we'll get started good evening and welcome I call the August meeting of the West hka School Board to order please rise and join us and pledge FL to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all chair moves the approval of the agenda is there a second second all in favor signified by saying I I I'll oppose saying nay motion carries announcements September 5th finance committee meeting at 7:30 a.m. via Google meet September 9th we have a policy committee meeting at 5:30 p.m. followed by our regular board meeting at 6:00 p.m. right here in this room September 18th we have a facilities committee meeting at 7 a.m. here in this room are there any members of the public who wish to come before the board to speak oh we have some we have some people who signed up okay uh Charlotte baren please come on up to the podium thank you good evening um I name Charlotte Baron and I've been a parah at the West honka high school and transition program for almost 20 years um I've been a parah for over 25 years and I'm speaking tonight to give a glimpse into a day of a high school transition plus par first you need to know that a number of us bring knowledge to our jobs then we have to pass a pair of protest FC Pi training and need to certify as a PCA so that you can use third party billing we train to do Hoyer lifts and transferring feeding tubes diabetes needs seizure protocol for each person who has a seizure as their protocol can be different we know epipens asthma inhalers wheelchairs lockers gate assists sensor programs restroom protocol we know what time to a student will need medication so that we can escort that young person to the nurse um some young people have a bip that we need to know a couple of us have dot certificates so we can drive Vans and activity buses we know how to navigate communication devices and Chromebooks we do job coaching social skills coaching volunteer supervision we chaperone at fast start and extracurricular enrichment events and assist walking at graduation I have at three different times for two weeks each gotten into the pool to assist students with their swimming program we hand feed and assist young people with eating at lunch and we know what foods they can and cannot eat then we help young people to navigate their academic classes homework and teachers we do Ceramics painting drawing band choir shop computer classes where we assist and problem solve so each young person experiences the most of their class our main goal with all of this we do is to maintain the dignity deserved during most fragile time of their life if it looks effortless I guarantee it's not we're doing our job we do what is asked of us these are not choices I can't express enough Howa is the glue to All Professional and young persons day there are PT OT speech dape the school nurse case managers an academic teachers teaching that can only be addressed if the parah helps implement it needs to be done as so a young per person can have the most successful experience in school can you imagine a teacher having to stop their class to help a high school student digly blow their nose hold their paintbrush go to the restroom step outside the classro and give reassurance that crossing the threshold late won't fail them for that quarter some of you see us at the whack walking the Trap or in the community and may think what an easy game if it looks easy we're doing our job what you don't see are skills being reinforced guidance and safety measures we are always helping to learn and I say this to you tonight so that you understand the pairs of West honka are not like those of surrounding districts we are highly qualified and extremely Cooperative with those we work with and this is why we need more pay thank you the next speaker is Matthew McIntyre thank you for giving me the opportunity to address the school board this evening um my name is Matt McIntyre and um I'd like to speak just about the general importance that PA professionals play in our district um you know I believe every job is essential to these kids having a great experience in school but my vantage point is from a a par and a parent so I'm a special ed pair professional at Hilltop Elementary as well of as a parent who rece of a child who receives a special ed services in the district my wife son and I moved uh to Mound this last January from a small town in Washington um I was hired as AA by the district shortly after um we moved to the greater Minneapolis area to be near family but I can honestly say what brought us to Mound was the reputation of the West hka District um my son's on the autism spectrum um and navigating School the school environment has been a challenge for him since his first day of kindergarten um our small town District back in Washington was underfunded and understaffed and though they did their best my son was struggling daily I'm happy to report that contrast he's making a major he's making major progress here in the west honka schools uh so what do I feel is different about those two District experiences if I had to sum it up as both a parent and an employee um I'd say that West Tonka schools they truly take the time to put time and resources to meet every child's individual needs um which is the true Essence especially in special education of what an IEP an individualized education plan or program is supposed to do um with our son we feel that um that his success was achieved through hard work of both a life licensed staff as well as strong par professional support uh having a per work with him during the challenging moments of anxiety frustration self-doubt anger which had been daily parts of his school experience um was key to helping him succeed um having a trusted adult who could focus on him in the way that only a par can do within the context of a busy classroom um it's made such a profound difference in his success um I'm proud to be a par in the district um I know from both Vantage points how important it is to have caring dedicated qualified people in these