of our students [1:34:12] belong to the most populous Native American tribes in the state of Minnesota and so that's one example [1:34:18] where they've decided the federal just says yes or no in Minnesota we ask sub questions that will go further into [1:34:24] those ethnicities Minnesota also um considers North American um Native [1:34:31] populations as being Native American while the federal government recognizes North America Central and South America [1:34:37] and so um those numbers end up um being calculated a little bit different way [1:34:43] and so they we've have forms that we've been given from the state um parents have been uh filling those forms out [1:34:48] that way Federal one is also defined for us and we just use the federal and the state forms for when people um fill out [1:34:54] their ethnicities so the net result of the difference and um it I'll just simply um try to make this hopefully as [1:35:00] easy as I can what happens is we end up losing um students on the state that [1:35:06] categorize themselves as two or more um ethnicities and we end up picking up students that are Native American and [1:35:12] this the specific reason why is the state of Minnesota says if somebody chooses Native American plus another [1:35:19] category they're considered Native American for the purposes of of Minnesota if um they do that federally [1:35:27] they're considered two or more and so um that difference plays out um in the in [1:35:32] the numbers that we have here it also is and will continue to have different numbers being categorized that way when [1:35:38] it comes to State Testing and Janna will talk about that anytime that we have reports on um State Testing most of um [1:35:45] everything else that that we end up working with are the federal ethnicities and those are on that next page and um [1:35:53] we actually uh we actually um changed a little bit [1:35:58] uh in our um minority enrollment went up a little bit and our majority Ro enrollment went down um by about 2% a [1:36:06] little bit less than 2% that's a trend that we have continued to see across the school district um it's also a trend [1:36:11] that's seen Statewide um and um interestingly at Noah henpen actually um [1:36:16] has a lot of um similarities to the overall state population um not maybe surprising given the fact that we cover [1:36:23] a large geographic area um our in our um excuse me moving [1:36:31] on to the El students our El students actually had a just a little bit of a an uptick in in numbers um we went from [1:36:40] 8.67% um El students to 10% in the past we've seen a little bit smaller um [1:36:46] inclines in that most of them were across the Emer um the emerging to expanding categories and those Cate tend [1:36:53] to be students um that are a little bit further in their journey in terms of um being completely uh proficient in the [1:37:00] English language um next slide are free and reduced uh lunch [1:37:07] numbers actually decreased um just a little bit uh if you recall this is I think now this is the second year of um [1:37:14] meals that are um not paid um that we have free meals for for all students and [1:37:19] so this is one of the ones why um I want to continue to give um uh credit to our uh Child Nutrition [1:37:26] program because they um find new and creative ways to remind families that there are other benefits to en um [1:37:33] signing up for free and reduced lunch be um because if we um if we don't know [1:37:38] that then sometimes things like field trips and other um other things that can be discounted for students by our [1:37:44] schools um they benefit from that and so it's important for those um families to enroll in it um in addition to that we [1:37:51] have the ability to um uh Direct certify families and that has tended to expand over the last couple years and when they [1:37:57] start when they um when they uh qualify for one program for the state then we can direct certify and say that they [1:38:03] qualify for this program so that number went down just a little bit um it had gone up if you remember um after the [1:38:09] pandemic we had one year where there was a 10% increase um that kind of leveled off a little bit and then this year just [1:38:14] went down slightly so we lost about one .2 uh% uh free and redu students in that [1:38:22] area next slide um so some uh some just review it's it's [1:38:28] really likely that our enrollment will continue to be limited by those smaller birth rates um what our District's [1:38:34] population tends to do is it gets a little bit bigger so if we have a thousand kids come in kindergarten it it [1:38:39] ends up being like 1,300 by the time they're seniors so um that's a that's a [1:38:45] function of moving in and moving out we tend to pick up a little bit older kids um so that's that's a good thing it's [1:38:51] not a great thing when the elementary or that kindergarten number starts that low because that number is going to move through and that cohort's probably going [1:38:56] to change a little bit um that it is um it's not we have seen a little bit of up and down with that number so there's a [1:39:03] chance that we re rebound and have a bigger kindergarten class next year um but it will likely um have an impact of [1:39:10] kind of keeping our enrollment pretty steady um within a very small variation I think um I mentioned the birth rates [1:39:17] being the most influential item and um that last concluding point is just saying the same thing that I think this [1:39:22] will continue be our enrollment expected in the near future pretty level if there's going to be changed it's going to be [1:39:28] minimal unless something else happens and I think that's the [1:39:33] concluding slide it is I'll take any questions or comments that you might [1:39:39] have are there any questions or comments from the [1:39:45] board uh superintendent McIntyre just just a context piece for the board as I talk with other districts on the Metro [1:39:50] and Statewide the trend is what Joel described the kindergarten numbers are down metrowide and Statewide and I think [1:39:58] we've heard from our at least henan County um people that it's a 50-year low [1:40:04] in 2025 for birth rates so it's not out of the real of possibilities that we'll [1:40:09] see some low you know families are just smaller uh in the in the coming num so I [1:40:15] think Joel's right we we tend to have a pretty flat um enrollment but I think we [1:40:21] it wouldn't be I wouldn't be surprised we see continued low numbers at kindergarten just because of those [1:40:26] things with the low birth rates and the fact that we're that's a trend around the state not not just here locally in [1:40:33] our district do some context rette a question and I don't [1:40:40] know who the right person would go to but I I'm curious um you know sort of to substantiate that is do we have do we [1:40:47] have numbers of how many kindergarten age children are reside in the district [1:40:53] you know so that we could get an idea of you know how many are out there how many of them are enrolled here so we could [1:40:59] and if we had that you know history also that might be useful so we could kind of get a good feel for where that trend is [1:41:05] at and is it is that what's in in our specific case impacting us or are there other factors um we we do um know of all [1:41:15] the students that would have enrollments and other schools and programs and homeschool um and uh so that number [1:41:22] would be one that would be um would be pretty uh realistic for for a number [1:41:28] what we wouldn't have is um parents don't have to send their kids to kindergarten um they have to at a certain age but that's usually first [1:41:34] grade um and so there could be some students that are just aren't enrolled and we wouldn't necessarily know that [1:41:39] but we do track all of the charter school private schools um home school enrollments and um we would have a [1:41:46] little bit more solid numbers on those other programs uh in the next month or so um and we can certainly do a [1:41:52] reporting on that um yeah that's helpful I guess history yeah I'd follow it then then say well [1:41:58] let's not fix it just on the kindergarten number then let's let's get to where they're mandated so we can get a feel for some of those other classes [1:42:04] too okay just what's the trend and what's going [1:42:11] on any other questions or comments from board members well thank you very much Dr V [1:42:20] doing all right I'll turn this next item over to superintendent McIntyre it is item 7D Phase 2 budget reductions yeah [1:42:28] thank you co-chair Arco so consistent with our budget reduction and realignment process and timeline tonight's an update on the phase two [1:42:35] process taking place this fall and thank you so to so many of you that board members that came to the community [1:42:40] meetings here recently so um there'll be some um information you've heard before [1:42:45] I I always um think about the people that and as many times as we review this there's always someone that's hearing it [1:42:52] or seeing it for the first time so we're trying to make sure we're consistent in our presentation so if we move on to our [1:42:58] what I'll briefly cover tonight in consistent with previous uh board meetings is just a brief review of the [1:43:04] process for decision- making for phase two and and uh doing that after our completion of phase one last [1:43:10] spring um I'll also talk about um the quick review of our phase two [1:43:16] recommendation and a summary of the community feedback received here recently and wrap up with a timeline [1:43:22] review in our work leading up to this uh I've [1:43:28] shared at every presentation the convergence of factors coming together at the same time really explaining how [1:43:34] we got here and it's really a number of things the fact that we have stable enrollment growth means we haven't had [1:43:40] increasing enrollment and we know that our funding is tied to enrollment so we can expect not a large increase in [1:43:47] funding the pandemic relief funds have ended we have employee contract settlements with you're actually the [1:43:53] last two of the 18 employment groups are on on the agenda for tonight inflation and higher cost for [1:43:59] transportation and this General District Operations have has kind of been in that 5 to 10% range knowing that we have uh [1:44:06] when it comes to expenditures as compared to the revenue of about 3% or less projected forward the [1:44:13] anticipation really uh looking forward is there's no new or additional Revenue that we can count on at this point [1:44:19] either state or federal um we'll watch what the next legislative session brings [1:44:24] forward there's also several un new either unfunded or underfunded mandates [1:44:29] that have limited um funding for when it comes to our general fund expenditures [1:44:35] so um those have had an impact and we'll continue to have an impact KN that some of the legislative action around those [1:44:41] have brought forward one-time funds and not ongoing funds so as a result we are [1:44:46] we moved into a two-phase budget reduction process we started last spring with phase one knowing that we have to [1:44:52] plan for for um being uh hitting our budget targets for next year in the 25 [1:44:57] 26 school year so just by quick review if I move on here phase one you've you've uh seen this information multiple [1:45:04] times but that um our district is one of many in Minnesota and in the Metro uh [1:45:12] experiencing some of the same impacts the 41 Metro school districts are estimating about 300 million in [1:45:17] shortfalls our phase one reduction plan started right away um in February and [1:45:24] went through April with the goal of Trying to minimize the impact for this school year and and moving forward so we [1:45:30] made the move to reduce 5.1 million there with about 50 positions uh [1:45:36] centrally being infected either through reduction or reallocation um there was also some [1:45:41] non-personnel reductions in the areas of transportation and District technology so the goal was to try to minimize that [1:45:47] impact on the school operations at our sites phase two reductions um [1:45:53] again we dove into this right away in July as after we got the uh budget [1:46:00] approved for this school year moved right into planning for next school year and um those reductions for phase two so [1:46:07] after the phase one uh reductions were made we had a new Target kind of reset [1:46:12] for $21 million for this year so that we had about a 26 million dollar Target between phase one and phase two so this [1:46:20] slide here just reflects the key dates and decision-making that we've reviewed a number of times with preliminary [1:46:26] recommendations that were provided to the board September 23rd at our board meeting these recommendations were [1:46:32] provided uh to the community and for staff review and feedback through a series of committee open house meetings [1:46:39] kind of open house style meetings and on the online survey process that was available for those who participated [1:46:45] that was late September and early October throughout the phase two process [1:46:51] uh we've talked about um the planning parameters at play so [1:46:57] we've taken into consideration the district strategic priorities our enrollment which you heard a lot about [1:47:03] here tonight reviewing existing programs and services applying this approach through a phased model looking even [1:47:11] further at central office and Central administrative uh reductions looking [1:47:16] back in time on the impact of past reductions and then also considering restricted versus unrestricted funding [1:47:23] areas fund balance class size making sure we're optimizing operations and [1:47:29] also looking at instructional uh instructional time and supervision through the uh school schedules which [1:47:36] you all um spent lots of time with uh considering when it came to middle school and high school schedules I'll [1:47:42] follow up with that in a minute and then finally uh legal and financial compliance that comes along with our [1:47:50] budget when it comes to um collecting input and and really [1:47:57] getting information to you we started that process this summer with District level leadership in July through the [1:48:02] summer and then developed a number of options for the board to consider and have discussion about so at the [1:48:09] September 9th work session you considered five options and really had long discussion about the pros and cons [1:48:15] of each of those options and after taking that cons discussion into consideration we came back with um which [1:48:23] I'll get to in a moment a kind of a hybrid recommendation taking elements of those five recommendations especially [1:48:29] the first four the fifth one was a referendum option for you to consider for the November [1:48:36] 2025 uh time frame so that would be a a way to bridge the reduction with some [1:48:42] reductions at central office and strategic Investments which would just be two years ahead of those Sun those [1:48:47] funds being sunsetted already and that would be a way to keep the fund balance at about [1:48:53] 6% so we covered all those um pieces and at the September work session began