Good evening. It is 6:33. I'm going to call the October 28th uh regular business meeting of the St. Louis Park School Board to order. Um before we get started, I will read the land acknowledgement. We are gathered on the land of the Dakota and Ojiway peoples. I ask you to join me in acknowledging the Dakota Ochipu community, their elders, both past and present, as well as future generations. St. Louis Park Public Schools also acknowledges that it was founded upon exclusions and erasers of many indigenous peoples, including those on whose land this school district this school district is located. This acknowledgement demonstrates a commitment to the [clears throat] ongoing legacies of colonial power and the district's desire to support the ongoing work of local indigenous communities to thrive in our schools. All right, with that said, um we have the next item would be the approval of the agenda. And on the agenda tonight, we have public comment. I don't know if we have anybody signed up or anybody registered for that. No, not at the present. Superintendence report. We have two items on our discussion items. We have six uh we have strategic priorities update, a CIP updates from sites. We have a number of things on the consent agenda. And then we have the looks like three action items. We have approval of superintendent's performance review and timeline description, labor agreement, SEIU local 284 for custodial maintenance personnel. And then we have a policy um this would be the second reading and vote on policy 202.1 which is a student school board representative. Um it is recommended that the school board approve the agenda for October 28, [clears throat] 2025 as presented. Have a motion in so moved by Taylor. >> Second. Second. Oh, the second goes to Ann. All right. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Passes seven. All right. There is at this time I believe we said no public comment. Correct. So, all right. Um, as we've said before, there are a number of ways to reach out to the board and to the superintendent. Superintendent's been doing a lot of listening sessions. We had a school board listening session as well and um other ways including sending emails and um having a conversation at the grocery store with board members. No, but there's a number of ways that you want if you want to have conversations that you can do that. [clears throat] All right, that brings us up to number five, superintendent report. Dr. Hines, >> thank you, Chair Cox. And um this year we're going to do a little something different >> for the superintendence report. Um, I would like to bring sites to the table to highlight some of the great things that are happening in their building. And tonight we have high school that is going to present about their writing center. So, I invite Principal Paddock and her teachers and students that are going to share about the St. Louis Park writing center. Right here, right here. Right here. >> I mean, I love it. They're going right to the front. [laughter] Hey, just so you know, we are opening up the applications for our student school board representatives. So, we invite you to I think you all are ready. You ready to take a seat at the table? I love it. That's great. Well, thank you so much for inviting us to be here. Uh my name is Cali Hadad and I teach English at the high school 9th grade and then a concurrent enrollment class through the U of M uh called Writing Studio. and we are here to talk about the the writing center that we have been um working working on uh implementing this year. So, uh I just want to talk a little bit about the agenda. We're going to explain the why uh what coaches are doing right now and how they became coaches and then the imple implementation plan moving forward. So for the timeline, so this idea really started uh a few years back when the the high school used to have a learning lab. So it was a place where during the school day students could come and get academic support. Um and Adele Welch worked there and had the idea to start training students to help with writing. Um at that similar time um I was serving on the language arts and literacy design team and one of the things that we really wanted to employ was a studentrun writing center. Um I mean we've seen it at other schools around uh you know Minnetonka has a very strong one um Adina Burnsville and so we wanted to to also employ one here at the high school uh and in 2020 I think it was 2023 I don't remember exactly but the learning lab really dissolved um budget cuts and and um staffing um it's a lot to staff to staff people uh for for all day and so then what we did um myself and another teacher tried to make it make the writing center happen um without a specific space and we were doing it through you know action Wednesday and the Orioles Nest um but it was difficult to do without a specific space um and so construction ended and then now we have a dedicated space for the writing center and are hoping to create a a sustainable center moving forward. Um, so these are some of the core beliefs we hold as a writing center. So over the summer we um, uh, formed groups and we wrote down some things that we thought were important about the writing center and then we combined them all to have these um, five things that we believe that are important and um, the first one is writing is a process. Second is that all writers benefit from feedback regardless of skill level or experience. Writing improves practice and individualized feedback. Writing is a tool for learning and a way to demonstrate learning. And collaboration among peers is an effective mode of learning. >> Hold on a pop quiz. Can you find the editing mistake in this slide, everyone? [laughter] >> We don't have candy, but there's [clears throat] no number four. Yay! Yay! [laughter] >> We totally did that on purpose. >> Okay, >> so now we're going to be going over the process of becoming a coach that all of our eight coaches like went through. So, um, first we had an application to fill out that Miss Hadad introduced to us. We scanned a QR code. We filled out a Google form and attached to that Google form was an essay that we had to write which um like there were prompts to choose from and it was all about why you chose to be a writing coach and why it's so important to you and then we submitted that and Miss Hstead sent out an email to all of us confirming that we were going to start training and we got the summer reading homework. We got uh chapters from the Bedford guide for writing tutors to read from and uh then we had like one or two training sessions in August that we all went to. >> Um so during those training thing that training we uh formed our writing beliefs and learned about the writing process. We learned about the purpose of a coach and role played being a coach. So, we practiced and we went over the summer reading that we did. >> And a big part of like a writing conference, a writing session that we went over was the writing conference map, which is a really great outline to reference as a coach when you're going through a writing conference with writer. And it starts with grounding questions, like really developing comfort between the writer and the coach, like establishing their name and like how they are and like what their goals are for the day. Um, and then we encourage the writer to read their work aloud because um, it can help them understand the writing in their voice. It can help them spot mistakes easier and gain confidence in their writing. Um [clears throat] and uh then we talked about the importance of asking guiding questions as opposed to uh telling them what to improve about their work directly. Uh because it really gets them to do most of the talking and most of the noticing of what they could do to improve that specific piece of work and like think about as they go into the future with their writing. So that includes higher order concerns and lower order concerns. Higher order concerns being like um am I saying what I want to say? Does my analysis relate to my evidence in like an essay? And lower order concerns being like do I have a typo? Did I misspell it? Do I have the right sentence structure? >> Did I miss the number four? [laughter] >> Feedback form. Do [clears throat] you want to explain that too? >> Feedback form. Yeah. That students get a feedback form at the end of the conference. >> Yeah. And at the end of the conference, we also have the students fill out a feedback form uh to do with their specific coach and like how they found their experience and that really helps us get data as this is a very new organization. Um so aside from the more technical aspects of the training, we also um did some other things over the summer. We developed a logo. Um, we made posters and hung them up in our space. Um, we made a website. Shout out to DJ for this website and Elena for this um, poster on the screen. And also we established when we were going to have the writing center open which is Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday after school and Wednesday during win time. So, this is what our website looks like if you pull it up on your computer, which you can access it through the SLP High School website under like the students tab. Uh, and this is the homepage where you have access to many different things. Right now, we're going to be talking about how to book an appointment. So, first you click on the book an appointment orange bar and then you'll be taken to this screen where you click the booking form button, which is this big orange bar right here. And that'll take you to our Google calendar. And here's the screen you should be on. And this new tab will show you the days and times you can select an appointment. So, you're going to go to the left side, select a date, and then the right side to select a time. And then you'll get this brief form on confirming who you are and why you're booking an appointment. And then you'll click the blue button book. You'll have to scroll down. And congratulations, you've booked a writing session. So [laughter] if you see this screen with the green check, then you're good. All right. Uh so just thinking about the future and um as we develop this this center, a few of the challenges that we're seeing. Um, first of all, just student outreach, like making sure students know this is this is a resource that's available. Uh, we had two more students today, which was wonderful. Uh, it really does help that we also are open during the Orioles Nest time, which is extra support for students at the high school, and so we can sometimes get students who go to the Orioles Nest and might not know about the writing center and we'll say, "Hey, you need some help, you can come over." Uh, so that's that's really great. But definitely student outreach is is part of our challenge. Um, also just sustainable funding for materials, conferences, um, director compensation. Uh, I did apply for the grant through the SLP community foundation this year. Um, so we got $1,500, but just finding a sustainable funding source moving forward, um, is something that we really want to make sure happens. Um, our goals are really build a writing center culture at the high school. I mean that this is a place where students know they can go that teachers know that this is a a positive place where students can get great feedback. Um I mean I watched Elena today um tutor an 11th grader. She's a 10th grader. Um and I mean they got a whole page written. It was amazing and she just did such a fantastic job. So uh I really think that um this is something we want students to celebrate and know that we're here to support them. Uh also just provide ongoing trainings for all coaches. um grow the amount of coaches we have. We know our students are amazing. They are busy. They are involved in so many things and so we want to have as many coaches as possible so that we can have um you know making sure we have coaches available every day of the week. Uh and then finally create student coach leadership roles. So create this as more of a studentdriven um writing center where students take a lot of the leadership on. So, do you have any questions for us at all? >> I have one great question. Did they introduce themselves? >> Oh, so sorry. >> No, they didn't. [laughter] >> I'm Elena. I'm in 10th [clears throat] grade. >> I'm Paulie and I'm also in 10th grade. >> Yeah. >> Questions? >> I think we're just impressed. I think I think um another way that we underline that academics are important here and helping students and student focused and student centered. So, >> appreciate it. Is there anything else? >> I have a question. >> Is that okay? >> You talked about looking for sustainable funding and I know you got that grant. Like what what is a sustainable funding number? Do you have any idea? >> Yeah, that's a great question. Um I think that's something that like we need to to talk a little bit about just as far as um you know materials each year, trainings um you know summer trainings. The students um are will hopefully be paid soon um from their training this summer. uh which came from the career and college um funds uh like donated funds I think is what it came from. Um but also just you know for advisor compensation as far as if it's like we have you know um adviserss for clubs get get a certain amount or something but um yeah we kind of it's just something that we need to work out. So that's something that we'll I don't I don't really have a clear number right now. >> That's okay. I think I mean we take we do get donations and so to the to the district and it can be an opportunity for us to think about lifting this up as an opportunity for that. >> I had two other questions. Um one is how do you support students for whom English is not their first language? Um and you have tutors who work specifically with those students and then just also how are you seeing AI impact um your work with students who are writing? I am >> yes >> I am in a very much in an early learning stage as it relates to my AI knowledge and understanding >> but I think that's not true necessarily for >> um I do remember like in the reading homework that we had over the summer there was a section on how to work with um writers whose first language was not English and like how the connection can be different but the ways that you interact with them should be the same. Like we haven't really had practice with that because we haven't had any people who have gone in with those circumstances, but we are prepared for that. >> Yeah. And I think that's something with like the ongoing training. The secondary school writing center association has some fantastic resources and so that's a goal of like we'll have ongoing training that will be on specific areas of of need. Um, yeah, >> for the AI thing, I think, um, we haven't really encountered it because people come to the writing center like thinking they're going to write, not thinking that they're going to use chat GBT to write it out. Um, so we haven't encountered that with the writing center, but I know that it is a problem and that's why we want to >> create the writing center as something else you can go to instead of >> Chat GBT. >> Yeah, that's great. Thank you for doing this. >> And I just want to thank you all for um putting the writing center [snorts] together. Um the importance of helping and assisting students to realize their voice in print >> and be able to articulate their perspective is essential. Um, so thank you. And I know it's it's always supportive when you have that that thought partner that's a peer. And I really really appreciate the the questioning as opposed to helping them. Um, so I always use the phrase you're teaching them how to fish as opposed to feeding them. >> So thank you. >> And as I was sharing earlier, this is how I got my start. So I started in the writing center. I was a tutor and then I was a senior and my English teacher was like, "What are you going to do?" And I was like, "I don't know." And he said, "Why don't you become a teacher?" And I never looked back. So, thank you for doing this. This is great. So, you should consider being a teacher. [laughter] If >> you didn't get the hint, >> if you didn't get that hint, let me just make it really obvious. [laughter] >> We have six reasons why you should become a teacher, but there's only five of them. [laughter] Thank you again. Thank you so much for your time for bringing this forward to us and we look forward to more of these kinds of presentations. >> All right, that does bring us up to our discussion items and um six strategic priorities updates priority work for the year. That's back to you, Dr. Hines. So >> So thank you. Um, I'm going to ask my cabinet presenters to make their way up to the table as I kick off um our strategic plan priorities for this year and where we are how we are actualizing our strategic plan as we are rolling out year one. So um as we ground oursel in the purpose of our presentation today, we are we're going to give you an update on how we are actively implementing the strategic plan. And today we'll just highlight some key actions that we're taking that we're currently taking and give you some examples of where we're looking at taking the work across schools and under the umbrella of school instructional improvements, staff development and initiatives. So we are Yep. Thank you. One more. We are really um one of our focus that I shared with our team this year is centered on our portrait of a learner. So we're really taking an assessment as to where are the elements of the portrait of a learner currently showing up in our students everyday experiences. So just as a reminder um we are here to ensure that every student has every opportunity to ascend and that is to be authentic strategic connectors empowered nimble and dreamers and innovators. So when we are currently talking about our professional development or curriculum or as we're doing our learning walks as we are um talking in our monthly data team meetings at the sites we are assessing where are things where does send pop up which leads us to our three commitments that are the foundation [clears throat] of our strategic IC plan. We are one St. Louis Park. Build and trust in the community and invest in staff to transform student outcomes. So, we are investing time and resources with the adults here in St. Louis Park so that our students can reap the benefits through the outcomes in their achievement. So I am going to hand this over to executive director Loey as he walks us through we are one St. Louis Park. >> Yeah. So as we take a look at this and think about what Dr. Hines just shared about ascend and we think of St. Louis Park as one St. Louis Park and not a um Aquilla verse Peter Hobart verse Susan Lingren one St. Louis Park. What does that mean? What does that look like? We want to foster an environment that's welcoming to each person um where they feel valued and supported within our system and they're going to get that same level of support across all of our locations. Um we're looking to center stakeholder voice, make sure that people feel valued and heard and we understand what their perspectives are and that is always going to be the center of our decision- making. Building trust and transparency. um looking at how we're communicating, how we're reflecting on our practices, and how all of those things are reflective of us building trust and transparency amongst our stakeholders. Transforming the culture to empower staff and leaders. Um making sure that people know what their roles are, clarifying what they are supposed to be doing and how we're supposed to be serving the community that we are all living in. Um and inspire student success to excel. Um, so as we take a look at the one St. Louis Park, just a little bit of what we believe that should look like over the course of the next five years, what are we doing to work towards one St. Louis Park? Um, there's a number of different things that we're doing. Um, and one of them starts with we're working to develop and look at different systems of collecting data and using many different surveys. I'm sure everyone in this room has probably received one of the community or one of the surveys that have gone out. The the surveys range from exit surveys when employees are leaving the organization. Really taking a deep dive into understanding why um some of our employees are leaving us. Trying to understand that and use that data to then reflect on our practices and learn how we can make the experience better for our employees. Professional development surveys. After each professional development