Good evening. I would like to call this meeting of the Robbinsdale Area School Board to order. Today is Monday, May 19th, 2025. It is 7 o'clock in the evening. We are in the Education Service Center boardroom. Could the clerk please call the role? With pleasure. Director Bassid here. Director Bowman is here. Chair Evans Becker here. Director Hillbrand here. Director Holmes here. Director Long here. Director Wuto here. And Dr. Stallow here. All right, we're all here. Um, the first item on our agenda is approval of the agenda. This is a voice vote. Is there a motion to approve? Yes. I'd like to move to amend the agenda to add a vote on rescending the use of legal counsel at board meetings unless warranted by state statute. Add that to the agenda is my motion. Second. I if we're going to discuss it, we need a second. So, you will second it. Moved by Director Holmes, seconded by Director Long. Uh the motion is to amend the agenda to add a voice to add a vote on rescending the use of legal counsel at board meetings unless warranted by state statute. You want to talk? I did just to clarify um I know there's been requests about the costs that we've been incurring incurring as um a school board with legal fees and granted some of them are tied to state statute and closed sessions like I mentioned um others costs are adding up and I don't know I was looking at approaching $16,000 for May distributions for school board council alone um so this is what prompted me to motion for this um action Thank you. I don't see there any other hands. I would like to say I think uh we're not quite ready to not have council at our meetings. In more than one time, council has saved us from making an error that we would regret. Uh Director Bowman, I would also like to point out that it's standard and customary uh uh for legal council to be at any governance meeting. you go into any city any city council meeting, you have uh representation there and I do believe mo most of the school boards have them there. And I would also and it's a safeguard. I I would feel so censored and unsafe sitting at this table if we did not have general counsel to guide us. I agree with you uh chair Evans Becker that um uh they have uh kept us out of trouble uh on more than one occasion. Director Basset. Well, um, are we, this is just a vote to actually put it on the agenda. It's not a vote to discuss the issue at this moment. Is that am I understanding correctly? You are correct. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that. All right. So, I see no more hands. This is a vote to add it to the agenda and this will be a voice vote. So, all in favor of adding this item to the agenda, please say I. I. Oppose say nay. Nay. Um, can we have a roll call vote on that? Sure can. Let me get ready here. All right. Uh, Director Basset, wait a minute. Hang on a second. Okay. Director Basset, I vote yes. Director Bowman votes no. Uh, Chair Evans Becker, no. Director Hillbrand, yes. Director Holmes, yes. Director Long, yes. Director Wu, yes. Great. It prevails. Motion prevails. We will add it to the agenda. Um I think [Music] under operations maybe and there's um A B we can have it like B in between B and C. C the new C and everything is it could be the new C then we could have a D E F and then G seven pardon me. Yes. Seven. It'll under seven operations. We just have a new C and then D, E, F, and G. Okay. It's going to be item B. It will be item C on the agenda. Great. Okay. Next up on our agenda is Aral Proud, Superintendent Salo. Excellent. Uh, Principal Ross is here tonight from Crystal, uh, Fair Crystal with a team of students and staff who are going to share some information tonight about, uh, animation videos as well as outdoor classroom learning plaques that uh, were created by students. So, I will go ahead and uh, ask uh, Principal Ross to come on up and begin the presentation. Thank you. [Music] This is my posi right here. My bodyguards keep me out of trouble. Uh good evening uh to Chair Evans Becker. Thank you uh and all distinguished board members for inviting the fair school crystal um here to the board meeting tonight. Also to all of our parents and um everyone else who's here, thank you all for being present. Uh my name is Zorba Ross. I'm the principal. I've been at fair for eight years now. Um and uh we're going to do I believe the land acknowledgement. Then we're going to do the mission. We're going to let our students lead us through that. Then I'll tell you a little bit about what we're going to present so that everyone can see why we believe that uh we have a very very fine school. So um Sophia, you're going to do College Robinsdale Area Schools is located on the homelands of the Dakota and Ojiway people. We recognize the painful history of genocide, forced assimilation of indigenous positions of this land. We honor and respect many indigenous peoples who live on and sacred hold sacred these lands. And we stand with the members of these nations to fight injustice of all of all its forms. We uphold a preservation of Dakota and Ojiway languages, landbased education, and tribal servery. Uh the mission of Robindale, the mission of Robinsdale Area Schools is to inspire and to educate all learners to develop their unique potential and positively contribute to their community. Um so at this time, what I'm going to do is I'm going to share with you what's going to happen. Chris Mine is my uh art teacher. He's been with us for two years. He's going to walk you through uh what's going to happen tonight, what you're going to see tonight, and then I believe our students are also going to uh share with you some of the artwork that they've created. So, this is Chris Man. Hey, thank you everyone for being here. Um I'm the media arts and visual arts teacher at Fair Crystal. Uh this is my second year, but 32nd year of teaching. So, uh, we do animation in media arts along with several other graphic design projects, but the media arts animations are fun because, um, I have different ways the kids do it in each grade. So, I'm going to have each kid tell you about the process and then we'll show the animations. The three animations are by the three kids you see here, the three students here. So, Quinn's going to start off. She's a sixth grader. She will tell you about how they started an animation. We started by planning our animations. We made a story board. We wrote down each individual scene that would happen. And then we filled out a proposal form. So we had our group members, our ideas, our roles, and we planned it all out. And then we used our whiteboard and an iPad and we made our animations. After planning, we created backgrounds and started filming one picture at a time, only slightly moving the objects for each picture. Each animation consisted of hundreds of pictures. [Music] [Applause] That was Malachi. Hi. Um, so once we were finished with our pictures or videos that we took, we took it over and edit it. And there we would add different kinds of little stuff that we wanted to add like music, sound effects, voiceovers if we wanted to to really add a little life into our projects and to make it more lily like. So that's why we would edit it and pretty and our title page. Thank you. Thanks, Shar. Great. You can push play. The first one will be Quinn's animation. The second There is sound. I don't is Do you know why I wouldn't be playing the sound? Yeah, that would be great if you'd start. [Music] Oh. [Laughter] Um, is there a volume on here? No, I don't see one. [Applause] So, they did all have voiceovers and sound. I swear. I don't know what happened there. Um, I know that when I sent it over, it was working perfect. So, um, but the last thing I I missed one part of what we wanted to do and I wanted Sophia to come up because Sophia did a good job during we had a a youth art month night at our school and the uh CCX came and did an interview and Sophia I grabbed her just out of the blue and she gave this great definition of what it means to be a dragon. So, I'd like her tell you what it means. Dragon is symbolized by strength, leadership, confidence, and pride. To treat everyone equally at fair, no matter if they don't see eye to eye. Thank you. [Applause] All right. So, another project we did this year was we created garden plaques. And these garden plaques are going to be placed outside of our school by these specific plants. If you don't know, we got a a grant for an outdoor classroom and within that classroom, we wanted some information. So, the kids made these plaques on Adobe Illustrator. And if you know what Adobe Illustrator is, it is a professional program and they all did really well on it. Um, we ended up with something like 80 plaques, but every one of my students made at least two designs. They made a plant design and then they made a nature exploration plaque. And poor Sherro, I'm going to ask her to come up again because her plaque is actually in this bucket of plaques I grabbed right here are the plaques that are in our yard or in the school grounds. Um the one here did she wants to come up and tell us about it a nature exploration mean what do you see here smell when you're outside what were you thinking when you it says the warm rays of the sun on your skin on a summer day that's heard and I went outside for and then a cloud, a really big one moved and I got flashed in the face by and I felt really ecstatic and I felt good. So, and then when I went to school the next day, I'm like, I'm going to do one about the sun cuz it makes me feel happy. [Applause] So, I brought the plaques and I wanted to make sure that I thanked Jennifer Hulkru, Scott Carlson, and Beth I got to look up how to pronounce her name. Sorry, I want to make I sure I say it right. Mising. Okay. Also, we had added somebody that I didn't I got on to this late, so it didn't get added. And I want to thank Mr. for bringing me to the district. This is the district I grew up in. I went to school here. Uh K through 12. Believe it or not, I went to five schools in the district and never moved. I can believe. So I can explain that to you in a different time. Um but um also I wanted to make sure I thanked John Michaels because he was also involved besides uh Zorbber Ross. I had added those two names but it didn't get to the the thank yous. But um Jennifer was guess I want to say like the seeds to this whole project. She brought it to me. We worked together. We created the idea and then um Beth helped me with Adobe Illustrator and how to get the kids to make these great drawings on the program and then add scientific um uh definitions for the plants and to add the nature explorations. So they had two kinds of plaques and each kid did two. Some kids did them together. So they did four. Okay? So if you see Leela and Elena there, they did four. Okay? They just put their names on all four, the two of them. So they work together. So the kids actually created a product that we're using at our school through Adobe Illustrator design and then coming through and the people who produced it in the district. So it was a wonderful project along with Adobe along with the animations we do graphic design just a whole load of different things in media arts that it worked really great. I have personally been teaching media arts since 2011. I created a program in Eastern Carver County schools for it. So I just brought the curriculum with me. Good. So, um, the next two slides, um, they asked me to talk a little bit about myself, which I'd rather this be about the kids and stuff, but I wanted to let you know I am a Cooper grad of 1988. So, um, my mom is still in her house on 36 and 169. She is 90 years old. Um, I am 55 if you were wondering. This is my 32nd year teaching. But like I said, Zorba brought me home and I this last two years have been the best two years of my teaching career and I really like working for the district I grew up in. I feel like I'm giving back. I am okay at my job and I wanted to share that I came here. You know, some life changes happened for us. Yes. But I was still driving from Maple Grove to Chaza and thought it would just be fine. But I thought, what the heck? I'm going to put in a application in Ardale. And two minutes after I pushed the button, somebody called me and I went in that day for an interview and here I am. So the next slide I just listed I went to Sonos for kindergarten, Pilgrim Lane 1 through six, Plymouth Junior High, not Plymouth Middle School, Plymouth Junior High 7 through nine. I went to Armstrong for 10th grade and then I transferred to Cooper and went to Cooper for 11th and 12th grade. Um, I went to Normandale. I went to Winona State. I have a master's degree from Hamlin. I have been tenured in three large school districts. I started in Rosemont, Apple Valley, Egan for six years. I taught in Chaska for 24 years, Eastern Carver County they call it now. And um, here I am in Arddale since 23 2023. And I call this home. So, thanks for bringing me back. I love working here. But let's get this thing together so we can make this district what it should be and always has been to me. Great. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Mine. I have a quick question. Mr. Mine, I think they have questions. Oh, sorry. I am now taking questions and so are the students. Okay, my question I'm still bummed out we didn't have music with the videos though. Okay, my question is do you have a printer that prints on that material also at school? No, we don't. The actual engraver is here at the district offices. So then what they designed was just sent over here and it was engraved on that. Absolutely. Yep. Yep. In those little pieces. Yep. Thank you. Yeah. Director Holmes, I just wanted to say thank you um first to the students. I, you know, followed up with some questions about the um groundbreaking going on at fair and these projects are tied very closely together. So, there's some really really cool unique stuff going on over there and of course I was asking about the the funding side of it. So, it's all grant funded for those of you who might be questioning this, but it's going to bring community together. There was a strong strong student component to it. There's just a lot of really cool pieces that people should be speaking about. And then also, I wanted to remember that you spoke at one of our listening hours since I've been on the board and you gave an outstanding speech then, gave us your credentials, talked about why you came and what you expect to see here, and I just want you to know that I remember that and you are an amazing teacher and I hope we can keep you on for years to come. I'm not retiring here. Wonderful to hear. Thank you. Thank you, director. Why would I go anywhere else? Thank you, Director Holmes. Um, Director Basset, did you have something? I just wanted to say, can we see some of the plaques? We we can't see them. Oh, thank you. Oh, those are great. I mean, well, I'm just saying. I mean, it's nice to see a little bit of clay at the end because we stop. I checked them out earlier. They're wonderful. Very nice. Thank you. Thank you. That's good. I'm also going to tell you that I have a certified monarch garden if you ever need help with planting and raising monarchs. So, yeah, you got a volunteer over there. That's quite nice. I saw it up there. I just want to add my thanks. Uh, you know, we work really hard to elevate the voices and the experience of students and help you continue to be amazing leaders. So, thank you for what you're doing and for the example that you're sending across the district. So, thank you for all all of you for coming tonight and your passions and principal Rosu as well. So, if we could get a quick picture, you want to hold one of these? I can give you some. They're heavy. They'll stay there forever hopefully. Over center is taking a picture. That's what I say. That's the last thing. Gosh. [Applause] quite nice. I don't want to put It's It's not the first time it's I don't know. Something It was still adorable. But I haven't played anything yet. We haven't This weekend is gorgeous. [Music] Thank you. Yeah, we have the links so I will watch it for sure. Yeah, it's really awesome. You did a good job. All right. Well, that was exciting. And now let's move on to number let's move on to number four on our agenda. Student Historically Back Colleges and Universities Experience Report. Superintendent Stalo. Excellent. We've got students here tonight and uh Tony Patterson, our assistant director of achievement and uh integration is going to they're going to share um some of their experiences uh that took place in this experiential learning experience um on their trip to Maryland, Washington DC, and Virginia. So, welcome y'all. We're excited to hear from you tonight. Thanks GP for kicking it off. All right. Um, [Music] Mr. Ross said he had is posi. This is my crew. So uh uh good evening um chair inspector school board uh Dr. Stalo. We are proud to share um our experience with school board about our our trip that we went on in uh spring break kind of a long time ago but um it was a great experience and we want to share all of the learning and um that our experience from um entire week. Uh so the purpose of this presentation is to recap the H.B.CU tour and share students experience. Um it aligns with strategic uh plan um theme A academic achievement, theme b student engagement and wellness and theme C collaboration and partnerships. Um our presenters today, I will let them introduce themselves. Um my name is Richard Basa Jr. I'm a jun I'm a junior at Cooper High School. Hi, my name is Nicholas and I'm a sophomore at Armstrong High School. Hi, my name is Alex and I'm a junior at H High. So, um this the H.B.CU experience is um a trip combined with the class that we do during the second semester. We meet every Tuesday at Armstrong High School and the class is made up of students from Cooper Armstrong and Robbinsdale Academy High View. This year we decided to um go to a different area for the past couple years. We've been to the deep south and so we wanted to share students experience in another part of the country. So we actually went in went to the uh Washington DC area and those other colleges and universities we went to went to Howard University. We also went to Howard Law, uh, Morgan State University. Um, in Virginia, we went to Hampton University and Norfolk State University. And so, um, each student has a day or a college university that they will talk about. And we will start with Morgan State. Um, so I'm going to be talking about a little a little bit about Morgan State. Um, Morgan State was a very fun college experience. The campus was really quiet, but that may have been just because we were we went there in the morning, but for me personally, I feel like it was just a little too quiet, especially cuz, you know, just I just like something that's more vibrant. Um, the campus is filled with culture and history. They have multiple federally protected bu protected buildings, which means if the school for some reason decides to just get up and relocate or go somewhere else, those buildings can't be touched, can't be removed. No, nothing can happen to them. Um, there are multiple powerful statues like the Frederick Douglas statue which which I found very moving and inspirational. Morgan State has a massive library with multiple floors based on like voice levels and things like the activities. So, you get basically decide your study environment which I find really helpful. Um, overall the tour at Morgan State was exciting, helpful, and filled with information that I plan on telling my peers about. and hopefully if they get the chance to go there one day, they'll feel the same way. Um, it's definitely an experience I would love to do again and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to visit the campus. Thank you. On our first day, we end up going to Howard University and Howard Law. Within the tour, we learned about um we learned about the federal build um the three federal protective buildings, which as Richard said was buildings that cannot be destroyed if the school ends up getting up or leaving. Anyway, within the tour, we learned about the Founders Library, which has been recognized as a national historical landmark for African-American history and education. We also learned about the Howard Church or more known as Andrew Ring's Memorial Chapel which is one of the historical buildings within there and has been used by many inspirational people such as Martin Luther King Jr. um as a way to speak to younger a younger audience as a way to engage them for