positions uh this is why as this is why all par Professionals in our schools uh deserve to be making a wage that can support support us as community members as well uh I'll be honest it's tough to live on a Paris pay um it's tough It's a tough to tough decision of whether or not to try to opt into health insurance through the district when we know it'll cost us such a large portion of our monthly take-home pay um and it's honestly tough to know that we have a job with such a critical role within our schools while always keeping an eye open for a second job um you know we have to make ends meet like everybody else and I I feel that our district has done so much to help our kids not only survive but Thrive and I think that the district can put forth the resources to make this the same reality true for all of our employees as well thanks thank you is there anyone else that would like to speak okay moving on to Treasures reports yes uh begin with Anonymous Hilltop Primary School $20 blackb ging fund M westa High School $20 Cherry a foundation Mount West TKA High School 8732 Sharon Taylor Mount West TKA High School $7,000 M cause West coner community theater theater $995 Theo quatro LLC West talk across country $250 Jubilee Foods Taco Box $700 uh donations so far for fisal 25 are $9,000 7232 and Madam chair and board members I put the check Pledger for July and all thank you Kathy right I'm good evening board um okay um due to the early state of our fisal 2324 audit um tonight I will be presenting thank you Mar um I will be presenting an updated uh snapshot of our June 30th 2024 reports um Financial reports the majority of our audit um entries are complete not all but we have the bulk of them in property taxes State AIDS um Federal receivables and as of this moment um we are you know just under 100% 99.7% um or we have received 38,3 164,000 um expenditures reflect that we have um again are just just under that 100,000 Mark which is our Benchmark um we've expended 38,4 77,000 again we have a handful of entries yet to um uh complete and um but at this point we are anticipating a smooth audit and um again the audit will be remote this year and um we'll have a lot more information at our next board meeting um any questions on the June 30th snapshot okay um as I mentioned um we're gearing up for the audit um we are having that the first week of school so right after Labor Day it'll start two weeks from tomorrow and um they will uh wrap things up um we'll meet with the board finance committee in between then but the formal presentation will be on October 14th um the next item that we are working on on our office is the uh pay 25 Levy um we are getting all the data um submitted the deadline for that initial data is um August 27th and once they close the window on the data collection or the initial data collection um we will be receiving um preliminary reports um again that'll be that first week of September as well we'll go through um Kevin and I go through those line by line to make sure that um the information looks accurate we'll go through that with the finance committee and this will be on the September board and um just as a reminder that's something we typically will certify at maximum and that allows for any corrections that the state may have and then the actual numbers we will certify um um with hard numbers in December at our truth and Taxation hearing so we're kind of into the beginning of the lovey season so between the audit and lovey and this is kind of my favorite time of the year um and then lastly um we do have our next School Board finance committee meeting on September 5th and that's a kind of an exciting uh meeting too again we'll be reviewing our lovey we will be reviewing our first days of school enrollment as well as um updated um audit data so that's what we have going on in our office um any questions all right thank you very much teaching and learning so as I get going uh tonight uh we were embarking another school year and this morning we had the pleasure of meeting 12 new teachers today and I'll tell you 12 was more wonderful than 24 25 has been in the last couple years but um really uh just a testament to uh the work our principles have done and Emily rman our director of special services we hiring just a a topn group of people so we are on our way and I'll bring my slides up here so I have three things tonight to share with you this is the time of the year when and standardized test scores are released and tonight I'll be presenting on our AP best placement results and a lot of great news uh to share with you tonight uh we'll start with in 2024 we had 327 AP exams taken by 203 students and you can see the trend history that that's about right in the ballpark what we've done for a number of years and what's really exciting to share with you tonight we're at an all-time high of the percentage of those that take an AP test earn a passing score now in general passing score is a three or higher colleges universities set their own standard but we look at a three and we're right at 80% that is an alltime high so of all the AP exams this year 80% um earned a three or high which is wonderful and you can see the low point in 2021 we were in the pandemic we're dealing with a bunch of different things and we're coming out of that very very competitively the other the other pieces to share with you are the AP scholar designations and we're at an all-time high of 60 Scholars since we've tracked AP data since 2007 30 high school students are in the AP scholar status and you can read what the qualification is 15 earned AP scholar with honors and then another 15 earned AP scholar with distinction that distinction column is for students that took five or more AP courses a minimum of a 3.5 average on all those AP exams so Mark is that over the the course of just one year high school their High School career got it so this is the graduating class of of 2021 so truly some just wonderful things Happ happening uh with our students and then I wanted