All right. Uh, tonight we had a questions and comments uh, opportunity. I just want to say that we had no uh, members of the community sign up for questions and comments. So, with that, we will co call order. Uh, we will call this meeting to order now. Uh, Gavin, will you please lead us in with the pledge of allegiance? So we'll start with the consideration of the agenda. Are there any changes amongst the board? Is it loud? >> Oh, no changes. All right. With that, we will move forward to the consent agenda. 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's consent agenda items are as follows. Uh we will approve the minutes from the regular board meeting held on September 22nd. Uh we will approve the personnel recommendations, approval of wage adjustments for substitute teachers for 2526 year. Accept donations totaling $6,911. Approve the assurance of compliance with state and federal law prohibiting discrimination. Approve vouchers and payments, bill vouchers, EP register items, EFT vouchers, and Capital One items. Do I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Uh, so so moved. >> Do I gabble? All in favor? >> All those in favor? >> I >> I >> I I've only been doing this for a few years. >> Thank you. All right. Next, uh our favorite superintendent's report on excellence. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um I'd like to I'd like to open my report this evening by recognizing Indigenous People's Day. Um in 2019, Governor Walls proclaimed the second Monday in October, which is today, as Indigenous People's Day across Minnesota. Minnesota is home to the governments of 11 11 sovereign tribal nations and this day offers us an opportunity to celebrate the enduring cultures, traditions and contributions of indigenous peoples as well as their strength and resilience throughout history. We extend our gratitude locally to our own American Indian parent advisory committee um American Indian students, families, staff and community members. Um it's wonderful, wonderful group. Um your your voices, perspectives, and partnerships enrich orno schools and strengthen our shared commitment to learning learning and belonging. Um on to performing arts. This past weekend, our middle school students entertained audiences with their fall production, Too Many Ghosts. Um thank you to Orno Community Education and for Community Theater for offering a full drama experience to our middle school educa or middle school students. And then last Saturday, our Orno High School band entertained the audience with a fun pops concert. It was really great. Um led by directors Jennifer Runk and Tim Arnold. Well done for all the students. It was um amazing when you think that kids learned all of the music for homecoming and all the performances and then only had a couple weeks to learn all of that music. It was really a fun evening and they they did a great great job. Um our next scheduled um performance is Orno High School fall choir concert on Monday, October 27th at 7 p.m. at the Weisetta Community Church and the choir is under the direction of Miss Nicole Brena. Um as a reminder, tickets are on sale beginning today for Orno High School fall musical Tuck Everlasting. The play opens November 14th. This should be a great performance for the whole family. Uh purchase your tickets now for the very best seats. Um we have a couple of student awards. Um, congratulations to Owen Marx and McKenna Monger who were recently earned the National Speech and Debate Association's Academic All-American Award. That's pretty amazing. This national honor recognizes high school students who have earned the highest levels of distinction in both speech and debate competition and academics. Fewer than 2% of NSDA student members receive this award each year. To qualify, students must demonstrate outstanding competitive success, maintain a strong gradepoint average, and uphold the NSDA's code of honor, reflecting excellence in scholarship, service, leadership, and character. So, congratulations and a huge congratulations also to Junior Simon Forbes for being selected to serve on the Minnesota Youth Council, part of Minnesota Alliance with Youth. The Minnesota Youth Council is a statewide group of student leaders who represent young people from across Minnesota. The council provides a platform for students to advise legislators and state agencies on issues affecting our youth. Simon's selection reflects his outstanding leadership, civic engagement, and commitment to amplifying student voice and creating positive change in his community. Great job. Um, and for our activities sports update, both cross country teams will be racing tomorrow for the conference championship meet at Highland Greens. Boys race at 40:05 and girls at 4:40. Good luck to boys soccer. Tomorrow night is the section final versus Delano. The game is at 7 PM at Zimmerman High School. Um, huge congratulations to girls swim and dive for winning again the true team section 3 double or 3A championship. Um, Spartans will look to defend their true team state title at the University Minnesota Aquatic Center this Thursday. Um, they're just amazing group of swimmers. Um, shout out to girls soccer for a great season. The Spartans won a section quarterfinal game before falling to Blake in the section final on Saturday. Congratulations to Ava Gower and Kate Spaniel were named all state players. Great job. And then girls volleyball is back in action tonight for the regular season game against New Prague. It's just starting about now. The game is at 7 p.m. in Orno and postseason play for our girls volleyball begins next Wednesday. And then congratulations to girls tennis um on advancing today actually to the section first there was a section semi-finals and the individual section tournament was this morning with the following Spartans advancing we had for singles blue and Molader and Kira Johnson and then for in class double doublea doubles Molly Hollererman and CC Sorenson were there and today won and qualified for the state by taking first place. So great job girls. Yeah. Yay. Um, football plays their final regular season game on Wednesday and begins postseason play next week. And then, uh, by the way, registration is now open for winter athletics in my payments plus. And, um, all athletes interested in participating in a winter sport are invited to attend an upcoming sports specificformational meeting that that went out. If you um, please check it out. Families, dates and times are posted also on the high school athletics and activities page. Please note that due to the varying start dates for winter seasons, we won't be holding the all um sports info night meeting. We'll do that by sport. And finally, we have a break ahead. It is our Minnesota Educators Association weekend is just ahead. So, a reminder that there is snow on Thursday and Friday of this week. And thank you to community orno community education for planning engaging programming for our students who will will be on campus. Um we wish all of our students and staff a safe and restful weekend. And that concludes my report for this evening. >> Thank you. Always wonderful. All right. So now we move on to the board members questions and comments. Um we had our policy committee and our facilities and finance committee. So we do those updates. Um Mr. Tempro, would you mind giving the facilities and finance update please? >> Yeah. Um it was a good meeting um as they usually are, but uh enrollment numbers uh are looking good. They're coming in where we expect them to. So that's wonderful. uh insurance costs are actually going down um thanks to I want to say Mr. Tainter and and uh research and such such that the school is doing. So that's awesome. Uh and there is also a really neat um piece on some cost containment collaboration that I think we'll hear more about uh that is is going to hopefully save money. So we're doing what we can to save the the money we can. