like to call the West School Board meeting to order. Everybody would please rise and join us in the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance 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 uh with the removal of the contract for Cameron Nettle um for a long-term substitute. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. Um announcements. Facility community meeting this Wednesday 7 o'clock right here. Graduation June 1st 6 p.m. He had Arfield. We're praying for great weather. So, uh, finance committee meeting June 4th at 7:30 a.m. and the regular board meeting. Oh, on my birthday, June 8th. >> Couldn't ask for a better birthday party. >> All right. At this time, I would like to invite Jeff Peterson to the front to uh share the success. Well, first I'd say uh just thanks to our school board for your efforts and support. Uh we've got some great things to talk about today. I'm excited about uh all of them. Uh the first uh first order of business is to invite uh Megan LKA up front. Uh Megan is our speech coach. She is in I asked her, it feels like a little bit longer, but she said she's been our head coach for four years, and our program is absolutely soaring under her leadership. Uh, this year we sent five students, uh, to the state tournament, and Megan was recognized as our section coach of the year. And so, uh, Henry Rugimer, Orin Butterfield, Zachary Van Nelson, Connor Christensen, and Hannah Christian Christensen. Come on up. Go ahead. >> Go ahead. Yeah. Well, thank you everybody for having us and thank you for your support um to our program. We started practicing before Thanksgiving. Um and then we just had the state tournament a couple weekends ago. Um Henry Rubmer competes in humorous interpretation. Um and then Zachary, if you want to wave, he's a storyteller. He competes in storytelling. Um Orin Butterfield made it to finals at state. He is a storyteller competitor as well. He placed seventh um in our um competition. And then Connor Christensen, he is in creative expression. He placed fourth in state. And then Hannah Christensen also placed fourth in state in serious poetry interpretation. I do need to tell you that we're in the one of the toughest um sections in the state of Minnesota. So getting kids to to state is a huge accomplishment. The most we've ever ever had is three kiddos and and now we have five. So we're growing and building. We haven't had enough of speech. Um so we just competed in a national tournament last weekend in Chakapi. Um I am taking 10 students, a couple of which are here to MCFL in Washington DC. We'll be there over Memorial weekend. Um and then finally, um Hannah's going to compete in Richmond, Virginia at our NSDA competition. It's one of the most competitive, um competitions, and we're so proud that she got in there. So, thank you for your support. I absolutely love these kids, and I love what I do. So, we appreciate it. >> Congratulations. Congratulations to get >> four. Just a really quick uh kind of fun story. I saw uh Connor in the hallway on Monday after the state speech meet and I said, "Congratulations." And Connor said, "Thank you. I am the fourth most creative person in the state." And I said, "Well, as a ninth grader, you've got uh you got three more years to be the most creative. So, no pressure, Connor, but you can do it. You're the fourth most creative person in the state. We learned >> let's get to work on that now. >> Reverse. >> Yeah. All right. >> Okay. Last weekend we uh we sent uh Erica Johnson to the Athena lunch and it's really one of the greatest days of of the year. Um they recognized 53 female athletes from across the metro area and um originally uh and they every other year they flip-flop. They start at A and then they start at W. Good luck at the choir concert. They're all going to the choir concert. Uh and this year they started with uh West Tanka. So, I know Gary's been there. It's a It's a wonderful day, but when you're stuck in the middle at Mount West, Tonka, you you it didn't matter if they started at the top or the bottom. So, this year was was super quick. Uh Eric is not here tonight with us, but uh parents are Chad and Tammy. Um Chad is one of our diving coaches and just does a phenomenal job. Um and uh Erica, just a few accolades. uh academic all state in swim and dive and gymnastics. Likely the track has not been completed yet. Um state gymnastics uh all state state participant in gymnastics, state participant in uh diving. This past year, I believe she placed fourth at the state dive meet. um three sport, threeseason athlete in gymnastics, track and field, and diving. She will compete at St. Cloud State and is again is our 2026 uh Athena Award winner. We had some just uh tremendous other female athletes um that she kind of went against and uh and she came out as our our top candidate. So, congratulations to Erica. Uh, Cooper Row. Cooper, come on up. Cooper, uh, he's been here before in front of you. Uh, I think two years ago as the, uh, Panama game uh, champion uh, and was MVP of that tournament if I recall. >> Yeah. And then uh we brought him back because he won the state tournament. And then we brought him back again last year because he won the state tournament. And if you recall, I put the pressure on him at that time to uh to three repeat. And so, uh Cooper um three time state. I'm not sure what's going on there. Let me see if I can fix it. Um we got