started okay good evening this work session of the ISD 279 School Board is being held in the Forum room of the Educational Service Center at 11200 93rd Avenue North in Maple Grove on Tuesday May 7th 2024 the work session is being audio recorded the recording will be made available on the district website within two business days after the work session has ended with regard to the audio recording our communication staff has asked that we share a friendly reminder that side conversations during the work session are picked up by the recorder and can affect sound quality also conversations during transitions between agenda items are on the recording as well the intent of the Schoolboard work session is to allow for Schoolboard discussion of topics work sessions do not include an opportunity for audience members to address the board to knowledge attendance this evening I'll ask that all present at the table State their name starting to my left Jackie mosa Jones Schoolboard member Thomas Brook Schoolboard member K executive director of community relations Brian serson Hall executive director of community engagement John morstead Executive Director of Finance and operations Steve flisk assistant superintendent for the elementary schools s John her student from Mia Senior High student fromia Senor High Izzy Andor student from fromc Amy tson District level principal okay Brian bass assistant superintendent for equity and achievement Heather Douglas Schoolboard member Sarah Mitchell Schoolboard member am Mo General Council Kim H superintendent Nora Mohamed um C student advisor Task Force member at what school AA Senor thank you and I Tanya Prince schol board member and present the purpose of the Schoolboard work sessions is to build trust and teamwork to exchange information and when applicable to provide Direction in order to facilitate efficient and effective decision- making at regular Schoolboard meetings Dr how will you please share your check in yes thank you Vice chair Prince and chair mosquito Jones and board members I am so excited to this evening our first one that we're going to introduce this evening is our superintendent student Advisory Group uh they're just pure Brilliance uh just saying that's I have Amy toson introduce them wonderful well I have the great joy of working with these students throughout the year along with superintendent Kyle and so what I wanted to do is just because this is our very first year of this group and walking through the process on how we landed where we are at today and then our students are going to be um sharing a little bit more about their project so before we begin we have one more student who just arrived so would you like to introduce yourself my name is Jack I go to Maple girl senior high thank you all right so the purpose of this group we identified as having our leaders um Define a specific project that was specifically stating how students in AIO School District feel welcomed and centered so that was really the the bigger question that we were looking at throughout this year because we were bringing students together through um multiple different sites we wanted to make sure that we were building community and I just want to share this because this was like such a such a fabulous way to start one of our meetings it was you know our Icebreaker Community Builder was really around um just create a positive message and of course our students came up with brilliant things to say that really uplifted our group and from my perspective it really changed the tone of our group so I just wanted to show you some of the wonderful things that they do and kind of capture some of the artifacts from our meetings and um just the way that one example of how we're building Community with each other all right so the process we used and this was in Partnership um with Brooklyn Bridge Alliance For Youth and they helped to facilitate the experience and we would also plan the meetings together each uh month heal consensus building which essentially was developing that question that I spoke about um which is on our screen brainstorming clustering all these ideas that we brainstormed because they had many let me tell you um and then identifying a theme for each of those categories so what that ended up looking like was this so we had all sorts of Post-it notes um lots of conversations lots of collaboration and this was all student driven and so these are the categories and this just is a typed up example of what you just saw um I know that the post notes are a little harder to read so this is a little bit easier to read and you can see right here were those big themes that the students identified so this year specifically they are focusing on mental health and these are some of the pieces around education around mental health and creating more awareness of resources and they are going to go into much more detail with all of the work that they are doing and I just again wanted to highlight the key pieces of what they are working on this year um after they identified mental health and came up with the different project we also went through another process to look at um you know how do we actually deliver on this and going through strengths dangers weaknesses and benefits so my point of sharing with this is just showing process and that we're very intentional with them and helping us to land where we are today so here's just some fun pictures of our time together really fun so before I turn it over to our students today I just just want to share that this is very very early on in our project and this is you know we've really just started to work on the products and we know that some of the products each need refining we know that some of the products that they've identified at this point we actually might already exist in our system and it's our work to walk the students through their own process to see what do we are what already exists does it align with what they were their intentions are or is it something that we can refine um so they be able to walk through that but I just want you to have that understanding as you start to see the different things that they're focusing on this year and also this is truly their student perspective this is truly delivered by them um there is you know a recent editions this afternoon um which really just highlight what their passions are and their priorities and the information that they thought was really really important so this is not filtered by any of the adults or me this is truly their um their work so with that I'm going to switch our slide deck and pass it off to our students okay hi so again we're the student advisory tast for here um and the topic we chose once again is um taking care of your mental health we chose this because this is a growing topic now it's becoming more aware and people are having lots of questions um so we believe that um by introducing this topic um to you guys maybe we could get some fresh ideas um from what we already created and I'll start by introducing myself um again my name is m um I'm a junior at a senior high okay my name is Sana I'm also a junior at a senior my name is Nora Muhammad and I'm also a junior at AIO Senior High School my name is jacn uh I go to Maple girl Senior High and I'm a junior my name Name is Izzy I attend the ooc and I'm a senior and do we know Ronnie Brown is Park Center with G junior junior okay thank you so our process involved a lot of steps as um we went through earlier um we first started by brainstorming all the ideas that we all had and especially it came from a big group there's more of us that was sitting there but something that couldn't make it um but we all had ideas of problems or things that we'd like to see Chang in the district and in our school scho and problems that we saw were impacted in all the all the schools and so we all put in our ideas we brainstorm we then Clum them into categories and then not necessarily What mattered more cuz we believe all the problems that we addressed they all had same significance but we initially came down to mental health because that's kind of like the backbone of all the things that we mentioned before in our brainstorming process so it went from brainstorming we made a choice and then we made a plan and like this is kind of our steps to take action on how we're going to act on the RO all right so why vent to help so I think the main thing when uh we were going over this is that we need to focus more on prevention rather than reaction we shouldn't be waiting for something to happen in order to go against it and when it does happen we shouldn't let it die down we should keep the same um level of interest and production like over the whole entire school year because this is a very severe topic and if it does die down and it is unheard then it's you know it's going to create openings for other things for reaction which we don't want to see and we also wanted to have constant availability to resources so this is just the ability to not only be able to talk to someone but to know that you have a resource and to know what those resources are at your school okay so now we're going to talk about what is mental health so mental health in general isn't just just a feeling thought or stage it's our mental health as a whole it's not just when you're having bad days it's also your good days and it's more than just an illness um some of our goals as we already have mentioned is increase accessibility of Mental Health Resources destigmatize to talk about mental health equip teachers with the proper resources to support students along with themselves as well as um teach students how to use those resources and yeah and then cultivate a safe environment that Cent students voice so just making it a comfortable environment for students to share their experiences with their mental health struggles and making it so that they're heard regardless of who they are then okay so who's impacted by mental health everyone is impacted by mental health and can suffer from a mental illness however our environment the world we live in and the effects have great effects on our mental health it is not a shock the black community along with other communities of color have a high rate of mental illness many of these committies uh communities have hit barriers when trying to get help such as lack of resources and resources that aren't very very good or selective they don't have a large amount to support the community as much as we would like them to black youth are more likely to suffer from mental illnesses such as depression or anxiety compared to their white peers and Native Americans also have a notably High rate of suicide and mental struggles people who are identified as a part of the lgbtq plus Community are likely to use Mental Health Resources more than their um hetero peers and in that Community bisexual and transgender people are reported to have the highest concerned in mental health struggles people in the lgbtq plus Community are more likely to face shame and uh face shame and bullying from their peers for being different quote unquote and also men are less likely to speak about their mental health due to the stress the stigma that Society has put in them men are less likely to get help compared to women and they are also more likely to commit suicide however there are other factors such as men use more violent tactics compared to women so I just want to point all this out because everyone has different struggles but some people have more struggles that make it harder for them to get help or the societal um standards for them makes it so they're not safe like they're sorry they can't communicate safely about what they need and then we have some statistics so here according to the Minnesota post in 20 202 oneir of Minnesota high school experienced mental health struggles and at a 10% increase since 2016 according to the Mental Health America 16.39% of Youth ages 12 to 17 have reported at least one major depressed episode in the past year Minnesota ranks 40 uh 43rd with 19.3 36% of 59.8% of you did not receive mental health support Minnesota ranks 31 um ranks 31 6.3% of Youth in the United States reported drug abuse um black children under 13 are twice as likely to die by Suicide than their white peers 36.6% suicide rate in the black community the lgbtq plus Community reported 30 39% have reported mental health issues and they are also more likely to use resources uh 2.5 times more than their het peers so it's just important to recognize that these statistics matter and they prove that we're not really giving the support that we could be giving and we hope that what we're setting up can help people in all communities get the support because everyone deserves it okay good job okay so um me and my partner who cannot be here today were in charge of sort of the visual okay we were