It is 7:03 and we are kicking off our second school board meeting of April 2025. I apologize for the late start. We had a study session and as you may see a couple board members are still finishing up our brief meal in between sessions. It is, like I said, now at 7:04 because I sell for time, Monday, April 21st, 2025. And I call to order this regular meeting of the Richfield School Board. Attending this evening's board meeting live and in the boardroom are board members Rachel Banks, Cupcho, Ken Liss, not Tim Palace, Kirk Spencer, Tim Palace. Uh, and I'm board chair Eric Carter. Uh, we will hopefully be joined tonight by student representative. We'll see. I will say in advance just in case that Tia Breenidge might be in attendance. Sounds like our other board uh student board members are out tonight. Also at the table we have superintendent Stevenski and assistant to the superintendent Cassandra Guam. Other members what is going on? Of the district's leadership team are in attendance and may be participating throughout the meeting as well. Richfield Public Schools mission statement is that we strive to inspire and empower each individual to learn, grow, and excel. and we shall keep that focus at the center of our discussions this evening. Thanks to all of us joining live and in the boardroom. We also want to thank those of you streaming the meeting or watching it after the fact via YouTube. We appreciate the five of you bearing witness to our meetings when we conduct the necessary official business of the district. There is some comedy that gets interjected in here for fun sanity sake. First item of business in the agenda this evening is to approve the agenda before us. As approve of the agenda is routine business item. I will briefly pause to see if there are any comments or questions related to the agenda tonight hearing. And seeing none, is there a motion? I'll move the agenda as presented. I'll second it. Good choice. I'm not speaking with a mouthful. Appreciate that. We have a motion to approve the agenda by Director Spencer and a second by Director Liss. All in favor, please say I. I. All post, please say nay. And the agenda is approved. It's going to be like that all night. Uh tonight we actually have the opportunity for public speaking. Uh nobody has signed up. Um so we our next I should have gotten the date. Um our next opportunity to have public speaking will be the second meeting of the month of May will be the 19th. Thank you for that, Director Spencer. Uh now off to superintendent for our first update of the evening. All right, we have two items on the superintendent agenda. The second of which will be our directors of elementary and secondary, but the first of which will be a presentation about the easement and our partnership with the city of Richfield. Um so to start us off, I'm going to introduce Craig Holi, chief human resource administrative officer. And take it away. Very good. Good evening. Thank you very much. Um as the board is well aware, we have been partnering actively for a number of years. I think it's at four years now with the city of Richfield in safe routes to schools programming. Uh some of that work with safe routes to schools is looking at the streets and the roadways um to make sure that we have a safe positive working or walking and biking to school environment. Um two of those projects specifically looking at our STEM and RDLS and Centennial have some infrastructure projects working moving forward. Uh later on in the agenda, we have a request for permanent and temporary easements that will support the implementation of those projects. Um and so we'll have a chance to answer any questions regarding that specifically here as part of this presentation. But I've invited Joe and Jake from the city engineering team to share kind of what is that overview of those projects. Um what are we trying to do um collaboratively to work together to promote that um environment for uh the work around 70th Street and 70 73rd Street around STEM and RDLS. and then the Centennial School. So, with that, I'm going to turn it over to Joe um and he will share information tonight. Thank you, Craig. Good evening, Mr. Chair, superintendent, members of the board. Uh my name is Joe Powers. I'm the city engineer with the city of Richfield. I work in our public works department. I head up our engineering team. I have with me tonight Jake Whipple, who is our civil engineer on our team, and Jake is the project manager for both of these projects. So, I'm going to give a very quick introduction, and then I'm going to hand over to Jake to talk about few of the details of the projects. Thank you. Uh you'll see here the just overviews of the two locations. On 70th Street, we are next to the STEM and RDLS campuses and on 73rd Street next to the Centennial campus. And we'll move to the next slide, please. So, very quick overview. Both of these are to improve multimodal access to these schools uh primarily for students walking and biking. Uh we're improving visibility and access for students, making safer crossings, improving trail connectivity, and um managing traffic a little bit here as well with these projects. Next slide. Uh just a very quick history. I won't read through all of this. Um but for both of these projects, the these have been projects that have been kind of on the docket and identified for quite a long time, over over a decade. So they've been in the safe routes to school plans, they've been in our pedestrian master plans, our bike master plans. Um, and as you're probably aware, we've done some demonstration projects for both of these in the past couple years to test some theories and that is informing the design for these projects moving forward forward. Um, we can just skip this one. I kind of did the overview. Um, I'm going to cover this and then toss it to Jake. So, just wanted to note these are a few of the improvements that we're implementing with these projects and these are all supported by a public engagement process. We had two open houses for each of these projects. So, four open houses in total over the past uh 12 to 18 months. And uh we talked with the community, we talked with parents, we talked with teachers and just people in the uh in the area. And that's how we informed the development of these projects. Next, please. Hand over to Jake. So, as you can see here, uh this is what uh the 70th Street reconstruction will look like. Um you'll see that the cycle track and sidewalk are separated. Um and then we have a bike lane on the north side of 70th as well. Um uh a basic representation is this is what uh 66 kind of looks like 66th Street. So next slide please. And then this is a plan page from the 70th Street plans. Um the RDLS uh driveway is getting a little remodel and then there are several bumpouts uh along the corridor. Next page. Um and then this is the east side of the project. Again, more bumpouts 12th Avenue. And then this is a typical section for 73rd Street. Uh main difference is that the trail is multimodal and the sidewalk is not separated. Uh this is the east side of the project. Um basically cedar this is the west side of the project. This is just labeled wrong. Um but this is the basically the front of the school. Next page. And then this is the east side of the project with Cedar Avenue. And then uh there will be race crossings at Cedar Avenue, 16th Avenue, and then Bloomington Avenue. Uh schedule for 70th and 73rd. Um both will be done after school gets out and then will be done in the school areas before school resumes. So, you skip over that one, too. Some impacts of uh both of the projects. There's going to be some closures um and some resident driveways uh getting closed down. So, um we're going to work with residents and school the school in the nearby areas. So, thank you. And if you have any questions, let us know. Thanks for the speedy update. So, let me just add a couple quick items. So, obviously, one of the things we're looking at is on the 70th Street specifically that hosts our summer programming. So, um we've been working with Jonathan Hire and that team as well as our communication team to um promote um the different transportation routes that individuals will have to take just to ensure that um we believe that um we have a strong plan as far as our bus transportation and parking really goes into the back lot. So really other than the access points that will um not have an issue with that access piece and the STEM parking lot which is where the bulk of that summer programming is that um access also stays the same. It's not accessed off of 70th Street. So it's more around getting to those access points that um we're going to be doing some promotion and communication with our parents that way um specifically. So we are working towards that. Um we are as a um the safe parks to schools transportation team and administration are very excited about these projects. Um we've heard a lot about the STEM and RDLS um components of it as far as crossing 70th Street. Um so there are a number of different implementations there. I speak in non-engineering terms. They talk about multimmodal transportation. I talk about walking and biking to school. Um but with those race pieces and improving that safety. So the crosswalk the crossing across 70th is shorter with those bumpouts. So the bumpouts are really promoting a shorter walking distance across 70th um instead of having to go across multiple lanes. Um obviously there's the white walking and biking paths um that are not on the roadway um which will improve that access as well. Um with 73rd Street and the Centennial implementation um there are a couple items with the easement on that one um that require some federal regulations and things like that. So the city has to offer us compensation for that easement. Um but we believe that the project here is strong enough that we want to support it. Um I believe that easement was about a $20,000 assessed value um is what that connection is connection is with connection with um component or the financial compensation tied with it. But as administration we looked at that and um in support of that project. We don't think that that's necessary and we would prefer not to have responsibility for maintaining that um those that equipment or those easement um requirements there. Um, with that I will just kind of pause and turn it back to the board for the questions. Um, you'd mentioned some of the the other uh traffic mitigating or or calming things that we've we've already put in place. How how do we measure their success and and how do we, you know, the the additional steps that we're going to take with this project? Will they further calm the traffic