day, um there's surveys sent out to see how does that how does that professional development resonate with our teachers, with our staff. How does it reflect on what we believe, what we're saying our values are? And how did they how did how did it feel to them? Like how can it be different? How can we um provide some better context around the things that we're expecting them to be learning? um deploy an annual employee engagement survey. So, we're working to develop an employee engagement survey that will give us the opportunity to get some feedback from our staffs. Um looking to understand where we have opportunities to make our system better and also acknowledging some of the things that we are doing well as well. um developing cons comprehensive staff training, making sure that as we look at the strategic plan, we look at our mission, our vision, and our goals. Are we providing staff the tools and resources to fulfill those um objectives? And then evaluating and redesigning district-wide um professional development. Um as Dr. Hines has talked about a number of times when she refers to on demand PD. What does PD look like and how is that changing as the system evolves? As our educa or as our students are evolving in the way that they're learning, how is that then reflected in how we're actually offering professional development to our staff and we're kind of partnering. So you got anything that I'm missing, let me know. Um so some of the goals for student services and human resources because we're partnered together on this um some of the goals for us over the course of this next year is we do an annual review of the retention data. So um we've been working as we got through the staffing of the 25 the start of the 2526 school year. our team in human resources has been pulling together the data to say where are we at and how does that fall in line with previous years to see if we're making progress or where we're at. So we'll do an annual review of the retention data. Um, we're working right now through thought exchange, thought exchange to develop and launch a new enhanced exit survey that will utilize some of the AI functions that the system or the tool has available to interact with the individuals who are filling out the [clears throat] exit survey to get more detailed feedback. And then we're going to use that tool to help us analyze that and reflect on the data. Um, employee engagement and climate survey. Again, we're working with um research and evaluation to say as we look at using this tool over the course of the next 5 years, what is the meaning? What what are we looking to collect and what do we believe that will help us reflect on our practices and learn and grow from that staff training um Dr. Robinson and um the um instruction and learning team have been working to um build a comprehensive training strategy that will align to all of the things that we are um saying St. Louis Park stands for, St. Louis Park believes in and how are we providing our staff and um our our staff the tools and the resources to get to where we need to be. and accountability um deepening accountability practices that are clear, transparent and communicated. Um when we look at some of the things that came out of the the strategic planning [clears throat] process, clear transparency and communication are some of the major themes. So, how are we consistently reflecting on that and all of the things that we're doing um to say are are we doing what we say we're going to be doing and are we being clear and transparent about it? progress. Where are we at? Um we um our teams have been consistently reviewing the surveys, working together. Um we have it consistently on our cabinet check-in every two weeks that we're working. We're reporting back on where we're at in the process and what we've been doing over the course of the previous two weeks. Dr. Lafayette has been great at reminding us each week. um establishing new communication tools, you know, looking at the staff internet, really kind of trying to build our muscle around that and kind of try to educate our employees on how to use that resource as we continue to develop it. um thought exchange as mentioned before looking at the number of feedback surveys that we're sending out and using that as a tool of an efficient way of evaluating the results that we're getting back and then providing opportunities for staff and community feedback listening sessions. So just this evening we had the African-American listening session. There's been there was a smallie listening session last week. So there's a number of listening sessions that are taking place where we're truly just trying to listen and I know as you know myself as we've been going out to sites just trying to hear what the staff experience has been engaged with staff to really hear what's happening because as we are you know cabinet we are supposed to be advising the superintendent and assistant superintendent on what's working and what's not. And it's important for us to be engaging with staff to understand what what are some of the areas that there's opportunity for us to make better. >> One quick point of clarification and we can move on here. But uh AR >> research evaluation and assessment something like that. >> Okay. >> Assessment. We're the next. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. So our next one here is investing in in staff in trans transform student outcomes. And that's one of the biggest investments that you can make is in our staff because as our staff gets invested into then that goes for right down to our students. Also you'll see here about how we also promote continuous growth among our staff and our students here. Uh that we just don't stop and we continue on with our learn to continue to grow. We just do not stop here. Uh the next thing is also going to focus on academic excellence and equity to decrease racially predictable outcomes. So uh one of our Thank you. Uh, one of our biggest things here is once again putting out that gain understanding of a portrait of a learner. Also, as I talked about before, you'll see here that we'll talk about strengthening the staff capacity and also expanding excess engagement and morale. So, one of the biggest things uh coming from the instruction and learning department that we're focusing on is re a rroll out of our standardsbased report cards and we've introduced that with staff professional development that's aligned to our standards and having consistent professional development on that and knowing that how it is evolving and making sure that we're giving those updates and having more communication about where our students are at and where they're progressing. going back to the portrait of a learner uh rebringing back the park pride podcast which is in we're bringing back our student alumni to really talk about and highlight what was their experience here and how they see themselves as a portrait of a learner which please please listen it's it's it's great stuff okay great stuff but uh but once again you hear from our community and our alumni about the experiences that they that they've had and then also we've also had a youth data analyst also um talking to about their experiences is and what they had. So that's just the first step in introducing that and highlighting a portrait of a learner. We also introduced site implementation meetings which is providing a feedback loop. So that sitementation meetings includes our principles, assistant principles and coaches coming with getting professional development along with that professional development also having that racial equity development as well when we talk about labels that we may put um on students or uh just different situations. So, we're doing a a book study, school talk, and knowing how do we use and how powerful our labels can be. Also taking that information back at our site implementation meetings on our SIP plans. So, coming together and looking at where are we at, what adjustments do we need to make and once again flows to the building PLT teams and keeping that focus there. So it's a feedback loop that goes from district to our instruction and learning team, our site implementation teams here at the district level and back to the site and then that comes flows right back up to the instruction and learning team. Also a professional development that we uh have here is with our coaches. So our new uh instructional uh design curriculum coordinator Megan uh Pika has been working with our instructional coaches and focusing on student centered coaching. And then our student center coaching is going once again investing into our teachers and once again how are we moving uh and following our strategic plan and implementing here at the elementary level literacy and then working with our consultant Dr. Fuller when it comes to the secondary level of DK and looking at how are we once again in the classroom looking at a DK1 all the way to a DK4 and being able to move back and forth uh with our students so they're not staying just in one spot and then What is D? >> Um the depth depth of knowledge. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Um you know as an educator you get stuck in these >> acronyms and all that. Um but then also going along with that is making sure our professional development is timely and aligned to our strategic plan. So it's that right on time um professional development that is aligned to coming every six weeks, eight weeks that we're doing with our collaborative literacy also along with our DK uh at the secondary level and preparing for the block uh schedule. So we're making sure that that's timely and then also when we have those professional development days how it's not just a sit and get but how it's something that you get and then once again it's a part two and it continues on and builds upon the next thing that is happening in uh in our classrooms and along with our strategic plan >> and AR or assessment research and evaluation gets the privilege of partnering with Dr. Cooper and the assistant superintendent's office and our district instruction and learning team to really build for this year the structures to then measure for the next four years the impact of all of these things that are coming together especially when we think about student learning and student outcomes. So some examples of what we are building and tightening up this year in order to then launch in the fall of 2026 is we're going to build data collection tools to measure ascend which is our portrait of a learner. As you can imagine, this big beautiful portrait of a learner needs to be operationalized and what does that look like in terms of measuring that data and in turn in in order to develop that tool? Right now, our data scientist Dr. Becker Becca Star is looking at our teacher development and evaluation rubric along with the research that has guided our last strategic plan and our current strategic plan to then develop what does this actually look like in practice. So teachers can then say, "I'm I'm assessing students and I'm creating um formative assessments that help my students then ascend from prek through 12th grade. And then we're also developing a common PD feedback form to measure the impact of PD. Historically what has happened in our district is that we do provide a PD feedback survey but that survey is oftentimes based on the individual outcome of that uh professional development. What we want to do is to slow down and think about what is the through line for the next four years starting this year for five years so that we can then measure longitudinally over time whether or not different stakeholders within our organization are feeling the impact of the professional development within this strategic plan to then say by the end I feel more confident as an instructional assistant who is teaching literacy in the classroom. Right? So we started some of that work this summer. We're also creating tighter testing windows to allow for data to be collected and used in a timely manner. And we launched that already this year. One of the things that we did was we shortened um historically what has happened is there are some classes that are like well we didn't get to fast bridge testing within these first couple weeks. Can we have another week to do that? And we're like yeah sure you know you know trying to accommodate for life if you will in schools whether that's on the adult side or the student side. And so what we've done collectively is made transparent that we're keeping these windows tight so that we have data to be then used to plan for instruction. And um so we did that this year and we are already in the process of getting feedback from our uh our school assessment coordinators on how well that worked for this fall so that we can begin planning for next fall. Uh we are also developing a common equity learning walk form to be used in the beginning of fall 2026. That does not mean that we [clears throat] are not doing equity learning wax because we are in fact and we've already started in all of our sites. What's been beautiful about each of our sites is that they've been collecting data based on how they find it to be useful. And so and then they've also been sharing that feedback with their sites based on how they find it to be useful. The common text that they're using throughout each of the walks is our teacher development and evaluation form. What we want to learn this year is what is working for our principles and our site implementation teams, our coaches to then say, okay, so what parts of the form are helpful? What did what does your staff say is helpful? So then we can launch it in the fall. By this winter, we hope to we will have a common feedback form that then we can workshop for the rest of the spring. Because what I've said with some of our principles where we've already discussed this is if you hate the form in the winter and your PLT your teacher say this doesn't work then we can scratch that and we'll have time in the spring to continue workshopping it for so then we can launch it in the fall and measure that over time for the next four years. Same thing with the data cycle form for our care team process or our PLC process where our teachers collaborate. Um, we've had different iterations at sites and of course we have had feedback on those different iterations. What we want is one common iteration so that we can all use it systemically as one St. Louis park beginning in the fall. And based on feedback from uh, Pink Consulting and the data that came out of all last year, one thing that our system is asking us is to have a curriculum audit tool to then be used for the curriculum review process. So, we'll be researching that for this year as well. Okay. And then I I'm going to share a little bit about building trust and communities. So, one of the big priority areas that surfaced through strategic planning process um was a desire to improve um what we're calling transparency. And transparency exists in many different ways. It's not necessarily just we have a message, we shared it with you directly, there it is. That's transparency. What we heard is that there's a lot more to it than that. There's a desire for some two-way communication. There's desire for strengthening relationship with staff, more recognition. So, there's a a bunch of culminating factors into what this trust and community looks like. And we've started to map out what some of those areas are because we learned that there were some opportunities of course at the district level in how we build and strengthen the relationship with the community. But we also learned that there were opportunities at our site level where um trust in our schools was an opportunity for us to grow in um trust in relationship with across different racial ethnic groups or specialized groups. Um also even relationship between parents and teachers. So there were so many different areas that we were surfacing that there were [clears throat] um areas that we could certainly grow in. So these are some of the outcomes that we hope to see as a result of our strategic priority work. So strengthening cultural responsive instructional practices, evaluating our current uh interventions um and embedding overall wellness and recognition and belonging practices. And we've already started taking some of this and implementing it into our practice. We certainly have uh many more things we get to do over the next five years. Um I'm gonna have you click for me. Thank you. Okay. So, when we think about what we're going to be doing over the next five years of work um in this area, a lot of it will include some of evaluating and redesigning some of our communication processes. So, at this current moment, you've probably seen some of the things that we've done with the tools that we're implementing. um including actually we are currently uh within our department doing a website redesign because we know that the website itself is one of the tools in which not only is it a marketing tool but it's also a tool that our families and community members engage with where they're relying on us for some of that information. So those are a couple of the things that we're currently working on. We also [clears throat] launched the staff internet as an area for our staff to get information. So, we're [clears throat] centralizing where some of our processes and workflows are. Um, so that it's not I have a question about payroll. I'm going to reach out to our payroll coordinator. There are some things that we can help to do to streamline some of our information flow so people aren't inundated in the work, too. So, that's part of why we're re-evaluating all of our systems and structures to improve some of our communication processes. Um, so I know I talked a little bit about promoting transparency for other [clears throat] students, families, and staff. Um, one of the big things that we've done is implement this new new tool of communication called Parent Square. Um, what you may have known historically in the district is we had multiple tools of communication. So of course we have some of the academic tools like Schooly, Seesaw, um, Power School is another one. In the communication realm, we had school messenger, we had constant contact, we had our Gmail. Um, we were doing some different things with Google Translate in order to translate our messages so that we could make things more accessible. um the time that it was taking and training all of our sites because there are many people who are responsible for communications aside from our twoerson communication team that there were some better systems in place that we could execute to make our communication better. So that led us to pursue parents square which is a unified [clears throat] communication platform where everything [cough] is running um through that channel. We still have maintained our academic communication platforms of Seesaw and um Schooly. Thank you. Seesaw and Schooly. Um because at this point in time, we're evaluating all of the the tools that we have in place. But this at least took us one step further from where we were in our previous years to make it a little bit more centralized for our families. So, as we continue to audit and assess our tools, we may see some changes over the next five years. Um, I'll go ahead and go to the next one. So, the things that we're starting to do is we're we're working on conducting a communication analysis. Um, we're trying to look at generally, right? I think um earlier in our first our first priority area, we're talking about assessments of surveys and things. One of the things we're being mindful of is how frequent we're sending surveys and what's the best means for it because we also know we want good survey response, but we also don't want to inundate people with surveys. So, we're working together to figure out what are the best ways to implement surveys and receive the feedback. But that is one of the pieces of our work this year is we're assessing for communication analysis. Um over the summer we actually launched our new our new brand guidelines with an expanded color palette that actually is an alignment with our previous color palette of 2017. So we had a lot of um a lot of learning around what we had as 17 different colors at one point and then in 2019 that got streamlined to some color. So we we found [clears throat] a way to bridge some of the gaps. So, I think it's exciting for us to have a um a brand guide that to me really reflects the spirit of our schools. It's very lively. Um orange and black are still the core of who we are. We also have the or awesome