civil rights movements. Additionally, we also learned about a lot of the alumni from um thug group Marshall to the recent as Camala Harrison the first the first woman first first woman first black and his first South Asian vice president. However, within the tour we mainly learned about we visited Chad Wick Boseman College of Fine Arts which has been recently renamed to honor the late actress. This showed a lot about the college as it showed how they they like value their alumni and show how they respect a lot of their students that have passed. Additionally, we also learned about the divine nine which refers to the nine historical black Greek letter organizations which were created to show African-American culture and pride. Within the college, there have been statues placed as a way to there have been statues placed as a way to remember many of these organizations that were founded on Howard's um campus. Second, we went to Howard Law. Howard Law is one of the oldest law schools in the United States for African-American education. It was founded just after the Civil War to help educated formerly enslaved people and their descents. Howard Law trained Howard Law is mainly known for their alumni um third grade marshall who became the first African-American US Supreme Court justice and led the fight to Brown versus Board which has desegregated education as we know it now. On our second day of the trip, we visit many beautiful museums and sites like the White House, Dr. Martin Junior Memorial. But the one that stuck out the most was the National Museum of African-American History and Culture. The way it was set up is where you start at the very bottom. That that was the very beginning of enslavement and you work your way up to the present day. Unfortunately, we did not get to all the floors, but the ones that we did get to were very impactful. Very first floor was bless you was um the enslavement of course how it force first begin. Someone that stuck out to me the most though was an mother whose child was being pawned off on auctioning. The very showed how inhumane people were to African-Americans. And it's very important that people learn this history and go into this museum as we don't always talk about what happened to children during enslavement time. We talk about the adults and what they went through, but we do not talk about the the negative or cruelty that happened to children. Then also, we don't talk about how African-American women helped during the civil rights movements. That was a that was a floor that was that had on the museum. The museum overall was a very very impactful place that I recommend people to visit when they go to Washington DC. All right. So, I'm going to talk about Hampton University. So, uh one of the things at Hampton that stuck out to me was the nursing program. Um right now I'm a dual enroll student at Henipente uh pursuing a practical nursing associates degree. So, that was one of the things that really stood out to me. Another thing that stood out to me at uh Hampton University is just how beautiful their campus is and like the lakes and the water. Um, also how much black history influenced the the school and how much they like more focus on academics instead of let's say sports. And another thing that was super impactful to me for Hampton University is just like how small and intimate that the school was and seeing all the people there and and there's cancer research. Uh Hampton University was a great school and yeah, thank you Thank you. Um, North Folk. Yep. The North Folk State University was in my opinion a very beautiful and very welcoming university. Little fact about North Folk State University is that it opened during the middle of the Great Depression. And look at now, it's a very flourish and very beautiful university. When you get there, the community is very strong and very opening. When we got there, it was a little quiet, but as we walked around, we saw people dancing. We saw people laughing. We saw people having fun. And that's very important for a student who from Minnesota might move out to go to H.B.CU. It's important to feel like that you belong somewhere and you have fun somewhere. Then with that as well, people are able to express themselves as well. They can dress a certain way. They can have their hair a certain way where no one will bat an eye at them. Well, here people look at people will look down on that. So, that felt nice to see people be themselves and not be judged. There's some other students trying to get their education. A quote that kept being say said was black excellence. I never heard that before and it felt pretty nice to hear that word. And then something about the library that I found really interesting was that they have flags to represent their international students. They welcome all students to their campus. It's this North Phil University is a very very welcoming and very loving place. I recommend students to go to if they're looking for HB.CU. So, um, thank you students. A couple things I want to highlight, um, is that each college and university that we went to, there was Robbinsdale representation there. And so, um, that was really important. We didn't really get a chance to uh, connect with um, the Robbinsdale student from Northolk State, but uh, she played basketball and she was doing her thing and so she didn't have time for us. But um outside of that, I think another thing that I want to highlight is that um we've been doing this course for a while and I can say 12 students that have actually been through our course actually enrolled into these colleges and universities. So that's just a testimony to our staff. We have a couple um members here who actually are facilitators of the course. Um David Kek and Mr. Mong right here. And so I just wanted to highlight that as we think about, you know, the impact of this course and the impact of actually going to see the historical sites and how we can bring that back. Um because it's one thing to look at it in the textbook and it's one thing to learn about it, but to actually go and experience and be on the grounds of some historical movements and um some really really outstanding people um it meant a great deal. Um last thing I would say each each day we had a debrief um at the end of the day where the students you know we you know we stood in circle and it was kind of a you know let's let's have real conversations. How did you feel about stepping on the campus? How did you feel about going to the the museums? How did you feel about going to the White House? And so I'm I'm just really proud that it wasn't oh yeah we had fun. It was great to be at the White House. It was really in-depth conversations. We challenged each other as well. And so, um, you know, when you talk about elevating student voice, amplifying student voice, I wish everyone could have been in that space and how powerful it was. We we got in the middle of, uh, uh, where were we staying? At the Rison and and right right in the middle of the lobby, circled up all 19 students and just really really challenged each other. Um, and which that really, you know, equates to more learning and and I'm proud of the students for that because it's not just a trip. It's not just, yeah, hey, let's go have fun. is it's deeper than that. And um we selected a great group of students to represent the uh the rest of the class. And so I'm proud to share all of that with you all tonight. At this time, do we have any questions? Thank you. Thank you, students. Thank you, Tony. Oh my goodness. Uh Director Hillbrand. Uh first of all, thank you. This is amazing. You guys did a great job. I'm I'll be excited to hear where you eventually wind up going to school. Um but my question is you mentioned that this is tied to a course and I didn't hear the course name. Uh so it's called H.B.CU research. HBCU research experience. Got it. And so in the course we we talk we highlight um the different civil right movements of the places that we're going to. And then when we get back from the course when we get back from the experience the second half is really talking about the movements that's really locally. So we talk about the different communities that's represented here in Minnesota. Thank you so much. Thank you, Director Holmes. Yeah. Uh, great work you guys. And it's nice what you just shared shows that it made an impact on you and that it it meant something to you and you brought something back. And then beyond that, I know when you came last year and spoke about this, I was asking about how this information gets translated to the peers because it really is such a small group that gets to go and we talked about, you know, growing that class, but it doesn't get out. So, has there been any progress towards like formally getting this out to their peers so they can actually, you know, just something like this that can be recorded and shared? Anything like that? Yep. So, one of their um end of the year um assignments is to really talk recap the whole experience and share it, put it on uh you know, YouTube, make a DVD and not DVD, I'm [Laughter] rewind. Are you gonna rewind? Let's rewind that. uh you know share all this on the social social media and all of that. So they they do um have that assignment as well. I know we share a lot in AVID class and so it it it's out there. It's a competitive uh you know process to actually get in. They have to have they do an interview and so it's it's really competitive and so um you know the students come back and share word of mouth and no and I I I remember that from last time. I just would like to see the district take maybe a more formal appro approach to help you all get the message out to the high schools so your peers can see it because you bring back valuable pieces and in all honesty some people are just never going to make it out there. So it might be the spark that triggers them to apply to go to one of these places. So I would just ask that to be considered. Thank you. has that just go back to what we were talking I feel like we definitely need to promote more like just encouraging the students who did get the chance to go on this trip just to talk more talk to the beers because that's how I found out about it right I had a a classmate that uh went on the trip before me and then he came back told me all about it which got me really excited I was like that's really something I want to know about it's a lot of you know it's a lot of touchy things about the whole topic so I feel like getting our peers to go there and learn that and come back to us and say, "Oh, that made me really excited." And that that made an impact on me. Really that that's really something I wanted to be a part of. So that's why it really encouraged me to go for the interview. I agree. I couldn't promote that more. And you all speak the same language duration. So it's going to do so much more than anything we could say. I just really would emphasize that if we can figure out a way for the district to share that out to the high schools. Thank you. Great work, guys. Thank you, Director Basset. Well, uh, thank you for the presentation. You guys did a really really good job. Um, I I just want to say is I happen to be I I found out later I was in Washington DC at the same time you were. So, did you guys see those cherry blossoms? Yeah. Weren't they beautiful and phenomenal? I mean, you some pictures of that. So, uh, but I say that to say I I didn't know you were there. If I had just walked into Mr. uh you out there and these students, I probably would have just fell out, you know, because I was so excited to see you. But on a serious note, I'm really happy to see that the district has continued to embed this program uh and it over it sounds like you have made it your own and the students have made it their own and is being carried on year over year. uh because I I certainly remember one of the early uh you know times and and our district has embraced that notion and and you to be commended for that really quite frankly because it hasn't died because it's been around for a while and uh and I just think it's so important and actually there is a presentation that uh the students who went and I I can't remember if they were just all of our students or if there was a combination because through weep there was a consortium and they actually did a a whole presentation at Armstrong and it was videotaped and I've got some of the footage and some of the stuff. So, that may be something to dig up and look at. I'm not sure what archives it's in or where it is at this point. Uh, but a little research, you know, maybe it's still around. I don't know. But the point is is that that was a way it got promoted and there was a whole audience full of people there to watch the presentation that that the students did and it was pretty elaborate. So, I mean, I'm a little old, so I can't tell you what they did, but anyway. So, very good. Well, a great uh presentation. Glad you guys went. Glad you had an opportunity to see the the college colleges plural. And did you see that bust of Third Good Marshall at Howard? There's a there's a statue of him. There's a bust. You saw that? Okay. This a test out there. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Can I just speak on just one last thing? I'm sorry, Dr. Salah. Um, so, uh, the director said, uh, as if you recall a couple years ago, we, um, we did a social justice day with Minneapolis public schools. And so that was a way where our students had an actual like session that talked about the experience and so maybe we can, you know, collaborate with Minneapolis to maybe bring something like that back where our students can share their experience with a broader group. So, thank you. Great. I just want to add my thanks to TP, to the instructors who are here, to the ANI uh department and students. Thank you for embracing and taking a risk and this is how you spent spring break. It's amazing. I think to the point that we've heard tonight in terms of elevating voice and helping share your story, we have all three of our lead principles here tonight. So certainly they also heard how do we continue to promote and make sure kids uh all know and through your voices not just ours about the amazing things that happened. So thank you very much. Can we get a quick picture before you go? Awesome. Yeah. Just gonna pull you up here. [Music] Everybody's tall. Take a knee. Thank you again. And item number five is the superintendent report. Excellent. Thank you and good evening, Chair Vans Becker and school board directors at Robindale Area Schools. As you have already heard tonight, our mission is to inspire and educate all learners to develop their unique potential and to positively contribute to their community. Our collective work is focused on this mission. And tonight, I'd like to share a few things in which we have been engaged. I was honored to attend Cooper's awards ceremony last Friday to celebrate the many accomplishments of our Cooper students inside and outside of the classroom. Congratulations to all the students and staff who or the students who receive awards for their hard work and the dedication of our staff who continue to uh develop help students develop their unique potential. I'm excited to share that Armstrong has been awarded a bar thrive scholarship for next year um which will support continued tier three services and build on the strong foundation Armstrong has developed. Dick Unger who is the director of engagement at the bar center shared with me and I quote, "Your team's continued success is a direct result of the commitment, heart, and fidelity they bring to this work every day. Congratulations on all you've accomplished so far. It's inspiring to watch your progress and we're excited to see what's next for Armstrong. On May 15th, Fair Pilgrim Lane fifth grade students in partnership with Stages Theater put on an amazing production of The Lion King. Um I was impressed by our students and reminded that there is so much talent in Robbinsdale Area Schools. I want to congratulate the students and the staff and our amazing partnership with Stages on this performance. On May 10th, the American Indian Education Program hosted its annual PAWA Robbinsdale Middle School with great engagement from the Robbinsdale Area Schools communities, the indigenous communities, and many, many people from other districts and outside our community. We're honored to celebrate the traditions of American Indian culture as song, dance, and food served as we build and strengthen those relationships. In the strategic theme of staff investment and impact, myself and other uh executive leaders have been visiting our schools to recognize teachers and staff who had have reached important milestones in their years of service to our district. Whether they've served Ardale for 5 years or 40, and I did recognize an employee for 40 years of service today at Forest Elementary. Their contributions to Ardale are innumerable and inspiring. We honored the continued dedication of these staff and every Robins Delier school staff member for their daily support of our students, families, and community. I want to congratulate CFO Hohheisle and her entire team on being awarded the certificate of excellence in financial reporting by the Association of School Business Officials International for fiscal year 2024. This is the 24th consecutive year that the district has achieved this honor. It's an amazing achievement that highlights our team's hard work and dedication to being financially responsible. We're committed to managing resources wisely and being transparent about finances finances. And as we've been dealing with unique weather issues, power outages, and the craziness that is May, I embrace this time in the school year as we celebrate accomplishments and look f forward to finding ways to continuously get better. So that officially ends my report, but as a bit of an extension, um I'm going to go ahead, if it's okay with you, chair, and introduce uh Mr. Pletcher, who's going to be providing an overview, um of our graduation data. It was just uh released. So, he's going to share some graduation um data with us. And we also have um all three of our secondary principles with us who will support Matt and certainly be able to answer any questions. So with that, we'll go ahead to the next uh agenda item. Thanks. Sorry, I didn't give you much warning on that. It was just a transition. We're teachers by trade. We're flexible. Uh good evening everyone. Chair Evans Becker, members of the school board, Dr. Salo, thank you for having us. With me, I have Rob Wear who is principal of Robinsdale Academy at High View, Mission Smith, who is the head principal at Cooper High School, and Mr. Eric Norby, who is principal at Armstrong High School. You have seen this presentation. There's a lot of data in here. I'm not going to go through all of the data. That would bore everyone to tears. You've had a chance to preview it and we will have opportunities for questions when I am done. So, a few highlights though. Um, our overall decline was 2.7% year-onear and remember that we are looking at the graduation graduating class of 2024. Uh, it's again a slight decrease and we're at 78.6%. But I think what's really interesting is that our persistence rates are outstanding. As you look at our five-year and seven-year rates, they continue to go up, which means that our students are staying with us. We have a lot of unique situations. We have students arriving new to country who graduating in that traditional four-year span may not be a realistic expectation. And yet, their needs are being met academically and socially and are staying with us where we're achieving nearly 90% graduation rates over that time span. You can see what the changes are from school to school. Both Cooper and Armstrong had a slight decline of about a half a percent, which is a handful of students. Uh Robinsdale Academy also dropped about a point and a half and Robbinsdale Virtual Academy had a larger decline. We are seeing excellence across equity groups. One area that I would really love to elevate is that our American Indian students had a significant increase this past year, which we're incredibly proud of. There's a lot of hard hard work that has gone into this uh by many people and a deep commitment from Robin Schools. Uh and it's paying dividends, which is fabulous. And we are outperforming the state average with other groups including special education and our English learners. Well, our dropout rate rose slightly by about 2/10en of a point. That