trying to put all of this into something more compact CU I know that was that was a lot of information that also bear with me values Paving the way for a more sustainable and inclusive future as we explore the emerging Technologies like generative AI it's essential to recognize that many major technological advancements follow Gartner type cycle this cycle involves pH phases of heightened expectations both positive and negative until reaching a point of realistic understanding regarding the capabilities of the technology currently generative AI believe to have pass the peak of inflated expectations this indicates that we are approaching phases where we will gain a clear understanding of the Practical applications and implications of this technology in our daily lives reflecting on the current hype cycle it's important to acknowledge that education has experienced numerous technological shifts that have ultimately led to productive outcomes for example during the 1960s the introduction of the calculators in education sparked significant controversy with concerns that their use might harm students mathematical education however as history unfolded we discovered that math education did not come to a halt because of calculators and in fact their integration enhanced The Learning Experience by providing broader access to mathematical Concepts and allowing students to delve deeper into the learnings process at an earlier age ultimately fostering a stronger foundation for advanced math skills the calculator is just one of many examples of technology disruptors that have emerged over time and are and we're now experiencing them in a more frequent uh Pace as technology advances more rapidly consider the Revolutionary impact of the Gutenberg printing press which granted widespread access to written language was also met with significant controversy for various reasons in more recent times education has grappled with the role of video content in particular YouTube digital collaboration tools like Google Docs smartphones and social media we continue to navigate the benefits and challenges posed by these Technologies seeking the right balance of their use within the educational environment what sets generative AI like chat GPT apart from other Tech disruptors and educations is its unprecedented rate of adoption consider this chart illustrating the time it took for several key Technologies to reach a 100 million users typically each technology took two or more years to achieve this Milestone however chat GPT accomplished this feat in just 64 days effectively arriving at our doorstep before we had finished running our errands this rapid adoption left little time for educators to fully learn and explore its potential before the hype cycle took off artificial intelligence though not new continues to evolve with the latest iteration being generative AI the term AI was joed in the 1950s when scientists began exploring the potential of computer Technologies to emulate humanik intelligence chat GPT Google Gemini and Microsoft co-pilot are examples of generative AI they're akin to how iPhone Google pixel and Samsung Galaxy are different brands of smartphones that enable cellular communication artificial intelligence serves as the overarching term for technology that simulates humanlike intelligence that performs tasks machine learning learning is a subset of AI it involves algorithms that learn from data to make predictions or decisions for instance this has been in our lives for many years Netflix uses machine learning to recommend shows or movies based on your previous viewing history generative AI is a specific type of machine learning utilizing trained data to predict and generate outcomes such as producing coherent text based on an input tools like chat GPT are categorized as large language models or llms if you you might hear that within the media due to their extensive text based data set and their capability to generate humanlike text to grasp the power of generative AI tools like chat GPT let's consider a comparison between the human brain and these AI models the human brain is estimated to contain contain about 86 billion neurons which serve as the connectors for processing information and shaping our human experience in contrast when chat GPT launched in November 30th of 2020 2 last two a year ago this fall uh it consisted of 175 billion parameters equivalent to the information connectors in the AI model remarkably by March 14th of 2023 just over 3 months later chat pt4 was introduced with an astonishing 100 trillion parameters representing a 500 fold increase compared to its predecessor generative AI is not just a concept it's a powerful reality that has already making significant impacts as we begin to explore the potential of these tools we are witnessing immediate opportunities unfolding in education many educational applications are leveraging generative AI Technologies to deliver responsive and personalized learning experiences for students for instance KH Academy U utilizes AI to tailor tutoring experiences providing personalized guidance across various educational topics for students moreover on the operational side of Education AI Technologies are streamlining time intensive tasks that often detract from collaborative teaching efforts these Technologies assist staff in drafting professional development and lesson plans setting student goals summarizing information and outlining strategic plans thus allowing Educators to focus more on enhancing the learning experience at aary schools we Embrace non-malicious AI tools allowing students and staff to use them regularly let's take a look at the last 90-day snapshot of our systems AI tool usage according to this chart Tuesdays happen to emerge as our Peak AI usage day for some reason uh and with an average user accessing AI tools approximately 14 times over the 90-day period despite the vast possibilities offered by AI it presents us with significant challenges that we must address some key ethical questions we need to consider include what does responsible digital digit digital citizenship entail in an age of AI how will our organization strategize and prepare for potential risks associated with AI implementation and how will we proactively engage the communities we serve in discussions around digital ethics and ensuring responsible AI practices in addition to our ongoing efforts to understand generative AI use in aary schools we are drawing uh insights from two other key resources one is the recently released National Education technology plan by the office of educational technology at the Federal level and the Coen 2024 K through2 Innovation report while the National Education technology plan does not specifically address generative AI it does acknowledge AI within the broader technology landscape the plan focuses on three critical areas the digital use divide or how are students leveraging technology for creation rather than consumption the digital design divide how educators designing instruction that effectively integrates technology and the digital access device how are we ensuring Equitable access to resources that prepare students to thrive in a future Workforce the Coen or the Consortium of school networking is the Premier National Professional Organization for Education technology leadership each year Coen produces a K12 Innovation report that examines the current challenges accelerators and Technology enablers shaping Innovation and education I'm excited to add that Ryan Cox our new hired director of technology is one of this year's authors of this National report uh in the report accelerators represents the factors driving most significant positive impacts through Innovative practices well Tech enablers are the technology resources that support and amplify this work this year's report highlights generative AI is one of the top three resources that with the potential to significantly enhance our work in education understanding this background is crucial as we shift our Focus to the current perspective on AI within osto are schools earlier this year I convened several stakeholders from across the system to establish our AI task force the primary objectives of this task force were to craft a purpose statement for AI within our organization and develop foundational guiding principles that will shape the future initiatives and discussions surrounding AI use in aary schools tonight marks the inaugural Public Presentation of our AI guiding document which is included in your board packet this document represents the culation of the dedicated efforts of our exceptional AI Task Force Team the purpose statement crafted by the AI task force outlines that artificial intelligence in aary schools is a transformative resource it empowers Educators and Scholars to engage in Innovative teaching and learning practices blending the ethical use of advanced technology with human insights to enrich the overall education experience we had a lot of conversation within our team about um the the role of humans in Human Experience in the technology use that we have and how we engage with Advanced Technologies like artificial intelligence the AI task force has established four guiding PR principles ethical use human- centered design digital equity and future Readiness tonight the members of our AI task force will delve into each of these principles discussing what they entail for both staff and students okay I'm going to start us off I have the first one so ethical use our first guiding principle is around ethical use and this principle establishes the parameters for how how Scholars and staff can use AI responsibly in the school setting a common concern about Scholars using AI tools surrounds its potential misuse such as using chat GPT for academic dishonesty however this principle isn't about restricting or prohibiting AI rather it's about communicating when AI can be used it needs to be clear to our Scholars when can and cannot use AI for class assignments for example using chat GPT to narrow down a topic idea or create an outline for a paper can be a useful scaffold for our Scholars um it can help them get past that dreaded blank page I don't know if that's happened to you before but it has to me um but um it also means that if a student copies and paste directly from chat GPT that that would not be acceptable um it also means giving credit where credit is do when using chat GPT or other AI tools uh so in fact I need to give chat GPT some credit here because it's very helpful to when you're wordsmithing trying to find that just right phrase or word that you want to use um similarly similarly uh staff like Scholars must acquire the Knowledge and Skills for how to use AI responsibly and teach and model this for our Scholars AI can be a powerful tool that can be used to create lesson plans different differentiate Tech text passages and design assessments But ultimately the promise of AI when we're thinking of ethical use is to use AI to replace some of the common tasks that um our staff do every day so that they have more time to collaborate with our colleagues to build relationships with our Scholars and to personalize learning all right uh this last year we were able to go to an educational AI conference and one significant theme that came out from the conference was to keep humans in the center of AI it is critical to remember that this tool is human-made to be used by humans to help humans as we learn more about artificial intelligence we want to make sure that we teach digital literacy and keep a critical lens on the media we are consuming AI was programmed by human input and is learning based on human interactions humans have unconscious biases that get pulled into the programming therefore we must look at all media critically I had the opportunity this year to work in a class where students were creating a story about a fictional character that they were creating in their mind after students had identified the main aspects of their character we used AI to generate an image that would go along with the fictional character they created I worked with a young man whose character was a 13-year-old boy who had recently immigrated from Mexico living in Minnesota whose name was Jamal when we we and the student the student and I entered the characteristics into the image generated every result entered in a boy with black skin when the student wanted a boy with brown skin he wanted it to reflect himself after changing and tweaking different aspects of this fictional character we continued to get the same results of a black boy finally we tried removing the name Jamal and when we removed Jamal we had a brown student that gave us a great opportunity in class to talk about how we have to examine the media that we see and teach digital literacy to tell them that not everything we see is real and we have