All right. Good evening. Welcome to the Minnotonka School Board Study Session March 17, 2026. We would like to welcome our student schoolboard advisory representative, Sierra Lindamman, this evening for her second time here with us. So, welcome. We would like to get started this evening on uh an update on our immersion curriculum review. Superintendent Law. Madam Chair, members of the board, we have been slowly working through updated uh literacy standards and new materials along with our readact training. A year ago, we approved materials to be implemented in our English uh courses. The next round of that implementation is to look at all of our immersion programming and make decisions on where that will go next. It's noteworthy that most Minnesota school districts don't have this programming. So guidance is significantly less for our teaching and learning team and we've actually been playing a lead role in supporting the state as they guide immersion programs. Tonight, associate superintendent Dr. Leoo and team will be talking through that process and provide an update for where we are and where we're going next. Dr. Loo. >> Good evening, Superintendent Law, Madame Chair, members of the board. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. Uh, with me is Elida Kaine, our director of academic programs, and Alyssa Rutherford, our literacy coordinator, although tonight you'll also hear that she is the coordinator of all of our language programs, um, and supports those. Tonight we're going to provide you with an update on the immersion program and curriculum review process that we've been undergoing over the past two years. I also want to note that this is a process that involves many staff. Um our department chairs certainly in grades K12 across both Spanish and Chinese immersion programs have been extensively involved. We've also uh expanded those groups including expanded chairs, chairs that represent each grade level um so that we have teachers who are covering um every area and have context as well as many of their teams who have supported um piloting of different uh programs processes along the way. So it really is an extensive team effort by many of our teachers across these two programs. So as you know, Minnotonka began our immersion program in 2007 with our youngest learners. At that time we implemented both Chinese Mandarin immersion programming as well as Spanish programming. The unique thing that we did was we introduced it in each of our elementary buildings rather than having a separate immersion program building. Um, additionally then we've expanded that to both of our middle schools and our high schools um, over the last couple of decades. In front of you, you have a handout that lays out several type types of dual language programs in Minnotonka. We have a one-way dual language program. It's considered world language immersion program. Uh primarily we have English speakers who are acquiring a second language. But it does include some English learners or students who um have that language as a part of their heritage or native language at home. um kids or our students are learning English and a partner language and they could have one bilingual teacher who teaches in both languages or they may have one teacher who teaches the partner language and one who teaches English to them. As we look at our content and uh language allocation, uh in kindergarten through 2 grade, it's full immersion with the exception of their specialist schedule. In grades three through five, we introduce English um for 60 to 70 minutes a day. Um and of course, they still have specials in English, but all of the rest of their content continues to be taught in the partner language. And then as students move into grades six through eight, two of their content areas are taught in the partner language. Uh all students at the middle school who are a part of immersion have social studies in that partner language and then of course have the immersion language arts class. All of the other courses including their electives are then taught in English. And at the high school, students have opportunities to continue to extend or advance that partner language that they've been learning throughout um the grades K through eight. And our program overall operates as what you would consider a strand program. So as we look at grades 9 through 12, we have many course opportunities for kids to extend the pathway within each language. There really are two paths. There's the ongrade level path which is represented across the bottom of the screen. Although you'll see that even in that ongrade level pathway, they move quickly into some pretty advanced and rigorous courses. Um, and then we also have a more advanced language pathway where students enter um an immersion AP course right out of the gate. Um, and in this case, you're looking at the Spanish offerings. Students uh can certainly take the stamp test to get the bilingual seal, but passing or scoring a passing grade on an AP uh language class also can help them earn that. And then you also see our Chinese Chinese immersion language offerings. Again, that on-grade level pathway that becomes rigorous quickly and that more advanced pathway that incorporates several advanced college level courses throughout it. Turn it over to Elida to tell you a little bit about the standards. >> Thank