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Um and then I will take the policy committee and then we'll go around uh the horn. Um so the policy committee reviewed policies 501 through 507 which address areas of students rights and responsibilities. These policies cover students uh locker and personal possessions, student attendance, student discipline, bullying prevention, and the prohibition of corporal punishment and prone resistance. These policies ensure a safe, respectful, and legally compliant learning environment aligned with the Minnesota law and MSBA guidance. And so that's what we reviewed, and we'll hear more on that later. >> Mr., would you mind starting us off? Uh nothing major other than I was able to speak with a number of our elected representatives at the state and county and municipal levels at the Farm Bureau dinner and the independence planning commission reminding reminding them of our upcoming uh coffee conversation with them next week and most of them seemed excited and I believe they will be there. So that was good to hear about. >> Wendy and I were out at the discovery center for their parent advisory council meeting. uh they have a kind of a new way to recruit in members by events this year. So hopefully that'll lead to more involvement. Uh their next event is open to the public. It is going to be a spooky Saturday which will happen on 10:25. Costumes are welcome but not required and the community can come and gather, have a snack, do some crafts, hang out. Uh lots of fun. But they're really focusing on connectedness, which is obviously a value that we are, you know, 100% behind connecting with teachers and with families uh together. Oh, and they're also planning a fall backyard cleanup. As you may remember, they have an outdoor classroom and so that needs periodic maintenance. Another way to get people together for a common good. Thank you. I attended the AMSD board meeting and um I know uh Dr. Husher had updated all of you about it. Um we heard from the demograph it was a demographic update from the Minnesota state demographer and um the big picture is that we have uh births are down. uh people are aging, they're living longer. So um sort of the issues in the state, in the country, in cities are changing. Um the needs and um so there's just a lot of studying that's still going on. Um and it was really interesting. But that concludes my report. >> Anything more? Uh the only thing I had uh the the kickoff for the PTO was a couple weeks ago. Um not much to report on other than a lot of new faces. Uh it's always great to see Huh. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's always great like they they have a a lot I think about five new people that join the PTO this year to be on the board. Um and just the the amount of volunteering that goes in and the professionalism as I I state all the time. Uh they are truly impressive. they dedicate a lot of time. And then I think because I've got children in elementary and in intermediate and I've started to see all of the emails for the room reps and the communications and the the um uh coordination and so it's just an amazing amount of work that they do and so we appreciate the the members of the community that always volunteer for that. That concludes our board reports. So now moving on to old business. Uh we have an action item on our policy reviews for 506, 722, and 806. As a reminder, uh these policies have to be reviewed each year. That is why they are first and it's a bit of an odd collection. Um so with that, do I have a motion to approve uh a policies 506, 722, and 806? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. All in favor? >> I. >> Is there any further discussion? >> All right. With that, do I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second that we already did that. >> The discussion comes after. >> I have totally gotten wrapped around the axle in my brain. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> I. I. >> Thank you. It's a lot different than that chair. >> It is surprisingly >> Yeah, you can ask if any >> I don't have it written down. My brain has just shut it off. >> All right. Um, is there any other old business that we have to discuss? All right. With that, we will move on to new business. And tonight, uh, we are starting with the comprehensive safety framework. Dr. Flesher. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, we have our safety leadership team here tonight for our work and presentation and also conversation regarding safety and crisis procedures. I want to introduce our team first and then make a few remarks as we begin. So, please welcome Dr. Scott Elder, executive director of human resources. Miss Karina Gramer, director Graer, director of special services. Tiffany Clif Clifton, director of community education, Miss Kim Vanle, Orno Middle School principal, Mr. Sean Beaverson, director of technology. Mr. David Slumkowski, our safety consultant and leader of Meridian Safety Consulting. I just want to mention also part of our leadership team. We obviously didn't have enough chairs, but um have been Dr. Aaron Ruland, executive director of learning and accountability, Chad Aish, our coordinator of facilities, and Janet Franen, our head nurse. Um, I just want to thank first our leadership team that's been that works annually on reviewing and improving our existing crisis and safety procedures for the district and really learning the latest best practices across sectors. Um, as we begin tonight, a couple of things. Um, first of all, we are here to update the board and our community on our recent new framework. We're adopting a comprehensive school safety framework that we really, really want to show the community. Um, and the board has gotten a preview to this already, but the framework truly aligns with how we have pro approached safety for many years and with best practices. We're really thrilled um to work throughout the summer and early fall to organize our work that we've done over time within the framework and also altering what we've seen um to fit Orno schools. We want to give credit to safe and sound schools for the overall framework that we orized. Um but it was their concept. Um and tonight we have the leadership team to talk about each area. Um so that you can see the framework. I also want the second the board and the community to understand and hear the years of study and training tonight. Um you know it was in the 1990s when I was a psychologist in the district that we were writing our first crisis and safety manuals. And I think the school leaders at that time who were asking the right questions about school safety and this is a heavy topic and I know Dr. Elder is going to talk a little bit about that. But sadly there's a lot of research um unfortunately about um the need for school safety and and areas of school violence that we have long studied and we have in 2008 20078 the Secret Service published um their best practice research and they were looking for a s a student profile at that time of a student engages in school violence and they didn't find one. um they found that students came from all demographics and all walks of life, but instead they found three common elements and they're important I think for everyone to understand as we think about safety. Um number one that students without these were students that did not have an adult relationship, a connection with this person at school. Um and that's really important that began our work um and our deep relationships and connectedness work not just for academics but for safety. Second, we students were in a very predictable path of violence. One that can be investigated and one that can be interrupted um through a process called threat assessment that we use and we train on here. And I just want to take a pause and call out officer Jay McCoy is in the back back there. he he is um our school resource officer um and he is back