to look at it critically we want to make sure that we use artificial intelligence in our world to teach students to think critically and determine if what we are seeing is accurate we want to leverage technology to increase our human intelligence and we want to use AI to be a place to brainstorm and gather information but remember that it's human- centered and we have to look at it critically as generative AI technology of digital equili as generative AI technology rapidly enters our classrooms it's important that we ensure access to for all to this transformative tool the design and implementation of AI and oio must be tailored to meet the diverse needs strengths and backgrounds of all of our students we also need to address historical and systemic barriers that have blocked students from opportunities to learn in the past past and ensure that the use of AI is fair and Equitable for everyone drawing inspiration from the White House's AI Bill of Rights this principle reflects the trans transformative potential to improve our students lives while emphasizing the importance of mitigating potential harms which is a goal that is both essential and achievable an example of Equitable access is not blocking generative AI tools like chat GPT we know that restricting AI affects Scholars who don't have access to these same tools at home when there are schoolwide bands on AI kids with access to good internet and these tools at home have the ability to try and to fail and to learn and to grow and those who don't are left out one of the questions are task force task force was posed with was do we want to continue with these same AI bands as other districts or do we want to address this problem in a healthy community-driven way at the end of the day how can we ensure that AI tools promote Equity rather than exacerbate inequalities helping Scholars understand that understand AI tools is Paramount it's not Equitable for schools to rely on kids to build these skills at home or on their own or not at all our role as Educators is to find trusted tools that we feel comfortable putting in front of our Scholars so that all Scholars can responsibly learn those skills I'm sorry could you say that last part again sure the whole sentence yeah okay um our role as Educators is to find trusted tools that we feel comfortable putting in front of our Scholars so that all Scholars can responsibly learn those skills I'm sorry it was the sentence before that said something a phrase and I just couldn't remember it sure um I'll do the whole thing there only few seconds sorry helping students understand AI tools is Paramount it's not Equitable for schools to rely on kids to build these School these skills at home or on their own or not at all our role as Educators is to find trusted tools that we feel comfortable putting in front of our Scholars so that all of them can responsibly learn those skills thank and finally we have future ready just as it was impossible for my 10-year-old self to ever imagine being able to make a video phone call uh Edinburgh fifth graders also can't imagine what sort of changes AI will bring to their lives they currently enjoy using AI to edit their photos and generate imaginary creatures and Landscapes from text that they provide they dream about sending a virtual self to school while they get to stay at home and uh I'm pretty sure that their understanding of the possibilities that AI provides will vastly and quickly expand once they get to Middle School just a few short months from now um I'm excited to be able to share in some of these beginnings of that Discovery with them helping them thrill with the possibilities while developing their understanding that for the most part AI can only get back based on what you put in helping them understand how to harness that power that they have at their fingertips is key to helping them understand that AI is so much more than hey Google write my research paper um employers have told us that the four seas of the 21st century skills are what they are looking for in our graduates communication collaboration critical thinking and creative thinking these skills become even more important as we look at incorporating AI into the workplace the specifics of how we can use AI in every facet of our lives changes almost daily we need to help staff and students consider the deeper questions that will guide them in their use of AI questions like how will we responsibly and ethically work with AI how can we look critically at the work produced by AI how does AI help our Aid our creativity rather than just do the work for us these are the considerations we need to keep in mind and explicitly teach alongside teaching the students and learning for ourselves staff how to use the AI tools effectively and meaningfully our value of Scholars and staff being lifelong Learners is definitely something we will see playing out in concrete ways as we consider the tra trajectory of AI in osto area schools and that concludes our presentation um you know as I share the information that you've heard around kind of this guiding document so this is we we're building the basement so we still have a lot of work to continue to do and a lot of dialogue to engage in um but from where we were a year ago where you know it was here teachers knew students were using it we haven't had a real conversation around it this is giving us a framework and language that we can now use as a system as we think about what does this look like um you know I think about the acceptable use policy is coming up for review in the 400 section and as we talk about instructional practice as teachers are wondering wa how do I engage this incorporate this within my classroom this is this is again we're at the basement stage of setting the foundation for what we can build all the rest of the work on um within our system and help build context um in the conversation so with that I'll turn it over for questions questions or discussion I'm excited to see how this um evolves in in education um you know at first I was concerned about plagiarism as I'm sure every teacher is um but I I'm um I feel good about the way that we're addressing it here in AIO um I think Banning it is as the students before us told us that's not going to work because if you ban it they'll find a way to use it um and it will cause more inequity so um thank you for the presentation and I'm excited to see what happens yeah we wrestle a lot with that um the plag plers in pieace is the big component that that came out and um districts are really wrestling with this and in different Dynamics and um part of the reality is is the the Checkers that are out there while they may be getting used research Bears out that they're mostly inaccurate and it actually disproportionately Flags students who are English language Learners because as an English language learner you write in a more technical language and AI Checkers tend to flag technical language more than conversational language which is again how a language learner is learning to write and construct language um it's also interesting Stanford came out with a Rec study around the impact of AI and cheating in schools and uh what they found in their most recent study is that the percentage of cheating actually hasn't changed how students are cheating is changing so you still have the same percent of students that have always been cheating just instead of paying somebody to write the paper they're throwing it in a chat GPT to produce it for them um so it's kind of an interesting thing to think about when we thought it was going to be you know Fair rampant and and WID spread not that it's not an issue and and that we don't have to address that and have those conversations but um I think there might have been some more fear initially than what may be actually transpiring with within the reality um I do have another question do you see um I imagine that this is an opportunity for us to um much like calculators allowed us to get kids to think at higher you know like taxonomies higher levels of thinking um here's a chance for us to move behind Beyond just comprehension spit out you know whatever and now let's talk about evaluating and synthesizing and Analysis at an earlier age do you is that I think um somebody put you know artificial intelligence there's that human component you're putting the input so if anybody here has ever used chat GPT if you ask it a stupid question you're going to get a stupid right so it it really is that that skill of helping um helping our Scholars learn how to ask good it's sort of like that whole inquiry research kind of model like how do we ask good questions how can we narrow and focus it's you know didn't output exactly what I want so now I get to try again and refine and um so yes I think it definitely will help Le to um more more critical thinking and Analysis interestingly as you think about the critical thinking of putting things things in um you still have to have background knowledge and content knowledge because if you don't have that you can't critically analyze what the output and you can't ask the right questions so to effectively use AI you really have to have a high level of background skill to effectively use it which is also why it was really interesting as you know social media came out you know 10 years ago we all were surprised when we were starting to see these job postings in the public sector and private sector around social Med Med analysts because private companies were hiring individuals to analyze social media feeds we're now seeing this trend started coming out six figure salaries last spring for private sector companies hiring prompt creators so somebody who can critically create a input into artificial intelligence to help their business intelligence within that space there's no degrees there's no background for you know formal education related to that indust indry at the moment as you know new Workforce opportunities are being created within this phas no I just want to say I appreciate all thoughtful and thorough you guys are being at this stage and cautious setting like you called it the the um basement or foundational stage so good helpful presentation I'm excited just knowing how we're using it at my workplace I'm excited to see how it might help with instructional practices and efficiency and Effectiveness and just the power of analysis um even just like uh we use it for kind of listening to what we're doing and then having insight as to how we can do our jobs better even in in our facilitation and work I do so I'm excited to see all of the opportunities that it can present well I'm conflicted as always when it comes to technology because it's very cool right and when it comes to the possibilities like what T is talking about and creating efficiencies for our teachers where they're able to focus more on instruction um that's amazing and incredible when it comes to our students though a concern that I have is um our job as Educators is to teach them how to think not what to think and I think that with programs like chat GPT that um instead of a program that says you know you type in a sentence and it's worded in such a way I've used programs um in the past I don't know if anybody's had to use our family with but if you have you're my people um but it uh if you say something like for example in an angry tone it will alert you to change your language but it doesn't tell you what to say and that kind of tool I think is very useful I am more concerned about taking away their creativeness when they're using programs like this um and also a lot of like if all of of us are using the same program and we're all putting in the same stuff we're all going to get out the same answers um and that's not real um and it takes away the human voice I think and just like what you were talking about um I love the example to use and to show them how they need to look at it critically that's super important I love that um but I also don't think Kids Care I think when they get to a certain point they just want to get their assignment done and turned in um and so that's where I'm like I where do we find the balance I don't think Banning is the solution they're going to use it anyways but how do we find that um that happy middle ground where they're able to use the technology in a functional way that benefits their learning and um doesn't hinder it right um and one thing I actually think this is a little funny I just anecdotally I don't know where when but the calculator thing okay I know there's a lot of controversy we don't use calculators I homeschool my kids they do not use health calculators tell Algebra 2 um and they are geniuses when it comes to math and we use Saxon which is the article that you posted with John Saxon um so I just wanted to say that like yeah calculators are great but kids need to know their