around? Are we are we sure that there's data behind that in in other communities? Yeah. Um the So Craig mentioned the the bumpouts and you saw them on the on the plan sets. What that does is effectively narrows the roadway. Um and that's one of the most effective measures for actually lowering traffic speeds. Uh setting speed limits is helpful, but you know, people don't always drive the speed limits. So it's um implementing this infrastructure that can actually slow down traffic speeds. Um, as well as Jake mentioned on 73rd Street, we're going to have the raised crosswalks at portions of the project. Um, these will actually be the first ones in Richfield. This is the first place we're implementing them. We're going to be building some more next year on some other projects, but those have been shown to uh reduce traffic speeds by as much as like 10 miles an hour um across corridors. So, yeah, there's some really there's some proven methods that we're that we're implementing here. Um, regarding the demonstration projects, which I think maybe you're asking about, there were surveys that were done as part of those. Um, and so we actually learned a lot from those um, from those surveys and those feedback. And we had staff that went out with school staff as well, observing pickup and drop off while those demonstration projects were in place. And so we we learned some important lessons about some things that don't work and things that do work. And so, especially on 70th Street, what we're what we're building is substantially different than what was demonstrated out there because we learned some things that just didn't work well. So, we're taking that feedback from those demonstration projects and then putting them into our design for these permanent projects. Thank you. Oh, and on the the raised crosswalks, those like like raised like speed bumpish. Yeah. Okay. Yep. And and I assume that's not a challenge for the city's plows. Yeah. Yeah. So, we've designed them specifically to accommodate for the plows to be able to drive over them. Um, speed speed bumps tend to be fairly sharp and so these are much flatter, but in a normal car you if you come at that at speed, you will fly over it. So, people learn to advertise that too well. Yeah. Right. Okay. All right. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you. Um, yeah, I'm really looking forward to seeing um some calming behavior. I think it's one of the things that we hear from constituents, whether it's people I talk to or Facebook seems to be one of those places that people talk about traffic specifically um in front of the STEM and RDLS CO corridor. Um and I'm curious uh drop offs are always kind of a mess and I'm wondering like what what from this design if any kind of takes into the craziness of drop off or or pickup at the end of the day. Yeah. So we we've done a couple of things. Um, one of them is the bike lane currently on 70th Street is on the roadway and so there's a there's a really bad conflict point there if people are cycling through that area whether it's students or just general community members pull over and wait in the bike lane. Yep. Yep. So cars will block the bike lane. So we've we've now moved that bike lane completely off of the roadway. Um, another thing we've done is there's a boulevard space that's being added between the sidewalk and the cycle the sidewalk and cycle track and the roadway. So we've created this buffer that's going to make a lot more people for comfort a lot more comfortable for people walking and biking to school. And so we're hoping that this is really going to be one step to encourage families to either, you know, walk with their kids or allow their kids to walk and bike to school more safely. Great. And is there thought from the city or plans at all to extend these corridors further than in front of I you mentioned Centennials going all the way to to Cedar. Yeah, so this this this project will go all the way to Cedar. Um, if you're aware, there's a a regional trail on on Cedar. So, we're going to add actually add some ramps there. So, it'll be better connectivity to that trail. Um, and that's really focused on um some of the highdensity housing along Cedar as well. So, there we know there are students in that area. So, that's going to benefit them specifically. Um, we currently don't have a plan for 70th to extend this type of project, but it is a project that's probably in our kind of our long-term view and something we'd like to really improve along the entire length of 70th Street. Um, because that on street bike lane is it's it's heavily used and it would be nice to provide a a safer option, but it's not something that we currently have uh have identified or have funding for. Okay. Thank you. more questions. Then I'll ask a quick point of clarification. So the the your last comment saying moving the bike lane off the drive lane. I'm looking and maybe I'm not looking at the right slide. Um page 16, sorry. Uh it looks with the car kind of driving the bike lane. So to the right. Um like if a car is turning right, aren't they going to move over into the bike lane? Same problem. So that um so this picture is looking towards the west. So the schools are on the left hand side of the the picture here. Yep. Um so right now there's basically both sides of the street have that bike lane going in opposite directions. So, just in front of the school, we're moving it off of the um off of the roadway. And the biggest conflict there is that people cue going eastbound on 70th Street to turn into the parking lot. So, that's where that conflict point is. We don't see that conflict nearly as much on the westbound or the north side of the roadway. Um it actually was something we discussed moving that bike lane off of the roadway. Uh ultimately, it came down to a funding decision. This project is almost entirely grant funded through a state safe state routes to school grant and unfortunately we just didn't have the capacity in that grant to add an entire reconstruction on the north side of the roadway as well. But it is something um we discussed with our transportation commission which is our citizen advisory board for the city. Um and it is something we'd like to do ultimately in the future. Okay. Thank you. That was the last question I had. There's no students. No other questions from the board. I think we're good. Thank you for coming in. Appreciate you having us. Yep. And the vote will come back on that um later on in the agenda. So, thank you for asking your questions now. Thank you all for being here. All right. So, with that, I'm going to transition directors of elementary and secondary Rachel Jensen and Alex Ward up to the microphone to just give a summary of some of the work going on in teaching and learning. So, uh, take it away, team TNO. All right. Good evening, members of the board, Superintendent Yunowski, and the viewing public. I'm Alex Ward, the director of, uh, secondary education, and I'm his colleague, Rachel Jen's, director of elementary education. So, uh, our goal for our presentation tonight is to give you some key updates on projects that have, uh, been priority projects for the teaching and learning team this year. Certainly, this is not, uh, encompassing of all the work that we've done. uh but want to update you on a on a few of these key projects. Um so we'll start with some updates around our curriculum implementation and review process. Uh so as you know we have uh an aligned timeline for curriculum review that goes along with policy 601 and policy 612. It's also aligned to the statewide schedule for review of academic standards so that each time those new academic standards are um released and um turned into statute through the rulemaking process, we respond with a curriculum review in that area. So this year we really focused on English language arts and Spanish language arts. And as you can see noted on uh this slide, next year our focus will be on social studies. So at the elementary level, key actions this year we implemented after um a pretty successful pilot last year, benchmark advance and benchmark adilante in all kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms. Um we did some additional work this year to supplement that curriculum with some additionally culturally responsive interactive readaloud texts. So those texts were um vetted both by our indigenous parent advisory committee and members of our Richfield Latino family um association as well. So really wanted to get some parent and community voice in the selection of those additional texts. We also really focused on supporting professional development for our educators implementing this curriculum. Um during workshop week, we had several sessions for them to attend. And then we've also provided professional development around different components of the curriculum on each of our professional development days. And our coaches have been working with teachers through job embedded coaching cycles, primarily working on co-planning and co-eing lessons um with teachers to make sure that curriculum is implemented well. All right. And then we have had the goal of selecting an aligned research-based curriculum for the foundation of our literacy instruction grades 6 through 12 for what feels like a very long time. Um because it has last year we kind of started and stopped and started and stopped a couple different times for various reasons. But over the summer we received some clarity from MDE that they would not be evaluating or recommending um English language arts curriculum in grades 6 through 12. So we were able to continue the work outlined in policy 601 and 612 to review our 6 through12 ELA materials. We sought feedback and input from our 6 through12 teachers in creating a rubric uh with indicators they would consider in high they would consider seen in high quality instructional materials and then they evaluated their current teacher created materials with that rubric. We then consulted Ed Reports, which is a nonprofit that evaluates instructional materials so schools and school districts can make informed decisions in selecting and purchasing highquality standards aligned materials. And we received samples, demo accounts, and presentations from other um of from those materials rated highly in ED reports. The teacher spent the majority of the fall and winter evaluating those materials and scoring them on the same rubric they used to score their current teacher created materials. The outcome which was just reached about a month ago is that moving forward both RMS and RHS would like to use McGraill study sync materials enhanced by both teacher created elements and additional culturally responsive text to