to [1:48:59] talk about two recommendations for the board to consider um one being uh kind [1:49:04] of a cut now option for this coming school year and one being an extended option to take advantage of um the [1:49:12] opportunity for the voters to uh weigh in in November of [1:49:17] 2025 so through a lot of changes this is the recommendation number one that we landed on as far as [1:49:23] the um how to hit that Target of uh 21 million in in addition to the 5 million [1:49:29] previously cut this chart reflects the current recommendation number one for $12.25 million at the elementary middle [1:49:35] and high school level it also includes a 13.75 million total cut at the central [1:49:42] office again to minimize the impact at the school level with the district office taking on the majority of the [1:49:47] overall reductions from both phase one and phase two in addition after com comp [1:49:52] prehensive review of the the schedules the middle school and high school schedules those changes are not [1:49:57] recommended at this time and the board had lots of conversation and discussion about um those scheduled changes and and [1:50:04] in the end the direction was to not pursue them so on the next slide this is again [1:50:09] the the recommendation for referendum should the board consider to go that direction it's taking into those into [1:50:18] account those three key pillars in this option so to maintain a six % fund [1:50:23] balance you would um Sunset early the one-time funds used for strategic [1:50:29] Investments those are five million a year so that'd be a $10 million um way [1:50:35] to adjust the fund balance and then couple that with an additional 5 million [1:50:40] at the central office and then you would have to decide as a board whether to you're still 13 [1:50:46] million dollar short potentially or somewhere in that neighborhood so you still need to think about how do we bridge that Gap whether or not that's [1:50:52] through a referendum um or additional Cuts so all overall the um if you did go [1:51:01] to a referendum option we could bridge that with strategic Investments and central office reductions and you could [1:51:07] pause or delay any cuts at the school level at the elementary middle school and high school level for another [1:51:14] year so just some detail coming up on the next slides we've went through this as well this is a a breakdown of [1:51:23] the um level at each level elementary middle and high school Cuts so this reflects um an effort to try to minimize [1:51:31] impact primarily at the elementary level with over 70% of those Elementary Cuts [1:51:37] away from the traditional classroom as of today the you know of the our total amount needed 26 million [1:51:43] about 5% of that only is at the traditional Elementary classroom that was one of the interests of the board so [1:51:49] the remaining 95% of the entire 26 million is is in other [1:51:55] areas the total number of positions U recommended for reduction at the elementary level is um approximately 1% [1:52:03] of the traditional classroom piece and again this is again to minimize the impact at the elementary level at the [1:52:08] middle school level a little different story this uh would result in class sizes increasing uh average class sizes [1:52:16] across the middle school level to increase by approximately four with um [1:52:22] this reduction the total number of positions is a just shy of 6% of our total Middle School [1:52:27] staff and without a high school schedule change the high school class sizes are estimated to increase by about five or [1:52:33] approximately five across when you think average class size and that's approximately 5.3% of our total High [1:52:40] School staff this is a new slide some [1:52:46] additional information that's provided for you on the on the uh next slide this is a breakdown for you by department at [1:52:53] the central office so when you look at districtwide staff and non-staff reductions gives you some additional detail of the dollar amounts per [1:53:01] department and it um really in the end will reflect another 90 to 100 positions [1:53:07] being reduced in addition to the close to between 40 and 50 positions already reduced in phase one so you're getting [1:53:14] in the neighborhood of 150 positions centrally and you'll have additional details uh at the work session next [1:53:20] Monday as we continue to make sure we're um honoring our employee contracts our [1:53:27] collective bargaining agreements private Personnel data and so forth so with some additional work this week we'll have [1:53:32] more detail for you uh next Monday night at the work session but again the at this point the [1:53:39] central office is the majority of the total reductions uh it's about onethird of the central office positions being reduced [1:53:46] as compared to roughly 2 to 6% of positions at the sites in addition to their reductions if [1:53:53] you go on to that yeah thank you onto this slide these are some realignments that we can make to help um minimize the [1:53:59] number of personnel reductions so we can um make some realignments within Child Nutrition technology Community Education [1:54:07] and again with a new legislative change with student support Aid we can now fund [1:54:12] existing positions with that new student support Aid um that will that's [1:54:18] additional dos we wouldn't have to cut deeper into more Personnel cuts [1:54:24] on the next slide is where I'm going to get into some of the feedback uh the [1:54:30] summary from our community meetings and those who participated in the online uh [1:54:37] survey so I kind of want to make a distinction between engagement and participation so we know that when we [1:54:43] track the hits on our website or the uh how many people open the emails we push out uh we know there's thousands of [1:54:50] people we can confirm that through our data that received the information which is a you know different uh piece than [1:54:57] those who actively choose to participate through either coming to a meeting and or filling out the survey knowing that [1:55:03] we made that survey available online so for those who were not able to [1:55:08] attend our community meetings we did record that first first meeting in in live you know that live streamed um [1:55:16] option or recorded option is on the district website on the YouTube channel we did for anyone to re uh view that and [1:55:22] and that can still be done over 300 U residents have viewed that presentation [1:55:27] online and through our Communications we've raised I think that awareness piece just through our um email pushouts [1:55:35] in in the newsletters so we also had about 274 [1:55:40] residents that completed the staff or that completed the feedback form uh that was online so here's a breakdown of that [1:55:49] sample so 65% of those who filled out the [1:55:55] survey or the feedback form were either parents or Guardians and within that uh [1:56:01] 72% identified they had students with in elementary 33% had students in middle [1:56:06] school and 35 in% indicated they had students at high school of those taken [1:56:11] the survey as well 52% were staff members so roughly half and again um [1:56:17] others that completed their survey about a third that completed it do not have students in their household and then [1:56:23] just a fraction of our students uh took that online [1:56:30] survey here's a different way to visualize that and Mikey takeaway for the board on this is we have sampling [1:56:35] from all five major High School sectors or clusters in our district you can kind [1:56:42] of see the breakdown there um but it represents that all again um each [1:56:47] geographic region of our district was is represented in that survey [1:56:52] so some themes that we can uh take away from the those that did participate in the feedback [1:56:59] Forum um the survey ask for a direct response regarding option one or option [1:57:05] two uh when it comes to either the reductions now or the referendum and 89% [1:57:12] of those who participated supported option two or the referendum option in the survey so some additional breakdown [1:57:19] here there some data I thought you might be interested in 35 responded uh added of the respondents [1:57:25] added comments about a need for the ref a referendum additional themes so we had [1:57:31] about 110 respondents who mentioned class size concerns uh 79 residents offered ideas [1:57:39] for efficiencies or their own ideas on reduction strategies or areas for reduction to be considered we had about [1:57:46] 47 who shared concerns about losing additional elective options or Advanced programming for students [1:57:52] 35 were concerned about Staffing changes uh 19 actually weighed in on the [1:57:57] proposed schedule change although the board is not currently considering that as part of the proposals at this point [1:58:03] and another um 19 we're just purely asking for more details on on the two [1:58:09] proposals so um that is a summary and I know you have [1:58:15] a document in your packet that goes into more detail there and I think we also provided you with a copy of the comments [1:58:20] uh last week in my superintendent update so looking ahead here's another look at [1:58:25] the kind of the visual timeline that blue section across the top is the board related areas and the section below are [1:58:32] the actions taken by the administration throughout the timeline so um I'll just [1:58:38] note that as we continue through this um the richness of the board and each individual having their own ideas and [1:58:45] perspectives on what should be considered in the reductions and realignments and [1:58:50] um there at this point I've just maintained the two options for the board to consider the kind of here's your [1:58:56] option to reduce now and what that looks like and then the other option for um referendum and then you know as we move [1:59:04] into the final month here should the board provide different direction then we'll follow that direction right so [1:59:10] right now we have the two recommendations on the table we will have like I mentioned earlier additional [1:59:15] detail on the specifics for those uh reduction areas and that'll be reviewed and discussed at the November 4th work [1:59:21] session with final recommendations and board approval still expected at the November 25th board meeting so that the process [1:59:29] is timed in support of our district Staffing process in planning for next school year which starts in Earnest [1:59:35] really in January but we get a preliminary jump start on that in December so to wrap up the information [1:59:43] on the process continues to be available on our website at ahschools.us [1:59:48] budget as well as um continues to be shared with our community members via our monthly District e newsletter the [1:59:55] focus and um people can Subs subscribe to that online we always like to make a [2:00:00] plug for that uh that kind of wraps up my comments for this evening chair Arco so [2:00:06] um thank you very much and we'll take any comments or questions from the board at this time there any comments or questions [2:00:12] from board members uh director adette uh yeah thanks so first I have a [2:00:20] question I think it's it's probably a board question um but I [2:00:26] I do keep seeing under recommendation number two we talk about a referendum option uh and we keep saying we're going [2:00:33] to maintain a minimum 6% un assigned fund balance but and my question is really a policy question we have a we [2:00:39] have a board policy that mandates a 10% um un assigned fund balance so I don't [2:00:45] really know at this point and I haven't heard us talk about how we would propose we're going to work through that but to [2:00:52] me it's an important policy question um I don't know if have anybody has any [2:00:58] thoughts on that yeah and I know um Miss Fergus is in the crowd that is our the [2:01:05] board's Target for fund balance and you know I've filed questions from all the board members from what if we don't cut [2:01:12] anything what does that do to the fund balance which brings it even lower right so there's a range of options depending [2:01:17] on what you want to do um my recommendation is you just you end this strategic Investments early you make the [2:01:23] central office reductions it still maintains at least a 6% fund balance but those numbers can can move should the [2:01:30] board want to move those variables along with it okay but I mean it does still leave [2:01:37] us sort of in breach of that policy so I I feel you know since it's our own [2:01:43] policy that's something we need to put on a discussion Point [2:01:49] someplace and I would say if the board wants to Main Ain that 10% then the reductions that yeah have been proposed [2:01:56] you're going to need to go deeper right yeah that's right um and then I I think just otherwise I mean I as I've sat [2:02:03] tonight I've uh well I think I submitted over 20 questions earlier this week over [2:02:10] the weekend um I had no expectation they would be answered incidentally and you [2:02:15] remind me of that superintendent so that's fine but um but my point really with it is the deeper you dig the more [2:02:22] questions you have um I I as I sat here today and I think I wrote by the way 15 more so in the and the questions really [2:02:30] stem from deeper analysis of uh of you know what we're proposing to cut and and [2:02:37] um and you know what we're not and I'm not going to read through all my list of of questions now but I do think that [2:02:45] there you know the goal is the goal has stated is to uh try to minimize the Cuts [2:02:52] in the classroom and you know I I think that my overall summary review of where [2:02:59] we are to date there's still Cuts we could make uh that we have [2:03:05] not elected to make that would or you know proposed to make that [2:03:11] would minimize what was happening in classrooms so the questions I submitted [2:03:17] really got to that um probably one important one that I have [2:03:25] that I am going to highlight is um just that we analyze the management I called it the management [2:03:32] impact of the funding of a lot of restricted funding programs so we have a ton we have a ton of our budget that [2:03:38] comes in through restricted funds these are funds that get ear [2:03:44] marked through federal state legislation and otherwise I mean I I don't know all [2:03:50] of the places I I did actually summarize it at one point I had a whole lot of information and it was it was [2:03:57] dozens literally of of different what we call restricted funded programs and so [2:04:03] in essence as I understand it uh we take we take in the district takes in a lot of money that's restricted it's for it [2:04:11] comes for various purposes and it it can it can have an effect where it sort of feels like I'm going to call it free [2:04:17] money that's my word but it feels like it's free money because it doesn't come through the normal funding process but [2:04:24] the reality of free money is you all of the programs come with a requirement to manage to manage them there there will [2:04:32] be people that that will be funded there will be programs that will be funded there will be many of the some of them [2:04:39] have plans you have to write