I call the March regular meeting of the West Tona School Board to order if everybody would uh rise and join in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the of the United States of America to the for stands one nation godible withy andice all thank you chair moves for approval of the agenda is there a second second all in favor I I oppos motion carries announcement March 19th facilities committee meeting uh 7 o' right here in this room um April 3rd finance committee meeting and April 7th policy committee meeting at 5:15 in conference room a and then the regular school board meeting and then at this time I i' like to invite Mr Peterson up to the podium for share the success good evening and thanks for having me it's exciting to be here uh once again to talk about really uh Cooper row but I but I do want to touch based on a couple other things that aren't going to be on the slide uh learned today that our Math League team placed fourth in State uh which is just outstanding in uh point out of first two points out of second and um um Four Points four points away from winning the whole thing so uh so that they had great success uh Deca we got a lot of kids going Internationals there should be seeing some stuff um coming through for that uh we just finished up our winter season on Saturday with our boys basketball team uh losing at benel but it was really fun game great at spere and today we started spring Sports and um some of our teams were outside today on March 10th which is uh which is awesome so I'm going to call Cooper Road to come on up uh Cooper is the uh son of Matt and Melanie roow and you all should remember Cooper is this is his third year in a row uh attending a school board meeting you may you may recall a couple of years ago he uh he won the PanAm games uh last year uh he won his first state championship at 152 pounds um in class doublea and uh this year he repeated at 160 PBS um was able to watch Cooper wrestle a few matches and um at the state tournament and uh it's really impressive to uh to watch Cooper He's uh he's methodical and um and and he just takes care of business and it's just really fun um the state uh when when the state tournament gets to the championship round uh they turn the lights off in the Excel Energy Center they have four mats we'll see that here in a second four mats laid out um for the uh single double AAA uh state state um championships as well as uh Matt for the girls and all four mats go at the same time essentially at the all at all the same weights the girls have a few fewer they have they have fewer weight classes than the boys do but they essentially stay on schedule so um so Cooper um Cooper I'm G to have you tell the story because what I might have it wrong but I believe uh in Cooper's first match I think he pinned um pinned a young man in 30 33 seconds or 35 seconds and I think that that fell wrestled back and still placed is that accurate or did he lose second the second kid I did okay so I'll let Cooper tell the story but really really impressive so um but there's kind of just the um Jeff shut shut off that light over there you can't see the screen you bet there you go thank you so you can see you can see all four mats here um this match went six minutes so we're not going to play the whole six minutes um but uh just kind of the very end here and it was a little bit of a scramble at the end Cooper made me nervous um and this year they changed the point totals for uh for wrestling a takedown used to be worth two now it's worth three and so I believe Coupe was up late in the match uh 5 to two and then there was a little bit of a scramble and uh and CP CP came out on top here so this is just kind of kind of the ending [Music] where was your opponent from Hutchinson have you wrestled them already this I wrestled him last year he's one of my friend so you come up here and just tell a little bit about it uh yeah as Jeff said uh my first match I beat the kid in like 37 seconds he didn't end up placing uh second match I beat the kid in the second period like 18 to zero and he ended up uh taking third in the tournament and then the third kid I wrestled I beat he was one of my friends also we wrestle all the time uh I beat him 11-0 and he took fourth and then this is also one of my friends I wrest the finals I beat 82 and uh he got second of course so yeah it's it's pretty pretty fun event so yeah so C I went in counted today Cooper uh we've had 29 state titles Cooper won the 28th and 29th um and as you know uh We've in our the history of our program we've had two three time state champions no pressure on Coupe but uh would be really awesome to have him back here a year from uh about today uh celebrating the same thing Cooper is already committed to the Gophers yeah yep he's already committed and um as he walks around and shakes your hand I just say just be careful congratulations why does say Le the than so um so different schools bring their mats to the Excel Energy Center and so in the f um before the finals they have eight mats set up in this in the Excel Energy Center and then for the finals they pull four of them out so these are Ms that were just brought from from other schools because the state tournament or the State High School league doesn't have eight wrestling mats anyways I really appreciate um you guys uh letting us recognize Cooper and congratulations and um look forward to being here and celebrating with you again some other accomplishments as a family we appreciate that you take time out of your night just to come here it's fun to showcase our students that see this success it's taken a lot of hard work by commitment by All of You by Cooper to keep keep that going to get to that position and then do it backtack years is an inedible honor and sometimes you don't realize it in the monent but you're in a very special group now