reflect all students within Richfield public schools. Why study sync? Couple of reasons. One, it meets the expectations of alignment to common core English language arts standards in grades 6 through 12 and the Minnesota English language arts standards. It received high marks in alignment to the science of reading based on the ED reports analysis and it includes components of reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and exchanging idea which are all anchor standards in the Minnesota English language arts standards. and it does so in a pedagogical framework that carries these things throughout lessons, units, and grades. It's one of the features of the materials that the teams appreciated most. Also, because both buildings selected these materials, we not only have horizontal alignment within grade levels, but we also have vertical alignment throughout our 6 through 12 courses. And that pedagogical framework will also carry through all of our secondary courses. Another reason why study sync was also favored to other offerings is that the materials not only allow for voice and choice in student materials. For instance, each unit has independent reading text that students can read um from choice but they also have provide voice and choice in teacher materials. For instance, teachers can in some units choose to do an array of shorter texts or they could do a longer novel study. Um because the materials are also organized thematically. Um choosing and developing other texts to bring in to enhance and um make them more relevant to our students is quite easy to do especially with the pedagogical framework can just be carried over into any text we bring in. Um that's why we've been we look at this as kind of being um 70% study sync materials with room for about 30% for teachers to bring in elements of their own teaching and and to address some of the culturally relevant lessons and literature that the team saw saw it was kind of lacking in some of the areas within the materials. Moving forward, um there'll be implementation training the materials in either June or August. The team has also uh provided some of their summer curriculum writing with the new materials in both June and August to do three main things. One, align the materials to Richfield rubric and grading policies. Two, to enrich the materials with more diverse texts. And three, improve final assessments and projects to make them even more engaging and relevant for Richfield students. Um while study site materials provide explicit instruction in vocabulary, grammar and comprehension, the team also plans to find and purchase other supplemental materials in those three areas to support the various needs of students served in Richfield public schools. All right, we'll transition to our next project um our redact professional development. So this is occurring in two phases across the state. So when I talk about phase one, um I'm referring to training for our pre-K5 classroom teachers, uh our EEL teachers at that level, K12 reading interventionists and special education staff, and then additional staff who support reading instruction, for example, our instructional coaches, um our peer reviewers, um and some of those those other support staff. So, our goal um for this year was to have all of our phase one staff complete volume one of a two volume um training program using letters. Um we have made some significant progress towards achieving this goal. As you can see by the statistics on this slide, we've got uh about 78% of our phase 1 staff who have either completed or are on track to complete volume one uh asynchronous modules by the end of the current school year. Uh and a slightly higher percentage, 86% of phase 1 staff who have either um completely completed or will complete the volume 2 in-person synchronous training sessions by the end of the current school year. Um, we do have a small cohort of secondary special education teachers and then teachers who were new to Richfield uh public schools this year who uh we've offered a little bit of an extension to and so we're offering some summer training for them. So we anticipate that these numbers will be even higher when we talk about the inclusion of summer 2025 training for those staff. We'll finish up with phase one staff then next year. So moving into the second and final volume of letters training um for those those key staff members and then read act phase two um is this much smaller group of uh teachers. We have 6 through 12 teachers responsible for reading instruction primarily our English language arts teachers and our reading instructors and then 6 through 12 teachers who teach English to multilingual learners. Um the timeline it we will hear from MDE by October 2025 what the additional phase 2 professional development options are with the goal of registering by January of 2026 and hopefully beginning that training as soon as we receive the materials in the spring of 2026 and then you'll notice the the staff have a little over a year to complete that training. There has been some suggestions that we might hear the options um sooner than October. Um it doesn't sound like the registration would move up, but it would give us a longer runway to make a more informed decision and have time to plan for the number of hours and time it may take for staff to be um to receive the professional in phase two. Oh, social studies curriculum review update. Elementary work will begin in the 2526 school year. The secondary work we have began the early stages of curriculum review. We used our January 27th professional development day to go over the review process with the 6 through 12 social studies team. And we began on we began work on bundling and looking at the new social studies standards. On March 7th, we finished that standard bundling work and then we completed the rubrics that teachers would use to evaluate their current materials and other materials we find throughout the process. Between now and the end of the school year, uh the teachers will evaluate their current curriculum with that rubric so that when we come back in the fall, we'll be able to get into other materials. One of the main reasons we wanted to start this process earlier is social studies has so many different courses within it, especially the secondary level that we wanted to give ourselves more time to be able to look at various different options. All right, the final project we'd like to talk with you about is our learning walks and professional development plans that we are starting to make for next year. So we've worked closely over the past couple years with a subcommittee of education richfield to define learning walks and to differentiate them from the more formal individual teacher evaluation process. Uh the primary purpose uh of learning walks as we've defined this in collaboration with Ed Richfield is really to collect data on the the systemic implementation of evidencebased practices both at the school level and the district level. Um, and we use this data, as I mentioned, to to really hone in on what are our professional development needs from a systems level perspective and then how do we make plans to provide that professional development um both through our formal professional development days as well as our coaching opportunities. Um, we have gotten some feedback from teachers that these learning walks can feel stressful, right? it can be a little bit stressful to have a group of administrators coming into your classrooms to see what's going on. And so we continue to work on having really clear communication about the purpose of them, being transparent and how we're using the data. Um, and we've also invited instructional leadership team members and teacher leaders to join us on the walks to reduce a little bit of that stress and give them kind of that inside look into how the data is collected and used. Um this inclusion of teacher leaders has been received um really positively and has helped to alleviate some of that stress that we've heard articulated. All right. So some details around this. We complete learning walks each fall and winter in all of our buildings. So at the elementary level um we do a literacy walk and a math walk since those are the primary content areas um that teachers are spending the majority of their time in. So some of the things we're looking for, we're looking for implementation of practices that support effective learning environments, inclusive learning environments for students. We're looking for indicators around instructional clarity, our learning targets and objectives being shared and revisited with students. Do students know what it looks like to be successful in reaching those learning targets? We're also looking for practices that are rooted in the science of reading. So, evidence-based literacy practices um that are aligned with the letters professional development that teachers have gotten this year. Um in math, we're looking for some similar things in terms of the learning environment, instructional clarity, and instructional focus. But then we're also looking um instead of for evidence-based literacy practices, the implementation of mathsp specific pedagogical practices that are endorsed by the national council of teachers of mathematics and shown to have an high impact on student achievement in the area of math. At the secondary level, um the learning walk indicators include social emotional learning, look fors, um again look fors related to that instructional clarity, um instructional delivery, how we use a model for instruction that includes teacher modeling, guided practice as well as independent practice for students, and then opportunities for meaningful assessment and feedback. So some of our themes uh that we found at the elementary level this year in literacy, we found a need for ongoing professional development around instructional clarity, right? So um working with teachers on how we can share the objectives and the learning targets for a lesson with students using studentfriendly language, revisit that throughout instruction, and then uh clearly communicate to students what it looks like to be successful. um allowing for opportunities for student self- assessment with that as well. We also found a need um to work on multi-ensory techniques in literacy instruction specifically during funological awareness and phonics instruction. Uh providing very explicit systematic phonics instruction um and then using a model of instruction that allows for modeling, guided practice, and independent practice. We often refer to that as the gradual release of responsibility model. Um, and that is a practice that's been shown to be highly effective in