you. >> So, the Minnesota Department of Education reviews academic standards and updates to the content areas. um each one of them about every 10 years or so. And as a system, we work to ensure that we make our content area adjustments in both English and in our immersion programming in tandem so that the updates to the standards and benchmarks um impact all students across all programs at closely at the same time if at all possible. Our immersion curriculum review coincides with our English review in regard to any state updates to ensure our program continues to meet both Minnesota state standards and our district expectations for rigorous instruction in any content area. Over the past um several years, we began to update core content areas based on the Minnesota State Standards Review and our own district curriculum review process here in Minnetonka. When considering curricular resources that are to be adapted or updated, our teams work to ensure that we have high quality translations or if at all possible if those um resources exist in one of our partner languages. For example, in grades K through five, we adapted the FS science kits and character strong. Both of those have been implemented with adaptations and translations um to ensure that our students have access to the same content and opportunities as their peers. This again ensures that all students whether in our English or in our immersion program continue to have that guaranteed and viable curriculum across all subject areas. So upcoming on the screen soon looking ahead we have several content areas with the state scheduled for review. It doesn't stop. Um it includes social studies. Currently we use history history alive. Um math will be actually the next. You see that there on the far right. We use everyday mathematics and then health is um working through the legislative process right now. So as these reviews occur, members serving on our district curriculum committees will collaborate to ensure partner language resources remain align and district expectations um and state standards are aligned as well. So this collaborative approach between our English and immersion teachers helps to maintain program consistency and in and strengthen both programs. Beginning last year, our social studies uh teachers at the middle level began modifying their social studies curriculum again aligned with the notable shifts to the state standards. Um and they have been working closely alongside our English teachers to ensure that we have alignment. All of our resource core resources at the middle level do come in Spanish. Um but we do have to translate for the Chinese content. So work and modification in both of these areas continue. And then 612 Spanish, Chinese, and language arts is currently under review. Um Alyssa and I are actually meeting with teachers from both north or I was gonna say north, my old district, excuse me. Um east and west. I know it's like ingrind. So we meet with east and west tomorrow, both English and immersion. It's really exciting. So we're coming together to review our essential benchmarks as well as look at both teacher and student moves to con uh continue to have consistency there. So, I'll turn it over to Alyssa to talk a little bit more in depth about that literacy work. >> Yeah. >> Well, I'm going to focus a lot on the K5, but you Yeah. So, um I don't know. Can I >> do I feel weird having other people click for me. >> It was hard. Um so given how interconnected language and literacy are, the language arts review um for K5 especially has been a significant focus for our immersion review teams um particularly in light of recently completing the professional learning required by the read Act. All of our immersion teachers um were in that training alongside their English program peers um learning about evidence-based um literacy practices for um teaching reading. And then they're thinking, okay, how does this apply to the language that I teach, especially if they're a K2 teacher teaching um entirely in that partner language? And as you know, reading is a complex skill made up of several subs skills. add writing in there and there's really a lot to consider when you're designing programming that supports biiteracy um especially when it starts initially in a language that's probably o other than what the students speak at home. So um all of these all languages have the same components though in the end um these pieces of language uh support the fluency vocabulary and comprehension skills that students need for literacy um on top of that oral language base. So the oral language development is is a significant focus for immersion teachers given that most of our students come in with very limited oral language in the partner languages of instruction. Um and trying to look at my notes here. Um but these different strands of the reading rope when they're explicitly taught really can help kids move forward. Um some of these strands transfer cross linguistically. Uh, for example, the green ones that are starred have significant transfer across languages regardless of how different the languages are. Whereas the yellow ones partially transfer red, there's maybe very little transfer or um specific moments in time where you're like, "Oo, that's definitely not the same." Um, for example, syntax, right? All languages have sentences, but the way those