that can say back to back and I know your sites are on bigger things but that's uh it's really something right there so congratulations than pretty soon to be able to say three Pete no pressure thanks everybody yeah um do any members of the public wish to address the board not we'll move on to the student rep report Mason you're up all right hello everyone um we have a good amount of stuff going on or that's been going on in the past couple weeks so to start it off with the student Senate update so stuff the stuff the bus drive that's going on this week if you see kids standing outside holding signs kind of marketing for it that's what we're doing for that and that's for the West Tonka food shelf and then as well um I believe it was last Friday we did some ribbon making for the L Lano family to show just support made some purple ribbons gave them out at lunch stuff like that um for the stuff the bus prizes we have a lot of different prizes for that being as we need a lot of kids to donate and the easiest way is by doing stuff that kids like now so we have like a parking B Sports bass a JBL flip speaker a smart TV half off on prom tickets a mini fridge with drinks in it digital camera and then a free item from the White Hawk store and then pick up is this Friday for the stuff the bus so that's where you kind of write the check out by the north doors and do that and then take a picture of the student Senate um coming up in a couple weeks George pet and Susie Marth are going to be running for mahs which is the Minnesota Honors Society um Association of Honors Society and then masc um the student council Society so it's a one St convention at Hidden high school and they'll be running for State position so that could be in the form of president vice president secretary all those so those would be a great spot if they're able to get that and then the prom location was revealed today so that's always a big deal so it will be at Gail Woods um and I believe it's May 3rd I think and I'm not sure on the theme yet but know they're probably going to tell us soon and they've been hinting at it on the Instagram so yeah that's what's up with with um student Senate we've been busy and yep and then for Deca um I believe it was last weekend not this weekend last weekend um we went to state which is at the high at downtown and I don't have the exact numbers how many were sending to ICDC but I know even with our um virtual business challenge which was before State we were sending like 20 something kids so that was awesome some um notable things from the DECA is special shout out to Mr Wagner he was um named the m and DEA rookie marketing Teacher of the Year got to go up on stage got an award and then as well Lizzy Nash she was appointed as the 2025 2026 vice president of communications for em emn Deca and I believe that's the position Stella holds right now and I think Lizzie is getting it next year so she had to run at Deca got voted on stuff like that um letters of Love they've been hard at work just making cards having meetings Rotary Club I know they have a few scholarships open you probably talk on what they've been up to a little more than I can but I know they have scholarships that are due in April I believe so yeah beginning of April yep beginning of April and then Mr Peterson said Math League so they were at state today which has been I believe it was new last year so they've been doing really good good group of kids and they placed fourth and I know I was talking to miss Paul and she said there's a lot of private schools that are very good at it so among the public schools I think we're pretty good on that ranking um National Honor Society they're doing the blood drive I think on April 2nd so um students can donate and it's a great opportunity for us to get hours Tonka Bots they were in duth two weekends ago and they're going to be heading to Worlds again which is super awesome I do not understand the scoring at all of how those robots are working but if they go to Worlds that's great I know they were there last year and they had a good time so hopefully this year will be great too um on February 14th student Senate unified club we held a co-op event on Valentine's Day it was called unified through love so it was just Bridging the Gap between our special ed students and our general education students and it was a fun event I know we had a bunch of different clubs helping while also watching the basketball game so yeah and then unified Club we're now planning for our event this morning we had a meeting and we'll be doing an event in early April um FCA they've been meeting continuing to meet on Thursdays and then and Athletics so there's been a lot going on a lot of Seasons came to end um I know Jeff talked about it a little bit for boys wrestling so we sent Cole monster tiger um Philip PUK Deacon ranam and Cooper Ro to the individuals in state Cooper obviously he won it and then Cole and Cole Philip and Deacon they all I don't know fought hard I don't believe any of them placed but they did pretty good um boys and girls basketball they both ended their seasons and losses which is kind of a bummer but some notable things so max cry he broke the alltime record for girls and boys in the bill game and then Max he also committed to St Olaf in the past month um Isaac OD he committed to St John's for baseball and then back to girls basketball they ended their season 11 and 16 um boys ended the season with 19-9 uh boys hockey they lost to Delo and ended their season 11:15 um girls hockey lost to Orno in I believe the section final and ended with a 1711 record and then dance team they competed at State and were finalist in Kick and Jazz and yeah Mr Peterson said there was also for looking ahead there was a lot of spring Sports practicing today we did some throwing in baseball I know track and field they were