Uh we did not have anybody sign up for the community members questions and comments. So we will proceed to call to order and do the pledge of allegiance. Uh Wendy, would you mind leading us, please? >> Thank you. Next is consideration of the agenda. Are there any changes anybody would like to proposed? Okay. Next is the consent agenda. The consent agenda contains routine matters that typically do not require board discussion. Individual board members may remove an item from the consent agenda for discussion or separate action. Tonight, the consent agenda items are as follows. Approve the minutes from the regular board meeting held on June 9th, 2025. Approve personnel recommendations. Approve memorandum of understanding with the service employees international unionchildnutrition preschool staff members. Approve wages for substitutes, test proctors, students, summer grounds workers, and athlet athletic coaches for the 2526 school year. Accept donations totaling $136,69262. Authorize the 2025 2022 LEA local educational agency representative. Approve the annual Minnesota Department of Education statement of asurances. Accept the summary of superintendent's endofear evaluation. Approve the continued me membership in the following organizations for the 2526 school year. The association of metropolitan school districts, Bright Works, and the Minnesota School Board Association. Approve bill vouchers, EP register, EFT vouchers, and Capital One entries. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. >> Second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstaining? Wonderful. Next. Superintendent's report on excellence. Dr. Flesher. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to begin my report tonight with just several message messages of summer gratitude. Um first, we have an incredible um report from community education staff who worked tirelessly over the summer to bring outstanding programming to our community. um last year was 6,700 enrollments. This year they report more than 7,600 enrollments and over 560 camps classes um serving preschool students through adults. Um this included a 120 of our incoming kindergarteners in the Ready Set Kindergarten program where students had the opportunity to meet other students. They practice math and literacy skills. They learn daily routines in the classes that they'll be in. The rules of this school bus and other camps included arts, science, nature, technology, cooking, theater, math skills, and writing. It was fun to see the kids and older orno kids and alumni teaching this summer. Um, everyone was having a great time. So, thank you to our entire team in community education for their important work. The campus has also been incredibly busy with construction projects that will improve safety and enhance learning. Um, thank you to Nick Tainter and Chad Aishens who've led the work and managed an incredible level of detail. Mr. Tinter will provide an update on summer construction projects later in our meeting tonight. Also thank our technology team who many of them are here tonight and our summer interns under the direction of Shaun Bersonson for continuing to evaluate and improve technology districtwide. Sean is a leader in understanding the impact of technology in the classroom, um digital learning, artificial intelligence in education and providing instruction and guidance for all educators. And he, as you will see tonight, has um an incredible team that you'll get to meet. Um this gives me another chance just to thank our community for supporting the tech levy renewal in 2022. We could not do any very little of this important work without the consistent funding stream. So, um thank you. Our director of athletics and student activities, Paul Bruner, shared and is excited to share that fall athletics are officially in full swing. If you haven't seen on campus, boys and girls, our cross country team, we have football, soccer for both um boys and girls, swim and dive for girls, girls tennis, and volleyball all began this last week with 417 students already signed up participating across programs um from the high school. Our first competition is tomorrow, by the way. Um, girls tennis host Delano at 10:00 a.m. So, good luck to all of our fall athletes as the season gets underway. The fall musical, OS fall musical is Tuck Everlasting. So, um, just put that on your calendars. I don't have a date, but to date, 18 students have signed up to audition, um, on September 3rd with many more participating in sound, costume, and stage crew. So, we're really excited to see that show. Um these are just a few example of how our schools are engaging students in um in athletics and performing arts. Uh clubs and activities will fill in once school gets underway. Um one summer note that I wanted to say share was that our summer was also filled with a number of staff that were invited to and speaking at national conferences. Like to get that out to the media. Um, but I'll just include a few. Uh, Bailey Net and Laura Young spoke at the National ISTY conference, which is the International Society of Tech Technology Education. Alli Chley spoke at the Utah State Board of Education conference about Orno schools and her work here. Grace Noner at the National Conference on Student Activities in Michigan. In addition, our fifth grade team, um, Kendra Iikad and Paul Hamilton will be speaking at the National Science Teachers Association very soon, as well as Nick Tainter will be speaking at ASBO, the National Business School Business Association this fall. So, it's just amazing to see the breath of expertise in Orno staff and that it's being recognized across the country. So, um, congratulation and thank you to all those staff. Um, I'm sure there's more, so I will make sure I get those down. Um, new new teacher orientation, as a reminder, starts this week. That's hard to believe, on Wednesday. Um, with all teachers returning a week from today. Pretty amazing. Um, so please check out our to the community, please check out our new back to school website. It's meant to be a one-stop resource for parents and students to be helpful. So, we are looking forward to September 10th and that or 10th 2nd. That includes my report for tonight. >> Good correction. Thank you very much. On to number seven, board members questions and comments. Um Tim, could I start with you? >> Uh nothing significant to report other than summer was wonderful and it's also wonderful to be back. >> Uh well, Wendy and I were able to attend the the Orno early learning parent group which will be rebranding. This is a they they uh have worked with community education and they are going to have a new name. They are now going to be the Early Learning Parent Advisory Council, which will line up a little more with our other advisory councils. Uh they've got a new leader who is a familiar name. If anyone is familiar with Libby Rice, she has spent many years leading PTO. So, she will now be leading with her little one over at the discovery center. So, we've got someone over there who has a wealth of experience, and that's going to be really helpful for that group as they try to grow and recruit new members. Uh in the consent agenda, you may have noticed that they have a new child nutrition person over at the Discovery Center. That is because they are happy to be serving both breakfast and lunch now in that building. So that was the reason for that new position. Uh very excited about that. And they are going to be having their open house kickoff September 4th. Uh every year they do a vehicle fair or something else exciting, but they'll have ice cream trucks and food trucks. And Wendy, if I have forgotten anything, please feel free to mention that. Uh, the other thing that I've been working on this summer um has been ice time with the Orno Ice Arena. It's a good news, bad news scenario. The good news is we have so many more kids that want to play hockey, which is really fun, and we have a lot more teams. Uh, the bad news, it's not bad, but the challenging news is that we don't have enough ice time for everybody. So, um, they came to a great compromise with the high school. It looks like everything is good for this year. We are having to rent a lot of ice from other arenas, which is not ideal, but that's the only way to accommodate all the teams. There is going to be a private fundraising effort underway to talk about building a new sheet of ice. Obviously, that's something that's very very expensive, but you may hear things about that in the community because they're going to be starting starting to talk about that. So, certainly feel free to come to any questions. I know that Mr. Tainter is very involved with that as well. So, um more to come on that one. And just as a total aside to our tech team, I did run into Mike Bash over the weekend. He took uh he made use of Tech Buddies and he was incredibly impressed with the interns and with the service that he got. So I wanted to make sure, especially since that team is here tonight to pass that along. Job well done. And that concludes my report. >> Thank you so much. That's great. Todd, >> I have no news to report. >> Wendy, you covered it. Thank you. >> Gavin, >> I have no news to report. I'm in the same boat. We had a very good um uh workshop uh uh last week, our kickoff um our retreat. Um and so thank you very much to the administration for being very well organized and um getting us all up to speed after and dusting the cobwebs away from summer brains. Wonderful. Next is old business. Is there any other old business? Okay. Next is new business. The first is construction projects update. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I am excited to update the board and community on all of the summer 2025 facilities and fields work. Um, I welcome Mr. Nick Tainter, director of business services to the board table for presentation. And while he gets settled, I want to thank both Mr. Tainter and Mr. Chad Aish, as well as our entire custodial staff for their tireless summer work. Um, it it shows on the campus and that's exciting. As a reminder to the community, our school board engaged in a multi-year process um for facilities maintenance and and enhancement to make fiscally wise decisions as we look at maintaining the community's investment in our school campus over the next 10 years. And as a result of that, our board identified a number of projects of priority, starting with the two big projects this summer from the new college and career center at the high school and new science lab. So, I'm very happy to say that both projects are coming in on budget and on time. Uh, we got to tour those um last week. Um, was excited to see the work last Friday. I want to again publicly thank Richard and Jenny Gell's family for their incredible contribution to our new college and career center. I think it will be really important for our kids. The welcoming space will serve as a hub to support career pathway research, host college admission reps, and support internship experiences and advising for small groups of students. So, we're very grateful to the Gells and Nickerson family who made this project possible to ensure that every student feels prepared and confident for their next steps in life after high school. So, I turn it over to Mr. Tainter who will update the board on all of the work. >> Thank you, Dr. Flesher, board chair, board chairs, and the esteemed Orno school board members. Thank you for having me up here tonight to give you a little bit of insight on what projects we did. Uh we will do a little reflection and then we'll talk about what uh Dr. Flesher had mentioned and some of the good things that will be coming up ahead of ourselves. Uh so first off, uh we did complete uh several projects in the in the last fiscal year. Um the middle middle school indoor air quality uh and and also the link indoor air quality were both completed on schedule and uh and should have uh really great effects uh future effects on efficiencies as well as controls um access to controls and whatnot. Um there are really great upgrades to the facilities um not only just for air quality purposes but like I guess I mentioned um also and the access to controls and and the efficiencies as well. Uh we also did uh some updates to the middle school entry um which you'll which if you haven't noticed already uh are coming together um few minor uh tweaks left to be done um but majority of that project has been completed over the summer. Uh and that that that was necessary to to ensure a secure entrance at the at the middle school. Um as a reminder um lastly uh varsity and J uh varsity JV baseball and softball uh JV and varsity baseball fields were improved. Softball had re uh had received some of the work uh the year ago about fall this time. Um and then uh baseball um due to some uh uh delays uh last fall, we we did end up doing completing that project this summer. Uh as as the public may may know and the boarders may know, uh the baseball varsity baseball team has been playing off campus for the last several years. Uh with these improvements, they will be returning back on campus, which is a great idea. >> Yeah. here. >> Uh then looking forward uh so we've got a lot of projects that are planned for this school year and then I'll talk about the financing side of things in next slide but some of that financing will also lead to 2027 projects as well. I'll cover 202526 um projects uh here currently that are underway or andor planned for this fiscal year. Um as Dr. Flesh Flesher mentioned college and career center is well underway and ahead of uh ahead of uh schedule. Got a couple pictures um listed there. Those are at least a few weeks old. So uh uh there's definitely been some even further improvements to that facility and that area. It's going to really give it a good refresh look to it. Um that's part of uh and I'll I'll kind of segue right into the is entry refresh. Um we're really focusing on areas that um we can refresh and modernize a little bit. The is entryway. You'll notice um we'll have blue uh block rather than green block um which has been in since existence of that building. So, a good refresh look and up upgrade to that uh facility as well as some other improvements to the flooring and some of the walls uh to make it just a little bit more fresh and welcoming to people who enter the intermediate school uh school. We'll be doing that continually then um with other areas of the of the of the um of the district. Um second is the lighting upgrade there. So, we did receive um a very good uh donation um to help with the lighting upgrade to the high school auditorium. Uh we're we're excited for those improvements to be done as well. Um currently underway uh as and then the high school science room addition which was necessary to include for life science and other science areas that need a little bit extra room. So there therefore we did uh make some arrangements and renovations to the high school uh to allow for that additional classroom and uh we're excited that that's again ahead of project and and should be ready by the end of September. Um and the high school program has made some adjustments to ensure that they can still continue to to put forth the effort of the curriculum and and the instruction. And then before that before that area is is is ready, uh we'll uh we'll be working on or have been working on the student center demolition. So that demolition is is coming to fruition now. Uh early November is when it's scheduled to be done. Um with that, we've been able to um you work with uh local uh law enforcement and first responders to allow them access to the facility to help with training. So, this is just a great community way uh community based way of including others uh for some uh for for something that we'll be um demolishing here in the in in the near in the near term here. Um that uh that we've had we've had a lot of reachouts by law enforcement and fire um to do conduct some of those trainings and we'll be doing over the next couple months before it's actually demolished. um receiving RFP uh requests for proposals and proposals on the demolition currently. Um and so far so good. We're seeing good response from from several uh um areas that would like to take part into demolishing that area. Um then therefore, we will then be using that um area and having lots of discussions around what to use that area for. Um, we know that we have tennis courts that are in need of uh uh replacement and therefore that's a good location as well. So, we're looking at that location as a potential for uh future tennis courts. Um, we have uh parking lot improvements um which is uh a huge deal. Uh and I'll I'll talk a little bit about the funding or reminder on that funding as well. Um where we'll start to plan out uh we've we've engaged with W Architects to help us manage those projects. are huge projects and a lot goes into those types of things that felt it was necessary to have somebody with a lot of experience um and and and and they've doing doing these kinds of projects and whatnot. We'll be working on a plan for those come this spring and summer. So, we'll you'll see start to see some of those improvements already um this uh this summer. About this time this next year, we should see some few really good improvements to the parking lots. Uh and then lastly, our deferred maintenance. uh which we received long-term facility maintenance bonds for that will that will help us uh this is districtwide for window replacement building envelope tuck pointing those kinds of things. Just working really working on ensuring that we can uh ensuring that we we focus on some of those deferred maintenance projects to ensure that we can get a little bit more longevity in the buildings as much as we can there as well. Any questions on the projects? And then lastly, just a funding recap. So again, it I mean goes to show how much support we have in the community to receive over $400,000 of donations for specific to the projects that we outlined um on the last slide. So, the career college center um as well as the lighting improvements to the high school auditorium, we're we're very generously given uh donations for those projects and we're ensuring that those projects are being uh uh taken care of and and on time and and whatnot. Uh then lastly, we had the the bonds that sold in early June that included operating capital bonds, LTFM, the long-term facility maintenance bonds, and abatement bonds. And those were to help uh again facilitate some of the operating capital um areas that we needed to the field improvements as well as the science room addition. And then LTFM which was was going to support all those deferred maintenance projects. Then lastly, abatement bonds to help us with those parking lot projects that we have in the next several years. Nick, I got a question. with the location of a lot of those projects that are ongoing. Do we expect a lot of interaction of those projects with students during those times or should they mostly be done? >> Do you mean for parking lots? >> Well, you've got parking lots, but you also got construction with the high school room edition or is that done? >> That won't be completely done. Um, but we already have a plan for how we will start the um science. They know exactly. they they can be in this space but they won't be able to by the time school starts they won't be able to do the science labs there they will be sharing with other classrooms and and Amy Dr. Steiner has a