oral that has now I' I've been seeing it in different um merchandise and apparel. I actually have a t-shirt I believe on my desk from Peter Hobart that uses the new oral bird. Um, so it's exciting to see that [clears throat] even those pieces of brand are something that unify us. So it is a piece, it's for sure a piece of our our trust, but even beyond that, one of our intentions is again, it's not just your communications team serving as um your communication leaders. So, we actually started what I'm calling the initiative of the shines blood um where we actually conducted some staff training at the start of the school year both at our new professional workshop and our new professional workshop, our student services boot camp and our um new our all staff event where we started doing some training to encourage our staff to be brand ambassadors because there are touch points of um how everyone is upholding building our our district values. Whether you're a custodian and you are creating a welcoming environment for people, so in the customer service entity, but also in things like the image, how we tell our story, how do we build up the narrative? So, we did um a 45minute training with different groups. Um, we hope to do it again in the future because it is uh helpful and um it's a great way to to get people on board to see and embody the nature of our schools. Um, and it also includes we try and put regular tips in our staff newsletter. Things like a simple way that you can help uphold the district brand is by updating your email signature, for example. um making sure that you're using colors. Here's some tips and tricks to making your flyers really effective and in alignment with the brand guidelines. So, we're starting to share that. And as a piece of our how we're building some of our wellness, of course, at the end of the school year, we had our feel-good finale, which was an awesome way for us to embody some of the wellness activities that we're hoping to carry throughout. Um but we are also celebrating those who have been what we consider to be like outstanding brand ambassadors. Um, so we shared a really awesome video in our staff newsletter, I think last week, of a um of an individual at the middle school who created this really great video on cell phone policy. Um, and those are great ways that we can also celebrate our staff um because they're making us shine. Um, they're really highlighting the brilliance of ourselves and others and upholding that district brand. Um, so those are just a couple of the things that we're currently doing, things that we are working towards. there are many more things that we hope to do over the course of the next five years. Okay. And these are again just a a highlight of some of the goals that we are working towards. So I shared a little bit about the communication tools already. Um we are also updating that website. I know a couple people in this room have seen a little short demo of what our new website will look like. We will be heavily working on the move over to the new website in between December and January with the hope to launch that in early spring. Um we will be updating all the district and school pages. So it will be a big um a big change but I think it's going to be a really good change. So far all the feedback has generally been quite positive. Um and the other thing that we have done is create a communications advisory committee which invited individuals from our PTO so we can have more touch points with our school sites so that we know what's happening in our in our schools and make sure that we are meeting the communication needs of our of our school communities as well. Um and again I think I spent a lot of time talking about the evaluation of communication jail so I won't dulge uh any further into that but those are some of the things that we are heavily working on this year within our communications department. All right so that gives you a quick overview of how we are making progress and intentional moves in setting the foundation for full actualization of our strategic plan. So, are there any questions? >> I just have um well, I had one question and then maybe just sort of a comment. The first is um so as I was listening to the investing in staff um to transform student outcome and you were talking about the feedback loop um and I heard a little bit about the care process as well as equity walk and where are teachers involved in helping you develop those things or is it one of those things because I heard you getting feedback about it from teachers but I did not hear how teacher voice was included in creating the process. and the feedback loops. >> So when you go with the feedback loops, um I'll start with the PLT teams which are in the buildings the site teams and so we get so as they are meeting as teachers are meeting they're broken up in grade levels and departments inside the school sharing information then which is coming back to our instruction and learning team um which is at the cabinet level. And so then gathering that information and information that we're gathering whether it's about the next plans or what's needed when it comes to implementing the SIP plans that the schools are working on. Then coming down that goes back down to the site implementation teams where we're meeting and those implementation teams includes the principles assistant principles and coaches. Um as those teams are working together uh which again taking all the information from the PLT teams. So >> remind me PLT means >> is uh pedagogical [clears throat] learning teams that are taking place in the buildings which are yeah uh which involves each grade level and also uh what's inside the buildings and uh special education teachers um as well. So that information is coming from the buildings about what are the needs as they're working on SIP plans which is going back to our instructional learning team which involves our cabinet members. a few of our cabinet members um gathering information whether it's like what learning tools can help support the learning plans um looking at certain whether it's uh curriculum needs that are needed and then that comes down to instrumentation teams about PD so as we're implementing PD what our supplementation teams with it comes back to um like I said our book study that we're doing with school talk or um when it comes around to coaching and what things that are happening with support in our sped forms and how recording uh student behavior and looking at data. Um so all that's happening in our segmentation teams and then which goes flows back down to our PLT teams. So it's a consistent cycle. >> So it's like a trickle up and then a trickle down. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Um because I know as an educator in a classroom I don't like trickle down if I haven't had teacher voice in it. And this is just a feedback I guess in general for everybody in the room is I'm absolutely overwhelmed with paperwork. And I am I have I have instructional and student surveys that I have that I'm obligated by law to fill out every week for students. So if you're going to send me a staff survey about PD, that's going to go pretty low on my list of priority. So, speaking from the trenches, if you're going to give a survey, and there's a lot of surveys in all three of those areas, um, I guess my suggestion, if you're going to do it to staff, give five minutes at the end of the PD, don't send it after, don't send it after to an email because I'm in a PD and all I can think about is how overwhelmed I am working. So, I get back to my desk and I'm answering the 82 emails that I have and I'm trying to get papers corrected and I'm trying to do all the things. So, I don't know, maybe if you could cut your PD short like by five minutes and allow people to do surveys [clears throat] at the PD, you might get a more robust response. That's just my voice from the trench. >> Yeah. And and that is one of the things that we're implementing is at the end of whether it's the sanitation meeting whether it's uh PD you do take that time and ask staff you know take some moment here scan a QR code and as we're getting into thought exchange here getting that feedback which I get right at the end and that's helped us too as we've got a PD committee uh too that works and helps develop PD as well. So >> thank you. >> Mhm. >> I do have a qu I have a couple quick questions. Um, first of all, thank you. Um, I think this piece around not just having a strategic plan, but having real intentionality around implementation and sort of benchmarks that we're looking towards is really something that I value a lot. So, thank you also Dr. Hines for implementing this process. >> Um, you talked towards the beginning, I think it was you, Dr. Cooper about um investment in staff >> um and how important that is. Completely agree, >> but maybe similar to Virginia's question, how are staff informing what that investment looks like, right? And how are we making sure? So, how are they informing what the investment is and then how are we measuring the effectiveness of that investment? So going into that also like I said forming our professional development team which is filled with different people across uh staff across the district to be able to give insight on okay what are the things that we want to make sure we stick with our strategic plan but along with that. So we want to make sure we stay within um our goals this year which is you know tier one uh literacy looking at our MTSS looking at once again our applied scheduling um and including all of those things. So having that budget and teachers providing feedback at the PD committee um how we're gathering uh information and feedback is of course after our PD. So what are some more things that you need? What are things that you might need um more time or would you like to see again gathering that information from there about what PD is needed? >> And um thank you for that. And then uh I think this was related to the communications advisory committee. Um I heard you say that it's sort of comprised of folks from PTO. Currently we are expanding. So I'll just ex add that at our first meeting we were relatively small and so we are going to be putting a call out to people and I've been doing some shoulder taps so we can have some more representation across some of our respective bodies that we like to seek some feedback for. So at current moment it's been >> very very >> well I'm glad that you're doing I think that I'm glad you're doing it. I hear about communication all the time and folks feeling overwhelmed by that and I've spoken about it this table both as also as a parent right that it can feel overwhelming and so I'm glad that I'm glad you're getting that. I'm glad it's being expanded. I wonder if you have thoughts about including um staff in that, you know, about sort of how they're receiving internal communication as well. So anyway, thanks for this great >> and I would say that I'm on that communications, but I mean just one of the things is depending on how you put it out like sometimes people have a hard time like making it all the way through to the end of the communication, right? Like I would put I'll just acknowledge that I've said that at times to the principal in my building like I'm sorry I didn't read all the way at the end. I've said it to Dr. He sorry you know I do my best but sometimes it's overwhelming and so let's just be really intentional about how we're outreaching to people and not just doing it through our existing communications that some people might not be accessing. Thanks. Yeah, just to piggy back off of what director Davis had said, I think being a part of the uh the strategic plan visioning team, I think um I think you had mentioned it too uh is is just like how uh how much feedback we got on communication and I think I don't think animated is the right word, but like so many people were very passionate about like what that could look like, what they'd like to see and it didn't matter if they were staff or uh um community members or parents or or students, everyone had some opinions. So, I think including all of those groups would be would be great in the in the advisory committee. And I'm really glad that that we're taking those steps because it did it wasn't clear at the time, but I do think that was a gap when people are willing to share what they want to see. So, I'm really happy to see that happening. Um, and then I would also say, um, I'm excited about a lot of the, um, kind of what the outcomes will be out of this process. Um, I'm excited to see, uh, kind of where we get what the outcome of the climate survey uh, looks like. Um, and what some of the data that we're getting back on that is. Um, I'm excited about the um, um, ways we intend to measure ascend. I think that's super critical. Um is actually like you said operate operationalizing the portrait of the learner. That's going to be critical and something that um uh I think everyone on the board has at some point been really interested in how we're how the data that we're collecting is connected to our strategic mission and vision. So I'm really excited to see that. Um and then the uh what what outcomes out of the communication analysis are are coming. So, I think there's um really exciting um I hate to say deliverables, but but that's kind of like what what's what's coming out of the process that I'm looking forward to to seeing other comments. Um I'll throw in just a couple things on the communication side since that's my primary background. I appreciate that you do you uh dove you dove into the issue of transparency and looked at that a little bit more. That's been one [clears throat] of the things that I've been hung up on like there's lots of board meetings people can watch. There's lots of information out there. And so I think to that point of like what what does transparency really mean? I think in a lot of ways it's not necessarily is the information available but some of the things that you outline. So I really appreciate that as a communications person too. I think I hear you saying you get so excited about brand and colors and things like that and I and then people don't understand that one of the key things about well color is that it can draw uh people's attention and some things like that and Sarah was saying we can get overwhelmed with information too. There's a tendency I see this a lot in my day job uh particularly where we have people who are trying to engineer roads where we try to explain everything to people and people can't take in some of that but making it appealing and making it interesting so people are grabbed and and they they find what it is and then they can find the next route to get more information and the branding things are really important for credibility. Um it's really important we say this at the county a lot about people start to recognize oh that's a county thing I can trust it. It's a county thing about public health. It's a county thing about after school services, whatever. Same thing with the schools. I've seen a little bit of that like in our community where people grab on to that SLP logo and some other things. I'm hoping that we protect to the extent that we can things like [clears throat] the oral that sort of say more of our mark in more ways and I think we do that in some of the ways that we share information and we use that. So I think it's really important. As I mentioned, I'm on a communications advisory committee. And then there's one more thing I was going to say is one of the things that I've noticed that maybe is a little subtle um but is some of the feedback loops that you've also created with communications too. Um I've used it I used it on a parent the parent I use parent square a little bit to ask about something. I was like what is this event that's listed in the high school newsletter that says it's about senior was like it was like senior graduation stuff and I'm like what is this? And then they were like that's for students. I'm like okay. I wanted to make sure it wasn't because it was on that calendar and some of those loops. So if people can't provide advisory committee, I think you guys are still like you guys say see an issue on a website. You see those things. So if it's more of those kinds of things that people want to provide feedback on, I don't understand this. I'm not getting this. I don't know what's going on here. But there are some loops too and other ways that people can provide feedback that don't involve having to be at a committee or some of that stuff. But overall, this was really we we we heard from most of you tonight. We heard a lot of really great things here. Oh, Abby, did you have something? >> Yeah, I have a question about you know, we already have a data we build already. So, I'm wondering why we don't go back at least two years like this year, last year, then going for more forward from that like from ascending because you see you can do next four years, right? >> Mhm. >> It would be nice to see at least two years before that. >> Mhm. to see where we come from, where we where we going. >> Yeah, I think I think that's a really good point. I think it's also a good reminder that ascend is an acronym that has been built upon historically our previous transformation plan, our work in culturally relevant pedigogy, our work with um to with our different design teams, right? And so ascend isn't this thing that just popped up in the strategic plan but it's this thing that has been present in a lot of different ways whether it's our IB unit planners at the elementary school at the middle school and part of our work um it's been all over so it's this big abstract thing and there are different ways where we have talked about ascend but ascend is now the acronym where we can kind of like tie it up in a bow to say who are we trying to become in terms of how are we going to educate our students in St. Louis Park? So, it's not just about IB, it's not just about AP, it's not just about this thing, but it's this one acronym. So then it's the so the the my data scientists and I we talk about in terms of like it's this puzzle in terms of there's so many different ways where we are teaching our students to ascend but how do we communicate that to our teachers who are then saying okay now here's an example of how I'm helping my students ascend as well as to our students and our families to say this is what ascent looks like when you graduate from our schools. these are the things that you'll be able to learn and be able to do by the time that you graduate from St. Louis Park High School. Right. So, it's like Yes. And it's this big thing right now. Um, so it's trying to make it more digestible for our community. >> Thank you. Because like when you say we're developing common learning about like equity things, we already doing it, but it says beginning fall 2026, >> right? beginning to say, "Okay, so this is what um ascend as an acronym looks like." Not that we haven't been doing all of these things, but in terms of our portrait of a learner, what can we say uh being nimble looks like in our system? What does it look like to be dreamers and innovators, right? like how are we actually making that clearer to our community instead of saying, "Hey, did you look at the last IB unit from two years ago in your fourth grade class?" That was an example of being a dreamer dreamer and innovator, right? So, just kind of trying to spell it out for our community to see it more clearly. >> Thank you. >> And just again appreciate I mean this has got to be the core part of what we do. We said it's our strategic plan. It's exciting to see that we're implementing it. It's exciting that it's one of those things that helps us [clears throat] stay focused too and you know it's easy to get distracted and there'll be plenty of things like budgets and stuff like that to distract at some point but just knowing that we're focused on this and this core part of what we do here it's >> sorry chair Cox can I just build on something that Dr. Lafia just said um when when we look at ascend as an acronym, the first of your goals is build data collection tools that measure the ascent because if we are solely basing our value and our worth as a district on test scores, we are sorely missing our students and our teachers. And the I am a an English language arts teacher. So I have had reading and writing tests in my class my entire career. And they don't measure connectors. They don't measure being nimble. And frankly, I question whether they really get into measuring critical thinking skills and how and problem solving skills because they're not students aren't given a problem to solve and that's where like nimble thinkers come in. So, I appreciate that you're building data collection tools. And I just also want to sort of point out that all of us in public education are working on creating collection tools to better articulate to our community and to our parents um the brilliance of our students. It's not just St. Louis Park. Um, and it and it infuriates me because I'm in the thick of my fast bridge training that we um put so much pressure on students and so much pressure on teachers for one snapshot, one data point in a very large complex system of education. So, thank you for building that collection tool and I look forward to learning more from you so I can implement it in my classroom. >> Any of opportunities community can continue to reach out about things like this and board members and stuff. It's ongoing work. So with that, I want to move on to the next item which is uh which is kind of related. It's CIP updates from sites and Dr. Cooper is going to present us and set this up a little bit. >> Yep. So I'll set this up as Dr. Cooper prepares to invite the principles up here. So, this is our yearly continuous improvement plan per site. Um, so I'm I'm going to ask the board for a little favor is that if you if you have questions as the sites are presenting their plans, if you can just write those down so we can get through the presentation and then we will take questions afterwards just so we can [clears throat] try to make sure that we have ample enough time for presentations and questions. So again, we have our strategic plan. Our school improvement plans are developed in alignment with our strategic plan, but also looking at our student data. Sites have been asked to one have an academic goal, a family engagement goal, and a school culture climate goal. So you will hear those goals um articulated by our principles and ways that they they are key indicators of progress, what they're going to be doing and what they're going to be looking at as they constantly evaluate monthly progress towards exceeding not just meeting but exceeding those goals. So Dr. Cooper. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you for that. And as just to lead on with that as you're going to see in these plans too as looking at the plan for not just exceeding but growth and how our students growing as these plans were implemented going back all the way to the supplementation meetings it's a continuous progress uh as our sites are working on this. So you also see a where each area is going to be evaluated and looking for progress and then once again these plants consistently as we see there may need to be adjustments over time. So, not only you see from our principles, but you'll also see from our directors uh from early childhood and community education because like I said, it's from birth all the way to 12th grade and beyond. So, I'm going to have my principles come up and then I'll start off with our high school principal Patty. >> Thank you. >> Is this cuz you had the last last night, would you? What's that? [laughter] >> The order because you had to go last night. >> I don't know. Maybe. Um, good evening everyone. The reason that I invited um, Principal Kalinowski up here is because we've been really intentional over the last two, no, I think we're going on year three of being in alignment 612. And so a lot of our work that you will hear about tonight um will really um emphasize how we're trying to align our 612 um work in relation to the SIP. I want to first start that um there was we we start off by meeting with our youth data analysts and they present over the summer and provide recommendations and there was some um affirmations that I think came out of the that work for us as site leaders um in that the work that we were already doing there's continuity in the recommendations so it allowed us to really easily transition into this year's SIP and really dig deeper with our staff based on what we had done last year, which some of that work included unpacking standards and benchmarks, looking at scope and sequence um uh at the high school level, developing course overviews because we really want to make sure that we're being transparent with not only our students but their families and what the learning experiences that are happening in the classroom. So, this was really helpful in advancing at the high school. We have a 5-year plan of how we're going to create and design standardsbased culturally relevant curricular units. Um, and we're on year two of that plan. So, just wanted to say that it was really affirming as we're listening to young people share like this is what impacts how we're able to show up in the classrooms and this is how we need you to show up in the classrooms as well. So, with that, I will just kind of transition into our goals um for this year at the high school. And our goal number one, which is our care team goal, is working collaboratively, 100% of care teams will determine the depth of knowledge needed to identify proficiency in standards for courses by May 2026. And this came out of that. We unpacked standards benchmarks, created scope and sequence. So now we're in the next step of like what does proficiency look like for our students? And so we're really analyzing that and collecting data in order to identify what learning targets might be in relation to standards. And then how does that transfer into if a student is showing up in the proficiency uh proficient in that particular standard? What does that look like, sound like, feel like? Um goal number two is by spring of 2026, 100% of staff at uh St. Louis Park High School will engage in data analysis of student progress on learning targets with students, staff, and families for engagement throughout the learning process. So, this is really all aligned in that once we uh we wanted to uh really uh create opportunities for our staff to dig deeper into that data analysis. And we thought it was fitting to use something that we're already using, which is learning targets and progress monitoring in relation to our proficiency, which begins with a learning target related to standards. Um, goal number three, which is another one of our academic goals, is by the end of each semester, 100% of our teaching staff will implement at least one new shared literacy focus strategy, which will be measured by a collection of related student work and teacher reflection. So we will [clears throat] um work alongside our instructional coaches and our staff to create shared literacy focused strategies and then we will do deep reflection on that and collect student work in order to um kind of lean into uh content literacy and whatnot. And then our last goal um was our family engagement uh goal. And you'll see this alignment as it relates to like two-way communication that our our our students were emphasizing at um the youth data analyst or the data advance this past summer which is by May 2026 each department will increase the number of hometoschool or two-week uh connections that communicate student learning experiences ensuring alignment with standardsbased culturally relevant curriculum instruction and at least two of those will be doc documented each semester. And so really moving into our focus areas is that uh focus area one really just kind of captures all of it put together that we want to provide highquality culturally relevant instruction. So this ensures that all students experience rigorous, engaging and culturally relevant learning that supports academic growth and proficiency across all of the content areas. Um, some key strategies that I just want to highlight is this includes the development and implementation of standardsbased cultural curricular units that are aligned with rigorous learning targets and that really emphasize the depth of knowledge and each of at each of those four levels. And we're providing professional development um for teachers in order to um identify what that looks like. It is uh a strategy is identifying and monitoring student proficiently proficiency levels in relation to the academic standards to drive our instructional decisions. So how are we using data to inform our practice and then make adjustments so that the stu we're meeting the students where they need to be as far as their learning experiences in the classroom. Um it's integrating literacy strategies across all content areas in order to strengthen our comprehension, communication and critical thinking skills. And then it's also providing professional learning and collaboration time for teachers to plan and refine their instruction during our adaptive transition to a block schedule. So it's really the opportune time to be doing this work because as we're transitioning to block, all of this work would have needed to be done, right? So it was it was really affirming. Um our focus area too is that family and community engagement for student success. And so really building trust and partnership with families through transparent communication and then meaningful engagement connected to student learning. And so what we're essentially trying to do here with our key strategies is increase transparency and the quality of communication between school and families regarding students progress and their academic expectations. Um create opportunities for families to engage in meaningful academic experiences that support student learning at home and in school. and then use data to inform and personalize communication with families to ensure that they understand their students progress and also ways that they can support them. And [clears throat] so moving into our key strategies um and this is where you will see a lot of intersectionality between the middle school and the high school because we are doing essenti we're different places in the process but we're essentially trying to use the same strategies as we work with our staff um and community and students. So, our professional development will be around preparing for the block for next year. Um, and really looking at both those technical pieces of like how do you build a block schedule that fits the needs of all students and also what is the adaptive way of being in a block model because it's more than just um taking what we're currently doing and plopping it into a longer period of time. Um, and that also requires to unpack standards and the depth of knowledge levels uh with our staff. Um, so providing professional development on that. Um, making sure that we're looking at culturally inclusive backwards design of unit planning. Uh, making sure that we're identifying literacy strategies that have [clears throat] high effect size and then analyzing that to inform our practice. Use of our MTSS PR process at tiers one through three. And then implementing a schoolwide data team process for departments. This year we um worked with our coaches and our uh professional development team to really streamline and work with our um department heads and our park leads which is my leadership team in order to make a very streamlined process for how we look at data. It can be very easy to kind of admire data and not actually take action. And so we created a four-step process where it's like here is what we can do that we can do at our our our leadership team, but we can also there should we should see transference within the department. So when they're looking at data, they can also use the same process. So it's schoolwide. Um measures of progress include learning lock data uh which I believe Dr. Laette explained that we're kind of working through like what is the purpose of this data that we're collecting and we're going to make some adjustments and make sure that what it's that how we're using it and the purpose of it meets the needs of our community our learning community is informing best practice. Um we're going to use student work samples, student survey and reflection data. We will collect family engagement survey data. Um we recently um 9th through right through 11th grade rather took the map. So we will look at that data and see what the literacy where the literacy falls within that. Um we will use 2026 access data when it's available. And then we're going to be pulling samples and providing evidence of standardsbased learning that's highlighted in our um communications or making sure that we're referencing state standards, student learning goals, etc. And we're really working with our staff. Um right now my team is working with how do we make this something that is efficient [clears throat] for teachers because efficiency is important for teachers, right? We want to make sure that things are transparent for students and families, but also that we're being efficient and cognizant of the work that teachers put in on a daily basis because they work very very hard and we want to make sure there's a process that's streamlined for them. And so with that, I am going to turn it over to principal. >> Can I just say ditto? >> I'm just kidding. [laughter] >> No, ours [clears throat] is a little different as um Did I I feel like I'm missing my goals. Oh, there we go. All right. Um so as uh principal Paddock said we are working on being aligned and we are following the same process and but we are in different places in our process because just you know like at home if you different children you have similar processes at home and they are in different places because they have different personalities and um and that is what we're experiencing but we we um you know are in a lot of communication between ourselves and our coaches and whatnot. So, um we have similarities, but some of them are a little bit different. So, um our care cycle goal is that 100% of middle school teachers will complete two care cycles applying one of the shifts and preparing for the block. Um and our work with Dr. Fuller. Um, as Principal Paddock mentioned, we're doing a lot of adaptive work and what how are we going to transform our instruction? Not just take two 44 minute class periods and be like boom, we're putting them together and we're we're set to go, but really to think about [clears throat] how are we going to maximize instruction and learning time in a longer period of learning. And that's requiring us to think about our instruction differently in a much deeper way. And so one of the um shifts that we're working with Dr. Fuller on is around depths of knowledge. And just to kind of define that because anticipating that that could be a question, it really is about measuring the level of thinking, critical thinking that students are needing to do. So not just you know our students a lot of times we use blooms to determine level of rigor which is you know from understand all the way up to create but depths of knowledge is really thinking about how indepth are students having to think about what they're doing and so this is a good way to actually measure critical thinking if we're thinking about how might we measure ascend using depths of knowledge would be a way to do that. So, we really are trying to to shift to that, but there are some other shifts that we're going to be working with Dr. Fuller around as well, including culturally inclusive backwards design. Um, learning arcs, which is a motivational theory. And so, I have told my staff that this professional development is not just about we're going to take it all in and be like, I'm going to just put it on my shelf and I'll pull it out someday if I think it might be useful. We are about applying and practicing and implementing. Now, um so actually our first care cycle is really around applying um our knowledge around depths of knowledge this this first time and I said it's going to be a struggle but we're going to do it together and we're going to learn because we this is part of how we learn is to apply and implement. Um, so I'm excited to, you know, actually and I do believe that it it so when you asked the question about measuring ascend, I was like I feel like I can answer that because in doing this I think we're going to be able to measure much more easily some of our portrait of a learner that the ascent with that. Um, our [clears throat] second academic, our second goal is academic is that the percentage of students in grades 6 through eight proficient in reading will increase between 49.7% to 55% as measured by the 2026 MCA reading test. Um, we are having a second academic goal around our ML students, increasing their average access composite proficiency score from 2.8 to 3.0 as measured by the 2026 access test. Um, and that was a actually a request from staff to continue to focus on our ML learners. Last year, if you recall, we just focused really on speaking and and this year we we're going to actually think about it compositly, speaking, reading, writing, and listening and um and so staff were like, we'd like to focus on that again. So, yes, we shall. Um and then our fourth goal is around uh family engagement that 100% of middle school teachers will communicate with families on a weekly basis and document student specific communication with caregivers in power school. Um and part of that was to help establish the two-way communication but also as part of implementing MTSS just doing a better job around collecting data around students so in order to better provide support for them. Um so our focus area is around strengthening tier one instruction for all both as part of multi-tered systems of support and ensuring that our tier one instruction is effective for well 100% of students each student um but really starting to ask the question if someone is struggling going back and saying where can we make our tier one instruction more robust and so part of that is implementing what we're learning what Dr. Fuller and our preparation for the black PD around implementing the literacy strategies around implementing strategies that support our ML learners in acquiring English but I also believe support all students in their learning. Um and then specifically on literacy instruction, but what um in a more of a broader sense, liter data literacy um in itself, just not test scores, but qualitative actually interviewing students, finding about their experience um and really focusing on the difference between content area literacy and discipline literacy. with content area literacy being reading strategies that can be applied to any content area, but discipline literacy really being around um if I am a writer, how do I how do I write? How do I read? How do I think about this around ways of thinking which lends itself really well then into those really in-depth ways of thinking that our depths of knowledge is going to help us measure. Um so our key strategies um similar to the high school are professional development around preparing for the block. We are also continuing to engage in unpacking standards. We started that process last year and we're leveling it then with going back and um unpacking them at a deeper level with our depths of knowledge level. Um, we'll be working on culturally inclusive backwards design unit planning, incorporating literacy strategies, both content area strategies as well as discipline literacy um, and strengthening our MTSS process at the middle school. And we will and all staff at the middle school participate in learning walks to measure progress towards our designated rubric areas. Um this year we're really focusing on um multiple access points. So differentiation for our students and um feedback success criteria which principal Paddock mentioned about proficiency levels and establishing those and um putting more socopolitical uh topics into our curriculum which is under critical consciousness. I usually choose something from each of the three academic areas of the rubric to really just kind of hone in and focus on and make sure that we're tying and integrating that to. And our measures of progress will be our uh 2026 MCA scores, our 2026 access scores. Um we did also just get done well we did map testing and reading and math last week and we also are doing it in science tomorrow. Um and we are actually going to be doing it in winter too as a way to just check and see how are we doing in terms of student growth. Um using map to as another measurement of are we teaching the grade level standards and benchmarks and taking a look to see like are we actually doing that and are students growing as we are wanting them to to make some adjustments before we get to the spring MCAs if we need to. um our learning walk data. We'll be colle collecting student work samples and then also collecting data through interviewing our