mirrored the state average and analysis hasn't been done statewide as to why that's true, but it's something that we're keeping our eye on. Uh we don't want any of our students to drop out and so any uptick in that is a little bit of a warning. Okay? Something that we really need to pay close attention to and I know that the three of them are doing that. And like I said, our persistence rate is really high. We outperform the state where our students are staying with us. This matrix, I could read every number on there, but that would be horrible. So, you have had the opportunity to see it and we will move forward. A few highlights here. We're going to go into kind of some general students and we'll look at racial breakdowns as well. Couple call outs. Again, we had a 2.7% decline overall in our graduation rates. Uh and yet our rates exceed the state average in special education. And it's very similar for students who are eligible for educational benefits. And as again we go into our racial breakdown. Um both our American Indian students are black and African-American students are performing the state. Um and we have done so with our African-American students for over 12 years running. So, we're not where we want to be and yet we are seeing excellence and we need to accelerate that excellence. And the way that we're going about it is an array of strategies that our schools are employing. So, both Armstrong and Cooper, you heard about from Dr. Stalo that Armstrong was recognized as a national bar school. Cooper High School, I think, is going to be right behind that. uh they too have implemented bar fully and we've seen a tremendous decrease in no credits with our ninth graders year on year on year which has a really positive impact for their future graduation. And High View has fully implemented a multiple cycle model for students where they can acquire credits quickly and lots of them if they are deficient in credits. RVA hired four full-time teachers this year for the first time uh in response to what had happened before and some of the inconsistencies in staffing and we believe that that will serve us long term very well. We have a blended learning model in spaces which allows us to differentiate instruction for our students and we also offer extended day extended year credit recovery. Uh, kids will be starting June 9th if they need to. Uh, so come to summer school if anyone is interested. Cooper High School, a little plug, if anyone out there needs students who needs credits, reach out to me. Um, it works really well. And something that both Cooper and Armstrong do is they do a credit completion program at the end of semester 1 for students who are nearly there and need a little bit of extra love to get them to pass that course. Last but not least, we have a fully implemented multi-tered system of support structure that is working really well and we're continuing to enhance that lot of information quickly. What questions might you have? Thank you. Uh I have a question for Mr. Wear. at graduation when the students are going through are some of those students like fiveyear and sixth year and sevenyear students. Yeah. No, that's a that's a great question. Um I actually have that down to share with you guys. I think when you look at High View, right, we have to look at we go back to the mission, right? Unique potential, right? So a number of our students that are coming into High View are credit deficient. Um they have different walks of life, different things going on. I feel like we definitely serve the most vulnerable high school students in our district because we combine Armstrong and Cooper and also open enrollment students that are at High View. Um when you look at our 5-year graduation rate at 72.3%, six years 77.4 and seven years 73.5. Um as we talk to each student when they come in um it's about their journey about their path. Um a lot of times like we say life has been life and right for them and and so that means a lot of them coming in they're not thinking about school hasn't worked so we got to gain that trust um also giving them just the what they need as far as just how to survive a lot of our students are in survival mode working um doing a lot of number of things so for us at high view the graduation rate what we have to look at is year five six and seven um that's going to be key thank you very much um director Basset I think I saw your hand yes you Uh so uh thank you for the presentation. Uh I am looking at this and one of the things I'm thinking about as I look at this four-year graduation rate is uh I think that we should feel good that during the COVID years when there was so much turmoil that we have been able to kind of stay in the range and actually do pretty good. So I think that's a good thing across the board as I look at this for all of our students. And so I'm I'm really happy about that. So I'm commending us on that. Um the questions I have about the factors uh and that is one of the things that we're hearing about quite a bit now is attendance and attendance problems. So I'm wondering uh if uh we have some notion of if attendance is a factor uh in the overall and I don't know if that's a question for you Mr. Pletcher or or whomever but that's just a a question for whoever. And then uh the the other factor I'm thinking about is the factor of mobility because historically we've had you know fair amount of mobility meaning people coming and going and all of that. So I'm wondering about those two things in particular if if we're teasing that out and if we have a sense of it. Yeah. Um I I can I can start off. I mean first I want to address the COVID situation. Right. So for us too that when you look at RVA COVID is another issue where we look at that graduation rate from our online students. So during COVID we had a number of students that jumped in. Um right now our team is looking is online the right fit um for students because you still have students that are kind of hiding for different situations, right? Um and some are doing really well and some aren't right because they're just not set up to do online uh success successfully. So we've been trying to get students over to High View once we realize and talking to parents having those courageous conversations because they're credit deficient. Um, and so we're still working through that. When it comes to our online school, um, when it comes to attendance, um, for for us definitely at High View, I think it's an issue across the the district for sure. I know at High View, for sure. Our students just never have done school before, right? There's been issues when you when you really break it down, right, for them. Um, and so one of the things for us is to show value, right? We got to show them value of the education, why it's important, try to find out their why, kind of what their goals are. Um, and we have seen that. um even with our student that was here tonight, Alex, right? Um students that come in and take care of business. Um but I think for all of us, we're trying to figure out that that attendance piece for sure. So, Director Holmes, if I to address your last point as well about students, we have 25 to 30 students who are still on our books who they left our district and that is not insignificant, right? It's a sizable number of students who they left Robins Derry schools and did not enroll in a US school that we are aware of. Many students return to their home country if it was not the United States. Uh and other students just they're gone and yet they do count in our numbers. And so it impacts our rates pretty significantly. And it's something that we're going to explore through the summer of how can we and network with other districts because this hits all of us. There are we certainly have a high mobility rate but uh we aren't alone in that. And so what are other districts doing as well to try and clean up these numbers and make sure that our counts are truly accurate. Thank you. Thank you. Uh good evening board. I think some other factors that contribute to our graduation rate that I don't think we talk about enough is our special education students that go to transition. So our students that go over to transition, Cooper had about 12 to 15 um that impacts our graduation rate. Also when we think about our e population um and the inability to get them up to speed quickly, especially when they're coming to the country late, limited English, etc. that is really impacting Cooper. We have a large population of EO students and it's really hard to get them up to speed on time. So that impact impacts our graduation rate also. Thank you. Um Director Holmes, did you get your chair? I did raise my hand. Yep. Yes. Thank you. um this overall I I'm glad we're saying this isn't where we want to be and we want to have work done on this and I guess I had asked about proficiency rates and I know other directors have spoken to that. So I'm really hoping we can also move the conversation for this board on proficiency rates instead of just focusing in on graduation because just just getting from an NC to a D minus isn't enough excellence for our students. and that's what I want to be pushing towards and having conversations on. Um, especially with all the programs and initiatives we're starting. That being said, I know we mentioned MTSS. I know a lot of these are being cut in our schools based on our service model. So, I have some concerns that these numbers are going to look, you know, similar, if not a little bit lower at the end of next year. So, I want to get on top of it and hopefully we can do what we can and be really intentional in how we're moving those needles because our job isn't just to give them a diploma. It's to prepare them for after this. And I feel we are failing too many students with that. So, I just I look forward to the board talking about this in detail. Um, and hoping it's on your calendar. I saw your hand go up, so maybe you're going to speak to that. But, our proficiency numbers are available and I pulled a lot of graphs. I just we have a lot of work to do and I don't know when we're going to do it but thank you for presenting um and thank you for your commitment to giving us the data and working with us. Thank you. Uh director Hillbrand uh just a quick question for context about how many students graduated in 20 or actually t on a typical year or 50. I was going to say maybe it should be eligible to graduate so or but fewer than a thousand. I was just curious about how much does one individual weigh into these statistics. It's surprising. Thank you. Thank you. Um, Superintendent Stallow. Yeah, I just want to thank you all for being here tonight. I think uh excellent leaders have a role of um eliminating barriers for first of all our students and then for our staff who support our students. Um I know that you do that every single day as leaders in our building. Um, I also want to note that there's not a magic formula and increased graduation rates and increased learning is about staying focused, being consistent in things that work. And I think the bar program is one of those things. I think as we continue to deepen our work, and bar is MTSS, MTSS is bar, right? I think as we deepen that work, um, we're going to continue to reap the benefits of that. Um, you are surrounded by dedicated staff who work daily and I want you to know how much I appreciate that. I think the other thing that's really important and High View and RVA serve Cooper Armstrong Robinsdale Area School students as well as students um, from across the metro. And oftentimes in education, we know that time is the constant and learning is the variable. And what you're showing us through these different ways of being and it might take some kids four years and some five years and some six years and some seven years, but you what you're saying is learning is the var or is the constant and time is the variable. Um, so thank you for sticking with our kids and providing these opportunities um to them and and we'll continue to improve um because our kids really need us. So thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Moving on to item seven on the agenda, operations. And the first thing on letter A is the server and storage refresh plus backup recover and cyber vault. And this came up with at our last meeting and so we should be ready to vote if there are no questions. Is there a motion? I'll help you with that. I can move to approve. Are you looking for that? Yes. Thank you very much. Is there a second to approve the upgrade for the server storage and uh cybervolt recover and cybervolt? Second. Hill and Brand moved and seconded. All right, it looks like we're ready to vote. Since this involves money, it's up. It's a voice a roll call vote. Indeed. Thank you. Director Basset, yes. Director Bowman votes yes. Director Evans Becker, yes. Director Hillenbrand, yes. Director Holmes, yes. Director Long, yes. Director Wuto, yes. 70. 70. It's unanimous. Approved. Tech. All right. Um, the next thing on our agenda is another action item. Uh, this is the res a resolution for accepting our April 2025 donations and there were over $20,000 in donations in April, which is a lot. Is there a mo a motion to accept the donations? So moved. Moved by Director Holmes. Second. Seconded by Director Basset. Is that a roll call? I Yes, it is. A roll call. It is a roll call. So, director, we have a motion and a second on the floor. Correct. Yes. And to accept Basset. Director Basset. Accept donations. Yes. Yes. Director Bowman votes yes. Director Evans Becker. Yes. Director Hillbrand, yes. Director Holmes, yes. Director Long, yes. Director Wuto, yes. 70. Motion prevails. Okay. Thank you. Moving on to the new item C, which is um uh to discuss resending the use of legal counsel. We need a motion for that. Is that her motion? No. The motion was to put it on the agenda. Now, we need a motion to actually do it. I motion do you want me to read the thing again? A motion to resend legal counsel from further board meetings unless required by Minnesota state statute. Okay, we have a motion and uh second. Moved by Director Holmes, seconded by Director Long. Director Basset. So, um, just so so I'm clear, um, you know, and and I apologize for referring to past practice and and my own, you know, kind of way of being, but, um, historically over the years, we've never had council be present at every schoolboard meeting in the 23 years that I've served. Uh now notwithstanding that the district the board uh and the district sometimes too has had some challenges uh over the last uh I will say just year and a half two years. I mean I think that's pretty pretty clear. It's been reported on that there have been some challenges. Uh but I I do think that the time to move past that has come and gone. It's time to get the work done. And uh and so um in in light of the fact that we're having to cut so much um unless there's a specific issue item need because of course directors in the past have just been expected to learn how to manage the meeting and they did so quite effectively for many many years. That's it's not a foreign concept. uh larger districts, Minneapolis, some others may have a council who's there all the time. I've met some of their councils in the past. Robinsville's never had to have that. And so, um and many other districts don't either of similar sized. So, I mean, I just want to make that clear. They don't. Thank you. So, um I just speak to that because just to fully flesh it out. So, my own thinking about it is so it's not a negative about the attorneys. It's just that they don't have any money just for people to be sitting here just to and we need to learn if there's something we need to go to MSBA has classes or parliamentarian or chair vice chair all of those things they do and many people have availed themselves of of it over the years uh which is the appropriate thing to do so thank you saying uh director w yeah I think I echo So uh what has been said already uh however my observation and concern is that as a board I don't think we are quite ready to move with basic governance and be able to lead ourselves where we are not having issues that may come back to cost the district financially in the future with our alterances. Um I think having um council at least for the next few meetings will be very supportive to help us structure ourselves in a way that we are doing things that will not lead the district to have in a false savings. Um because today we are talking about money but with council not being there that could cause us more money in the future. Thank you Director Holmes. Yeah, I I you know, thank you for that. Um I think we talk about money all quite a bit pretty much every meeting and I think that if there are specifics, I'm going to echo what Director Basset said, then we should address them as a board. Um beyond that, I think we're moving into regular business usual as usual business. Um, and just seeing the amount and then how it's flagged, you know, miscellaneous, miscellaneous, it it is just not making sense because it the board is not aware of that and the board should be aware of what we are using those fees for. And if we can't afford um general counsel to be on on the payroll, then we can't afford that. But if you had something that you felt we were going out of the lines on or needed to um get counsel on, I would look to you to table that item until the next meeting and say, "I'm going to get counsel and that's how we would move forward from there." Um but really, I mean, if we're looking at 16 grand for one month, that's a that's some big bills and we're looking at, you know, the total bills that they've been coming. So, um I just think it's really important for us as a board to work together to move forward. Go on. Um lots of fingerpointing waving going on. So, I don't know who's looking to call and I saw Oh, go. Yeah, if I can just chime in. Um I think so. First of all, independent of the the question overall, I I do have concerns about framing the motion in terms of unless warranted by state statute, um state statute permits closing board meetings pursuant to the attorney client privilege only in very limited circumstances. I think there's lots of times that the board could use the assistance of legal counsel um and has had legal counsel present in open session at meetings. Um, so I I would encourage even if this motion moves uh forward that that the board consider um revising it so that it wouldn't limit you to only the situations in which um the statute would require an attorney to be present. Um but I do want to comment on the um the the fees that $16,000 number um is made up primarily of an employment investigation that the district or that our firm did for the district. um that is not uh so that is close to 12,000 of that number um is entirely uh for that um that investigation and not related to um the our attendance or representation of the board. Um, all of our bills do show itemized time and um, content entries that show the amount of time that was spent, the topic that was addressed, the um, you know, whether it was an email or a meeting or a phone call. So, all of that information is available. um if it would be helpful to the board that we designate um meeting attendance or other entries in a specific way, I think we're certainly open to hearing that feedback and working with you to um figure out what what makes the most sense for you. But I I did just want to clarify that it's not $16,000 on us being at board meetings. Um that that is other legal work that we did for the district. Thank you. Um, was that what your hand was up about? Okay. Uh, Director Long, so it has been asked several times. How much are we paying in legal fees to have an attorney sit here with us? I know Director Basset has asked this. She's been asking this since there was another chair. Um, at one point in time when we had another chair, there were four school board members who were requesting that information and we still don't have that information. And when we're supposed to be in charge of the finances of the district, I guess I don't understand why there is gatekeeping that is keeping us from getting that information when four and now three school board members have been requesting the bills uh for that. The legal fees that we're paying, especially to have a school have a lawyer sit here at our meetings every day with us, especially when we have some meetings that are seven hours long. that adds up, especially if we're talking hourly or is it a different kind of contract that we're talking about? I don't really