literacy instruction. We also want next year to provide some more professional development around how we increase both the quantity and the quality of our vocabulary and oral language instruction. Um, in math, some of our biggest needs are around instructional clarity and then, um, providing opportunities for student voice, um, within lessons, specifically getting students to engage in conversations where they're explaining and justifying their reasoning and then also critiquing the reasoning of their peers so that we can teach students that there are multiple ways to go about solving mathematical problems. Um, we're also looking for opportunities to ensure that when students are working independently in a component of our math curriculum called workplaces, so playing math games with you with each other, that they're consistently using math language um to interact with each other during that time. All right. And then at the secondary level, we kind of broke it into things you'll see typically more at the beginning of a lesson, the middle of a lesson, and the end of a lesson. Um there's been the last two or three years has been a lot of um effort in professional development around solidifying the instructional clarity and success criteria and other elements of the social emotional learning environment at the secondary level. One area and kind of to the credit of how things have changed at both the middle school and the high school where we see kind of a need for professional development next year is actually recognizing positive behavior and referring to the behavior matrix. And so typically the behavior matrix has been historically used to refer to um you know not behaviors we want to see and now we need to find a way to also use the behavior matrix to be like hey I appreciate how you know responsible you all were to bring your items today and so it's a small shift but a large shift right um we spent a lot of time this past year focused on end of lesson components and so you'll see there's less need there um we really worked on assessment and feedback but One area at the end of the lesson we could use um some more professional development around is increasing metacognition and self-reflection or selft talk of where students are in the learning and then a majority of our professional development moving forward will be at the middle of the lesson elements taking that formative assessment and how do we differentiate and make flexible group grouping based on where students were la you know yesterday or last week. um increasing academic uh discussions and relating the discussion to the learning targets and the formative assessments. And then our multilingual language connections is always something we need to focus on here in Richfield. Thank you for that presentation. There's a lot of information. I will open up to the board. I have a couple questions if I could. Um you mentioned that the K5 learning walks indicated a need to increase vocabulary and and so how do we how do we go about doing that systemically and making sure that that's you know sort of critical and foundational to science of reading that's one of the five. Um so what is it about the curriculum we chose that seems to leave a need a a a need for more of that? Yeah, I would actually say the curriculum we selected has a higher u a higher dose of vocabulary instruction, but it's a shift from what we were previously using, right? So, while we've um always had kind of that focus on funological awareness, phonics, comprehension, vocabulary was often a missing component in the past. So, each of the the curriculum units in benchmark advance in an alilante feature specific vocabulary that's related to the focus of study. So, with a science or a social studies or literary focus, there's key vocabulary that's been selected for pre-teaching. Um, and so we're working with teachers, right, on how do you um effectively pre-teach that vocabulary and revisit it. So, it isn't just incidentally mentioned, but students have an opportunity to use the words um and really um use them to the extent where they own them and they become part of their speaking and writing vocabulary. Okay. So, so I may have mis misunderstood it. So, it's it's in the curriculum. We need more professional development to help our instructors uh emphasize it and make it as meaningful as as it's supposed to be. Yep. And execute the lessons um effectively. You got it. But related to that, going a few slides back to the the selection of study sync, if if there are the five pillars of literacy, how could how awesome is study sync on the things that it does have that it still needs substantial support in vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension? if it's lacking critical components within the science of reading that that it needs supplemental materials for foundational things like that that somehow it still wins our our exercise. Yeah. I don't think I mean it's not lacking. It has those elements. I think what we're trying to do is make sure we have um all the scaffolds and all the supports we need to support all variety of students. And so, um, and I think kind of to what director Jen just said, there are elements of the vocabulary that are very strong and and you knowing how to use them and work with them, um, is will be our task, right? Um, but then I think knowing I I'll be honest like as a former 6 through 12 English language arts teacher like I can go back a certain level and then after that I I don't have the tools in my toolbox to support that. And so looking at what else is available um for us to grab and use when we find that students have a need beyond where the materials take us. Okay. So they're supplemental. So they're within the materials themselves, but there could be additional supports and correct. Yeah. Yes. No, they are they are in the the materials and they are they are one of the reasons why we chose them, but there's always a need for what if those materials aren't um reaching a certain set of students. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yeah. More questions. We're talking much today. Sure. Um, so maybe a bit of this is uh both your opinion and kind of how how it's applied, but when those of us went to school, it seemed like everyone graduated from high school and there was like five or eight like core texts that everyone seemed to graduate with and and longer form. So I'm curious what I'm seeing from my own students coming through the school is there's not a lot of long form books. there's um surveys or short stories or there's a chapter that's pulled out but not a lot of long form and I'm curious what this curriculum does to kind of have that right mix or what is that right mix between short and long form and secondary and secondary yeah um that's a great question I think it is a mix and I think what is unique and nice about study sync is like within a ninth grade unit there is um a short story or short selection text option or there's also usually three novel study options as well. And so I think part of the work we'll be doing as we learn more about the materials and implement the materials is how do we balance you know from in my opinion there's a there's a place for whole text um reading and discussions and understanding and there's place for voice and choice um and so the the studies offers opportunities for that. There's also um ways you can use the shorter texts and then have students use the longer text as like book clubs or book studies. And so I do think the materials are balanced in a way where we can have those kind of discussions. I I don't think it's appropriate to have every quarter be a book study and it's probably not appropriate to never read a book, right? And so these are the conversations that um the team will be discussing and kind of playing with as we as we build the scope and sequence out. Okay. Um and when you're looking at those novels, are those paper novels usually or is it online or is it both? Yeah, with with the purchase of the materials, we get an a certain number of texts in physical text and then we also have I mean I don't think we have a problem buying more books. And so I think, you know, year one's always going to be a little bit of building as we go. Um, and then figuring out where we need, but yes, I I believe the team believes in physical. Yeah, I books on a laptop, but reading a whole novel on a laptop is no not fun for anybody. Yes. And actually, even the shorter materials, they they are allowed to be printed off at times. So, same thing. We don't want students on on their um Chromebooks all day. So, Okay. Thank you. I guess that leaves me I think tonight I mean you guys well played not necessarily a plan but food coma sets in and that's good for you guys from a question perspective. Um unless I'm misreading that I could be wrong. Um for me my quick question. Um so you made that comment about learning walks being stressful. Um I I feel like we heard that in the last couple months not from you guys maybe from you guys. Um, and I just bring it up more from a fact there like so so that doesn't seem new. Um, and I'm not sure if it was a specific school that reported it in. Um, but I like if we if we hear that feedback and if I remember correctly from when we heard it before, the answer was is it's newer teachers and it's kind of like play through through the pain to teach them that this is this is not threatening. It's not evaluative. It's for your best interest. Like how do we get past that hump? I mean, you're not saying we're going to stop doing it, right? Correct. Yeah. I I think um different teachers, right, have different thresholds, right? There are some teachers that um we've heard from like this is no big deal. Come to my classroom anytime. And teachers always want um you know, to get feedback that they're doing a good job, right? That they're seen and that sort of thing. And and depending on your experience with having administrators in your classroom on a regular basis, it might feel, you know, more stressful. um we've done some intentional things to try to mitigate that. So um we often now will divide into smaller teams to avoid having more than three uh or four at the most people in a classroom at a time. Um we also do like I will do more informal popins just on a I'm the only administrator coming in. Let me give you the individual feedback that you're looking for to just normalize that practice. But um it's really important to us that we continue this because um personally as a director I feel like it's my responsibility to have a pulse on instruction in Richfield, right? I would feel um really negligent in my responsibilities to come to you um and you're asking