e 2024 it is 700 p.m. and I gladly welcome all of you here in our room also anyone watching on YouTube either now or later during streaming we are joined today by director Police director CER director Spencer we're also joined by superintendent yanowski board secretary Cassandra kwam and two of our students uh Representatives Vanessa Rosas Miguel and hero castan Lopez welcome um I'm Paula Cole and let's call to order this meeting uh it's is anyone ready to move the agenda for approval this evening I'll move the agenda as presented second we have a motion by director polic and a second by director CER all in favor please say I hi hi any opposed chair votes I and our agenda is approved we now move on to information and proposals non action items from superintendent yanowski all right so uh there are two items on the superintendent agenda so we are going to begin by bringing up um Amy scar klecker director of community ed um for a presentation and update on the programs we have in our community ed department and then also I will be providing a fall update including um answering a couple of the questions from board members from before so take it away Amy all right thank you for having me good evening superintendent yski and members of the board so I'm here today to present you about uh Richi Community Education thanks K I'm here to uh present to you today about Richfield Community Education um my name is Amy scar klecker I'm the director of community yet as well as administrator at the central education center I know this is supposed to be a short presentation so with the time I have I want to tell you a bit today about about um Community Education programs our participants how Community Education is funded and also tell you a bit about some of our current programming highlights so first just a little bit about Community Ed um there is a Community Education Program in all 326 school districts in Minnesota so that makes it a Statewide delivery system for some of our programs such as Early Childhood family education adult basic education and enrichment and recreational opportunities um it's funded in a separate fund from our General District fund programming and in order to access Community Ed funding a district must have two things it must have a licensed director and it must have a representative advisory Council that meets at least four times a year and our advisory council is small but active and we have membership that includes program participants parents of school AG children parents of children in our early learning programs a representative from mea resources a representative from the the city of Richfield and a member of the school board um which is a director Cole um our uh Community Education is rooted in the concept of lifelong learning um we have many different programs that happen at different times of the year and in different places but they can be looked at in three major categories uh we have adult programs uh if you flipped through one of our community ed books you've probably seen our Adult Enrichment programs it's one of the main highlights of our catalog uh we have a lot of different programming but because that the the catalog that goes to the community is one of the only ways we can reach adults we really do highlight our Adult Enrichment in that program um whereas our youth programs we will put in the catalog as well but we know we have access to um getting that information out through schools and parent square and things like that as well um our Adult Enrichment program consists of classes for adults with topics such as art Fitness dance um cooking and more and these programs are fee based and we had around 820 adults register for these programs in the last year and then the other adult programs to mention um you all know this because you sign our joint Powers agreements for our two Consortium programs but for anyone else watching they may not know about adult basic Ed or adults with disabilities um adult basic education or AB as people call it um is offered in Bloomington as well as in Richfield but Bloomington is the fiscal host for our Consortium between Bloomington Richfield Eda and Eden Prairie and they offer um general education development so GED programs adult diploma programs English classes for Learners whose primary language is not English and career pathway courses and we have about 60 Richville adults per year um who do activities with Metro South and a lot of them are in English learning classes here in Richfield either at Central or at Centennial Elementary School um and then adults with disabilities as smaller but similar Bloomington and Richfield pull the amount they receive from the state for adults with disabilities in order to serve adults with disabilities um in both and I believe we serve around 20 adults but those that's probably more registrations this is the same 20 who signed up for lots of different programs um in Richfield with that program so those are adult programs and then next we have youth programs um oops that's still on this page so Community ad also offers a large variety of youth programs we offer some preschool age Enrichment Family events and programs lots of Elementary age enrichment we're able to offer um Elementary age classes right after school at school which is great for families um we have dri education Spartan Sports Camps middle school high school Aquatics um a lot of different programs that serve youth in our community um all of our programs are supported and vetted by our community at coordinators and one of their roles is to as they're looking for instructors and as they're maybe partnering with different organizations to bring in is to make sure that our youth programs create intentional and meaningful opportunities for kids to learn skills and also are a fun place for students to meet friends and build Rel relationships with peers and other adults um and that's about 2100 enrollments per year um one other thing about youth programs most of our youth programs are fee based um there are scholarships available through Richfield ready which is our scholarship program um but these scholarships are limited per student per year because they come from a very limited pot of money um and we know fees can be a barrier for some families um we're always looking for ways to continue to support more youth scholarship funding and then third is early learning um Community Education plays a big role in our early learning programs our preschool programs have braided funding so VPK or voluntary pre kindergarten um comes in through the general fund and is primarily how our four-year-old preschool is funded and then the funding that supports three-year-old preschool and ECFE comes in through the Community Education fund so raise those two together for early learning um a little bit about ECFE or early childhood family education that offers classes for parents with children birth to five a typical class involves um the kids uh the time with parent and child together and then times where the kids are with a a um an ECFE teacher and then the parents go with a parent educator um to uh learn about parenting and also just make relationships with other parents with kids of similar ages uh we know parents are Child's First and most important teacher and so um we think this program is really important and um Minnesota research has found that parents involved in ECFE are more likely to be involved in school throughout their their child's whole school career um so we think that's really important for our district as well um demographics of our youth programs hopefully you can see those there um Community Education is intended to serve our whole community so some thing we have to look at and pay attention to is the data around who is utilizing our programs these numbers are a snapshot of enrollment data from the past year so and the numbers in the gray column are the community percentages from Minnesota Compass those come directly from the 2020 census and really only get updated every 10 years when there's a new census you can see that our early learning programs are the most diverse followed by Youth and then by adult um you'll notice the Min Minnesota Compass numbers also which the gray they reflect our census numbers but they are also less diverse than our student our Richville Public Schools student numbers where B bipo students make up around 70% of our district population so usually when we're looking at our early learning and youth programs we are