a construction update. He's doing math. >> There we go. >> There we go. Um, it's not showing up as one on my screen, but uh, this photo Oops. I'm going to not touch it. This photo was at the state tournament. Uh, Cooper had really an easy time at the state tournament this year. I feel bad uh because he just kind of uh he just made easy work of it, but it was really fun to watch. Cooper's been a really fun uh wrestler. Cooper's a fivetime state entrant. He's going to wrestle at the University of Minnesota um next year. Um he's also played football and golf during his high school career. And again, we had a lot of really um awesome male athletes to to look at and choose. and Cooper came out as our 2026 Yo Adorf uh Leupold Award winner, which I think was this backslide, which we just announced today. I called Cooper on Friday. We didn't have school Friday, so I was going to talk to him, but then Cooper didn't show up, so I waited until about 11 uh and I asked if I gave him enough time and he said, "Yeah, I got up about an hour ago." So, um, super super excited to recognize, uh, Cooper, but today we have invited, uh, Jack Nelson. Come on up, Jack. Jack is, uh, one of our other three-time state champions in wrestling and was a 2024 graduate and is uh, wrestling at the University of Minnesota. And then somehow I was able to get uh, Gary Herdman to come on up here. So, Gary, come on up. Uh Gary Gary was our uh first three-time state champion uh 1960 graduate. And uh so today we're going to get a nice photo of these three guys. AND >> can I get a school? Now, I just I'll I'll warn the school board that as Gary works his way around here, it's like a vice grip. So, be careful. >> Congratulations, Cooper. Yep. Pretty excited. >> All right, Gary, you start right there with Brian. Work your way around. >> Thanks for coming. >> Yeah, head this way now. >> Thank you for coming, guys. I should say we'll watch both and then both you guys. >> Thank you. It's nice. So, three three times. Thank you. >> Good luck next year. >> And I never got out of section, so I'm feeling pretty bad. >> So, kind of just a fun moment uh from a historical perspective. Uh opportunity to recognize Cooper, but also uh Jack and Gary and uh and bring those guys all under the same roof. Um so, appreciate everyone's support here. Uh really looking forward to finishing up the the spring strong. Uh we've had great weather. I'm going to knock on some fake wood, but we've had great weather and so we just look to kind of keep going. But thank you. >> I I also just want to say thank you for it's so nice of Cooper. You've come multiple times and you say really probably even coming again. But uh your accomplishments I mean being a three-time state champ that's incredibly impressive. And then for our past three time state champs to make the effort on his night to be here. Uh that's a history that we're really proud of and to get a picture of the three of you together uh means a lot to us. So thank you for being here. Congratulations on your success and looking forward to a good graduation coming up. >> Thank you. >> Next. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to the board today? >> Said not. >> Um then we'll move on to uh the student rep report. >> Wonderful. >> On their own, huh? >> I know you left me today. The speech won't be as good as those speech kits, but I'm doing my best. It's actually pretty short. >> It's not going to be the fourth best in >> No, I'm not that great. But yeah, so we'll start back with the sports. The girls lacrosse team is currently 4 and three. They had a game today against Holy Family. I'm not actually sure if they won, but they're four and three and they're looking for a good rest of the season. The boys lacrosse team, on the other hand, though, is off to a rocky start. Uh they'll be playing Bloomington Jefferson on the road today. Yet again, I don't know what happened, but they will be playing. And then the track team has actually been practicing hard and they've been off to a good start to the season. I don't know where they've been going, but they haven't been able to use the track. They've been going somewhere every day on the bus. Uh they have another conference tomorrow at Jordan. And then the boys tennis team is off to a 4 and4 start. Um heard that from my friend, so I hope that's right. But they have another meet tomorrow at home. And then finally, baseball team has had another rocky start to the season, but they're also looking to bounce back against the Holy Family tomorrow night. Uh activities on the other hand are also coming to an end pretty quickly here. Uh NHS had their induction recently for their new and returning members and they will be having their final meeting actually on Wednesday. So, it's coming to end here pretty quickly. Uh this past weekend was prom. Student Senate hosted that at the Lafayette Club and many students said they love the food and dance. So that's good news. Uh and then finally, DECA had 11 students place in the top 10 at ICDC which is amazing along with many students actually finalizing in their events. So that's an international career development conference. So we did very well there actually. Um moving to the arts, the WHS choir will be having their concert tonight at 7. I heard that. Well, my sister actually told me when I was writing this that it's supposed to be good, so you should go. Uh, the middle school band actually