every year so there's there's just this overall management impact and I mean you you can [2:04:45] see it just in the sheer number of people employed in our school district that you know and and especially the are [2:04:51] employed as a result of what I'm calling these restricted funded programs it's a [2:04:57] ton so the more that I look into it the more I realize that that management [2:05:03] impact is is is very significant um I think I think it has [2:05:09] the potential to take away from our core Focus uh you know big important Focus [2:05:15] areas and so we ought to do an analysis to say what would be the effect if we [2:05:20] reduced our acceptance of some of those funds um what would what would it do to [2:05:26] the ability to manage the schools on a lower administrative impact what would [2:05:32] it do to sharpen our Focus what would it do to any ass Associated spending that [2:05:38] may or may not be connected because you know these types of programs are always really great but they never give you quite enough so then you wind up having [2:05:44] to uh you know find other ways to fully fund them so I I'm just presenting that [2:05:50] as one big but I think important example and and I'm going to add that because I've spent three years nearly on the [2:05:57] board now um arguing against a number of the programs that we've initiative a big [2:06:02] chunk of the programs I'm talking about come through these restricted funds so when I talk about it taking away from [2:06:07] our Focus taking away from feelings of unity taking away from you know overall [2:06:14] alignment uh it it has a big impact so for people don't know it where is that [2:06:19] where is that funding coming from where is that spending where do those programs come through a lot of it comes [2:06:25] through these types of things separate issue that I just want [2:06:32] to provide my own color to how we got here and it's really important because [2:06:38] it's our state government that sets laws and um and funding formulas and all of that [2:06:45] from school districts and we all witnessed the the government telling us [2:06:52] in the past year or two years about the unprecedented funding that they that they uh put into schools um we heard it [2:07:02] on the news some people actually I couldn't believe it but some people actually said we'd finally fully funded [2:07:08] schools and then of course everybody was confused why after doing that we got to this point where you know we find [2:07:14] ourselves 26 million in the whole but you know the a lot of that uh [2:07:21] fund fing also was tied to different things so free lunches for every child even though every child did not need [2:07:27] free lunches there I don't believe there was a in any recent time there's been a [2:07:32] child who who didn't have lunch at school whether it was paid uh through the government or [2:07:38] through home um paid paid family leave uh was a requirement that hit us [2:07:45] uh unemployment for part-time workers a massive uh mandate that the state government put on us uh read act uh [2:07:53] We've talk it's been talked about a lot tampons uh in all the schools the list just goes on and on and [2:07:59] on so tons of these mandates that hit school districts went unfunded we've talked about it a lot so when the state [2:08:07] came out and they said well we've had unprecedented funding um much of it was earmarked for specific purposes that [2:08:14] cannot pay for teacher salaries and things like [2:08:19] that despite that fact uh when we settled our contracts people came in for huge increases uh that was [2:08:27] due to a lot of factors inflation's real also caused by in part by the [2:08:32] government and so we really were forced to make the inflationary increases and [2:08:39] here we are but prior to two years ago the school when this historic funding [2:08:44] was passed the school district was not in financial trouble we were solid and so [2:08:52] this is where State politics and education get into it it was an election [2:08:58] year our government worked super hard to hand out tons of money to a bunch of [2:09:03] people they didn't raise ta they didn't want to raise taxes they did not want to raise taxes during that year so they [2:09:08] spent a bunch and now here they are they've left it here they've left it here at the local level for school [2:09:15] districts to try to wrestle with it you know either either operate in deficit or [2:09:21] pass a levy referendum which you know as Mr Leatherman points out oh you might have a chance of passing it in a [2:09:27] scenario where the the want the the want versus the needs and if we're in a [2:09:33] really need-based situation but these Levy referendums never go away they'll be here forever and So [2:09:40] eventually state government will get around to doing their job they'll refund the schools and the levy will still be [2:09:47] here and at that point that money will be directed into something that may or may not be a want or a need so I don't [2:09:55] feel I do a good job as a board member if I don't raise those issues dig deep into the proposed Cuts dig deep into the [2:10:03] proposed budgets ask 15 questions over the weekend come up with 15 more now um [2:10:11] and I'm going to continue to do it um but I I think that there's still plenty [2:10:18] of work to be done that could result in in less cuts to our [2:10:24] classroom uh than than we are than we currently have on the table and I want [2:10:29] to encourage us to continue to pursue it thank [2:10:37] you thank you just a couple thoughts and then I'll let other board members jump in um on the second part we agree yeah [2:10:46] and we're working to do our part to as we enter into this next uh funding [2:10:51] session right uh can't guarantee you know all we have right now is what they've committed to from a small [2:10:57] increase through a consumer price and index so beyond that you know we'll see what kind of impact we can make um so [2:11:05] just a couple high level thoughts um because you covered a lot of ground there um early September the board asked [2:11:12] me for my recommendation so through the work of the expertise of our Administration through the summer that's what I [2:11:18] provided to you right if you as a board and the majority of you say go another [2:11:23] Direction we'll do that but I gave you my best and our team's best uh path [2:11:29] forward and yes I agree on some of the areas around restricted funding you if [2:11:34] you look at what's on the table there are reductions in special education [2:11:40] multilingual Learners achievement and integration all in areas that um that [2:11:46] restricted funding that we get provides the the critical staff and services often required by either state or [2:11:52] federal law for those students who have uh learning needs so um for one example [2:11:59] there's $2 million of special education Cuts in there that because of the funding formula we only realize $500,000 [2:12:05] of actual general fund savings but those are 50 jobs that we would cut to realize realize that so that's one example there [2:12:12] that are in your materials and then lastly um I think the district's prided itself on minimizing the [2:12:19] administrative impact or or you know when we're at less than 3% of our budget [2:12:25] uh centrally you've heard me say it before that's near the bottom of the largest districts in the state 30th out [2:12:30] of 34 so we are we are doing a lot with very little to begin with I gave the [2:12:36] board um as requested what does $15 million look like what does $18 million [2:12:42] look like so you have that if you want to go deeper and that's the direction of the board I've given you three additional steps along the way and like [2:12:50] I said earlier you all have your own Vision or own ideas on what you think [2:12:55] should be looked at and and in what to what degree so we'll have to eventually [2:13:00] get to board direction from the majority of you on how to how to move forward whether it's reductions now or whether [2:13:06] it's delaying those and doing that later or looking at other uh Revenue um possibilities depending on what coming [2:13:13] forward statewise state from the state and so forth so [2:13:19] um that's I I think I'll just end it there thank you any other thoughts or comments from [2:13:26] board members director Simon I believe was first oh sorry jumping on thank you Zach [2:13:33] um I have one question first and then I'll make a comment about the discussion that's been occurring um superintendent [2:13:41] and I know Michelle's there too she may need to um speak on recommendation number one where we've already done 5 [2:13:48] million of course that's done so there's 21 more million in cuts and you have it broken out on this slide where [2:13:54] Elementary Middle High School Phase 2 Central Services um so in that option if [2:14:01] that option were to go forward we would am I right to say that we'd continue our [2:14:07] $10 million of strategic Investments for the next two years yes we would okay so those would [2:14:14] those would continue and we would do permanent Cuts obviously strategic Investments are a one-time cut and not [2:14:21] ongoing so it'd be all the ongoing cuts and strategic Investments would continue [2:14:27] correct I don't think I thanks I I should have that looks pretty clear on the slides and everything for some [2:14:32] reason it just didn't register in my brain uh so thank you um so I the [2:14:38] discussion that just happened I mean maybe just a few quick comments about it um first of all I I have always been an [2:14:44] advocate of any board member that has a question should get their questions answered right I mean we make uh [2:14:51] important votes here so um I think it's I think it's needed and how much time is [2:14:57] needed it it just has to be done so I'm supportive of that um and um member AET [2:15:04] made comments about the um state government and I agree there are and we've we've said it so many times about [2:15:09] the unfunded mandates right they're not just new to this leg last legislative session they've happened throughout our [2:15:15] history one thing to I think I always try to look at both sides of it one one [2:15:22] thing that this board and it it's this board not pass boards that we had control over and the the main reason [2:15:30] that we need to cut is how we settled our contracts right so we gave and I [2:15:36] agree with it I think I think our staff deserves even more than we were able to do but we're able to do it and we agreed [2:15:43] up on it but that's a decision this board made and we made that decision knowing that if we did this we were [2:15:49] going to have to cut so I think that's an important distinction too regardless [2:15:54] of what um the state government does that we don't necessarily have control over we do we have control over what we [2:16:01] have control of and we did make those decisions so it's all I've got [2:16:06] thanks just one I did forgot to acknowledge thank you for the questions we will get answers to you and I I think [2:16:13] to all the good ones that all the board should have and definitely by the end of this week if not sooner there was quite [2:16:19] a few there but we're going to get those um answered for all of you U as soon as [2:16:26] possible director [2:16:31] langenfeld first of all I appreciate questions and I noted that earlier I think if we um the more we can unearth [2:16:40] what's going on and and really uh do an a deep analysis the better we will [2:16:46] decisions we'll make uh just a speaking of of an analysis as I think about um [2:16:53] and conversations are being held as to which positions and so forth um the [2:16:59] Administration has provided us with um the recommendations and for me [2:17:04] personally the questions that I I really um want to have a deeper understanding [2:17:10] of is the unintended consequences sometimes we we can understand the [2:17:16] position but the impact it's like an uh a value on the impact of what that [2:17:23] really means to a student um because there's trickle down kinds of an [2:17:28] unintended consequence so for example if we cut something out of central office [2:17:34] how does that impact the principle that impacts this you know the classroom teacher and and as I've been out and [2:17:40] about just having conversations with Educators who have you know friends have reached out um the [2:17:47] considerations of different opportunities you know what that looks like um people have different ideas as [2:17:55] to what that is so questions are being asked about you know are we giving consideration to the impact of the [2:18:03] cutson central office and what they will do uh to the student um in the classroom [2:18:09] eventually it it it it works both ways so that would be one area I'd really like to have just a little deeper [2:18:16] understanding I can understand the positions but the question is um and I know that our Administration is working [2:18:23] very hard to minimize that impact but to just have a some clarity around that the [2:18:29] other thing I would offer is and and this is a question and maybe I'm I'm [2:18:34] thinking or reflecting of it this a little bit different but a lot of the restricted funds in my past experience [2:18:41] had to do with uh legislative federal or state requirements and perhaps um just a [2:18:49] little more about that as you look at the the the the the different areas and [2:18:56] categories that are restricted how many are those aligned with a state or federal statute that's required that we [2:19:03] need to provide that kind of programming support or services and then what does [2:19:09] that really look like is it even possible to reduce those areas and if so [2:19:15] for example I think of special ed for example I think of Maintenance of effort and and what that looks like um it it's [2:19:23] um you question how much is when you say restricted it's restricted for a reason [2:19:29] typically because someone has determined that a certain student group should have [2:19:35] those resources really is what that means in in my experience anyway so I [2:19:41] would like to have if to answer um as we look at uh director adet questions uh [2:19:47] within that framework I would like to have that information as as well in terms of um what really can we look at [2:19:56] um in that in those spaces as well but the other part as I was sitting here [2:20:01] listening and and um just one more comment um to the superintendent's report is that for some people this may [2:20:08] be new information and they might have missed the window to provide us with input and I would assume that anyone [2:20:16] that is still interested and out in our public that has some thoughts reflection [2:20:21] on what they just heard it might be for the first time um that they would be able to send an email to the [2:20:28] superintendent in the board and get their questions answered as well or at least provide U their comments or [2:20:34] concerns um I'd appreciate that as well um we had a good turnout for for the [2:20:41] timing that we had but I'm sure there are other people that are talking about this as well so thank you [2:20:48] [Music] any other thoughts or comments from uh director [2:20:54] hulman thank