plan for sure >> to have that be the least disruptive. >> And then um I think the biggest impact will be next summer when we're looking at replacing parking lots. Um we are that will be the the work to work with Wald and our whoever is our bidder and parking lot company to um because we still we we're busy all all year. >> So we'll have to figure out exactly how we do that. They tell us that you know, there's the digging up and then the, you know, I I don't have all the right words. Um, but then the putting the pavement down and each lot in and of itself doesn't they will, you know, we'll have to do a lot of staging >> back and forth and we're going to have to be nimble and staff like plan things in different places. We've done this before. Um, so I have I have all confidence in our planning, but um, it's going to take a fair amount of planning because my understanding from when we talked, we probably do half the lots this next summer and then potentially the other half the following summer and may maybe split up, you know, one end of campus and the other end. that you're talking about. You know, we don't we can't shut down the arena. We can't shut down the middle school, but we will have to have alternate places where people will be parking and probably walking and hopefully some grace from everyone because at the end it will be beautiful. >> Beyond that, um your normal job juggling the finances of of the school is enough. Uh these are a lot of projects, so kudos to you guys for handling all of this. It's a lot. >> We're excited. We got a good team. We got a good team. >> I just want to mention that we were lucky enough to have a short tour uh during our retreat and we got to see the um the science room in progress and the career and counselor career and college counseling area um which is feels almost done. I mean, it was very close. Um, and they're just fantastic and as well as um just some other refresh probably lower cost things um that just u really enhance the um the schools. So, thank you. Um it makes a difference um more welcoming, more opportunities. So, thank you for that. Does anybody have any other questions? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. It's a lot. It's a lot. Next is our annual summer technology update. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, we are also happy to update the board and community on all of the 202425 school year and summer work. So, I invite our technology team to the board table for presentation. I want to personally introduce and thank our team for their amazing support. Mr. Sean Beaverson, Orno School's director of technology. Mr. Joel Malor, um, cloud system specialist, Jason Wyak, network and security specialist. Leah Staples, operations specialist, and Paul Ivers, digital learning specialist. Um, Baileyet, our second digital learning specialist, wasn't able unable to join us tonight, but is a crucial member of our team as well. As we start, again, expressions of gratitude to our community um for the tech levy. Um none of this would be able to be possible um without their support. As a reminder, we had three areas of need for technology, safety, infrastructure, and classroom learning. And over the three years, we have worked to upgrade our 911 safety, calling system, cyber security. We have replaced the entire campus w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w wireless infrastructure and enhanced all of our classroom learning spaces for our students and staff. Mr. Beaverson and his staff have worked tirelessly to bring learning spaces to be both digital and future ready for our students. In this last year, we have worked to improve our systems for cyber security. You're going to get to hear a little bit about that tonight. Improve our systems for endusers and how our systems talk to each other. um that's a really big deal in the area of technology. Um and then begin the development of our work with artificial intelligence through our emerging emerging tech cohorts. Um so I turn it over to Mr. Beverson and the team here to share details of the last year and a little bit of a preview for next year. Thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Flesher, Madam Chair, to the school board and the public. It's a great pleasure to be here for my fourth annual uh summer update about our technology efforts that we've had over the last year. Um today we'll be covering uh about last year's work and then some of the summer work uh department direction um operational excellence instructional excellence and then a little bit about what our continued summer work will be. Uh Dr. Dr. Flesher recapped this for me as well, but just a reminder to the community. Um, over the last three summers, uh, previous to this summer, we have had district-wide projects. So, changing all of the phones, changing a wireless network, and then changing every one of our classrooms. I got to put on the right side that 2025 was the summer of stability. So, we have really accomplished a lot in the number of years uh, these last four years. And really a lot of it was catch-up time from the COVID crisis and decisions that we had to make at that time to take care of things. And so it feels really good that we're at this point now where we've reached a level of stability. And so with that, I just again also want to say thank you. Um like Dr. Flesher mentioned, this just isn't possible without her support, without the board support, and without the community support. Um we couldn't do this. and doing this really is doing the right work on behalf of the teachers, students, and the community of Orno. Um the technology team, um I just should put this up here again, Dr. Flesher did introduce most of these people. Down in the lower lefthand corner is our tech support team. So Josh Heder, who's actually running our schoolboard meeting right now, Emily Zakesky and Jason Banks, who serve at each of our sites as direct site support as well. I want to change the button here, but it doesn't work. Um, so, um, in my three years here, uh, we had a lot of work in, um, getting caught up and finding things. And this past year, we were able to focus on really what is it that we do now that, uh, the obvious things are taken care of. No one has to tell you to fix the phones when the phones don't work. No one needs to tell you to fix the wireless when the wireless doesn't work. But now we're in that season of, okay, we've settled the obvious things. So, what are we going to do? So one of the things that we worked on as a department last year was defining our mission. So our purpose is to enable and enhance teaching and learning through thoughtful technology integration and exceptional support aligned with Orno schools commitment to excellence, character and connectedness. Our work empowers educators and students while ensuring all district operations are efficiently supported through reliable technology services. That is what we do uh when we show up. Our vision to do that is to create a digital environment where technology seamlessly supports exceptional educational experiences, fosters innovation and enables every student and staff member to thrive in an increasingly digital world. So our purpose and our vision that we uh as a team are working towards and then our values um this was also work that we did as a department last year. All of those people reflected on that slide. Um we talked about our values. So our values are excellence and service of learning. So um we are here to serve uh the mission of learning and we do that through technology. Um connectedness through support having our site support people and then having other ways that we're providing support that uh Joel will get to cover in a little bit here. Innovation with purpose. um we're mindful of what we do here and the reasons why we do things here and we look for opportunities to innovate with specific purpose connected to learning and then character through action. We um demonstrate our character by being yes. We like to say yes. We like to say how can we help? Um and so that is how we demonstrate our character and those are our values. That all work was done last year um working with the technology department. they all have the opportunity to put input in that. I feel very confident that that is uh the direction that our department is going now. That's a co-owned uh purpose, vision and set of values. Um so that is my introduction and now I have the opportunity to pass it off to team members and so the very first team member is going to be Joel Malor. Thank you Sean. As mentioned I'm Joel Malor. I'm our cloud system specialist. Um, and just to kind of to put that title in perspective, it's really handling a lot of our back-end systems, our accounts, our rosters. Um, really making sure that the the experience for teachers, staff, students is something that like isn't hindered by technology. So, making sure that it's smooth. So, my goal is to not uh be noticed because if I am, there's usually something something wrong unless I'm sharing good news, which I hope is more often than bad news. Um so one thing that I am really excited to talk about and it feels like we've had it in place longer is our system called class link which is really um the center piece of my role and kind of the backbone of everything that I do. So a lot of my job is automating and improving and optimizing workflows um and how data flows and talks to each other and class link is the big reason that I'm able to do that. Um this slide's mainly focusing on our roster server. Um but I did want to talk about a little bit more about what class link does in a tool called one sync. So essentially what it allows us to do is when somebody gets hired and entered into our einance system that HR uses that