now full-time um so we're very excited about that and we thank Melissa Kucus for her work um over the last year but the third element um was that others knew and so we have been working for 25 plus years to create a culture where people would be if they were concerned that they would say something to create the layers of safety that you're going to hear about tonight. Some of the layers look like security measures like locked doors and panic alarms and visitor management systems, but some of them also look like our work and belonging. Um, relationships and creating a culture in which we care enough about each other that we'll share concerns if we're concerned. Um and last um on this next slide you're going to see if you don't mind just showing it. Um thank you Karina an AI generated picture of the layers of safety that surround we see surround our children on this campus every day. We start with this picture because we take serious the language it's Latin and parentus loco which is Latin for the that we stand in the place of parents. Um it's how we train our staff. It's how we want our parents to feel confident as we approach and what you hear tonight. The procedures are grounded not only in our in the best practices, but that they're comprehensive with this mindset at its heart. So, with that, I want to turn it over to Dr. Elder, who I believe is going to get us started. >> Thank you, Dr. Flesher, Chair, Vice Chair Madson, and members of the board. I want to begin by acknowledging challenging this topic is for all of us. I I think all of us have felt an emotional response at some point to news of a crisis in a school. My first experience like that came more than 20 years ago when I was a principal walking silent hallways during our very first lockdown drill. And nothing went wrong that day. Everything went as planned. It was only a drill. But it stands out as a defining moment that shaped my mindset around safety and care in schools. I see that same mindset in my colleagues who lead much of the ongoing work in safety and security and well-being. And um I want to uh lead tonight by sharing that we won't be we won't be providing specific crisis response details. Uh members of the board, parents, and I and I'm sure even community members would not expect nor would it be appropriate for us to reveal that level of detail publicly, but we will share information that demonstrates the school district's preparedness. We follow a comprehensive crisis procedures manual. Looks like this. We conduct required drills in compliance with state law. how we carry out uh our plans with precision and consistency through much rehearsal. Uh as you listen tonight, you'll notice how our work balances attention to environmental, cultural, and community factors with planning and response for crisis situations. We're pursuing an equilibrium between holistic and acute response patterns. You may recall the frog and pond metaphor shared by Alli Chley, the director of the Orino Coalition. She reminds us that the frog that is recovered from an illness cannot remain well if it is put back into a pond that is unhealthy. Our goal is to care for both the frogs and the pond through our collective efforts. uh ensuring that our people and the environments in which they learn and work are both safe and well. So turn it over to uh Tiffany, I think. Right. >> Sure. Oh, David. Uh the um the main thing that I'd like to say at least for the uh at the beginning of this presentation is that we uh this plan that we're talking about this framework that's been created is a very multi-layered approach to this uh this massive massive area. A lot of people think about security or they think of safety or they think of you know safety as it as it you know as it applies to like ladders and things like that. It's a lot of different moving parts and the framework takes into account everything that you could possibly think of and and a lot of things that you won't think of. So, we're going to walk you through all of that. Um the different parts of the framework, the different pillars of the framework and um the main thing that I'd like to mention here is that uh the the framework isn't this group. It's not one group's responsibility. It's not one person's responsibility. It is every single person in the community's responsibility. Every student, every parent, every board member, every employee, everybody has a role. And as we get through this, you'll you'll see what I'm talking about. Um, but that's to just kind of set the stage of uh what we're going to go into. And I think Tiffany's going to start with the details. >> Good evening. So first on behalf of the team um those that are here and and not I we just want to express our sincere gratitude to the board and Dr. Flesher for your consistent support over many decades for more than 30 years 25 to 30 um your commitment to funding training and resources has been absolutely foundational which allows us to establish safety as a long-term and a central priority really rooted in prevention. So, we see safety as a continuous process and we're committed to being proactive and wellprepared. Our program is built on consistent effort across several key areas. We know that utilization of resources from key agencies are essential. Our leaders and staff engage in high level training from organizations you can see listed here like Homeland Security, FEMA, Alice, the I Love You guys Foundation to all to ensure that our knowledge is current and comprehensive. We maintain and regularly update our crisis procedures manual that Dr. Alger mentioned which is done in close partnership with the Minnesota school safety center. Keeping our strategies practical and aligned with best practices. We conduct realistic tabletops and practice incidents with Oriental Police Department, first responders and other partners to build seamless coordination during an actual event. We rely on regular internal and facility safety audits combined with targeted training for staff, including our critical front office personnel to maintain and a secure environment. We believe that consistent training and collaboration are the best ways to provide a safe and nurturing environment for our students and staff, which we will continue to outline for you tonight. When most people think about school safety, their minds immediately go to the least likely event, a single intruder. While we dedicate significant effort and resources to preparing for those high impact, low probable events, our responsibility is actually much broader. We must plan for a full spectrum of emergencies, many of which are far more likely and frequent. Our comprehensive safety plan defines emergencies within three categories of hazards. natural hazards such as tornadoes and floods, technological hazards including power outages and cyber incidents, and man-made hazards including fires, bus accidents, and yes, intruders. We have detailed plans developed to effectively respond to incidents across all three of these categories and train our staff annually to ensure a prepared and rapid response. >> At the state level, our most crucial partnership with Minnesota with uh at the state level, our most crucial partnership is with the Minnesota School Safety Center, which is part of the Homeland Security and Emergency Management. This is a team that we have worked with regularly. They've been invaluable to us. They've helped review our safety plans, conducted in-depth facil facility assessments, providing us with actionable steps and great results. They've led training sessions for our administrative staff, teamed up teamed up with us for parent presentations on safety, and as a recognition of our efforts, they even invited us to speak this summer at their school-based emergency management training. But state support is only one piece of the puzzle. Our safety is also directly tied to the dedicated local professionals who serve our community