more likely to compare to the district numbers and when we're looking at adult we're more likely to compare to that U Minnesota Compass um I think the difference with the Minnesota Compass numbers is really really um due to full community numbers of the whole census is reflecting all ages and older residents of Richfield are more likely um than or a higher percentage white than younger which is true in Minnesota as a whole as our state changes um but um and with an average participant age of about 50 in our adult programs I think that's one of the reasons that those programs are less diverse um however they still don't fully reflect our community so we know we have work to do in our programming um my team's United in a goal to try to ensure our programs mirror the community at large some of the ways we have focused and continue to focus on making sure programs are open and accessible are having a bilingual Presence at Central um for registration questions as well as offering bilingual class offerings um we've been partnering with miror resources and also just um we kind of keep reminding ourselves of the importance of trying new things we're a very small team and we have some classes that just continue to fill and we'll probably continue to still offer those but we know that offering the same thing and expecting different results doesn't make any sense so we need to try out different offerings explore different avenues for programming in order to meet different needs and then we're going to talk a little bit about Community aded funding got a little pie chart here so the Community Education budget's about a $2 million budget as a whole um so it's about 2% of the full District budget so it's pretty small um it is separate from the school district general fund it has its own revenue streams and must cover its own costs um the pie chart shows you the different revenue streams that come in under the 04 fund so you've got the blues are kind of our general Community Ed and then the red yellow orange and pinkish I guess are early learning and then the purple is participant fees so about 20% of our community ad revenue does come in from par participant fees and then if you pull out the Early Learning state revenue um which is the next slide you can really see how that General Ed side of the general Community Ed budget is reliant on participant fees and runs a little bit more like a business um the General Ed part of the community is where enrichment and recreational programs live such as adult and youth classes and that part of the budget is over 40% funded by participant fees and then the third slide gives you a little snapshot of what our expenses are this is all not not just this is general and early learning together um so you can see that uh over 85% of that is staff and instructors that includes a community ad director coordinators office staff instructors some of our early learning teachers and then um uh other costs include things like custodial and utilities cataloges marketing registration software credit card fees and supplies and then since I typically only visit the school board once a year I wanted to also just share a few highlights from some programming from the last year um one of the highlights is the support that we've been given from Best Buy for Central and our early learning programs the last time I was here I told you about how Best Buy donated money a year or so ago to help us put in an outdoor classroom at Central there's pictures of it there on the right um space has been being used very regularly by preschool and ECFE classes um as well as Head Start classrooms that lease space at Central and I've even had a couple of our evening adult classes out there to do yoga on the patio so people are using it which is great um and then in addition to that Best Buy sent volunteers to central to support teachers during our setup week they did a supply drive and brought free backpacks supplies and we received another large monetary donation for a few specific programs um the first was to allow us to continue to offer transportation for our family school program family school is a partnership between ECFE and then Metro South which is our adult basic Ed program and it's targeted to students or to families with children zero to five who are learning English and we have 20 families enrolled in Family School this year they come twice a week every week um the kids go to preschool or to a rich uh birth to three program while the adults go to their English class so many of the families who um need transportation in order to get to class two days a week um so we weren't able to figure out a bus so we offer Uber rides for St for people to get there every week um and that is being paid PA paid for by Best Buy right now um Best Buy also donated money for family events we are using that for some of the we've had family events that are fee B but we wanted to keep the cost low that we were using some other grant funding to um supplement and so we'll do that but since they gave us a little even more than we asked for for family events which was great we also are offering three different literacy based family events this year for free um one of these events will be an event in February where families can see a show by heart of the Beast mask and Puppet Theater as well as make a large Dragon puppet and between the support of family school which is literacy based and these free literacy based family events um we're putting their donation towards things that directly support literacy which is a district priority so and then finally Their donation also included 4,000 for Richfield ready scholarships which allow us to offer more scholarships for youth programs another highlight of the last uh couple years actually has been our theater opportunities um the last two summers we've offered a large Theater Camp for students in grades 2 through 8 and this Camp has been able to serve around 65 students each summer and we typically actually have a weight list so we're looking for ways to um expand to accommodate more students next summer Nate Edwards who directs our high school plays runs the camps and um that just makes it an even more amazing Community feel because he recruits high school students to come in and help with things like the lighting or backstage help and helping the students run through scripts so that's been a really great partnership and then we've also had requests for more theater opportunities after school and non-school days so we've been able to offer those through an organization called character kids and that has been one of our more popular after school enrichment offerings in the last couple years and then the last highlight I want to share is about our Aquatics program um our swimming lesson program um has about 500 enrollments each year and the majority of those enrollments come in the summer they have pretty big summer program and in the summer of 2023 we had a dire Staffing shortage and we ended up canceling almost a third of our lessons due to either not being able to have a lifeguard or not enough staff to teach the lessons and I'm really happy to report that uh while Staffing is still a challenge we have a larger number of staff and in this past summer we didn't have to cancel any lessons due to Staffing so that was amazing um one factor in Staffing is a lifeguard Grant that we received in partnership with the city of Richfield and this has allowed us to offer lifeguard training free of charge for the last couple of years and we've also used this grant to bring our lifeguard pay rates up to be a little more competitive with other jobs kids might get um some other new things that are going on in Aquatics are um our new Aquatics coordinator has enhanced our swimming lesson Curriculum by adding water safety components at each level uh we're adding an adult lesson for the first time in a few years this winter we get requests for it often I wouldn't say often we get quite a few requests for it but um that's been one of those when we had so few staff we wanted to prioritize the kids because those lessons fill all the time but we feel like we're in a place where we can try the adult lessons and then the other really cool thing about Aquatics I just want to mention is that most the staff we hire to lifeguard and teach lessons are students themselves and so there is a bit of a Youth Development opportunity uh it here and like you know for many kids this is their first job and um it's a good