to call out with you um just some we noticed in in our analysis of the AP results certain courses really had great success this year so at AP English Lit had an 86% passing rate a 3.41 average score AP stats 100% passing rate AP US Government 91% passing rate so F your seniors typically taking an AP course they had a 3.75 average and then with AP US History and AP World went off the charts for those courses alltime School record 75% passenger that is typically your sophomores they first AP cour team with a 3.09 average score and AP World History your Juniors 96% passing rate with a 4.0 average score some truly strong uh results coming through and so what happened well part of it is the intentional work of our AP teachers intentional work of focusing on what the instructional practices need to be in an AP course looking at the course content it's also principal herel meeting with ap teachers talking about what the expectation is what we feel is that we can do differently and that's the fruits of their Rel so the same things that I now next week where uh Jolene and I will be meeting with ap teachers we'll go you results we'll do an analysis or review of what went well what didn't apply that wisdom to this year and we anticipate another strong year coming up 202 so job well done is that are those so do you have a sense of of course you do like how many like you got the eight staff 100% passing me like how many kids are taking so so AP stats I someone would ask that AP stats that was 11 students so on a smaller end but when you look at your government US History world history that typically could be anything from 25 to 30 if there's one section of those those courses sometimes we have two sections I don't have those exact numbers but those are full classrooms didn't these classes and do um do most students then sit for the exam if they take the course oh yes do you have any students that don't that there are always a few I don't have that stat but typically we're all in together to do this and and you do have a few AP courses where we don't provide a course like macroeconomics is an AP course or AP Computer Science we'll have one or two students that they just love that subject area and they can sit for the exam whether they're in a course or not but we do encourage our students we're going to take an AP course take the examp practice learn from it there's no harm is is it typical I'm assuming it's typical that generally the AP students are taking more than one AP test course or am I WR depends on the student for like your your soft sores typically they may be taking one you know us history some might be taking AP biology which is typically in the sophomore year uh it it really depends on the student U we have a few students are maybe taking up to three AP courses that is intense um we say keep it to one or two but that is a family decision then we have students that may decide they want to take postsecondary options so taking classes instead of AP so they might be taken an AP a couple PSO classes um there's sometimes students will take uh a couple APS their junior year less their senior year there's really varies but I think Mark is right that sophomore a lot of times US History sometimes they'll complement it with a science and a math that certain students might be doing that so has there been any change to the AP Court offerings this year as opposed to last year or they're the same they're the same is that is that a yearly review of say participation rates or maybe something new comes along or something is offered is something maybe dropped from lack of whatever we we're at the high school we're very solid on the AP courses that we want to offer or we feel that is best for students there's a there is a process to add an AP you it's something you just don't add on a whim there's required training there's certification um it's something that you want to look at your overall program to say do we have a a missing link is there a place where we can we can do better you know we've had discussions about AP English Lit there's also AP English uh language that could be something we could add but it's all part of our same process of when we want to add courses at the high school we have a very succinct process we go through with the department and with a particular teacher that's going to be asking to determine if we're going to do that the coming year or not but right now we'll be offering the exact same um AP courses as we did last year I just thought there maybe you know as parents come in and student there's turnover and stuff like that there might be some I wouldn't say ground swell but there might be interests as time goes on and different people come in in different AP areas that they you know they look at or they request certainly and and that could happen um no one has come to me yet on that but that certainly could happen and we would have a discussion about that absolutely so I mean so we don't have for example AP Chemistry in ER we we have had we have offered AP Chemistry and there's an example where that was a little bit of a ground swell by students and families that wanted that and we did offer it but then we learned after 3 four years the number of students signing out for AP Camp dropped and then when you only have four or five registered for an AP cam course that becomes really challenging for us to offer that so that would be an example where we would listen to families students and then there is the economics of offering courses that we have to think about too and that's really hard to offer for example e can when only four or five ask for could we bring it back absolutely but like for the statistics you got 11 kids so the critical mass was 10 I think it I think it sometimes depends so there's there's um I would say yeah if you can clear 10 but it also just depends on how your financial year is uh looking right Sometimes some of the s es can compete against each other and so the same students are trying to decide which one is it