sentences are built or written down vary. Um, and so those pieces need to be explicitly taught for kids to understand how to do that in both of the languages of instruction in our K5 programming. Literacy knowledge like genre uh will be highly influenced by culture uh or also known as pragmatics. So some of those pieces again will depend you might want this resource in in the partner language whereas you maybe don't need that resource on the English side. Word recognition is um even more complex when you're talking about transfer. um the fluency, phmic awareness, and phonics skills. You see more red there, right? And so um when we're designing our literacy instruction, we really want to make sure that those pieces that don't transfer are explicitly taught on both sides of our um of our language allocation model. Um yeah, so like obviously spelling things in Chinese is going to look a lot different than spelling things in English. So for that is one reason why we shifted um some of our instructional resources for our English literacy time for grades three through five this school year alongside when English implemented some new resources for English language arts are um English teachers on the immersion side whether they are also the partner language instructor or their own separate teacher are using functional phonics and morphology for our grades three four and five kiddos see I'm saying kiddos too students um and This helps us meet those Minnesota English language arts standards um from the R1 anchor standard which really talks about phmic or phmic awareness phonics um and word origin morphology instruction all of those things that are unique to each of the languages um and then they're using current ELT resources from the past to support the language comprehension um pieces of the rope and we're updating those next year as immersion updates their core resources Um so speaking of that, what are we doing for the language arts instruction on our partner language side? Um our Spanish language arts is currently under review. Uh the you might you might know that dur with the read act uh the center for applied research and educational improvement at the University of Minnesota alongside MDE conducted a review of literacy resources and uh they only reviewed things in English. So we kind of used their guidance and it was harder to use their guidance when we knew that they only looked at English. But the resources that they um said were highly aligned to structure literacy practices that we reviewed when we went through the English language arts review process, none of them came in Spanish. Nothing on the list comes in Chinese at all. So we looked at that partially aligned list and thought, okay, those partially aligned resources, um how do they hold up on the Spanish side? So, Benchmark Advance was one of three that we went really deep into analyzing and the reading league actually gave this resource very high marks as well recently um their new addition um on the English side. So, our teachers looked at the Spanish side, made sure, okay, is this actually teaching Spanish uh in an evidence-based way, explicitly, systematic, cumulatively, and their word study side of things is where they kind of, you know, we wanted to make sure that was really strong because we knew that was a need. Um, and in the K5 scope and sequence, there's explicit word study instruction along the way. So, um, Chinese, same thing. They're thinking about the read act required training and also they did some additional professional learning that was specific to Mandarin uh language and how do we instruct literacy in an evidence-based way that's specific to Chinese um and they were looking at their current resources and thinking and in the words of our committee um there were well-designed reading and writing activities embedded well-designed reading comprehension skills and lessons and what they felt like was the enhancements that were needed was that explicit word recognition for Chinese. And so they are working to embed Chinese character recognition um instead of just memorizing whole characters really helping kids see the different components that make up the character. And then phmic awareness. So really working on the sounds that are different in Chinese as opposed to the sounds that kids might come in with from English. and then the pinion which is the alphabetic representation of the sounds. Um it's an kind of an invented thing that happened in the 60s so you could use the word processors. Um but what what they've learned in their professional learning was that understanding the opinion and the phmic awareness can really support the um the mapping of the words of the characters into kids brains so that they can become more automatic word recognizers. Um, also of course the vocabulary piece, really acquiring and teaching the vocabulary explicitly and systematically K5. So those are the things that they were working to enhance and are are kind of piloting them this year with a a plan, a three-year plan to make sure that it gets rolled out um across grade levels and and students experiences. Um, embedding that spiral in there. our opinion instruction really lived mostly in first grade and so and they wanted to make sure they added in letter formation alongside that um so kids could write those alphabetic characters um better and so they