basic facts and be able to do it quickly and I think that applies to AI use they need to be able to if they have an assignment in social studies and it's you know on World War II they need to be able to know the content of it and not just have it populate something out because you really like you said you have to have some knowledge but you don't need a lot especially at a high school or middle school level course and particularly at elementary level course um so that's where my concern is is um I don't feel like it's uh Equitable for them and the reason I don't think it is is because it will I think it will limit certain students ability to think creativi on their own and to develop strategies for their learning um versus just popping it in the system every time so I just wanted to put that in the space as something to consider as we move forward I don't know what that solution is that's your job I think good I personally at this time like many of these AI tools I don't see even being used at the elementary level unless um the examples that for example Sally's talking about is our Adobe Express which is sort of like it has AI built in a lot of tools now have that in um but like the generative AI I would even see being used right now at the elementary level um they didn't even seem to be aware of it when I asked them like literally everything now right like when you're on your phone it has like the little circle thing like I don't know it's in everything and they're going to be exposed to it before we know it B based on I'm also a little curious about what it might be for English language Learners having that kind of access you know especially when when doing more uh writing and sort of what I don't know if that's shown up at all in terms of some of the things that you've looked at in terms of research but how that might be that instructional support to help our students who who might really struggle with being able to communicate their thoughts or write their thoughts in a way that they could get positive feedback or something I'm just just curious if that has shown up then well I think we're also such in the new territory like as I that's why I intentionally shared the Gartner hype cycle I mean it launched literally November of 2022 we got to this giant height and now we're still trying to wrestle with what is the reality of what the technology can truly do I think there is a lot of observed potential for what that could do to scaffold for learning abilities language Learners in a variety of different ways um but we don't quite know yet we not territory and there hasn't been the research isn't there yet to see that because again we're about two years in now maybe but I think we would know that whatever it is it has to be purposeful right not just left up it has to be something that would be structured all right thank you team thank you thank you [Music] com all right we're going to switch over to the carry action plan and um we have Dr Bass ban B being introduce with you this evening please thank you thank you good evening uh chairman skada Jones Vice chair Prince members of the board our superintendent Dr Hy and members of the community that are with us this evening um a a long time ago we started uh down a journey uh in the 2021 2022 school year with the DM group offering a study um and Analysis of our special air programming in the district is was in partnership with emo um to really understand some of the staff workload concerns related to um uh our operations and our systems with systems and practices within special ed um programming in our district um we received that report and we felt like it missed the Mark um and uh we asked the superintendent at that time to um to think about how uh how to um respond to uh to the to the feedback and the concerns around it not really responding clearly and directly to the workload concerns and so out of that came um a conversation with the direct with the executive director of the kry um Center for Applied research evalu uh education and uh educational Improvement um I'm off script here that's why it's okay I'm I may have used some chat GPT stuff and great segue um and so Carrie engaged in their format for uh studying our special life programming and because of their um notoriety and recognition for really understanding the Minnesota context and Landscape um at that time we thought they would be the best partner to help provide some great feedback and then last September they presented um and again we felt like it missed the Mark um and so uh Sony myself and others we sat down with the executive director of krie Kim Gibbons and we talked about our frustration um and and and really that we might just end um the partnership and go a different direction uh and she she asked for one more chance um and she wanted to put the best facilitators in the space with us and so she um assigned the public progress as a group out out of uh Iowa who uh the the executive director of that group was um high up in the department of education for Iowa is known for being a really strong Guru and Advocate around mtss and really understanding systems and so we have spent the last 7even months um working with their team and a crosssection of Representatives across the district and I'm I'm really excited about the the foundation that we have now to really respond to those workload uh concerns s to to also understand what cohesiveness we need around the systems and practices in special ed um as well as trying to establish some early wins for our staff to feel like they're getting some relief around some of these workload concerns so you'll see in the documentation that's provided uh for you this evening um that that information is put forward in presentations and summaries to really show how we're responding to the workload concerns that are our staff have brought forward so I'll stop right there um and introduce our director of student services sun verin to take on um the lead for our presentation this evening thank you yeah thank you um thank you so much for allowing us to be here today sounds like we're 0 for two when it comes to special education audit reports so um we believe in you um I am going to be sharing a little bit of information about our process what we've been doing since we were here in September um so bear with me because I'm also going to get into the action plan and we're going to talk about the the tangible items what teachers are going to notice uh the outcomes for our students and our staff so we will get to that point as well um but we're going to talk about the process and the um document that we've created uh you have several documents in your folder please reference them as needed as I bring them up um and we're going to start with a summary of the results because why VAR little lead um we have completed an action plan with our carry action planning committee um we reviewed the 58 recommendations from the carry audit uh and narrowed that down to nine actual steps um the committee consisted of uh staff members from throughout from across the district all special education teachers esps and administrators were invited to be a part of the committee and we had representation from all three of those work groups and most of the buildings within the district um and representation all the way from um staff that work with kiddo's bth through age 22 uh had their voice in this and had their hands on this plan uh in the action plan you'll notice that uh the actions are categorized in three main areas the first is responding to workload concerns uh second is increasing our system cohesiveness and then establishing some short-term wins things that will be high leverage and actionable that we can see results on within our first year of implementation um so that will come up from time to time so our carry action um committee which I mentioned has met five times this year starting in November and um we're going to continue to work in that committee will still remain and work with our special education advisory team moving forward most of our meetings were facilitated by Carrie and um the public progress and their organizations they really led us through some of this work um so we when we met during these five meetings we had an hour and a half in-person meetings and we really got down to business at those meetings we were focused and we were productive we had a lot to get through uh we went through a uh sorting process the SWAT analysis um we used an effect uh effort for effect Matrix uh to um prioritize the recommendations that we pulled out from the report and then created our action plan I'm going to get into those steps in a little bit more detail the SWAT analysis um SWAT strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats allows us to look at both internal and external um factors that are going to contribute to the success of new initiatives so we this is a sorting process and staff sorted all 508 of those recommendations and the result of that was a lot of overlap um we thought that as staff worked independently and in small groups we were going to come away with sort of this mess of information uh but everybody's results were very similar uh and it allowed us to move forward focusing on the district's strength weaknesses and opportunities um and those that are internal and within our control the external um we didn't have very much fall into these categories in fact only one thing an external opportunity um which would be addressing High rates of student absenteeism and overall what that means is the committee that we're working on this a lot of opportunity within our control to make positive impacts to their workload and to student outcomes so that's a really good place to start uh we then took the recommendations and ran them through the effort for effect Matrix this is based on um effect sized work by Dr Hattie and really looking at what are those recommendations that we can Implement with um an appropriate amount of effort that are going to have a great impact on student outcomes um as opposed to the opposite of that things that take a lot of time a lot of effort might not even be required and don't really change anything for kids um so running it through that Matrix as well so that created an action plan for us I'm going to briefly go through some of these items and then we'll look more in depth again at those t pieces um but to respond directly to workload concerns uh it was determined that what we need to do as a district is remove barriers to efficiency and then allow and encourage the development of Staff e um efficacy and Collective efficacy group efficacy and then improving system level cohesiveness um looking at our districtwide standards and supports for Behavior Mental Health and Social learning how are we allocating our resources how are we prioritizing the when where and why and then looking at a districtwide data collection system um and how we would Implement that in insure Fidelity and in our final category that the committee um utilized for um codifying this information um was establishing the short-term wins uh and some of those examples include increaseing their tier one and tier 2 Behavior interventions um in the general education setting addressing absenteeism strengthening our Core Curriculum and improving family and Community engagement so those are all words right now and they don't feel like action steps right and I think that was what we took away in a September meeting too of Yep this is great we would love to do all these things but how like what does that actually look like and so that's why I'm excited to get into our action plan a little bit um on our screen is just kind of a visual of that process staff went through and I really wanted to put this up there just to kind of acknowledge the journey that they went through we didn't just sit down and use star our favorite recommendations uh and then move forward with those they really used um strong processes and dove into the work in order to come up with with this action plan so we're going to take a look at two of the nine action items um to get a better look at how this is going to translate into something that positively impacts staff and students I selected um two I'm happy to answer questions about any of the nine but these will be two that we're going to be working on right away the first one that we're looking at is priority D so you have an action plan in your it's it's your big document yeah it's the special print job in your thank you oh yeah we get all of our data like this um so we're looking at MD which is reinforcing the commitment of dedicated special education staff by removing barriers to efficiency um and specifically using the effort for effect Matrix to determine what are we doing that's above and beyond that isn't helping students at all um and there there are things and I can