know because we've asked for that information. We have not received it. So again, that's where I'm like gatekeeping because why are we not receiving that when it has to deal with funds and that's supposed to be within our purview of schoolboard members is to know what funds are being spent and what our budget is. and that gets in the way of us knowing that or knowing what money we have access to or knowing what we as the school board is taking away from our students. Also, it has not really been beneficial to have somebody here and then reinforce um gatekeeping, reinforce what certain school board members can't and cannot do. reinforce that there is actually kind of privilege amongst some of our schoolboard members that they're allowed to do certain things that other of our schoolboard members aren't. Um, also I, you know, I just really question the purpose of this, especially when, you know, we have statements about we're not there yet and we need to watch our behavior as schoolboard members. I think we're all professionals. If you don't like to be held accountable because you don't like our questions that we're asking, that's a whole different story. But I don't see anybody up here behaving in any way, swearing, or doing anything that would be unprofessional at all. Yes, I might ask some questions that are holding you accountable that you don't want to answer, but that does not be mean that I'm behaving inappropriately. So, I would like to move, especially with our students in mind, away from paying whatever it is that we're paying that nobody will tell us because you want to continue to gatekeep that information or whatever those contracts are because you want to gatekeep that information so that we can put those funds towards our students and put those funds towards the services that our students might need in their classroom. Thank you. Um, Director Bowman hasn't spoken yet. Wow, there's a lot to unpack. Um, the history of having and I'll I will respond to whatever remarks are being made about me and my leadership as chair uh because I'm not afraid of it. Um the the history of having uh legal counsel at the table stems from uh a time at this table a well over a year ago or more when uh we could not get along at all. Uh we had failed at doing mediation. We plummeted into investigations. We had a uh professional development consultant quit us because we didn't demonstrate any we didn't demonstrate um any conviction towards uh changes that we needed to make either structurally to the organization or to ourselves like understanding that we're not here to create personal friendships. We're here to do the business of the district. So um I as board chair asked for legal counsel to be provided to this board because we were always dissolved into arguments and then arguments over who held the expertise. I remember sitting here when I made that request at a board table and I could probably go back and find the date, but the proceedings that evening had dissolved into everybody claiming uh uh a legal expertise and everybody and people claiming an expertise towards Robert's rules, which to me is the most dangerous thing that we can do at this table. None of us have an expertise in legal. None of us are experts in Robert's rules. And one of the most uh the clearest notion about Robert's rules as is explained in their early chapters of the book is to make sure that um fairness prevails during the proceeding. And that was one thing that we kept falling away from that that fairness piece of it. We still don't do that very well. and and so that's a cons that's a huge concern of mine. Uh we have not been able to get the work done because we like to argue. So uh having an attorney here uh protects us. I don't want to hear about what other districts are doing with attorneys or not attorneys. Other districts are functioning fine and and that is not what has happened here in the Robbinsdale School District over the past couple of years. So without the quantifying information, I don't want to know what other school districts are professing to do. We are showing that we continue to have a difficulty with uh governance. Uh we want to talk I don't even want to get into the money piece of it because I would love to not have to have an attorney at the table. That would be my goal. But I don't have trust for the way this schoolboard member behaves. were early into trying to develop um how to behave at the table and I don't have a lot of trust or it at all. In fact, we never do anything that builds trust. We have board members that continue to break some of our policies. Open meeting policy is one of them that is just sort of laughed about. And there are other policies that go on here at this table if they want to that uh people just ignore. And uh if we take the wheels off the bus at this point, this district doesn't have a chance because this district, our school board members have not learned yet that we are here to define the what. and our administrators are here to define the how. And we keep blurring those lines. Anytime we ever talk about uh using the MSBA model of governance here and administration here, we all talk a really fine talk. We use all the right words. Oh, we support this. Let's use MSBA. But I tell you what, when the rubber meets the road up here at this table, it dissolves into chaos. And it is downright mean. And I just am stunned that the one thing that has been keeping the peace at this table is what people are asking for us to get rid of. Regarding the gatekeeping piece of it, I'm beginning to believe that we have board members up here who believe that if we follow rules, we are gatekeeping. We are not gatekeeping. Excuse me. And this is more of it. Okay. All right. I tell you what, just never mind because I'm a one up here at the table. I do not support this and I am not going to subject myself to the horrid behaviors that have gone on at this table from being called names. Point. Wait a minute. I have the floor. Okay, just take a moment to breathe. Let me just finish. I don't interrupt you people week after week after week. I never interrupt. And I am insulted by the use of the term gatekeeper. No gatekeeping has been going on. And with and and it's an inaccurate statement and it's a statement made to manipulate. Point of order. So I will just say please roll. Point of order. This is a lousy motion and you guys can do what you will, but then I will be forced to do what I need to do as a board member to survive the nonsense. Thank you. Point of order. Yeah. Point of order of how long we're going to That's a prime example. You express follow rules. Okay. Express today an email that you are the parliamentarian are going to rule on it. I'm asking you to rule on what is required. Okay. I I have heard from every board member. I mean, wait a second. Dr. Hillenbrand, did you have an appointment at any opinion? I think all that needs to be said has been said and people will vote as they need to. Great. Thank you. Okay. Then I would like us to vote and since it involves money, it's a roll call vote. And you are voting. Sure. If I um and certainly the board members can make this amendment or not, but I I would strongly urge that the vote relate to um statute that you remove the restrictly amendment for language. Do you have something in mind? Okay. I would just remove the the restriction on pursuant to state statute. Okay. So, the the motion would be uh resend the use of legal counsel at board meetings. Yes. Okay. Except and that's agreeable to the seconder. That's you. Yes. Okay. I unless you're calling the question. I'm calling the question because everybody has had everybody has had a chance to speak and so I think you didn't phrase it that way. Call the question. You need to chair. I I think that that remains I think the if we totally remove that exception then it just sounds like you're not allowing any council at meeting for any reason. Um so needed I think it could be um as needed or as determined by the um superintendent or members of the the cabinet and the the people who have authority to contact legal counsel would then have the at the request of the chair or the superintendent or um the others who can request the assistance of counsel would be the ones who determine whether it's necessary to have them at the meeting unless requested by superintendent or chair. Is that acceptable, Director Holmes? That's already in our policies. It is in our policies, but yes, I would accept that as an amendment to my motion and seconder. All right. So, now we have I'll resend the use of legal counsel at board meetings unless requested by superintendent or chair. Okay. And everyone has spoken. So, let's I don't think anyone's going to change anybody else's mind. People know how they're going to vote. I do. Superintendent, I just do want to remind um the board and the public that uh any of the the data in the bills is public information. So board has access to that. I think that legal fees and and I think the term gatekeeper also if that was if that's meant to be me, I need to know what it is exactly the board wants. if it's legal fees and how much it costs for uh lawyers to support uh the board in um their governance role, then I just need to know that we have a lot of other uh ways that we um use legal counsel, whether it's in employee uh issues or in some of our special education needs. Um, I know that, uh, my experience has been that we have kind of a culture of, uh, complaints and investigations more in this district than I've experienced in other districts. And I think that's also been um, you know, a part of the fees as well. So, I just want to be clear that it is public information and if if specifically the questions have been and the information hasn't been given about how much it costs for legal fees um at the at the supporting board governance, then then I'll own that and make sure that I get that information to the board. Thank you. Director Basset, do you have a new idea or a question that hasn't been answered? I have a clarifying comment and one is that uh I I never really had a complaint about not getting bills. So, I mean I think that director Long referred to me. you may have been thinking of a previous director who I think may have had some of those questions. I don't know that I didn't have any of those about the bills and so I just want to clarify that that wasn't me. So, but but I further want to say I'm glad that Miss Vieira brought up the whole uh notion of of not boxing ourselves in with that with language. I do believe we already have it in our bylaws about uh the chair or the superintendent can call, you know, can contact us they need to. Um my my my issue and the reason I'm supporting this is that legal counsel does not take the place of the board in in issues where the board needs to contemplate some decision making about an issue. The board needs to talk with each other and come to some kind of decision about what they want to do. Not have legal counsel make a decision for us and then send it out to us. That's not that's I I I I do have a that challenges me and uh because I don't think it's right. Um and so I I don't I don't pay attention to what other districts do. I pay attention to what's happening here. And I can just tell you that's not been a culture the culture of having you know um whatever to your point uh superintendent about some contentiousness and those kinds of things that's been since 2023. That's new since 2023 2024. Prior to that time, we never had legal council had to be at all meetings. That never was they never had sat at the table. They never had to come to meetings. What we have had is that um always has been an attorney on retainer working with our HR. That's always been a constant and there's always been somebody there. I think what happened when this issue came forward about does the board need a different or a new attorney is that the previous council got involved in some issues and there was not confidence in that person. So you brought it to us and our chair at the time to say are you guys okay with us finding new council and the board said yes. The board was not involved in the selection of the council. I'm just a trusting. I just said okay fine. I mean, I didn't make that an issue, but if it's the board's council separate from the the district, we're all one. However, my understanding is that the legal council works for the school board. They they do. I mean, now you if you have things that are for the administration to do whatever, that's that's fine. But that's the legal opinion that we were given in this room. has always been my understanding is that legal counsel, whoever they are, works for the board. Uh because the board has the legal authority for whatever we have legal authority for and we know that we charge you with the administration and we stay out of that. That's those are t separate issues. But I just want to set the record straight. I'm not asking anybody for any bills. Um I wasn't involved with who this council was selected. I think it would have been better for at the time because we were having some discussions that weren't going well. the full board should have been involved in vetting who the atern the firm was we were going to hire. I I believe that because if they were we have to have trust and faith in that person and I think that might have caused some issues too but I mean I didn't make it an issue and I've rolled with the punches you know uh but I I just want to you know set the record straight is that boards across this state do not commonly have legal counsel there because they just believe police themselves. They learn the ropes. They learn how it works and they conform. You know, we've had a difficult time. It's not a secret, but it's not been the history and the culture of this school district. That all came about since 2023. Thank you, Director Bassid. Uh, Director Wah, I saw your hand and I saw Director Bowman. Yeah, I think I just want to continue to echo the fact that language matters. Um, just few minutes ago, we were corrected uh directly. on what type of language we use to box ourselves in at this table. Um, yes, the cost savings are necessary. I just don't think that we are ready as a board to move in that direction. Uh, my votes will be a no. Uh, just to say that publicly. Thank you. Um, Director Omen, did I see your hand going up? Yeah. Yay. Thank you very much. Um, I just want to point out I was not involved in the selection of this attorney. Uh I was uh not at all se involved in the selection of this attorney. When it was recommended that I made the recommendation, we agreed as a board that we should bring this forward. I did not I was not at all involved in the selection of the attorney because I was purposeful about not having it be uh biased in any way of something that I was doing. That is not how this goes on. And I also want to clarify or correct that legal counsel has not made any decisions for this board. The board has made their own decisions. Um uh and that's it for now until I hear I got long and then Holmes. Director Long. Okay. So I have put into email several times for over a year requesting the statements for our attorney. So then I'm expecting that I'm going to be getting that information then. And then I need clarity with for all everything that we've ever spent or I just I just need clarity. I put it in an email to you then. Do you want me to include the chair on that? Cuz I've also been trying to go through the chair to get this information. Send it to the superintendent and without you. CC the chair. You can see the chair on that. Yeah. Goes to the superintendent. Yep. Okay. Director Holmes. Um, it's my understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, that uh, Superintendent and then Sher Bowman were involved in Zoom interviews of two law firms that were recommended by a previous council who called this board dysfunctional. So, there was involvement and yes, it did come through with a recommendation. Um, but again, I think it's just clarifying and my point, I'm just going to bring it home. our words can be clarified after because we've done things before. Our minutes have been inaccurate and we have to come back and and fix them at the next meeting. I don't think we're in that much trouble where our words are going to eat us every single meeting. Um this is about saving the money where we can and contribute so it can go back into our schools because this is not okay to have a running tally here. It's just endless. And I I I'm going to reiterate, Director Long, I don't understand what the end goal is. Someone please tell me what the end goal is in having um legal here. Are they prescribing us that we have to phrase a question in a certain way or certain words? Because in work sessions, I have council telling me that my questions are aggressive or unprofessional or what nature. And so that's not productive. I should be able to talk to my colleagues and that's what we need to do. And that's how we we talk to each other about our stances and hopefully bring forward consensus. Having the attorney here isn't going to produce that. We don't need an attorney. The the people did not elect the attorney. They elected us to have discourse, public discourse. And then you, as you identified today in email, are the parliamentarian and will rule us in and out of order. I'm willing to move forward with that, and I will respect your decisions. I don't think that's too much to ask because it also I had I had been asking what was the hourly rate that we were billing for to sit here for this because it does add up and so I' I've had that request as well. I'll conclude my comments and I won't circle back again. Director Bowman and I just want to clarify I did not shop for the attorneys. Dr. Stalo brought two attorneys in and they were Zoom interviews and I said I don't care either one because it's not my choice. I mean it was explained to me. So and and my other point on this is let us remember what we spent in investigations and mediations and all those other things. And I'm here to tell you we've saved money with an attorney is all I can say with this group as again proven by the $12,000 investigation bill that we're paying. So I I'm done and I won't be supporting it and I don't Thank you. Sure, superintendent. Um I also just want to note that the recommendation um through that process of of potential legal counsel came from in in partnership with the Minnesota School Board Association. Thank you for the clarity. All right, we are ready to vote. I'm sure it's a roll call vote. Yes, it must be if it's all right. As if anyone is not clear on what we're voting on, we are voting to resend the use of legal counsel at board meetings unless requested by the superintendent or the chair. Take it, clerk. Ready. Director Basset, I'm voting yes. Director Bowman votes no. Director Evan Becker, no. Director Hillbrand, no. Director Holmes, yes. Director Long, yes. Director Wuto, no. The motion does not prevail. 