added some into kindergarten and they're bringing some up into second grade and then spiraling it in third grade. So, that's just one example of of a way that they were enhancing and making those modifications so that kids have that solid foundational and language skills that they need to be successful Mandarin speakers, readers, and writers. And alongside core resources for instruction are some enhancements in assessment practices as well. Um, we have been using the FastBridge Spanish screener for several years. Um, and we're working to better use that data to inform instruction and provide um, supports for kids who are not yet on grade level. And then our unit assessments that teachers use along the way as they're teaching core literacy uh, are going to be updated if we end up adopting a lante, which is that um, core resource that I mentioned earlier that they're piloting. um they would use those assessments that kind of fit with those units of instruction to monitor progress along the way in the classroom. Uh we have these integrated performance assessments which measure the language skills students need to speak and read and write uh both interpersonally per presentationally um and also their listening and reading skills. And so those will also be updated um next year as well um along with our progress monitoring materials that are also embedded in FastBridge. Chinese, same thing. We're really making sure that those resources on the Chinese immersion side for screening and assessment of literacy are um robust and help us capture who might be struggling with different subsklls. So, um, the part that's the most groundbreaking is making sure we have progress monitoring materials that classroom teachers can use, not just our reading specialists who support Chinese um, struggling readers. So those are it's a lot of and shout out to Matt Breen for supporting that work and our department chair um EON who is significantly involved in uh helping us build that all out. There are other language assessments that we do K12 that you might be familiar with. the stamp um which is one of the ways students can earn the bilingual seal the HSK for Chinese and then of course those integrated performance assessments that I mentioned um that were created in Minnotonka um I think what 10 years ago maybe >> yeah and then have been um again they that's one thing that we need to update in this review that is all so questions >> thank you appreciate it questions Tanya Yeah. >> Okay. I have two um pieces of gratitude and three questions. >> So, first of all, I really want to thank you guys and your team for um particular the the viable curriculum piece that was sent out the um understanding by design stages two and three. That's a tremendous amount of work. >> So, good job. Um I also want to thank you guys and the team teachers and everyone included who uh is providing training for the reading and writing for literacy across all areas um including um specials and um anyone that's like not a reading or language arts teacher because we know literacy looks different in science and math and social studies. So that's really really important and I was really happy to see that. my three questions. Um, I'm wondering, and David, you kind of spoke to this already. So, do we have Minnetonka public school representation at Minnesota Department of Ed's new dual language advisory committee >> or is that just MDEs? >> Yes, I am there has been one meeting so far that two one one that um was the kickoff. >> Okay. And and then another one I'm on a specific committee that's working on screening guidance. So we've had uh we had a two-hour meeting about that recently and there are more to come. Um and um our Spanish immersion department chair Jessica Roas is on the curriculum or like curricular resource review subcommittee. So yeah, >> that's amazing. That's a big deal. Mhm. Okay. My second question is, will the Minnesota Department of Ed's new dual language advisory committee start or help um working with the U of M carry on the grade 612 curriculum and uh curriculum other than English review? Does that make sense what I just said? I don't anticipate that they're going to review grades 6 through 12 necessarily. >> I know they're not in English and I have not heard any >> rumblings of that for partner languages, but we certainly can verify if there is a future plan for that that just hasn't rolled out fully yet. >> Yeah. I'm just curious about this new committee because I saw it started this month. Yes. >> Right. So, >> yes. Um just wanted to learn a little bit more about that. And then um my last question was >> um and if this doesn't get answered right now that's just fine but um what are some examples that has been done to strengthen the MTSS intervention systems and resources for our teachers across languages? >> Yeah. Yeah. So I think as we have worked with um systematically and consistently screening students in grades K through five using various assessments through FastBridge >> um and in four through 12 students not yet at grade level using CAPI. Um we have been working with teams and we extensively again Matt Breen, Alyssa and our tier one coaches at the elementary level and a combination of Matt Breen, Alyssa and uh special education directors um with teams of administrators in analyzing and determining intervention that's needed at the