out there doing um running and stuff like that so we're on to the next season and it should be a good one um for art we have March is um youth art youth art month and um music in our schools month and to celebrate the West Tonka fine arts hall of fame um we're going to invite nominations for individuals who've had who've made a significant contribution to the Fine Arts in the west Tonka Community categories can include alumni directors teachers advisors and volunteers administrators with nominations they'll be due May 1st um on the academics so the wings up award I talked about it I believe a meeting or two ago but it's basically students showing a lot of growth in the classroom leadership all those different forms so for the visual arts department which was a group selected in the past couple weeks um eighth grader Jan Genevie fosler 9th grader Tyler darari 10th grader miles Remington 11th grader Khloe Patterson and um senior Kira Martin they were all selected for this award which is one person per grade within a given Department in the school and the teacher select them and then lastly onto the West Tonka update I mean many of you guys probably know this but the high school renovation groundbreaking that'll be on April 3rd at 4M it's very exciting uh and then the Juniors I think they're taking the act on Thursday and I believe the um software is do the preac I think I'm not sure but I don't believe I have school so and then seniors um have been hard at work completing the West honka scholarship application which is due this Friday and at believe scholarship night is like middle of May sometime so yeah that's a lot going on and do you guys have any questions is the stuff the bus ongoing right now or is that over yeah so it's ongoing right now so we have table set up at lunch and this year we got online paying methods which has been very helpful so kids just go to the table at lunch and pay and then we give them tickets and they get to put it in whatever prize they want and then we pull from that and whoever's name is chosen the Press so any other questions or all right thank you yeah thank you move on to the finance report we got my glasses um good evening board um I have just a real brief uh report tonight um the uh slide you can see is getting Fuller we take the enrollment um on the first day of each month and so this is the sixth of our nine months so this means we're um more than two3 um through the way of the school year so it's uh the year's going quickly um our enrollment as of March 1st was 2, um 47 students which which was exactly what we had the month prior so again just taking your eyes and looking across we're you know again very pleased with the um constant and and solid enrollment each month it um again makes U budgeting very easy um en or excuse me uh revenue and expenditures through February 28th um we have collected 8,912 th000 or uh 45.1% of our revised budgeted revenues which are 41,9 42,000 um expenditures through the end of the month um are 23, 885,000 or 80 58% um of our revised budget of 41,8 th000 both revenue and expenditures are tring appropriately um compared to the prior years just a few other notes um again we're working on the adopted budget which will be bringing forth um at the June meeting and um as Gary mentioned earlier we will be having a finance committee meeting on April 3rd to review our progress and and how our assumptions are are stacking up that's all I have for you tonight any questions okay all right thank you thank you teaching and learning Mark all right there we go so I hope to uh continue with some news tonight uh on many fronts and it's good to see everybody again it is that Time of the Season where we hear more and more about Tournament results competitions and and I and I would emphasize when you hear about the the mamaka high school math second year in a row uh going to state that is something that is quite new for us and and to think about um as we heard tonight there really a lot of private high schools that compete heavily that that were right next that's great new I to see but first going to start three three small updates tonight uh it is the time of the year when it's spring that State Testing is here uh the window has open for State Testing we are just finishing up what is the access testing and that is for our English learner uh students and they they have their own assessment around speaking listening reading and writing and then the MCA start and actually next week we start our first MCA at Grand View Grand View traditionally uh offers the science test before spring break and so it's one less test for them to worry about after spring break and what I want to point out tonight is that the MCA science test is a new MCA 4 test and I'll I'll show that to you in just a minute here but I just want to remind the board the State Testing we are we very blessed have high performance by our students and also I always remind community members is a reflection of our schools for our community for individuals that live here that when you send your students to West taka they're going to get a fine education so it's just one way that we measure that and so that is all going to be happening uh the second Arrow shows you the the window for for testing the majority of our MCAS now will be done after spring break in late April into May and then we typically get the State Testing results back in July the formal results what'll be different this year with the MCA 4 science that will not come back to us until October um they'll be at the state whatever they do to calibrate scores and to look at things but what I wanted to point out to you tonight with an MCA 4 uh this is the the new generation of State tests next year spring 2026 it'll be MCA 4 breeding and then in Spring 2028 will be a gap will be MCA 4 math all these assessments are going to what