every day. Uh people like uh Officer McCoy, who we are very happy to welcome back to the campus. We maintain strong working relationships with fire and police departments that serve our area. This includes our friends in Long Lake, Oro, Maple Plane, Plymouth Fire, and the police departments in Orino, Weisetta, West Henipin, and Plymouth. Um, our approach to emergency management is proactive and comprehensive. We follow national guidelines on all phases of emergency management from prevention and mitigation to preparation, response and recovery. Ensuring that we follow the phases, we have developed a robust crisis manual as has been mentioned that is used to support or address any incident that occurs within our school district. >> So here it is. This is um a look at what our comprehensive school safety framework is. Um we are going to take you through each of these um areas. This is really showing our commitment to a robust and com and and our compassion for a safe environment for every student and staff member at oral schools. Our team has been working really hard to develop more of a holistic view of what school safety is. Recently our team attended the safe and zone schools program as Dr. Flesher mentioned which um really validated our own thinking. Their philosophy aligns really well with our vision which is a framework that is all-encompassing and um really centers on prevention. This approach ensures that we are addressing the root causes and creating a culture of preparedness. We are excited to roll out this framework for the school safety for you today. Um the orno school framework doesn't introduce anything new measures that we're doing but rather clearly maps out and organizes everything that we already do. Um this is showcasing the big picture of how we view safety with prevention as a core principle. It represents our broad comprehensive view of safety, security and crisis response extending well beyond the traditional stages of emergency management. This full comprehensive view is posted on our website as of today under the safety and security web page. So please feel free to go and check it out and it's readily available for our entire schools community. Prevention and promoting positive mental health is the most important aspect to school safety. Orno schools focuses on supporting mental health and behavioral supports for students. We focus on building and building in district level supports including multi-tered student services prioritizing connectedness, relationships, and mental health. The district-wide mental health team collaborates regularly on a common threat assessment practice and supports at each level to support student mental health needs. Our mental health team trains annually on threat assessment process while focusing on trying to prevent students from being on the pathway. The threat assessment process helps educators understand why students may be acting in a particular manner and provides a predictable path people are on. Understanding this pathway, you can see the look fors and interrupt them to provide the necessary support someone needs. Threat assessment is a process of involving more or less people relating to the level of concern. Our focus is identifying student individual needs and teaching the necessary skills to fix and restore situations. All staff complete annual training in many areas including crisis suicide prevention and mandatory reporting. We continue our collaboration with the Orno coalition, outside partnerships, and local partners to train staff and support all students on the importance of prevention, mental health, and connectedness. We have worked for decades on this with an increasing support for students and families and will continue. >> Another critically important pillar that Dr. is our sorry, our caring climate and our connected community. Um, you know, we always think about connectedness and that sense of belonging and our strategic goals. We spend time in continuous improvement planning for that and setting goals. We don't always think about it as it relates to safety, but it truly is our most important strategy for prevention. When kids feel cared about and deeply connected to their school community, they're far less likely to engage in risk taking behavior, to engage in selfarm, and to others. Each year, you know, all of our schools develop robust goals in all of these areas. Um, scholarship, character, and connectedness. Character really is, as you know, the founders of character. We teach them how to bring those to life. And with that, we help them to put into action empathetic, solving problems, taking responsibility, and creating a caring environment for all of our students. We also constantly monitor connect um in our schools. Like I said, it's part of our goals. So, for example, at the middle school, we use um an inventory that our students report how connected they're feeling both to each other as well as to adults in the school community. And all of our student support staff work tirelessly to with anyone who's feeling like they're not connected in our school. Um students are our students, you know, are actively involved in countless activities from unified um to sports to the arts to our wonderful traditions. We just had homecoming and somehow we geeked out the parade at that. Um but those traditions are critically important to provide those that sense of connection for kids. We have to and thank coalition and healthy youth as our community also gets involved in helping our kids be well. Um, and within our connectedness work like Dr. Flesher talked about, we're constantly talking about creating a culture where it's comfortable for students to report if they have any concerns about a friend. That's why we work tirelessly to make sure there's a trusted adult in our schools that everyone feels like they can go to When people think of the phrase school security or school safety, the things that you see on the uh slide here are usually what people think about. And I think we've already seen that it's way more than than physical security. But it's important to understand that we do a lot of work in physical security and we spend a lot of money in physical security as well. Uh first off, we have a very very excellent relationship with uh with the city and with the police department. It's really fantastic. I've worked in a lot of school districts over the years and this is one of the best ones that I've seen. It's really really a very good partnership. That uh first respon responder um partnership includes a full-time school resource officer, which we've already talked about, uh which is excellent, and uh additional police presence when we need it uh for various things. uh the the um uh police department uh helps us do a lot of training in tabletop exercises and those kinds of things. So just an excellent excellent partnership. Um and then the physical security things like uh you know over the years uh card access for the doors that help us to u prevent you know people from getting in or uh limiting access to to certain people and certain times of the day and those kinds of things. Uh we as you can see that it's hard to on the slide there, but that's a map of the middle school at the top. And last year's construction, a very big part of that was to move the office to the front of the building so that people don't have to get into the building, then go across the hall to the office. It was just not a really great security type setup. So, and that's a situation that we have that we've resolved at every single building with the ability to uh to to direct people into the offices instead of um into the building and then find their way to the office. So, massive improvement there. Um then we have uh panic alarms in the offices. We have various different other kinds of alarms. We have a visitor management system that allows us to uh scan a driver's license and determine if