performed last week along with the choir at a place called the Back Channel Brewery. I heard that it was good. There was a lot of photos online. And then moving on to academics, AP season just finished up today with AP Calc. Well, the final one here that we offer, so that was pretty cool. uh many many students participated in numerous tests and we're hoping to set a lot of new records this year hopefully if the tests went well. Uh and then finally there's only a couple more weeks of school left so everyone's just excited for the end of the school year in graduation. Uh finally on construction the north doors just opened so that's a huge change. People are going through those doors instead of the ones up here. That is all I have today. >> Hey >> that's a good lead in for Take the whole thing. >> Your chance to be fourth in state. >> Oh boy. >> All right. Well, as you said, we we had a big turnover here this last month. Um had the administrative space turned over. This is the light green space. Um, and then had the the entrance moved to the north which allowed us to get to work in the in the courtyard area. Get some of the pictures. >> Did you guys see the drone footage? You want You want to see it again or Yeah, it's pretty cool. >> Yeah, we'll just click on that first. This is in within the last I think about a week ago we took this >> and what we're seeing is all in the old track, right? >> Yeah. Yep. And then obviously here's the new entrance with the temporary sidewalk in Yes. This is the outline obviously of the old track and they're they're uh basically doing the the art of trying to figure out all the good sand and the bad sand and saving. I don't know if I've ever seen that many trucks going back and forth. It's crazy. >> Yeah. >> So, they do they do uh when the weather's nice, they they go >> they do. >> Um so, we did start we have started working in the courtyard area. So, we're we're we're getting that that going this month. Um CTE some pictures of the CTE machine shop. Um, starting the little theater demo, LRC demo, just a couple pictures of the exterior of the front wrapping up the the facade work. >> So, pretty soon we'll see the new the new name up there. >> Yep. Yep. >> The new uh new spaces we just handed over being occupied. They're amazing. We went tour. It's just it's really nice. >> Awesome. >> Um then the gym work where we we started in there off to the races to get done by June of August for sports and then uh as soon as they moved out we moved in and started demoing. So that's Yeah. So, that's kind of the the the gist of the the update. Um, I said we're working heavy on the on the fields. Um, had our turnover. So far so good. Everything seemed to be working working. Yeah. So, it it was a couple compliments. It was uh we set the date and we stuck to that date when we set of our admin turnover. Uh huge compliment to our office staff for being an active office on Friday at 3 pm and then being an active office at 7:45 a.m. the next morning. There's a lot that's involved in when you talk about a nurse's office and all the technology and the security and the communication systems. And then you just start talking about things that you depend on, which probably doesn't seem big, but all the forms and all the paper and everything else when you're running to not just have it, but have it in an organized way that you can function in a new space that you really haven't kicked the tires on. And they did that incredibly, incredibly well. Um, we're really excited about the new spaces. Uh, I think, um, very proud that our counseling area has its own private entrance that it has, uh, such a a pleasant area for our students to go in. Uh, our career uh, college room where we can bring in people to talk to our students is absolutely beautiful. It's it's uh, I think it's the best room in the district. and it'll be used for a lot of different meetings, but also it's a great place where our kids can connect with those next steps. Um, just very thankful of our community support. It's wonderful and we just keep on opening up the next things. So, now we've turned over the old offices which will be the nursing area and this summer then we turn over art and music and the cafeteria. One of the big projects is taking down the stairs in the cafeteria and building that back on where the server is going to go. So that's the intensity now. That's a big turnaround and a lot of work there to do. But um they've been working on different plans and we'll be taking that that'll be a summer slam. That'll be >> kind of well we had a little bit of a low here like two call it a low. We're working hard on the the admin space, but now we're in about five or six different areas going going hard and fast now. So hopefully or luckily you guys only have another three three weeks or so left before you guys head out on summer break and we can really go at it. So >> um I think the answer is yes. There are no students or teachers that are in temporary spaces anymore, right? No, >> it's been a while. Couple months. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So at uh around oh it was around uh winter break is when that changed. Uh and since then we've been all everybody in their classrooms. >> Ran into a student who was working at Costco a senior. He said he thought his English class was in eight different spaces this year. >> Yeah. >> I just thank for his patience. >> Yeah. Yeah. there. It uh it definitely our students and our staff have been tremendous with the flexibility, but when you talk to them, they're really excited about it, really thankful of the space. And so that there remains that spirit in the midst of construction. Anyone that's done a house remodel know that you're excited, but you're also kind of ready for that to be done. >> Yeah. So yeah, there's there's some more of the the areas, but thank you, Gary. >> Thank you. >> All right. Y >> we'll move on to the treasures report in the month of April. We begin with the Nordic boosters. Nic Team $4,780.36. West Hockey Boosters. West boys hockey $2,145. West Tanka hockey boosters West Tanka girls hockey $1,850 WP West Tanka Middle School $38367 WMSPTO memorial bench for Lily Lano $500 Friends of Lano family memorial bench for Lily Lano $600 anonymous Wolfridge donations $1,50 Mary and Kathleen Excel Larry XL scholarship $1,000. Northwest Tonka Lions Northwest Tank Lions Scholarship $1,000 Butch Humber Cross Country Scholarship $100 Truit Law Office Eric Hogan Hagen Hagen excuse me scholarship $500. Puit Law I'm sorry Farmers Market Mountain Farmers Market Scholarship $2,000. West Tanka basketball boosters. Larry XL scholarship $500. Jenna and Bernard Duning Mound West Tampa class of 1975 scholarship $200. Fidelity Charitable Sue Riley Scholarship $2,000. West Tanka Hockey Booster Student Activities $6,85.35. Jean Hos Foundation First Robotics Club $3,000. Mighty Cause Charitable West Tonka Community Theater, $25. Anonymous VOCCE $500. 4.0 School Services West Tanka staff and retiree recognition $750. Laughler West Tanka staff and retiree recognition $500 and W Architects West Tanka staff and retirey recognition $1,000. Year-to- date total contributions $256,54428. And Mr. Board Chair and fellow board members, I've looked at the check ledger for April and survey the checks and all seems to be in good order. >> Thank you, Ralph. We'll move on to the financial report then, Kathy. >> Okay. All right. Good evening, everyone. Um, I'll be providing just a real brief overview of our financial data through the end of um, April 30th, uh, 2026 and the highlights of our May 1st enrollment counts. Um, enrollment as of May 1st is 2,456 students. Um, this will be the final report that I'll be giving for this fiscal year or school year um, on the monthly counts um, moving into June. and then we'll do the full um annual recap and take those numbers and then move ahead with our audit. So you can see from start to finish um we haven't had a great variance um a dozen kids or less. So very pleased with our um enrollment this school year. Um financial recap through the end of April we have uh received 30,899,000 or 68.8% 8% of our revenue and expenditures are at 33,8 33,48,000 or 74.2. Um, and the takeaway when looking at both of these summaries is you'll find that both the receipts and the expenditures um appear to be on target as we march into the last couple months of the fiscal year. And just a few other things again just um we're working on the budget um that is in the final stages and we'll be back um I'll be back in June with that presentation. We're also uh working with our insurance agent on um getting property liability and workman's comp rates. And again, we'll be recapping all of this um at our finance committee meeting um the first Thursday in June. Everything I'm hearing in the news talks about insurance rates going up for everybody. Are you seeing that for schools as well >> at this point, do you think, or is it too early to tell? >> We haven't gotten our rates yet, but they always um forewarn us um with that. Um but right, and I you're you're correct. I think whether it's property liability or work comp or even um in the medical dental um I think that um experience is um definitely out there for folks. Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Teaching learning report. There we go. So I have three updates for you uh tonight and I might have shared with you at our last meeting. We were planning for a district AI release day meeting and we had that on April 29th and we had two goals for that day. It was to create version one of a Westona AI procedural manual that'll be a playbook that we'll use with anything that has to do with AI across the district. And then we wanted to build and create an implementation plan for August workshop week and really identify at the building level the different tasks and the different focuses around AI that we'll implement um during the 26 27th school year. What I want to emphasize as we talked about at our release day is that there's two really big frameworks that we really hook everything on. And the first one is we just call it the three pillars. The three pillars will always be in the center of our view. Safety and security thinking about student data, privacy of data, ethical decision making that is more student focused. So how kids use AI, how we train students, how we communicate with students about ethical use of an AI tool. And then making sure whether you're a parent, uh, student, staff member, administrator, we're constantly learning. You know, AI is going to be something that is going to keep evolving. We got to keep learning. We got to keep on top of our game with that. So, we start with the three pillars and then we get into what is called the H AIH framework and where you start with what they call human inquiry. That's