I would call inquiry based and what I mean by that is that as you can see in the third Diamond the third bullet point more open-ended questions higher level questioning less of memorizing facts but truly taking scenarios like this this graphic over here on the right side and then studying um visuals uh passages answering questions on the right side and now they're starting to bring back open-ended questionings it's called constructive response so back 12 years ago someone was actually reading those and scoring those and you know exactly how it's being done now it's AI so this will be a new piece ushered in uh with MCA 4S where there'll be open-ended questions those will be um quite higher level questions for kids to answer and so when we we have prepared for this test when we get the results back we have to be careful not to compare to the mca3 but to understand and learn what our student strengths are and our gaps and and right now we know the benchmarks that will be assessed we don't know the level or the details around that no one does that's the state tells us these are the topics that'll be assessed these are the type of questions and I think in this first year they calibrate themselves over the summer what the skill scores would be so come next Fall I'll have a lot more to say with you about the results and how we perform all right so moving on from there just again this the timeline uh in 2425 sence mc4 and then in 2026 is the reading MCA 4 and you'll notice that there's also something called the alternate MCA we have right now it's called mtas that we use for special education students the alternate MCA is the next generation of that assessment also that ushers in with the MCA forms so we are prepared we are set uh training is going on now as we speak into all our buildings for these assessments and again I have full confidence that we're going to have a very successful year with the results and again we'll have those sometime this summer usually in July the the other update I wanted to share with you tonight is you you hear about the react you hear about react 2.0 there might be a react 3.0 depending on what happens at the legislature but one of the things that you'll be coming across your table here possibly next month or uh in May will be a react umou Mo of understanding and this is all around the um the allocation the state gave to pay teachers to complete their training the required training so we're working with uh West Education Minnesota on those stiens and the details around that and they'll be taking a vote here shortly on that and then once they're done voting it'll come to the board for you to take a vote and then that goes into the teacher contract just a reminder uh number two there are three different trainings that are going on there's early letters that is for our preschool staff there's letters this is a 2year training that some of our elementary teachers elected to complete and then there's core online language literacy Academy and we have ele teachers middle school and K12 special education teachers that are completing that train the good news with all this training is what they're learning if they compare to what and how they're teaching literacy and reading in the classroom is aligning very very well that's great to hear that's the science of reading coming through that is affirming that the direction the approach that we do with our learning around literacy is spot on with this training in the direction want us to build it'll be training number three training for phase two teachers which is basically our high school English staff and then we're waiting to hear about training forare of professionals and again the state is a little bit delayed with those details and and getting that done but those would be the last of our groups of employees that need to be be trained to be there so things are going long I have a question yeah um what is West TKA Education Minnesota what are they voting on is there is there like a a range of sitiens how are they yeah so we've negotiated um a set of stiens for those that complete their early letters the letters training and core each of those training programs have different hours of training so the stiens will look a little bit different we put in different parameters of what a a teacher has to do to for example complete the training uh complete the training at a certain level proficiency so those are the things that you'll see in that ML and then we put a we put a timeline on that a deadline to complete that so you're putting forth that your proposal for how you think it should look and they're voting on whether that's acceptable we negotiated one it's already been negotiated okay yeah so what you'll see is what has been negotiated between the district and then you okay the the last update I have here tonight you know the work continues with high school Remodeling and and again my focus is really on the programming and making sure we have Staffing the programming the equipment for all these programs that you are aware of um the latest updates is just the last couple weeks I've been to H tech tech and Crown College looking at their programming around EMR and it's always about figuring out how to build relationships with different people different individuals entities that can support our programming on Wednesday Dale Kimble and I are going to be visiting SAR high school and then we'll have a zoom call with all atana and that's going to be focusing on their uh very much I could call Gold Standard construction programs and that's going to help Mr Kimble really fine tune what he's going to be doing here for our constru we're converting our Woods programming into construction so we'll be doing that on Wednesday and then comes right around that is is the uh the curriculum development and then we continue the work U the formal work