elementary level. Every classroom teacher does what we call fourbox sort or screening to intervention analysis and plan instructional responses when students aren't making progress or significantly behind. Um we do further you know we we verify things like are we implementing the right intervention it with fidelity all of the measures but if we find that it's really not successful for a student uh teachers work with our reading interventionists. If students continue not to make progress, then they would go to our student support team where a team um of educators including school psychologists um special education facilitators along with administrators and teachers analyze and look at, you know, how that student's doing and what we might need to do next. Have we, you know, tried interventions? Have we diagnosed the right needs? And if they're not successful, then of course we intensify >> sure >> the intervention that we're doing in grades six through 12. We've uh six through eight. We really rolled out a series of literacy um supports for various types of needs. Um again, we're always looking at what's the most efficient way that we can intervene for a student because we know there's an opportunity cost when students need interventions at upper grades. And in 9 through 12, we've had in place um intervention systems and we're in the process of refining those for students that we're identifying now um as a part of our CAPTY screening. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Did that answer the question? >> Yes. Thank you. Nice job. >> Anything I should have asked, do you have anything to add? >> Nope. Okay. Thank you. That was very eloquent and succinct. >> Thank you, Karen. Great questions, Tanya. Great question. Um, yeah, thank you for all the great information. Really appreciate it. I do have one question about the curriculum. Do we ever go like, you know, the Chinese the curriculum for learning Chinese here? Is it all generated in the United States? Do we or do we ever go to China? I mean, they teach kids how to read and write every day. Can we use any of their curriculum that's evidence-based or is that not not possible? curricular resources that we've used um have been mainly in the area of language. We've used Singapore uh Chinese resources. Um part of the challenge is matching the Minnesota standards and the light content at the right grade levels. So we found the greatest level of success in those content areas translating the resources that we have as a part of some of the partnership and collaboration um that we do around language exchange. Um we have explored that we explored that with Singapore with hopes that we would find other content areas. Um but even in Singapore although they teach heritage languages, they teach other core content areas all in English. So we were not successful in finding resources that we thought might be more closely aligned. We continue to explore other English countries that have Chinese Mandarin immersion programs. Um, so that's a work in progress, but as of now, we haven't found something that aligns with the standards and our expectations yet. >> Okay. And then one other question. Do we collaborate then other with other districts since we seem to be on the leading edge of immersion? Are there other districts that, >> you know, use some of our some of what we've used or is everybody doing their own thing? I was going to say this year we have really expanded some of our collaboration specifically with North St. Paul and St. Cloud at different junctures. We have partnered though with different districts in Minnesota. Um certainly when we go to conferences and things I know Alyssa was in Utah um a couple years ago. We are always looking to gather and find districts we can partner with um in Chinese. Spanish is much more viable. You could probably speak to that, >> Alyssa. >> Yeah, I mean, there's just generally speaking a lot more curricular resources that the publishing companies have already translated into Spanish or whatever it may be or adapted to work for like a multilingual learner of English who speaks Spanish at home and is still learning, but you want them to be able to access the content along the way, right? Um, and so it is a lot easier to find resources that already come. And you know that doesn't that doesn't always influence our decisions fully like you know we again with the English language arts review. We chose to pilot first items that were on that highly aligned list from the Kerry MDE readact review even though none of them came in Spanish because we wanted to make sure that we were um choosing things that were as um highly aligned to structure literacy practices and evidence-based as possible. And so, you know, then that then that meant that now our English programming is going to be using something slightly different than our Spanish and Chinese. and yet it's what's the best fit for being able to teach that language and those language arts standards for that program and in that context. So, >> and as it relates to collaborating, of course, we've had other districts join us for some training specifically in our Chinese immersion program. Um, as it relates to sharing translations, it's a little complicated because for example, we use everyday math. We translate it. we have permission from everyday math to use it in our Mandarin, you know, language. And so there's some complexities. It's not just straightforward of sharing it or providing it or selling it or any of those types of things, but certainly there's ways to be as efficient as possible and to, you know, partner and help support other schools as well. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Megan. Um, first I just wanted to pass on I heard from a couple of uh like younger K like K2 age um immersion teachers that the January professional development was really good and really useful. So I just wanted to pass that along um that it was shared with me um in a couple separate situations. So um and then I have three really quick questions. Um I haven't seen I Stationation referenced in a while. Have we phased away from I Stationation? That might have been just a a lack of uh us mentioning it in the in the slideshow because we do still have I Stationation. Um it is now called AMRA. >> Um I think it's essentially the same product under a new ownership, if you will. Um and Amira has like an English component. So it is interesting because we're trying to figure out, okay, how does this still fit in our system? Um it is still used for those um partner language measures along the way. FastBridge has the uh oral reading fluency screener um but it doesn't really have those like passage level comprehension type pieces um built out on the Spanish side like it does on the English side. Um and so that is one of our like kind of additional assessments that probably should have been mentioned on that slide of other assessments. >> Glad I asked then. Um second question is is IPA supposed to be done I saw it was K through eight. Is it done every year or is it like some teams choose to do it or >> it's not it's I think it there's at least one in every grade level that had been built out but I think there's been some changes over time um as to which grade levels it is completed in and then you know our first grade IPA was built around the the science duck unit and then with the standards shifting and that unit being no longer part of first grade now it's like okay do what's our IPA going to be doing? Because then they don't have that whole context of the science unit to build off of and and present and read the text that goes along with that content. So that's one of the reasons why those IPAs need to be updated. >> The ducks migrated. >> Exactly. Um and then final question. Uh so you mentioned that AP in ninth grade is considered the higher track. Um, do you have any idea of what percentage of our immersion kids are ready for that versus the regular like and I don't expect an exact number, but is it 50/50? Is it 75 25? >> I know when we looked at it more extensively this last fall, it did vary some from year to year. >> Um, >> I want to say it's uh slightly more at grade level, but I'm going to look and I'm going to get you that. Thank you. So, we'll send you. >> Sounds good. >> I know that like the stamp assessment that they take in the middle school does somewhat inform that. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> And I know that they don't get those scores until after they register for 9th grade and then there's some shifts that occur as a result, but I was just curious. >> Yeah. I know that teachers use, you know, the information that they have from previous stamp as well as their recommendations. >> Um, so we'll get you that data. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Great. Thank you so much. We appreciate all the updates. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. All righty. Next up, review of our 202728 calendar. Superintendent >> Chair, members of the board, just as a reminder for everyone, we are talking 18 months out on calendars, not for the fall. That calendar has been set. Uh we have a calendar committee. That committee meets in the spring. It's a robust calendar committee that we'll talk about tonight. And the process as it comes to the board is there's a preview with the board. There's feedback that goes back to the committee. The committee can rem that were on the board a year ago. We had a discussion about whether we would start before Labor Day brought it back to the committee and made that adjustment. Depending on how it goes to the board, it might not go back to the committee. But tonight, executive director of HR and general counsel Angie Flowers will give an update on the committee's process and the first recommendations for the 2728 school year. >> Thank you, Superintendent Law. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board. The calendar committee, as I shared at the last board meeting, um consists of a variety of stakeholders, students, parents, uh building administrators, teachers, pair of professionals, um district administrators. So we believe we have a good breath of representation on the committee and every year we do come together to talk about a calendar that we want to bring to you as a recommendation. Um and I just want to begin before getting into the details with just thanking the calendar committee for all the work that they do and their input and ideas. And I would be remiss if I did not mention Sandy Shoa, HR coordinator. She does a lot of work to coordinate everything and prepare it and we're able to just go. So, thanks to Sandy and everybody and she's celebrating her 25th year with the district. So, okay. On