where you have a problem to solve. you're gonna you have a task. We use AI. We use the term thought partner, but people so many people assume we just stop right there. But you have to take the last part, the human empowerment. In the end, you have to decide as an individual what you're going to do with that information. There's the deeper thinking, the critical thinking, the problem solving. And those two sets of framework, those two frameworks are critical with anything that we do that we talk about that with our parents, with our students, with our staff. That's our anchor in everything with AI. And I do believe we do well with communicating those items. If there are concerns, if there's stress about the use of AI in our school system, it should settle because we have a plan in place. We have a direction of how we're going to do this work. Now we're going to start implementing the other the other piece of this uh this um releasing that we had. We brought in Rick Dresen and Jake Triple from QBS Quadbridge Solutions. They were with us in the morning and we really uh got after looking at instructional protocols with AI. We talked about student guidelines. We looked at staff guidelines involving an AI tool vetting process. We talked about parent communications and we'll be having something coming out with parents this spring. We'll have something back to school. There'll be a lot more parent involvement with just everything that's going on with AI. And then we also talked about yes, there's teachers, but there's also non-eing staff that we need to train. So, we really talked about what that's going to look like in the coming school year. So, what we're aiming for at the start of this coming year, we'd love to have an AI policy in place. So, that'll be up to you. Make that happen. We're going to have a procedural manual completed. It ready to be implemented. We're going to have an initial vetted list of AI tools and no more going out free. this tool, that tool is free. You know, demo this for us. It's going to be more very intentional. These are the tools that we know are safe, have been vetted, that will serve our students well. And then we're going to start building focus training and that'll start at August workshop week. That'll be staff. It'll include teachers, career professionals. I met with food service today and talked with them. there is u you know there's everyone will have some version of training with AI and that'll begin next year. So what I would just say to you is where I really felt a year ago we're going to start talking about this. I really thought everything I'm sharing with you tonight that was going to be in 26 27 and here we are and it's going. But what my message is tonight is that it is well thought out. We are working hard to really be ready and wrapped up for the 2627 school year and we still feel a little bit behind. But I think that's the nature of what this looks like. And the um the the I'll just go back here. The last thing I want to mention about this, you'll see in your agenda tonight the request to approve a district AI coordinator position. And that that position really is well positioned for us that that person will work hand in hand with me that we are really on top of all the different elements around AI from training to policy to procedures. What's the next wave coming in that we are well positioned to address that? And I'm I'm just going to end on this piece. There's so many opportunities for our students and for learning and for instruction that if we do this well, this can be a very powerful tool for us. And of course, if it's not done well, it's ripe for a lot of issues, but we have really positioned ourselves now to go into the next school year ready to go with this. So, so that's an update on that. Also wanted to mention tonight, uh, it is it is testing season. And you heard a little bit of it in the student report. We just finished all of our MCAs back at the end of April. And August 2026, we'll get the results back on the MCA3 math and the MCA MCA4 science. It'll be October 2026. We get the reading test back. That was like science last year. The state now isn't it's the first year with MCA full reading. the state takes the summer to set the skill scores to set all the benchmarks and staff, you know, staff are a little disappointed in that students do. They want to see how how we did, but that's just how it works. So, it'll be October. You just heard tonight we just finished up with our AP testing. We'll get those results back in July. I see every indication we're going to have another panel here of of results and and that's just a reflection on our instruction. It's a reflection on our student effort and just the support that we have here in our district. So >> Mark, were the number of students that taking the test up this year again? >> Yes. >> I heard I heard is quite a >> Yeah, we maybe had maybe 10 kids across the whole system out. Wow. Yeah, dramatic change. Well, so that's messaging. That's also talking to the students about the importance of our tests and uh yeah, I was really was really put together. Yeah. So, >> Mark, can you uh just give a minute on what AP seminar was? >> Yes. Yes. >> We slowly into that one. >> Yes. Yeah. >> Oh, this is this is probably uh one of the most exciting EP courses for me personally that we've been able to launch here and it's first year and it is it's a it's an interesting