of filling out applications they have formal Career Tech education programs that are certified with the Department of n so it is a progress process it it is something that it doesn't happen overnight but you continue to work on this chunk by chunk step by step so we're ready to go in Fall of 2026 and everything's on Target and uh it's kind of like putting together a jigsa puzzle there's just a lot of little pieces but it it's going it's going fine and we'll continue to give you updates here I want to compliment U Mark he's he's very methodical of how he goes about his work and it's it's it's really enjoyable watching them because it's like a gear that just click click and you just keep on going but when you talk about the initiatives that were taken in Machining in our nursing programs and then also construction trades he didn't just do it with the source in mind he engaged the community he engaged local businesses he engaged higher education he engaged the Department of Education he engaged with um h in Tech and really looked for resources from understanding what our curriculum's going to be to what equipment we need what are e effective authentic relationships to make this really grow for our kids how can this best uh positively impact our community so when he talks about different gears there's a lot of Gears this isn't a small how can we get something in our course catalog it's really been a focus of high quality and then making sure that we build and design space that really shows maximum benefit and I think he's done a phenomenal job as he's been assisted by Jolene and others but Mark's leadership has really really really shown briak through this whole process so more to come more to come we're going to get there we finish line all right I I I can't end without sharing a little bit of Celebration um I was up there in delude for for a part of this um event and all I can say how could there be drama in robotics but but there was there was I mean they go through eight different competitions in the middle of these eight the the robot died like completely was flat on its back and I thought this is it it's time to go home I mean there's no way could recover and they recovered and it was absolutely Stellar you know like cter Ro here it is second time in a row they took the whole thing up there and and they were going to Worlds um in the middle of April and I and I can't be more proud of of this of this team and we're 48 strong and again I've said it many times for some kids this is what they do this is their sport this is who they are and it's such a great thing that we offer a program like this that maybe you're not in athletics maybe you're not a musician but you're in robotics and and that is going to further them into whatever they're going to do after high school so I I come to that I just want to show you just a very quick video you get a snap of the energy and and what happened up there in that is a Mr Kimball master so that robot but they designed that from scratch to get into this level [Music] is there any footage anywhere of where like when it was out of commission and how and what they did to there probably is but it's probably something you just want to bury okay I'm just it was sheer persistence and grit to really get figure out what went wrong and then really perform at the highest highest levels in the competition to pull it on so one one great spirit of Robotics That You Don't See in all competitive activities is there is a a culture that exists where schools that you're against when you break down all teams try to help that team get their bot going again and so I think when we broke down uh Becker was one of the school districts that came in and problem solved with us to try to get it up and going again correct yes and so it's it's really a neat culture that exists that truly competitive you can see this is intense and yet when you're off everybody wants the teams to be at their best and so you try to help them so they can operate and I think I think how they've thought through and created such a culture has such uh great learning for anyone coaches coaches and students Alik it's beautiful and and you know the nice thing this year is there's 43 boys and five girls this year great that's the most number of females we've had and we continue and continue to promote that for the boys and so that'll be more of emphasis so you of April we'll hear more about worlds and thank you move on to the superintendent report yes so um several things first of all we had a we continue to work through our design planning and we have groundbreaking at the high school on April 3rd 4:00 at the high school invite the community to take part of this special event and with groundbreaking uh people are going to notice already at that time over our spring break we are going to be setting up our fencing and we start prep for construction right over our spring break and so we expect in the month of April uh there's some things that um all need to come together one of which is weather but we will be going in April and then we're going to be seeing this construction project all the way through fall of 2026 so it's um it's going to be a really exciting time uh for our students for our community for our families um and it's like what Mark was highlighting here today with the with the new programming that we're going to have we're going to have a facility that is uh safe for our students we're going to have a facility that uh has space that's been right sized and built intentionally for the purpose of which we're educating our kids and so we've talked about this and we planned for this and both from how to prioritize the projects to present to our community to presenting it to our community to then designing the space and we're at that stage where shovels are going to be put into the dirt and uh we're going