I'd like to call the April regular meeting of the Wanka school board to order. If everybody would uh rise and join us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Chair moves for approval of the agenda. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Announcements. Wasa staff and uh retiree recognition May 2nd, 7:30 a.m. in the performing arts center. Um facilities committee meeting April 23rd, 7 a.m. right here. Um policy committee meeting May 12th, 5:00 pm. um followed by the regular school board meeting at 6:00 right here. Anybody from the public want to address the board? If not, um then we'll move on to the student rep report. Mason, you're on. So, uh my name is Mason. I am one of the co-presidents of the student senate and the report. So, there's not much to go over. We just had spring break and end of the quarter, so that was a lot going on at school. And then sports are kind of in a transition period right now. But student senate, yeah, we haven't had much going on, but we've been planning the student for staff basketball game, which is going to be on um April 16th. If you know anyone that would be interested in playing, let them know because we're looking for like staff right now to play, but we have a good student team. So, that should be fun. It's a good way of fundraising for us and bringing students together. And then we're also um going to be attending a division meeting. So we uh in our division it's like schools Wisetta Orno and we just go meet with them and then they there's some positions on a board for our division that kids can run for and that will be in the month of May when we'll do that. And then prom as well and that will be at Gail Woods this year. And then we've been the juniors normally plan prom. So they've been working on grand march and coronation and how all the logistics to that are going to look. Um, on to DECA, we have our DECA members heading the ICDC. I believe it's 50 this year, which is a massive number and it's really good for us. And, um, that I think they leave on April 25th. And then the fundraiser, the bingo night is this Wednesday. And, um, letters of love, they've been hard at work making cards. Rotary Club, they uh, had some scholarships due in the past month, and that's been a great opportunity for students that help out in the community to apply to those. National Honor Society recently hosted the blood drive on April 2nd and they donated 56 units of blood which is saving up to 168 local hospital patients which is a great thing for kids to get hours as well as helping out the community. Um Tonka Bots, they are heading to Worlds again which is in Houston and they placed second in another regional event this past weekend. and I heard they had some problems with the robot in the last round or something like that, but um found a way to make it work and placed good. And then unified club um that we're hosting an event actually tomorrow in the gym. So, it's going to be like bowling, some drawing, pickle ball, volleyball with some of the special ed students and then some general education students just bringing us together, having a good time. That will be fun. And then we're planning on doing a shirt making event at the end of May. Hopefully we can get outside and do like some tie-dye or something of that sort. Um FCA, they've been continuing to meet mostly on Thursday mornings. And then kind of back to Senate. So in the past weekend, there was um the MAHHS and MASC. So the Minnesota Student Council Association and then the Minnesota Honor Society Association. Um there's an event that normally take place. So it's a state convention. It can take place at high schools around the state. last weekend. I think it was up in Hibbing and we had um we sent four students up there and Georgia Hmer was elected VP to the MAHS board, so the honor society board. So, she'll go around and plan different stuff, plan next year state event. And then Susie Marth, I believe, is going to run for the secretary spot because there's an open spot there. Um on to athletics. So, I believe track has a competition tomorrow. Boys baseball, we have a game tomorrow. That will be our first game. Our game against St. Peter got postponed. Uh it was supposed to be last Saturday. Is that home or away tomorrow? Uh it's going to be a home game. And then we play banild on Friday. So that's a home game, too. And then boys volleyball, we started last week. So that's kind of awesome that that was our So it's a sanctioned sport this year. So it was our first game as a sanctioned sport. And we beat Apple Valley in five games. And we beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat them 15 to3 in the last set. So it was a long game. I could hit around like 10:15 or 10:20 at night, so it was late. And then I think we're playing Farmington tomorrow um at 8 at home if I'm not mistaken. Um girls softball, they have a game on Thursday with Spectrum. And then boys and girls lacrosse will start their seasons on April 14th against Delano. And then for commitments, um JT Kimbro committed to Auxburg to play football today. And yeah, I don't believe there's any other ones. Um, for arts, uh, March was, uh, youth art month and music in our schools month. And to celebrate, the Westona Fine Arts Hall of Fame invites nominations for individuals who have made significant contributions to the fine arts in the West Tanka community. Categories including alumni, directors, teachers, advisers, and volunteer administrators with nominations will be um due on March or May 1st, 2025. And as you may know, the MMA Mia show has been going on in the pack and I've heard it's been very popular and a very good show. And uh the next two dates are this the 12th and the 13th. So I believe Friday and Saturday and then Saturday or is that Saturday? Saturday, Sunday. Saturday evening, Sunday. Yep. Saturday and Sunday. Those are the dates for the MMA Mia. And I've heard a lot of good things about it. So yeah. And then for visual art, the MWHs spring student show is up in the pack. So you can walk around in the pack and see a bunch of different paintings, drawing, graphic design creations from art classes by the MWHS students. Um, on to academics. I mean, it was the end of the quarter when spring break ended and students are finishing strong. Quarter four, it's the last little bit, especially for seniors. So, yep, things are going good. And then West Tonka update, not much. the groundbreaking was going on and then construction has started on some parts of buildings and there's a lot of I don't know walls disappearing. So yeah, and walls in the middle of rooms, but yeah, otherwise there's not much going on. So you guys have any questions? Oh, Mason, you made a big decision recently. Oh yes, I did. I will be attending Vanderbilt next year. That's awesome. That's just awesome. Where are DECA Nationals? Where are they going? That would be Orlando, I believe. So, and you mentioned the the boys volleyball. Yeah. Are they doing int are they doing evening uh matches so that like baseball players and lacrosse players and track players can also participate in that? Yeah. So, that's the case I'm in. So, I do baseball from about 3:30 to 6 every day. So, today I have it and then right now I'm just going to go to volleyball practice. But, yeah, with our home games for volleyball, they're like around 8, which makes it a lot easier. So, tomorrow I'll play in a volleyball or in a baseball game and then the volleyball game will be after at home. So, it'll be busy, but I enjoy it. It's a lot of fun. So, what was it? What was the date and was it the home opener for boys and girls lacrosse? Um, I believe that was April 14th and I don't know if that's the home opener or not. So, I just saw that we played Delano, but yeah. Otherwise, any more questions or All right. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Have a good night. Now we'll move on to a construction update. And just think you have a busy schedule. I hear that. That is pretty impressive. Um, so what we're going to walk through here is we'll just give a general board update just to show where everything's at for construction. So what we do is just for owner updates, we have what we call a spark page update. And what this is is it allows anybody to go in at any given time. We updated on a monthly basis to see highlevel construction updates along with any general information for the project and what's going to be happening this month, next month. Um so this is an updated rendering. We actually just got this updated about two hours ago, but this is a rendering of what the new front entry will look like on the north side of the building. Um, just a general update about the project. So, if anybody logs in at any point, you can see just high level, the project consists of four additions. Classroom, student service, administration, fitness, special ed, cafeteria expansion. Uh, fitness edition is a storm shelter with a courtyard that will be redesigning the layout of the courtyard. There are also mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection upgrades throughout the building. Mechanical um mezzanine along with upgrades to the interior finishes throughout the building. Also included in the interior scope is the expansion of the cafeteria and main gym upgrades. Um the site work scope consists of demolition of existing tennis courts to expand the parking lot reconfiguration for the traffic flow in the parking lot along with utility upgrades and paving. Um, as far as just an overall phasing, we have that. So, that was the um, overall board that we had in front of our booth here this past Thursday. This is exactly what we have on our website. So, if anybody wishes to come in here at any time, they can see the update to the phasing. And if something changes as we go, we'll updates update this in live time for everybody to review. Um, then the groundbreaking, we stole these photos right from West Tonka's Instagram account, but fun event. Very fun event. Actually, that was I will go on the record saying that was the best groundbreaking I've been to. So, kudos. That was that was very fun. Very fun. John Hunig mimicked similar similar thoughts on his end. But for day-to-day construction updates, I'll let Eric take over and go over the work happening in March and in April. This is a website we could go to at any time ourselves or Yep. Generally, I'll run those be on our bond website. So for the community, the public staff, they'll be able to see. So go into the Weston uh website and then the bond. Okay. Thanks. Yeah. And it's clear that the scope of this is just the high school. It's not Grand View. It's not Yes. Stadium and so forth. So, that's a good question. I'm glad you brought it up. What we I was talking to our marketing team about potentially doing is having a website that had quick links to any projects going on in West Tonka. So, we'd have a link probably to the tennis courts. We'll have a link to the high school and we'll have a link to the uh middle school and future fields and Shirley Hills top. That would be great. Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah. Great question. All right. Um so, work that happened in March. Um most of this work happened over spring break. Um so we mobilized Carl Anderson mobilized um into the the south three tennis courts. Um in inside the building uh we demoed ceiling, flooring, casework, electrical, plumbing, mechanical um all in an effort to install the temp walls that are running through the classrooms on both the upper and lower floors. um on the north and west exterior walls where the addition is going to be going. Uh we installed our sight fencing um around our classroom addition construction area. Um XL was out and relocated the primary power line um that was run that was was running where our addition is going to be going. Um now it's up uh next to that fire access lane. Um and then all kind of all throughout the month um electrical and mechanical mainly electrical but uh both electrical and mechanical have been in the school back of house doing some uh some pre-work running some conduits and um loading the building with materials so we can get all that stuff stacked up in there. Um upcoming work in April. Uh so as you can see we've started demolition. Um we will resume demolition tomorrow. Um we're going to be bringing in some bigger machinery and starting that work. And that work will happen at 4:00. So we're because we're bringing in the bigger machinery and and taking out uh bigger portions of the wall. We wanted to eliminate the safety factor with the students in the building. So we're starting right as right when school gets out. Um, we'll start demoing that exterior uh facade. That'll be each day then doing that or is that? Yep. Okay. Yeah. Um, we'll also start to install select underground utilities um mainly around uh where the addition is going to be or where they're going to be excavating for the addition. Um, we have a a storm line that we got to relocate there as well. Um, and then we'll we'll excavate for footings and foundations and um form and pour foundations and footings for the addition. So high level that's kind of the the work that'll be happening um in April. But any questions on construction activity? So far so good. Yeah. Surprises surpris heard there were a few walls between classrooms that were taken out early and so sort of ahead of schedule or some few few walls. I was saying he's talking about temp walls. Temp walls that they got put in. Oh, what basin the student rep was referring to. How what's the extent that the students are seeing like that? I'm curious about that. What's that's a good question. What are they? How are they being impacted this month? Well, the first day I demo they the noise was probably an impact. Um but so this work that you're looking at happened over spring break. Okay. And so we try to capture that time of getting these temp walls up which would be of impact. Then I think as Eric is mentioning scheduling the heavier demo outside of the learning hours outside when those areas are going to be occupied to uh