class. So, Kelsey Ralph in in our English department is the instructor. We have two sections uh primarily 10th grade but we have 10th through 12. And what I love about this this course, it is focused on research, analysis, defending a position, communicating a position. It is really designed to develop those skills that kids that are four-year college focused will go in through their college experience understanding what it means to write a paper. Not that they did it before, but they're taking it to another level with their research and analysis and defending um of a a position. And they get into different uh real world topics. They have to investigate. They have to research. They have to come up with a hypothesis of why something's happening in the world and then defend it. And um as you can see, it's written essays, it's team projects, it's multimedia pre presentations, everything that you're going to need your freshman year after you graduate. >> Does this give credit then? Like is an English course or how does it >> Yep. >> You're going on to college, you need so many English, so many science. >> It's an elective. It's an elective. U Yeah. I don't want to misquote that. It's in the English department. U there's an A there's an AP credit. So you're going to take an AP exam. So there you have the college credit piece if you want that. But this this is a newer AP course that AP College Board offers and it has really gotten some rave reviews. We're not the only high school that offers it. I'm pleased to share that we do offer it for our kids. >> Not every high school does. >> Not not every high school does. Uh but it's been really wellreceived and Kelsey is just really excited to teach it. So, so that's what's going on. >> It's interesting. It's it's early protoanalysis for advanced studies at the college level, for instance, defending a doctoral thesis is all based on that kind of >> that's what it is. >> That's what it is. So, some really some really good things. >> And then I just want to wrap up my piece here. uh you know the the the work continues, it flows, it just changes how we do the work. And then in the summer in particular, a busy summer around teaching learning, we uh continue with ReadAc literacy training. Now this time it's called phase two. That is our English department that now is getting their training. They're going to start this summer. It'll go through mid year next year. We're heavily into curriculum development for all our vocational program. And then I'll be working this summer with the department of ed, department of health, getting all of the u the EMR, EMT, the nursing assistance programs approved and verified. A little bit of a challenge because they do want to see the space. They want to see the equipment. That doesn't come till August, but they know it's new. they'll work with us uh to get that all in in place. And then the next three bullet points, there are new social studies standards and that's reflection of the work that's coming this summer around developing new ethnic studies elective course. There's some updates around 8th grade global studies and 10th grade US history that we're going to be working on with our teachers this summer. And then the college board is rolling out a brand new revamped AP statistics course. So Nicole Landon will be uh adopting a new book and it's a whole new approach to stats AP stats that she'll be working this summer. So we're constantly revising, we're constantly looking at what we need to do to keep our courses relevant and that's a little bit of the work that we'll be doing this summer. So >> very good. A lot of exciting stuff. >> Thank you for all your work. So, I'm going to take a little different position here uh just because I want to show a few slides. But one of the things that's part of your packet is uh approving uh policy where we talk about our vision mission and we've been working on our strategic plan, strategic goals now for a while. We've had multiple school board retreats. We've had some really rich discussion about the direction of our board, our district, and just really excited that the last one looked tired and we challenged oursel with new goals. And so my goal here isn't to read all these dates to you, but really just to display that there's been multiple meetings, uh, different retreats, ways that we've connected with our ATM group, etc. But it really brought us into uh this year establishing these strategic priorities and we've really uh some of it is pretty similar and there's some others that push us a little bit in some different directions. So when we looked at the priorities before uh finances and facilities, they all stood out as their separate goals and you're going to see those all under the investing in the small school advantage big school opportunities. When we talk about uh empowered and intentional innovation, it connects to what Mark was just talking about. And we know that we're in a different time right now and we have to define that. We got to ensure that it's safe for students, that we use it responsibly, but we also call out our direction and how can we really know how to leverage a tool, but not have a tool replace learning that our kids are really expected to be able to do. When we look at safety and well-being uh and stakeholder engagement, those are always tenants of our district. And then lastly, what's always our most important is just