me questions about what's happening in classrooms and I've never set foot in a classroom, right? And so it's really important that we have both this formalized opportunity so directors can calibrate with each other um and and know that our expectations for what high-quality instruction look like are the same across the organization and that then we're also doing more of our individual check-ins. I and I would just add when it comes to a learning walk, I mean it feels like more of an assessment on me than it does the teachers we're we're in the rooms of, right? are the things we're trying to do working or landing right and so um you know this is why I think the other thing we can do to ease that is to show like why are these our professional development opportunities for next year because of what we saw and didn't see in classrooms and so how do we how do we move we address those next year right and then we hope to see growth in those areas right um so yeah I mean I feel like I mean speak for myself. I feel like those are the days I'm either like yes or it's like no, right? Um and it's just we're all learning. So, and yes or no about how effective we are at delivering professional development to see things implemented systemically. Yeah. So, any more questions? If not, thank you for the presentation. Appreciate it. Thanks. Uh brings us to accommodations. All right. So, uh, as we often acknowledge our employee appreciation days, uh, April 23rd is administrative professionals day, which recognizes our admin assistance, management assistance, and enrollment staff. And so, administrative support professionals are very important to our school offices and the district office, keeping things running smoothly um, with their organization efficiency and effective attention to detail. So, they make a huge difference and ensure we all have what we need to succeed. So, thank you to our admin professionals. Awesome. Thank you. Uh the next item uh is approval of the consent agenda which contains a collection of routine or fairly routine business items that we consent to pass in bulk without individual discussion. I'll pause for a brief moment to see if there are any questions or requests before we proceed hearing. And seeing none, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? So moved. Second. We have a motion to approve the consent agenda by director Paul and a second by Director Spencer. I want to say less. I don't know why. Uh any discussion? All in favor, please say I. I. I. I. All post, please say nay. The chair votes I. And the consent agenda is approved. I know. I just put an R in there, apparently. Uh yeah, tired. Uh old business policies before this need to review and possible action policy 610 selection and re-evaluation of instructional resources and administrative guidelines 610.1. All right. And so this is around the selection and evaluation of curricular materials. This is the third read and we are hoping for passage tonight. Updates have occurred in regard to branding and style guidelines, changes in statutes and to provide more clarity to also remove redundancy. So it talks about how we select, how we consider, how we reconsider materials as needed. Um it also talks about um that overall selection and describes that process. Um and so we have talked about it. There have been not um major significant changes since the last meeting. And so with that, I will pause and see if there are questions or if we have a passage recommendation. Um I just had one question following our last meeting. I just wanted to make sure that this has gone through the um curriculum review team and yes, it was uh reviewed at the district curriculum advisory committee and um Alex did that I believe with the team and the people who are there. Okay. And didn't we talk about like a process for how we bring it to committees? Uh yes, but that is a larger question for us to make sure we have the systematization. Um and so that is something for us to look at if you're uh I see that as a summer project or as a larger project. So it's on the radar. It is on the radar. Perfect. Cassandra has it locked in. Perfect. Because that was the one. It's on my radar. I'll I'll continue asking when I see them. They should be was like tag team. You said it in that jar the memory of like, hey, wait a minute. We talked about this before. like déja vu. So, more discussion about this or a motion to approve. I will move that we pass um board policy 610 as presented. I'll second that. No more to include uh guideline 610.1. We'll take it as a motion to approve the policy and guidelines as presented with a motion from Dr. Spencer and a second by Dr. Liss. Any more discussion? Eyes down means no more discussion. All in favor, please say I. I. I. All post, please say nay. The chair votes I and policy 610 and guideline 610.1 are approved. Bringing us to policy 612 curriculum development and administrative guidelines 612.1 for a third read as well. That is correct. Uh again with you for recommended passage. Um it talks about the methodology for reviewing each curriculum area. Um requires us to have a curriculum advisory. Talks about that role and the approval and selection process. It did go past teaching learning and the district curriculum advisory committee um which did involve in this case showing both of the policies and doing a brief um brief review of them um to see if there were areas for feedback with a specific focus on the areas that were changed especially because this is the one that outlines DACK or the curriculum advisory committee's role and responsibility. So with that we have this in front of you for recommended passage tonight. questions, comments, or a motion. I will move policy, excuse me, 612 as presented in addition to administrative guidelines 612.1. Second. We have a motion on the floor by Director Banks Kepo and a second by Director Spencer. I I did have a question if I if I could ask um by all means with it's it's interesting 610 and 612 like there's there's a relationship and one is a sort of a framework and guidelines and the other is the are the actual tools we we you know the materials we bring to fulfill the curriculum is I I don't see within 612 sort of a requirement for like evidence-based or research supported curriculum where appropriate right like so or as a as just a general thing, right? When you think of how we circled around and got to our place with where where with within the the reading curriculum to where we, you know, had had asked or it had been brought up and and we were still using some other thing and now with the read, we're using something from the science of of reading. um are we possibly exposed of making of stumbling into that if we don't sort of identify that as a need on an ongoing basis and I am you know I search I searched on the word evidence and and it was in a crossed out section of 612 but then it appears elsewhere in the in the packet um and so it's okay we we we can revisit um I I brought this up very late. And so, you know, we can always talk about these things at another time. I I don't need to spoil the the the the work that's been done on this. I think that if but I I'll give it some more reading and bring it bring it forward another time. I've just been either absent or not pay or not fulfilling my requirement to pay attention carefully enough to to bring that forward. So, So, what I'm hearing is um you're willing to move this forward? I'm willing to move this forward. um double check um to make sure should it discuss research based and scientific based curriculum um as part of that process. That's correct. Yeah. I'm not I'm not and I'm not trying to convince others to to view it negatively as is. Um I think that it's just something that popped up to me late lately is all. Okay. Um and and if necessary I I could bring it forward for some future thing for revisiting. Right. We still have plenty of time for that. or does it make sense just to defer for one meeting? I mean, um, what we can do is, um, if we do pass it now, we can commit, well, we could do one of two things. We could move it forward and pass it. Um, and MissWam and I can commit to double-checking the we'll say non-redlined now approved version and make sure it says what what we would all agree to is necessary, whether it's in the policy or not. and then we can figure out how to add it or we can pause on this um and take a look and bring it back at our next meeting depending on what you all prefer. Right. My intent isn't to to disrupt the the the motion. The second it's just a question I I wanted to bring up and tease that I may follow up with the superintendent and and Miss Quam to say is this something that we could look at for sooner rather than later or you know I don't want it to wait five years if I think it's important and it's not being addressed at all. I think the closest comment to that that's still in the text here is rigorous academic standards um in 3A. I would assume we're doing that even if it's not written. So does it mean I would not assume much. I don't mean that I don't mean that pointedly. I would not assume much. um if it's not written and in and part of our clear expectation, it does not necessarily have to be part of the motivation for No, but I mean when we sit and we listen to I mean it it I get the sense that that is what is being used is curriculum that is rooted in evidence-based practice. Yet we one could argue that our reading curriculum for a number of years had been discredited and not caught in time. Okay. So, I I would rather check the box first rather than eventually. Okay. Is all. And again, I'm not trying to disrupt the the action that that is in front of us now. It's something I I popped in my head late. And so, it's the burden I would say is on me to follow up after this with the superintendent. And if necessary, I would bring it forward for others if if they agree or not. Well, are we in a rush to pass this? I mean, isn't this something that we should maybe just wait until next That's not up to me because we have a motion in a second. So, maybe we got to the motion a little too quick. No, that's that's that's, you know, again, I could have Well, you know, I mean, we had time. You know, as chair, I don't know if I've had a motion fail. I mean, there might be some excitement. I don't think it would fail. Well, if we decided to defer for a a session. Um, I'm saying I did just a quick cursor review just in that same paragraph. It mentions a couple Minnesota statutes, section 120 B11, 120B22. Neither of those, 120 B35. None of those comment on that either. Um, given the concern, I would actually rather table it, fix it, and then we pass it on the next. That's my preference. The same. Okay. So, I don't see any need to push this through. So, so you made the mo you you we you would withdraw your motion. I was withdraw my second. Yeah, I would withdraw my my motion. Yeah, I would rather do this, right? I don't see the rush. Well, thanks Joel. I I You didn't feel I'm all excited about like I'm not excited about the vote down. So, wow. But we have withdraw of the motion by director Spencer. I believe the fact I withdraw my motion. You're second by Director Bank Chupro. And we will table this until next meeting. Till the next meeting. I'll follow. Great. So it hasn't moved forward. Um and so then there is no vote. It is essentially something we'll just come back to at our next meeting. We got to learn some Robert's rules tonight, too. Controversy up to we manipulated them to our advantage. We all agree and it works out, right? It's only it's only a cons Yeah. The the formal rules of order are only a concern if someone objects and says that something was done out of sequence. I I get the impression that you guys were okay with that. I was like I was pretty clear I was okay with doing whatever. My apologies for rushing. All good. All right. Which brings us then there's no more discussion on this. Come back to our next meeting. 