students and getting feedback from them around what their experiences are. So with that, we're going to turn it over to [clears throat] our >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, thanks. >> Good evening. >> Hi everybody. >> Well, I can start for Aquilla. I'm Olivia Toling, the assistant principal over at Aquilla. Um, our continuous improvement plan was written based off of looking at last year's data. We were noticing that our greatest area of improvement lies with our students who are multilingual and our students who are receiving specialized services. And so many of the goals that you'll see tonight are around kind of those two big data points. Um the very first goal just like um the middle school and high school and I'm guessing our other elementary schools is around the care team process. And the care team process really at Aquilla what we have it for is to be focused on students literacy growth and their mathematical growth. And by doing that um it's really focused on really knowing our students as individual students and looking at the lesson planning that our teachers are doing collaboratively to be able to meet individual students needs. is what we know is that our students are not ML students. They are not special education students. They are individuals. And it's important that our educators know them as individuals and put that into their lesson planning. So, our care team process is really commitment to knowing our students, [clears throat] the relationships that our teachers have with our students, and then putting that into the daily lesson plans that we do with our students, getting feedback from them, and having their voice included into what we're doing. Um, goal number two, you'll see, is about expressive communication. It's about amplifying student voice. Again, when we looked at our data um and looked at our WEDA access data, we really noticed that our students receptive language is really good. They they are listening. They are able to really understand what the the teacher is saying. They're able to understand the readalouds. But the expressive communication where it's the written and the speaking is really an opportunity for us. And so our goal number two is all about expressive [clears throat] communication and amplifying our students voices and really ensuring that we are putting learning targets into our lessons that are about our students speaking and writing. Um and because what we know is that the students who are doing the talking and doing the writing are the students that are doing the learning. And so our goal number two is all about students being able to meet their English language proficiency target increasing from 44.9% to 47%. Um, and we don't want our students just talking about anything, right? It's really important that our students are talking about domain specific language and being able to really use mathematical vocabulary. And so part of our care team process is to be able to do literacy and really focus on literacy, but the second half of our year we're really focused in on math. That isn't to say that we're not doing this year round, but um the focus and what we're analyzing each time will look a little different. Mathematical vocabulary is a goal for us. We really want our students to be able to utilize and express their knowledge utilizing the mathematical vocabulary that they are learning in class. Um, and so we believe that if students are able to talk about um math using the specific vocabulary to write about it, to be able to communicate with each other as as peers using that mathematical vocabulary that they are going to be able to show academic growth in math. Um, so their math growth goal from 49.9% to 53%. Um, and then that last goal is all about our community and tapping into our famil family's brilliance as well. And so our families want to see our students. They want to know how are they doing at meeting and exceeding the standards. And we thought, how can we do that with our students and with our families? And we thought a great way to do that is through Seessaw. So students are will know their academic goals and they're going to be able to post on Seesaw their work and parents are going to be able to see how are they meeting and exceeding the goals that are put in front of them. So, and it's not just during conferences, it's not just during, you know, family phone calls, but a very regular basis on Seesaw so that parents can see what their students are doing. If you want to put that next one. So, our two focus areas, tier one literacy and math instruction, grounded in meeting and exceeding state standards, and intentionally planned. That's what's key right there is that the planning, the daytoday instruction is what matters the most for our students. And so we are really looking at teachers lesson plans looking at that collaborative planning together to see how are we meeting those individual needs of our students. So it says intentionally planned with students specific special education and multilingual growth goals in mind. The second one is intentional use of district communication tools to increase family engagement specifically around students academic growth and progress. So really utilizing Seesaw on a regular basis and students communicating with families and teachers communicating with families. So how how are we going to do this? Our key strategies again tailored lesson planning in concert with WEDA standards. So that's standards for multilingual learners. um and then identified and scaffold for the winners. So each student when we go into elevation which is our digital platform that we can look at individual students um growth goals for multilingual learners. We are able to see what what they should be able to do. They're called the can do descriptors. So we are going to be able to do that in our lesson planning and we want to see evidence of it from our teachers. Um a next thing is collaboration between our multilingual learners and our special education teachers that enhances the curriculum that tools that we are using. So collaborative planning time so that they can see what we're using in tier one and then utilizing those that expertise of our multilingual teachers and our special education teachers to collaboratively plan to see how do we best support our learners in the classroom. Um, and then that last one again digging into that lesson planning lessons built with a purposeful focus on key vocabulary designed to meet and exceed specific standards. The way that we're going to measure it um and the way that we have started measuring uh is that weekly progress monitoring really looking at student growth. We are looking at the collaboration schedules and the care team notes of our teachers. We are looking at their cleared lesson plans, the data review of expressive language. So we are getting that more through our walkthroughs and through um just anytime that we are in and out of classrooms to see are we using the strategies that are in elevation. So are we noticing that um sentence frames are being used in the classroom so students are a have a scaffold for what it is that's expected of them. Are we noticing that key vocabulary is written out and it's not just in word form but in picture form and in maybe it's transl languagued for many of our students. Um and then this last one intentional examination use of quick checks. So our teachers getting regular feedback from our students and bringing that to the care team and then also bringing those things those to our PLT. So our pedagogical leadership team when we meet twice a month we're bringing in student data and student work to see how are we doing as a site and that's Aquilla. >> All right. Good evening. I'm Megan Panel and I am the proud assistant principal of Parks Immersion School. So it's nice being in front of you all for the first time. I have the pleasure of being here instead of Senor Mazlowski tonight. So going to talk a little bit about our goals. Similar to Aquilla for care, we are also working as a school to have at least two care cycles. We meet every other week all we all come together as a community and work kind of in sync in the media center on our care goals. And the care the care cycle is so important because it really is like a vehicle for a lot of these other goals to take place for us to reflect and to collaborate on the other SIP goals that I'm going to kind of outline tonight. So we'll be working on our care and we are focusing this first cycle on not just literacy but actually biiteracy since we are um all of our students are multilingual students at PSI. So we'll be looking at what our literacy looks like in both English and in Spanish. during our career cycles. Going into some of the academic goals, goal two, we'll be looking at ELA, so English language arts standards, which is important to point out because our students are receiving lang language arts instruction in all grades, K5 in Spanish and in English, Spanish language arts, English language arts, but we'll be looking at English language arts for our SIP goal and moving from 70.6 6 to 17.3% proficiency in math. Also important to me mention that we're looking at Minnesota math standards and we're looking at MCA which is in English. And all of our math instruction actually happens in Spanish in um PSA. But what we do know about good instruction about biiteracy is that what students learn in one language, they should eventually be able to transfer into another. So it's important to note that. But we that's why it's important to also look at some of the strategies we're using in our focus this year on biiteracy and trans languaging contrastive analysis bridging other strategies that we use to high make connections between home language language at school and vice versa. And then most one of the most important ones is family engagement. Making sure that our families are on board. They know their students best. So, learning from them and collaborating with them around what we're doing at school. Uh, we have made a huge push with Seesaw this year. Um, it was new for some of our teachers, but one of our goals is increasing that seesaw usage for both teachers, families, and for our students. As Olivia kind of touched on, we wanted to move from 290 to 450. Um, a moment of celebration is that we have already met that goal. So >> we are at 564 families connected as of today. So that's a point of celebration because it has been as you can see a heavy focus area for us at the beginning of the year. Um family engagement is one of our focus areas not just through Seesaw but Seesaw is a one of measurable data point that we could use to see how many families were getting connected to what's going on in the classroom and our school. and then also high quality biiteracy instruction for each child. So some of the strategies we're using, [clears throat] we know that like for dual language and immersion programming, one of the main pillars to a successful program is high academic excellence in both languages, both program languages, Spanish and English for us. So some of our strategies have been some purposeful PD that's taken place already and then planning it out for the rest of this year to kind of make those connections and make sure that we're continuing to move forward and progress towards our goals. We have already done um some biiteracy programming PD that's talking about the bridges bridging strategies talking about some of that trans languaging and what our spaces look like. Um also language arts PD has taken place specifically in the upper grades. We have some implementation of some biliteracy guides that took place so far this year. We were lucky enough to have some teachers over the summer that worked on third through fifth grade what some of that purposeful planning could look like. So, it's not just, oh, well, I'll teach unit three in English, you teach unit four in Spanish, or well, I'll do we'll both do everything like, no, no, we're gonna we have some purposeful planning happening where it's maybe I'll do the writing instruction in English and then the students are actually carrying out the writing in Spanish. Ways for us to measure if they're if the transfer is happening between the two language and the knowledge is showing up in both program languages. Some things we're implementing. We started this last year. We're continuing the pacing guide. The purpose behind that is just making sure that all students have access to all Minnesota state grade level. That's the key word, grade level, state standards. So, making sure that we're getting through the amazing curriculum materials we have and that students have access and exposure to Minnesota state standards at their grade level. talked a little bit about the bridging, but an important change last year that we've continued this year is that in kindergarten now students are receiving English instruction which before that was more towards the upper grades but now we have in phonics specifically phonics English instruction happening in kindergarten started last year it's continuing this year and this year we're kind of growing it as we look at what that looks like at the scope and sequence in Spanish and then how we can incorporate purposeful connections with the English instead of it. So that's not disconnected, it's connected and we're still carrying out data meetings. Uh grade level data meetings are happening monthly. Um we're coming up with a schedule right now where we can we're looking at certain data fast bridge map all those things are being brought up looking at what has been discussed in care talking about our student strengths and then also making sure that we're bringing in family input into that conversation. that we're learning from them as well. >> Thanks. Right, >> Peter Elementary School. Um, it's great to be in front of you for year two. Um, it's really exciting for me. Um, and somehow in this panel, I ended up being the only one or the veteran of the group, which is kind of exciting. Um, >> look at that. >> But, um, >> scared away the rest. Well, apparently um you're going to see that our goals are really similar to um what Aquilla and PSI and then Susan Langanger is going to also outline. >> Uh sorry, thank you uh Airmonson Peter Peter Hobart principal. So uh thanks for having me back. >> Um goal one is really just that all teachers are going to engage in care cycles. Um, and the focus that we are going to carry throughout the year is how can we utilize win, which is what I need time to support student literacy growth. And I'll explain more about that when we talk about our key indicators of progress and what that's going to look like. Um, we really spent the bulk of our time as both a pedagogical leadership team and a building operations leadership team um, building and pouring into these goals. So um by the end of the 2025 2026 school year we will decrease the gap between the percentage of bipox students which is currently at 31.3% and white students which is at 74.3%. Um kindergarten through fifth grade showing proficiency on grade level reading universal screening proficiency benchmarks. Um and that gap was at 43% um in the fall of 2025 after we finished that tight window that Dr. Lafi had talked about. Um, and we're going to decrease that gap to 35% in the spring of 2026. Um, we have a two-pronged goal, which is kind of unique. And so, one thing we discussed as a team is we don't want to just close that gap, but we want to accelerate everyone. And so, the second part of that goal is at the same time, we want to over improve the overall buildingwide universal screening proficiency from 52.3%, which is what our data showed this fall, to 55.3%. Um, and that's across all racial groups. Um we really talked about as a team though um that even though uh in the smart goal the reasonable part of that percentage is guided around 3% we hope to really accelerate past that. So um we really talked about that as a team because um it doesn't look like a small it doesn't look like a large percentage um but we want to make it reasonable because that's what um some of that data tells us and we want to just really push past that. So, you'll see that in some of the work I'm going to talk about. Our math goals are really similar. Um, that gap um is currently sitting at 30.7% in math this fall. We want to decrease it to 22.7% in the spring. So, thinking about an 8% um gap closure and then we want to increase our overall screening proficiency from 53.4% [clears throat] to 56.4% across all of our racial groups. Um go for similar to the other sites is really around Seesaw and then all teachers are using that to communicate um with families on a weekly basis. Um I really talked about our focus areas being in the academic areas. Um you saw that's where a lot of the energy and time and our conversation um occurred this fall as we were creating these. Um and so while these are our focus areas, I'm going to really hone in on number one, literacy, because as an elementary group, our focus is around tier one literacy and what that looks like. Um and a big component of that is really around win time or what I need time. So we're having three data meetings throughout the year and that's happening right after universal screening data. Um a gap that we saw last year that we wanted to address this year as a site is really how do we not only look at the data but then what are the action steps that follow the data that we see. Um so really a data to action process and what does that look like? So that data meeting this fall really um looked at analyzing the data, collaborating as a group and then thinking about how we put our students all students move into tier 2 or small groups um and get exactly what they need based on the data. Um so that first day of meeting we came together we talked to our teachers brought all of the data that they had and then we talked about what students needed and then placed them into groups and then matched adults with who's going to provide that um tier 2 small group instruction. So um that's really what what I need time or win time is. Um and that's where you're seeing that kind of third strategy using that win time um to plan interventions using common data sets. So using that universal screening data, um we asked teachers to also bring qualitative data, our multilingual teachers, our instructional assistants and then sped staff were also at the table to really talk about what that process would look like and what those groups would look like. Um also implementing that tier one literacy curriculum, collaborative literacy to fidelity. Um we're really focused on um small group sets this year and then also um independent R time and what that looks like for students um and how teachers can confer with them. And then the last kind of key strategy is really using um training for our instructional assistance or paras to support um tier one literacy or our tier 2 small groups in during what I need time. So our measures of progress are going to be around academics um assessment data. So that's MCA's as access scores and then using both fastbridge and map data um that universal screening data and that's going to help inform our win groups and then also thinking about care meetings and data meetings how we can have common um meeting agendas and notes. So that data meeting actually counts as part of their care cycle as we look at data collectively and then guide next steps. Um, we have data sheets for what I need time and progress monitoring charts. And then our care team has data logs. Um, as I mentioned that include our wind cycle and that is Peter Coart. And hello. I don't know that I've met everyone at the table yet, so it's super nice to get to see all of your faces. My name is Becca Bang and I am the new principal at Susan Linkren Elementary. you're going to hear some repetition um because I will say one of the things I've been grateful for as I've joined this team is that my counterparts in leadership at the elementary level in particular, we've worked super closely together. Um and it's really helped me to understand like who are we and who are we becoming um so like many of the other sites we have a car goal our car goal and all of our goals we spent a lot of time in August at our data um data team meetings. We spent an entire t day looking at our data and it was a really a meaningful time for me to both see the data as kind of a data geek myself like I had been looking up all the numbers but then to hear the stories behind those numbers and to help um myself kind of understand and help our team start to really unpack what is leading to the