then sends that user's data into one sync which is then responsible for the automation and creation of their accounts sends them to the groups they need the the building level organizational unit groups all that stuff is all automated. The account life cycle is automated. So, somebody leaves and is deactivated in that system, they're also removed from those groups and their license is repurposed for somebody else. Um, and it's the same for students. As soon as they're entered into our student information system, they then come into Class Link One Sync and they get put in the right groups, the right school, and then the roster server comes in. So, this is another tool of Class Link that connects with our student information system using the one roster standard, which is just a connection standard. Um and what that allows us to do then is consolidate all of our digital resources. So our platforms like Seesaw um uh and like EXL and McGraill, HMH, all of the tools that we use um are all now rostered and the data is fed through the roster server. So this allows basically secure data flows um and efficient data flows and dynamic. So when changes are made, students are moving classes or they're we have a new student. Um by the time that new student gets here, they're already rostered in all the resources that they need to access. And on day one, you can log into Class Link and single sign on into all of those platforms. So gone are the days of me manually uploading students and manually making changes. The roster server allows me to just centralize that all um and dynamically um kind of automate how everything is is rostered. Uh and and it just makes the the user experience a lot easier too. Um because there we go because what they interface with is the class link launchpad. So every staff and every student in Oro uses this class link launchpad. Um and it again is a consolidation of the the sites that we go to, the applications that we go to, the resources that we access. Um and it creates a single sign on experience for them. So, oneclick log to all of these applications for students. Um, and then even our youngest learners, they they're able to log in with quick carts. So, our K through2 students will just scan a Q QR code on the iPad and then it takes them right to this launchpad screen where they can tap in oneclick login to Seesaw um and begin an activity. So, there's really no hindrance or hurdle for them to jump through to to have access to these resources. It also is our first and very strong line of defense for account security. So MFA goes through Class Link. Every staff member uses MFA. Um upon account creation, their first time logging into Class Link, it'll have them set up their MFA. Um and we've also done some um quality of life changes in MFA this school year where now we have what's called geo fencing on. So, when a teacher or staff member is on campus in their classroom teaching, they're not going to get prompted for MFA. Uh, if they were to switch a device or or go home um or go on some other network at a coffee shop or something, they would be prompted for MFA. But on campus, we wanted to make that experience a little bit easier for them. Um, so they will not be prompted for that when they're on our internal network. Um, and then I'll move on to the next piece. One thing that we did through class link was we had our high school students transition to password ownership. So previously they were assigned um a password based on um like their their initials and and their lunch pin and and other various um automated pass like generated password um information. But we have them now owning their passwords, which we think is just a valuable life skill in general, like creating and owning um a complex and and p uh a best practice password. Um and so we we gave them some some recommendations like like you can't use your first name or last name like that wouldn't that was in our password policy would block them. um it had to have a certain amount of security characters be a certain length. But what really our long-term goal is for our secondary students is that this is setting the foundation for for moving them into MFA as well. Uh we'd love for our secondary students as a whole, 6 through 12, to own their passwords and have MF MFA on their accounts as well because we care about their data and protecting their accounts. Um and it went really well. I think out of all of our students, I think we had 10 that didn't change their password after that first day. And I think nine of them were maybe gone that day. So, it was really successful. It went really smooth. Um, and so smooth that we'll we'll move middle school into that as well this fall. Um, with plans to implement MFA for them as well down the road. Um, but like I said, it uh really laid the the groundwork for building a strong foundation in account protection. And then I don't know where our mouse went here. Here we go. So, um, the modernization of technology support, improving on our tech support systems that we use. So, um, last year we implemented a system called fresh service. Fresh service is our request system. It's it's on class link for staff that they can create and submit a request or they can email. We have an email address that automates and forwards and creates a ticket. Um, and as you can see, we had, so this is data from the last school year. I didn't take somewhere into account. We had 2,145 tickets with a 93.6% resolution rate. And I would say like that remaining 6.4 was really it was either like an event or uh waiting on a third party or some sort of hold reason that we couldn't resolve it. Um but really like the purpose of of using a system like this and why we we're so excited about it is because of the data that we can get out of it. We're able to see patterns. So um as an example with our AV project um overhauling and refreshing the classrooms, we were able to see okay what are some consistent issues that teachers are having with their displays? Is it like audio issues? Is it touch issues? and we're able to collect that analytics um and and and and target those solutions um effectively. Um and then a part of the system as well is it's got a knowledgebased tool as well. So we're building a knowledge base within it for um like help articles, not just for teachers and students, but for parents as well. Um and it's got um like smart keyword matching. So if somebody's creating a request and they start typing something about logging in or resetting their password, it'll suggest articles that we've made to them and they can click and and um and solve the issue on their own sometimes even too. So we are excited about um this system and it's really helped us collaborate as a team. Um it's got great communication features so that we can really be as responsive as as possible. Then just another matter of support what Joel is mentioning there is using technology to get out of the way so that pe we can use people to do people projects. Um so our site support team this past school year supported um the standardized tests across the district and so most standardized tests have moved to a digital format now and this team successfully launched uh you can see the numbers there a significant number of standardized tests that help provide clarity on how students are doing in our organization too. So, um, by having a ticketing system, by having some of these other things taken care of, it it absolutely made G increased capacity for us to make this past year's testing season the smoothest that we've had yet in my tenure here, and each year has been a little bit smoother than the one year previous. Uh, they're an amazing team and work together really well. Next, uh, infrastructure and security. Uh, and I've asked Jason to talk about some of the projects that he's been working on. Here's the mouse. >> Hi, I'm Jason Wyak. I'm the systems and security specialist and um, my job covers all of the things that are more boring than the things that Joel does. Um, but really he kind of nailed a big part of my job is security. And as Joel was discussing, so much of security comes down to end users and user behavior and setting good standards. And that's where it only works when you're a team. And so my job has been made a lot easier by all of these guys doing great jobs. Um, but one of the things I can kind of launch into right away as part of keeping good security practice, you periodically do what are called tabletop exercises where you do a simulated scenario where you do like a simulated cyber attack. And we had F FR Secure, who is one of the leading cyber security companies in the Twin Cities, come and do a security tabletop exercise with us where they launched a really crazy uh cyber attack scenario and we passed um pretty effectively. It was it was a pretty pretty awesome um and it really showed how everyone in the group participated and had their part in it. And there again, it works when we all work together. I think it kind of sums up our whole team really well. Um, and along with that, we are partnering outside of ourselves with Dark Knight Security Consortium, which is a Twin Cities education centric security consortium made up of other security professionals from public ed and industry who we collaborate with on best practice and ongoing like new technologies and things like that. And it's been a really great partnership. So, we're kind of trying to keep our team cohesive inside and expand our kind of tendrils out into the community and all do better security together. Um, and it's been pretty pretty exciting. Um, along with that, I as a as a long proponent of of open source technology have upgraded a lot of our cyber monitoring here to be way more comprehensive and have way better visibility