you um that statement was really insightful to unearth what's [2:21:00] going on because it's a big district with a lot of money um the size of this [2:21:05] budget is huge and with 5,000 employees there's a lot of things going on and um [2:21:12] just want to make certain of course we're always thinking you know how are these things going to impact the kids um [2:21:18] of course we need um the staff in place to support the kids um but really [2:21:24] digging down to that most basic part is how do we best serve the students in the [2:21:29] district so as I um just look and consider that a question I have is when [2:21:37] did we how long have we had the Staffing ratios that we're at right now for our [2:21:45] schools approximately well they're reviewed every year um so there's an annual VI and I'm kind of looking to my [2:21:51] team here I know I I'm not sure for certain how many years when's the last time they've been adjusted um that's [2:21:58] really kind of been driven by the budget they're all intertwined right so I can follow up with more specifics on maybe [2:22:04] some history on that is there any like five years one year any [2:22:10] like 20 th okay okay so 2009 so that's been pretty [2:22:18] long time um during that time we've had a large [2:22:25] increase in staff the ratio has remained the [2:22:32] same and our student enrollment has been pretty constant so I guess the question that I [2:22:39] have as related to the question that other board members have brought up [2:22:44] is what are the additional positions funding and again it's back to this [2:22:49] unearth what's going on because if we're growing the number of positions but [2:22:54] we're not adding or changing that Staffing ratio to our [2:22:59] classrooms are we getting the return on investment with these new positions that [2:23:04] we want are they giving us Higher Achievement in our classrooms is it [2:23:11] providing the services that our kids need I feel like in this whole thing I don't know that we've really assessed [2:23:16] that because I think that's really an important piece when we're looking at um how we're cutting positions and back [2:23:23] to that other idea of are they tied to mandated things and [2:23:29] even if we're getting that as um director Adat said kind of called free [2:23:34] money almost um is it worth it how are we looking at that so just this is so [2:23:40] big um and I just will continue to ask questions and I um thank you for the [2:23:46] presentation and we really have a lot still to unearth yeah and I'll resend for the board we did a um a chart that [2:23:54] went back in time and especially pre- pandemic coming have staff we had and then by year and in what areas it was so [2:24:02] I'll resend that just I think it might get some of your questions honestly one of the biggest growth areas has for all [2:24:09] districts has been the area in special education and that isn't free money [2:24:14] they're only funding a portion of that so every school district's budget takes on the cross subsidy and so that's been [2:24:20] a challenge across not even Minnesota across the country so um the majority of those additions has [2:24:28] been for the kind of programming that we've needed to provide for for special education and other supports so I'll [2:24:34] make sure to send that in I would ask board members follow up with additional [2:24:40] questions in relation to that trend line by year on what the FD total FTE the [2:24:46] district has had over time because you're right enrollment has been kind of flat and and um our ratios have stayed [2:24:53] the same but it's been the changes in some of the some of those areas that are mandated by by state and federal law too [2:25:00] so so I'll try to keep chipping away at that with you see if we can get add some clarity for the entire board and that in [2:25:09] that regard right yeah thank you for that and of course it's not just the board we need to be informed and wise [2:25:15] but I mean it's important for our public to know and have as much clarity as possible as well so thank [2:25:23] you um co-chair to Shane thank you um I just [2:25:31] I just quickly wanted to call attention and focus on kind of the governance of this process really quickly um you know [2:25:37] that's the duty of this board right to govern these sorts of things you know the majority of the board gave direction to our administrative team and those [2:25:44] professionals running their departments and their schools to provide recommendations based on the reality of [2:25:50] providing services to our students our families and our community uh we asked them for options we agreed all on [2:25:57] narrowing those options to focus on you know making all the cuts or bridging cuts to a referendum for further [2:26:02] discussion and to gain Community input the people who provided [2:26:08] those perspectives and information to us are those that have worked in education [2:26:13] with specialized skills long-standing experience focusing on student needs [2:26:18] focusing on achievement goals um I just think that's important that we remember that that these recommendations are [2:26:24] coming from highly skilled professionals with direct experience um in the areas [2:26:30] that these cuts are going to be coming from um as a board we also asked for transparency and open communication with [2:26:36] our stakeholders I think that the the district communication team the teams [2:26:42] that pulled together all of the in-person meetings at each High School cluster the virtual option and several [2:26:47] board meetings where we have had presentations where the public could attend or they could watch the recordings afterward is a a really [2:26:54] important element to this as well um email blasts to families the text [2:27:00] message Focus letters you know I think that we're doing a good job getting the information out there so that these [2:27:05] questions can continue to come and so that board members can continue to have opportunities to engage with the [2:27:10] communities that we represent answering questions learning from from each other and from our our stakeholders in this [2:27:16] process so I think the details are very important but also the governance and just the process that we are following [2:27:22] to try to gather this information um is important to not lose sight of as [2:27:29] well director Simon thanks Zach um you know as I hear [2:27:35] this conversation I just I'm going to ask the superintendent this and I'm not going to ask for an answer but just [2:27:40] maybe a thought process um and get back to us in the future it seems like there's there's still a lot [2:27:47] of um people AR it doesn't sound like the board is close to maybe having a [2:27:53] majority of the decision behind this so we have less than a month and there's a lot of stuff you were just asked for um [2:28:01] I have no doubt that you will do everything you can to get that and get board members there but I'm just curious [2:28:06] like if we get to the point of November 25th and you don't have a majority of the board decide on you know agreeing on [2:28:12] what to do I think it's just prudent for you and your Administration to find out and let the board know what does that [2:28:18] mean so don't do it tonight I don't want to put you on the spot but I I don't know what that means so I'd like to know [2:28:25] thank you director adette yeah I just want to make another comment and add some [2:28:31] perspective so first of all I'm I'm op I mean you [2:28:37] can't you can't cut a budget anywhere without feelings of you know despair but I I am act I mean I we we do [2:28:46] we have gotten good information the ability to analyze it it's takes time you're working with formats that are [2:28:52] unique to to this role I'm personally optimistic we can [2:28:58] make the reductions that we need to make and um and come out in a in a place that [2:29:04] is uh is effective um and for the perspective I I will tell you why I feel [2:29:09] that way if you just now I'm going to do math in public and I said before I don't like to this but if you just take a $700 [2:29:15] million budget and you take 10% you get $70 million uh 5% 35 2 and 1/2% [2:29:24] 172 so if we're talking about 25 million I I it's it's in the [2:29:30] neighborhood of three to three and a half% of a reduction off of the total and I get it I I already just talked for [2:29:36] half an hour about the different sources of funding but at the top level what I'm saying is we're looking at a three and a [2:29:43] half% reduction off the total which for anybody whether I'm talking business [2:29:50] business house household School District or otherwise that is a number that is manageable it's manageable by many all [2:29:58] the time and you may not like to do it I I could actually from my time make [2:30:04] a case we we almost ought to have a policy that says we look to do it every couple of years anyways to be quite [2:30:10] Frank so and the reason is because when you go back and just like you do it in your household when you rep prioritize [2:30:16] when you when you revisit decisions you made previously is it still working for [2:30:22] us is should we keep putting our money here should we keep putting our money there that's a healthy thing and so it's [2:30:29] hard most of us would probably rather not look at this but if we do it right we could actually come out in a in a [2:30:37] what I don't know what the right word is but in a position where where we're doing as well or better as we were [2:30:43] before and we can we can say for certain that we have we're making a good use of [2:30:50] the funds were provided by our community and the reason I believe that [2:30:56] is because again off 700 million we're looking at 3 and a half% which is a [2:31:02] number that can be achieved um I'll throw out a comment um [2:31:09] so I I love the conversation I really appreciate it um and so I just want to acknowledge the [2:31:15] high tension in the room and you know it like director out was saying it's a [2:31:20] difficult place to be none of us want to cut anything really like in a perfect world we just wouldn't cut anything but [2:31:26] I hopefully I can maybe get everyone a little bit back on the same page I I don't [2:31:31] actually I've been encouraged with the process thus far so this is just my gut [2:31:38] take I feel like and we're all rightfully doing this there's nothing wrong with this we're kind of jumping ahead to the conclusion and we're making [2:31:44] assumptions about how I think it's going to play out we totally normal we all do it um but I think where we're at is [2:31:50] actually just a natural piece in the progression of this entire process and I don't think anything out of the ordinary [2:31:56] has happened thus far and I I I at least I don't feel like I'm in or we as a b are in any danger of hitting some like [2:32:02] impassible barrier the reason is so I agree with everything you said um co-chair to Shane about you know them [2:32:09] giving us the recommendation we that's what we asked for they gave it to us um and so far as I'm aware it has kind of [2:32:15] followed you know all the board input um so I actually love the a lot of the [2:32:20] questions that director adet asked and it they come at a time when those [2:32:27] questions could only be asked as the specifics are starting to unfold a lot of them you know some of them are [2:32:34] internal to the board still eventually they'll be external so there there's not really a way that director I at or [2:32:41] myself or anybody could have even asked the questions really until some of the more specifics had started to be generated so I think it very much fits [2:32:48] in in the time timeline of almost where you would expect these things to happen and again fully acknowledging we no one [2:32:56] wants to be in this position no one wants to cut anything the reality is there you know whether it's the state's fault certainly they're to blame for [2:33:03] certain things or you know we made we made choices we're going to have to own the choices we made um no one's denying [2:33:09] that but the reality is when we make budget cuts there's pain involved there there absolutely will be pain and it [2:33:14] sounds weird but maybe a different way to frame this is we get to determine where to deal that pain to it's a uncomfortable decision and it's it's an [2:33:22] important decision CU we have no choice but to do it so I think that's why the tension is high and really to kind of [2:33:29] echo what director adette was saying but in a slightly different way it's like especially for me as or all of us really [2:33:36] it's incumbent upon us as board members to ask the really hard questions to really really get to the the [2:33:42] nitty-gritty of what we're doing and why justify the decisions so that when we get to that Finish Line we can have that [2:33:48] high level of confidence and um yeah I I like I said I think this is just the [2:33:53] natural progression of how everything has played out um I had specifically requested you know just to understand [2:34:01] broadly like all of the positions in the district because and I stand by this I really mean it it's it's hard for me to say yes to something when I I don't know [2:34:08] what I'm saying no to so if I don't know what positions remain it I'm kind of missing half the context there so now [2:34:15] that we've had more insight into that um it's I'm kind of forming my thoughts on it I'm trying to digest it trying to [2:34:20] understand it I think a lot of board members are doing the same so I think everything that's happening is a very natural progression of kind of just the [2:34:26] timeline of things so I would encourage us as board members um just ask the questions you got to ask get the answers [2:34:33] I I I still think there is some room to depending on the the answers that we get [2:34:38] and who even knows who thinks what about them there there is still some pivot room right if we feel we need to Pivot [2:34:45] if we don't that's okay too so don't I I guess what I'm saying is I'm just encouraging everyone don't uh don't rush [2:34:52] to conclusions yet I'm actually eager to hear the answers to a lot of the questions that director asked so that's [2:34:58] where I'm at with it um I appreciate all the work you've done superintendent McIntyre and just and Michelle Vargas [2:35:05] compiling that big list for us to review it has been extremely helpful for me as a board member just to understand if if [2:35:11] nothing else just to have an understanding of what's happening so really appreciate it but that's that's [2:35:16] all I had to say so any other thoughts or comments from the board all right um with that that brings us to [2:35:24] a close um the next item on the agenda is [2:35:29] item 7e the comprehensive achievement and Civic Readiness or the world's best [2:35:35] Workforce achievement and integration overview welcome Dr Jonna rerer [2:35:40] executive director of research evaluation and testing and Friends [2:36:05] good evening chair Co Arco and chair Co or co-chair not chair Co [2:36:10] co-chair co-chair Arco and co-chair Shane board member superintendent McIntyre um I'm going to apologize up [2:36:17] front because something in this room is um I'm reacting to it you know