opportunity to be a role model for younger students and to teach the skills that they know um as well as learn responsibility of having a job so those are some of our highlights um I also want to say it's important that I shout out to my team at Community Ed um I'm here talking but these programs wouldn't happen without them it's because of their work that they're they're thriving um we're a fairly small team um but they're really getting it done we have a great coordinators um organized and hardworking office staff and Outreach workers that help us keep Community Ed and Central running smoothly and feeling welcoming so that's what I have for you do you have questions for sure I'm gonna thank you as always um I've got in my head a bunch just about the aquatics um I'm curious it's so uh I don't know if your numbers reflected the the aquatics would fall into the youth and adult programs yeah um I'm just curious uh specifically about um just in top of my head of like minority participation in in swimming lessons right it's like uh we want to be careful but stereotypes right it's like there are stereotypes about just like some groups just are I don't know the culturally whatever it is is that the parents are like we don't swim we don't go and swimm we don't do swimming lessons is there anything to like try to encourage participation probably you know not Beyond trying to get it out there and letting people know about it I will say our they're still not as diverse as our community numbers but if you break down swimming lessons they are probably a more diverse component of our program but it might be it might be more Latino population I'd have to look I I have looked at the numbers but I I don't know them at top of my head and then along those lines do we like advertise like at the pool that there's Les swimming lessons available we should you mean at the Richville pool at the city pool no but that's a great idea I'm just curious love that again I'm walking by and I'm like oh I wish I could swim you know it's like and I don't think I necessarily know about it well and the city pool is really supportive of us wanting to have really good lessons because they see it you know if kids jump in the water and aren't able to swim their lifeguards are getting involved so I think um that's a really great idea yeah just throwing it out there again as I I read through this I'm like that's one of the things that came to mind um and then back to the numbers uh so so it doesn't look like they all tell up to 100 they might not 100% I was trying to get ahead of Tim because I figured he'd be asking the question if I didn't so right it's I want to beat him to the punch so so if they don't and we've got multi-racial down there that would be my guess is the unless there's another other category well i' what we also have in community ed is prefer not to answer ah okay which is always a little bit hard so in the past I've put a prefer not to answer category and then based on some other ways that we tally numbers for different reports um the other way to do it is to take all the prefer not to answers and put them at the same percentage so you take your everyone without the prefer not to answer figure out what that percentage is and then make those fall into those categories and that's what I did with this one but that should still add up to 100 because if I'm doing a straight up percentage rounding rounding thanks rounding appreciate that uh well actually and then maybe this is a question for one of the administrators or you that you can't answer it um I know that this question comes up when we talk about um state and federal tracking and the differences between the two and I don't know if there's consistency in the way in which we ask that question I'm guessing there is and because there's some cases that we have to ask for federal some that we have to ask for state but then what if like in your case you don't need to ask for either we're just asking because we're curious which one do we default to that Mak sense the way I'm asking yeah I don't I don't think we have to we do it for this reason is to try to see if our programs are mirroring the community um but it is and and the best way for us to do it is to ask it as a question on every registration because if you rely on people to put it to fill it in kind of their profile a lot of people don't put it in so I do think that what happens a little bit with our prefer not to answer is it's repetitive so say you've sign up for 10 things a year and you get asked every time you might just start click and prefer not to answer sure um but yeah it's not really required for our reporting except for in ECFE I believe it is required in our ECF report uh I will blame Jennifer Smith on this in the fact that it's like kind of she made the comment that like everything's data driven decisions and I'm like so how do we make sure that we're standardizing in the way in which we ask these questions so that we're getting consistent data so that we can use it for decision based for yeah um thank you appreciate it okay could I ask um uh you said some programs fill and some you know are are there programs that you you wish you could run more or or at a lower threshold of participation and and what would it take to offer things more broadly because sometimes you know you won't get the full participation in year one but you might if if we run it so are there are there ideas that for programs that you think would eventually be very popular if we could just invest in them for yeah I mean there I'd say most the limitations are um not necessarily that we can't you know because we're fee based and we we put the fees into whatever it costs to run it we can kind of try a lot of things where we mostly have trouble is space so like we could run more swimming lessons but during the school year it's hard to get space in the pool um so we're limited to some Saturdays here and there when there's no um uh tournaments or things going on it's not called a tournament what's it called a [Music] meat thanks I knew that was wrong um so then we get limited there and then a lot of it too is like finding the right instructor you know like I whenever we've offered Pottery I guarantee you it's filled in like a day but we've haven't been able to find someone who consistently wants to teach Pottery you know so like there's certain things that are really popular but if you don't find the right person or like the main place you could offer it is here at the high school and using the wheels and Kilns here which works but at certain times of the year it doesn't work because if they need to load the Kiln for pottery classes I mean you have the time the niche times that work and then you need to find the instructor that it works during that time so it's kind of not just a limitation on like oh I had this idea it's more like can you find the right person and do you have the right space those are probably the biggest and money I mean like we can't pay full-time people to come in so it's we're trying to find part-timers who can teach here and there in a little bit all right thank you yeah um thank you very much for sharing this um I think one of the things that I really enjoy about coming to to visit Central and and the Community Education is that a lot of the staff you have are from this community and so it reflects Richfield very well I really appr appreciate that um back to the the demographics question on here is the Min Compass is that full community or is that adults so I'm wondering if if we're really only using that number to compare to Adult Enrichment if maybe it might be if it's from the Census it should be then it' be everybody should be everybody y um and so it maybe it's that we are closer to the adult community if we're comparing Adult Enrichment to to the community um just a thought there um I also had a question about Aquatics um is there are there youth lessons for like middle schoolers and high schoolers or is it primary primarily young kids and now you've got some adult classes we say that the lessons are open to those who are like up to 15 okay but I would say in practice we don't get a lot of older students y um and one thing I know our coordinator was working on this she had a couple kids who signed up who were older and trying to make sure that we when she noticed that staff it as appropriately as possible knowing there's also 5-year-olds in the same lesson um you know putting an extra helper in there and maybe having