results that we are getting. So that's kind of where these goals come from. um our CARES or our pedagogical leadership team that came together that day recognized an opportunity with our CARES goal to not just have a CARES goal and not just to go just go through that cycle a couple times but really to have it align with our academic goals because in the past they were kind of picking things from across different places and we thought if we're going to make the main thing the main thing let's make it the main thing. So that's how we kind of developed our cares goal. Um again 100% of our CARES team therefore would have an aligned goal to our continuous improvement plan. Um and then we have our two academic goals and again our focus was to make the main thing the main thing and at the district level we've been guided to really focusing in on literacy at the elementary level this year. And so that was kind of what we decided to set our course for in terms of our two academic goals. So the first one you'll see goal two is reading growth for all. Um, so all means all, right? And we really wanted to think about how are we differentiating, how are we providing each student with what they really need to make progress. Um, and so we're looking to increase the rate of growth and we're using our fast bridge data to measure that and it's it's pretty specific because how we look at reading growth is different from grade level to grade level. So, we had um some really good conversation in terms of unpacking what that means. But that's why you're seeing in kindergarten, we're looking at the number of letter sounds week by week that students are um gaining or adding on to their current understanding. Um in first grade, we measure nonsense words. That's a so it's made up words, but it's really measuring their um phonics and phmic understanding. And then CBRM is our it's like a reading rate. And so fluency doesn't tell you everything about a reader, but it's one of the measurement tools we have that can really help us understand are our children growing as readers. Um similarly, our third goal, our third academic goal is really about accelerated growth for our Latinx students. So we also are seeing a discrepancy in terms of um access and and progress for our students um based on their different group identities. And this was one of the most significant gaps that we saw. And so that was why it was selected as our focus area. We're looking to close that gap, but in a realistic timeline. So you'll notice that the growth rate or the percent of our students that we're shooting for for meeting their growth goals is um is discrepant, but we're trying to close that gap. And so excited to talk about some of the ways that we're going to be doing that. And then in terms of our culture and climate, um coming into Susan Lingren, it was really clear that we needed a reset in a couple of ways. The the um mentality of staff and the morale of staff and students um had opportunities for growth. And I also um coming in I was like, so how are things going? And there wasn't data. There really wasn't clear um data around what was happening in ways that people felt like they could trust. And so part of our goal is actually around developing that system for making sure we can know what is really happening in our building so that we can be responsive and understand our students needs. And then part of the focus is is SEAL, so our social emotional learning is helping teachers really start to see that behavior is a form of communication and that our students are showing those different behaviors because of sometimes skill needs connected to self-regulation and and different SEAL skills and other times it's telling us what we need to really be doing differently. And so we're looking at creating overarching schoolwide systems around that behavior and emotional support. um trying to lean into the proactive strategies and positive reinforcement. That's again really looking at a systemic approach and our hope is that that will take our newly found data. So we had to first develop some data. So in the month of September we were averaging a rate of 16 referrals each day and our hope is that by implementing these systems and positive behavior plans and supporting students in developing their social emotional learning skills that we can cut that in half. Our two focus areas, much like you heard from the other buildings, we're really focused on literacy. Um, primarily that tier one literacy, but also developing some structures and systems to use our data to drive our tier one and tier 2 interventions. And then also again to have that system in place to support both the teaching and the response for positive student behaviors. There's some key strategies again a lot like some of the others you've seen. We are also using data meetings to identify which are some of our students who are making growth and who might need some extra support or some extension. Um we've really had a renewed focus on our CCC curriculum and have brought in trainers to support us in fully implementing our tier one literacy curriculum. Um, our instructional coach has already had an opportunity to start providing training to our instructional assistants and paras so that they can provide small groupoup intervention in the classroom in addition to our teachers and really get some of those targeted skills focused on um in both literacy and some of our social emotional learning goals is kind of where we're headed. And then we're also across our system talking about park pride as a part of our overarching behavior um and positive behavior plan and goals. Um and then again that that reinforcement system. So that was an opportunity for growth across many of our classrooms. Um to measure our progress, we are also looking at our care team logs and looking at the notes and agendas from our data meetings. Um in terms of the assessment data for academics, we're looking at our fastbridge results. We'll also be looking at our MAP screenings that will help us see our students not just increasing, for example, their fluency, but really their comprehension and understanding. Um, and then we also have some new tools around implementation rubrics that we're excited to see like, okay, we had this professional development on these key pieces to our literacy curriculum. How is that showing up? Are teachers really understanding how to implement that or do they need more individualized coaching or another session to really fully implement that? Um, and then in terms of our emotional or culture and climate, we're really looking at that disegregated office discipline referral data. So like who is getting referred and why? And are there different services or supports that are needed for specific students? Do we need to better understand the motivation behind their behavior or how they're responding to some of our redirections or supports that we have in our classroom? And then also just looking at the rate of our support calls is helping us understand our students needs really being met in the general education classroom. That's pretty. >> Slide out. >> We can slide out for you. >> We can slide out for you. >> Right. I'm going to look at Dr. Hines because she's going to give me that look and so we'll be clear. Uh good evening. I'm uh Patrice Howard, executive director of community education, and [clears throat] we're here today to uh give an overview of our goals for uh Central Early Learning Center, and we hope to be back later this year to provide more of an in-depth overview of Central Early Learning Center and the three programs um that we will come back to share is our early childhood family education program, early childhood special education program, and our kids place preschool program. And one thing that um well as you'll see in our goals from last year, it's really um a bridge um and building of the bridge um from last year where we worked on a lot of identity work and through that identity work we've uh identified uh qualities uh quality measures of success around assessments and family engagement which uh our newest leader of Central Early Learning Center uh Taj Tiana Bell will share with you today. >> Um good evening. first time here so thank you for having me this evening. Um Taj Tabel children youth and family services manager again at Central Early Learning Center. Um as Patrice was saying our goal is centered around TS Gold assessment system. So it is a very brand new system for our teachers and our educators to be using this year. So this year is actually a learning year understanding what the system looks like, how to utilize it for across all uh program areas, whether it's our parent educators um to our preschool classrooms and what that might look like. Um, going into goal two, by the end of cycle one or January of 2026, 75% of our teacher educators will use that system at least twice a month to assess uh students social emotional development and analyzing their work and how they're implementing that on a regular basis, which then goes into goal three, which is a slight typo um in there, but it should be by the end of the school year or cycle two. 75% of the teachers will be focusing on the lit the literacy aspect of TS Gold um to analyze student work and inform their instruction based on on the data that they get from that system. goal for our family engagement uh piece during the 2026 school year to strengthen family engagement and understand student learning uh student educ excuse me teacher educators of central early learning center will post at least once a week in Seesaw and update the identities or and identify EIP standards or early childhood indicators of progress so that families are aware of what the students are learning from based on the pictures that are posted um on a weekly basis in each classroom. Again, uh our focus is really utilizing the teaching strategies gold assessment system to gather information about what students are learning, whether it's social emotional or literacy, and then using that data to then dictate their work and how they need to make those changes to be effective within the classroom. Um and also showcasing that to families and helping them to understand what is being taught in the cla in each classroom. Focus area to strengthen sorry to [clears throat] strengthen the family engagement. Again, understanding what is happening in each classroom. um on a regular basis whether it's uh once a week or multiple throughout that week. Sorry. Thank you. So some of the strategies is really focusing on professional development for our teachers understanding what the TS gold or teaching strategies gold system is and how to best utilize it. So taking the time to fully engage with the one aspect of student social emotional excuse me social emotional learning and development and seeing how information is then input into this system so that way it feeds back data to them and as to how they need to change and update their work in the classroom. I was reading sorry uh seeds language comprehension again implementing some seeds literacy work and language comprehension in the classroom understanding what those frameworks look like and how we can best implement them in the classroom how we can measure a lot of this again learning walks end of the year enga family engagement to really see how we if we are engaging with the families with c excuse me with seesaw the two-way communication having with families on a regular basis and understanding who's utilizing it, who's seeing posts, and who has questions through seesaw and parents work. Excuse me. >> And that's I'm told you quick. [clears throat] Yes. Do you >> mind just I think I open up to questions questions. I can have the leaders come back forward. Any questions? >> You too. people writing things down. It doesn't mean we are all writing down questions. >> This is a good opportunity. It's a lot to kick in. It's a good opportunity for us to be exposed to this and chew on some of this stuff knowing that, you know, you all are working on some of this stuff, but um do you want to open it up? So, >> I just have Well, it um I'm going to ask this question. I know the answer, but I'm going to ask it because I'm in the classroom, so I kind of already know this answer, but I'm wondering if it might be helpful for people who aren't in the classroom. if you could clarify the difference between the data that you're collecting from an MCA versus the data that you're collecting from a map or a fast bridge because they're it's different data points and if we're um if we're going to talk about how we're going to implement data and why we're using data we might want to have a clear understanding in our community that those are two separate types of data points. >> Yes. Well, um when you look at our MCA, that's that one, uh big assessment that's taken throughout the year. Uh our fast bridge is those benchmarks uh that once again we use it um you know to once again look at our growth and as you saw we uh our schools looked at it as looking at the literacy growth in like CBMR the uh a reading and forgive me feel like it's 8:00 at night. I'm trying to get my brain to think here. Um and then as and as our map um is used too is also able to see exactly as where our students are at and being able to um see what's behind our students. Uh that's one thing that we we'll use our map data to be able to do as well. And we take that also in the fall and winter. Um and then at the in the spring at the high schools not not taken I believe. Um so you know you have your big formative uh one in MCA and then your um summitative not summitative I'm sorry my brain I'm trying to think about it but yeah but our fast appar um so I think the two the two big differences are uh fast bridge and map data is really universal screening so those are three touch points throughout the year Um the reason that some of us chose universal screening data is because MCAS is a standardized assessment. That is that one data point that um is a high stakes test. And so um I can speak at least for Peter Hobart. The reason we chose universal screening data, namely Fastbridge and MAP, is because we [clears throat] believe that that will give us a better picture of students over time and being able to get a touch point and a viewpoint into them over time. And to add to that, um, with FastBridge, that is something that we could use for progress monitoring on a weekly basis. And so it's not just a surprise three times a year, but rather as we are looking at students growth, we can monitor that on a weekly basis. And so it's not a surprise. We can adjust lesson plans based off that. Something else we're excited about with fast version, it's not in implementation yet, but at Susan Lingren, it's an opportunity for our students to take ownership and really see their own progress and set their own goals. Um, because a third grader can see how many words of minute am I reading, for example, right now, and what might I do and how might I change my behaviors or how might I like really lean into the learning and start asking questions so that I can see my own growth. And we know that when students are really thinking about their thinking and setting their own goals that they make accelerated growth. I think what gets confusing for people and if you can and in my own mind it gets confusing is that MCAs are looking at cohorts where universal screenings that they're talking about are looking at individual student growth and the data that we get from MCAs as an educator it's really not helpful um for as far as like making sure that we're intering on intervening on tier tier one levels and making sure that for doing that cuz you know like when you look at the 2020 please help me with this when you look at the 2025 cohort data on MCAs what the problem is is that people misunderstand and they're looking at and comparing it to the 2024 cohort and you can't do that that's not getting helpful information and so I think the confusion in our community [clears throat] is that when they they're comparing MCA a scores not understanding that that's not actual use book data. So, you know, one of the parents at a listening session last year asked, "Why don't we publicize the map or the universal screenings?" And I said, "Well, because that's a little bit like me going to the doctor and then publicizing all of the things that my doctor is telling me about my own body." And so that that that information is for the teacher, for the students, and for the families. It's not something that, you know, the public has any business knowing. I don't want my kids information going out there. Just like I don't want my doctor's diagnosis going out there either. So, I just want to make that really clear that as an educator, I find universal screenings like MAP and FastBridge much more helpful. And I hope also that you realize that I'm being vulnerable right now and telling you I still don't understand exactly how to use the data that I'm collecting. And so staff needs a lot of support in order to to make sure that they're using data in an effective way and not um demoralizing to both the teacher and to the student. >> I I would like to put into the space I'm going to give a shout out to Dr. laugh at because her work in assessment research and evaluation has caused me to think about MCA data differently and to use the data differently. So when we think about MCA as measuring like how well we are teaching the grade level benchmarks, one of the things that we do is that we always get our grade level benchmark reports and we look at them and we say which benchmarks did we teach well? Which B benchmarks did we not? And so then we go back to that and then we triangulate that with the map data to say like are students making growth on this particular benchmark and if not one of the things that map does is offer suggestions instructional suggestions on what you can do to help accelerate the growth. So we're trying to triangulate multiple data points to say we know we didn't do very well on this benchmark this year but we really need to strengthen our instruction on this particular grade level benchmark. So, we're going to really focus in on strategies to to bring that up. Um, so that's how we're using it at the middle school to determine how how are we doing with our grade level benchmarks and then trianguling that with the map to say and while we're going to give it in winter to say are we going to be on track to do better with this particular benchmark than we were last year. I will say that at the high school level, it's [clears throat] a little bit trickier to use the data because we have one data point at different grade levels, right? maybe a one data point for science, one data point for math, one data point for um reading uh for MCAs, but I will say having worked like at a um elementary and um middle school level that using that like yes, we have we we use it to inform our practice and how we're meeting those standards and yes, it's cohorted and I think you can look from growth if you follow that do diagonally. diagonally across how the students flow through the grade levels, right? And as they flow through the grade bands, that can show you kind of the growth as they're um going from fifth to sixth grade if you go diagonally. That is not an option for us at high school, but that's a way to look at it from K through 8. Um I will also say just for clarification because we have started sending out um communication regarding uh map as a screener for um based on the read act and trying to identify students that may be experiencing um dyslexia right and so we selected that because we wanted to be in alignment right that is something that was very important to us it we don't know it's for this year we chose math for all 9th through 11th graders We asked if we could use the ACT scores for our 12th graders because they're going to be exiting and so identification in winter might not have the same impact right for that it will for our 9th there's a there's less time to intervene is what we're saying and so we said can we use a different data point from a test they've already taken so this is currently evolving we've been working with um our literacy coaches for the district we've been working with Dr. Lette, Dr. Star to really figure out how we identify students that might need um extra intervention and using the map at the high school as a screener. However, we did put it in our measuring points because if we're giving the map, we want to make sure that we're using it and we can use it for in multiple ways. Whether we decide next year to continue that practice or