limit the amount of noise. So just I'm dumb question for me but so I the temp wall is the interior one being put up the 2x4s. Is the out is the wall beyond that coming down then? Yes. Is that they're expanding and stuff? Yep. Okay. So, you'll see that we actually we're building those interior walls to be the new exterior walls. So, we do have insulation and we're we're actually weather proofing the entire wall. That way, if we do get any side rain or wind with the rain, we're not letting it get into the classroom spaces. Okay. So, but it's not going to be the permanent wall. No, you got to build it that way right now. Just until you get Yeah, exactly. Okay. So if you see or if you saw at the ground breaking where the windows had been taken out, those that was actually abated. We had to get those the glazing abaded um from those windows so we could do mass demolition. Um but you saw the Tyveck through the windows there. That's that exterior weather barrier. Okay. So there you go. So that's the Tyvec is part of the temporary wall inside. Yes. And this wall is coming this big wall is coming down. We already started up on top, I guess, right? Yep. Yeah. So, they did they did some that was done by, you know, just like a hand jackhammer um just to kind of do do initial investigation, see the construction of the wall, you know, what's going to happen. And it was decided that um the best route to go was to bring in this excavator with a claw on it and they'll peel this and it'll be done in in, you know, days as opposed to um longer. So, Then, uh, Dustin, can you just give an update of Grand View? Just Yeah, Grand View, I think I might be sealing James Collins Thunder, but I think a lot of the work that's been happening over there was with him. They did a lot of abatement with some of the existing tile work. Um, I think they had asus some of I think it was in the ground. I think wasn't it lead? Either way, they got that elevated here this past two weeks ago over spring break. And we actually had an opening with wideners to actually let them actually start work inside of the tunnels for any of the mechanical that they have to do. So any of the heavy piping, copper piping, they're actually putting that in the tunnels and starting that work. Okay? So they're trying to get as much done as they can before summer to make it a less stressful summer for them. So, uh, right now, um, it'll be a big month. Hopefully, uh, manageable rains and timely schedules, right? Weather's looking pretty good here for the next It is. Then for tennis tennis courts, it's probably end April, early May when we can see temps reach a point that we can surface the courts. Yes. Yep. And right now we're in contact with Peterson. We're in communication weekly on that one. So once we get that scheduled, we'll be in touch with Kevin, make sure we get that on everybody's radar. I heard we had to wait till the lows are above 50. Is that right or roughly there? What we keep hearing is the temperatures need to be 50 degrees and rising. So if There's times in there where it drops below that 50. They're not going to start. Yeah. Yeah. That could be July. Hopefully, not. Yeah. We have incentive. I mean, that's a good point. We have every incentive to try to get that done as quickly as possible because then we get the rest of the you get the old rest of the old material. Yeah. uh appreciate appreciate the organization and the beginning of operation with the project. So uh Dustin and Eric uh will be coming uh to give regular updates for the board and times at the next next meeting we'll have different pictures to share. Okay. Appreciate your time. Thanks very much. Thank you. Thank you. We'll move on to the treasurer's report. Yep. Well, I missed last month, so we're going to do February and March. Today we begin with Sharon Thaylor, West Tanka Wings, $5,000. Rick Block, West Tonka Wings, $500. Hilltop BTA, Hilltop Primary School, $373.54. Fox Tops Education, Shirley Hills Primary School, $12260. Shirley Hills PTA, Shirley Hills Primary School, $5,262.50. American Heart Association, Shirley Hills Primary School, $700. Black Giving Fund, NWHS Activities, $20. Charities A Foundation, Mountain West Tanka High School, $53.36. Ohio file prints MWHS activities $26.29 West Hockey West Tanka hockey boosters West Hanka girls hockey team $2725 Minneapolis Foundation Tyler Hill Sunshine Scholarship $4,000 Minneapolis Foundation Spring Creek Scholarship $8,000 Butch Humber Larry XL Basketball Scholarship $100 Wiser Insurance Agency Wiser Insurance scholarship $500. National Honor Society NHS scholarship $4,000. The Northwest Tonka Lions First Robotics $4,000. Gold staff recognition event $1,000. Egan staff recognition event $500. Jean and Taylor Thaylor the West Cona $100. Egan staff recognition event $500. Blackbod Giving Mount West Tanka High School $20 Charities Aid Foundation West Mound West Tanka High School $87.32 Westona Hockey Boosters West Hanka boys hockey $47368 and Brad von Bank Westona Baseball Dugout Project $5,000 Marlene Fritz West Tonka Community Theater $300 Andrews Family Trust West Tanka Community Theater $1,000 West Tanka JC's West Tonka JC's scholarship $4,000 Minneapolis Foundation Tyler Russell Hill Sunshine Scholarship $2,000 Butch Humber Larry Excel Memorial Scholarship $100 DAFF Giving 360 Nick Manty Scholarship $750 Ruby Fribble and Sue Riley Memorial Fund Sue Riley Memorial Scholarship $2,000 West Tonka Hockey Boosters for Hockey Locker Room Project project, $13,300. West Hanka hockey boosters, West Hanka boys hockey, $1,36. And Eve Westona Hockett dance team, $342. And friends of Mount Westanka High School first robotics, $20,000. Year-to- date donations so far, $247,764.54. And Mr. Chair and fellow board members, I've looked at the checkouts for February and March and all seems to be in good order. Thank you, Ralph. Um, we move on to the financial report. Kathy, good evening board. Um, I was uh fortunate to attend the uh groundbreaking. I do have to say that Ralph's walk up song was my favorite. saying that as a finance person from the program I'll be more organized next time. You want that as a walk up every time you give your I know. Show me the money. Yeah. Speaking of uh money, uh that's tied to our students. And we have a a good um report. Um as of April 1st, we have 2,413 students, which is a gain of six over the prior month. Um we had a family that returned um to Shirley Hills, as well as um a handful of new early childhood students. So that's some good news. We have one more month um our March or May 1st count and then we'll be wrapping up the year with final numbers um expenditures through um March 31st. We expended um 27,96,000 or 65.8% of our um our yellow revised budget. Um that is trending uh appropriately compared to the other years. Um going up to the revenue, we have received uh 23,46,000 or 55.8% of our prior year budget. Um that's um pretty close. U when I take a look at there's a slight difference. Um and that is on our federal line. We do not have any co funds remaining this year and we