into what devices are on our network, what they're doing to be able to track trends. And I mean, now if you plug a device in our network, I can see what kind of device it is. and we're expanding that on an ongoing basis along with some future projects that are going to greatly enhance our Wi-Fi security and other things like that to kind of keep moving forward. Security never stops. So along with that um I also have been part of as the systems part of my job. I also run our servers and network and along with that it ties into a ton of other projects that only seem related unrelated on the surface. Um one thing that is a long-standing project is the transcripts that we provide for people that have gone here before. And this is kind of a long-standing problem in IT and everywhere I have work going back to the 90s of what do you do with all these old systems and the data that's on them that you can't access anymore and you keep this one old computer sitting there that no one wants to touch. Well, using our friend AI, I was able to write a script that converted all of our old transcripts into a new searchable format. and I brought 16,000 transcripts off of that old computer and have them backed up securely and stored securely and accessible to all of the people who need them for zero dollars. >> So, thank you. >> I am going to jump in on this one. This is a problem that has been here since I got here. Uh, and it was there was either a timeintensive solution or a cost intensive solution. Um it was a Friday morning where we were like I wonder if the answer to this is just to do it a different way and then by Monday we had uh oh we could just search for it now and it works. So it was literally a one-day turnaround where the team again working together was like this seems like we should be able to do this in a way that's a little bit easier and more friendly to use and then we were able to do that. I am going to mention one other thing. I'm going to take the indulgence to mention one other thing. Um Jason hasn't mentioned with that security consortium that we're working with. It's a lot of school districts around us. Um Jason has had the opportunity to work with them on three different occasions right now. We're really getting started in this um partnership. Just Friday I got a email inviting asking whether or not based on some of the approaches that he's taken he would be willing to co-present at a techn security conference in the spring. And I thought he's only met him three times. That's pretty good. So, I just wanted to mention that, too. >> Well, thanks, John. Um, yeah. And so, one other project that we kind of looked at and said, I bet we can do this better. We have had triple play for our digital signage around the district. You see it at the activity center and all of those big screens that are all around. That is a legacy solution that is very expensive to replace. So, we built our own. Um, and I can show you a picture. So this is what the new the one of the templates for the new signage looks like. The part where it says Oro technology is a Google slide deck. So the people making the signage can just edit a slide deck that they already know how to edit and all of the rest of it is programmatically pulled. So the menu is pulled out of our lunch system and the calendar is pulled from Google calendar and it stays up to date and no one has to manually enter any of that stuff anymore and now they can edit the signage from any device. So, but again, we were able to do that for very very little cost and the signage devices are Raspberry Pies or digital TVs that can do web and it reduced our cost by uh a lot of money. Um, so >> I'll talk to that. >> Thank you. Um, that's been a really fun project to work on. Um, and was not done in an afternoon, but but it's but it's been a very fun and rewarding project to work on. And honestly, like the thing I want to say about this more than really focusing on this project is this is the kind of thing we just kind of all do all the time. It's like it's a perfect example of, oh well, we can just solve this problem. So, let's put our heads together and we kind of sit around the table and go, how can we do this? What if we did it like this? And we brainstorm and we solve it. And it's really fun. Like, we all really like doing this. Um, so I wanted to kind of share that. And this you can see it has a whole administrative backend that's tied into Google for authentication and will show up in people's class link portal. So the people that can edit signage will have an op sign icon they can click on and you can manage the signage devices right from there and update the signage. It also has a built-in alert system including the standard response protocol alerts for like lockdowns and things like that. you can push out to all the screens and there's a lot of I mean we own the whole thing so we can tie it into whatever we want. Um but it's been a really fun project and like I said really kind of shows the kind of things you can do when you're agile and have the ability to to just innovate instead of being solely tied to just what can we buy. Um but that has been like I said a very uh fun and rewarding thing and a good example of how my job is here all the time. And uh on that note, I can turn it over to Leah. [Music] >> Oh gosh, that's it. I guess I'll start with what we did this summer. Um, and our interns, I guess I'm the fun one of the group because I get to like buy all the stuff and just say like, "Hey, how do we do this?" And then they just figure it out. No, what do you want me to buy? So, that's kind of where I come in. Um, but this summer I worked with the we had five student interns and that were paid and one volunteer. Um, and their main job is to start with helping the community ed classes and support them if they had any issues getting started. So, um, they kind of would start the day with that. And then we I had many different projects and one was, um, to set up all 105 new PCs that we bought for middle school and high school. And they got that done in probably less than two weeks. And I was like, "Oh, okay, great. What do we do next?" But no, it was kind of a, you know, step-by-step process. I had some of them working on that because we only had so many stations in the tech office. And then I had uh the other group of them repairing Chromebooks and I was able to order uh new batteries with some money from we got from damaged devices and stuff. So I took that and bought batteries and they installed them on devices that that was the only thing wrong with them. So, we have over 60 that they started with and now we have that many more to for high school and middle school to check out. Um, and they helped set up the computers that got removed in classrooms so they they get cleaned and then they would go back in and hook them up and get them ready. Um, and then also with that with the new PCs then we had to organize them distribute them to the schools. They brought them to the classrooms, installed them, set them, you know, turn them on, make sure everything was connected, right? Um, they were just they did great work. I mean, I just was constantly having to find more things for them to do. Um, I mean, the list just goes on and on. They did Oops. Um, what else did they do? iPad inventory. They inventoried um they dismantled the lab, business lab in the high school. That was 30 PCs and all the monitors and all the cords and I mean they did it in a day and then the next day we loaded up the box and had it on its way. So um they just and I think they had fun doing it. It was a lot it was a lot different than last year with construction everywhere and having to like go through and it was a little chaotic and this year felt a lot more organized and it was my first year last summer and so I was like I don't know what I'm doing. So, um yeah, it was a it was a great experience and I hope that they come back again next year because they're all I mean they're all I think they're all going to be seniors. I don't know. Um, and this was so we did our secondary device refresh. So we we did we went with these mini PCs. They're only about Oh, am I too far away? >> You got to do the mouse. >> Oh. >> Oh, shoot. >> We like to do tech support. >> Um, >> so I don't know. It's that model similar to that. They're very small. They're like this big and they just sit on the um desk. They don't take up a lot of room. they're less space than your laptop. And so we're having a lot of issues with uh the teachers disconnecting um you know to take their device home and then bringing it back and then things stop working. So I feel like this is going to be a lot more stable. Um and then two for when there's subs. They don't have to be putting a computer in there. It's just there. So I'm excited to see how teachers feel about this. But I think it's going to be a good change. like most people already that have seen them are like, "Oh, it's that small." Yes. So, I think that'll be good. And then I think the last slide is just about Yeah. getting a handle on all the devices that have been in this district that have never been removed. And so it's been a lot uh to go through um iPads and desktops and Chromebooks and getting them out of our inventory and out of our systems and sending them on their way. So um and just cleaning things up so we have a better rotation cycle so you can get a handle on that. Um yeah, so it's looking good. Those are the big boxes. You have to get a ladder to get inside of them. We've filled like >> three or four at least. So, and there's more. >> And I'm just gonna I'll share like how this impacts students. So, um at the middle school and the high school, if kids forget a computer for the day, they can check out an annual I mean