someone's on a a list that prevents them from being in a building. they've got maybe a protective order against them or or or who knows what uh what uh gives you a red flag in that system. Um we also have a lot of cameras in the district and the thing that I like to point out about our camera system here is that it's not something that we put in, you know, 20 years ago and then just left it. Uh the camera system continually evolves. We add capabilities to it. We're looking at a software uh upgrade right now that will allow us to do a lot of things digitally, follow people around the building, all those kinds of things. Um, so it's it's less of a hey, what happened after the fact kind of thing, which is what most camera systems are, to hey, we can actually manage this situation or even prevent something from happening because our camera system is so uh robust. So, it's constantly being upgraded and uh cameras are being added and and and those kinds of things. Um, of course, we've got, you know, fire suppression systems, all those kinds of things. And one of the things that's important to understand here with the uh under the communication piece is we've got a lot of different ways to communicate. Obviously, we have rados, radios, we have phones that uh work uh with satellites. Um and then we have the Raptor app which allows us to push out messages to all staff because it's an app on their phones. So, we don't necessarily have to use, you know, a PA system or or those kinds of things to communicate uh important details about about uh crisis to people. Uh, and then of course we have a PA system and it's a a PA system that allows us to use it from anywhere. Um, I won't get into the details, but it's a it's a very good PA system. Uh, and of course we've got cyber security. Cyber security is one of those things that maybe people don't think of so much when it comes to um, uh, physical security, but the cyber security is really important. It keeps us from getting hacked. It keeps us from um uh people, you know, ransoming the district by locking us out of our systems, which has happened in schools before in Minnesota. And it uh keeps all of our employee and student data safe so that people can't, you know, just look in there and and find out all sorts of things about kids and employees and and everything else. So, just wanted to uh summarize some of the the bigger school actual physical security issues that we've been working on. Do you mind do you mind? Uh we are going to be announcing soon. Um and maybe it's it's time we're going to be sending it out, but we are changing we'll be changing the doors in each of our buildings. I think we've talked about that here, but um we'll be probably messaging in the next couple of weeks um by the end of we it'll be staged in. U we've just been um awaiting on the intercom parts, but parents will be welcomed into the vestibule. Um but those doors then will be locked um to get into school. Um there's a second set of doors that will that are locked to get into the building but to get into the office. But there's an intercom system because we want safety is a constant balance between welcome. Um we can't make schools feel like they're a prison. Um they need to be a welcoming space that kids feel like they belong to. Um so it's a constant balance between welcoming and safety. Um so we're going to take one step further in terms of um locking doors, but at the same time with the intercom systems that we've ordered and should be here very soon that we believe we can um accomplish that welcoming environment as well for all of our parents. It's really important that our parents, we want them to be here and on campus and feel both comfortable um and have kids feel comfortable and welcome, but at the same time um we think that's an important um added element. And I'd like to add to that that this is something that is sort of it's a wave that's happening. A lot of school districts are doing this and I think it's going to very quickly become the norm uh in districts all over the place. I I know of many districts in the metro area that are already doing it. >> So emergency management and crisis response. Um Dr. Elder brought his crisis manual which I'm really grateful for. Um the foresight of Dr. Flesher um she has been a leader in this work and creating robust plans for every type of emergency you can imagine for years and years. So the Minnesota School Safety Center when they have been here has talked about how prepared we are and how advanced we are um thanks to your leadership and work. In conjunction with that, we have highly trained crisis teams that know exactly how to respond in a variety of emergencies and situations. We've also um looking at best practices always been dedicated to that. Um we follow the NIMS command structure. NIMS the NIMS command structure was solidified after 911 um when it became very clear that every state had their own chain of command and structure but they all called everything a little bit different things. So it became abundantly clear that clarity in a major emergency is critically important. That is when the NIMS command structure was established. It is what police use. It is what fire departments use. We have our own NIMS command structure so that we can have that clarity in the case of an emergency. Two years ago um we again looking for best practices um looked to the I Love You guys Foundation. They they developed this outstanding safety response protocol and they did it in conjunction with fire departments, parents, students, psychologists. They wanted to know what would be best practice emergency management for response in a crisis situation. They came up with extremely clear language as you can see um up on the screen that we teach our students, that we teach our um staff and that we so that everyone knows exactly what to do in the case of an emergency. So students and staff obviously train this way in drills. That's critically important because it provides that muscle memory that you need in an emergency situation. Another component of crisis response is reunification or the act of bringing families and students back together after a situation has occurred. Last year, our crisis team engaged in a very extensive reunification training based on the I love you guys standard reunification model, which again is an emergency management crisis structure that they use. Um, we trained with local law enforcement departments and we will continue to do that training this year. Again, we've we can't overstate this. We are so lucky to have the close relationship that we have with all of our local law enforcement and public safety departments. Um, often connecting with them in the middle of the night. Right, Officer McCoy? We we're lucky we have we have their cell phones. They have our cell phones. I do think it is a unique situation that we have here. It's also unique that we have a police department two doors down from all of our school buildings. So, their response is extremely quick to our buildings. They're dedicated to learning with us, to collaborating, to training in our buildings. And that relationship helps to provide an even safer environment for our kids. So when thinking of safety um and school safety, we have to keep in mind physical health and wellbeing. Um so our goal is to create a campus of thriving humans um with that focus on not only students but also staff. Um we believe that keeping our students safe includes care for their overall physical health as well. Um our district nurse Janet Bransen as mentioned earlier is a part of our team and um her and the our amazing health service department is really dedicated to meeting each students individual health needs and providing essential daily support that they need. Um, beyond that though, our full, um, our full-time health staff, we do have many trained employees on basic health emergency skills, um, including the use of our