that they're wanting it's sometimes the play where a PSO comes in for if you have a handful of students that want that they can they seek out that experience but in the end we we want to have the courses that our kids want to take and we try to stay Nimble enough about rotating uh what they are is there a reciprocity possible possible between say schools that are in similar locations or groupings and stuff like that that may be able to be offered that the kids are will to travel to a class in another school yeah is it's a great idea what would happen is that you'd have to open en roll into to the school um typically that has not happened because then you're talking I'm in one system for part of the day and another system another day gets pretty messy you're dealing with ility for different students and so usually it's online or it's PSO when they those are those are kind of major hurdles that they're hard yeah yeah but good question I'm just going to follow up with just a couple other things um I've talked with you about the read Act and the read Act is alive and well it is something that's a requirement from the Department of Ed and again the goal of the read Act is to ensure every Minnesota child that's reading at or level every year and the big piece of this that impacts staff is the required professional development that um has to be done and we have launched into that as every Minnesota district has and this is just a very quick summary of what is happening with reading professional development there are three different uh um professional development programs that we're using early letters that is for preschool staff letters is for your Elementary staff and core is for both Elementary Middle School and High School staff and as you can see early letters that' be your Preschool teachers and assistants that have started that uh it's also for preschool special education teachers it's about 25 hours of training the core and Ola stands it's another acronym I can't tell you tonight exactly that is but it is Ola an acronym for breathing uh training or letters that is for currently our elementary teachers gry language art teachers our K12 special ed teachers intervention teachers and administrators um very very busy this summer with learning about reading uh how kids learn to read um science of reading research in that and again these are robust programs as you can see letters early childhood about I said 25 is actually 40 hours letters for the the majority of our St 120 hours completed over two years and then the core the Ola is 50 hours and have great great respect for our staff that are are doing this we have built this into their contractual time so during the summer uh principles have worked with their staff uh to trade out Flex time to do some of this work workshop days this this year are going to be dominated by this and you know the goal is let's do it right let's make sure it makes an impact on our students in the classroom and let's do it in a collaborative way some districts they are they're just paying their staff to do it on your own t that's great but what you're missing on that model is the collaboration and that's what we're after is the collaboration talk with each other about what you're learning how you going to apply it into your classroom that is the end result with that so myself building principles Emily Russman we'll be working with staff with this and will there be some stress along the way absolutely this is a lot of time um going in into this training and it's just need to be very thoughtful and sensitive uh with our staff as they go through this but I will tell you I'm taking the core training myself it's solid it's absolutely solid robust and I would give it a great of an a the infrastructure how they they put it together between synchronous sessions asynchronous uh workbook uh reflection time it's done well so more come on that and we'll be talking to staff as we get into this year um the school starting short there'll be a phase two training coming up and it'll involve High School staff our Kade 12 per professionals uh Department of Ed has not shared with us yet what that training is going to look like it'll look different because the training right now is all about foundations of how to read so when you're working with secondary students secondary students that maybe are struggling with reading how do we support them so there'll be more details coming but nothing's been released yet but that'll be coming here sometime this year the start date um for the previous has started the end date is July 1st 2026 phase two will start July 1st 2025 and they'll have till July 1st 2027 so it's it's a long-term commitment that we're we're all in together okay last thing I want to share with you so so my summer has been about reading uh redact work and it's also been about high school redesign and uh Julene and I we we kid ourselves that I think now we could go on the show and we could set up a machining shop anywhere in this state we know our stuff we know our stuff and uh during uh the middle of end of July Dale Kimble that'll be one of you know he'll be the instructor for Machining he and I went to What's called the htech conference at Dunwood and hos you'll get to know Hos Hos is the Premier manufacturer of CNC Mills and they have this huge arm of making them financially available to high schools in ke2 institutions so they put on this big conference at D with and it it truly was a terrific time so Dale and I are networking we're meeting lots of different high school and University instructors we're talking with equipment vendors we're meeting with Dunwoody staff we're getting a taste of what these machines are that second picture with Dale that is a Hos and seamill we're going to have one of those in our Machining lab you know in a couple years I have a conference call with a rep from hos tomorrow we're going to talk a little bit more in detail about exactly the spec for that uh EJ dagel over on the right side he's a Dean