had those in the prior year. So that small difference represents this year not having CO funds in the prior two years. um those being present. Are there any federal funds at this point that we have been told we will not receive with all the cuts going on and everything? Um no, that's actually a good question. Mark and I just reviewed that today. We even contacted the state department to make sure that we had received our final allocation and it actually just went up just a very slight amount. Um we have a very um limited amount of money that we get from the federal government, but um we still wanted to verify. Yes, it helps. Y and we did that today. All right. Um just a few other items. Again, we're working on the adopted budget. The budget worksheets will be going out next week to principles and the department heads. Um we'll be presenting that in June. Um this is also the time of the year where we uh work with our insurance agent. We um look for property liability and workman comp. votes for next year. Um I mentioned the title programs will amend and capture all of those final allocations. And um lastly, we have a upcoming board finance meeting on June 5th and the uh finance committee will uh review those insurance quotes, our enrollment um updated projections and our final um adopted budget preview. So that's all I have tonight. Any questions? learning work. So, I have a few items here tonight for you. There we go. So tonight um I have three items for you and there are two action items tonight that you'll be discussing and voting on and I want to just go over those two items with you. the read act umou and then update on our teacher evaluation program. Just as u just as a reminder uh when we think about the read act and what it is, it's legislation from the um state of Minnesota back in 2023 that is very intentional work around increasing the literacy proficiency of kids all across the state of Minnesota. And in the bottom part of that screen, the MDE has approved different reading assessments that all districts need to use. There's recommendations about different elementary literacy programs that should be implemented. The same with reading intervention support. And the piece I'm going to focus on tonight is required staff development that all staff need to conclude. And with that, it is quite robust that there's a phase one and a phase two. And currently, all elementary staff that teach reading are in the middle of this this um reading professional development along with all K12 special education uh teachers, uh myself, principles, um all are required to complete this training. This is phase one. in phase two and we have to complete this. They bumped this this deadline out to July 2026, but before that happened, we already had our our our game plan in place. We're going to be finishing here in June of 2025. Phase two comes in where we'll be training all pair professionals that um instruct reading, support students with their reading. And then it'll also be it talks about grades four through 12 those that are teaching reading. We are already doing the middle school and all of elementary. It'll be basically our high school English department that'll be required. Is this inhouse um training or is this online training? It's online. Oh. So, so the the choices that staff have are the first one we call it core core uh online language literacy academy nine modules about 50 hours of instruction there's 11 high school teachers almost 20 grand teachers 26 elementary teachers that are in the core program we probably estimate about 2800 hours of professional development been completed so far collectively across those Then there is letters. Letters is a very specific uh elementary program is 165 hours of training. Is it an addition to core or is it different? That's a separate option. Different option. Thank you. Uh letters will take two years to complete but many would say if you want to get the deepest learning letters is the one to take and it is not for the fainthearted. I have a lot of respect for our staff that are taking letters right now. It is like taking graduate work. Um the caliber of the learning that is happening. So we have 39 elementary teachers completing that. They probably have banked in about 3,500 hours collectively. Then there is also a a version of letters for early childhood. So all of our preschool teachers are taking their early letters. It's about um you know four units of learning versus eight about 28 hours of instruction and there's five preschool teachers that are completing that and they've probably clocked at about 125 hours of professional involvement so far. So we put together a whole program for our staff to do this training within the school school day. We decided an approach to take would be we want staff to learn together. We thought that'd be better than just sending them off over the summer doing their own versus you they're using their PLC time. They can collaborate. They can talk about their instruction. They can then implement together because the ultimate is to impact the learning in the classroom. So what happened after we put our plan together? So now now let's think about June 2024. The legislature shift around money and they came up with readact 2.0 and that's where you hear about stipens. So this is just the legal language about requirement of districts to provide stipens for staff. And I'm I'm not going to argue with that. They're putting in more time than what we allocate to get get the job done. West's allocation is about $88,000 and there's a formula that is is used to come up with that. So before you uh later in the agenda tonight is the the approved uhou that we negotiated with Weston Education Minnesota and and I support that as Kevin supports that. It spells out the stipens for the staff in the different programs. And so now it comes to you for your discussion and vote and then we go forward. Our teachers union has already approved it. Yes, they have already voted on a So Mark is this are these funds funds that are come they're all coming out of operation our operations or is this something that's come from the state? Something the the money has come from the state. Okay. So this isn't really costing us or budgeting. It's not. So why why wouldn't why would there be any question about correct? We're we're approving just the distribution. What you're what you're going to be looking at tonight is the statement amounts and the parameters around how the money will be earned. For example, we expect staff to complete the training. Yeah. At a proficiency level before you earn the statement, for example. But the stipen amount would be based on which of the trainings correct they complete based on how well you say proficiency level. So is there is there testing involved? Okay. So you need you need level is 80%. Okay. So so it's not something where you you can't just check a box. No you can't. And and the the companies will certify the teachers. Okay. We have nothing to do with that. You have to take your quizzes, your tests, and then