AEDs, um, how to respond to emergency allergic reactions, um, seizure trainings, general first aid, etc. As you can see listed here, um, this wide reaching training creates a strong safety network across our school. And then um additionally is just thinking of our physical and health education classes really to teach students the foundational habits of healthy lifestyles as they continue to grow. Um we know that success requires more than just physical health though. General well-being is so critically important. Our high school students have really taken this on and they have taken the lead on this by creating a well-being club at the high school which really organizes a variety of activities that support general student well-being. You'll really see that kick up during finals week when we know that well-being is especially needed um for some supportive activities and what the bunnies. >> Well, there'll be bunnies. Okay, >> you know, we're always willing to support bunnies. Um, for those that don't know, Bunny Bastia is comes in and you can come and play and and connect with bunnies and um it's just a great it's a well-being thing, right? There's a lot of students put a lot of pressure on themselves and so giving them those outlets and that's all student driven and so they see the value in this. Um, in the same spirit, we've really taken that lead um for for our staff and we've launched a really strong staff well-being program. It's based on three key ideas that you can see here with our logo. Um, thanks to the amazing Lisa Campbell who's really helped develop and launch that. Um, with our tagline being balance, belong, and be well. And, um, under the leadership of Dr. Elder, um, this has really been amazing work of developing this committee and the work that it's doing to support our staff. And I'll let him take it over from here. >> Yeah, thank you, Tiffany. Tiffany is an incredible source of energy and leadership and insight when it comes to well-being and fuses a lot of her community thinking around the work we do with these other learning adults in the school system. Uh in my opening comments I mentioned that creating a safe school climate requires both acute and holistic approaches. The work we're highlighting in this slide represents the broad impact we hope to accomplish through our work in safety. So if you if you think about more than 300 staff members on this campus in the district whose daily work involves direct support of students. It's essential that we support them, the people who are working with the students, helping them maintain their own well-being so they can to provide the best possible care and guidance to students. We do this through training, support, and engagement. The district's well-being committee is just one facet of that, but the committee fosters a culture of belonging and care through initiatives ranging from our annual 5K to uh regular communications out to staff called weekly tweaks with information about uh financial well-being, physical well-being, emotional well-being. Many of these resources are also available to the broader community on our website. So we have some staff facing resources but we also have public facing resources on the website for members of the community to uh capitalize on these offerings and resources. So we're extending our commitment to connection and wellness beyond our school walls really shoring up the well-being of the committee to the greatest extent possible. This is probably the um least interesting part, but it's uh as a safety nerd, I'm this is my favorite part. Uh environmental and workplace safety is one of those things that's driven by two things. It's driven by compliance, first of all, and then it's driven by an actual desire to make things safe and make sure people don't get hurt. So, uh we comply with a lot of regulations. We comply with regulations from OSHA, EPA, MDH, uh MPCA, MDE, like many many uh multiple letter agencies. Uh OSHA for example uh has some 30 different required written plans and regulations that uh all require things like inspections and everything from daily to monthly to weekly different tasks that you have to do just to maintain compliance. Plus, we get inspected by OSHA occasionally. Um so that's one reg. one uh regulatory agency and then we have all the others that you see there. We're also required to uh put on a lot of safety training throughout the year. There's two topics mentioned there, right, to know bloodborne pathogens, but we just put those in there because those are ones you've probably heard of. There are also uh more than a dozen others that are required at various different levels uh within the district depending on what your job is. So, lots of training happens here. Some some employees have to do more than a dozen trainings. Um just to just for regulatory compliance issues. Uh personal protective equipment is something that you know might not seem like a big deal but we have a lot of it here. We give out a lot of it to the employees and it's such an important thing that we actually have a separate line item budget for it so that it can't be used to uh we can't braid the PPE budget to to buy other things. Uh we get uh indoor air quality concerns and questions all the time. That's something that we spend a lot of time on. Uh we deal with hazardous waste. We do a lot of uh we do all the required lead and water testing and the best practices radon testing that uh the state uh has put out guidance on and we manage all of the districts asbestous. Now before you freak out and say asbestous uh we do have a little bit of asbestous in some of the buildings not all. It's all stuff that is uh you know behind the scenes not accessible by kids or or most staff. Um but there is a lot of regulation that goes into managing that. So that's another thing that we do along with inspections of of that and everything else. Uh to summarize this slide, basically we want everyone to go home at the end of the day and we want them to go with their the toes and fingers that they brought with them. So uh that's this part. >> I think we'll let the the board be the judge, but this may be the least interesting part. >> Leadership on policy. So leadership, law and policy intersect at the point where many of the most important decisions are made, the most important formal decisions. Uh anyway, uh some of this work takes place within departments. For example, human resources and business office manage risk and ensure alignment with recommendations from our liability insurance carrier. Uh each year departments conduct require training to maintain compliance and consistency in practice as Mr. Slamowski just mentioned uh in the employee handbook is updated as needed to reflect current laws and standards. So this processes like these are usually managed by departments. Beyond the departmental work, numerous committees and leadership structures bring staff and administrators together to align systems with policy and best practice. Um, a lot of that work ends up coming here to the board for consideration, approval in different formats, but the different committees that work throughout the district generating these ideas and um, synthesizing them into The messages that you hear uh include the well-being committee, the safety committee which is led by David Lamowski, the insurance committee uh which works on uh developing the most um coste effective supports for employees. The Orino Coalition, which we've heard some about. The board policy committee reviews enormous quantities of policies on an annual basis, many of which have safety implications on on multiple levels. the crisis leadership team which includes many of the presenters at the table tonight. Uh superintendent's cabinet is is not a formal committee but it is definitely the source under Dr. Flesher's leadership of a lot of um processing of ideas and making sure that uh we can implement strategies across the