at Dunwoody he's going to be a partner with us he knows exactly what we're trying to build and he wants to make sure that we can do it right you have the information you need let us help you and be a partner with you when it comes to the big questions that might come up with installation ventilation power so he's going to be there with us the the lower left hand corner those are CN C Mills so that's the manual I'm sorry that's CNC mill is what DS buy that's like the automated Mill the manual Mill down here in the lower leftand corner that's where students start their Machining uh learning so we'll be having a few of those and then over the right hand side is a welding St so we're studying we're we're talking with dunwitty we're talking with different equipment reps about what is it that we have to make sure we have in place to build out a robust program so lot of lot of great things that are that are coming up um in the coming years here but really was had to happen is that we have to know our blueprint we have to know the equipment we have to know what the program is going to be all those details so w puts that together for us so that we can start building it like next summer or whatever that time is so lot happening a lot of exciting things happening here and I will just close that at our September meeting I'll be coming with State MCA results for you and then we'll do a little review of our mtas multier system support update with you we'll be on our way thank you thanks okay so last Monday we had uh the start of fall Sports and already today we we had the beginning of competitions girls girls tennis already were uh having doubles on the courts and so it's exciting and we're moving and just a a great shout out to our custodians and our grounds crew over the summer uh this summer was particularly um busy for grounds with the wet weather the warm weather uh you know how often you had to mow your Lawns just to keep up and they wanted to keep these fields in the condition but then the rest of everything else in those conditions and so just a shout out to them that they they did a really nice job and will continue to uh we have this sum or the Saturday already we have soccer soccer games kick us off we have football scrimmage and so we're we're in the throws of it and it's exciting to have kids starting to come back uh this Thursday we have fast start at the high school so we start seeing the families at large we've had eligibility meetings with families and so there's this progression of each day you get a little bit more we had new teachers here uh today and so we do a weeklong training with new teachers this Thursday all teachers will be back and a number of our pair of professionals will be back uh and so that's exciting to bring them uh into the mix we've had bus drivers uh already in training and so last week this week starts getting a little bit more then the following week we have open open house for a lot of our kids and it's um it's here the back of the school and that's exciting because you work over the summer uh to get ready for the next year and you get to this point where you say um we're ready and so uh custodians are just doing the final touches on getting room set u speaking of facilities uh tennis courts are moving along and so if you take a picture where we were uh this middle of July and where we are now the middle of August we went from uh the trees were cleared but uh dirt was not yet moved to now uh the first section of four quarts uh there's sand down the posts are in we're starting to frame for concrete uh the second set of Four Courts is sand is going in later this week we'll have post going in for them I'd say by mid next week end of next week we're going to start seeing the concrete trucks start coming in and so um it's an exciting time it continues to move for our primary Early Learning and Shirley Hills security projects um they continue to uh finalize the lockdown capabilities the one thing that'll go uh into September is some of our glazing of glass and replacement of glass and so we've worked with our primary principles how will uh stretch that into the school as we operate our opening lead times on glass uh are longer and so we knew that this would be one that kind of pushed us at the end and we're U working on a plan of doing that but a huge thanks to the community for the support of these projects being being able to move forward um the security projects when you take pictures of that of doors going in I know it's not quote unquote exciting to see the doors but the function of the doors is really a great not just Comfort but an expectation of how we can better keep our kids safe and so those things mean a lot uh the kids playing on the tennis courts looking across the new ones going in there's a lot more appetite of saying boy that's exciting because they see the cracks and what they're working through and what's coming up and so we're we're excited about the projects we're continuing to move forward with the design of the middle school and the high school we really expect the high school to be re going out for bid in October uh receiving those back in November at some point and so roughly October November when those go out when we should uh see results Grand View will be a little bit behind what the high school is and so that's naturally set just a little bit later but um that'll be really exciting to finalize that design work and then also get get that out and uh start moving forward with it as we get into the year more we'll release more information of how we're going to phase in these projects but I think you can expect the high school to start late spring and you'll see uh the Grand View project really happening over the summer months uh to all that have been involved in the planning really want to say say thank you uh we as uh Kathy mentioned our Auditors are coming in a couple weeks and so our finance department is uh finalizing that preparation in addition to what they do on a monthly basis and so I