them go to a different lane or I mean we do our best to make sure that works but I think it would be nice to offer teen lessons so that you aren't the the only teen in the lesson and it's primarily learn to swim not necessarily how you know how to stay alive in a pool yeah it's mostly focused I mean the really the curriculum was really focused on learning the four strokes that you would if you were going to be in swimming and then we've added that water safety component too um because obviously some for some it's just a lot of people I think who take swimming lessons they just want their kid to learn how to swim yeah great thank you but a lot of our staff are on the swim team right so that's been pretty fun like this last summer they would do um you know maybe like some of the staff would race at the end of a lesson on the last day and it was during the Olympics too so people were pretty like jazz about all that that's fun cool thanks Amy yeah with no more questions comments thank you so much thanks for having continue to enjoy all of the great things happening uh and we are very grateful for all of that thank you great thank you all right second presentation is just um an amalgam of the questions that you all have asked and some of the things that we have done uh this fall so just kind of providing an update on some of the things since we are shockingly already two months into school um and just talking about some of the things that we have done and that have occurred um in those first two months um so just a reminder it was now already 7 weeks ago we took um we made a decision as a board to cap um non-resident student enrollment for the rest of the school year and so I just wanted to provide you um an update on the impact of that decision we're still 142 students above projection um for grades K12 so there actually has not been a significant change um in our open or in our overall enrollment I believe we are down seven students at this time we're an approximate of one per week um or right around that number uh average class sizes did decrease at Centennial and Sheridan since the action was taken so there has been some shifting around um and we will give a full report in the where we are in enrollment but just to give the board a look at where we are across um across our elementary buildings um because secondary schools are able to juggle class sizes and shift people in a different way than our elementaries uh lowest average um across the building is at 23 and A4 at C highest average is 24.71 um just as a reminder we are funding classroom sizes at the elementary at an average of 25 um with an average of 23 at Centennial um and so we are right within that window but again still near those top class sizes that we want one of the things we also talked about is we're pretty excited to have no class size above 28 um and then we also don't have our class sizes on average below 20 so it's really in that nice number um and and um has been successful so far um so we're very pleased with the decision and that it hasn't had a negative impact on our overall enrollment and so we're excited to continue uh continue that direction we had a question about direct admission and so just sharing with the public the direct admission allows our high school students to receive notification early fall um there are participating colleges that offer them enrollment just based on their high school performance uh students who are on track to graduate receive that list um and then they can choose to officially participate um and then make a selection of that school um and so in 22236 students participated or chose um to go to one of the direct admission schools or take that as the opportunity on 2324 um 107 students participated I just got an update earlier today I believe 76 students currently have already figured out um that they are planning to go to one of the direct admission schools and so that's exciting for some of our high school seniors uh some students are still um in the decision process um and again you can apply and be enrolled even if you didn't fill out that interest form it's just then selecting that school we also wanted to give the public just sort of a a breath because there are fouryear schools there are two-year schools there are public schools and private schools so just some of the examples um of our most attended schools uh Normandale Augsburg uh Minnesota State St Paul College University of St Thomas Hamlin those are all colleges that participate in that process um it's so we just wanted to make sure to share that information uh both with the board and publicly we also had some questions about board policy updates and wanted to share how we follow that process but also then talk a little bit about some of the policies that are upcoming um and see what that uh might look like some policies just those that are based solely on statute they which might have a cabinet review or be small uh some might go out to staff departments or advisory committees student board reps um or family groups or larger groups like Ed Richfield or our attorneys and so we just have a set of different people um who do take a look at that uh we do have a special group safe and supportive schools they do meet four times a year um it includes parents and Guardians High School RP and RMS students um we do have staff working with them um but we wanted to just lay out that there is a pretty significant investment in the time frame in there um there's about 15 hours facilitated those meetings um 6 to 8 hours of prep um but then also recruitment and Outreach that occurs so it's not just a happen stance um there's a lot of prep there's a lot of partnership that works um in connection to having those go well last year there was an additional group at rhs organized for additional student feedback because there was a large number of policies that uh save and supportive couldn't get to uh one of the challenges of that group is pulling students out of class um and so we're hoping not to utilize that group um and it's not in our plans unless we um end up needing more more policy review than we are able to get through with with our safe and supportive schools group we did want to give you an example of what some of those policy reviews look like and where they go to different groups uh grad requirements and commencement participation um and so that'll go to the rhs administration and counseling team um but we also um will be gathering that from safe and supportive schools and taking a look because there are some questions of which we definitely want to get multiple perspectives on uh professional boundaries in addition to safe and supportive schools um education rich and our attorneys um and so I'm not going to read through all of the policies but I just wanted to give you that list and some of the groups that will be Consulting um as part of that participation um I'll just point out one of the very simple ones so if you look near the bottom 710 petty cash fund uh so that'll go to the finance department and then if need be we'll check with our attorney um but again there are very small policies um that have just very tight regulation changes and then those that are we just need that larger perspective on um and so that sums up we do for policy reviews and then celebrations it's been a great fall um we want to start with and couple of our high school students Adriana maias and Cameron Spencer um were named 2024 National Merit Scholarship commended students so we congratulate those two students for making our our school system proud 11th grader signy Len qualified for state and cross country um we've had native students and families participating events including moccasin workshops an author visit Native American college fair and the second annual just last weekend annual rhs pawal uh we had on October 18th over 700 alumni gathered at the allass reunion soop and tour of the high school to celebrates 70 years of Richfield High School being in existence we administered at uh vaccinations to over 348 staff at the vaccine clinics at our schools Matt mullenbach high school math teacher was inducted into the Minnesota basketball coaches Hall of Honor uh Jonathan H named partner of the Year by Beacon Network and so we had a lot to celebrate and we continueed to hear things about about team members and students and community members who have wonderful things to to celebrate and participate in and just a brief looking ahead we have fall conferences coming