not, we will re-evaluate. But for now, we're going to use the data that we um that we have. >> The other thing I think is important for board members to understand that's different between MAP assessment and MCA is an MCA assessment is based on your grade level standards and your grade level standards alone. Whereas MAP will allow us to look at students growth above and below grade level which can help us with differentiation at a further level. I think the challenge too is also that MTAs as you were saying are the most public scores and it's easy people as you were just saying it's just so easy for people to look at it from a school to school and say well look they have they're at this and you guys aren't and there can be indicators from that you know if the numbers are really low or something like that but but also it's really hard [clears throat] to do that it's really you know sort of I don't know the word that I want to use I'm not going to use right now But it really doesn't do it justice to share. [laughter] >> Oh, you could tell. >> I think it's I think it's an appropriate word, but just sort of >> it's hard as a seventh grade teacher when I'm giving the MCA and you just have seventh graders put their head on the table and just start doing this type of thing. So, it's it's difficult to um it's a problem and it's something that I'm willing to advocate for at the at the level at the state level and making sure that our um policy makers at at the um state capital understand how difficult it is for us as as a district but also as a classroom teacher to navigate these. But just to give a really quick concrete um what um principal Kellenki is saying is that you know as instructionally my team looked at we have all the time vocabulary is a problem right so vocabulary is a problem on MCA so where is the vocabulary the problem so we use the MCA where you can see where our scores are in vocabulary and then we use our map test to go back and we looked at the discrete skills in the vocabulary that where students are struggling in order to give them the support that they need to move them up. So, that's a really concrete way of um trying to give you the vocab example of how to use MCAs in math. [clears throat] >> Give me a header. >> Yeah, >> I'm another educator. I'm just engineer and what I know is numbers and you know uh everything for reasons. MCA test regardless you like it or not it's the tools state to use it and it's very helpful too because it shows us you know in terms of gaps in terms of racial gaps you know how white students doing how black students doing also and you know that's very useful data too also it depends about you know uh the participation of you know the students schools how they participate also that's contributed you know so we also know some some schools around us they're doing good and see just how they doing I don't know but we need to find out right and I and I know we have other things too that's you know us as a you know marginalized from marginalized community you know um I was in academy community and to participate I think that shows like how what they do. It's that's I'm not saying you know I I know these students I I have three kids in the district and I know even if they do bad in MCS I'm happy you know it's okay try next time but we need all we talk so many times about how we encourage the participation of MCA especially in high school because like we arrive having ACA test and other school and that's just my opinion. You know the board they can have different opinions but that's the perspective I'm seeing >> and I think that's important. We've been working very intentionally with um Dr. Lafayette and Dr. start to and will probably start soon, right? Communicating the importance of students taking that the MCA test because what we do know is that when a student opts out, it's an automatically shows up as it does not meet which impacts and doesn't give us accurate data in where our proficiency levels are with regards to the standards. And so if we're getting data that's not good data for our teachers to unpack and inform their practice of how they laid out the standards or how um uh how they're uh creating learning experiences that are culturally relevant standardsbased and um align with our multiple levels of DAK or all the levels of DK um you know the data does help and drive that but if we don't have good data because we have inaccurate data, then that paints a different picture. We don't have we can't we don't have enough to go off of. So, um we'll probably start talking about that soon about how we [laughter] how we we always start around November like talking with families about the importance of making sure their students take those tests so that we can provide accurate data because we can better meet the needs of the students and each classroom if we have good data. And and also as you were saying to you say maybe your kids you know don't do well but hey they took the test but also knowing too we hear a lot from our uh Dr. Lafayette and team too is that our kids also more than numbers too. So also seeing those things that's also behind those numbers and also other ways that our students are extending uh in other areas as well too. So not to just get stuck on that too but we know it is public data as well. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I mean, I have a lot of questions, but I'm going to limit myself because of the hour. Um, and also because I know what time many of you have to be up in the morning and at work. Um, I do want to say I'm appreciative [clears throat] of the intentionality that went into these SIP plans. For those who aren't new to coming to this table, you've heard me say before that that I sometimes have frustration about our 2% goals that we hear about in the fall and then in the spring that we don't meet. And so I guess my question is that I'm narrowing down here, which could really be applied to anybody. Um, is you know the goals that you've set and they're at different they're measuring different data points. So, they're different, which I I also very much appreciate. Um, are these aspirational goals? Like, should I expect that we will sit here, if I'm lucky enough to still be here in the spring, like and that we will be talking about having actually met some of these goals or are these just like aspirational? We'd like to get there. And I'm really genuinely asking like I see you nodding so I I think there's intention around meeting these goals, right? Um but I think it's just helpful for expectation setting from where we sit after and and things, you know, I'm really grateful for the focus on data. I'm grateful quite frankly that you're all sitting here together, right? I'm grateful that we're talking about intentionality between the middle school and the high school and that we're shifting um to use Dr. Hines to be a school system, right? Um and so all of these things are great. I just I would just like to know if you if these are really goals that we think we can meet. Mhm. >> Well, um, starting off as we talked about as our as our SIP plans can change over time as we're consistently checking on them as, uh, PSI stated, you already hit your family engagement plan, but doesn't mean we stay there. >> No, we've adjusted, >> right? That's what I'm saying. So, we don't stop, but we adjust uh, as as things go. And so, as we're adjusting and looking at our SI plans throughout the year, uh, there may be things that say, oh, okay, we might have to kind of tweak this or we've already reached this goal. So, then how is that going to look and what things we have to put in place? So, um, we definitely feel they're intentional, not just like throwing out, but really intentional and working as one St. Louis part on our goals, but less than anything else. >> I could give a really concrete example too about why I think the [clears throat] goals that we set at our site are very like the number meant something to us. Um so for our first literacy goal around um each student making their like reading growth for example there's some um not just adaptive but some technical things that we're doing differently with our data that we really believed as a PLT like this is going to make these four students who maybe didn't like we got down to the student level of how many more students who are Hispanic. It's going from three, we have an average of three Hispanic students in each class. Last year, one of them made their re reading growth. We're going to get two this year. Like really brought it to the student level with that PLT team to say what is reasonable and what are we going to do differently to make sure that that happens. >> Yeah, I appreciate that. And I I felt that throughout and like I saw you principal months in when you [clears throat] were talking about your day. I mean I do I ask about this um every time this comes before the board and I think I appreciate the intentionality this time. It feels different. >> I think there's also like I am really lucky and grateful that I get to share space multiple times a month with the young people that made the recommendations and we continue to talk about our SIP goals and we continue to learn together. Today we had a very deep conversation with Dr. Hinds present about block and what that means and like unpacking it for them and sharing um professional development that our teachers were getting and then they got to read through the research and the why and then they got to unpack that and ask questions. And so now I get to take that back to my staff and say, "Here's where our kids are at and here's the feedback they're giving us and here's the questions that they have so that we can be very intentional about how we not only work towards creating those learning experiences that are laid out within our SIP, but also how we are um making sure we're collecting student feedback in relation to that and um and how we are communicating to students and families. Um, if you ever want to come, I invite all of you to come and sit in that space because it is like one of the most rewarding experiences just to listen to our young people and how they unpack the things that we're doing and trying to understand it and then giving feedback of like here's how you guys can do better, right? So, [clears throat] >> and I just have to thank the board too. The questions you ask us when we're sitting at this table allow us to do better. So yes, I did look at you as we were talking about data because the questions that you have asked us allowed um my PLT and our PLTS to really dig in and try to understand how the strategies we're using and the measures we're looking at can allow us to sit in front of you in the spring and say yes, we made it. Um we're really moving towards that and really want to sit in front and say hey yes, we made these goals. I think I mean I feel a high level of accountability to the community. So like when we set goals I want I want to a make sure like we are attaining them but also have them be stretch goals. I don't want to be like slam dunk got that you know like how are we going to create a goal that's like stretches us but also is attainable because we build on wins and then as we continue to succeed we can continue to stretch ourselves you know further and further. Um because I mean I remember very clearly director [laughter] you said something along the lines of like I'm happy about the growth but it I'm not satisfied yet and I agree right like we're growing but we're not we're not there yet but we have to get there incrementally and I think that our yearly sip plans are a way to get there incrementally and Um so thank you for the push. >> I think even when you meet them because our school at like our next step we met our goals and we provided that and then our next step was like meeting with we met with Dr. Fuller and we did a full day retreat with my leadership team to identify what was the root cause analysis um because we did a lot of strategies. So we're like well what was the one that really led us to these results and if we can't identify that then it's just like did we just get lucky this year? Um so I think that is also a a muscle that we need to strengthen not only like myself and my leadership team but also how we um work with our um staff in in doing that same process. Um so I think that's why there's a heavy focus on how we look at data, how we un um how we create efficient systems for people to look at their own data and then make decisions based on that. >> Thank you all. I want I I do want people that to ask questions. It is getting late. And we said these people do have to be up early. So if you can ask them quickly or hope [laughter] hold later, that'd be great. But there other Taylor looks like you. >> Yeah. I just I I guess uh not to pick on uh principal panic, but I just have a question for the the high school. Um, one of the things that as I've been attending some listening sessions, uh, one of, >> um, a pattern I'm noticing is, uh, parents, uh, kind [clears throat] of wondering where their where their student is at towards graduation and often times finding out maybe too late when it's not as fixable to ensure that they're graduating. and also just the general sense of where uh their their kid is at academically. Um how they're growing, how how they can get back on track. Um and so I'm very much appreciative of that. Uh a communication goal is is one one of the SIP goals. Uh but I guess I'm just wondering uh what does the uh transparent communication and meaningful engagement look like specifically? Does it kind of address some of those things? and especially uh in instances [clears throat] where uh with parents where English might not be their first language. >> Yeah, that's a great question. Thank you for that. We um so that has been brought to my attention. And so we have been continuing to grow in our communication over the course of the years. So um something that we have been doing and now we're we're like oh we should translate this, right? And that came out of I think some of the feedback we got from some of the listening sessions. um is that uh like students that are not performing well like how are we communicating that to families? Um we changed our conferencing model. So we had a contact point that was early in the year. So the first contact isn't like hey your kid is not doing well in my class, right? Having a positive connections with the with the um with our families earlier in the year. But then also I think deepening that is creating um like our course overviews are intended to do the same thing. And so we'll have to look at how that's translated also when we get to it being live on our um course registration guide and on our web page. Um, and really that transparency that we're talking about is we don't want families to be guessing about what their students experience is in the classroom, but we want to be transparent about like if you're taking, for instance, a biology class, this is really what your [clears throat] student should experience over the course of the entire year. Um, and here are some samples of what activities might take place. And then deepen that into here are the standards that it's addressing. um um so far as to here are um units of study, right? And that's more more of an internal thing, but there it should be accessible like if a parent wants to say, "Hey, I want to learn more about that particular unit," we would have that for them. And we're working on that in our five-year plan. But really, it's um being transparent for students because we all like I tell people like we're not trying to catch students learning. That's the goal, right? We want to be transparent. Like if we want you to reach this goal, we want to know this is where we expect you to be and this is your floor and there is no ceiling, right? We want to take you beyond to wherever it takes you. Um, we also want that our families to be able to support and so making sure that we're paying attention and that it is available in multiple language, whatever that communication is, that we're having early um, communication when students are struggling. And so I think it's continuing to do the things we've done, make sure that it is available in multiple languages for families that may need that. And then also continuing to be strategic about um addressing some of the things that came up and being creative and um but I also think like we're really excited. I am like super excited. So I want you all to come to family engagement night. It's November 20th from 4:30 to 7:30 at the high school. Um but this is essentially a different way of conferencing. It's like we're going to invite students in. There's going to be performance. It's going to be standardsbased. It's going to be things where it's like there's going to be a literacy component. My staff and my leadership team is working really hard on making this an engaging um uh experience not only for parents but also their students and having students there alongside to say, "Hey, this is what we're learning in the classroom." I don't did that answer your question? >> Yeah, definitely. Thank you. [clears throat] >> This is totally quick, not a question. I just want to I want to echo what Sarah said about kind of the amazing alignment here and seeing you, you know, you guys working together and seeing the elementary team working together. But I want to add that we can't forget about our early learning and touch I still I see you back there still and that is like such a critical part of this whole one St. Louis Park alignment and having um early learning academic goals um literacy goals is is new and and critical. So I just wanted to make sure that we did not forget about early learning and that Sure. >> And I think the one thing to that I wanted to say and then then hopefully we can move on here, but it's just to sum it up too that this is about improvement. And so I think we'll always have these presentations and we'll always looking at numbers like this because the goal is always to improve and you know there was a question came up at listening session by academics. I'm like we have to focus on academics. It's the key part of what we do. This is going to always be an ongoing thing. We're always kids come with all sorts of things. we have a challenge. People have to learn. It's always a process. So, I appreciate the the other part that I was going to make about that was that this is um that I appreciate the maturity that we continue to see in this versus what we saw last year. Even this feels way more, you know, has some some signs of some maturity. And I was like, we didn't have these before, right? Did we have something like this? I couldn't remember [clears throat] if it if we did. >> That's true. First year that I experienced it. >> It was my first year experiencing that. >> Yeah. So like so I think it's really nice to see that root of you know it is this has been nice to see this nice to hear about it there's a lot of information there's a lot being presented at us but because there's a lot you know a lot of things that go into it so thank you very much go home go do something else and [laughter] uh get some rest and u we'll see you when you report back to us and make sure >> and I I just want to thank principles and Dr. Cooper for coming out. But I also want to invite the board. You saw on everyone's strategic um their SIP plans that their measurements are the learning walks. So if you are interested to see a learning walk and participate in a learning walk, please please please reach out to one of the administrators and we would love for you to join us as we go and observe and gather that data. >> Chief, thank you. >> All right. We'll see you on those blocks. >> We'll see you around. All right. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'm just It is uh we next thing on our agenda is a consent agenda at um there's a number of things on the agenda, business items that we typically see. There is um some stuff about easement with Mindot. There are some other things about some uh uh adult and other non-program deal prices and then number of policy developments. We talked through a bunch of these policies at our listening session and these all um went through there without any sort of major concerns. So with all of that said, it is recommended, sorry, I got to get back to it, that the school board approve the consent agenda with the following business and personnel items for October 2825 school board me presented. You have a motion to do that. >> Let's then we'll give the we'll give the win to Celia since she got [laughter] the second to Virginia. All those in favor say I. I. Any post passes 70. Thank you very much. That brings us up to eight action items. Um approval of superintendent's performance review and timeline. Um I'll go ahead and uh we'll move this and then we can talk about it briefly. I guess um it is recommended the school board approve the superintendent's performance review and timeline as presented. We have a motion to bring this forward. >> So moved. >> Moved by Virginia. Second by me. Oh, I'll give it to Ann. >> Um all right. Is there a discussion that you wanted to present on this or is this you Virginia or is it anybody want to present it on this here? >> So it was recommended at the at the sumitative at in June that I keep the same goals for this year to um see the consistency. [clears throat] So that you'll see those goals are still the same. The timeline um is also on there. So, we will be doing a midyear um performative evaluation just to give me some feedback as to progress um in November with the final review um the summitative conducted on June 16th and the results shared on June 23rd. So, propose those dates. >> Okay. >> Any discussion? Go ahead. >> No, I just uh this was part of the contract that Dr. Dr. Hines negotiated that we have these things in place. Um I apologize if we probably should have had it maybe back in September in place, but that was my bad. Um and so it's part of it. And then also just just from kind of anecdotally too though, I think Dr. Hines is super open to any kind of um feedback and constructive feedback and meeting with us. We have our quarterly meetings as well. This is just more of a um formal closed session that we'll be doing at the before the board meeting on the 25th. Okay. >> Any other questions? I appreciate that you bring this forward. I don't know that we technically have to approve this, but for community to see this um and understand that this is part of what we do, part of our main goal. One of our main activities is to manage our employee who is Dr. kinds and who does um the the work for us on behalf of the community. So really appreciate this. All right. Um uh we've had a motion to second. Then all those in favor say I. I. Any opposes 71. All right. This brings us up to 8B labor agreement SEIU local 284 custodial maintenance personnel. It is recommended the school board approved 2527 labor agreement which I think director executive director Loie will tell us about a minute for custodial maintenance employees as present. Do I have a motion to bring this forward? Anybody want to >> move it? Sarah, >> ask your [laughter] >> second. Taylor. All right. Thank you. Okay. Executive Director Zoe. >> Good evening, everybody. Um, thank you. Um, so I'm bringing to you this evening the 2-year custodian contract for 2527. Um, this, um, contract covers our custodial and grounds team, which AC across the district, which is about 40 employees. Um we had a total of seven bargaining sessions held and resulting in a tenative agreement on October 8th. Um the union did go ahead and vote on October 23rd and passed and approved the contract from the union side. Human resources collaborated with Patricia in the business office and Josiah to review all the economic package the economic package to ensure that it aligns with the district's budget moving forward. Um Jim Longivan, director of facilities was uh we worked closely with him to review language and how it would impact the daily operations. Some of the highlights from the contract when we look at the economic um aspects of the contract is over the course of the two years we added 2% across each step and lane on the salary schedule. In the second year with an um going into this um this negotiations, we knew that our custodians were being paid relatively lower than what other school districts had been paying their custodians. So we knew we had to do some work to make up for that to make sure that we're be remaining competitive with other districts. Um, so what we did was we removed steps one through three in the contract, which allows for us to increase that starting rate of pay. And typically people weren't on those steps. Um, so it really was a cost-effective way for us to increase the starting rate of pay without costing us more money. Um, and still even after inc cutting off steps one through three, we were still actually behind. So what we did was we were very intentional and made it very clear because we don't want other groups to use this as we continue to move forward and bargain with other groups is that we did a wage adjustment or a salary adjustment or however you want to look at it a pay equity adjustment, market adjustment, whatever you want to call it to um um when we added the additional um dollars, we added it after we put the 2% on. So it wasn't compiling on top of everything else to and that did bring our starting rate up to bring in line closer to alignment with other school districts. Um we did end up also making an adjustment and we changed so what we had in the contract was the career agreement and it was kind of comical because we negotiated last contract to move that career increment within the salary schedule. And what we quickly realized is when we did that, if we cut steps out, we were then [clears throat] allowing individuals to move through the steps faster and get the career increment, which wasn't our intention. So what we did was we red we redesigned what we used to call the career increment is now going to be a retention stipen. And what we did was anytime that we're bargaining, we're always bargaining through the lens of how can our team and human resources and payroll efficiently manage it and accurately make sure that we're paying people correctly. And by removing it out of the career or out of the salary schedule and putting it as a retention stipen and dividing it out over the course of their checks takes it out of their hourly rate and makes it easier for the payroll team and the human resource team to ensure that we're accurately processing their pay. So we were able to negotiate with them to make sure that we're able to bring that outside and kind of do something a little bit different with it. We made some adjustments to the benefit contributions. um to medical and dental contributions. And then we some language items that we worked on was we added some language in around rest and meal breaks which is standard language that is um actually being implemented in 2026 with the state of Minnesota. So we made sure that our language um reflected some of the changes in the laws. Um we adjusted um the grounds crew lead was getting a pool stipen and didn't really work in a building with stipen or with a pool. So we removed that from that person grandfathered the people who currently have it in. We also took a look at we were calling them grounds foremen custodium foremen and we wanted it to be more general neutral so we changed it to custodian lead um um grounds lead. Um, let's see what else. We also put um we increased the cap for unused vacation being paid out. Um, just with the smaller custodial team, sometimes it's harder for them to always take their vacation. So, you know, in an effort to try to make sure that they're not losing the time if they earn it when they actually leave, they would end up getting paid out up to one year's cruel rate, which is pretty standard to what the rest of the groups are receiving. We also added some language in around the Minnesota paid leave. I know that there was a question around um very minimal language and we have spent a lot of time in cabinet talking about this. I've gone to a number of different state seminars. are mass mass. Um the MSDA um has also had a number of seminars or webinars on this and they're advising us not to put a lot of contract language in the contracts themselves because it seems to be consistently changing and morphing into how do you administer this? What what is going to be best practice? There's a lot of talk on whether we should be topping off people's pay or whether we shouldn't be. So the the recommendation from all of the um associations and groups was try to keep the contract language relatively minimum and really work through what your FMLA policy is. So we're going to take a deeper dive into the FMLA policy to then make sure that that's reflected in how we're implementing the paid leave. Um so yeah, I think that's about it. Oh, we added some language in the contract too about no call no shows. just making sure that we have a consistent like what happens when an individual and no call no shows. >> Well, that sounds like a lot um sounds like a lot of work you did there. Any other any questions, comments about this? >> No question. Great work because I see some of the districts are struggling. >> Yes. >> Yeah. No, it's always a challenge. We know that we tend to have good negotiations. I think because we tend to negotiate in faith some of the things you're saying about trying to make sure that we stay competitive and there you know there's an incentive to say well we can just keep the custodians hey at this level and it'll save the district money but then are we losing people are we not attracting the best people some of those things so I appreciate that you're doing that in a mindful way >> so we're you know I think the custodians in school nutrition are are are known to have you know lower we've started salaries reasons. Some of them individuals work the hardest. And it's it's it's hard to um sit there and have these conversations and not be, you know, think about that and make sure that we're, you know, thinking about the individuals that are impacted by all of the hard work that they do and making sure the buildings are open and the heating is on and, you know, that they're getting fixed properly and things like that. the nutritionists or the nutrition people are like they're the ones who are seeing every kid every day, right? And our conservatives are like you said are so many that we couldn't be operating in these buildings if it wasn't for something to do. So, all right. Well, we've had it brought forward. We've had a motion and a second on it. So, without anything else, all those in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Passes 70. Okay. That brings us Thank you. Thank you. Um that brings us up to policy development second reading and vote for policy 202.1 student school co- representative is we'll bring this forward and then we can discuss it. It's recommended that the school board approved policy 202.1 student school board representative as presented. I have a motion bring this forward moved by a second. >> Second >> second by Virginia. Excellent. All right. Is this director Davis? Are you >> Yes, I am. Thank you. Um, [clears throat] we can make this relatively quick. We discussed it at length at our study session. Really, really excited that we are [snorts] putting into place a new policy to invite student school board representatives. Um, and this policy was built off of there's not a model policy with MSVA, so I had to write this one from scratch, but it's based off of some other districts that have some and some of the things that our staff wrote in terms of what we were looking for. And so, I think this really captures it and we're really excited. I think starting to advertise for the positions. And um the only very minor thing is [clears throat] paragraph 5 still says guidelines or expectations. And I think we just decided we were just going to call that section guidelines and just take out the or expectations. But it's not a substantive change. So I think we can just go ahead and vote on it tonight. I don't know if anybody, you know, there's a lot of work that went into this over time. You know, Virginia worked a lot on this. Um, and so I just uh grateful for the fact that we're here. >> I think this proceed Well, no, this I was just say I think Keem worked on it, but I think it's gone back for a couple of years too, right? Like this has been we were working trying to get this identified and do it correctly. So I really appreciate that we took that time to figure that out too that because there is no requirement that you have to do this. is talk about whether it might become a requirement, but we're ahead of that game and I think it's it's true to our mission to to to start having, you know, have that student. So, all right, without any other questions or comments, we're excited for this. Yay. Um, all those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Passes 70. Okay, it brings us up to board member updates. And again, it's getting late hours, so the, you know, we wanted people to share, but you know, the briefer the better, right? So, anybody have updates to share? >> I will do it briefly. Um, the LX 100th anniversary celebration was amazing. We had um like over a 100 people come come in just for the like kind of kickoff event and then we had events throughout the week. Um, and I just want to give a huge shout out to Katie Osborne and her team at LMox. Um, she did so much to get this um to get this anniversary off and it was just wonderful. So, >> check out the video at the end. >> Check out the video. Yes. Um, and then the other thing is that we have an election next week. Um, it is a week from today, November 4th. I can't believe it's already just a week away. Um, if you haven't voted already, you can vote at city hall through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, city hall, November 1st, 9 to 3, and Monday, November 3rd, 8 to 5. So, city hall through this week, Saturday and Monday. And then on Tuesday, vote at your normal polling place from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. And if you want to know um more about candidates, I would highly recommend the League of Women Voters um candidate forums for both city council and school board. Um they were great. The questions were awesome and they are both available on Park TV's YouTube. Sun Sailor also has questionnaires and um we'll have to figure out who's going to give this update on the stuff after you leave us because Ann will be one of our board members departing us and I think this is almost a tradition that Ann gives the election update. [laughter] So all right other board members >> not necessarily an update but I heard we had a resource truck um at the high school. I think it was at Aquilla as well. The kids were excited about it. they were able to get like um hygiene stuff, um do-aggs, baby wipes. I don't know why my son grabbed baby wipes, but um the kids were excited about it and I just think the the community should know that we do have the resource truck senior kids there. One of my kids didn't go. He was a little disappointed that he was the one that did not go. So, >> um [clears throat] I would just also echo that the Atlantic celebration was wonderful. I brought my kids and my little guy um later told my wife that I made him go to a birthday party for a building. [laughter] >> Oh, that's amazing. >> Um you know, lots of updates. I feel like, you know, just been all over the place. It's been really great connecting with folks. I do just want to note um [snorts] you know uh and ask folks to support um step as we go both into the winter months but as we face potential um food shortages and um with the federal shutdown and the refusal to continue SNAP benefits um and ask folks if you're able to consider contributing to um our St. Louis Park emergency program. Um, so >> yeah. >> Yeah, >> I just want to go home, but uh I'm going to make it short. I've been all over the place, too. I was in Linux. Peter Hopper, I think two days in a row all attendance to the Senate session two times. >> I just want to encourage the community. Uh the election is coming. So if you haven't vote yet, November November 4, right? November 4. Please vote. Um, unfortunately I had to miss the last celebration because it was actually a Peter Hovart community night that I attended and it was uh centered around or the PTO hosted it and it was centered around uh how we are teaching math in uh elementary uh and in Peter Hoverart specifically and it was great. I learned a lot about uh how much different it is than when I was in elementary school and how much uh better it is I think than when I was in elementary things. Yeah. >> Uh and uh also just a bunch of great math resources uh to bring home to kids. And as a new parent, I appreciated that even though I'm not going to be able to use it immediately, I did write them all down on the phone. [laughter] Uh so that was great. Uh if you if you know next time there's a community night for the PTO, uh show up. It's awesome. Um, and then, >> [clears throat] >> uh, I wanted to thank, uh, Dr. Hines and then all the the cabinet members who have been showing up and putting together the listening sessions, uh, over the last month. Uh, there's been so many listening sessions. Uh, and it's quite a time commitment and they've been extremely helpful for me as a board member to learn uh, uh, what our community is feeling and I'm sure it's been helpful for the for the staff and the cabinet um, as well. So, thank you. Uh and then lastly, um in addition to step, Peter Hobart is also having the PTO's holding a studentled fundraiser. Um and they're looking for uh donations to fund uh uh oh, I can't field trips for the year. Um their goal is is $20,000. Uh I think they've met and exceeded their goal last year. So uh donate to that if you can. Um, I went to the first college and um, career pathways uh, meeting at the high school last week. It was great. U, there's a lot of the same community connections that have been there in the past. What I thought was different this year. And what I really appreciated is that um, Cara Buler and the team put together um, a little bit more streamlined way of getting feedback from community. And so each teacher kind of area um presented their goals and kind of said this is where we're looking for partnerships. And then um at the end after the teachers went to their uh classrooms start their day um the community uh members and the business leaders in the community kind of brainstormed ways that they could support the things that they had heard. So I'm hoping that that was a good ideation. And then the next meeting um I think is in late January or early February where where we're they kind of break it down more into talking about how can we actualize it and I um I see Mr. Miller sitting in the audience so he probably knows um a little bit more of how the end of the meeting went and just how things were actualized because I had to leave to my own classroom. >> Thank you. Um the uh want to thank people who showed up for the schoolboard [clears throat] listening session. We had director Williams and I were there and heard from some different people in the community. Appreciate people taking the time to come out to do that. Um I wanted to highlight a couple of fall sports successes. I thought like um like we had some great season stuff. Um uh I'm was closest to the football and I know football stuff because of my son and I know that you know we got a buy in our first round of sections. Unfortunately, we didn't make it beyond that, but it was really exciting to see the team um achieve that of of playing and just fun to watch all season. Um boys soccer won their first round playoff game at Minneapolis Washurn, but then they lost um to the section champion who's playing for the state championship tonight. So, you know, right? Um cross country junior Tiger Augustine qualified for the uh boys state championship meet this Saturday at the University of Minnesota's golf course, which pretty impressive. girls volleyball had 78 participants which is 17 more than last year. So that's excited to see and senior own In England was named all state and boys soccer. So some really great things and our seasons fall season's not over yet. >> N's swimming coming up next weekend for sections. >> Couple more. That's I talked with director Ewald and he's like we're not done yet but I was like I want to give a few updates before it becomes too long. Um, and uh, just for board members, fellow board members, I I was elected to the MSBA delegate assembly. So, I it's another way that I'm continuing to try to work on advocacy and trying to find what are the ways that we can push because you guys are all pushing and pushing hard and we know that they're all pushing. We're all pushing at this stuff and we know that some of that has to h happen elsewhere and so I'm excited about having that opportunity and excited to learn what it all means. But, um, so that's really exciting for me. All right. Uh, anything else then I will call. Thank you.