February 24th, we had our first meeting to um discuss the recommendation for the 2728 calendar. As Superintendent Law said, we are a year ahead. We already have our calendar set for 2627. Um and that just provides a lot of notice to the community so that they can plan in advance. Conversations are always very lively on the committee and we work hard to make sure everybody's voice is heard. The 2026 27 calendar along with the 202728 calendar both prove to be a bit more challenging. Um, back to the comments that Superintendent Law just said, just with Labor Day coming so late in the year, this for 2728, it'll be September 7th. 2829, we'll get more back to regular dates for Labor Day. So, it'll be September 4th. So, as a committee, we we've talked about that. Um, and you'll see the recommendation tonight is still to begin before Labor Day. We took into account the required parameters for the calendar. We try to be creative as we can, but there are just certain things that that we can't control. We have contractual agreements for the amount of student days that we need to have, for the amount of duty days for teachers that we need to have, and now we're working in our three full professional learning days. So again, you will not see those late start early releases on the calendar anymore for Labor Day. The ongoing statute is that if you have $400,000 in construction the summer before, then you can start before Labor Day. There was an amendment made to allow for the calendar we're talking about tonight and the previous because it came so late to just allow schools to do that. So, we're covered either way. We're in good shape. So, our conversation u about starting the day before Labor Day, it was pretty robust. uh comments made some concerns about kindergarteners starting and then having off again so soon and that adjustment and if it might be hard on them. Um and that was also discussion about starting earlier and how that was better academically for kids to get to get going in the year. Also being mindful. We don't want to give the impression that we're always going to start before Labor Day. So just keeping that in mind. It really is about where the day falls, but ultimately it was agreed to recommend starting before Labor Day. The 2526 school year was the first year. This year we observe Yam Kapor and Eid. Um with this change, we did hear from community members who had an interest in the district observing the Chinese Lunar New Year as well. for 2627 calendar. We had lots of discussion about adding Chinese Lunar New Year to the calendar last year, but there was not a recommendation made at that time. This year, there was an official recommendation to bring that back and we took a vote on it because there were varying opinions. We have 27 members on the calendar committee and 16 people voted in favor to move it forward to observe Chinese Lunar New Year. There was a lot of discussion about how Chinese lunar new year is not religious and that's what distinguishes it from the other dates that we observe yam kapor and eid there's fasting um during those times and we know that impacts students so we took that in consideration when we added those days so we had some good discussion around that um committee members representing the Chinese immersion community shared that although it's not a religious holiday, it is the main holiday of their community. It's significant. Um it's the largest. It's very meaningful. They put a lot of time and energy into it with their family, their friends. Um and also just with the school and everything they do to to celebrate with the district. So it's important to acknowledge both the Chinese and the Lunar New Year. We talked about that. Is it Chinese New Year? Is it Lunar New Year? And the committee landed at Chinese/Lunar New Year is how we do it just to be inclusive um of everyone even though there's varying opinions on that. There was support to observe the day from others on the committee, including from the Spanish immersion community. All students supported um observing Chinese Lunar New Year. some staff um supported it as well and there was a lot of discussion about how the Chinese community is a significant part of the district and one of the main premier programs and a lot of discussion about this allows the community to be seen and acknowledged. There were also members who were po opposed to lengthening the school year and concerned that opening the door to cultural celebrations um versus religious could lead to other cultural observances and the school going much later into June. For the 2728 school year, it would mean a full last week with teachers ending on June 9th that Friday and students would be done on Thursday, June 8th. So it would add that day. There was also some discussion about lowhanging fruit and the district doing more to honor cultural recognition months like Black History Month, Native American Heritage Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, which begins closer to the beginning of the school year. So, we had discussions around that as also. So, although we do not have a unanimous vote to add Chinese Lunar New Year, we do have a majority vote. So, this is why the recommendation is being brought forward. I can move forward and share the overview of the full calendar or I can stop and pause for questions. >> Keep going. >> Questions? Keep