4 to three. Oh, I get to say that. Four to three. Sorry. The motion does not prevail. Okay. Moving on to the new D. Um, the new D is the governance policy and procedure man. Nope, that's not it. The new D is the ad hoc safety and security committee report. Uh, I'm going to note we have not met again. I don't know if there are dates available from an administration. And then also noting chair's email today that said can this wait until our new individual is on board. So I'm asking for direction from the board. Um we have not been able to get a meeting scheduled with administration and this is an approved committee. I don't I don't know what else to do at this point. Seeing no hands, I'm going to move to the uh call it think time and we'll move it to the next item. Okay. All right. Um the new E governance policy procedure manual test first report. We are happy to report that Molly Olsen is now in is holding on to the manual because we have completed what we are recommending for changes in the book. So, as soon as some of the formatting changes are made by Molly, uh, we'll be able to get that out to you. So, we're done with the revision piece of it. It'll be ready to come to the board as soon as it's cleaned up. And I am so happy to have given that report. Well, thank you very much. That was a many, many hours that that we worked on that. All right. Uh, the new F policy committee report, first reads policy. Um, who's speaking for the policy committee? Didn't determine Well, somebody can volunteer. Director Bowman, uh, where we got in policy this time around is what, uh, let me back it up. So, with all the new blood within the district and changes and that kind of thing, uh, we are starting our policy review uh, on this committee at at policy number 100. And so we actually spent the time as a committee sat and read the policies out loud, looked at what um uh changes MSBA is recommending and then as a as a group what we did was decide, you know, is this ready to come into the uh table for a first read or do we need to route this somewhere else? Does it need more uh time with staff or does it need more time elsewhere? So I think we actually on that evening in an hour a little over an hour's period of time got through five or six of the policies and those are the ones that I believe are on tonight's agenda. So I'm really happy to report we're making progress. Okay. So tonight's first reads are policy 101, 101.1, 102, 103, and 104. And it's my understand Yes. Um, I just want to pull 104 for an amendment some for some language that I wanted to pose for first read. Okay. Um, you asked for a blanket. Okay. No, this is the first read and so we're right. So, okay. I'll take your input. I was just going to say that most of these policies, it appears it's just minor changes um either that were requested by MSBA or a little more elaboration uh for the district like additional attachments for ways to make a complaint or something. So, um you would like us to during the first read look at 104? Yes. Okay, pull it up. Um I would like to motion to amend this one. for a second sentence to add the words a majority of the school board or unquote right before the superintendent. And this came up, we were brainstorming this talking about the mission statement and how it ties to um the strategic plan and giving the flexibility of the work that's going on right now with reimagine. So why lock ourselves into five years um in a policy because of changing times, changing needs, community input? Um so actually that's how section four kind of evolved and then after further thinking on my end I want um I was proposing the voice of the school board be in there as well. Okay. So we send this back to the I mean the pleasant half doesn't have to go back. No it should come back. I think any changes go back because then go back to the committee. It goes back because then legal has to look at it again if there if there's a change made. M Director Basset. Well, I I think it's nice that uh Director Holmes wants to speak to it and kind of clarify what's on her mind. Uh but tr traditionally, if if uh if it's in a first read, the expectation is that any director who has any any questions or comments can just send them to the committee and say here here are the ones that I want to have. So, but hearing it in advance can, you know, does give an opportunity to have some feedback on it. But uh but that's kind of typical. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Uh Director Holmes. Well, and it's just a minor. I'm not intending to stall it because what happens is we go back and this is my point. It's not the committee's point. So that's why I'm broaching it in first read because the will of the board would need to have this in. The committee has already put forward this draft. So amendments can happen at first read or second read to the will of the board. So can you clarify for me? You're in number four. I'm in view. 4. Okay. Would you read what it would be? The second sentence where it be it starts in order to be responsive to changing needs. And now I would enter um the majority of the school board or me or the superintendent may request outside and then continues on from there outside of the five-year period. A minute. And the [Music] um and so you you just want to add Okay. It just protects school boards coming afterwards because you go through a if you go through a a strategic plan process every five years and our election process is every four and we're tying it really to changing needs and um responding to the community needs. It just ties that voice together with whoever is sitting at these seats as opposed to locking in to five years. Um, and again, it's the majority of the board, so if it were to fail, I don't see this as a large ad. I don't see it um as a need to kick back. If you all don't want it in there, that's fine. Um, I won't prevent it from moving forward on First Street. Did you see Rene? I see Rene. Director Bowman. Thank you. Oh, I'm just wondering if the five-year period is statutory. No, I don't think so because this is referring to the like mission and um that wouldn't be subject to to statute. It's your own planning cycle. I just didn't know if under state law that wasn't there isn't there something with strategic planning when the world's best workforce Matt I might need you to when the I know re I do recall that when the world's best workforce which now has a different name was changed there was something linked to the strategic plan and and Matt I'm going to need your help on this or I'm going to need some review or Bob do you know um or does anyone else know but I remember at that time there were many school districts that didn't have strategic strategic plans and that put them in a position of having to have the strategic plan and the world's best workforce. So that was a no answer really, but I I there was something there. So I don't know if anyone has but I don't think in terms of the mission anything to director Holmes' point. Okay. to clarify. So that would mean if four members of the board didn't like what was what had been determined to be the strategic plan, we would probably have to go through a whole another the expense and time of a whole another strategic plan. Is that what that means? No, it's not my I'm asking Director Holmes. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's not my interpretation of it. No. Neither. For instance, we're going through re-imagine right now and the miss the mission this is a dated mission. This is how it came about and and my point was this is this mission has been around for a long time and the work that's being done on reimagine there are clearly some new input coming in and if you I I brought some of the other district mission mission statements around us and we talked about mission versus vision um we started to broach that but just bringing us in it's not redoing the strategic plan if at the end of this we decide we're going to rewrite our mission statement I don't think this is that controversial in nature. I agree. So, I just wanted to clarify. Thank you, uh, Director Basset. Well, um, I I don't think I've spoken of this, but I I did see some hands over there. Oh, thank you, Director Bowman. And I just want to know specifically the words were changing and exactly where it is. I understand that we're in section four, the section titled review. It starts with the school board will direct the administration to conduct a comprehensive review of the district mission statement, vision, and value of the community every five years for strategic planning purposes. So now you're saying in the next sentence in order to what? Be responsive to changing needs. Then the insert is a majority of the school board. A majority of the school board or the superintendent may request outside of the 5-year period. It's not staying stating the entire strategic plan. It's saying a part of it, including the mission statement. That's how this stemmed. A review of any part of the strategic plan to ensure the document reflects the district's priority, values, and long-term goals. Uh, Director Helen Brand, I just have a little point. I mean, majority of the board is the board. So, I would just say the board, not the majority of the board, because whatever the board votes is what it is. That's just my suggestion. I'll accept that. Just think of this. So the board or the superintendent, right? Okay. So policy committee, tell me, does this have to go back? This doesn't have to go back to you. I got a no. And uh wait, I think the question is really whether it's a a technical change or a substantive change um of because I think that technical changes don't do not need to go back but substantive changes would um and I think it's the board would be the one that determines whether um it requires further review. Usually that's because we need to the committee would need to vet some sort of lang the language change to ensure it doesn't have unintended consequences or or other pieces like that. Um but it the board would essentially decide where whether it needs to go back or not. Okay. So that sounds like right. So probably what would be appropriate here is to have the motion to amend it and and have that seconded and put that into it. We're not approving the policy. We would just be approving the amendment tonight. Does that sound correct to everybody? Could we vote to put send it back to the committee? That's another thing. I just don't I need I don't have a motion on the floor. I'll move to send it back to the committee. I have a motion. Do I have a second to send it back to the committee? I'll second the motion and and I want to speak to it. Okay. It's been moved and seconded to send it back to the committee because the the reality is that the technical change that we're talking about doing is not that big a deal, but I think having it go back to the committee so the committee can actually word smith and create it and fix it and do it um is a is a is a task. Okay. So once they do that task, then it comes back for whatever. Okay. It's been moved and seconded to send um 104 back to the committee, the policy committee. All in favor, please say I. I. Oppos, say nay. Nay. Okay, we're sending 104 back to the committee. Anything else for the first read on these five policies? Seeing no hands, I'm going to move us on to uh the new G administrative reports. We actually do have one uh administrative report tonight. Um I've asked uh Matt Pletcher to join us again. Matt is on for the night uh with to give us an an update on the new ELA curricular resources. Uh we know this is an important piece of our teaching and learning and academics. It's also um got a hefty price tag on it as uh an ELA curriculum. So, we wanted to be sure that Matt had an opportunity to inform you of uh the process that was used and the recommendation that's coming forward or came forward to me. Thank you, Dr. Solo. Welcome again. Thank you everyone for having me. Uh, a little context before I jump in. We are in the final year of our K5 ELA English language arts curricular resource. And so, our contract expires. Our current vendor is Benchmark Workshop. So with that knowledge in place, we need to acquire a new product. And so that frames the rest of this [Music] presentation. So at a summary level, um we are fully aligned with the Minnesota Read Act and the science of reading. That is legislatively mandated. It is also ethically correct and is the practice that which we are endeavoring to do daily. Um, with that we know that we have to acquire a new resource and so we have reviewed approved ELA curricula with the staff and the community and I'll go into that in greater detail. At a high level, our recommendations is that we acquire wit and wisdom and functional phonics and morphology. It's kind of a two-part piece to satisfy this needs and we would implement these products this fall. So, the legislative requirements, the readact requires that all districts must use an evidence-based literacy resource that covers the key elements of literacy, phmic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. And if we wish to use state aid dollars, we must use a resource that has been vetted and approved by the Department of Education. There are very limited resources that they approved their process. They partnered with the University of Minnesota and Kerry, an organization within the U of M, and all of the vendors nationwide submitted their products for review. They approved a handful, a very small handful and interestingly not products that had been approved nationwide in other science and reading states. So they gave a list in the fall of a few products that they approved. Vendors resubmitted their after making some changes and districts sat and waited to see what the department of ed if we would have more choices. They ultimately late fall, early winter, nothing new was approved and that's when we mobilized um and it burned time frankly. We were sitting waiting for the department of education and which is the appropriate move at the time. Uh but it tick tick tick tick and because we have an expiring contract with a vendor, we knew we needed to acquire something. So everything then became very fast. Um, one note too is that there's a couple vocabulary terms in here. There is foundational elements within the redact, foundational resources which works on phonemes, phmic awareness in other areas. And then we have knowledge building which at its simplest form is comprehension. More detailed than that, but at that's at its core what we're talking about. We implemented at our K3 level this year bridge to read as our foundational resource which we fully intend on continuing to use. We've seen tremendous growth with this particularly in year one of implementation. It's actually been quite impressive. So in the process we convened a literacy task force. It had 50 members on it. It had K5 general education teachers, administrators, special education teachers and administrators, EL teachers. Um, and they reviewed the two products that had been approved by the Department of Education and did a very deep dive into this, including exploring the rubrics that the Department of Education used to vet these products. From there, we met with the vendors. We had demos uh both physical and virtual given to all staff in the K5 world so they could access the products virtually. Most products today live virtually anyway and so they had sandbox accounts essentially where they could look into it. We also brought our administrators along through the process as well. They are leaders in the buildings and our educational leaders and so we needed them fully up to speed. We held a vendor fair on May 2nd at Sandberg Middle School and had tremendous turnout for that. Uh we invited the community to come as well and we invited you to come as well. Uh and we reviewed EL education and Winton Wisdom. Those are the two products. The feedback that we received is that Whitten Wisdom was the preferred product by most stakeholder groups. Uh of note, our American Indian team strongly endorsed Whitten Wisdom. because of its references, its materials, its literature. Um, and that matters to me tremendously. That was an overwhelmingly strong response. Uh, and they have spoken with director Ter who is going to do some consulting with them to make sure that their literature is truly representative of Minnesota. Um, which is exciting. They were really open to that relationship immediately, which I think speaks highly of them as an organization. And it was really balanced though across the general education teachers. It was nearly a 50/50 split. It was nearly a 50/50 split for our literacy committee as well. Um, both products are structurally very similar because of the way that they were vetted and because of the nature of the science of reading. there's not a lot of room for variance in how instruction happens because it's so explicit in direct instruction and so it's somewhat stylistic. There's a little bit more depth to it than that. I think representation they do a lot of whole text rather than excerpts and we believe that wood and wisdom did a better job of representing our student body. So we believe that wind wisdom is very strong in comprehension, vocab and language development and it supports our multilingual learners in ways that eel education did not. Um I mentioned the rich academic materials. I can't stress enough the idea that we're actually going to have students read entire books. Um, for many years it has been centered on excerpts and there's not a lot of students never get the endurance to finish books because they aren't reading them. And so this is going to be a shift and I think it's a good one. It has a really high equity focus which we know in Robbinsdale matters to us tremendously and we've had positive feedback from other districts who have used it. Some considerations however though for EL education again not a bad product at all. Uh it was favored by our special education team. Um they felt that there were greater structures built into it and scaffolds. Um and that may be true. We also believe though that our multilingual scaffolds embedded in wind wisdom will serve a similar purpose but it's going to have to have some work either way. Um it is time inensive for the teacher that was the biggest feedback because at eel education it is really really time intensive um but it's really effective if it's implemented with high fidelity. So we reached out to districts around us who have used these products. Um largely no one had done it for more than this is their second year at most and so it's hard to judge the results which again this timeline is not optimal but here we are and so Anoka Henipin in South St. all have found that there's high student and staff engagement with this product which is outstanding and shaky in Bloomington really noted the strong writing emphasis of this program and the oral discourse or oraly it's uh it's going to be a change and it's a positive change the concerns for both of them frankly planning time is going it learning something new is tricky and we're going to have to support our teachers in that process. So, the quotes you may have seen already, we're looking at for Wind Wisdom, including the professional learning over a 4-year span of $1.1 million. And a companion piece for our foundational uh elements would be functional phonics and morphology, the only approved resource by the state of Minnesota, which comes in at just under $200,000. compared with eel education that came in at over 1.6 million. So wind wisdom is a less expensive option than eel education by a few hundred,000. In conclusion, we recommend that Robinary schools acquires wind wisdom and functional phonics and morphology for implementation in fall of 2025. It aligns with the rigor, equity, and diverse representation within Robbinsdale and which we are striving for. We are once we determine that this is what we're going to do. We have already begun a very robust professional learning plan. uh that is going to be critical to success as well as a coaching system that we did similarly with bridge to read and we will have to monitor its effectiveness as we go on and make sure that we are getting the outcomes that we believe we will get and with that are there any questions so we don't have to purchase anything for K3 new because we already have we do have to we do okay yeah this will be a K5 knowledge building uh resource Currently, Bridge to Read only, well, not currently, forever. Bridge to Read only does foundational. And so, this will fill in the knowledge building portion of English language arts. Okay. We already have the Bridge to Read though, right? So, we're not buying that anymore. We don't have to buy any. Yes. No. All we are buying is the 45 program. That was Mike. Thank you. Okay. Uh, Dr. Holmes, um, when you were on slide nine, the considerations, you were talking about scaffolds. I didn't catch that. Can you repeat or just summarize what you were? Sure. Our special education teachers believe that embedded within the program itself, it has kind of on the side of a lesson how to scaffold a particular topic in a way for students who are receiving special education services. So that was something that our special education teachers noted and that was just for EL education but not right but what we also found and I don't know that how closely they looked at this those resources are also available in win wisdom and it just may have been missed but we wanted to report what was reported to us. So we believe the scaffolds are in place for both products. You believe? Okay, I needed that. And then um what does that just second one? Um you mentioned it's going to be critical to have the support to make it work. Correct. Yes. So where are you in terms of developing that support plan? Well, once we determine which product we're going to go with, uh, we've analyzed the professional learning plans and are starting to build out our calendar for next year and the following year. And so, we're going to be dedicating nearly all of our professional learning time next year to this product as well. Miss Sukerman is in the back. She is our literacy coordinator. Uh, hello, Laura. uh she and I have spent a lot of quality time together and we're working on building out a coaching plan. I've modified how we've done bridge to read this year. We understand with the staffing, right, it's going to we're going to have to be clever and we will be uh because this is just as important and so building out this coaching model that is nonvaluative and it truly is coaching to get better and we I feel very confident that we'll be able to build that. Okay. So, I'm understanding correctly, they're both decent platforms and it was a 50/50 split. No really big determining factor other than cost. Cost is that the last? No, I would Well, cost is certainly a factor, but that wasn't the motivating factor. It was 5050 kind of as the general classroom teachers. The administrators, it was 8020 curriculum instruction. 