up this week for our elementary students uh we have a November 8th professional day we've got the Romeo and Juliet High School play and then witer Sports will be beginning in the very near future um we have a cute little photo from our wood shop class at Richfield middle school so with that I will stop and see if there are questions or followup on any of those things that we just talked about thank you I I I just have a followup I I had asked about direct admissions and So within that slide when we say in 2022 2023 116 rhs students participated in the program that means they gained entry to a school via direct admissions and then enrolled at one of those schools and then selected one of those schools to go to yes so many more of our students gained entry into one of the schools and maybe took advantage of it or maybe went somewhere else correct it works is um we only receive information from our students so the students decision of where they um we do send out paperwork to where people apply um but where a student chose to accept uh that is the student's data and their decision with what they want to do with that right and one one of the interesting things is with within this program they they haven't necessarily chosen to apply yet they just get news that if they do apply they will certainly be um accepted if they if they correct they are already directed okay correct well that's great it's a wonderful program and it's definitely allows uh students to access with a different level of effort um it it just and and and I would have to think less stress correct correct okay thank you so then I guess I'll follow up on that because I'm trying to make sure that I'm clear because students can then choose to fici participate in the direct admissions by filling out an interest form so if we rewind every student gets notified of the schools that would accept them if they're on track to graduate correct and then if I'm interest so then I'm saying if I want to apply work with the counseling department to say okay I'm interested I want to go forward with that so it isn't you're forced to those schools you then have to actually take a very small step of action in that scenario to the specific schools that you're interested in correct okay so it is not an application for the schools just saying yes I'm in it's just responding yes I want to go to the school correct it's less correct no you still have to apply there so so the my my child went through it last year and and you you get a letter that says here's a list of schools that you are all that you will certainly be admitted to right should you fill out the formal application and within the program I believe there's a discounted or free application if you go follow it through this system and so that removes some cost and some barrier yep but you you're told that if you formally apply within the time frame you will certainly be admitted y thank you so you you still have to apply and and I missing from your list were a number of I didn't see if there were a number of technical schools also on the list so it's it's private and public foure schools it's private and public twoe schools and tech tech a long list it's a long list long schools yeah and those dates for applying I mean I just I I share just cuz again as a parent of a current senior right it's like I was kind of surprised to hear like in my head I had oh we've got to have this done by end of December right and it's like and it's National acceptance day like May 1st like oh okay well then then my question would be is like and I know I've talked to Stacey about this but it's like how well does everybody kind of know like the application period how long do students have to apply kind of to Tim's point of I'm told these schools are interested in me how long do I have to get there that's so what the guidance department will help them yes we have the guidance Department continuing to meet with students um they actually have allotted and scheduled their Wednesdays um and with our win time Wednesdays and they are following up in meeting with senior students you going to help me out here presid expert I forgot what I was going to say um you guys like looked at me did you get the list yeah I got the list I was going to say like I think there's not a lot of like I feel like there should be more like like you were talking about like dates and like knowing when to do things and things like that cuz I have no idea when anything's due right now I'm just kind of winging it and hoping for the best you know what I mean it's wor I would assume that each school has their own yeah um timeline so there's early admission that a lot of schools closed the end of October some are mid November some are December some of the schools in Minnesota were free to apply in October but now that it's November you have to pay for the application fee but I don't know these schools are then free because you're already in you've already been pre- admitted I feel like when we go to our senior classes again this year that we're going to hear a lot of students say they're surprised about dates and that this is a shock to them so I watched Dr Clarkson taking some notes right there she'll be following up with the counselors tomorrow at the high school um to make sure that they are communicating again um dates and making sure that we are also specifically following up with herard make sure he's just not like sorry again how it feels like now perhaps even typing the email now to counselors or the principal we don't welcome herard back next year as a as a 50 yearor on the board we do not want 50e seniors in the high school although it would be wonderful yes you can come visit us but yeah we will follow up and make sure that that is getting communicated again and that our board member is getting some extra treat also I just want to add one thing i' I've been told we're going to have like meetings with our counselors like where they set the meeting and everything but like I'm wondering why that doesn't happen now when we're actively applying for they are actually in the process of meeting and working their way through um and so I'm not sure um but I will make again we are going to make sure um that that is in process and sorry I just had a quick question but are these colleges like in state or like are out of state so the state of Minnesota has a thing called direct admissions and so when you become a senior um there will be a whole set of schools that you will be told and I'm guessing based on what I know of your academic record that are going to say we would love to have you apply and if you decide to choose us we will let you in oh okay sounds good I just want to know like maybe there's some in South Dakota or nor I don't know like do not have no there isn't direct admissions from us to South Dakota um there is the thing called the common application which you can apply and it goes out to a wide range of schools um and those are schools across the country um and those are some of the things that should be uh that you'll be working on in advisory over the course of this year for sounds good thank you so that was the first part so the next one um the can we go back to that slide the examples of policy reviews I think that's what I wanted uh so I think so Tim's point he asked about the previous slides I asked about this slide um and I think my question was missed so um this is great showing what what policies are going to be reviewed by what groups my question was around how do we make sure that there's consistency in the way in which the groups that were asking to participate in review policies are reviewing them so for me I'm part of the athletic committee y right and uh when I look and I hear about other examples of other committees in the way in which they've reviewed them are different than the way in which our group has reviewed them okay and so um I I think that there's some opportunity to go ahead and be more thoughtful in the way in which we get that feedback okay right because again I've heard really good things about safe and support of schools and then I also look at I'm like I think we were kind of a little bit behind the ball on on our committee does that make sense yes so I think what happens for safe and supportive schools is the facilitators read through well all of our facilitators with all the groups read read through and review the policy and then um I will say because our safe and supportive schools are working with students or the