502 resident and non-resident student enrollment and administrative guideline 502.1 second read. All right. These have been updated um by the marketing communication department um and by our enrollment team. And we also updated based on making sure that it aligns to our practices. Couple things that are in there. Um you'll see the addition of students up to 22 years of age. That actually passed by statute not long ago. Um we clarified for those um who do not live with a parent but live with another resident and the rules and regulations around that. Um talks about uh the process by which we may or may not limit enrollment of non-residents um and how that process goes. Um and then um just continuing to update about the process of selection and and enrollment in schools. And so you'll see a number of changes, a lot of pages um and some things for you all to review um prior to our next meeting. Um so with that, I will stop and see if there are questions, comments, or things for you to be aware of. Are there more reviews going on with this between now and our next meeting? Are there other constituents that um I do not believe we have another group. Most of these are by practice and by state law. Thank you. I I had a couple of questions um on the you just mentioned the students living with a with with a say a non- custodial parent or adult um and how we go about enrolling that student. Um is there something within that where the student could could declare themselves or somehow be declared to be homeless or highly mobile? uh homeless highly mobile is governed by the other board policy and federal law that clarifies who qualifies for homeless highly mobile services. Um and then there are a set based on the McKini Vento act um of rules and regulations that then apply to them and their ability to enroll. Just saying like if the burden within that is that somehow the this the student had we have to get a letter from someone who is the the the parent or guardian I think is is how it read. if if that's a challenge or a burden for that student in some instances, right? That could be that could be hard. So, I suppose with with with proper supports, we could find out if that student would then qualify and we could figure out where they, you know, what works for them. Um, so that was just a thought. The other thing that popped in my head is is under termination of enrollment. Um, I'm not aware that we've ever used that and I'm not suggesting that we we would. It seems as though that that the termination allowance could be used somewhat punitively um for, you know, that the the habitual truent definition and how it is reported and acted upon. Um are we aware that other districts actually do that or uh there are a number of districts that utilize that as a specific component in relation to enrollment and open enrollment specifically. Um so the general rules of the state um around that are um if students have been um the set of students eligible to have open enrollment not continued to offer are those who have been unexcused absence for a significant number of times. um our number is usually I believe in the 30s somewhere around 30 um in a given year um prior to that being part of the conversation. There's a whole set of communications and warnings that go out to families um and one way of thinking of it would be punitive. The other way would be open enrollment requires a family to transport their child from a significantly separate location here. Um, and the theory is then if that transportation is a is not the issue any longer, they will attend school more effectively. That's fair. Right. It it needn't it doesn't have to be punitive. But what I mean within the the listing here and it could be driven by statute or it seems to be driven by statute. The threshold could be viewed as fairly light, right? A a high school student missing one or more class periods on seven school days. Correct. So that is the law class period. That is the legal statement across seven seven school days in a whole year. Yeah. Theoretically that's the legal statement and the legal threshold. So someone could do that and pursue it and declare um if we did that we would have to unenroll every student. So So the way the state law is applied um you pick you you end up with a threshold and that is your threshold for all for all with no excuses. So we couldn't say you are a bad actor who missed seven days, you are gone. But you are lovely and wonderful and you've missed 25 days, you get to stay. Okay. Um yeah, it is a clean threshold that does not allow individualization. Behavior cannot be taken into account. It can solely be um absent numbers. Is is does that threshold have to be established in advance or is that something that you at some point you by some action? Typically, our number is around 80% attendance overall, but um it's it's always right around that 30 plus threshold of of absences. Oh, thank you. That's more curiosity. Thanks. Feel like I read a lot of things. Great questions. Any more questions? Uh if not, we will see this back at our next meeting, which brings us to new business. The first item for new business is the discussion from the presentation, permanent sidewalk and trail easement, permanent drainage, utility easement, and temporary construction easement. All right. And so with that, I'll turn it back to Mr. Holgi, who is part of our safe routes to schools presentation, and we will go from there. Thank you very much. Um included in the packet is a permanent sidewalk trail easement, permanent drainage and utility easement and temporary construction easement um instrument used for granting that permission um for those easements. Um this has been um drafted by the city Kennedy Graven. Um we did have it reviewed by our legal council as well. Um as indicated earlier um because it's a federal grant, they were required to offer us $20,000 for that easement rights. um the scope of the project already is over budget and so we thought that was a good way for us to support it um especially because it really is serving primarily our students here in Richfield schools and that main focus. So um with that we are requesting your authorization for that easement here this evening. If there are any questions that have come up since earlier today I will do my best to answer those. This is not a resolution, right? Um I do not believe it's required to be a resolution. Um it just is an authorization um by the board to um approve that instrument granting that permanent easement. Uh the board chair and board clerk then would execute it. Um this one does, interesting enough, um require a notoriization um for that um authorization and that I did confirm with Zack Cronin as well. So um because it's related to titles and the granting of those um an interesting thing I will just kind of share an interesting story that popped up. One of the things we discovered during this um process is that Centennial is still under title as ISD12. Um so many years ago um all of the Henipin County school districts were reorganized with statewide um ISD numbers and um this title still was under that. So we are also going to be um implementing that title name change um as well as part of the process. Questions comment board. I'll move to approve the item as presented. I second it. We have a motion by director Paul and a director by director a second by director to approve the thing to approve the uh project authorizing the permanent at hand. more discussion. I don't hear any. I'm still just looking. It's like it looks like a resolution, but it's not. So, we'll bring it to a vote. All in favor, please say I. I. I. All post say nay. The chair votes I. and the motion to approve the permanent sidewalk and trail easement, permanent drainage utility easement, and temporary construction easement is approved. Can I ask just a related question because um we have one elementary school that wasn't included in this. Is there a need for us to re to do something like this on the west side as well? We have done an um we we have another um infrastructure study grant that has been developed at Sheridan Hills as well. Um so there are some infrastructure recommendations that are part of that. Okay. So um the priorities really kind of identified as we um saw need around different schools and so we've done studies around each one of our schools. Um the most recent study was at the middle school, high school and Sheridan Hills. Um so there are some infrastructure pieces that have come out of that study that um we'll continue to work with the city and see what makes sense for implementing those. Okay, great. Thank you. That brings us to the resolution proposing to discontinue teaching contract and place teacher on unrequested leave of absence. Very good. Thank you very much. Um again we do have that resolution proposing to discontinue the teaching contract of one individual teacher. Again this is strictly around staffing and has nothing to do with the performance piece. um in March you proposed discontinuing that um contract and placing the teacher on ULA. Now in April we have to actually place that teacher on you unrequested leave of absence or ULA. Um and so this is um the resolution that is required for that specifically. So, it is a continuation of the board actions that occurred in March and we continue to look at staffing throughout um the spring and summer and there may be opportunities that open up and then that