they will tell us if you have passed. And once the certification phase is complete, then then we go back to the state to issue the stipen. Is that how that works? Uh we will we will get a report from these companies with a roster of who's completed, who's passed, you know, at 80%. And then we we will issue the siphons. It's called out that we'll issue the siphons by June 30th. Okay. I mean the state have to be alerted somehow because it's coming from well the the state the state has given the money and the local control to us to monitor and and to approve. So they've transferred their control of the money the payout of the siphon to the school ahead of time so we can react when they when they get certain. Correct. Yeah. That's the local control with that. The other piece of this dollar amount, we have pulled out about $10,000 because the money can carry over. So now you think about the staff next year that I mentioned. Any new staff that we hire that are teaching reading in the future are also required to complete this training that we negotiated some dollars about $10,000 to earmark for the future. Eventually this training is supposed to be put into to all our public universities. So it's already taken care of. When we come in to hire teachers, that'll take a few years for that to catch up with this requirement. So it will become part of the degree. Yes. At some point. Yes. What is the relationship for, you know, teacher typically has ongoing professional enhancement? Yes. Lanes that they have to is are they pretty complimentary to what they're doing there or are they unrelated? Um they can they can earn uh well two things. They can earn clock hours continuing education units to what they need to do every five years and then if with each of those programs if they want they can apply for graduate credit for possible lane change. So it's all very complimentary you know doing it but they're also complimenting it for professional enhancement as well. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. On the previous um slide, you had a breakdown of numbers between the um two programs. Yes. Is that what you had had expected? It looks like about most of the middle and high school opted for core and half of the elementary school teachers. Yeah. Less than half. I guess a third. Yeah. The the reason for that core is designed for um actually upper elementary into middle school, high school. The letters is very specific truly for a kindergarten, first grade, second grade. Okay. So that's about what you had expected there. And is the are the you talked about the proficiency tests are the same for both programs or they have their own individual they're completely different systems. But they both have a hallmark of 80%. Brian, I would say that I was actually probably surprised as many because they had that option that many did select letters. Yeah. That I was I was impressed. Yeah. Uh knowing they did have the the option and this was very much structured by the state about how this is going to get implemented that that many chose to to take that. So I assume the stipen I would assume the stipen would be greater for taking the letters since it's three times as many hours. It is and you know I I always think a lot about this is on top of the normal day even though we do build time in on a workshop day um or workshop days during the year to give them time to do this. It still means something else is not happening. Yeah. when that's when that's going on and and many many teachers a number of teachers with letters they were working on this over the summer as I do as I do my math what was it 90,000 80 some thousand we're getting and you've got 100 teachers when I have the early learning you got 100 teachers already I mean it's not going to be a huge statement is it it's not more of a thank you gift it it's an acknowledgement yeah of your time and that's part of why we wanted to also build into their contractual Yeah, for that piece, but also for the collaboration. Other districts, they just paid out of general ed funding and they just said, "Here's your stipen. You come back over the summer and have it done." But there's no mechanism for collaboration, discussion about how we're going to implement. That is what I love about what we're doing. We're doing it together. We're doing it as a team. We're going to make sure that we talk and and we think about how we're going to implement these these new things. If anything, what's happening at the elementary level, it's simply affirming the direction we have already been going with literacy education in our district that if anything, it's been rewarding to see, yeah, those changes we made five, six years ago, this is exactly what the best research is saying. So that's been a great great bonus. Sometimes when you have less control over the staff development, whether that's a school system, an administrator, a teacher, uh you don't have the same ownership or probably the acceptance of where that's headed. Uh some of the feedback that I've received on this training has been uh very positive. And so when you get something that's selected and handed to you that you're going to be doing this and it's very um it's uniformed across the state, it doesn't acknowledge different sets of needs that maybe different systems have. And so to receive positive feedback uh from some of the educators saying that it was of quality um that's what you'd expect. But when you apply a statewide system, it doesn't always work that way. Great. The other the other agenda item action item for you tonight is on our teacher evaluation model and we have in front of you tonight a 2025 revision. The last time we touched up our teacher evaluation model was in 2017. And the the whole structure of the model has not changed, but the descriptors, which I have up here on the slide, has just been updated. And and not that the 2017 version was anything wrong with it, but it's always good to come back every so often and just look at what is it that we're focusing on, what are the new needs. So I would just highlight on the current 2017 and highlight on the 2025 those that are in red are simply either new or more emphasis. So when you look over here in domain one of planning student accommodations classroom management organization of the learning environment those are areas that reflect more of the work we're doing around um MTSS with tier one interventions and instruction support of students classroom management that we know that in many cases it seems that at times there are different behaviors or more challenges at time around classroom management. So we really want to focus and make sure that everyone's on the same page of how to approach um situations in our classrooms and then the organizational learning environment. You know ju just think about How should a classroom be set up at different levels? Should we be in rows? Should we be in, you know, um in groups? Uh what what are the best practices to really enhance learning? And then you throw in the devices and the different technologies