from an allergy standpoint so I'm gonna my voice [2:36:24] is maybe gon to be a little lower in tone than um typical but bear with me um [2:36:32] I'm here with with my colleagues this report is one that is put together collaboratively with a lot of folks and [2:36:38] so um my colleagues are here to speak on behalf of like their levels and the things that are happening in in their [2:36:45] areas of oversight as well so we're we're working on this collab atively this evening I'm going to be a speed [2:36:53] talker as much as possible so try to bear with me um in in this presentation [2:36:58] we will um the purpose of it is to present and provide information to about the district's 2324 academic performance [2:37:06] um to our community as required by world's bre Workforce which is now in this year um renamed through legislation [2:37:14] as comprehensive achievement and Civic Readiness so you'll hear that moving forward but tonight we'll still rest on [2:37:19] world's best Workforce as well as to provide information around around our achievement and integration um plan um [2:37:27] just that the progress of of the things that we're doing toward that it's also to share information and progress with [2:37:33] the board members in order to inform decisions about our continuous improvement process or in alignment with [2:37:39] our continuous improvement process in in Noah hanapin we Embrace [2:37:46] that continuous Improvement mindset and we value and use data to form our decisions and Improvement planning each [2:37:51] year data are compiled and analyzed from a variety of measurement methods and multiple resources um to monitor our [2:37:58] district performance in relation to a broad range of desired [2:38:04] outcomes in October you know this time every year we present an overview of of [2:38:10] the previous year's data and then in November we consider all other input um [2:38:16] in conjunction with our year- end data to inform our first draft of our 2425 strategic priorities ahead of our annual [2:38:23] Staffing and budgetary processes one of the tools that we use [2:38:29] to Monitor and Report District Effectiveness is our district scorecard [2:38:35] the district scorecard is another tool that is used to inform our continuous Improvement planning and goal setting [2:38:41] throughout the year um it has a wide range of of key performance indicators [2:38:47] as well as a wide range of um intended outcome [2:38:55] levels that District scorecard we'll move on to the next our district scorecard informs our strategic priority [2:39:02] it also informs which in you know Cascades through our superintendent goals and then through the the [2:39:07] organization to cabinet and administrative goals as well as school Improvement and departmental goals and [2:39:13] ultimately you know like to um our compensation quality compensation teacher goals and classroom student [2:39:19] goals starting tonight kind of an overview of world's best Workforce again you know [2:39:26] renamed comp comprehensive achievement and Civic Readiness there are six [2:39:32] defined areas component areas um as you can see on the [2:39:39] screen and then the next slide tells you a little bit about an Noah hopen strategies aligned to each of those I [2:39:44] just talked about goals that Cascade through our system in terms of um a process for for assessing student [2:39:50] progress we use a comprehensive assessment system throughout our levels and departments um we analyze and [2:39:56] disaggregate that data in multiple ways um we have a system to review staff uh [2:40:01] Effectiveness through our quality compensation and our performance appraisal system of teachers as well as [2:40:07] principes and other um staff throughout the district uh we um go through a [2:40:13] rigorous um instructional curriculum process to uh review and adopt [2:40:20] curriculum and we use things like um professional Learning Community [2:40:26] structures multitier systems of support and you standards aligned practices um [2:40:31] in terms of our our educational effective educational practices we also have over 75% of our budget directly [2:40:37] aligned to classrooms I know kipin schools is [2:40:43] required by legislation to have an achievement and integration plan because according to Minnesota rule and no [2:40:49] hennipen is identified as a racially isolated School District districts who qualify for achievement in integration [2:40:56] dollars must use the revenue to pursue academic achievement and racial and [2:41:01] economic integration achievement and integration goals are established to reduce [2:41:07] disparities in academic achievement reduce disparities in equit Equitable access to effective and more diverse [2:41:13] teachers and increase racial and economic diversity and integration [2:41:20] we are in year two of our three-year plan that was submitted to and approved by mde in March of [2:41:28] 20123 in terms of plan strategies I'll highlight a few advancement via individual determination or Avid is a [2:41:35] student centered approach that prepares each student for college career and life [2:41:40] as of this fall Avid is in all 11 traditional secondary schools in in Noah [2:41:46] hanapin academic interventions include including math and reading intervention teachers at the secondary level and [2:41:54] finally a no canopen has 13 magnet and specialty school programs that provide Innovative programming and school choice [2:42:01] across the district as we move into looking at our [2:42:06] district data Joel reported on the 2425 um October 1 data these data go through [2:42:14] 23 24 so you can see the trends some of which Joel spoke to um in in terms of [2:42:20] like that large increase in um students qualifying for economic Services you [2:42:25] know between 23 2223 and 23 24 um you can also see that our students of color [2:42:32] as Joel mentioned is you on a steady increase increasing almost 20% over the [2:42:37] last 10 years um in terms of our students qualifying for language [2:42:44] acquisition services and um special education services we've seen a slight [2:42:49] increase in those uh percentages over the last few years as [2:42:55] well we'll move into student perception data first and focus on three key areas [2:43:02] the first of is which of which is um students who report feeling safe at [2:43:07] school so feelings of safety have declined slightly at the elementary middle school um since last year as [2:43:15] reported by our student engagement survey um but we have seen a slight increase at our high school [2:43:23] level in terms of students who reporting never having been bullied students um [2:43:29] they have remained relatively steady over the last three years um with you [2:43:36] know more students at the elementary level repeat or reporting you aspects of bullying than at our high school [2:43:43] levels in terms of students who have reported having a good relationship with students or students who have reported [2:43:50] having a good relationship with teachers overall students report having you know strong um relationships with teachers at [2:43:56] high levels across our [2:44:01] system all right uh safety and connectedness uh uh one of our top [2:44:07] priorities in an Noah hen is the safety of our students our staff and our communities uh we've done a remarkable [2:44:14] job in terms of taking a quick start and um start safety guide for all of our our [2:44:20] schools uh We've enhanced our crisis response procedures we as you know we've invested and continue to invest in just [2:44:27] safety measures uh if you think about um just Champlin Park and their new uh [2:44:32] front office areas many of our schools are also experiencing those safety uh measures that we're wanting to put into [2:44:37] place uh in addition with that we have these schoolwide behavioral plans that we are really intentional about of how [2:44:44] do we help support and keep our schools safe in addition to um the big that that [2:44:49] connectedness um that that really looking at a strong culture and clim in our schools not just that you belong [2:44:55] that you are welcome but that you belong in our schools so all of our levels are really focused in on whether it's the [2:45:02] morning meetings that are happening in the in the elementary all the way up to the secondary where we're connecting in [2:45:07] classrooms for for Community with our kids and wanting to make sure that people feel that they're welcomed and [2:45:13] they belong in our classrooms uh in addition to providing that well-rounded experience with our academic programming [2:45:19] and support for our mental health and behavioral Sports and our schools we know that by data we have continued work [2:45:25] to do in these two areas uh but we also have made some really good traction and advancements in our safety and our [2:45:31] connects for our students in in our [2:45:37] schools thanks Josh we'll move into student um achievement data and aligned to world's best Workforce there are um [2:45:45] four goal areas we can move forward to the next slide um there used to be five [2:45:50] um but the third grade literacy is now incorporated into the reading or Minnesota reading to ensure academic [2:45:57] development or the read act that you've heard a lot about so the the four areas are School Readiness career and college [2:46:03] readiness closing achievement gaps and all students graduating it's um interesting to note that next year [2:46:09] actually there will be a fifth area um added that is around um students being [2:46:16] lifelong Learners measuring how students are are you know demonstrating lifelong [2:46:21] learning so in terms of School Readiness um in the 23 24 school year um we saw [2:46:28] lower levels of students meeting benchmarks in the spring than previous years even though the rates were similar [2:46:35] in the fall in terms of your um students [2:46:42] entering kindergarten with you know we're we're entering kindergarten with similar rates of letter name recognition [2:46:50] and similar rates of letter sound knowledge um however by Spring we're [2:46:55] seeing increased trends of students meeting benchmarks as they're leaving [2:47:03] kindergarten then Michelle will talk about so I think um just to remember [2:47:09] that School Readiness um for an NOA hanen we're really working on we're having all of our teachers trained in [2:47:15] the letters Early Childhood letters we had to complete the training the first round and we have 29 going through it at [2:47:21] this time um so we're doing that to be in um better alignment with our kindergarten and literacy um the [2:47:27] continuation of our heges um curriculum which um focuses on um rhyming and [2:47:34] alliteration for our for our um preschoolers I think is will also be a good um it's really helping us try to [2:47:42] get caught back up to where they enter kindergarten ready to um take on the [2:47:47] literacy there and the pyramid model mtss our Behavior our social emotional learning um I think that in especially [2:47:54] in School Readiness that's so very important that we have our kids ready to learn how to learn for preschool or for [2:48:01] kindergarten and so I think that that's where we're putting a lot of our Focus for our kids and that's having a positive [2:48:08] impact as we move into Elementary achievement you'll hear me um compare [2:48:14] our performance to the state as Joel mentioned in his presentation Anoka [2:48:19] henip and mirrors the demographics of the state in many many ways so we uh are somewhat of a microcosm so we compare [2:48:26] our performance to Statewide performance um when it comes to things like you know [2:48:33] the Minnesota comprehensive assessments and and those types of measures that we have statewide data so in terms of um [2:48:40] this presentation you'll notice that the math are in green tones the reading are in purple tones and the science are in [2:48:46] um orange tones just to give you kind of a perview as you're you're looking at you so you'll know which subject you're [2:48:52] you're looking at um the blue horizontal lines represent the state proficiency so [2:48:59] as you can see across these Graphics um grades three four and five we are [2:49:04] performing above the state in mathematics um we had a slight lower um [2:49:09] performance in third grade increased performance in fourth grade slight lower in performance in fifth grade in [2:49:16] mathematics in the area of reading our performance in third grade was relatively flat again we are performing [2:49:23] above the state in all of these grade levels we had again an uptick in fourth grade um in Reading performance and a [2:49:29] slight decline in fifth grade relative to science you'll see the [2:49:35] district and state side by side now because it's just one grade level it's only in fifth grade where Sciences is [2:49:40] assessed um and the district is performing above the state but we both in both um district and state had a [2:49:48] decline in science proficiency over in this last year we also look at how you [2:49:54] know kind of our relative performance to other districts across the state so this tells you the percentile that the [2:49:59] district is performing at so I'll focus on the district elementary math um the [2:50:04] fourth set of of bars over that tells us that we're at the this past year we lost [2:50:10] a little bit of ground um compared to all other districts in the state but we're performing at the 69th percentile [2:50:16] in the state meaning that we're performing better and in elementary mathematics overall than 69% of the [2:50:22] districts across the state um Elementary reading we're performing better than 64% [2:50:28] of the districts and in science we're performing you know in the top half better than 54% of [2:50:36] districts and providing more detail in relation to Elementary um achievement um [2:50:42] in our response and what we're looking at in response to our student achievement data at the elementary level [2:50:48] we are focusing on a number of different strategies in relation to our student achievement the first one that is noted [2:50:55] here is the read act which is new legislation implemented the spring of [2:51:02] the start of the school year of 2023 so at the elementary level we are in the fourth year of letters training [2:51:10] in May of 20124 we had our first cohort of [2:51:15] teachers complete letters training which was 58 staff um currently at the [2:51:23] elementary level we have 368 staff in letters training and 218 staff at the [2:51:30] elementary level in Olaf and then we're in year four of focusing on um [2:51:37] schoolwide English Learners in relation to um math we are in our sixth year of [2:51:43] implementation of our math program Bridges and also in our sixth year of talent development and school within a [2:51:50] school nebula programming and our talent development programming is offered to [2:51:56] students in grades three four and five for those in relation to meeting the [2:52:02] criteria for reading and math and in that we provide programming for students [2:52:08] in grades three four and five reading and math for tier 2 tier three and then [2:52:14] our nebula program which is tier four and then we continue to focus on our um [2:52:20] excuse me on our academic and behavioral