100% went with wen wisdom. American Indian staff, achievement integration staff, 100% went with widen wisdom. So as you cumulate, as you tally all the votes, pardon me, um win wisdom was about 65 70%. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Good questions. Yeah. Thank you. Uh Director Basset, I think even before me. Okay. Director Bowman, then director Basset. I was just curious um on how uh sped will be able to work with the witness. I mean what has been some of their feedback and uh it wasn't their preference but if you could address that I'd appreciate it. I've spoken with director Bdon about it and she understands the recommendation that we made and she was very confident that it would work also within the special education team. Um, and we have to be mindful that we are providing our teachers with the all the training that they need and adequate time to be able to differentiate with this product. And so I think it was really eye opening for us so that we know going in what we have to focus on. Thank you. Um, the next one I have on the list is director Basset. Yeah. Thank you. Yes. So, um you know, I appreciate the um the fact that you sounds like you had a really robust process for everybody got to put their fingers on it. The thing that I um am wondering about and I was really struck and I appreciate that we have had that input from our Native American families. Uh I'm wondering about the other ethnic groups we have in our district if they had a chance to touch and feel and that uh that question really kind of rides on the fact that um the systems accountability and I know we since then had a curriculum committee but the systems accountability um that the state used to impose really required a citizen component. Mhm. Uh so that in addition to all the people you mentioned everyday people, parents and everybody else, not everybody else but mostly parents could also have some input and involvement in in uh kind of the discussions the you know the vetting all of those things that lead up to the recommendation. Uh so with the change of systems accountability folding into the world's best workforce which also had a community component folding into achievement integration which also had a community component and all of those community components have in as I understand it have since fallen away. They're now integrated into the world's best workforce, but they happen dramatically different than what they used to uh because there were three different committees that had opportunity for many people to be involved in touch and feel. So, but the systems accountability in particular is the one which now is morphed into the district CAC comprehensive achievement and civic readiness. But we do still have the systems advisory committee. meets in a week uh next Wednesday I believe. Okay. Okay. But it's it's it's quite different and and so and so the the reason I raise it is because I do think that um you know uh I remember uh certain curriculums got selected not so much by our district but by other districts and then there's a big brewhahan community because people felt like it wasn't sensitive to the given cultural group. So did we have some of our we have some affinity groups in our district. Did they did they touch it or no? We gave direct invitations, very purposeful direct invitations to every member of our affinity groups. Okay. So, all right. Well, I'm I'm just saying that when I heard about it, you know, it was like I was getting ready to go on a trip and I couldn't go. You know, I was interested, but I couldn't come because it was the same week within days when it was going to occur. So, I'm just just throwing that in. Uh but, um I I do think that that's important as well. But anyway, I guess overall, I'm I'm glad that we're on this trajectory. we're doing what we need to be doing and I do think that um it's important to have that involvement. So our systems accountability committee as it sits right now I I think uh you know still could benefit from uh some community involvement. Not only that committee, I would venture to say pretty much all of them that have a component that allows that uh because it's a different dynamic when it's parents who are looking at it and thinking about it and raise questions that because they're not they're not trained educators, so they're going to ask their questions, you know. So, thank you for your presentation. You're welcome. Okay, Director Long. So, mine is around uh kind of the prep time because you said it needed a high fidelity implementation. M so how what will be the plan for ensuring that teachers have that prep time to do it and if they're doing it outside of their duty day what kind of compensation will that look like? I'm sorry Director Long that I can't answer but what I can tell you we know that every teacher is awarded preparation time daily. Uh what we also know is that the way that Wind and Wisdom has it is that their professional learning when they walk out after the second there's the launch piece but then there's additional sessions where they will plan out their whole next unit of study. And so they'll walk out with a higher level. It may not be individual lesson plans, but it'll be pretty close. And so they'll have their units fully mapped out and ready to roll on that day that they can teach the next day or as soon as they enter into that union that unit, excuse me. That's impressive. So is there any way that at a future time we can get some more information about how that might look for our teaching staff like the time commitment? Yeah, I'm I think we have we asked the other districts they've made it happen, right? I mean had we have a noa henipin the largest in the state and they're using it. Um and they didn't say that it's not doable. They just said that it's there's work involved which is true with anytime we as you know as an educator anytime we flip a curricular resource first year it is labor intensive most assuredly. But what's different this time is their professional learning plan. I've never seen one laid out like this before where they truly they're assuring us that our teachers are going to come out and ready to teach that the next day with what they just learned. And most organizations don't even make that claim, let alone deliver anything like that. So I have optimism, but I'm also realistic. There's going to be work. No question. Yeah. And I understand that too. you know, with the training that teachers have been going through with the read act, that has been taking a lot more time than what was estimated for them to take. And so that's why I really wanted, you know, because we still will have teachers who will still need to do the readact training along with this. Um, so that could take up a huge portion of some teachers prep time, you know, not to mention maybe there might be an IEP meeting or something else that the teacher might need to also be um handling during that prep time. So, I guess I I definitely would, you know, at a later time if we could get some more information about what we're thinking this would look like for our staff. Sure, we can certainly inquire. Thank you. You're welcome. Director Holmes, are we acting on this tonight? No, no, no. This is just for information. For information. Yeah. Okay. Just and for that purpose, I'm just going to go back to those numbers of our sped teachers and the general ed teachers of 64% and 58% preferring the ELE. That's that's carrying a lot of weight with me. So, I don't know. I guess there's not really much you can speak to about that or so one of the reasons why I don't mean to be disrespectful. We invited you as a body to come and you weren't able to attend. the salespeople are really influential in what happens and I don't want to mischaracterize eel education but what we found is that some of their messaging was not as accurate as Whiten wisdom and that they made some assertions about their product that we couldn't find anywhere to back up and so um again I don't want disparage this company. [Music] Um, but I think that the Wind Wisdom folk were very truthful in what they said, in what they could do, and what they would deliver. Um, less aspirational and maybe a bit more realistic than YEL education. And with that point, have you been able to circle back with the SPE teachers and general ed broadly to say that's what you found? And we did. We spoke with director Bdon and I know that we've spoken with their curriculum coordinator as well and they're comfortable with this decision. They both ways I think everyone truly was comfortable going either. We just believe that when wisdom met the needs of Robinson schools better than the education. Both of the vendors find themselves together at every one of them because they're the only two approved resources and so they're constructed similarly. And the wind wisdom folks said, "If not us, you'll do great with the education." They said the same about win wisdom. Okay. Thank you. That's very helpful. All right, no more hands. Thank you very much. Oh, wait. Superintendent Stall, I just want to thank you, Matt. Um, I know that this has been challenging because we've been waiting for approved lists from the state. It's been challenging because of exactly where we are with our curriculum cycle ending. I don't know that you could have had more against you right now. So, I want to thank you that uh for leading um with your team a really inclusive process where you gathered a lot of stakeholder um input and collected data and um I know that I asked some really hard questions. Um some of which I didn't like the answers to, but I certainly respect the work that you did and your team did and appreciate um the uh sincerity and the recommendation. It'll be good for our students then. I agree with you. Thank you everyone. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next making sure. Yes. The next item on our agenda is the consent agenda. Items on the consent agenda are routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion. There's no separate discussion of these items unless a board member so requests uh and the item would be removed as a consent agenda item and addressed. The cons consent agenda items are as follows. Um, an extended field trip by Armstrong and Cooper to Colonia, Libertad, Costa Rica. The monthly professional development report, the draft of our minutes, the personnel reports. Um, in the licensed personnel report and the non-licensed personnel report, we have some people retiring with a lot of years of experience. Jennifer Love it has 32 years and Christy Arnoldy 21 years. Christine Reagan 22 years and Sean Hanks 28 years. That's a lot of time and work in our district and I would just want them to know how much we appreciate the work that they have done in the district. Um, in addition to that, we have the financial reports, uh, the bimonthly dispersements, business office monthly contract report, community education monthly contract report, dispersements, and the monthly uh, budget to actual report. This is a roll call vote. We need a motion to approve the consent agenda. Somebody move approval. Uh, moved by Director Bowman, seconded by Director W. I see no hands. Let's do a roll call vote on this. All right. Uh, let's see. Director Basset, yes. Director Bowman votes yes. Uh, Director Evans Becker, yes. Director Hillenbrand, yes. Director Holmes, no. Director Long, no. Director Wuto. Yes. 5 to two. Am I Am I correct on that? Yes. Uh the consent agenda agenda is passed. The next item on our agenda is board reports. I'd like to start the board reports with Director Hillenbrand. Oh, okay. Hold on one second. I made a few notes here. Um so the um mostly I just want to talk about the facilities advisory facilities financial advisory council um where we met on the 13th. So that'd be about a week ago. Um we were discussing preliminary discussion about levy options. um as uh as we're coming up and and also really long-term it's really long-term facility maintenance as we're coming up on ch we don't know what buildings we're going to keep open and closed. So what is the right plan to make sure that we are levying enough so that we can take care of those things that need to be taken care of but also make sure that we're not putting money into resources we may may not be keeping. Um, and then the um I believe and please someone correct me if I'm wrong. Are we doing just a subject summary of the listening session? Just tell us how many and like what we've talked about. Yep. So we had um one person's heard of talk about the fair crystal start time. We had seven talking about wanting to keep family literacy. We had two talking about either cabinet positions or other leadership um decisions. [Music] Um, see I don't even know what I wrote there. Sorry. Two. Talking about um wanting to have uh an additional or keeping the assistant principal position at fair. And similarly at Plymouth Middle School, we had someone talking about support there for next year. We had someone talk about health office support. Um question about reading names at graduation and not using AI. And then um there was one submitted who didn't get to speak but they had questions about um reimagine and the levy discussion at the the FAC. So that is the listening session. Thank you very much. Um Director Bowman, nothing to report at this time. Okay, I'll circle down to Director Wuto. Uh nothing to report. Director Basset. U very briefly, um the Seven Dreams Foundation is in the process of hiring a new executive director. Um I've been on that um their search committee and they've got some great candidates. They've got several coming forward. I think they're going to do some interviews this week. So, good for them. And I see that they're all out in the schools and CCX Media took some photos and opportunities and and so they um you know granted made some grants in the um hands-on learning. Um, the other thing I wanted to report on was the fact that redesign will meet tomorrow night. U, it will be my second meeting. I had a first meeting with them and some issues came to light. I was able to talk about some of those things with uh, uh, the superintendent. And so, it's my understanding that we're going to be trying to come together with a meeting in the relatively near future and then maybe we'll have more comprehensive report after that. Um, and so I too attended the FAC meeting. That was a informative meeting along with Director Hillbr. And that's my report. Thank you, Director Holmes. Uh, thank you. I'm going to take this time to give a shout out again for teacher of the year celebration which is taking place on Wednesday of this week, the 21st from 4:30 to 6:00 at Cooper High School. It the reception begins at 4:30. So, if you are able to come over, please join us. Um, and again, I'm going to shout out to these four individuals who made it forward because they deserve to be talked about over and over again in additional in addition to the 19 nominations that came with them. Um, finalists were Raquel Gain, a FIAD teacher at Zachary Lane Elementary, Marcus Han, a band director at Cooper High School, Becky Harmon, an avid teacher at Sanberg Middle School, and Katherine Hibbs, a centerbased sped wave teacher at Zachary Lane Elementary. It was amazing to hear all of them and I cannot wait for this Wednesday. And then beyond that, this is our last meeting before graduation. Um, so I just want to say thank you to all of the students for putting in the work. We look forward to graduation ceremonies. And then I just have um a quick something I want to say. As we approach the end of the school year, I wish to extend my gratitude and appreciation to the teachers, EAs, custodians, counselors, office staff, social workers, psychologists, health surf worker, health service workers, students, and their families. I know firsthand how long and crazy these days can be for teachers, building staff, as well as parents. I also know how the days can drag on and seem to never end for students. We're having that battle every single day. When is school done? When is school done? Some are done teaching, some are done learning, and most of us are just yearning for summer. Um, so again, just I'm offering you my heartfelt thanks for holding on. Thank you for showing up and putting in the extra hours on your time and holding on while last minute homework projects are turned in, while parents pull up to drop off at bell times because we're doing our best just to get out the door. And that's me, too. So, thank you for the um staff there. holding on during student dismissal time when pickup lines are long and tempers are short because construction is creating chaos at some of our locations. Just thank you for tackling the extra messes you face come Monday morning. That's today as some of our schools had fundraising activities um this past Friday and there is extra work to be done. I would never call any of you slow as mules in one breath and demand raceh horses in the next. You are essential and you are valued. So, thank you all for being part of 281 and making us what we are today and good luck to get to the end of school. Thank you. Thank you, Director Long. Um, I had my 287 board meeting. We went through and did a first read of some policy stuff. Um, I really appreciate how at 287 they try and get all stakeholders um input when they're doing policy. They do student input. Uh, parent they get parent input. Um, and then they also give us a one-pager of the input that they got and uh the changes that they've made to it. So then when we sit down and we discuss it as a board during our first read, we have some background information as to how those changes came about. Uh 287 has a meeting coming up this week. Thursday is uh seems to coincide the same week that we meet. Lucky me. Um this week though they'll be having a retreat. So instead of going there at 6:30, I will be reporting there at 4:30 to be a part of their retreat. Um, and then their uh regular business meeting. Um, I see that SEEK has an upcoming graduation for some of the students who receive special education services. I still would like to know when we can sit down and have a talk about how SEK is being run without parent involvement when that is supposed to be a part of the state statute. That's it. That's it. Okay. I just want to give a shout out to our Indian education team. I attended the pow-wow and I know director WHO was also there. It was bigger than the other ones I've been to. It was colorful. More districts were participating. It was a it was a wonderful afternoon at RMS a week a week ago. And that is the end of board reports. We are up to future events which will super as the future events scroll. I just also wanted to provide I'd asked Joanna um to just get some information to make sure everybody had information they needed for graduation. So I just have a handout for you and I think it's got all the information and times and maps and all of that. So I just wanted to be sure to get that to you tonight. That's important. Thanks. Okay. So events will be scrolling. I need a move to adjurnn by someone. Someone moved. Moved by director Holmes, seconded by director Bowman. All in favor, please say I. I. Say nay. Where is it? We're reconvene at 9:37 for the work session. Thank you. and we are back. Okay, welcome to the work study session. I'm I'm Evans Becker. We're starting the work study session. Welcome everyone. Let's introduce ourselves. Britney Bowman, director Terry Stal, superintendent. No, super vice chair. Kristen, chief financial officer school board of community education athletics director of human resources school board school board. Thank you very