we have in the classroom, what should that classroom look like for the most effective learning. So we we call that out. And then under domain two with practice uh the practices you know with instruction going on integration of higher order thinking think about questioning skills think about going deeper with learning think about bringing in authentic real life applications and that brings in higher order thinking. So, we want to be more and more intentional about not just disseminating knowledge, but let's help kids apply what they're learning to their lives and then in in authentic situations. And then the last one, sometimes people are surprised. Well, what do you mean professional responsibility? Isn't that just inherent? It is inherent. But we also felt like um and again this is our administrators in our district and our union teacher union reps working on this together. We just felt like it's just good practice to call out what professional responsibilities are. And it's the obvious but we wanted to call it out of what we expect as an employee as a teacher um in our in our school system. the other the other piece. So that was classroom teacher descriptors. We also have what are called non-classroom descriptors. Classroom teacher descriptors. And we have a group of, you know, staff that are not classroom teachers, but they're psychologists, social workers, the school nurse, uh, school counselors that are also part of our evaluation model. And again, we just wanted to update the language, the 2017 language. Nothing wrong with it. But it was also time to reflect uh refresh what we were doing. So we're bringing in under domain one intentional planning and organization. So what does that mean in your domain with planning organizing your work? For some it could be how do you communicate with parents? How do you communicate with students? What does that structure look like? If you're working with students one-on-one, you're working with families oneonone. And then number three under domain two, knowledge and delivery of pedigogy and best practice. That just really calls out in your domain of practice. Do you know your practice? Are you re researching in your area? Are you going deep? Are you constantly learning in your area of practice? And what does best practice look like? What does best research look like? So you're able to provide the most effective um support and delivery of of your work with our students. It's all about the students in the center. And then we also just call out again professional responsibilities never. Okay. I got one Yeah. one uh omission that I see in 2025 that was in 2017. I got to ask about it. Yeah. Here it's in domain one number one best practice and 277 initiatives. the main four best practices and 277 initiatives in the in the other in the regular teacher model the there was one in there also about if you go back one slide uh no I lost there uh number four application of 277 what's what was that about and why isn't that in there yeah it's a great question we had we had a lot of conversation about that okay and like maybe the best best way to look at it is where we have best practice and two Sunday initiative in planning. We we decided back in 2017, whatever the district is doing, let's just make sure we call it out that it's happening in our classrooms. It's happening with our staff. It's happening. Well, since 2017 to now, our PLC structures, our processes have become so tight and and it's so goalridden that the need to call it out the way we did before isn't necessary. When we talk about multi-ter systems of support, we don't need to call that out. It's so baked in to how we do our work. It is just part of planning an organization period. Okay? So it's not that we're going to neglect, you know, our initiatives, right? We just have such strong processes and procedures in place when we are rolling things out. For example, we have tactics, we have uh building goals that now more than ever we follow. So those are just more incorporated into the process. Incorporated into everything we do. Okay. Yeah. Good question. Good question. Just want you to know I'm paying attention. Absolutely. Really know. I'm just impressed you got the word pedigogy in there. You have to have one. Feels very educational. That is there that is there. So that that is the change. Um those are the changes in the descriptors and and what you're approving that tonight. You're and uh the teacher has already and what goes with the approval of these descriptors are updated rubrics. So every descriptor that you will see has a four-point rubric. So that's what we use administrators, principles use to evaluate staff is on that four-point rubric for each of these descriptors. So that's been updated too. Can you go back to the previous one with the teachers there? Is that a question? Uh yeah. Yeah. Um classroom management item three in domain. Yeah. Uh, is that is that emphasis on giving the teacher the individual teacher greater autonomy for how she organizes her individual classroom or is that just more of a an awareness of how the classroom has to be organized or exactly what were you trying to accomplish? What what what we're accomplishing there is it seems like nowadays every student has different needs and not And we don't now have students that all come in all 25 exactly the same. Instead, we have to be very intentional about knowing the needs of each individual student and how does that impact how you set up your classroom because there's many different needs at times that come through. So, it's it's not a reflection that oh, we don't have good classroom management in in our schools. That's not intent at all. It's more reflecting, acknowledging that more than ever, uh, teachers are are facing, you know, multiple different students that come in and how do we work together to make sure that management piece is solid so we can do the learning over here. So I I mean I saw that when I was just you know the accommodation for special needs students in the general student population was a good example of that was sometimes they had to be in kind of an in an area just to make them more more comfortable or more susceptible to learning that kind of thing. So they you know whereas 20 years ago everybody was sitting in a row that's that's part of the reflection of that. We also have more than ever 504 plans and they come with its own individual learning plan for students. So we we need to really be mindful as classroom teachers who's in my room. What do I need to do to set up that piece of it so everyone's learning to the best of their ability? Good good question. Okay. So that's that's that piece there. And then um just to touch on a couple other things, last pieces I have tonight, uh state testing has begun. Uh this is our first full week and begins tomorrow. Um in all of our schools and again always so proud of our staff and our students, the work that they do to prepare for the testing. And again, it's not all about the test, but it certainly is one lens uh of a reflection of our