interventions in relation to meeting the [2:52:25] the needs for all of our Learners through mtss um additionally with our um it's [2:52:31] not on this slide here but also focusing on our science standards and our science [2:52:39] student achievement and so we are in year two of implementing our new science curriculum twig science which is aligned [2:52:46] to our new science standards supporting our students this spring with MCA 4S [2:52:52] with the new science MCA 4 um [2:52:57] testing and then continuing sorry the last bullet is we continue to implement [2:53:03] our schoolwide Behavior plans across all elementary schools those are reviewed every year with the principal and the [2:53:09] staff and they are reviewed in the beginning part of the school year and then reviewed at the end of each [2:53:15] trimester to look at any potential adjustments to meet the needs of our Learners um at [2:53:23] each site as we move into middle school again [2:53:29] um we are outperforming the state across grade levels and each grade level in mathematics at the middle school level [2:53:36] um increase slightly or maintained the same performance as the previous [2:53:41] year in Reading again each grade level is performing above the state at the middle level and each grade level has [2:53:48] either either increased their performance slightly over last year or maintained performance of last [2:53:54] year in science at the middle level again you'll see a side by side because science is only assessed in the e8th [2:53:59] grade at the middle school um our performance actually you know [2:54:04] outperformed the state in terms of the the trends that we saw we saw a much greater increase in science in 8th grade [2:54:11] in inoka henpen than did the state as we look at that same comparison [2:54:17] um of against or compared to all other districts across the state at the middle school we are at or near the 70th [2:54:24] percentile in all three subject areas at the middle level we are [2:54:31] committed to an effective multi-tiered systems of support to meet the academic social and behavioral needs of each [2:54:37] student our school board's strategic priority and the read act focuses our work on improving student literacy [2:54:44] strategies that you'll find at the middle school include online language and literacy Academy professional [2:54:50] development or Olaf for teachers we are in the first year of that our focused literacy coaching uh across content [2:54:57] areas so we do literacy coaching not only in ela but also science and social [2:55:03] studies and other content areas and we focus student intervention in the areas of literacy to improve literacy skills [2:55:10] the alignment of state standards and science is complete and those new standards went into effect this fall the [2:55:16] district is prepared to take the science MCA 4S this spring when it is offered for the first [2:55:25] time when we move to high school um at the high school level um again you'll [2:55:30] see these graphs are side by side because um each subject is only assessed in one [2:55:36] grade level so at the high school level the district and state both saw a slight [2:55:42] decrease but we are still slightly above the state I mean it looks like when rounding they're both at 3 5% relative [2:55:49] to um math performance at the high school level in terms of reading we saw a slight increase in performance um [2:55:57] where the you again performing above the state and in science we um maintained [2:56:05] our performance where the state had a slight increase but we are still performing at the same level as the [2:56:11] state in terms of the comparison to other districts we're performing in the [2:56:17] top half of districts St Statewide at the high school level with the 60th percentile in mathematics the 54th [2:56:24] percentile in reading and the 57th percentile for science in science we're also going or [2:56:30] in high school rather not in science in high school rather we're going to also look at um students you that you know [2:56:37] their um career in college course taking when we look at this indicator we look [2:56:44] at seniors who have taken these kinds of courses across the their High School career almost 80% of our 24 seniors took [2:56:52] at least one potential college credit earning course while they were in high school and almost 90% took at least two [2:56:58] of these courses all right specifically in uh [2:57:05] High School how we are approaching this is uh through the continued work just like you've heard from elementary and middle school high schools we really [2:57:12] focused in on that multi-tiered systems of support specifically really looking at the early warning uh mtss indicators [2:57:19] which would be like credits failing courses attendance and behavioral incidents which allow us as a system to [2:57:25] provide this worly early warning indicator to our uh to our staff about how can we help wraparound support for [2:57:32] our students um so that's really exciting um the added uh feature that we're going to have this year uh as a [2:57:38] system we continue to leverage the math and literacy coach model um thanks to [2:57:44] those that have visited some of our schools you've actually been able to uh visit the Innovation Center Director [2:57:49] Simon and Dr langenfeld as well uh you were able to see the work that was going [2:57:54] on as well as co-chairs uh visiting our schools to see the the professional development how those uh teachers are [2:58:01] getting pedagogy while while at the same time um getting help and support whether it's through data analysis uh [2:58:07] instructional design or lesson planning uh which has been very helpful in [2:58:12] addition to that um we've also uh thanks to you all have visited our academic [2:58:17] interview intervention teacher models and our behavioral models at a couple schools um and have been able to engage [2:58:23] and see the work that's going on uh just yesterday I received or actually today I received uh just a quick uh tidbit Lind [2:58:31] hulman you'd be appreciative to know 77% of our students in over at Andover big [2:58:37] shout out they are working through this AIT on the math intervention 77% of those students have improved uh with the [2:58:43] work that that math team is doing so kudos to you all if you're listening um and then in addition to um uh what's [2:58:52] going on in high schools I know that a couple of you have joined some leadership development that we have going on in our schools and you have [2:58:58] seen uh our actual principles engaging in leadership development we appreciate that the time that you've got out there [2:59:04] in addition to um the Ola support that uh we have been providing the professional development with our [2:59:09] teachers to really focus in on literacy as we know can be a huge Gateway for many of our students and their [2:59:15] experiences in school so it really is exciting to to know that kids from elementary all the way up to high school [2:59:20] are receiving this focused attention on literacy uh through our our adult and [2:59:26] our staff um just getting stronger in the area of literacy and cross crossing [2:59:31] it through uh contents so that's what's going on right now in the high schools excellent our next area of focus [2:59:39] is graduation indicators when we talk about graduation indicators just a quick reminder there are four indicators [2:59:45] actually that are counted in in toward graduation we have the fouryear graduation rate we have a a dropout rate [2:59:51] we have a continuation rate those students that maybe well they didn't graduate in four years but they continue [2:59:58] on they they keep enrolled in our system toward diploma and then there's a what's called an unknown rate for students that [3:00:04] just um leave our system we're not sure where they they went so we'll highlight three of those areas um the state sets [3:00:12] kind of a a a goal or a a target for us of 90 % for your graduation rate and in [3:00:20] this past year we had a slight increase in our graduation rate to [3:00:25] 86.7% um whereas our our dropout rate still was was very low below 3% at 2.6% [3:00:33] below the state dropout rate in terms of continuation rate if we need a a 90% [3:00:39] graduation rate or if that's what we're striving toward then those other three indicators have to be below 10% so we [3:00:45] have um it's the fact that this our our continuation rate is declining a little bit is is a good thing because it says [3:00:52] that more of our students are actually graduating in four years um so we had a 7.7% continuation rate students that [3:01:00] didn't graduate stayed in our system which matches the state rate um in this past year and graduation [3:01:06] rates are um are a year behind we you know 23 2023 is our um latest graduation [3:01:15] data that we have from the state next indicator you know not only you [3:01:20] know if we um students don't graduate with us you or and and don't continue our system certainly we work to serve [3:01:27] students and in adults in our community through our adult basic Ed Pro program as well um so we measure those kinds of [3:01:35] indicators also and um student persistence are the students that that stay in the program similar to that kind [3:01:42] of continuation they H um we also measure students that took a pre and a [3:01:47] post test giving us the information about making an educational gain and [3:01:53] then we look at those students that set a diploma or a GED as their goal and how many of those actually achieve their [3:01:59] goal in that given year and that's the data you see in front of [3:02:04] you all right back to me it looks like all right with that graduation uh just to give you a quick rundown if you [3:02:11] recall uh earlier last spring we had our counselor group come come out and talk with you all just about the work that's [3:02:17] going on uh specifically those one minute meetings uh which don't sound like like wow we could do that in a minute but [3:02:23] they met with every single student in our high schools um and then that's a huge task uh for them with the busyness [3:02:29] of schools to really start identifying through the personalized learning plans plps that really talk about who am I [3:02:36] where am I going and how do I get there so through that work we have uh our our counselor team and staff that are really [3:02:43] wrapping around students to really help them determine their College and Career um trajectory and what they want to do [3:02:49] and and their experience in in high schools which is really exciting uh in addition we've kind of touched on that [3:02:54] just developing uh support systems so pairing that with our mtss uh early warning indicators and our teams to [3:03:01] really try to help and keep students on track uh within our buildings we have uh student data reports that obviously [3:03:08] indicate where students are to try to maintain and make sure that our students are on track and if they're not what can [3:03:14] we do to wrap around to make sure that they they are to help support our graduation uh earlier um I think it was in spring [3:03:21] or maybe even fall they all run together uh but we you had a presentation for with regional um just on the the intense [3:03:28] work and the robust um work that they do with with tech and Regional regarding [3:03:34] credit recovery and the systemic efforts that we do to support our students in their progress um so again um just that [3:03:41] work that they do and we continue to refine that and say how do we help improve our systems and our processes [3:03:47] for our high school students and then of course uh that this Collective impact uh [3:03:52] it's a team how do we get everybody involved um really maximizing and leveraging all of our support that we [3:03:57] have ranging from our counselors our social workers Indian advisors assistant principls principles um and really try [3:04:04] to keep our students on track so that they can be successful in their College and Career um [3:04:12] Endeavors next we're moving into the area of achievement Gap closure and as as we move to this um um area I I wanted [3:04:19] just to you know show you this graphic this scattergram tells a story why demographics are important um there's a [3:04:26] strong correlation or relationship between the percentage of students in a district who qualify for free introduced price services and the rate at which [3:04:33] students reach proficiency as you can see by kind of the tightness and the the um linear fashion of those those [3:04:41] dots how they're grouped together um the orange dot represents an Noah hanapin School District while the Blue Dot [3:04:47] represent other districts located in the Metro areas across the state you can easily see that school districts with [3:04:54] the lowest percentage of students qualifying for free and reduce price Services have the highest math and reading proficiency rates this becomes [3:05:00] increasingly important as you know our free and reduced rates [3:05:05] increase you know year to year this graphic shows you the percent [3:05:12] of U students in each student group um reaching proficiency rates you know with [3:05:18] the Noah henpen in the dark green shade on the left side of the groupings and [3:05:24] the state in the lighter green shade on the right side of the groupings um in all student groups in in NOA hennipen we [3:05:31] outperformed the state in 2024 in mathematics you can see this it depicts [3:05:37] the the um Gap if you will by the height of the dark bars compared to each other [3:05:43] and the height of the light bars compared to each other but we'll dig into that a little deeper as we go a [3:05:49] couple more slides down the road um in the area of reading all [3:05:54] student groups outperformed their state counterparts in inoka hennipin with the exception of [3:06:00] Asian students and students qualifying for special education services who performed about the same as their state [3:06:08] counterparts in the area of math or in science rather all student groups performed above the state with the [3:06:13] exception of multi-racial students who performed slightly lower than the state in this past year [3:06:19] as we look specifically at the areas um aligned to achievement and integration [3:06:24] you know comparing free and reduced to non-free and reduced and students of color to white students um you can see [3:06:30] the changes in what's depicted are are the proficiency rates of each group so even though the proficiency rates might [3:06:36] change year toe you know the Gap in you know in this case um stayed similar to [3:06:42] last year in the area of reading the gaps [3:06:50] again um stayed similar with a slight closure of gaps between students of color and white students in this past [3:06:57] year with students of color gaining proficiency rate or where white students maintained their proficiency [3:07:05] rate in science free and reduced compared to non-free and reduced students the Gap is slightly narrow [3:07:12] narrowed in this past year while students um of color and white student Gap stayed slight above about the same [3:07:18] relative to silence when we look at the Gap in terms [3:07:25] of your career and college course taking again our gaps