to start uh this for our community so really excited about that is it too early to ask about final surface on the tennis courts uh again weather weather related but we really hope um and I guess that hope isn't a strategy but give me something that works better with weather but when weather does cooperate we know we're in the queue with Peterson company who's going to put that surface on and so uh we have the ribbon cutting uh May 21st and so it definitely has to happen by then but we're in between there uh as soon as we get a stretch stretch a stretch of weather uh tennis will be using the six southern tennis courts and we will be using the the or the six Northern courts the three Southern courts uh we're going to be using for construction and so that's one thing that um we've worked out with the coaches and I think everyone's eager for them to be in that new space gr view is also the summer and so that's a Summer Slam and we're excited about that work as well I in your action items today you have a couple which are the acceptance of some work Scopes and those are two cleaning work Scopes one at Grand you and one at the high school uh those have been competitively bit out U by that scope and they have pass the background that's required to be considered uh you have an approval of a kitchen assistant position at Shirley Hills and at Grand View again I want to compliment our food service director who uh worked very hard over uh covid of adjusting Staffing and we've continued to adjust up to meals being served uh that um program is going very well uh you have a list of items to be sold at auction uh there was a little bit of a joke by one of our principles that said Kevin there's a there's a projector and we're talking about transparency projector that's being sold and she's talking about my level of technology and I said I know how to operate that well I can do in service transparency transp how how to do that yeah um but there's there are some items that we're not using and so we'll put that on an online bid auction which has worked well for us and then uh you get into a list of items where you're going to see some addition and reductions and and at our February meeting we called out that we were going to meet a budget goal of 100,000 uh reduction and that allows us to stay aligned with our budget it also helps us prioritize how we work with not just Staffing but just our overall operations and we pay attention I think it gives us the right energy to really evaluate how dollars are spent again we we try to encourage any staff member Community member that has ideas how we can be more efficient we take all that input but we challenge our administrative team particularly of making sure that we do that well you'll see that there's a little bit of change of FTE and as I would acknowledge that this is smaller some smaller changes are bigger impacts of of different staff and so I want to honor that and also uh say when we do smaller continual adjustments hopefully it prevents larger more critical adjustments and so you're going to see this is largely built on enrollment and how people registered for classes um and so that is what makes up your your list there uh lastly we are uh replacing our district Network switches uh this comes at a time where it works out well with our high school Remodel and our Grand View project uh where some of that work is already being uh changed with wiring and detaching attaching and so it works out well there it also works that with technology as we have gone our current switches uh cannot fully um work with our computers they would be uh held back from what um the capacity of our of our network is and so this allows it to to be more fully utilized and so uh the timing of that is um is uh good and so for Action items that's what we have um before you today I would just end my comments uh I always find February March to be a really fun time because you have a lot of different individuals that are competing and teams that are competing and you kind of get in those months of February March where um you're looking for that kind of Engagement because it's today is a gorgeous day but sometimes the days are a little bit dark and then El and you hear these bright spots of Student Success and engagement and it's really really exciting so uh it's been a really nice winter kids have done well proud of our staff chair moves for approval of the consent agenda our second second all in favor I I oppos carries we'll move on to the action item turn moves for approval of action item 8A acceptance of the bidden approval of contract awards for ISD 277 Grand View Middle School security improvements and deferred maintenance is there a second second all in favor I oppos car chair moves for approval of action item 8 B acceptance of bidden approval of contract awards for ISD 277 non Tonka high school edition and Renovations part three is there a second second all in favor I oppos carries chair moves for approval of action item 8C approval of adding a kitchen assistant one position at Shirley Hills primary school and a kitchen assistant one position at Grand View Middle School is there a second second all in favor I oppos motion carries chair moves for approval of action item 8D approval of items to be sold at auction is there a second second all in favor I oppos motion carries chair moves for approval of action item 8e approval of position elimination reductions and additions and increases for um school year 2026 is there a second second all in favor oppos car um then the chair moves for approval of action item 8f approval of replacing District Network switches and wireless is there a second second all in favor I opposed is there any other business to come before the board here tonight if not a share moves for adjournment is there a second second all in favor I oppos meeting is adjourned