give a really concrete example of something we addressed earlier this school year uh using this method so um oio area schools when I arrived in July uh were still completing what are called re-evaluations for students on IEPs in all situations so every 3 years the student got a reevaluation uh there was no room for consideration of um whether that student would benefit from that re-evaluation whether we needed the information um it was just we were going to check that box every 3 years two years prior to this Minnesota the Department of Education said that's actually no longer necessary and the team can make a thoughtful determination on whether a student should be re-evaluated so as a special education leadership committee we came up with a process um that we then shared with our school psychologists who refined it and we no longer require three-year re-evaluations the effort of a re-evaluation is huge um 5 hours minimum for a student with very um little needs all the way up to 15 hours for a student with more significant needs and to do those arbitrarily um just because a three-year time period had come up um isn't effective and often doesn't provide results that uh family or students are looking for they have a teacher that's working with them every day um often communicating with families every day or every week they already have all the data that they need this is just checking a box so I'm happy to share that because of um the work of our teams this year we've already bypassed um 165 valuations so so that is a large amount of staff hours that would have been spent completing paperwork that can now be spent interacting with students can I just ask a quick question um so when a student so I love that and when a student's needs change um and a teacher or a parent whether if it's past the three years or before they still have the opportunity they can still request that be evaluated so it's not just like they said oh don't need and then we move on okay no and we have certain situations that we've described to case managers that we should always evaluate if we're considering a new category if there's new needs being presented um if a parent or a teacher brings up concerns so the the center of this is to be what's best for kids to not pull kids out of class for random testing when they don't need it or to provide them all the testing that they need when they need it well I was kind of thinking about the other side of it when a child can move out and just not keeping them in because we've just decided not to y yeah okay cool thank you so that's just one example um we have so many um paperwork specific processes that our team is going to be able to really dive into and determine um is this necessary is this helping anyone or are we checking a box that's not even a box anymore um this is the first time in 5 and a half years that I've heard that um I've never pre previously it's always been all of this is required yeah so this is fantastic to have dug into the insight and to say no there is opportunity to take the workout cuz I feel like I've only ever heard that everything is required is that consistent you said the threee thing that just was two years ago two years ago that changed y awesome so uh Minnesota is always performing above federal statute and often school districts are then trying to perform above Minnesota statute and so if there's things that we're doing above and beyond that are amazing for students then we should keep doing them right but we at least should take an opportunity and look at if there's some that fall in the other category all right the next action item that I'm going to share with you an example of how this could be implemented um is priority a so adopting a comprehensive support um approach to support for Behavior social emotional learning and mental health so we have wonderful things going on in our district related to uh Mental Health social emotional learning um we have exceptional PBIS work happening with Awards in the area of PBIS um and yet there's still areas where we can make improvements that would impact um all teachers and all students so really finding that connection between PBIS and mtss so how are we uh linking those how are we utilizing um researched Behavior interventions to support students before their special education students uh and so what this might look like in a tangible way is providing general education teachers with the training and the support necessary to handle tier one and tier 2 behaviors within their classroom um often a difference that we notice with special education students is um two students in one classroom might both stick their tongue out at the teacher and if the student is on an IEP that student then leaves um because they have somewhere to go someone to process with and then come back um where the teacher manages the behavior for the general education student and so really giving the teachers the skill and permission to manage those behaviors within their classroom it's very frustrating for special education teachers um to never be able to follow a schedule I remember being a teacher and thinking you know I have kiddos that don't go to language arts like I am their first grade reading teacher that's kind of a big deal um I can't be interrupted 17 times during their session for kiddos that are coming in unplanned so let's give these skills to our Genet teachers so that we can take that burden off of our special ed teachers so not only provide all of these different types of instruction but then to manage um unexpected student visits constantly so I think that's another example of something that's really tangible and that teachers will notice they feel the impact of that um which is why I brought those two examples up today and I could see that our I could Envision um our work moving forward starting with those two items so results um moving out of the action plan now I'm kind of looking at what we're going to look for immediately how are we going to know that things are in place we're hoping to see increased staff engagement um time that staff are interacting with students and collaboration among General Ed and specialed teachers and then of course that decrease in the workload that doesn't directly involve the kids that paperwork and then for our students and families increased Outreach and engagement and improved attendance at school dis um decrease disproportionate discipline and challenging behaviors in general long-term results very similar but they're going to last longer that's that's how i' wrap that up um no but really one of the big ones on here is um that looking for that decrease in staff turnover so that our teachers feel supported in AIO area schools they feel like we are looking out for them that we're acknowledging that they have challenging jobs and we want to provide the support needed for them to do their job within their work week and then for students and families um improved outcomes um that's what we want for all of our students so whenever that's something that's on the table it should be something that we're striving for so our next steps our carry action planning committee is going to work closely with with our special education advisory team which is myself my assistant director and then our special education coordinators to um share the work that they've done and talk about next steps in moving forward with our action plan creating our more detailed timeline so we have a timeline of one year for many of our items but going through in what does that mean for um June July August and then um continuing to do progress monitoring throughout our implementation process in case we need to make adjustments and we're making a commitment to be back in front of the board at the work session in November um so that you can hold us accountable for all the work that we have our action plan you know that's recorded right those are the my favorite words of the whole world I love I love I mean honestly though for you to express that to say that you know that especially because of where we've been on this that that the team is Desiring to be able to come back to monitor to measure and um hearing the ownership for it is I really appreciate that I didn't say I was thank you I app um and then this is a timeline of just what we've done and what we've talked about thus far and I like to call this my distraction so you don't ask any questions at end so um but thank you for your time obviously open to questions there's a lot of information in a really small period of time I have a question um so the the parent advisory committee that we have for special ed right um how and are we involving them with the advisory team on making sure that because we want more family engagement right so how are we working um with them and asking them much like we ask students what you know what needs to happen in order for us to all work as a team yeah that's a great question our Advisory Group has been so great this year um we've had 30 plus parents at every um meeting so we have wonderful um parent co-chairs that are doing great work this results of the carry audit were presented at our initial meeting this fall um and we've made followup um more so comments rather than presentations so that might just be a comment that I just take with me and sit on because I really like that well I just want to say this is um a huge improvement from our last presentation of this information I love the quick tangible things that we can Implement right away or have already been implemented in some ways um one of the questions that I had was around professional development um you said um increasing the learning for in classroom teachers General to be able to um help with those uh classroom distractions and those needs at the time how will that impact their already existing uh PD needs one thing I feel like we talk about a lot is oh we're going to need to do professional development on this and and that can burn out teachers not that this isn't needed but just how are we thinking about their professional development around this in conjunction with the rest of their professional development or is that something wor still working on well we have meeting set up with um teaching and learning who um hold quite a bit of that scheduling for the back to school week um we were able to trial something last month so we had 120 teachers in um to do professional development specific to behavior management within their classroom esps yes and esps thank you so 120 um staff and we focused on grades K through three okay um because that was where the need was showing at that time we were um creating that uh we got a lot of positive feedback so I think we'll be able to take that and leverage it I don't have all the answers but okay super interested another thing we're doing director Douglas is one of the three CS is um we're looking at the weight on the system so all we're looking at all our Departments of when we are doing training how much weight so even we're adding we're trying to look at what else is going on in the system for teachers and all of our staff there may be too much so I love that effort effect Matrix comes into play yeah and as a teacher that's a training that has effort for effect like I'll put in I'll put in time for that training if it if it keeps my kids in my classroom and I can manage the classroom better um because there's tools that I don't have um that would be good right one of the cool things too is the the PD was in collaboration with the ml with so we didn't have so how did the um have has the broader staff seen these recommendations yet and if so have they how are they responding to it we have a memo written ready to go out um that Brian is going to view and um we have contact information on there for some of their um some of the members that are also teachers um which I think uh will be helpful because they can reach out to their own um peers about the process so um yeah we wanted to get Bard feedback first messages out but we do have a timeline for when we're trying to make sure we communicate um and get additional feedback from some sites so your email go they like it they like it really though like the the way that this was put together and you can see the really clear information and what we're going to do about it is huge that's what I think we've been asking for and that's really delivered awesome may or may not have had a hammer it wasn't pretty it wasn't pretty thank you is our next update on this in November yeah okay um I think that's our proposal okay um to the staff comment um I know that they haven't seen all of this yet but um it would be great to have them involved and helping to lead this work and also have them come back and present with you all progress on this because I know we generally hear the complaints and what's going wrong but um to have them