have narrowed in both um [3:07:31] free and reduced non-f free and reduced and students of color white now I want to point out to you that the Gap did [3:07:36] narrow with free in roduced non-f fre introduced but ideally it doesn't narrow because one group you know the the in [3:07:43] this case the non-fr reduced group decreased slightly that's not the way we [3:07:48] intend to close the gap it did you know that's why we look at the rates as well um it did close but it's closed because [3:07:55] one group increased the other group decreased slightly when we look at our graduation [3:08:01] rates um the um gaps stayed similar for four-year [3:08:07] graduation rates in both free and reduced compared to non-f free and reduced students as well as students of color white students over the the latest [3:08:15] year of graduation data so as we um look at the the data that JN [3:08:23] just reviewed we know that in our district excuse me we are committed to creating Equitable learning environments [3:08:30] for all of our students and providing access and representation for all of them in meaningful and highly positive [3:08:37] ways um that is uh a goal for us [3:08:43] strategically so um with that we're really focused on done looking at student data to drive our improvement [3:08:50] process and a success for all of our students through multi-tier systems of support in a number of our slides you've [3:08:58] heard us reference mtss and what is mtss mtss it really aligns to multi-tiered [3:09:06] Systems Support where tier one instruction is provided for all students [3:09:13] tier two is provided for um strategic [3:09:18] interventions for some students and in mtss 3 tier 3 it's an providing an [3:09:27] intensive intervention for a few students so we look at mtss through that [3:09:33] lens for both instruction and assessment student engagement School climate and [3:09:39] student Behavior mental health an example um that I can think of which we ref I referenced earlier and my [3:09:46] colleagues well with the read act we're looking at that through the process of [3:09:51] professional development for our staff and another example at the elementary level is looking at our curriculum in [3:09:58] alignment to standards to improve our Student Success additionally with this [3:10:03] we look at an equal education for all students and in looking at um some of [3:10:09] the processes with that another one is strengthening our Recruitment and Retention efforts with a diverse pool of [3:10:17] candidates and also looking at securing grants to support Recruitment and Retention of [3:10:27] Staff as we you finish up our our presentation here we have just a few more slides to go you can you like [3:10:34] breathe a little easier um similar to The District picture there's a strong relationship between the percentage [3:10:40] students in a school who qualify for free roduced Price services and the rate at which these students reach proficient [3:10:47] proficiency as well um ideally we want to see the dots the orange dots again [3:10:52] represent an Noah henpen schools the um blue dots represent schools across Metro [3:10:58] areas across the state we're looking at math right now ideally we want to see as we as you think about that um kind of [3:11:06] line you grouping of of dots there we want to see the orange dots on the top [3:11:12] right of those um groupings which say I mean certainly we we heard a lot that um [3:11:19] free and reduced is a a strong predictor of proficiency and that is absolutely true however there are many of our [3:11:27] schools that are beating the ads if you will compared to their economic peers and that's what you can you that's when [3:11:33] schools are at the top right of those groupings those are the schools that are beating the odds and we'll we'll look [3:11:40] more specifically about um at those schools in just a moment or the numbers of those schools when we look at Reading [3:11:48] um you can see that we don't have as many schools you on the top right of [3:11:54] these plots as we did in math um which you know maybe apply you know so we're [3:11:59] focusing on literacy across our schools so when we look at the number of [3:12:06] Noah hampen schools that are outperforming their peers you know beating the odds if you will um [3:12:12] comparing overall performance of similar schools based on percentage of students qualifying for reduced price services [3:12:18] and looking at the schools that are performing in the top quarter of their economic peer groups you know so the top quartile the top fourth of their group [3:12:26] if you will um at the elementary level we have 13 schools in the top of their [3:12:32] peer groups Middle School 4 high school one in the area of math and actually [3:12:38] there were four schools at the elementary one school in at the middle school level that was actually in the very top spot of their economic peer [3:12:45] group for mathematics you can see how those numbers relate and again you can see not only pictorially in the the um [3:12:52] Scatter Plots but also we have fewer schools in that top core tile um in [3:12:58] Reading um across the elementary middle and high school but we have six schools [3:13:04] that were in the top for both um at the elementary level and two schools at the middle school that were in the top for [3:13:09] both subject areas so as we consider these things in [3:13:16] Noah hanapin School outperforms an Noah henip and schools outperform their peer groups across the economic spectrum it's [3:13:21] not just schools that have low free and reduced price services or schools that have high you free and reduced price [3:13:27] Services we see our schools outperforming their peers across the economic spectrum nearly 2third of our [3:13:33] schools are beating the ads in when we look at similar schools across the state in at least one of the subject areas and [3:13:40] almost 90% of those schools were also in that top cortile in the previous year [3:13:46] nearly every one of our schools have outperformed their comparable economic peers in at least one subject across the [3:13:52] time that we've been looking at these data and you an contend schools outperformed their their peer groups as [3:13:57] you saw um not only in this past year at higher rates in math but that is true across time than in [3:14:06] reading for the two years now thank you director Simon you um prompted us to [3:14:12] look more deeply at the student groups we've we used to only look at these data in terms of all students um based on on [3:14:20] you s questions from director Simon we looked at this from the last time or last year for the first time across [3:14:27] student groups and when we looked at um our schools compared to their peer [3:14:32] schools economic peer schools relative to student groups um that are again [3:14:38] similar comparisons in that top quarter top quti of their schools um nman [3:14:43] schools outperform the economic peers at even higher rates than looking looking at just all students um this table [3:14:49] demonstrates the number of schools with at least one student group in the top quarter of their peers you can see those [3:14:54] rates are higher across our elementary middle and high schools for math and reading um considering student group [3:15:02] performance with many many of them 14 at the elementary five at the middle school [3:15:07] and two at the high school that were in the top quarter quartile for at least um [3:15:12] one student group in both subjects [3:15:18] so considering these data over 90% of our schools beat the ads outperforming their economic peers in at least one of [3:15:24] the examin student group areas nearly 80% of them um performed in the top [3:15:29] quarter of their economic peer group across multiple student groups in any of the subjects nearly 80% performed in the [3:15:36] top quarter of their economic um peer groups in multiple subjects in any of the student groups [3:15:43] over 40% of them LED their economic peer group in at least one of the student groups and a fourth of an Noah henpen [3:15:50] schools LED their economic peer groups in more than one subject area um more [3:15:55] than one student group or subject area so with that we will um sit for [3:16:02] questions or comments um co-chair Des Shan thank you [3:16:09] just a really quick comment thank you so much for all the work that went into this I know as you said it was a collaborative effort um a lot of [3:16:15] different data points and perspectives across kind of the spectrum of our Learners from prek all the way back to [3:16:22] adult basic uh education Learners and everything in between so really appreciate all that work and I think you [3:16:28] know there's a lot to feel positively about we've seen some increased proficiency levels large increases in [3:16:35] our kindergarten skills um from Fall to Spring and some outperformance of State averages and of course obviously there's [3:16:41] still room to grow and increase achievement across these measurements uh you know I think we have had a continued [3:16:48] focus at on this board of reducing the achievement gaps and we're continuing to prioritize student achievement so I just [3:16:54] wanted to acknowledge that like with all this success I think it's so important to see the different data sets you know [3:16:59] we know the MCA test is a point in time therefore seeing these different data points across time and across different [3:17:06] measurement tools really tells kind of a full story of what's happening in in each of our buildings so thank you for [3:17:12] sharing that with us and um I look forward to all of our work together to continue watching those scores climb [3:17:21] higher any other thoughts or comments from board [Music] members director [3:17:29] langerfeld I too want to Echo my appreciation for for the presentation but equally if not more important is all [3:17:37] the hard work behind the scenes when you have had the privilege to be in a number of schools and see these programs in [3:17:44] action and to see how these interventions are being implemented and the extraordinary staff and the amount [3:17:50] of professional development that's gone on I mean Mary you provided some [3:17:56] incredibly large numbers of Staff being trained in letters and the district is [3:18:01] leading the state in that area as well and I know we'll see some even greater [3:18:06] dividends in student achievement and um we should really uh be be paying [3:18:12] attention to that since that's one of our top priorities as a board too around literacy I think the other piece that is [3:18:20] quiet but a really vitally important part of the presentation that um really [3:18:25] contributes to the success of students is really that whole model and implementation of the multi-tier systems [3:18:32] of support it's not something that people see or hear a lot about but there [3:18:38] were many many years where we did not have this approach and to really [3:18:44] identify it in the way that it's scaled out and affords each child what they [3:18:49] need in a timely fashion that's a that is a really really important part of the [3:18:55] success of what we're seeing when you talk about schools beating the odds because as it was explained to us to [3:19:02] step today by a principle the the significance of sometimes how far apart [3:19:08] children are in terms of their skill sets when they come in the doors and how [3:19:13] uh to bridge that to get that student up where they need and we need them to be [3:19:18] in terms of that proficiency takes resource support and time and skill you [3:19:24] know it's will and skill as well so um a shout out to all of the all the staff [3:19:30] who have been working so hard uh both in in our classroom settings and interventions and the thoughtfulness [3:19:38] that's gone in um as our as our population changes in our children's [3:19:43] needs shift as well um which we've seen in in uh to really recognize that um [3:19:50] you're doing extraordinary work to to ensure that every child has what they need for success and you can see that [3:19:57] when you start looking at graduation so it's it's all the way through into adult [3:20:02] basic hit as well so thanks any other thoughts or comments [3:20:09] from board members um all right if nobody else has [3:20:15] anything I would like to throw something out there uh first of all thank you guys very much uh thank you for the presentation and for put putting all [3:20:21] this together it's very helpful to just have a better understanding of just what's going on in the district and how [3:20:26] we're measuring up so to speak um one of the things one of the great [3:20:32] difficulties with um the MCA test is it is a very polarizing just test it's a [3:20:39] very polarizing metric there's very strong opinions on it and rightly so it is certainly not a perfect test but it [3:20:44] is a test and we use it and we just spent a lot of time talking about it using it as a metric of comparison and [3:20:50] understanding so um I have done as a board member my due diligence I've made [3:20:57] my very best effort to understand that test as much as possible so I can just give my feedback to the public and I [3:21:04] even actually went so far as to just take the equivalent of the MCA test the [3:21:09] 11th grade math test myself because you can load questions online from previous years they won't give it to you from [3:21:15] this year but from previous years so because the the best way to learn about something is to just get your [3:21:20] hands dirty so to speak so that's what I did and just to give a really quick recap I went and I took the 11th grade [3:21:28] math MCA test I believe it was from two years ago um there were a total 48 questions I could download and take um I [3:21:35] wrote all my answers down to make sure I wasn't deceiving myself into thinking I got one right or wrong when I I may not [3:21:42] have so I would write my answer down and then check the answer um it took me [3:21:47] approximately around 66 minutes to complete the test I got a score of 44 [3:21:53] out of 48 which uh is around 91% um that's passing by any metric um and just [3:22:01] quick because it's worth mentioning the the reason I got four questions wrong fall into three categories number one is I misunderstood a question second one [3:22:08] was as anyone who's done math will know there's if you do a long calculation sometimes you just do bad math even if you know what you're doing that happened [3:22:14] to me and then there are two questions I simp simply forgot a detail of the subject matter so I got it wrong which that's kind of what it's testing right [3:22:20] do you know how to do this so the reason I mentioned that is because those are those are all going to be common reasons [3:22:27] students or really anybody misses questions on the MCA test so what happened to me I think would be very [3:22:32] common for any student taking the test um and I really did this the reason I [3:22:38] went out of my way to do this is to just speak to it in a very specific sense because at a previous work session we [3:22:45] discussed the MCA test and it was made apparent to us that the presentation of [3:22:51] the results of the MCA test are confusing it best it is not for the sake [3:22:57] of the public it