high school policy was working with students they tried to pick out the areas of sometimes very long policies to to specifically gather feedback on the parts that are most of interest um and so what I hear you saying is we can look at making sure the facilitators of these conversations are all trained in implementing a similar process yeah I mean I think because again it's like we've gotten good feedback of like how you're doing it what you just descri sounds great cu the tricky thing I think you're trying to hit is you're sending it to such broad audiences and like I know at least again I can speak to my Committee in athletics and that we have our participation goes up and down we we have like two or three core members but then depending on the issue like you can get participants from all 27 plus organizations right and it's like how do you disseminate that information to get the feedback and and it's sometimes hard to do because it's if you get feedback from too many people it becomes ch ing is to how do you synthesize it all but you want to make sure that people are heard okay we can work on that and make sure that we are orienting a specific process more effectively thank you for the clarification are there any other questions or comments about the fall update see none move to commendations all right so we have a number of commendations so first um we had our senior night in football um with Mala high school and after the game I received an email saying uh this was from a Mala parent was at the Richfield game um and wanted to let you know how impressed I was with your staff the entire management of the game it was senior night at Richfield in halftime uh they recognized their senior football players after they finished the PA announcer then recognized all the Mala senior football players never seen this done before and it was extra special to this person as he is a senior this year um you should have heard all the positive comments from the Mala fans what a classy move then I saw someone from Richfield side carry a box over the Mala sideline and after the game um my son showed me that the bag was made for him as a senior football player so wow this person wanted us to know how special that was and he was impressed with the entire evening and we should be proud of our team and how they represented our school and our community so congratulations to the football team adults and students alike very impressive for their sportsmanship um and congratulations to our seniors congratulations to rhs teacher Matt mullenbach inducted um for the entirety of his 25 years coaching boys basketball and math at rhs um to the Minnesota basketball coaches Hall of Fame he's made a lasting impact on his peer students and athletes and was named assistant coach of the year in 2017 um he also spent three years as an assistant soccer coach including one conference winning season so we're proud to celebrate Matt mullenbach his legacy and contributions to our school community so congratul ations Matt we'd also like to commend Jonathan H higher director of Extended Learning who was recently named partner of the Year by the beacons network uh this award highlights is flexibility creativity initiative and communication that have helped our uniquely supportive partnership with beacons so thank you to Jonathan for your dedication to Richfield Public Schools after school and summer programming and congratulations you make us proud and finally just a reminder of us all Employee Appreciation days November 15th is National School psychology week so we appreciate our school psychologists providing the reports to our students November 14th is National Community Education day so congratulations to director Amy Scar and the entire Community Education team so we're very proud of them and then November 22nd is substitute Educators day and so we're grateful for them and the contributions to our Reserve teachers because we couldn't run our schools without them so thank you to all these Richfield School staff members you are appreciated wonderful congratulations everyone all right that ends our information and proposals non action items this evening and now we move on to our consent agenda is anyone ready to move the consent agenda for approval so moved a second we have a motion by director Spencer and a second by director CER all in favor please say I I any opposed CH V side and our consent agenda is approved uh we're now entering into all business policy 547 student dressed in appearance in administrative guideline 5471 all right and so this is the third and we believe final appearance um has the updates from our previous um previous meetings and also the realignment of uh some of the language in regard to our guide guidelines at um Richfield dual language school and so um there were no significant changes just removing gendered language making sure that we are clarifying that there is um no different treatment based on the gender of the individual students um making sure that we are honoring our students for the way that they choose to dress um and then making sure that it um outlines those additional components like headphones backpacks bags and other areas that can um be part of our overall dress code and so again nothing has changed significantly since our last board meeting and so with that I have you um with this hopefully for passage tonight thank you are there any questions seeing no questions Alaska is there anyone ready to move this policy for approval this evening it's moved I'll second we have a motion by director CER and a second by director police all in favor please say I I I any opposed Chair vot say in policy 547 about student dress and appearance uh and administrative guideline 5 5471 is approved the next one is policy 6 608 education of student with disabilities all right and so you're seeing a second read um this policy outlines that is our role and responsibility to educate all students um including students with disabilities and so this just clarifies that uh clarifies um definitions um and updates in relation to statutory changes and so there are no um significant changes to the policy outside of statutory changes and so we just have this for a second read for you tonight not for passage just for a review of those updates based on Law and just for clarity just there's a lot of Redline and all those additions are are in reaction more or less probatum to what what the statute correct requ clarifying those updates are there any other questions clarifications I think in addition it looks like it mirrors the msba model policy too the changes match any other questions comments all right see none uh is anyone ready to move policy 608 for approval I mean for review yeah just a second read so we don't have to move that one we're good um it sounded so like oh it's all clear we would to go but okay second read all right thank you uh let's move on to new business uh with policy 521 graduation requirements and administrative guidelines all all right and so this one will we do anticipate some changes coming in um because this was this has had multiple changes as we went through covid and have seen some minor changes over the past 5 years so there will definitely be some updates we also receive some board uh board questions in advance so just kind of walking through beginning on page 68 if you note uh temporary change to graduation requirements ending in graduation year 2024 and so that is going to end up being changed um one of the things to keep in mind as we look at credits earned is that schools across the entire State have a wide range of class periods in a given day we are a seven period Day School which means that the student taking seven period seven periods that 14 you multiply that by four and a student can have 56 credits over the course um if they take a class each time uh we do require 49 credits um it is typical that that is approximately the amount so there's a seven extra Credit Opportunity window for our students um that proportion is is within the range of what what occurs pretty much around different schools there are four period days five period days six period days and seven period days that we are aware of um and so the credits then typically go in connection to that uh a couple of things that we will be gathering input on um the state typically changes requirements and so there's a personal finance course that is now required uh we currently have as I dug into this uh eight credits of social studies well