really focusing on our student success and doing that in a comprehensive way. When we talked about these, we took a little bit of time to talk about our vision and mission. And one thing that looked looking at our past vision statement, it was more about the district. it was a district modeling or a district delivering uh and we thought this had to be more student focused and so really appreciated the discussions with the board on coming up with empowering learners to create their own real life success stories. Then the mission statement is going to be a little bit familiar, but it's detailed again differently, really focusing in on our students. And so with this, we have our vision statement, our mission statement, and the five strategic priorities. I think it really pushes us in a good good direction. Uh, I think I really like the thought that this is who we are, but it's also going to challenge us and it's really going to push us in an area to achieve new heights. And so, I don't think it's just setting out some lofty statement, but I think it also isn't I mean, when you're talking about empowering learners to create their own success stories, uh, we're talking that that means different things for different kids. And that is a strength of our district that we see the individual students, but also knowing that success looks differently for our different kids, but also it should be accomplished at a high level. And so I appreciate that this board recognizes that. I appreciate that we have multiple opportunities for our students, but I also appreciate that there's a core dedication to the core basics, and that's something that you just don't want to get away from. And I so I like the work that the board did. I just open up for board members if you'd like to comment on vision, mission, or these priorities. >> I would like to compliment the board as a whole for the hard work you guys put in. There was a lot of great conversations. Um we didn't all agree on everything, but we're able to work towards this end product and uh congratulations you guys. This was a job well done. It was a long process. So, thank you. >> So, uh that's one thing on your also you're going to see the bid package for AD and technology came in and so we have three different bidters. What you have before you is the low bid and so we're really this package has to deal with our little theater space. It's the light and the sound and the AP. uh everything but the video board. We'll do that separate. Uh it has our gym speakers and so that's included. It also includes our stadium speakers and so uh really excited about uh putting some upgrades to these spaces. Uh we feel good about the timeline and that I'll be able to deliver uh this summer in the gym and so we've communicated when practice starts in there. Uh then for the little theater that turnover is in December so we have a little bit more time. Stadium would be this fall. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you K. >> Chair moves for approval of the consent agenda. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. We move on to discussion items. Chair moves for approval of action item 8A, approval of contract award to video services, Inc. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> All opposed? Motion carries. Chair moves for approval of action item 8B, approval of the first reading of policy changes to policy 1000, vision, mission, educational philosophy, and goals in policy 4150 background checks. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> All oppose. Motion carries. >> Chair moves for approval of action item 8 C. Approval of obsolete equipment to be sold at auction or recycled. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> All opposed? Carries. Chair moves for approval of action item 8, addition of district AI coordinator position. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> All opposed? Motion carries. >> Chair moves for approval of action item 8E, approval of the 26 to 28 individual agreement with Independent School District 277 with Eric Heistat. Is there a second? on this one. We had uh hired Eric this year and so we had to we were up for contract renewals for the the uh individuals. We wanted to take a little extra time to get to know Eric. We're really thrilled that he's part of our team and on our staff, but that's why Denver didn't originally come through. We had a midwinter hire and wanted to just take the time before we went into our next contract. But we're thrilled about what he's able to provide and excited to have. >> Thank you for clarifying that. >> Um all in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. Um this we have a late action item. The chair moves for approval of the action item uh 8F. Motion to uh resend the April 13th approval of uh Katherine >> Deutscher >> Deutsch Landers regularation effective June 2nd, 2026. And to approve approve her as resignation effective April 22nd, 2026. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> All opposed? Motion carries. Um, anybody else have anything else to bring? Well, school year is ending. Got graduation coming up. A lot of fun stuff. A couple busy weeks here. So, um, by this fall, we're going to see some major changes around around here. It's going to be pretty exciting. >> With with that, the chair moves for a German. Is there a second? Second. >> All in favor? I all >> oppose. Good one everybody.