is not the way You' think of a normal test you don't just get a simple percentage based on how many you got correct and Incorrect and [3:23:04] then it's it's not like a very easy to understand scale like that I mean there is a scale they use it's just not that [3:23:11] straightforward so that that adds a level of confusion to it that I would say is the first and one of the biggest [3:23:16] flaws to the test the second and biggest flaw to the test in my opinion is the fact that it is not tied to anything [3:23:23] that incentivizes students to care as painful as as it is to admit that out loud if if anyone an adultery student [3:23:30] goes into a test knowing that no matter how they do it has no impact on them you know we're all going to do what people [3:23:36] do and generally on average we're probably going to take the path of least resistance so I think that really works [3:23:41] against The credibility of the test unfortunately but despite acknowledging both of those two things as in my [3:23:47] opinion the biggest concerns having taken the test um and as someone who knows math very well my degree my [3:23:54] profession use math heavily um I would still say it's a good test it that when [3:24:00] I took the test simply stated if you know how to do what the questions are [3:24:06] asking you should well if you know the math that we're teaching you and the standards that you are supposed to have [3:24:11] learned at that time you should be able to answer those questions that's what I'm trying to say [3:24:17] um so as much as frustrating as the confusion around the test might be I [3:24:23] still do think it's a it is a good metric and all of that leads into kind of you know I'm kind of speaking [3:24:29] specifically because this is the one I understand to 11th grade math well I I mean I understand all of them to a certain point but that's just the one I [3:24:35] chose to do a deep dive into um and W it is great to see Improvement certain [3:24:40] areas and it is good to have a comparison with the rest of the state [3:24:45] because it's good to kind of know where we are on like in comparison to everybody else um it is good to have [3:24:51] essentially a bottom line so to speak just a single metric we can point to and say yes or no this is how we know what [3:24:57] we're doing and um let's let's just say for the high school 11th grade math um [3:25:05] unfortunately we've seen a decline over the last many years in our district and really Statewide and I'm just hoping [3:25:13] that we can turn the ship around I'm hoping that we can find a way to improve the MCA score not because the MCA score [3:25:20] matters in and of itself but because it is an indicator of if students are in [3:25:25] fact learning the benchmarks and the standards that we are teaching them so um that's my take on the MCA I'm trying [3:25:32] to make it as clear as possible for the public because admittedly there's confusion and strong opinions around it so that's my quick take um and yeah [3:25:41] those are all my comments are there any other thoughts or comments from board members [3:25:47] all right well thank you everybody for the presentations um next on our list we [3:25:53] are moving to item 8A Labor Relations uh for 2024 to 25 par Educators Master [3:26:00] agreement welcome Dr Jennifer Cherry the Executive Director of Human [3:26:14] Resources good evening uh co-chairs uh Aro and Des Shan members [3:26:19] of the board superintendent McIntyre I'm here this evening and I'm pleased to announce that our par [3:26:25] Educators who are represented by Noah hanapin par Educators Association have ratified a new two-year agreement with [3:26:31] the dates of July 1 2024 through June 30th of [3:26:37] 2026 thank you to the members of the employee groups and the district bargaining teams for their work in [3:26:43] negotiating an updated Employment contract contract the tenative agreement reached includes a salary increase that [3:26:51] includes a market adjustment to tr to raise the starting wages with every employee receiving at least a 5% [3:26:58] increase during the 2-year agreement starting wages now include for [3:27:04] our bus peras $18 per hour our elementary and secondary Paras will now [3:27:09] start at 1875 our special education pairs will now start at 1960 and those special [3:27:16] education peras that are working in setting three uh an additional 50 cents [3:27:22] and our special education pair professionals working and setting for an [3:27:28] additional dollar per hour in addition to that our LPNs our healthare [3:27:34] professionals will start at $25.20 per hour all of these increases [3:27:40] um are important for us to remain competitive and so this is a a great um [3:27:46] um a great agreement uh for both parties the uh agreement also includes [3:27:52] step movement both years of the contract and an increase to the district contribution toward benefits of 5% for [3:27:59] singles and 10% for family benefit holders in year one and a 5% increase [3:28:04] for all benefit holders in the second year of the contract the total compensation package includes an 11% [3:28:11] increase or $4.5 million in new money the total contract equals $88.2 million [3:28:19] over the course of the two years this proposed agreement is within the authority provided by the Schoolboard [3:28:24] and as a result I'm seeking approval of the contract as [3:28:30] presented thank you very much uh board members are there any questions for Dr [3:28:39] Cherry all right if not before us is approval for the 20242 par Educators [3:28:45] master as presented in appendix P hearing no request for discussions I [3:28:51] would entertain a motion to approve the 2425 par educator Master agreement as presented so moved thank you director [3:28:58] Simon is there a second thank you director langenfeld um will all those in favor oh [3:29:07] my apologies is there any discussion oh will all those in favor [3:29:12] say I I all opposed say nay with six in favor and zero opposed the [3:29:19] motion is approved and that brings us to our next item which is item 8B the 2425 [3:29:24] Education Office professionals Master agreement welcome again Dr Cherry thank you cherle uh again I'm pleased to [3:29:31] announce that we have another uh tentative agreement uh this evening this [3:29:37] is listed in appendix Q in your packet and I'm pleased to announce that our education office professionals who are [3:29:43] represented by the enoa hanapin education office professionals Association have ratified a new 2-year [3:29:49] agreement with the effect of dates July 1 2024 through June 30th of [3:29:55] 2026 thank you to the members of the employee and the district bargaining teams for their work in negotiating an [3:30:00] updated Employment contract the tentative agreement reached includes reducing the number of steps on the [3:30:07] schedule from 10 steps to six steps and changing the longevity stiens starting [3:30:13] in 11 years now instead of 15 avoiding the overlap between the steps on the schedule and the longevity pay [3:30:20] supports pay transparency and fairness amongst our employees the targeted increases to the [3:30:26] salary schedule were made where needed to meet Market median rates and all employees received between a 5% and a [3:30:34] 20% increase to their salaries over the two years of the contract the starting [3:30:39] pay for entry level secretaries increases from 1710 to 1905 per hour [3:30:47] the agreement includes step movement each year of the contract and employees who were not scheduled for step movement [3:30:53] or Improvement to their longevity pay either year of the contract received a one-time payment of $500 upon [3:31:00] ratification or I'm sorry upon authorization uh the agreement also [3:31:07] includes a district Insurance contribution increase of 5% for singles [3:31:12] and 10% for families in year one of the contract and 5% for all uh insurance [3:31:18] benefit holders in year two and finally it removes the weit time in the lifetime cap for district [3:31:25] contributions to the 403b this allows employees to start receiving this benefit upon hire which [3:31:31] is a a great uh resource and tool for our entry level employees and a great [3:31:36] recruitment tool for us the total cost of the agreement is $26.5 million this [3:31:43] is a $1.6 million change and it is equivalent to a [3:31:49] 13.6% package over the course of the two years the proposed agreement is within [3:31:54] the authority provided by the school board and as a result I am seeking approval of the contract as [3:32:03] presented thank you very much are there any questions or comments from board [3:32:11] members all right hearing no request for discussion I would entertain a motion to approve the 2 25 Education Office [3:32:18] professionals Master agreement as presented thank you co-chair to Shane is [3:32:23] there a second second thank you director Simon um is there any [3:32:32] discussion hearing none will all in favor please say I I all opposed say [3:32:38] Nay with six in favor and zero opposed the motion is approved thank you very [3:32:43] much thank you board I just have one other comment that that was the last uh open contract uh at this time so at this [3:32:49] time all of your contracts are settled thank you thank you very [3:32:55] much all right we are nearing our last board agenda item um we are at item nine [3:33:00] board correspondents and communication members this is your opportunity to share happenings in your community report on committee assignments or other [3:33:07] items of interest does anyone have anything to share co-chair to Shane I'll go quick [3:33:14] because I know we're getting late um I was able to uh visit Champlin Brooklyn Park Academy joined by director [3:33:20] langenfeld and we were able to view the partnership that they have with the Three Rivers Park program which provides [3:33:26] opportunities for students to have Hands-On science learning activities among other really cool exciting things [3:33:32] happening at the school it was a very productive and uh Happy visit uh Dayton [3:33:37] Elementary had their Fall Festival this weekend I was able to swing by and I saw so many happy students and families [3:33:43] enjoying their time together it's an example of of work that our parent teacher organizations put on for our [3:33:48] school community so just a huge shout out and thank you to all of those involved in our parent teacher organizations for the opportunities that [3:33:54] you provide for our students and um at Jackson they had their Fall Dance and I've enjoyed chaperoning the Fall Dance [3:34:01] the last several years this year was another delightful experience spent with our middle school students and the [3:34:06] amazing staff volunteers that make uh a fun and engaging exper opportunity for students to just have fun with each [3:34:13] other so thank you to all that make those those uh exciting opportunities [3:34:20] possible uh director langenfeld thank you I was able to [3:34:27] attend the anti-crime breakfast which is just an incredible collaboration and I [3:34:32] know some of you probably have attended in the past a lot of the team went um from the cabinet and that was a really [3:34:39] really important uh group of people coming together for the safety and well-being of our community and the data [3:34:46] was there to support the work that's underway so uh a really nice way to [3:34:52] start the day too with all good some very important good news the other thing that um I know uh co-chair Arco and I [3:35:01] did attend on behalf of the board is the community curriculum advisory committee [3:35:07] looking at the social emotional learning curriculum and um it was very well [3:35:13] attended by representation from all of our schools there family parents who sit [3:35:19] on that Committee just to talk about uh the questions and surveys that are going [3:35:25] to go out um we spent some time just understanding the work that was going on [3:35:30] in our schools heard a very positive feedback about the various programs so [3:35:35] underway now we gave feedback um on the survey format for both teachers and for [3:35:43] families and they anticipate those go out probably if you recall it was a [3:35:48] second week in November I think so those surveys should be coming back to us to [3:35:53] give us feedback and I don't know if you have anything to that you want to add to that as well yeah I I attended and um [3:36:01] we're kind of just kicking off the process to reevaluate the curriculum so it was good to get community feedback [3:36:06] and yeah I look forward to just seeing how the process unfolds then as as another opportunity I [3:36:14] did attend the uh curriculum night um again the US History 10 was there well [3:36:21] represented by the vendors but also had an opportunity and I know some have been sitting on the ELA uh committee to look [3:36:28] at the curriculum again in terms of ckla and Bridge to read and Whitten [3:36:34] wisdom and and they're all being piloted now so a lot of good feedback in terms [3:36:39] of the results that people are seeing and today um uh co-chair duchane and I [3:36:46] along with the superintendent visited Oxo and there was reference to uh the [3:36:52] implementation of those particular programs as well um had a chance to uh [3:36:58] check out the safety secure office now in the front area of Champa Park High School which was pretty Grand and uh [3:37:06] co-chair desan and I attended that and and and got a real good look at they were just bringing all the furniture in [3:37:13] last week so it was very exciting as as well lots of great work going on in our schools and um I I encourage everyone to [3:37:22] to really recognize the extraordinary hard work going on to be able to ensure [3:37:28] that every child has what they need for [3:37:33] success thank you thank you very much any other comments from board [3:37:39] members all right hearing none we will move to our last item item 10 it will be [3:37:44] conducted in closed executive session the first closed session will be a closed session pursuant to Minnesota [3:37:50] statute 13 d03 to discuss negotiation strategies for the following bargaining [3:37:55] groups building supervisors building service employees Child Nutrition site supervisors Community School coordinators Education Office [3:38:02] professionals education education support professionals parent Educators [3:38:07] principals School officers supervisors speci special education program supervisors and Technical Specialists [3:38:13] the second close session will be closed pursuant to Minnesota statute 13 d05 subdivision 2 B for preliminary [3:38:20] consideration of allegations or charges against an individual subject to its Authority the Clos session will be held [3:38:26] in the Michael Sullivan room I would entertain a motion to move to close [3:38:32] session for the reasons just stated thank you director Simon is there a second thank you director adet is [3:38:39] there any discussion hearing none all in favor say I I all opposed say say Nay with six in [3:38:47] favor and zero o opposed we will move to Executive session in the Michael suven room uh do we want to take a 5 minute [3:38:53] break okay we'll do a f minute break the meeting is recessed [3:38:59] at 9:55 [3:39:07] [Music] [3:39:45] for