a daily loaner. Um and our daily loaners were all over the place. They could have been seven years old. It could have been three years old. We didn't know and we didn't have consistency because of the work that Leah's done. Now we have two models at each site and so the daily loaners are one model and then the annual checkouts for our students are the other manual uh model and we are talking about that today and that that is technical work and it's inventory work but it improves the lives of the students because they will they're going to have a consistent experience with the device that they get regardless of when they need it. And so a lot of this work um is on the back end on the other side of things, but it directly impacts our ability to support the classroom. And so I just wanted to highlight that as well. Um I'm Paul Ivers. This is my second year now as the digital learning specialist focusing on the secondary um level, so middle and high school. Um, I'm just going to reflect on the previous year. It was my first year in the position. Uh, there was a lot of learning. It was jumped in and got rolling in right away with all of the new classroom panels and everything. So, we like working with Bailey was invaluable and the rest of the team as well. But with her experience in the digital learning role, it was incredibly helpful for me. um we had to develop kind of our flow together as well, especially because the previous year she had covered the whole district in that role on her own, which is incredible. Um so some projects that uh she and I worked on were helping staff learn to use the new whiteboard software for their um new classroom panels. We were uh worked with uh the different building leadership teams um with the emerging technology cohort kind of looking at the new technology. A lot of that is related to AI as everybody knows how that does or does not fit into education for teachers. Starting to look into what it might look like with students and spent a lot of time drafting the AI responsible use guidelines which you can see in the top right corner of the slide there. The thing that's really unique to this, you might see examples of this online, but for ours, one of the rows in there is tied to staff's values. So, taking PLC documents and um their value statements and all of that from the middle and the high school, we were able to create these value statements of if there's no AI allowed, why not? Why do we value the non-use of AI just as much as later on like we will allow certain levels of it and here's why. So tying the expectations to values for me seemed to have a whole lot more meaning and it helps people get on board with that. So that was a big focus of last year's cohort. And then um throughout the year I was welcomed with open arms to join the middle school and high school ILTs. I know Bailey has started to or continue to participate um in the Schuman and is ILT um teams as well. So being able to sit at the table with those groups who are making decisions for their colleagues and the um really the district staff has been it was fantastic and I feel like I was able to contribute and bring things to our team and we were able to really support on what seemed like a really strong level. Um so that was last year. A lot of learning feel like I know more now and there's still a whole lot more to learn. Um but over the summer we began our second cohort. So it's a new group entirely. It spans from um first grade all the way to um high school teachers. There are 15 new members. Uh we all met together on June 11th. So they spent a day with us after school got out to kind of get into the next phase of what this cohort will be. And then a group of elementary teachers went to Isty with us and they had a great experience. Uh Bailey and Laura presented and then Bailey, myself, Jen, Ivers and Sean presented as well. um providing like strategies to give feedback using technology to um enhance that learning cycle which was a really cool experience I think for all of us. And if you had asked me two years ago like would I be presenting at an international conference absolutely not. I think my wife was eager to sign up and I thought I could probably help but I think as a team we did a great job. So that was a highlight professional highlight of the summer. And then when I look forward to this upcoming school year, I think I'm just I'm very excited. There's more stability. It's a little more predictable, right? The innovation curve is still very steep, but uh that's fun for me. So, I hope to I think our hope is that with the different building teams and staff that we're able to continue developing and then actually implement that AI responsible use scale um along with some other factors that tie in with that to support teachers in you know having this conversation and establishing the expectations with their students and helping students understand what is responsible use, right? What does it mean to be skilled with AI without cutting corners in learning? Um, and how does that contrast with, you know, unskilled use of AI or irresponsible? So, those are different kind of levels. Um, and I think this provides us the foundation to discuss that with them. Um, a focus of our emerging technology cohort throughout this year will continue to be um, how emerging technology supports teacher utility. How does this technology allow teachers to do their job in a way that they find more enjoyable, more sustainable, and more impactful than it already is on our students? And when it comes to AI, we're still like it's there's still a lot of very fast development in the field. So it's hard to know exactly where does it integrate with students interacting with AI. We have a route with that. Um but we're still exploring like what is what are appropriate use cases for students? How do we educate them on what is appropriate at what age level? Um should we be doing that? So that framework is something that we're working on this year as well. And then the last point here for this upcoming year is I'm really excited to see what our teachers are able to do to increase student engagement and um therefore increase their learning and excitement for learning like c bring that curiosity back uh with new innovative strategies or just enhanced strategies that they're already using. uh with technology. So, a couple things that I think are ones for me that are bigger from this past year and looking ahead or from the cohort. Um we've had a lot of good district-wide partnership opportunities on this team. And that is really rewarding for me because these are opportunities that we're brought into the discussion. We're not the ones trying to make it happen. People have an idea. They're bringing us in to help make it happen. So, one of those was the MCA resource development project. Uh it started with a conversation between Jen Ivers and Dr. Steiner at the high school. She came to me and Bailey, kind of branched out from there. A lot of other uh all the other building administrators were very much on board, district leaders as well. Um and you know it was really establishing a foundation for what we want and how we value the preparation for these assessments and you know we hope to see that they made an impact and I think like building off that foundation in this upcoming year will be exciting as well. Um the another thing that's very exciting is like innovative differentiation right so like we know differentiation we can have a video we can have audio we can read we can have lecture all these different things but now we can also create these digital interactive like micro apps or these learning simulations very easily based on the materials that teachers are actually using for their students in their approved curriculum. Um, in the cohort, we I I was working in June with a science teacher, actually two, Bill Madigan and Andy Kaylor, and I was showing them how you could take this scientific concept and provide an opportunity for kids to actually manipulate it, right? Like a picture's worth a thousand words, but what if a kid could actually add something to it and make predictions in the moment? So they started to create these little like mini lab simulations to just augment what they're already doing in their classroom. So that concept is pretty new and novel and I have seen several of the things that these teachers have already made and I'm really excited about that. And then the last one which is not necessarily digital learning but it is a way that our team is able to support the district in other ways as well is working with our peer evaluation team. um they were piling different peer evaluation rubrics over the course of uh of the school year and when they determined which one they would go with they were hoping to have some type of system that allows them to do these observations. staff has easy access to everything. And in the world that we live in, you could pay a lot of money for those things. And these compan are lots of companies as you all know that make money a lot of money off of that. But the world we live in, it's like Jason and Joel were saying like you can kind of just do things as long as you uh take in the appropriate considerations, right? So working with that team and Bailey, we were able to create a specific peer evaluation web app that loads the information from our Google Drive for the peer evaluators. They can interact, actually complete observations, save them, share all of that with staff members. And it's a system built for our teachers, right? you're not paying all the money to get a system that's 60% for your teachers and 40% not for you, but you're paying for those features anyway. So, the fact that we're able to, you know, find solutions and build them