district uh with fidelity and then the full school board of course uh if you think about the school board as an entity that uh interfaces with this information to shore up the systems again to to make sure that we're maintaining a safe and healthy environment. So shared um shared membership across these groups uh in addition to the the groups themselves or the individual committees but members who cross over between the the committees also ensure that we're maintaining continuity and we have a comprehensive focus on safety, security, and well-being across the district. We are grateful for your partnership as parents and community members as safety includes us all. As parents in a connected community, we want everyone to feel belonging. We encourage that if you hear something, please say something. Please make sure to update your emergency contacts to allow us to end to partner quickly. The support of our parents is essential as we view you as safety partners. We ask that you continue to help us by monitoring your students social media accounts, understanding that prevention is a joint responsibility, updating emergency contact information, and following all given instructions, and please report any concerns you may have. >> I think you've all gotten a good sense for how multi-layered all of this is. Um in her intro to this uh presentation, Dr. Fresh Dr. Flesher used the words emparrenis loco. It's a Latin phrase. She explained what it means. It means in absence of the parent. And I think it's really important for everyone to understand that those three words are why we're here. This is what this is the whole point of this. Uh it's it's when uh when a parent sends a kid off to school, that student uh becomes basically our kid. We have to uh we are responsible legally and ethically, morally to provide a uh as safe an environment as we can. We can't guarantee safety. You can never do that. There's no legal uh uh recognition of a guarantee for example, but we are required to do everything that we can do reasonably to make sure that uh the kids are safe when they're here. And um I should mention too that uh this very group of people working group of people. Uh, no one was told to be here. No one was told to be on this committee. Everybody here is a volunteer. Everybody here has a full-time job already. Um, not saying, "Hey, you know, pat us on the back for for doing extra." It's really because we're all very passionate about it. Everybody here is extremely passionate about this particular area, keeping kids safe, uh, and, uh, and prevention. Prevention is the key. I think we've already talked about that uh, pretty significantly. Um, so this whole framework is not a a to-do thing that's been checked off. It's not um a binder that sits on a shelf. It's not something that you create and say, "Okay, good. We're done. Now we don't have to look at that for another year or or ever." Uh it is something that uh we deal with all day every day and it constantly is up uh updated and thought talked about and uh uh you know changed to meet whatever the challenges are on a day-by-day basis. Uh and that's really a pretty powerful thing and it's a pretty fantastic thing. Um so uh the bottom line here uh if I could sum up the whole uh everybody involved here we're just continually striving to improve to improve the system to improve uh everything uh to improve those uh connectedness and relationships that you see on the slide there. It's really all about that. It's about connecting not only with ourselves as employees, but also with parents, with students, uh with other community members, all of our partners, etc. And those relationships that we have are really the the thing that makes it all work. Without those relationships, uh it doesn't work. it becomes just a binder on a shelf. So, uh, thank you to all of our partners for partnering with us and putting as much passion as we do into it. And we are happy to take your questions at this time. >> I'm digging through my head for is it national incident management structure or system? I know you said command structure, but the acronym NIMS that's >> management system. It is system and then it's NIM's command structure. Okay. Um sorry acronym was with with me the whole time. Thank you for clarifying. Wonderful presentation by the way but other >> no I was gonna thank you. Uh you already spoke about balance and the the balance of creating a very safe environment but also a welcoming environment. I was wondering if you would also speak a little bit about the balance of how much we share with the community and how much we don't. I mean, this is a topic that we don't go in depth on very often and we do that for a reason and that that absence of information could create the perception of we're not doing anything. But there were 20 to 30 bullets on each of the seven categories and each of those bullets has a procedure that is probably anywhere between, you know, five to 10 pages long. So it is an an enormous amount of work. But I wonder if you could speak to >> I think you probably just spoke to it well, but um I would just say that I was in a meeting recently where we talked about this with the um chief of police um and I'm sure Jay would probably echo the same, but there are there are many aspects that we um for the sake of security need to hold um secure um locations of various kinds of things and um especially in the layered security area. I would say in the others we probably are um probably much more able to talk about what we're doing in multi-tered systems of support or belonging. Um but some of those things that um I know that the the police are very clear and um we listen to our um esteemed police department that those are things that we shouldn't be sharing um um locations of sites and such. Those are details that need to be um confidential and those are things that um the police um though are heavily involved in with us. Um many of the things that we've seen from whether it's the NIM's command structure that we've jointly developed to many of these other things like reunification procedures have all been done with our partners and our um our uh school safety center or our local partners um have been heavily involved in those things and they know many of those things. um on campus. Some of those layered security measures the police are very well aware of and have been um advisers to. Um I just had I had one comment which is we hear a lot in the community about um questions on uh what is the level of safety, right? People ask that of us and you know are we secure? What does that look like? and we tell them about the depth of uh knowledge that we have and the procedures that are in place. But there's another conversation that comes into play um about school should just be academic focused. And you guys spent a lot of time talking about the well-being of our children from both a mental perspective, a physical perspective, and then all the other layers that were that were in there. And it I I feel compelled to make the comment about how it's what you guys do is is an art form almost like alchemy where you focus on academics but you mix in all the elements of how we want our children to be raised and how we want them to be respectful and fair and good citizens and what that does in its ability to create good students. students and good outcomes towards academics. And when you have that conversation, I don't see a single parent in the community that rejects that idea. Um, so I with all the different uh questions and directions that we get, I really just applaud you for the direction that you've taken and how you go about it. Um, you deliver strong results and safe results and I really appreciate all of you. Thank you. Well, I just had to say we have seen a lot of this presentation before obviously, but we didn't necessarily go into detail. Some of the partner organizations that you guys are working with. Uh the amount