much. Number two on the agenda is carryover from the May 5th study work session with Dr. St. Ticket. Excellent. First item is a uh draft of the 202526 school board meeting schedule. You can see that it reflects the uh discussion from our last study session where we are going to do a listening time with a longer more robust business meeting and then the second meeting will be a brief business meeting um as needed and then the study session. And you can see we rotated that through the year. I know there was conversation that said, "Let's try it during January and see how it goes." If at that point at the or meeting, you all decide that it's not working, we still have the dates re reserved and then we'll just change the structure. I do want to note real briefly, December and January have us off our cadence just a little bit um because of the truth in taxation meeting. So we'll do the full robust business meeting that first meeting and then listening time and a brief one um and a study session on the second and the same thing happens in January because of the organizational meeting that uh must take place in that first meeting in January. Questions and I apologize I just looked this up after um getting materials this weekend for Friday whenever it was um the September 22nd is the night that Roshana starts. does not include having a score meeting. means okay let's take a so I don't know how people on Tuesday night starts Monday night and is on Tuesday but Tuesday night it's big it's over I only do Monday so we could do that Tuesday night we could do what yes September 23rd 20 it'll be moving in the September 23rd and just just a note on that that the September also we had to do some kind of um silly things because of the start of the year and then that first week and there's five Mondays in September. So we did a few things but if if everyone's good with that we can just go ahead and change that to avoid that conflict 23rd you make that note and bring that forward. Yeah. Director Holmes, are you okay with that? Yes. Okay. We'll make that note. We'll bring this forward for board approval at the next meeting. Thank you very much. The second item um again this is a uh carryover a bit what what I'm asking the board for is I know that we rescended the critical incident communication threshold to the board and what we discussed at that time among other things one of the things that um we discussed is that there is some some of the data that was being provided to the board um was not appropriate and had some legal concerns um But we did discuss that summary data is appropriate. So, as we're finalizing um at least this year's draft of the the district scorecard, what I'd like to know from the board, I'd like to get some direction. Is there some summary data that you want to be sure is included um some metrics and measures that then you would see that summary data midyear when I present um the midyear evaluation and then end of year. So things like attendance rates are going to be on there. We I can't remember. I don't have in front of me right now if we've got suspensions on there, but things like that. Is there some summary data that you want to be sure that we are tracking, summarizing, and improving toward the attendance and suspensions? So, when you do suspensions, do you um break it up by race? And so, so here's here's Terara Stal's problem. Every time she has led a process of district scorecard, it's about seven pages right now and that we we simply have to get less. So part of what we'll do is we'll have internal measures that we're constantly tracking and then we also want to really pay attention to what's the public facing piece of this. So we have a dashboard. So the the answer is yes. Ultimately when we are looking at suspensions internally we we look at it by student groups. I think is that what's going to be on live on the scorecard? We we can I just it it becomes huge but I think it's important internally that we're tracking it and we can certainly report on that. And what about like fastbridge scores or Yep. That's on there. Okay. And then will that be broken out too by race? So you can see how I know that students are progressing. Yeah. Let me again it's not finalized and that's exactly what we ask principles to do with the school improvement plans is to break it out. So what I'm hearing that the important interest is in what are the measures that we then are constantly disintegrating and so I I got it and we'll continue to look as we're working on this sort of mobility is that something we don't currently have it on there um I know buildings track building some buildings I don't know that we consistently do Well, I understand what we're talking about. We're talking about summary data that the board gets so that we kind of have a sense of where the district is in certain things. That's not the same as doesn't have to be the same as what is a dashboard that's public facing. Correct. We're getting information is coming to now we do decide to do that but correct but I think I just want to kind of reinforce that having that data is is really helpful for us to understand how our populations are doing you know so so good my understanding is was accurate are you offering this up as a replacement to the threshold document it was the threshold document is rescended so it doesn't exist right now so What I want to be sure that um that I ask for input from is what are what are some of those summary data points that were important as you developed that perhaps that legally we feel comfortable using as part of the scorecard in terms of summary data and I think I just need clarification because when we last I understand it's been rescended but then there was the interest around that document was tracking behaviors that were impacting team learning during the school day and making sure that the programs and the staff that we have in place that are supposed to be deescalating or redirecting or reshaping behaviors um are actually working because when we created this if you those of you who were here recall those were a top priority. we had that conversation and so I guess my understanding was I understand this point but when are we going to have the suggestions from council on what would be acceptable? I'm hoping that this replaces any kind of document that you're requesting on a weekly or monthly basis. That's what that's what I'm asking for. And that may not be what the board wants, but I want to be sure that we are paying attention to things that were important to the board as that was developed and that makes sense in our overall continuous improvement um work. And just so you know with the scorecard and again you'll you'll hear this from me in a bit but um you're going to see that a as part of my end of the year uh evaluation materials and it is a living breathing document that is not done. I think I was in prior league for seven years and I don't think it was ever done because we constantly are looking at what's the data we want to be paying attention to monitoring measuring so that we can improve toward it. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. So, just to clarify around that because we were supposed to be getting something from the attorney about that. That's what he said that he would be getting it to me and Director Holmes. So, was that not true? I I thought I actually thought and I'd have to listen to it again or if somebody else has, but I thought you were sending something to him. No. And again, I guess I will leave that to the board to say, is that a document that you want to recreate the the the critical issues one that we rescended? Well, and one of the concerns I have so in talking to other school board members in other districts um and watching their their other school board uh meetings too because I have so much time on my hand. Um I have noticed that they are getting that information about these incidents that are happening and they are able to go back those board members who want to have more clarifying information about these incidents that are happening in schools are able to do so. So also, you know, an agenda setting, I had the conversation about the incident that happened at PMS and how we as a board, we didn't get the full information about that because it was really an incident that happened at Sandberg and then followed over to PMS and we only got information about what happened at PMS. We didn't get the part that impacted the Sandberg community. And then when I have a parent coming up to me saying, "Hey, I need to talk to you about this information." Like I would have liked to have had some kind of heads up ahead of time because that was a a serious incident and then called police Dr. Besset. I recall that um because I I don't recall the specific conversation between director of law Holmes and Mr. Wber, but I do recall that he provided some counsel and said and that he seemed to have some suggestions about um some of the things that they were talking about. He was going to, you know, make sure was maybe more appropriate. there's not a word, but um he was going to actually do some work on it. So, I mean I I I think that's what you're referring to. And so, um and I'm not sure that that is in contrast or is, you know, is in conflict with what you're saying. I'm not sure. I don't have a system. I'm I just want to be sure that I am following up and making sure if there are some summary data points that you want in the scorecard. We have them and then once we see that completed scorecard, you might have other ideas about it. I'm not I'm not here tonight asking for information to recreate that document. It was rescended and my efforts are going to this scorecard right now. I got it. That's what I was thinking. rescended and so then there was discussion and he was going to provide something here. Yeah, I just wanted to chime in. Um I did talk with Mick about it and his understanding was that I think director one was going to send him something about what wanted what the uh board wanted the document to look like. Um and that his intention was to to review that document. So, uh, that at least was his recollection from the meeting when I talked to him. Yeah. And it wouldn't have been director long because I was being left out and I had to keep saying my name. Me too. Me, too. So, yeah, that's not true. Directors. So, I just want to refresh the board on why we formed the ad hoc committee and it was the escalating disruptions throughout um school days because of people coming and speaking to us at listening hours and it was escalating and escalating the same kind of incidents. And so there was a concern amongst the board to address those or to make sure that our our efforts to address those were doing what we intended them to do and doing our policies were doing what they intend to do. the weapons policy, the bullying policy. I don't know if you remember lots of people came and spoke about bullying and um then there would be you know back talk about well it doesn't rise to the level and so it was trying to bridge the gap between the board and administration about what we are doing for these concerns that kept coming and a repetitive pattern and so this was developed with interim superintendent then so I understand the concerns um that the council brought up but where we landed was my understanding I can go back and cons I said do you have suggestions on the document because I'm not a legal expert he said yes I have some ideas of what it could look like and said I said when could it come to us for the board or the um ad hoc committee to review it so we could bring to the board and he said well how soon can you answer questions and I think we were both available and I said include director Wong on the email if you have questions so that's my understanding of it um I think re-emphasizing the importance of what we agreed upon when we formed the document in terms of tracking and trying to ensure that our policies are being enacted the way we want them to be. Um, you know, we've had weapons in our schools that hit the news media and just being an informed board and responsive board, not trying to violate student data. So, I think there's understanding that we're not going to do that and though some of these things were here. Um, but just being an aware board of knowing what's going on. I don't think that is a large ask and I think you're going to work with council on it. So, I don't want to replace I appreciate the the metrics and getting it mid year or whatever cycle. Um, I don't know what else to give to you at this moment. Just I'm good. I'll keep doing the scorecard and like I said, I just I want to be responsive if there's some summary data that you think is an important part of the scorecard and I certainly would take that input should any of you have it uh via email um especially the next couple weeks as we close the chapter at least on this year. All right, thank you and director. So my my question and you answered it partially just now Dr. most is that is what are what are we trying to get at right and when people come and I'm not saying those are their true experiences but it's not data right it's not um doesn't show a pattern and that's what and so right so what I'm I'm saying what I'm trying to get at is what data because even getting individual incidents which we we do get told about incidents um what is what is the big picture data I guess the question that would help to understand the pattern of there's a change from the year before, you know. So whether it's the number of times police are involved, whether it's the, you know, whatever it is, I don't know because I'm not the one asking for it or wanting the information. I'm just I what I'm trying to do is get to like what are we go back to what do we really want to learn from it might inform what we want. Did you want to answer her question or I do because it that's what we created the document on and so it's hard to bring like I'm asking the board to chime in on on the discussions we had because I can't recreate what documentary reference this was the threshold document that was asis and we had it limited to level four and level three and we got very specific it wasn't all fights it was group fights I mean we put in some time and work and we presented it to the board and explain explain why because of how it impacts culture in schools because of how families um you know trauma is not just impacting the two students that or the group of students there it might be impacting the full base. So how are our emergency teams responding to these? How are we offering support services? Wraparound services were a huge conversation point. So there was a lot of work and depth behind this um and so it wasn't all and everything. It's not daytoday. And now after this was approved, we have a level five now. So it was to bring us in and focus on those because it also tied to edge climber. We were going to have a schoolboard dashboard. I don't know if you remember that. The forward facing portion of it where we were going to kind of track some of this data and that's not come to fruition either. Um, I don't know if that's answering what you're saying, but it was very specific in terms of what we were looking for and and you know, I mean, we had um engaging in physical contact with staff. That was important because do we have the staff to deescalate? Do they get hurt? Um, major weapons on our schools, um, drugs or, you know, substances. We have a policy that states, you know, no no substances in our schools. And I know I'm stumbling here. Excuse me. I'm moving. Um, but we're, you know, a no drugs policy essentially. And we've been doing some work. Vaping is still a major problem. Marijuana is still a major problem. So, it's measurements like what are we doing? How are we missing those marks? How are we not addressing those issues? So, it's providing the data for us to see what we need to do differently, how we need to pivot. It's what we've been doing. It just wasn't working on specific issues. Oh, I thought you did. No, I just let her answer her question so that director because mine was on a little bit of a different topic. Fine, director. I would like to know when we can get that information then because I feel like that has something that has been dropped and I know at that meeting director Holmes had asked when when was a timeline when there was a time frame. So when can we get that information so that we're just not sitting here waiting and waiting and waiting for it. Do I ask the chair? Do I directly ask over here? What what what do I need to do? So I think my understanding is there's a misunderstanding here. Our council was waiting to hear from you and you were wait and we were waiting to hear I mean people were just waiting for a check. So is it fine with director Holmes and I drafted an email to council about this? Okay, that's what we'll do then. Okay. Do you want to be CCD on it or Sure. Uh let's see. Sir, can we talk? Yeah, I was just going to suggest that we maybe advise ourselves if this is a document that we want to bring back and then go through the appropriate channels to address that at a later meeting. However, is there any other items that we want on the scorecard that superintendent is asking for so that we can move ahead with that as we wait for so the critical document they're going to send an email. So, anything else on the scorecard that people want? If you if you go home and you go send an email, okay, director Hillbrand, I was just going to say it sounds like you want to track the, you know, number of incidents at level 3, four, five, maybe by grade or whatever. So, or by, you know, elementary, middle, high school. That seems like reasonable because it's aggregate um data. Um I think the concern was when it came down to individual at least my recollections specifics but the aggregate data might is that what you're kind of looking for. I'm just trying to find I'll pull it to we'll we'll start the email if I I I understand the legal consequences. I understand what you're saying. So thanks for the feedback and we'll see where we go. And thank you. I think and you still I do because I was just going to Are you um I might have mentioned proficiency at the the table um versus graduation rates. Would that be applicable here for a scorecard? It ties to our reading goals and our literacy goals with all of the So that's part of the reason that we create monsters is because I believe with any of our our reading and math, it's about proficiency, growth, and gap closing measures. So all of it matters. Um graduation rate, that's not how I've ever I mean graduation rate, it's I've always just done graduation rate, but we can take a look at that. Certainly, again, it we can modify and add and change as we go. I think my goal is to just get the first round to y'all as a promise that I made to you in July that I was going to be doing that and then from there we can say um what are we missing? What's helpful? Because really the helpful piece is what's telling us what's working and what's not working, right? And that's the same thing that our leaders are doing in their department and school improvement plans. Okay. So with that being said, proficiency you already have included in the list then in MCAs and Fastbridge not in graduation rates. Yeah. And that includes growth. Excuse me. Growth growth also. Perfect. All right. I'm good. Seeing no more hands. Let's go. Oh, sorry. And so this is this goes to the subject. I don't know that it goes specific to uh to this threshold but um one of the things that or we had an incident at Samber some time ago uh one of the things that came to my attention is that in Minnesota statutes there is an annual report uh safety report that goes to the department of education and it was my recommendation at that time to a committee that that be a a report that actually comes to the board. So because that's sitive data and um you know and it has to be recorded anyway and so uh that now that's different than what I know you're talking about. So I but I thought I I still think it's important as an annual thing for us to to kind of know. I think that's jurist right and it doesn't require any more work you know from our team. Okay. Okay. Board professional develop for professional development. We decided on a date. So hold that Tuesday night and Wednesday. Um several board members have talked about pardon me. Uh Tuesday 22nd. It's July 22nd and 23rd. Tuesday. We several board members have talked about wanting us to be able to get to decisions in a in a to facilitate