actually talk about you know the progress and the work that's happening would be um a nice change I did I did have one other just one last comment is when it comes to this process the DU process paperwork that's where I think AI would be [Music] really okay I'm just saying to ease ease the worklow there is some great opportunity in that space with data privacy in mind right right awesome thank you you deserve just when you think it can't get better it's time to go over purp side update so it's good all right well uh good evening everybody I'm going to help lead this last uh agenda item of this work session for tonight and um we'll be talking about the repurposing portion of the building a better future plan a lot of the cabinet members uh will be chiming in on this as well as me and also Carrie cave and Ethan nlls are both here as well they've been helping is here too yeah no no you're fine we got we've got some um folks that have been doing some pre-planning work on this so we're all we're all here yeah have Jill and may just added something to last week I think so we're um as you're all aware building a better future has been a it's it's an amazing a huge project that's that's great and this um repurposing uh site is a big change for our system right and we wanted to start I think it was it's important to start by acknowledging that and it's the biggest change for the children and families at Crestview Elementary right so I think that's um important for us to acknowledge that when we start this conversation cuz I know it's easy for me to get caught up in well what are we going to do and all that kind of stuff stuff but it's also important to ground us that we're we're only one month away from staff students and families having been informed that their school was going to be repurposed that was the first week of April right so that's not that long ago so along throughout this whole process one of our goals was to ensure that people were cared for along the way and especially our Crest viw uh families and School staff would be not only supported um but that we would recognize the and celebrate the history of the school uh during this transition time and I think I can uh share from some of Dr H's comments and Steve and some of my colleagues that were on site at Crestview um Stephanie Webster their principal has been uh exemplary in how um she has cared for her team and her community right and that doesn't surprise us but I think it's worth acknowled in so um we realize that this is just happening and is currently happening and tonight we're excited to uh talk a little bit more in depth about the repurposing portion of this plan and we wanted to have it's always fond when Amy kicks us off Amy more right we wanted to give make sure that everyone in here understood from a broader sense and a somewhat legal sense what repurposing a school is defined as somewhat legal I'll give you the legal framework pretty quick yeah um we will be temporarily closing the school building there will be work that will be done hopefully it will take a year but it you have the ability under statute to close temporarily for three years um we provide the public an opportunity in a public meeting to give comment so that will be at your next uh board meeting but practically could happen at any public comment time as well um we will be looking at reassigning grades reassigning the K through five grades to other schools and focusing on the prek grades at that site um so there's not a closing of the school building it is just the temporary closing and then we allow public comment at a public meeting all right thank you Amy in that the reason we started with that is because it'll make sense on um with the reassigning of grades and the repurposing on why some things have to be there versus a completely open-ended um what do you all think we should put there right you know and I'm not being super factious that we want to get community input but there are going to be some legal parameters on what you can and can't do when you repurpose a site versus straight up close a school building so that we wanted to have Amy start so thank you um so first we're going to talk about how we got here here and some of the why and we'll follow that with some of our initial thoughts on future plans as many of you are aware our building a better future plan share that an elementary school would be repurposed to serve pre kindergarten grades uh enrichment and Community Based programming needs po doing a slide oh okay yeah thank you uh and and thanks to K for putting this last week so this is super help teamwork after much research and consideration uh including building a better future and and our e uh enrollment capacity management committee Crestview Elementary as you're aware was chosen as the school to be repurposed um and what does this mean uh cresview kindergarten through grade five students and staff will be moving schools the fall of 2025 right the start of the 2526 school year Crestview will continue to have Elementary programming for next year's 2024 2025 school year right so this isn't starting that's not happening in the fall it's a year from the fall that's just important to remember and as it is currently configured uh that will end June of 2025 essentially that last week of school in 20125 so John's going to talk a little bit about the why how we got here br um so as we go through the wise it's important to know that this is a big decision this this was a very big decision for our system and it's not an easy decision to make it affects a lot of people um both families staff students and future students um we put a lot of years many years of research in the district got us to this point staff students parents caregivers and community members have all been a part of that journey to get us to this decision um Brian mentioned EAC which uh started in 2017 and they consistency consistently shared different variations that exist with our enrollment capacity and building use and a ongoing need to address those variations that were there so ecac along with six other other study groups provided recommendations on the build better future plan that included several facility improvements and the repurposing of a school or Poss multiple schools those recommendations went to the oversight task force who vetted and reviewed that work and made final recommendations to the school board using the criteria in alignment with our District's Mission and values and there's a list here of all the criteria I won't read them for you but um all the different pieces that we used to make sure we were making the best decisions we could make and what that recommendation was and we touched on that before we brought it to you at the school board and that finalized build a better future plan solidified the decision to move forward with an elementary repurposing the AIO area schools team has been working to determine which Elementary School to repurpose since approval of the bill to better future um referendum in 2023 so we've been working on that many many times had a lot of conversations in cabinet about um being intentional and thoughtful in this process and in many times said Slow the process down wait here's another scario slow the process down and so we wanted to be very very intentional before we brought it Forward um so obviously cresy was chosen and there's really specific reasons why and we'll just kind of highlight the three big ones there are others um but but it starts really with that the central location to other neighborhood schools it's an easy school to spread um the students to because they're in very close proximity um the opportunity to expand and offer more Community Services we saw that in our study that we have other needs we have needs to do more Community programs that that people are asking us for and we didn't have a place to put them and finally the lower student enrollment in that building that is reaching unsustainable levels um today we have about 225k through five kids in that building um and the projections are to be under 200 in the next couple years if we just continue going and I'll turn it back to K for more information as Brian shared um earlier as he introduced um tonight uh we wanted to make sure in our Communications that we were informing people but we also wanted to share that we were going to support people through this process and people are going to be cared for as well so we were very intentional um who we reached out to um and how we reached out to them and made sure that that was a very tight um time frame so over the last several weeks um we have been informing um a variety of audiences definitely with our Crest View at the top here our Crest View staff students and parents and caregivers um also staff districtwide are in the know at this point in time families districtwide um and then we've also reached out to our Brooklyn Park representatives and Community groups um to make sure that Brooklyn Park the city of Brooklyn Park as a whole is in the no as well and then us Schoolboard members too um there's a variety of ways that we've informed audiences um this has been definitely in convers or inperson conversations and meetings for those that are impacted directly the most um we've offered that online as well for those um that might not be able to come in person to some of these events um emails e newss articles um fact sheets with a lot of detail um snail mail letters um videos we had a great video we shared with students to make sure that they were in the no too um and our website which really has the most extensive information you can find a lot of answers to FAQ and we would encourage people to reach out to our hotlines that we have going on right now if there's there's not something addressed there we want to make sure that it gets answered um but it's very extensive right now on um even what's what's out there currently um so this is a a snapshot of our timeline U moving forward so we've been um as as I've shared um making sure that everybody is in the know um we will continue to share reminders um you know until the school is repurposed um next summer uh we will also um start celebrating in right the great things that have happened the history we want to commemorate Crest View as a whole so we will start doing that this month and moving forward throughout next school year as well um families will have a choice um as to which school that they want to transfer to so that is going to be between Edenbrook Fair Oaks and Zan wood um we are going to have a night or nights we're still fine tuning that but we're going to be um talking about or giving an opportunity for families to visit these trans spring schools um in September um so coming up later this fall um construction will start at Crest View tentatively in June 2025 um and then the new Journeys will start for CRV staff and students at their new transferring schools in September of 2025 with the newly repurposed site tobly open in September 2026 I'm going to turn it over to um before I finish share this there's a couple things I I did want to Echo one is um again I think U the approach and the efforts that we've made um to really embrace the school um I think it uh we're hearing back that that is uh that's been successful and having gone through this uh in a previous District um and seen how not to do it I'm very happy in the way that we did it even though as as we've heard it it was it was difficult and and again I can't uh stress uh Stephanie's leadership and just note too that as part of the ACT actions that we're taking myself Dr Hy Stephanie and the receiving principles have started to come together to talk about how do we really um prep the school so that the students feel welcome and even some of the staff that may uh arrive there as well but really kind of thinking about how do we we help that uh that community so I think that's good and so with that um you know hopefully the kind of the exciting piece here we have um I think some incredible Innovation that that we're going after and so you know with that transition so one of the pieces that we've envisioned is to provide U as you can see here 125 seats uh this Heritage learning model focused on cultural immersion uh centering our indigenous M East West African and Spanish uh languages um and again The Innovation around that and the possibility um and you'll probably hear a little bit more in some of the questions but um just this is uh it really feels like the right time and the right opportunity and some flexibilities that we we haven't necessarily had uh from MD so um I think that's going to uh really help us with that um and as part of that so there's there's work that's happening behind the scenes so we have uh for example we have with North uh West Suburban integration School District we have a magnet grant that we're pursuing and