person would potentially be recalled for positions for which um the teacher would be available. Questions or comments? I'll move the resolution as presented. I will second. Sorry, I was just getting ready for the next one. On fire. Uh, we have a motion by director Paul and a second by director bankro. Uh, any more discussion? I mean, I I look to you, director Paul, since you have your normal kind of statement that you make around these resolution times, but it's already been said. Um any more discussion since it is resolution we get to go around the horn and I will start with director banks Cupro I. Director Liss I. Director Spencer I. Director Palace I. Chair votes I and the resolution proposing discontinued teaching contract and place teacher on an unrequested leave of absence is approved. Next is the PAR professionals collective bargaining agreement for 2024 to 2026. Very good. Thank you very much. Um, as the board is well aware, we've been working hard um, in negotiations with a number of our bargaining groups. Um, there are three of those that have um, reached tenative agreements and have been ratified by the membership that we are bringing forth for approval this evening. um we will cover them individually and ask for board action on each one of them individually but um I'll kind of point out the some similarities between each one of those as well. Uh so the first um proposal that we have is requesting um approval of the tentative collective bargaining agreement for pair professionals for July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2026 for the pair of professionals. Um couple highlights here. um in both years and one years one and year two um we looked at some general inflationary increases and then with all of these bargaining groups we did look at needs where there may be some needs for market adjustments. So looking um to other school districts and how they pay for certain positions um and so the compensation here will include both standard increases um from year to year but also there are some market adjustments that are in this um health insurance in the first year was increased by $100 per month for family insurance. We do continue to pay full single insurance for those who are um full-time or 8 hour a day employees. Um and we added Junth as a holiday for 12-month employees. Um in year two, again, we had similar compensation. Um year two included more of the market adjustments. Um health insurance increased by $200 per month um for family insurance up to $1,600 per month um with that contribution toward family. Um we also did some restructuring of the longevity where we added a year five um longevity step and then some other um increases in the other steps. We added a bilingual fluency for pair professionals um of 25 cents. Um one of the challenges that we've seen um with some of the statuto changes around summer unemployment for some of the pair of professionals is finding sufficient staffing for summer school programming. Um, so we added a um summer incentive stipen for those that are working the summer programming. Um, there's an additional um dollar an hour that they're earning um for that summer programming specifically. Um, and then um in each one of these we looked at um when individuals make step increases or longevity increases. Um right now in most of these groups they are all made on a seniority date. Um, we added language that changes it. So those step increments and longevity increments occur on a beginning of the year July one date. Um, so we're not managing that on a monthly basis. Um, in doing so, we there was a small group of individuals that had um some short-term um loss because of that timing. So we put a one-time stipened service credit for those individuals as a way to address it. Um, language items that were included. Um we added some language that around public employee labor relations act um with statute provisions about access to employees by the union um for orientation and things like that. Um we extended a probationary period for par prof professionals um we aligned that service credit as I mentioned to be effective July 1. Um we adjusted language for emergency closings to include an e-learning day. Um so some confusion around e-learning and is it an emergency closure? We clarified that. Um, we updated our sick leave benefits to align with the Minnesota ESST qualifying reasons. Um, added some discipline language to this contract and then change time limits in the grievance section. Um, you'll see a number of those happen in each one of the other bargaining groups, too. Um, if there are any questions, um, we'd be happy to respond those. Um, otherwise, we would seek your approval of that contract for 2024 through 2026. questions. Job well done. Thanks. If I don't see any questions, I do have actually a question myself. Um just looking through making sure that I'm clear. um page um 27 of your document, page 176 of the packet. So the dates, this is like an old version because it says 2022 in the actual contract signature. Yeah. Um no, it that will be updated with the signature date as well. And point of clarification, it says chairman. Since we're pretty forward thinking, shouldn't say chair person. Chair or chair? Y yeah, just making sure. We're trying to make cool like that. Um, okay. Any more questions, comments, or a I got a question. Do they get paid on snow days? Um, yeah. So with the emergency closure language, um basically um that addresses, uh it clarifies how that is treated. Um so the e-learning days, we generally as a district have tried to hold employees harmless. So they do not have a paid deduction if it's an emergency closure day like snow days and things like that. Um this just kind of builds up that language specifically. So um if it is, you know, we obviously have added e-learning days which are a little bit different. Um, there's a provision in there that also articulates that if we end up having to reschedule that snow day because we need to schedule more days than they are paid for the new day and not the old day. Um, so they don't get additional compensation for a new day that has to be rescheduled, but they're held harmless if it's just a day that the facilities are closed and there's no instruction. Thank you. Any more questions or a motion? I will move the contract as presented. Second. We have a motion by director Paulson and a second by director Spencer to approve the pair pair of professionals collective bargaining agreement. Any more questions, comments? If not, all in favor please say I. I. opposes I and the pair of professionals collective bargaining agreement for 2024 and 2026 is approved bringing us to food nutrition services collective bargaining agreement for the same time period. Very good. Thank you very much. Um again the details are included in the packet as well as a red line of the contract. Um we have um as I mentioned before increases as well as um some realignment of compensation as well as market adjustments. Um, health insurance again increased $100 per month for family for those on full single. I did forget to include the fact that we increased a contribution to the VIBA by $250 annually for all plans. Um, in the second year, again, similar compensation increases. Um, health insurance increase lines up with um the previous presentation. Um, as well as the longevity increases also line up with that. Um, this group, we also did do a summer incentive stipen based on position. So, it's broken down a little bit differently. Um, and then had that service credit change with a um, stipen amount. Um, with those um, onetime stipen for service credits, we looked at that group, what the um, impact was on that group specifically on average and just kind of put that amount in. So, you'll see some different amounts with each one of the groups, but it's based on their compensation structures. Um, language items are all pretty consistent. Um the two items I I would call out in this one specifically is that um we did incorporate a memorandum of memorandum of agreement on breaks and training days into the contract. Um so we had some language um in a memorandum of agreement we put into the contract specifically about how and when they're scheduled and what happens if um training days are scheduled and is difficult for individuals to change their schedules. Um so that was put into the contract and then we modified a memorandum of agreement for special event work for clarity and to update the current items. So um special event work where um our kitchens are open for catering or outside of district um programs um the staff are paid differently there um when it's true outside of work organizations compared to activities that are taking place during the school day um for school resources. Um, the rest of the language items are very consistent with the previous one that I presented. Um, happy to respond to any questions. Otherwise, we would seek your approval for this contract for the food and nutrition services bargaining group. Open to the floor or of course motion's always approved. I move to approve the food and nutrition services contract. I'll second. We have a motion by director listen and a second by director Paulus to approve the food and nutrition services collective bargaining agreement 2024 to 2026. Just I want to say it because just we when we talk about all these closed sessions we've had plenty of discussion about this. So this is not a surprise for any of us in the board. We got a great summary for the camera. Uh but really I wouldn't expect a lot of questions. I don't see any here now. So I will bring it to a vote. All in favor, please say I. I. I. All post, please say nay. The chair votes I. And the food nutrition services contract collecting bargain agreement for 2024 and 2026 is approved. Bringing us to the administrative and management support professionals collective bargaining agreement for 2024 2026. Very good. Thank you very much. Um before I do this one, I just also want to thank each one of those bargaining groups for the work that we did um representing the employees and the rich conversations getting to these resolutions. Um here we have the administrative and man management support professionals collective bargaining agreement for 2426. Um again similarly we looked at increases and looked at markets to kind of drive where the compensation for the hourly rate came in. Health insurance is consistent with the other two groups. Um with this group we added one additional vacation day um and added Junth as a holiday um for those individuals that are working during that time period. Um in year two um again similar increase on pay rate schedule for all positions at um at all steps at $1.25 