school district and our students in our community. And we have gone through all the trainings and and setups. And um again um what what I really love at the high school this year uh Jolene Herfell and then uh Jen Boris who's our testing coordinator they've made uh posters little posters to put up in each classroom and larger posters of the high school just indicating let's be proud of our school. You student body you should be very proud of the accomplishments you've had. Do your best on these tests. reflect what you have learned this year and it it again it's it's about celebrating our students in many ways but this is the start of the testing season we'll start with state testing the windows go through early May at the high school we're going to move right into AP testing that'll take the next two three weeks of May and then across all our systems all our buildings we'll have Bassbridge spring testing and that's our own local accountability where we measure growth from fall to the spring and that'll be done all the way from K up through uh 9th grade. What's the January 27th March 21 testing? Oh, that was for access testing. So access is for English learner test testers students. Okay. And just want to just point out again Mason he he shared tonight but I will share one more time with you. The Takabots just have had a wonderful year. They took first place up in Duth in late February at the Lake Superior Regional. And then just this weekend they were at the U of M at the Northstar regional took second place and the comments that were made was that that competition and I was there for the final piece of it. It was like the world's competition. The the level of sophistication, the ability, the high um functioning of these robots and the craziness in the crowd. I mean, it just is is really something um that it was a great precursor. So, for our team to come out second place, it's quite amazing. It's going to serve them well when they go to Houston on April 16th. Well, the the win up in Duth that was a repeat, right? So, the win in Duth, it was a repeat from last year. Right. They won last year repeat that qualifies them to go to worlds. Right. Is the Northstar is that a new one? Northstar is a It has been around. It wasn't here last year. It came back this year. This is the first time we actually had a second regional. Okay. It's all about practicing and and and again, I have to say some very generous donors in our community that as Ralph was was rattling off some of these donations, really supporting the team and We cannot do it without those supports. So that is happening. They'll go to worlds here in midappril. And then as you heard also DECA 50 students going to internationals. These are our future business leaders um coming through and and again you look at the different competitions over on the right side of the things that they're doing. Um I mean they're just preparing them for future careers and ideas of things that they'll do in college. But again, uh it's always just a great showing for our high school to send that many students. Do they do they pick a lane in their competitions or do they have to be proficient in one through six? No, they they pickies. So you Mason will give you some updates I know in in May. So all right, that's my report. Thank you. You going to try to adopt that? Uh so board members, you got a you got a nice update on construction. Obviously a big piece uh of what's going on. I would thank the board for being at the groundbreaking. Uh fun fun event to do with the community to uh showcase what's coming up ahead and just thank the community that we have this opportunity to uh make these improvements to our schools. And so really excited about that. Um excited about our team. Uh Krauss Krauss Anderson is uh they do a lot of work and they're very skilled at what they do and we want that on this project. And then our architects will uh for their design. We're currently working on the design of the stadium and our primary schools uh improvements. And so that's a step that we're doing while we are doing construction. Uh we hope to have the ribbon cutting for the tennis courts and that are lined with pickle ball on May 21st. And so uh weather weather allowing we're going to have those opened up before then. But um that's what our what our hope is. More information will come out about it. We wanted to communicate the groundbreaking first and not compete messages of what's happening when. So, we'll be getting that out there more. Uh, Grand View's improvements is something that we're excited to take on. Um, the added security, uh, the improvements to that media center, it's it's really an exciting design and it's going to make a nice impact to that building as well. Uh, Mark took quite a bit of time and talked about some of theus. Uh, but there's a lot of important things there. The READ Act is something that the state chose to be a main focus of staff development across the state and uh Mark and his team have worked to embed that with meaning in the district. And in that that can look differently just on how you engage with your staff, how it's presented and how it's incorporated. And so I just I want to echo their their thoughts of how they made this collaborative with their team versus we got to just jump through these hoops and say we've done it and move on. And so I I really believe that they're they're working on making the most out of this opportunity and we'll we'll see the benefit for that. Uh also uh the teacher evaluation is one of the most important things that we can do is how we engage with our staff on what's going well and how we can improve and the dialogue with our educators of the forms that we use and the meaning behind the forms. That's really rich to be able to have a bring a shared understanding of what is high performance and how do we work of achieving that. And so, uh, when he talks about the teaching and learning group, that's, uh, the special ed director, that's our building principles, that's union reps, all coming together on those important topics. And so, um, that was really, um, that's really great work. State testing, it's something that always comes up, uh, but it is a moment of the state has called out standards that they expect our kids will have mastery of, and it's our way to show proficiency with that. And so take pride in it. This has been called out and we're going to do this well. And so I I feel like the West Honka community can be really proud of our kids of how they've taken on uh this effort. And so I I have full confidence going ahead this year. Kathy talked about the finance update and we have uh adopted budget coming in June. One thing that's part of our system is that each year we challenge our budgets to make sure that we're expending dollars as well as we can. And so we challenged oursel with a reduction our budget goal of 100,000. And in that you're going to see a couple staffing changes that you're making that are part of these shifts of how we meet that that uh challenge. Uh but there's things that