which is focused on culturally culturally revitalizing foundations for academic success and so this Federal grant um will be awarded in September of 2024 and so we hope with that um we'll re receive additional funding for the development of our uh cultural uh prek prog programming so there's um there's some incredible opportunity here and seeing how this uh will not only hopefully excite our young Learners or but connect to our community and really open up the U the new vision of of that that building um two you know part of what we're talking about is some Community programs again which could include but not be limited to enrichment for adult and youth um some Community Gathering spaces some opportunities uh as you know that could be collected as part of this design process um because there is going to be space that still exists even though we're going going to have some uh you're going to hear a little bit more about some of the things that we've were really pursuing like the uh pre kindergarten um but we're going to have space and so that opportunity will be open to our community to help us Envision and kind of vision what that space could do and what that might look like um so also too we've uh this is kind of a Brian talked about this kind of a uh something that really just arrived at us pretty uh pretty recently is uh we have just received a uh um a grant from mdh for plan to uh build out a clinic potentially and so uh the grant dollars that are going to come with this will cover uh startup costs and exploration of scope of services um and so part of that process too will be an assessment of uh the needs of the community and our Scholars and so you know part of that Grant too will'll be working with Park nicholet um to really kind of build that out over time and but again the vision you know as it kind of unfolds would be that this this this Community Access would also serve our students um um but also have an opportunity to to to be a resource into the community so that's very exciting and so a lot of work uh will be done and needs to be done in that in that portion um and J has been leading that um uh for us the American Indian Cultural Center um um which alongside a native language revitalization program you see Ethan here um this is very exciting because uh having the uh Cultural Center there as the permanent location um there is going to just open up uh some incredible opportunities and connections um so at the cultural center um it's going to be featuring a pated library boasting over th000 texts um authored by American Indians and housing the American Indian education department um so we'll offer experiential learning opportunities based on Dakota and jigu um also too uh the center could and would be a dynamic cultural hub for a wide array of programs um these will include professional development for teachers and staff Dakota jway language classes drum and dance sessions regalia crafting wooden stick lacrosse at uh beating club and meetings of the American Indian parent advisory committee just the name a few and so thinking about the rationale and the thinking of of that of the the incredible grounds and opportunities that are available to us there it's going to be just an incredible connection between inside and what's happening in the building what could be happening our um and so uh so those are kind of the the key pieces that we've been um thinking about we'll be working on and here um as we mentioned uh we're we're not doing this alone we're uh reaching out and so uh having uh we call killer K on our team uh we've already launched into a thought exchange and so she's been very serious about us getting on the thought exchange but really getting out there and making sure that we're reaching out we're creating opportunities for for the community to uh give us some feedback and help us Vision what this uh this this uh Community Asset can be um so of course that programming feedback um will help us shape as we begin to work with our designers and and Architects and we hope to have those things um by sometime this summer go ahead please can uh Ethan share a little bit about oh yeah please Ethan if there's something you want to elaborate on yeah sure I think uh Steve really nailed it but um one of things we're most excited about is having a home for the Dakota no jway language classes that we've recently added into our schools um for credit and so we're looking at how we can expand that program through a multi-year MD native language revitalization Grant to offer this class to all scholars in the district um which is something that's really been missing you know the original languages of this place I always say we conduct most of our instruction in the foreign language of English you know so it's nice to finally the original languages of uh Minnesota as well as professional development um opportunities with the recent statutory requirements of Indian education for all in all classrooms and subject areas this way we can can prepare our teachers to have the confidence and the background knowledge to effectively reach all students um with these State Standards so we're looking forward to um Community collaborations and how we can best utilize this space as an oio School Community can we go back to the one slide Steve um the one prior to this okay so um Ethan is the Heritage learning model that will be focused on centering around indigenous will that be focused on the culture and yeah so it's a cultural immersion versus a language a language a culture so that will be infusing the indigenous uh cultures of Minnesota and our our general Great Lakes Region whereas the cultural center has specific language courses of of Dakota individualized learning Pathways that we'll be building up with advanced level courses grammar courses Etc thank you and I think the the other Innovation with that thanks for asking it is the opportunity that might pull in our native language speakers across the board and how that might again act as a resource into that space for us um and so this isn't like I think the the typical immersion programming but what what it will do is is really sort of elevate we we Vision that that cultural aspect it really going to make it exciting excellent and and and worthwhile for everyone excent they want talk about the map Grant at all or is there anything on the map Grant that you'd like to add so that Grant there are five districts that are partnering with Northwest suban and they're actually the grant writers and as of right now the application is 300 Pages it's due Friday um but we're feeling pretty confident and it's really focusing on cultural revitalization for academic success and so I think that our prek programming fits right into that um we'll we represent about 7.2% of the student enrollment in that Grant and right now our portion of the budget is $1.5 million and it's really focusing on on the planning of the programming and professional learning for teachers hiring people to coordinate the program including Community experts to come in and uh provide that professional learning that Ethan talked about to all of the different teachers in that we would be able to do the program anyway but if the money is there why not using and then one of the things I mentioned some opportunities that we have now maybe Carrie you could talk a little B about some of the flexibility especially around braing of funds and some of the things that we've been pursuing and and really trying to kind of Leverage y so right now a lot of our prek experien are very siloed so having the opportunity to kind of pause a little bit and look at how do we blend and braid the funding um one of the things we are pursuing right now is we apply for additional funds for PPK as well to make those seed expansions get that additional funding but also how do we collaborate more with our early childhood education funds our tuition based programs um um originally when bpk came out in Minnesota um you couldn't mix funding streams in a classroom right and now you can right so you can take that classroom and have um kids getting multiple experiences and families not necessarily knowing how their kiddos funded in that program but we can be the creative um you know Builders and engineers in that space and really think through how do we best meet our community needs and get kids engaged in aera schools at 4 or younger right and then continue on their Journey um with us within that case as well but then also bringing in some amazing components that's going to give them even more enriching um early learning experience that launches them in kindergarten even more successfully Jill anything that I missed on the grant itself for the uh the community based School Center I don't think so it's an exciting opportunity um that originated from a deac um recommendation um we have a strong parip with the partner Foundation as well as the Minnesota school based Alliance um so they're going to be guiding us through the entire process so it's exciting yeah and we're um so thank you to everyone who chipped in and shared things I appreciate it um and we're really what I want you to take away from tonight is we're not telling you everything that's going into that school but we're starting with the programs that would meet the require requirs that Amy helped lay out for us right so there still is going to be Community input so I'll I'll pick uh Early Childhood because that one's more in my wheelhouse than some of the other ones right so we want to have uh the cultural immersion and heritage site in prek that's exciting to have to think about a pre An Early Childhood Center that has these components so even when we are meeting some of these requirements we want to offer resources that weren't there before right so one thing that I um I believe we're committing to is we don't want to Simply pick up um let's say the Community Education team was short on office space we're not going to pick up the Community Education team and put them in this repurposed site because that already exists right so hopefully what you're hearing tonight are even in the case of something that meets the the legal requirements to repurpose a school you're hearing about something that will be hopefully viewed as a community resource so even though we know we're going to do um a prek focus you still have the time to get in community input on do you we know we're going to nail this for a bunch of four-year-olds right but do you also want um what are other things related to supporting uh your youngest kids in this site well it might be some parenting classes it might be a couple some opportunities for three-year-olds right it could be a nature play center outside right so just because even though a the big bucket is kind of defined what the heck fits under that big bucket like that those are the input that we want to get right and there's plenty of other um opportunities when you say community based programming that can be a ton of things it can be partners with existing organizations in the community that want to be able to hold public meetings at the place it could be professional development uh for our staff where we no longer need to rent out facilities to do some of our larger Gatherings you know and have break do enrichment have it be multi-use throughout the day um you know since I'm helping lead this I've got my own one thing that I want that I'll try to influence but I'll listen no why if you wanted to lead it like I think we want to get a lot of input on just having a Stellar what the heck's happening on the grounds of this building right like what when you drive by there what makes you want to stop in and check it out right and that could be a lot of things you know I I love uh nature play areas for little kids when you watch them interact in those spaces I you can have food truck nights where there's places where people get to gather and eat I don't the the opportunities are endless but you know when you drive by it you say it's kind of like when I drive by a park that I really love like I stop in and I walk around and I do things there right because it's appealing so what are things that we can do that folks know this is where I go to Gathering when I'm in this neighborhood right so I think those are some of the things that we'll be doing uh in addition to thought exchange you know there's opportunity for uh Community to address the board on the 21st we're going to continue to share uh our information on the website you know K does a great job of putting in FAQs or input areas but we'll also um be convening um we had we met with some of the Early Childhood people like we what do you call them info boards yeah we want to have info boards at Tater days and different things in the community where people are already coming and since they're there we're not asking them to come to us we'll just