technically there are only seven credits or three and a half years of social studies required uh that could be connected to personal finance that's a conversation of why do we have that that half credit uh there are two credits of physical education required in our district there is one required essentially by the state or the standards being taught uh that is a question for us to examine and gather feedback on couple questions I did receive from board members so I did do some data we have precisely zero students over the past three years that have not graduated due to elective credits and there are zero students that have not graduated due to PE so basically the extra PE or the elective credits have not been a barrier to any student and their graduation and so we don't have a history of those being a problem um as as we have investigated that and so typically students who aren't graduating on time it is usually due to the four uh the core classes in the state level requirements in those areas we also have a service requirement we do not have evidence of people who have uh had a problem graduating due to the hours of service um and so uh we do have this for you um and that those couple of comments are um again response to some of the questions that I had from board members but we do participate Gathering some input both from the teaching and learning Department the High School counseling team uh but then also Gathering some input on students so we can hear um the impact and thoughts in regard to where we might be different currently from the state um and how students feel about that so with that it's a first read um I'm open to any questions or comments today um otherwise we anticipate this taking a few meetings um quick question how are students able to uh to re to see their graduation requirements or how many credits they have because I see that it's been taking off student view uh that is new information to me and so I did not know there was a technical Challenge on student view that is challenging students with the number of credits they have I see Dr D shaking her head she will be on that and is taking notes and we'll follow up on that tomorrow to find out that answer and we'll get that cleaned up thank you thank you the only thing I wanted to add it was my opinion on like where the credit should go I personally social studies has been like one of the most like like influential classes for me I feel like that's where I've learned some of like the most like amount of history and like understanding of the world and everything so I think getting rid of that even though we are already above the state requirement I don't think personally would be the best idea I think where we'd find like the best place to put is a physical education if kids want to like have physical education classes they're going to have it I know I've seen people with like four credits of that so I think you know just limiting it to one like wouldn't tremendously hurt children compared to like taking away like this year I have political science and I'm learning a lot in that class honestly so like imagine if I was a student that was like not incentivized to like take it and now I like lost that opportunity compared to like running in a gym you know what I mean sure thank you that's my personal opinion appreciate it but you could still do it within the 16 elective courses eles are they are they are that's true I yeah yeah yeah all all real but that's there's 49 required and you have space for 56 so you still have seven to play with is are there groups where do we get input on what to do with this or are we is it administrative and um so we're going to start with admin ministrative and counseling to make sure the regulations are there um but then also Gathering input from our safe and support of school groups and making sure that um We Gather some student input in that regard and so that's also one of the areas We'll be asking our student board reps to to help uh gather the voice of their student colleagues about about what those requirements are and we'll probably and as they prep um as as Mr Carter asked we'll really look at some of those areas like where are we different from the state requirements and how do people feel about that and and what should we be thinking about as well we make that [Music] decision um I would Echo hero what you mentioned about um aligning with the state standards for physical education down to one credit of that um I know in particular our students that are in the Dual language program that they lose a big chunk of their electives because they're electing to do dual language or students that decide to be in a music program for all four years they're electing to take those Fine Arts programs for a lot of credits and so um to give them a little bit more flexibility I think it would be good to align with the state standards on that you have followup questions cassander no all right so um this may not be one we do over the next two board meetings um just because there will be some substantial feedback and input um because that is one of the things that does definitely impact um people across um this is also one we'll be checking with our Ed Richfield Partners to have that conversation also I I I also want to make sure that we really engage our students into the the thinking about this because going to have a extremely direct impact and so student reps go out talk to your friends and everybody and let us know how let's and we'll have um as Dr D follows up with the principal um we will make sure that um they have all the information that they need um about where we're different and so we'll we'll just clarify that so we arm them with the information that they need to be successful um I did have one follow-up question um in regards to how we um recognize credits from other places you and I spoke today about sometimes if a student comes towards the end of secondary um we have to do the comparison of where they come in from a block schedule are they coming from six credits are they coming mid semester how do we count those up um but I'm curious because I have seen um for PSO credits that um we recognize that you have to have at least four credits for it to count as a full credit here so as an example at Normandale if you take a four credit credit class that counts as if it's social studies if it's history that counts as one of your Social Studies or two of your Social Studies credits um but if you take I think it's econ at Normandale is only three credits so therefore you have to take yet one more class to get to that level so I'm curious if that's something that we should be looking at so yeah one of the things um that we discovered and as we were going down that rabbit hole was there probably needs to be a guideline into this particular policy that talks about um students from Minneapolis come in having a six period day and we have no guideline written in our in our credit requirements that talk about what that is because our requirements are based on our numbers and so it would be something that we will have to look into as we review this policy about how do we take in transfer credits what does it count for if you take them at another institution and how do we measure that in a way um that accurately reflects um within our within our requirements that's not currently noted um and as you all know uh one of the goals is to have a policy and guidelines that follow our practice and so we found some practices that we do um to make them equal but there is no documentation at the board level of that and so we'll be creating that too okay there is a transfer policy somewhere uh there is I know we've looked at at how we recognize credit from other institutions but yeah credit for learning I believe is the name of the policy I we'll have to double check and if it if it does have it we cross reference we should cross reference and and have have dly broad discretion for the administration to make sense of it because it we we couldn't possibly codify it someone will have a different system that than than we anticipated agreed sounds good we will go to work on that all right next one for in new business com commencement participation policy 522 all right and so 522 uh just outlines the expectations for commencement so basically um seniors need to have met the qualifications for diploma to participate in commencement um then um there is if uh there are significant disciplinary reasons and it is reviewed by the high