really appreciate that team uh you saw communication this past month on our brand roll out and so that is uh coming out and I'll talk more about that at our September meeting I would highlight that our policy committee is going to start looking at our goal setting process and we'll start reviewing uh in 2026 we're going to be ready for a new uh slate of goals and so with the policy committee looking at our process I believe that we'll be working with the whole board on this probably at a special board meeting that we will call out and set a date but I would expect in the winter to just talk a little bit about our process and then uh move forward with uh the goal setting but we're excited about that we're um totally engaged with our current goals of facilities and working through some of our supports for mental health some of our academic supports Mark talked about the redac but also there's a lot that we're just working on with our our benchmarks and how we meet those benchmarks um but with that um we're going to be excited for the new challenges ahead of us I would just conclude uh my comments that both sh and Matt spoke about uh uh the careers of a prayer professional what that means here in West Tonka I think uh sh's words were very accurate and there was some acronyms that were used in there but with all those acronyms and I'm not going to go back and she used the term uh bip and bip is a behavioral intervention plan uh she talked about some things that were medically related she talked about some of the mental health supports and so they're dealing uh they have a very important job and she used the word glue and I think it's all of glue and more I mean they're not just connecting other professionals to other professionals but they're really the supports that our kids need to thrive here I think Matthew spoke really well as a parent and also a parent of what those uh supports mean for the success and just a little bit of the culture we try to live here at West honka so I I know I from conversations that I've had with all of you our respect for the professionals that are in our district and the work that they have at hand I would just want to comment that they accurately spoke of their profession the importance of it and the heart that they give it and appreciate um the extended efforts they do to do their job well and we're excited to have them back so that is my he alluded to health insurance issues and some alluding to the fact that our staff is maybe more qualified than maying District staff and have less pay is is that the case no I I know there's always Health Care issues so I think with I think with health health care uh you're going to see different packages offered by different districts but we really work at having a competitive uh package for all of our employee groups and so through the process of negotiation we really those are expectations of us that we can uh attract and retain and honor the work that they do and we look at that and how some of that is comparisons that we see around us uh typically with our employee groups our packages for our different employee groups are stronger than the districts to our West and we have some larger more Metro districts where maybe those are a little bit higher but we try to stay consistent with our different employee groups overall that's consistent with everything else that we've been doing we yes and that's what our goal here through our negotiation processes to achieve and maintain that but yeah I think um trying to be competitive in that field definitely consistent Kevin you alerted to also to uh the the glass and security for the doors yeah are do we have workarounds because the students are what 10 days away 12 days away yeah so both in timing or how we utilize different entrances exits so of course for main operations for code of course we will meet all of those but there will be times where we might be um might be directing people to a different exit if that's needed or we would operate it in a way where uh glass is going in but right I mean we have we'll have a protocol in place in case uh something on a job gets hung up or something there a day or two we're going to pretty much replace as we go uh through some of these systems okay thank you chair moves approval of the consent agenda is there a second second any discussion all in favor signify by saying I I I'll oppos say n motion carries moving on to action items the chair moves approval of action item 7A approval of adult and staff Food Service program fees for 20242 is there a second second any discussion there was a a correction uh from I think the earlier version there is a slight price increase for these and think it ranges from about 5 to 15 cents so there is a little bit different in the earlier version of this all in favor signify by saying I I I'll oppos say n motion carries chair moves approval of action item 7B approval of reducing and open Mound West TKA high school special education par professional position 2.56 FTE is there a second second any discussion all favor signify by saying I I I all oppose say n motion carries the chair moves approval of action item 7 C approval of the 2024 2026 contract between the principal Association and the West Tonka school district is there a second second any discussion all in favor signify by saying I I I I'll oppose say n motion carries moving on to closed session the open meeting law Minnesota statute section 13d .03 allows the school board to close a meeting to discuss labor negotiations for the ssse and Food Service employee groups the chair moves to close this meeting for this purpose is there a second second all in favor signify by saying I I opposed say n moot carries we will go into close session in conference room a okay calling the meeting back to order is there any further business to come before the board tonight if not the chair moves for adjournment is there a second second all in favor signify by saying I I all opposed the meeting is adjourned thank you thank you