have a booth and say Hey give your input on we're repurposing the site here here what we want it to be a community resource what are some ideas you have let's talk to each other let's put things on the board there's we're just starting but we're U these are the things that we're thinking about and uh we wanted to give um the school board a opportunity to once again hear on how we kind of landed here and now here are some initial thought here's a new here's a a learning that we had around what repurposing means right and we want to of course we're going to legally meet any requirement um and then here are some U possibilities that we're already excited about as we start to gather uh what this what it could look like um cuz our goal when we open this place in Fall of 2026 people are going to be excited that this is a resource in their Community um and and we want to do it well so we uh we'll just end by saying thank you for allowing us a chance to kind of share some of our initial thoughts we're certainly open uh to any questions or comments that you would have at this point too great what questions comments discussion I'm jumping I'm jumping you know this is my this is my dream here um so my my first question is um in in the BBF uh for the bond we were going to have outdoor classrooms for every Elementary building is that like automatically on this money was because we decied s so there's money for every site we still want toze that here in some way shape or yeah I just wanted to make sure that was there um and then just I have a whole bunch of ideas but I'm not going to I'm not going to pour them out here no but related to the related to outside in nature and all that um I this dream that there will be um like gardening at this Gardens and that there will be indigenous plants there and that you know there might be some things that many cultures use in different ways that can bring that all together so that's my one I'm sure you all thought of all the things that I have in my head but well actually next week we're going to be out there there doing a tree planting um at CR um so it's I think it's they're planning about 20 trees so there's going to be some exciting things there so um yeah thanks feel free to visit my school where we have a little Orchard and yes pollinator garden and all sorts of things so my question goes back a little bit to the families that are currently at CR view yeah um more actually more so for incoming so are those incoming kindergarteners those uh late enrollments um people moving into the district especially once the school Year's already started that's right um what's the plan for those families we got the answer awesome question I figured you did yeah so obviously we're working with the enrollment center you know if anyone should move into the area and they let us know they're going to enroll at Crestview of course we're going to tell them what the situation is right you know so I think you know there's that that's part of it and fan that's one of the reasons why we um named the receiving schools you know um because it's likely that's where you would go and I every family is different to State the obvious right so like if I have a fourth grade student I might say I want my kid to continue through fifth grade for doing any type of IND District transfer or anything like that but we you know we still have IND District transfer options for families um but we are doing the um it was purposeful to not repurpose the school starting this coming fall right it gives people a little more time to understand what's going on and be respectful of what decisions they might make because I don't know some people might say no big deal if my kid starts kindergarten at a school knowing they're going to need to to move the next year and others might say I'd rather check into potential IND District transfer options uh and have my child start at the school they're going to continue on for the next five years so I don't know if that 100% answers ite but all of the kids that are there will have transportation if they have a sibling coming in they will also be that so parents kids do not have to go to separate schools we'll treat that intentionally one of the things we're trying to do we would really like CRV to remain as full as possible for the next school year right um so part of that is a carrot if you choose to in District transfer just like today to any school transportation is now at your discretion to do that if you stay and then say we're going to go through the process with you now transportation's on us okay for that time for those three school for those three schools for the rest of the term of your Elementary time and then and then if you have a sibling coming up we'll just address those separately because they're they're pretty oneoff and go oh yeah we'll figure that out that's easy to do we'll take care of it we the point in it is families need to be whole and families need to feel careful and we can do that and they're excited about Transportation you're excited about having kids stop because Cris doesn't have kids St yeah so some soft Landing strategies might be one way I like the word caring making sure people are cared for throughout it CU yeah it's that could be more than one transition in a couple years right so that's we're trying to do some of those things that's kind of what I was thinking about is well Crest views already a highly transitional school for those families that have already you know they're coming in mid year and then have to switch to another school it might be and they and they will not have to do boundary changes in 26 okay so they moved yeah they get to stay with whichever school they decision and move we'll honor that decision okay cool and then new students after that do we know the school they go to or is it going to be split between the three so we'll go through the boundary process for that building the same way we will for the others so it's got community input and all those things to make the decision um one of the things we're trying to do is get information from the families that are they're currently I think by end of December pretty much so we can put that into our enrollment planning so we know if a 100 kids go to Edenbrook and 50 kids go to Zan wood and 55 go to Crest or to faroh s we can move the enrollment so Staffing from the LTL is accurate and they're putting the staff where the staff need and a staff wants to follow the kid so we want to make sure we're doing that appropriately um to follow that information and then once after that and and with that I want to say like if you miss the deadline we're going to reach out to you and try to connect with every single student we can connect with and give them the choice if for some reason we can't at some point we'll say here's the boundary and now the boundary will apply but I think again oneoff case if we have somebody who goes well I miss it because I was had this extenda circumstance we'll figure it out take care of them that's what we're there to do the um the boundary like the full boundary process for elementary middle will start this fall um we'll be talking about parameters with the community and then we'll have more of a um like Community meetings um after winter break and then probably this time maybe even earlier next year we'll have one those finalized boundaries be so depends on how many times we have to initiate the former Crest View attendance area then I think was the question right Thomas will then have an assigned boundary that's yes yeah that's a great way to say um so Brian you actually you already started to answer the questions that I had um coming into this but sure um I know that we have the listening session coming up or public comment period um which I think is just check the box kind of thing um um I think one of the things that I'm concerned about is just how we're getting input from whoever the target geographical audience is I know this is a district building but ideally or I would say in practice who's actually going to be using that building every single day how are we making sure that we're getting input from them um particularly when it comes to um some of these options that are potentially on the table um and making sure that um you know their voices are accur accurately represented um and you already listed off you know a couple different ways of um getting out into the community and getting that information but I was also just wondering um if the Bas team is involved in any of this and um sort of how we're engaging them so we're making sure um today we actually just kicked off um the opportunity to provide feedback so we did that districtwide and then we were intentional also to share with all of our schools in our district in Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center um so they all have some social media some email Mass notifications that they can send out um and we also shared that you know if you have an upcoming you know there's a ton of events going on in May to like share out like here's some posters you can you know put up the QR code um so people are already coming into the school and can participate um or at like a PTO meeting if you could do a mention or maybe even take a few minutes to fill out the form um so we're being very intentional to try to reach out to um everybody even the um actually just um this week we're going to be sharing out because we want to make sure like the current attendance area of pressview is in the no as well like um all those in the neighborhood so even if you don't have kiddos going to the school um you could also be in the know what's going on so there was a snail b letter that went out to like the current uh community of pressview and they were offered the opportunity to par debate as well um and we're also going to be sharing it like Brooklyn Park is great about like sharing flyers and such so we have some flyers that we can pass out to them but we're doing that right now this week about making sure that everybody is in the know and aware can participate yeah that's going to be I mean I think that's going to be the the critical part Thomas you know like how because this is a big deal right you know uh you know without name and names people already reach out to us to let us know what they think should go there you know which is fine um you know but we're going to have to be tight on some of this input process cuz um well I guess what it the the positive way to say it is like there's a lot of needs and Desires in the community right and and that's true you know um and we're going to get enough ideas to fill Crest viw six times over you know we really are right you know so I think as we get this information when we start narrowing it down on here's the spirit and some Focus areas of what this community building should be is going to be that'll help as people give um input and it might help us to on what are potentially what's the word non-negotiables are are things that you won't have in there like we're not just going to pick up a program that currently exists and put over here right that might be one that happens you know people have asked about leasing space already from us right like there's a lot people are going to word is starting to get out that you know the announcement happened and word is getting out so people are already starting to say hey have you heard about this need in our community what do you think and that's what we want to hear um and then it's going to be our responsibility to to gather all of that information and come up with a coherent plan uh one thing I think about when you're thinking about that I think we should think about when we're thinking about what we put into this building is um growth of the programs that that are going in there um not overloading it with too many things so that when we have a program that is really successful we have the space to grow it further um and particularly the thing I think about a lot is when it comes to ECFE that's you know when we uh had ECFE at areview and then we had and will Lane and we were bursting out right where are we going to put all these people so I I just think that's something we should be mindful of awesome and boy would that be an awesome dilemma I know right so yeah and you know part of it is and also giving it the room to grow right so just because you build something and it opens if it's not been there before people aren't yet aware of it right so we're going to need to do some marketing around what here are the resources in this space right and so that people start to know oh yeah this exists now in this community where it didn't before so those are all super important any other questions discussion than time okay so that concludes the agenda for tonight um and this work session is adjourned at 8:34 p.m thank youan get your applause yeah everyone