going. >> All right. Thank you. So, with that, I'll I'll do an overview of the calendar, the proposed calendar. So August will continue to be our workshop and planning days um week beginning on August 23rd with the first day of school scheduled before Labor Day on August 30th. Kindergarten starting on September 1st. There won't be school on Friday, September 3rd. So that will still allow for a 3-day Labor Day weekend. In October, we'll have conferences and we'll have our professional learning for paras. Yum. Kapor will be observed on October 11th and then we have MEA at the end of October. November takes us into professional learning for teachers November 1st. Thanksgiving break is again proposed as three days. That was a very popular change and this board um just approved that change at the last board meeting to allow that to be a non- studentent contact day. So we stuck with that winter break. Uh we will not have a full two weeks um as we did these past two years but it will run from December 22nd to January 3rd. teachers return for professional learning on January 4th and paraprofessionals they will have paraprofessional learning profession um professional learning on January 21st and if approved the first day of the Chinese lunar new year would be observed on January 26 will be observed on February 28th that could change we don't know until it's much closer to the date but it is a placeholder we have spring conferences taking place the first week of March. And the committee is pleased again to have spring break occurring in March instead of April. Um from March 27th through March 31st. We always get a lot of feedback about that to do spring break as soon as we can. And we also talked to our director of athletics about it and the impact um on the Minnesota High School League. And this was the recommended time for spring break. fourth quarter will begin April 4th and if you look at the quarters they are fairly balanced and there's a preference by educators to have more days in that last quarter which you'll see again the last day of school would be June 8th for students and last day for teachers on Friday June 9th in addition uh we will be updating the assessment calendar we post that online and we provide more clarity to educators about when to avoid testing, um large projects and assessments. And we also provide a comprehensive list of observances so that educators are aware of when there might be higher absences or late work assignments um in an effort to support our belonging work in our community and our students. Any questions? >> Thank you. Any questions, comments? All right. Oh, Megan. Yeah. >> Um, question. Uh, do we know if our feeder like Chinese immersion preschools or other immersion um, schools do take that as a holiday, the Lunar New Year. We did research that and I believe there's one private or charter school that does, but there is no one surrounding us um, or in this area that we could find that has it. >> Okay. That one's hard for me because I can see both s like I can see the perception of moving towards cultural things and that that is a whole can of worms. I also I mean I did hear throughout January and February that there's so many days off in that span that for families like to have a 4 day week and then a 4 day week and then looks like there's one full day week. So, was there conversation around just that um frequency of days off and how it impacts families? >> Um, there was some around the days. Yes. And specifically with professional learning, we adjusted that to try to balance it out that date. >> Clarification, you said winter break December 22nd or December 23rd. >> Let me look here. >> Here. >> Yep. Sorry. December 23rd is the first day of winter break. Apologies. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. Any other questions? David >> process for the board. When will this likely come for a vote for approval? >> Um, this would come for a vote at the next board regular board meeting. Um, unless we're having a second calendar meeting if there's other information that you all wanted or anything. >> Okay. >> All right. Tanya, >> just out of curiosity, how many or do we have a high number of absent students or staff in our immersion program, Chinese immersion program on Lunar/Chinese New Year? >> Yeah, the first day. Historically, we have not had a high number of absences for staff for students that I'm not sure of, but I could pull it. >> I can share. Increasingly, we've had parents ask about having that day off for probably more in the last two years than my first two years here. >> Thank you, Sierra. Um, I would actually just like to share a comment. I know a bunch of students who um observe this holiday. And I know that um not like complaining, but they've definitely raised a lot of concern uh for like the late night that it goes into because they do not take the day off of school. So, they are celebrating with their families later into the evening. Um, so they just don't have enough time to do their homework and catch up on school work that evening. So I know that a bunch of them would be very happy to have the day off to get some homework done um like maybe for the next day as well too and also celebrate with their families. >> Thank you for sharing that. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you very much everybody. Happy St. Patrick's Day.