um per hour. Health insurance increases consistent increase of $200 per month. Um we did also add that longevity step for five years consistent with the other groups that onetime service credit. Um and in this group we did also increase the number of vacation days earned based on years of service. Um so that was one of the areas that we saw that were some challenges um compared to other um districts and other contracts. So we added some vacation days. Language items are all consistent here with the other ones. Um I would just also call out here that we adjusted the number of months per year employees will receive their pay. Um so we had some situations where 11-month employees were working from August through June. Um but we're in some situations being prepaid during the month of July. So, we've um changed some language so that they are um earning their compensation as they're working and not getting it in advance. Um and we added a memorandum of agreement for 11-month employees hired before July 124 on that transition of pay and how that would be treated. Um the rest of the language changes were all consistent. Uh so again, we would be happy to respond to any questions otherwise we would seek your approval for this collective bargaining agreement. questions, comments, or a motion? I'll move that we accept the administrative and management support professionals contract as presented. Second. We have a motion by director Paul and a second by Director Spencer. Any further discussion hearing? And seeing none, we'll bring it right to a vote. All in favor, please say I. I. I. All post, please say nay. The chair votes I. And the administrative management support professionals collective bargaining agreement for 2024 to 2026 is approved. Bringing us to a new policy, policy 404, drug and alcohol testing. And thank you guys. Yes. We are here for a first read of policy 404, drug and alcohol testing. It is a law um that we are testing employees and job applicants whose positions require a commercial driver's license. And so we're currently reviewing that by uh with HR and facilities and transportation departments. Uh also making sure it is aligned to update and statutes. Uh but this outlines the practice and procedures that go along um with um our testing process. So with that, just a reminder, it's a first read. refamiliarize ourselves and we'll come back with updates at the next meeting and recommended passage the meeting after. Any questions on that comments or bring up the next one? Brings us to the last item on our agenda, the exciting one. Um, or do we not have any and I missed it? Yes, I No, I am scrolling down the gigantic number of pages to get there. That is a lot of pages. Hang suppose I could just drag to the bottom. Thank you. Uh, it is recommended the board of education accept the following donations of gratitude. The RHS scholarship fund received a donation of $500 from Fame Zuba of Minneapolis and a donation of $2,000 from the COP Family Foundation of Bloomington. So, thank you Fetta Zuba and the Cop family foundation. Richfield High School received a donation of $17.62 from Construct Tomorrow for field trip transportation. Thank you, Construct Tomorrow. Uh the Richfield High School art department received a donation of $1,718.95 from the Richfield Spartan Foundation for a 3D printer and accessories. Thank you to the Richfield Spartan Foundation. RPS Golf Team received a donation of $74 from the RPS Golf Boosters for golf balls and a donation of $88405 from the Richfield Spartan Foundation for golf clubs. Thank you to the boosters and the Spartan Foundation. RPS tennis team received a donation of $44929 from the Richfield Spartan Foundation for the purchase and repair of tennis rackets. Thank you again to the Richfield Spartan Foundation. Sheran Hills Elementary received donations of $200 from the University of Minnesota for field trip transportation and $1944 from the American Online Giving Foundation. Thank you both to the U of M and the American Online Giving Foundation. Richfield High School Music Department received a donation of percussion equipment valued at $200 from Mike Peterson of Golden Valley. So, thank you to Mike Peterson. And last, but certainly not least, Richfield Community Ed received a donation of $4,000 from the Community Foundation of South Central Wisconsin for early childhood family uh education. So, thank you to those South Central Wisconsin Community Foundation folks. Wow, that was a lot of donations. Yes, it was big ones, too. Generosity. Big ones. Very, very generous. Thank you to everyone for being so generous. I'm just say that up front. And with that, I will accept a motion for these gracious donations. I move that we accept the donations with gratitude. Gratitude. With gratitude. Sure. I'll second. We have a motion by director Liss and a second by director Max Cupro to accept these donations with gratitude. All in favor, please say I. I. I. I. All post, please say nay. The chair votes I and we will accept these donations with gratitude. Thank you again. Brings us to advanced planning and a legislative update. All right. So um since our last meeting, education omnibus bills have come through from all um the governor, the senate and the house. Um they are now in what we'll call the negotiation timeline for the next um through May 19th. So we are hopeful that they will come to agreement. Um there is a widespread on the things that um support us. Our comped bills in each of them um definitely have an increase um back towards our dollar figure. the the governor makes us whole in that area. Um $1.9 million back to Richfield schools. Um the lowest amount is more approximately around a million dollars of dollars coming back um in the proposal. So uh we will continue to monitor um as things go forward, but we are under a month from knowing um what type of funding and what type of mandates will be coming our direction. Questions? Thank you for the update for John information and questions from the board. Um just a couple thoughts if I may. Um so I went through and and went through the surveys that we reviewed in our last meeting. Um and just a couple um observations that I had that I wanted to share just for the record. um you know, one of some of the questions or some of the responses around superintendent um gave me a different view of maybe expectations of a superintendent today to what I may have had 20 years ago and that there was a lot of people that said I haven't met him or I'd like to meet him. And my own experience, I never knew my superintendent as a student, but this is a little bit smaller district. And so I'm I'm curious as to if that's an expectation that's changed over time. Is it because of the size of Richfield? Do you see colleagues in similar sized districts that constituents or parents want to know who the superintendent is? And um I I think what makes it unique is that we actually ask specifically and we are asking about my performance and we are asking what they assess that of. Y um and um not a lot of districts utilize that level of survey as part of the evaluation. We're relatively unique in the I'd say the transparency with which both my evaluative process and surveys in relation to my performance are there. Um and so um that would be my assessment to that. Um, another just comment on a lot of the the really good um, comments that I read through. Um, there was a lot of requests for more information in the form of a survey. Um, and so I'm not sure how we can turn that into actual information getting back to people to fill out the survey because we don't collect the who's who on it. We very intentionally don't have the who is asking for requests. But I'm I'm curious how we can evaluate requests for information from people in the survey and be able to communicate that out to people. Um so there are a set in each of those where they do provide communication. I believe I had five or six um specifically asking for follow-up. Um each some of our administrators have the same thing. Okay. Um so if they are asking for specific follow-up, there is the opportunity to put in communication to follow up be that phone or email. Um and then each of our administrators or department leaders is expected to respond back um both to their staff um and then also to their community about what they heard and also what they plan to do with those results um in terms of overall feedback. But singular comments if there is no identifier that does generally make it hard. Um and then I'm curious I did see a communication from the high school regarding the high rating that they achieved. I'm curious if other buildings within the district communicated that out to to parents for the uh there has been communication or is in process communication from every one of our buildings um about their results and their outcomes. Great. Um and then the last thing I just had um in hindsight I wish I would have had access to these comments before our last meeting um so that I could review them and ask some of these questions in real time. And so my request is next time we do this, if there's an opportunity for us to get access to that database ahead of the the meeting that is presented, that would help me out. So thank you. Uh any more information or questions from the board? Suggested future agenda items? That's two words. If not brings us to future meeting dates. Our next board meeting will be May 5th and then the following meeting and our opportunity for public comment will be May 19th. Cinco de Mayo. I think we should have and again agreed. Yeah, we yes we May 5th will be our next meeting. Uh which then brings us to the final item of business on the agenda is to adjourn. That said, tonight we have a close session, hooray, to disc for our hopefully final labor negotiation discussion as allowed by Minnesota State Statute 13 DO3 for labor negotiation strategy. Uh, do we have a motion to go into said close session? I will move that we go into close session as allowed by Minnesota statute 1303 for labor negotiation strategy. I'll second. That was a close one. We have a motion on the table by Director Spencer and a second by Director Liss. All in favor, please say I. I. All please say nay. Chair votes I. And that will bring us into close session. For those who are watching, we'll have a brief well, for those you're watching, we're going to have a brief session, a brief a brief recess before we go into close session in a private room. We'll return to this meeting to officially adjourn upon completion of the close session, but there will be no further business other than to adjourn the meeting. For those of you in the live stream, this will officially end this session. Thank you.