decision- making in with like a routine or with practice and get better at this. And so um we have an opportunity. There's uh and in fact a board member suggested this one. Uh Dr. Dave Webb has home leadership. Um, can you would you like to say anything about that in a minute or less? Um, yes. Dave has is a retired SU who's working with multiple boards, multiple groups, civic organizations, church organizations, leaders. Uh, the framework is solid and clear. We've used it uh an abbreviated version of it, not his full version. The other thing that um and and I reached out to him today just in preparation for this to see if dates were available. He also has been doing something um with boards recently that I think there's the potential because I know something else that some of you had talked about is a a board um self assessment and he did some things with board through the app of his book and then they come up with what are their he had a board that he worked with recently. what's your vision as a board and then what are you do this assessment what are those things um and your action plan in terms of how to living and moving toward that vision. So I did a horrible job explaining that but I think he's got a lot of experience and and would do a really nice job maybe in both of those areas but I I don't know that. Did I see your finger Chris or director? Dr. So I'm wondering about the cost in this. We can find out with that. The other problem that I'm having is I thought that this was going to be a board discussion and it sounds like the decision was already made for the board. The dates are decided by the board several board members especially when we're already trying to confirm times with this person. I did. I just I know that when Green and I were talking and she had said that there were several board members that that had asked about a decision making something, one board member had seen Dave and brought it forward. So I said, "Well, if he's not available those dates, it's not a non-starter." So I said I would check on the dates. Somebody else has this is not the only thing that we can do. It is something that we can do. Dr. Um, as I noted to you, I don't think we should be spending money on another professional because we've done it and done it and we asked that we come together as a board and talk about what our goals are and um gave you the examples of Minnetonka and Roseville school districts. They both do um exceptional jobs of communicating and outlining their goals and priorities on their website. I'm not saying that those are ours. It would just give us a really good framework to work from. It would allow other directors to bring theirs in, too. Um, and then it wouldn't we wouldn't have to spend any money and we could it gives us enough work their website to get through in a day and a half. I don't know what it's going to cost, but I think that we need somebody to guide us. I think we need somebody to give us a framework that we can work with and get us so that we can launch on our own. Dr. Did you hear yourself first? No, I just put my hand up. So she she has a coming around. You go around. Well, you know, I was just going to say I thought we were going to come and just talk about what we thought might be a good idea for professional development period. Um, that's kind of what I've been thinking about. I'm not, you know, that's not And so, one of the things that I'm thinking about is that I really would like to see our board do is go back to the strategic plan and for the board to have an opportunity to talk about the strategic plan and identify where we have commonality or we think we're making, you know, because we have there's lots of data that the superintendent has brought forward and folks are doing work on it. So there is some information we can get as we discuss. We've not got unless I don't know about it. There's not been a meeting where we've gone back and touched since Mr. Ingram was here really where we've gone back and touched the strategic plan and really kind of gotten into that because really the strategic plan was already in place when a couple of new directors came on board, you know, so we've never had that conversation. And so I think that that may be the place to go, especially if there's a lot of work that's happening right now around it. And so I think that that would really help us depend on timing and it's going to be after the fact, but I think that that really would help us really kind of understand based on our strategic plan what are what are the themes that we think are important because that might help inform us about the kinds of things that we want to we want to monitor. you know uh we may not change want to change anything that this is se because it's board work is different than the administration's work so for us to look at the strategic plan and look at it in terms of here are the themes here are priorities what do we feel like is a priority some commonality around that I think would do a whole lot of good um so I I'm flexible to go along with some other things but quite frankly a book study I We haven't even done our We haven't even figured out our strategic plan yet. We haven't discussed. Now, am I wrong? Did we talk about it? Not I know you guys are just new, but um we haven't talked about that, have we? Well, how can we move forward with a strategic plan that we haven't talked about in two years? I mean, that does but Terry, I'm just all I'm saying is that it's different for you to come back and tell us what the team is working on. Can I just say one back one thing? I for me and this is how I've always operated as a superintendent. The board sets the vision and that is the strategic plan community created board approved document that gives us permission and responsibility. So the board sets that my job is to implement it. But we're talking about two different things. Okay, we're talking about and and I I'm saying imperfect imperfectly, but that but I'm not talking about what your work is because the other part of it too is that one of the challenges was that when that strategic plan got crafted, there were directors on board then and community members who were saying, "Wait a minute, we left this out. We left that out." That was a big conversation and then it just kind of ended up kind of going away and because I think everybody wanted to rally around it. it was moving already and work on it. But that's really the truth of what happened. So we really so that didn't get done. So then now we are in the middle of a strategic plan that we just certainly wouldn't want to derail our new superintendent who kind of came in with some whole new language. So I I feel like the reason I've kind of just waited till now because we're talking about it. And so if we're going to do some uh professional development, we need I mean I think the first thing is figure out what we think is important for us as a as a vision our visioning as a board. You know, do we all think that uh you know what's um kids behaving is important? You know, do we think that's the most holy grail? Do we think academic achievement is the holy grail? Do we think that testing or what whatever it is that we believe as a board is really important to us are the things I'd like to see us focusing on on monitoring and uh that will marry up with whatever you're doing. That's the goal is to marry it up with whatever you're doing. But that's not work that you can do as the administrator by yourself. That takes the board. And then and I think I heard somebody say earlier tonight, we're kind of disjointed. We have never we have a jail Okay. Well, it was director and then Okay. Not you. Yeah. Sorry. Okay. Is it you, Director? I'm good. You're good. Director Long, are you good? No. Okay. So, if we remember when we came up with our ad hoc committees, we didn't have anybody with us. We did that as a board. There was no facilitator with us. We did that as a board. We had post-it notes. We had chart paper. We did that as a board. And we did that as a board at a time when it was really difficult for us, but we did it. So, I don't necessarily know if I buy the hole that we need somebody to do that because we we were at a super hard time and we did that without anybody else living with us, not even superintendent. So my question is just how do we move forward with making a decision on this because I think agree needs some direction. Um, I also will just say on a side note that we tend to not move things forward and just talk about them in circles. And that's I so I think that um having somebody from the outside help us figure out how we better work together and and say what we need to say and then move on and make our decisions would be really helpful um for me personally because I'm I'm just frustrated personally that things just kind of seem to swirl without resolution. So what is the resolution to this? Yeah, I think to echo that um we all have great ideas like all the things that you're looking for to be reviewed to be discussed. Setting a vision for the ball, a goal for the ball, all wonderful things to do. However, I think at this point it might be useful to get some kind of a structure that is going to lead us to how we do those things, right? And and I think that's kind of where I am also leading is that yes, we can look at the strategic plan. We can look at how we involve the community in budgeting or whatever those pieces may be in the future. But how do we collaborate as a board to be able to get to that stage where we can sit together and make those decisions? I don't think that is happening right now. And so somebody who may have a framework to advise us on how to do that might be useful. And if as a board member we have expertise that we think might help us do that then please share that so we can all discuss or come up with the presentation so we can move ahead on how to do that in the future. Thank you. I agree with director Hillbrand and director and future. I think we need a facilitator. So whether the facility I mean so I just because I say we need to talk about the strategic plan. I'm very specific and I'm very clear. I'm not going around a circle. We haven't talked about it. It's been a couple of years. I think we need to I think it has some important information in it especially if our administration is working toward it. That just don't even make sense that we haven't done that. Uh so having a facilitator now whether I would land on this person and the framework that the person brings I I I somewhat neutral on that as far as that's concerned. I do think a facilitator is needed. Um but I think that the goal is not to learn some new person's theory as far as I'm concerned. The goal is for this board to figure out what do we think is important for the strategic plan that we have that we spent good money on that we have not talked about in two years. So you know whatever the will of the board whatever the board decides to do fine but we haven't even done done that. Thank you Director Holmes. And I think for me is we did do two sessions with framework with an instructor trying to tell us how to move forward. And so now it's up to us actually do it. And I think that is where I agree with director Basset is we know what we need to do. We need to identify goals for this board to move forward. If we need a facilitator to help find commonality, sure. But I I echo I don't want a new person coming in with a new book or a new It just seems like the shiny object. So if there's a a neutral person who can help facilitate marching us towards identifying reviewing the strategic plans and tying it to work, I'm up for that, too. Um, but we did we sat through I think two two sessions two summer sessions since we've been on with Deborah Keys if I remember right maybe three folders of specific things we were supposed to do um and for whatever reason they don't move forward so it's not about structure and it's not about structure or framework we were given it so I think it's just pinning it down because I in my opinion bringing and another person who's just going to say this is the you know this is what you're supposed to do. It's actually now just enacting it. And so if it's a facilitator to help I don't know empower the chair to say these are the steps we need to move not tell us what the steps the outcomes are going to be but say okay this board meeting this work session we'll do this and then the work that the board has to do is you know point one and two. Does that make sense? Did I just make any sense? Yes. Yeah, but I understand what you're saying. I would just I would offer one thing just for board consideration and um I think I think maybe it is different. Right. So, I'm hearing uh uh idea about taking the strategic plan and saying what's the board's goals around this? I think that what um and again it was a couple texts in a voicemail with Dave, but what he's done with recent boards has been more about board goals around how they're going to function, how they're going to stay in their role though that has been the vision of the board and the goals of the board have been have been those things. So, I just want to put that out there and I know that that's what he's done recently and works with a lot of different boards and different groups. So, just want to share that two things. I want to recognize that we are way past our time and also anytime even one new person joins the board, it's a whole new board. We have two new people on the board since we've had any professional development that was facilitated. And I I I agree we need a facilitator. And if it's a person that can help us line up, get our get ducks so that we can put them in your three minutes. Pardon me. Do we know where we're going with that tonight? Well, I just I really 107s. I know. I know. Is there anything with the committees? Are you okay with Is there anything more you need with the development? We haven't changed anything on the committees. I haven't heard from anybody. We're not touching her. So that's done. Oh, I'm sorry. Caroline, that's the I don't know if you had my hand up. Yeah, I did. I had my hand up. Yeah, cuz I just feel like again now I feel like I'm being manipulated and again it's not the board's decision about what the board is doing as PD. It's already been made up for us. I just kind of as said, it was a suggestion from a board member suggest a suggestion from me actually. Oh yeah. And I have brought suggestions too. Absolutely is. And none of those have been talked about. So we're going to meet in in July. We can continue this discussion at another time. And there's one more item on our agenda. To to Cherry's point. Can you do it quickly? I can do it really quickly. Um because I I don't think that just because we focus on for a part a session however long it is on our on our strategic plan that that does not mean that we can't come back and have an additional discussion at some time later to talk about that they're not you know I mean so I'm not saying that but I'm I'm just saying my priority would be there first. Yeah. All right. Speaking of strategic plan, you have a strategic plan in front of you and I just wanted to share with you um purpose of this presentation is to review one portion a very important portion of our entire cycle of continuous improvement. You're going to see the entire uh system in my end of the year um goals. Some of you have seen this several times, some of you have seen this fewer times. Um I shared it in July as the vision of what I believe needed to be con completed created at Ardale. Um I believe there was a gap of utilizing the strategic plan for the alignment of district department school and staff goals. I didn't see tracking or consistent tracking of data, clear goals or metrics. So I knew it'd be vital to me process to create that balance scorecard. I've also shared with uh board members the importance of a working document for board members to track and monitor the work of the board aligned to the five roles policy board governance superintendent relations oversight of operations and community engagement and I've been using that even though I really haven't been using the board but we've been using it to track and again that is something that I will bring to you um as well as we continue moving forward the strategic plan was not prior to becoming be publicly highlighted as the district roadmap to success. So in July, I began working with a team of leaders um where we to ask them where they were in the implementation of the strategic plan and the work that was needed. So you can see I just kind of talked through the top part. I know this is hard to see, but you've got a version of it. But I talked to the the team then about where are we with these strategies? And what we looked at is the um current strategic plan and I had them prioritize and say okay what are those areas that we really want to focus on this year. So what we did is each team administrators divided into teams. They developed a charter. They developed an action plan. They worked throughout the year. They came to you. Nine teams came to you as part of your oversight of operations um responsibility and shared progress of where they were in different parts of the implementation of the strategic plan. They concluded their work. They provided summaries and recommendations. So nine teams did that. At our last learning leader um meeting, all leaders went through the process to prioritize team recommendations and the recommendations of the youth council. Um we had chart paper all over. We used dots to vote to prioritize. What we found is there was a whole lot of green all over the room which told us two things. Number one, teams came up with recommendations that are needed. Number two, and we heard it tonight with Matt and the reading. We heard it with Matt tonight with the reading. We have to pay attention to the pace of implementing and doing things with our staff. So tonight, I'm sharing with you a draft of our collective work and recommendations. Implementing the recommendations which is part of our shared leadership model will ensure that we are prioritizing needs aligning the work providing clarity of expectations and fidelity of implementation which all is intended to support improved results and this then becomes the operational plan that I lead in the district. So the document that you have the the the larger document I made a decision um in this document and while the original strategic plan has a few other priority areas under each of the strategic themes I didn't add those I did bring those back to the team this is new enough and some of the work is new enough and the system is new enough that I wanted to continue to focus on these areas and these were the areas the team was focusing on. So what you see in front of you are the priority recommendations under this work which was part of the original strategic plan but it's far more detailed um to what each team will be doing. There's more recommendations under each of these but we tried to be really clear on summarizing it. So bringing that forward um will seek approval. It's the work I lead. It's the how. I think it is important though just as the strategic plan is approved by the board that this priority work is also approved by the board. Um so I wanted to bring it forward tonight and I know we don't have time to talk about it but I think it's important that you take a look at it. Let me know what questions you have um and when it makes the most sense to bring it back to the board uh for approval. So since we don't have time to talk about it. Thank you for this. Can we digest and carry it over to next work session? We didn't really need to because it's important and discussion. We're at 10:25 and then I'll call it before. So I just suggest we add it right to the next work session. Very last thing on our agenda for it. Well, I just find it odd how supposed to end. Yeah. Okay. So the last item is that acknowledgement. We will put that for our next work session. We'll talk about it our next work session. Well, the ask is about the ask is to to read it before every meeting and also there are 11 tribal plates in our district and to display them behind it. The court has done it other boards and councils. So that's ask you can think about it. We can talk about it at a meeting. Was that a request from somebody? I mean, was that a request from somebody external that we all the flags was the flag? Yeah. Well, I've seen that and so part of our agreement with the tribes is to talk about that. Thank you very much. I got it right.