for our teachers and then teachers are able to do that for their students. I think that's going to be one of the biggest impacts that we see this year and moving forward. So, And then um thank you. As we uh as we close, we mentioned um AI has come up a few different times and AI is going to be a focus for our district this year. And so I just very quickly um Paul did a great job of explaining or describing it. We have different projects that have definitely been empowered by AI. Um we are taking a discerning approach to this. We understand the inevitability of it. uh but we also believe in being thoughtful and mindful of it. Um so our approach starts with four uh non-negotiables and our four non-negotiables is the human is in the loop. The human relationship is the most important relationship that we maintain in our district that we are thoughtful about data privacy and um protecting student information and district information. um using our responsible use scale um helping to operationalize that to give people an anchor in what that looks like. And then the pillars of learning really is our learning progression. So it's going to look different for kids at Schuman than it is at the high school as it should be. And so we'll be developing that learning progression this year. So we can say this is the lessons that we anticipate kids having in kindergarten, first and second grade. This is how we anticipate kids in third through fifth experiencing it and throughout to continue just to try to provide clarity um to the organization in a time and a space that's very dynamic. We know certain things. We know that we can uh that the human in the loop is uh critical. And so regardless of how the technology changes, that part's not going to go away. And so we really are focused on um the things that we can know and starting from that foundation. So we know a lot about teaching children. We know a lot about supporting teachers. Those things are still true. The human elements of those things are still true and that will support and drive uh the work that we have going forward this year. It's exciting for me to have the opportunity to be here. Bailey uh wasn't able to be here tonight because she's in one of many activities that she and her kids are involved in. I almost said students. They are students, too, but they're her kids. Um, so she wasn't able to be here tonight, but one thing that she mentioned to me today is in her 11 years here in Orono. This is the first year she'll start with the same tech department twice with all of the members. It's very exciting to me. Um, you have an opportunity to hear from these um really really intelligent and caring people and uh I look forward to the to the year and all that we will do to continue to support uh Orno Public Schools. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Oh my gosh, I'm I'm so I I can't tell you how impressed I am by your entire team and what you're doing. And I think about, you know, what is our goal here? What are we trying to do? What do we want our grads to do? We want them to be people who are problem solvers. They think outside the box. They are willing to work together with teams, work together, and you guys are a model for what we want our kids to be. So, thank you. >> I actually wrote that down, too. the the the interns that got to work with you as I mean in this tiny glimpse that we get to see. You are absolutely embodying everything about our strategic plan, everything about our character. um just in how you talk about each other and your work, your excitement, your curiosity, your innovation, um your collaboration and um boy, those kids are lucky and I do hope they come back and and I hope more kids can get involved because they would be very lucky to work with you. all the questions. >> Well, uh we'll uh hope that he can have them summarized by AI so we can get it down to maybe two or three. But no, I'll echo what others have said and I just really appreciate how you all are so forwardleaning and public in what you're doing. Uh and it's just contrary to what I see in other organizations that I'm in. So, uh everyone knows what's going on and and it's really a benefit to everyone. Uh, and sorry, this is my own u probably not helpful joke, but uh the dark knight. So, does that mean you're the you're not the hero that oro deserves, but you're the hero that we need? Is that is that how that works? >> Okay. >> Oh, yeah. Many Batman lot of Batman. >> Okay, that's first try as well. Then I'll I'll leave it at that. >> Yeah. >> Huh. If you live long enough, you become the enemy. Don't you remember that? Never mind. Dark Knight. >> Moving on. I thought I had other nerds in here with me. >> Different kind of nerds. Different kind of nerds. >> Okay, Joel. Uh start with you. >> Where do you get your market intelligence on how you can uh continue your digital enablement? And then what are you thinking about for next? Because what you're doing that like seamlessly >> uh allowing everything to connect and enhancing everybody's ability to use the technology is critical and I'm so impressed with what you've done. So like where do you see it going? >> Yeah. So I guess to answer the first part um where am I getting that >> that knowledge or that markets you said >> to stay current and see what the future capabilities are. Last week actually does a really great job of of helping you alongside um like alongside you. They have a lot of like webinars um monthly events where they actually bring in um like people like that they brought in the the head of the Minnesota Department of Educ or not actually not the Minnesota Department of Education the US Department of Education they brought the head of cyber security in for one of their webinars and he talked about kind of what the next steps and expectations we'll see from vendors um and it's basically like it's it's a it's a it's a protocol basically called secure by default And Class Lake is putting these expectations on vendors that before they even come to them, >> they need to be secure in their data already and they need to be basically secure by default certified. And so Class Lake is doing a lot of vetting before us. Like Class Link won't integrate natively with a vendor that isn't secure. >> Yeah. And so I can already trust them as a platform that I work in to do a lot of that research for me and then inform me of of who's doing like which vendors are doing a good job of doing that. Um and then just bring in speakers from different um credible sources that talk about best practices um and talk about um ways to avoid issues, how to how to even send data, how to anonymously send data, how to mask data, how to jumble it um so that things stay as secure as possible. Um and so a lot of that comes from Class Link. A lot of it comes from like I'm I'm in different collaborative so like a Google collaborative where we Sean and I have gone to a couple together. Um there's like Minnesota meetups um through a company called CDW or Amplified IT, which is a company that they purchased. Um and we learn about new features from Google. Um things that they've >> um added, features that are coming, security features. Um >> it's constant learning. >> It's just con it's constant learning is really what it is. I love to learn. um this whole job the last five years has just been constantly learning new things and then when you've learned that they've released something new and then you got to keep that cycle never stops but that's what keeps it exciting. >> Um but also it's what keeps you motivated to to continue to optimize and build those walls of security too because as things change you want to make sure that you know um so that you're not surprised. So being proactive is the best way to really approach security. Um, and a big part of my job is is is proactively preparing for things. >> Well, everyone else had a consortiums that Jason was in and going to speak in, so I figured you had some. I was just curious. It's uh it's really impressive what you did. >> Um, >> Sean, are we on an AI system now or how are we leveraging AI currently? Because we're not on a closed AI system. We don't have a a subscription, do we? Or >> Yeah. So, uh, that's a great question. So um last June so we are a Google workspace district which means our Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive is all provided through Google and they have a core services user agreement which is a statement that Oro owns all of the information that we create within that. In June, uh, Google added Gemini and Notebook LM to that core services, okay? Which now means we have an enterprise LLM available within our organization. And that is one of the things uh at the beginning of this year at the admin retreat, we've started to do a little bit of learning at the administrative level too about how we can leverage this and use it. So it is something I was just talking with the team about is this this is the first year we will have an enterprise level LLM available to us. Um, so it's going to be exciting to see how we begin to integrate that and starting to think about the ways we can integrate that more uh intentionally. So it is as obvious as using a Google doc at some point. >> Okay. >> But we're just learning about it as as adults. >> Sure. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Um I just want to make a comment on uh how amazing it is like the cost savings and operational efficiencies that you guys do and and tackle those things. Um, what an incredible gift to the community and thank you. And I love that you take it on as a team and >> just tackle those things. >> Please find more. >> We really, it really has. It's so fun for us to do, really rewarding for us to do because we can tailor it to exactly what we need. >> Yeah. >> Um, >> and so now every time we we talk about a system that we use, like that thought runs through our head like what if we just built our own version of it? and you're welcome to come back here and just have like a one minute board presentation be like we saved you $15,000 and we'll clap like we want to encourage that was the money that we didn't spend. So in addition as Paul was talking about the there's the clunkiness of the previous um not just cost but clunkiness that is related to time. Yeah. of every person, every peer evaluator, every administrator um doing those evaluations and then to have something that actually works that we're not paying for then I guess I know I recognize that we paid for you know Paul's time but it's but such money well spent and then on top of that like we never purchased the new we were looking at we had we were able to fold one subscription based on your MCA test prep but we had been looking at something else that was very expensive And um I think I don't remember who it was just like well why don't we build that okay can we and it was like yeah I think we can and it I think it's far exceeds what other people are selling >> I I honestly I think it's it's the spirit of the school in general and what the culture that you guys have created and then also the team the fact that you and your team put together a mission a purpose and a vision I love that you guys are thinking of yourselves as your own brand and your own cohort inside the school as well, but it aligns perfectly with the spirit of Orno and you're doing amazing things and you can see it, right? I mean that team and collaboration. >> Um, uh, what does student engagement with AI look like in this next year? That's too hard to answer right now. >> Fine. >> Give us time. >> Sorry. >> Uh, are we going So that differentiated learning paths, that one caught my attention. I thought that was really cool. Um, are you going to be able to measure the impact from this? >> I hope so. >> I think when you get engaged learners in the classroom and that, you know, since the COVID crisis like engagement was hard to get back, right? We there's been a lot of that and we've been focusing a lot on the connectedness to get there. I think when you have curious learners and you leverage that, you're going to get more engagement. When you get more engagement, I think we're going to see a ripple effect on all measurable parameters as well. >> Do you think that this will support students that are on IEPs and helping to get them off? >> 100%. I mean, 100%. And even just in the work we did last year with um a lot of the special education teachers um with uh syncing information from teacher agendas to pull it into one single document for those special education teachers to support their case load, the students on their case load instead of them having to go to seven different schooly courses for their uh 15 to 20 students on their case load. You do that in all of the schooly classes. Some the agendas all look different. We've been able to create solutions that just pull it together for them so they can focus on working with those students. The thing that they signed up for with this job, right, that we're all here for is for the students. To take away the friction of all of the other things that make the fun stuff harder, I think inspires the teachers to do I mean, even better than I think they already do or want to continue to learn. That will be contagious. You're going to see that with the kids as well. >> Well, I'll just jump in as an aside. I'm hearing you largely reducing administrative burden, which is a huge predictor of burnout across disciplines, education being one of them. So, that's that's awesome. >> That's a big goal. Yeah. >> Yeah. We um the most common factor in many professions that is highlighted as the thing that you could change if you could change anything is time. And what we're looking at with AI is the ability to disrupt time and how can we repurpose time and again going back to that human connection. So we're repurposing time so that that time can be spent on learning relationships on working with each other on supporting our children's development. it is finding the lowhanging fruit which is time and then seeing how we can disrupt that and repurpose that. A lot of excitement um in what we're doing and a lot of um really creative work that's going on. But I want to be sure to also share this is done purposefully and we know that there is a nexus where the vendor solution is just a better use of resource and time and so when we are looking for these things to disrupt we're looking for the things that we can practically disrupt and that we have confidence then that we can support going forward. So, we're really excited about these things, but I would call it our beta year where we really start to test the scalability of these solutions and to find out if these solutions really are the things that we believe that they can be and to learn how we can make those things be sustainable. So that when people experience solutions that may be built inhouse, they're not going to think this was a built-inhouse solution. They won't know from their experience of using that. It will be the quality of any other experience they would have. And we're on a good track. I mean, we've got five or six inventions at this point that have literally already um repurposed time in significant ways and saved financial resources in in in ways that are already starting to show up. Um so, I just wanted to make that real clear um that that we're doing this eyes wide open. And I use this analogy a lot too. There's free and then there's free like a puppy. And so we know that anything we code and any solution that we come up with has the free like a puppy along with it. And so we need to be really mindful of that. And then to the one other question that you had asked about um when are kids going to experience this? We don't have that defined yet. But what I would say is that's where that learning progression comes in. And that what we know is that we know it looks different for a kindergartener than it does for a junior. And so our teacher cohorts by having teacher practitioners um somewhere near 30 now at this point in the two-year process diving into this and experiencing this and then thinking about it through their curricular area and through their expertise and then feeding back to us the things that they're excited about, the concerns that they have or the things that are off-putting helps to inform how our students will experience that. And that is an internal engine that runs to help keep us growing in a way that we know is prudent, is thoughtful, and will support the goals of the district. My last question, you are terribly successful as a team with everything that you've accomplished already. What resources don't you have that you would like and what would you do with those? >> Nothing. I'm not we're not handing anything out. I'm just curious. >> Um I you know and I'm going to give a very diplomatic answer and say that um as Bailey noted, this is just year two of this team and the first time in 11 years when we've had the same team twice. Let us do our work this year and then as we get our feet under us and actually figure out these beta projects and how well they work, we will certainly be able to come back and say these are the things that we need to continue to be successful on behalf of the students and teachers of this district. I'll just make one more comment, closing comment about AI is as we've we've got a lot of work we know with our community and with our parents in addition to students. That's one of the things that as we begin to roll out, we've got work to do and probably conversations um across obviously to your point looks very different at kindergarten compared to sec um our secondary students, but Common Sense Media, which is a um a group that we trust, um just put out just recently that I think it's 72% of our teenagers are engaging in um AI use and over half are using um on a repeated and ongoing basis. So we know that kids are already using it. So we as adults um in the system as well as our parents um we really need to come together and um as you've heard them talk about digital discernment and what's where is AI appropriate um and in what ways um and and that's what our kids need. they need to know how how to use this. Um, and we need to be in front of that and not be lagging behind where our kids are or kids kids will be exposed to things that aren't appropriate for them. So, um, we we just need to be talking to parents, not in a scary way, but in a way that, um, is forward thinking. And building off of that, three phrases that I wrote down that came up repeatedly, whether on the slides or in your presentation were with purpose, responsible use, and strategic. And I think that leads to, you know, a lot of parents might think, I don't want computer. You know, you hear there's too much technology or I'm worried and they're going to have access to what? Um, but just hearing that repeatedly again in your slides and your presentation is just very comforting um as a parent to know that what they're going to be learning um in school they'll be responsible or learn well hopefully they'll learn how to be responsible um at least. So thank you. >> Thank you so much not just for being here tonight but for everything that you all do. So, thank you. Well done. >> Okay. Um, any other new business? Hearing none, I'd like to make note that the next regular meeting will be held on Monday, September 8th, 2025 at 7 p.m. here in the district office assembly room. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> A second. >> Second. All those in favor? I