school principal and the superintendent um those students uh may not end up in commencement but that we put in the safety check of both the high school principal and myself um I don't believe we have utilized that um in five or six years actually I don't think we've done that in 10 years um that would be something very serious um and you know isn't something that we have have done um but that is in there as a just in case um and then participation students will be required to we the prescrib cap and gown and so we do have caps and gowns um it does not note anything in relation to stalls as we are aware of and so those are acceptable and then it also does not say anything about um Decor in regard to the cap um which people have feelings about that but those are not laid out in policy um which does allow for for those things um then uh seniors who do not choose to participate in commencement can still participate in senior class activities um and so that um also is something that if there were questions would be reviewed by both the high school principal and the super tenant so we have that for our first read tonight uh we'll also be gathering and taking input on that um as we go through a couple reads any initial comments about this one oops okay we look forward to seeing that one next time sounds good hi move to donations all right so we have one today Richville middle school music department received a donation of a flute valued at $500 from Mark rson of Minneapolis so thank you to mark rson of Minneapolis wonderful is anyone ready to move this donation uh forward for approval I move that we accept the donation with gratitude I will second have a motion by director poce and a second by director Spencer all in favor please say I I any OPP post chotai and we accept this donation with h gratitude thank you so very much we get to Advanced planning with legislative update agenda item well um we have start with the small things we have a study session with our city council at our next meeting um at which time um after that we'll begin a conversation as a board about our own legislative platform uh because the Minnesota legislative session starts in early 2025 um and so it will be a budget year in the state of Minnesota and so something for us to begin those conversations about um we typically go through through read three reads of that before a study session with our state legislators and obviously as you all know and we sent out a communication this weekend there is an election tomorrow um presidential elections tend to cause significant emotions around our city state in our country um and so we are aware of that and are um making sure that we are putting in all the systems of support for our students and for our staff to make sure that um as the tension goes across our country um whatever the outcome that we are prepared to do our best and continue on with a great day and great set of days in school it's so um the annual Minnesota School Board Association delegate assembly is coming up uh in less than a month and that is really um senta look forward to attending every year because it's really meaningful to be able to be there and help guide the the legislative platform for the Minnesota scho Association so let's see what that brings I will keep you posted when it's over if I can think of anything to share to help help you contribute I I'll let you know thank you I look forward to that yes cuz that I would also be happy to share uh the the packet in advance of the things that will be discussed to in case you want to yeah the the one thing I feel very confident um I will be pushing for us on our legislative platform it is very specific to Richfield Public Schools um and the schools that we are aware of um so compensatory education and Title One are funded through the mechanism by which um students and families have historically um qualified for free and reduced lunch um there are two methods by which that happens one is called direct certification it happens automatically and one is called a free and reduced lunch form um since everyone is receiving free breakfast and free lunch um the forms being completed and people qualifying um in com and in connection with direct certification has dropped significantly um and so we are aware of both us and districts around the state um who have a large percentage of fewer students qualifying for free and reduce lunch which means that those other funding dollars that go to serve those students are possibly being reduced quite significantly and so it is very likely to be on our platform it's been on our platform in the past um to create a permanent solution um to determining for compensatory education funding and our Title One funding uh right now it would look like we were somewhere in the range of $2 million fewer to serve students in poverty than we had last year um there are a bunch of complex formulas that will occur at the state level um but it looks also like we are between 10 and 15% free and reduced lunch count lower than we had been in the past um which is predictable and had occurred in Co when free and reduced lunch was not tied to free breakfast and free food um and so this is something that is a long-term systemic problem that Minnesota created a short-term solution for and needs to create a long-term solution for absolutely it even seems like still calling it free introduc launch when launch is all free like it's almost like free and discounted Services cuz it does bleed into like athletic fees and several other things that happen within our school district that people can apply for and get free or reduced cost for Market thing is part of the up in the why would I fill this out my kid already gets free lunch right and they're highly complex forms that require social security number and your income and a honestly a certain amount of faith in the system that that that documentation will be used uh ethically and morally um and so it is it is particularly challenging um I I think during Co we we I mean systemwide wasn't just us there I mean we had probably a 10 to 15% change right it went from about 63 to 65% free and reduced lunch to 50% and then and it wasn't because we got magically more wealthy as a community and then when the forms were required again it moved right back up and so I imagine if we were requiring forms would would probably be even lower than the 50% for for um participation but that's that's a guess all right thank you uh information and questions from board members I did have board member Carter point out um in addition to our football team and our players um supporting the Mala seniors our booster clubs were also integral to that so we also want to thank our booster club for that so we again many people making us as a system very [Music] proud all right suggested our future agenda items to present or to [Music] request I see none let me share with all of you our future meeting dates uh we will meet again November 18th 2024 starting an hour and a half earlier that day because of our board study session with the Richfield city council at 5:30 p.m. immediately followed by a regular board meeting with public comment at 7:00 and the next meeting is scheduled for December 2nd 2024 at 700 p.m. uh and this one will include our truth in taxation report and it will include public comment relating to the truth and Taxation that's great Adon thank you so much yes yeah this is a this is an opportunity for our community to hold us accountable to uh the tax paid uh investments in our kids okay so we will be now moving into close session following a a vote as allow by Minnesota statute 13 d03 for labor negotiation strategy at that point uh the meeting will only be reopened for adjournment uh so this basically means that as of now the business of this meeting has concluded is anyone ready to move to enter into to make a motion to enter into close session so moved I'll second assuming that you met that I so moved as Allowed by Statute 133 well thank you for repeating the purpose of lab I was read then she said the whole thing I was like I know it's a all right we have a motion by director k and a second by director police all in favor please say I I any opposed Che votes I and we are entering into close session as allow by Minnesota statue 13 do3 at 8:15 p.m. for labor negotiation strategy I got and when I grab them I could feel something like they were sticky something so I I brought in my um my hand sanitizer like actually like as you were coming in