of research that they have, it it's a passion project for a lot of them because it was born out of a personal tragedy that they had and they are donating a lot of these resources to schools. We're taking advantage of a tremendous amount of research and these people care very deeply about what they're doing and I I'm glad that we're partnering with those types of organizations and their generosity is helping a lot of other children which is what their intention was. >> It's a really good point. The safe and sound schools came out of the New Town tragedy. Um and a lot of that is is born of the research of how that potentially could have been prevented. Um and that was the presentation that we seen. But their suggestion was to for every school to have a comprehensive approach to safety. And when we sat in that presentation and listened, we were very compelled because we were like, well, this really aligns with how we have done our work. And we uh we would love your feedback on what you think of the framework in particular. um we felt like it spoke to um the way that we are trying to create excuse me trying to create a safe campus and experience for for kids. Um but you're really right Laura that's exactly why um and the the presentations and all the research are incredibly compelling. Um and uh but they're also grounded in really best practice and a lot of research over many decades unfortunately. I'd just like to say thank you because you all do have day jobs as you said and pardon me clearly a lot of work and I think um you know uh talking with a lot of parents after what happened this fall in Minneapolis um with 100% confidence not only do I feel comfortable being here every day if I need to be sending my children here every day without any hesitation. Um so I very much appreciate all of the work and it's been interesting seeing the um trajectory of the framework you know since when we first saw the I love you guys and how that has just deepened um and meshed with so many other layers. So, it's been exciting to see how it's very complex um but kind of simple in that you know um some common sense of this is this is what we need. So, thank you. >> Anyone else? Okay. Thank you everyone. And Jay, I think I counted like seven shoutouts to you in that whole presentation. Yeah, >> I asked him if he wanted to sit up here. >> Uh, thank you very much. Uh, with that, Dr. Flesher, our next >> item. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I invite Dr. Aaron Ruland, executive director of learning and accountability, to the board table for discussion and brief remarks regarding the six board policies in the 500 series for your review. These are policy 501 weapons. Policy 502 student searches. Policy 503 student attendance, 504 student dress and appearance. Policy 505 distribution of nonschool sponsored materials on school premises by employees and students. And 507 corporal punishment and prone restraint. Um my gratitude to our board policy committee for their work in review. And again this is a first reading for these and I turn it over to Dr. Ruland for comments. >> Thank you, Dr. Flesher. Members of the board, Mr. Chair, um you did an outstanding job previously of highlighting the 500 series, which is our series of review this year. I think tonight's policies are really indicative of the range of topics and the complexity of the legal requirements that that underly these policies. I would also add that as as you'll hear tonight, the policy committee is going to continue to review policy numeration names and formatting with uh in in comparison to MSBA model policies and that'll be the standard that we use throughout the year as well. So, um let's get into the first policy 501 weapons. Uh there's a few minor changes in language and formatting in the recommended changes um in and the order of the definitions um would now align with the MSBA model policy which you'll see again later tonight. Uh the recommended changes also include a section referencing new statutory language um that's required in the case of the possession or use of weapons in a school zone um or an active shooter incident. So there's some new reporting requirements there that are reflected in the changes. Policy 502, search of student lockers, desks, personal possessions, and students persons, is a policy significantly impacted by state statute and and case law. School administrators have the authority to conduct searches to ensure the safety and well-being of staff and students and to enforce school policy. There have been no substantive changes to these statute or this model policy. So, um, the policy is being presented with just minor language changes. Policy 503 is student attendance. It's also a very statutriven policy that includes day-to-day attendance issues um uh up to addressing habitually truent students. So quite a quite a range of attendance issues in that policy. It emphasizes our efforts to encourage regular attendance and the role of staff, parents, and students in achieving that. It's a partnership as well. Um the board policy committee is recommending minor language changes to this policy and one clarification aligned with statute that the age of habitual truency is under age 17 which is just a change from our previous language policy 504 student dress and appearance is being presented with minor language changes. Um the MSBA noted in the model policy that they've engaged in an extensive study um and they acknowledge that policy dress codes really differ quite a bit across communities. Um so and honoring that school boards will have their own version of this. So the board policy committee and administration are satisfied with the policy in its existing form. Um it they we believed in our conversation that it meets community standards and it's aligned with the educational environment we're seeking for our students. So um very minimal changes to that one. Policy 505 uh distribution of non-school sponsored materials on school premises by employees and students. It's a mouthful. That's a policy that prior boards um have spent a significant amount of time developing. This is a policy that's been um under review and processing for quite a while and administration is familiar with carrying out the um tasks in this policy. So this policy balances student and employee free speech rights uh with administrative guidance regarding the content, time, place, and manner of those materials to ensure community standards are upheld. The recommended changes in the redline version of your board packet are almost entirely due to a change in the order and placement of those definitions and they do not reflect substantive changes. So that again is a re ordering to align with MSBA order. Um and then finally policy 507 corporal punishment and prone restraint is is um there's a a change in the name. We added the prone restraint per the MSBA policy uh language and that's to reflect statutory and regulatory guidance enacted by the legislature and the Minnesota Department of Education. So the recommended changes to this policy reflect that but as always um practice and procedures have been aligned with the statutory and regulatory changes since their inception. So administration is aligned in our practice with uh this policy. So as always the policy committee welcomes any feedback from board members. These policies will be advanced for a second reading and recommendation for approval at the next meeting. Any questions? >> Thank you, Dr. Rulan. >> You're welcome. All right. Uh are there any other new businesses that need to be addressed? No. All right. Hearing none. Um, just as a uhformational, uh, October enrollment numbers are also in your packet. The next regular meeting will be held on Monday, October 27th at 7 p.m. in the district office assembly room. Uh, I hope that you all have a wonderful MEA weekend. And with that, do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? I high.