don't show up in a line item for an action for the school board. I would take an example like printing. Printing seems pretty benign, but we do a lot of printing in a school system and reviewing our practices of how we can uh really make sure that when we expend dollars, we get full value out of that and really challenge some of our thinking of the monoprints and what's in color, what's in black and white and etc. And so one thing I really like about this process that I appreciate the finance committee and our teams, our staff, our community is each year setting a goal of saying that we have to review our budgets and let's find those efficiencies. And it's it's healthy. It allows you to prioritize your dollars and get the best value out of it. And so we're we have done that. We're going to continue to do that. Uh I chair just a couple other comments. Um, you're going to see in your action items that you are going to take action on improving our insurance plan. And we have insurance an insurance committee that works. We're self-insured. It was a really wise decision on the district to take that action years ago. We've managed this plan well and we have stayed below what trend rates have been and we've continued that. And so, uh, this year you're going to see a 5% increase on our health and a 0% on our dental. Uh, you're going to see that we're also looking at offering an a voluntary uh, group vision. If uh, employees want to take advantage of that, they can take advantage of it and so it gives them access at that. But I I really feel good about the structure of how we've moved forward with our health insurance becoming self-insured, how we've managed our plan and how we offer it. I think there's a shared ownership of it and it's worked well. Uh you're going to see now and you're going to see in the months ahead ahead uh the sale of obsolete equipment. And so just so the community knows that through construction we're getting new furniture. We did in our district what I call the Great West Hanka flea market where we posted things that we felt like had value. So if a teacher or someone else is getting rid of it, the rest of the district can see is that something that's better than what I currently have so we get full use out of something. If it is not claimed, then we're going to post it on the site uh the website for sale. We'll bring in whatever value we can bring in. Uh those things that don't appear to have value. If we can't even give them away, well then they will be discarded and we'll move forward. But I really feel an effort was how do we make sure we keep what has value in our district, sell what doesn't before we simply uh discard items. And so you'll see those items come before you. Uh last thing I'll just throw out there out of policy today we were talking about our continued discussion around our district goals. We continue so board members we uh sent uh some examples by email of those goals for you and you can give me uh some thoughts on that. I plan on scheduling another retreat hopefully in May where we can go through some uh more of the details of this. But the the exciting thing is our current goals are looking like we're they're met. And of course, you always can strive for academic excellence and some of these broader headlines, but the details on the Durham, they should look like they're being met. And so, we will uh work on the descriptors and continue to move that forward. But I would look for uh uh us to propose an additional meeting in May for further discussion around that. Uh that uh being said, um it's an exciting springs are always exciting in schools because you have a lot of recognitions and you have a lot of excitement and uh different uh we have a staff recognition banquet coming up early May. We have athletic and scholarship nights and pretty soon that leads to graduation. And so it's it's always an exciting time in schools to see the cycle of different uh celebrations coming up. Thanks Kevin. Chair moves for approval of the consent agenda. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Move on to discussion items. Chair moves for approval of action item 8A. Um adopting theou between school district 277 anda education Minnesota. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Chair moves for approval of action item 8B approval of the revised teacher evaluation model. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Chair moves for approval of action item 8C. Motion to resend the March 3rd, 2025 approval of Lancing Lynch uh retirement and to approve the new retirement date of June 30th, 2025. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Oppos? Carries. Chair moves for approval of action item 8D, approval of the first reading of policy 5330, wellness. Is there a second? All in favor? I opposed. Carries. Chair moves for approval of action item AD, approval of group medical insurance renewal and premium increases. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Chair moves for approval of action item 8F, approval of group dental renewal rates with no premium increase. All in favor? I'll say get a second. Second. All in favor? Chair moves for approval of action item AG, approval of the addition of a voluntary group vision insurance plan. Is there is there a second? Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Chair moves for approval of action item 8H, approval of obsolete equipment to be sold at auction or recycled. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Chair moves for approval of action item 8. I approval of the resolution relating to the termination and non-renewal of a teaching contract of Jill Bachman. a 1.0 probationary teacher. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I opposed. Chair moves for approval of action item 8J, approval of the resolution to the non-renewing probationary teaching contract. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Hey, one one comment I want to make before we close. I just want to thank everybody on the board. This, as you many of you know, this is my 50y year alumni year. I graduated from Mount West in 1975. And so I've asked uh for the opportunity to both co-host I think I'm co-hosting the recognition, right? Okay. And then also to hand out diplomas. I thought it'd be pretty cool to hand out diplomas. So, and I I know Gary's doing that with me, but I just want to thank all of you for as fellow board members for letting me have that opportunity this year. It's pretty special. I thought this was your 50th year on board. Well, no. Gary and Ralph are way ahead of me. Why? It took me 50 years to get a walk up song. Good. But seriously, I do thank all of you for letting me have those opportunities this year. Pretty special. Well, we got a lot of exciting stuff coming up this summer and u and a lot of things going on. So once again, thank you everybody for all your your hard work. Is there any further business anybody has? If not, the chair moves for adjournment. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Opposed? Have a good one, everybody. Good.