Are they ready? >> Hello everybody and welcome to our August 12th regular schedule board meeting. Um, today I'm sitting in for Chair Mancini. She is on a trip. So, I will be hosting the meeting this evening. Um, we are going to start with our land acknowledgement and um, >> yeah, Sarah's going to read that for us. Thank you. Thank you. We are gathered on the land of the Dakota and Ojiway peoples. I ask you to join me in acknowledging the Dakota and Ojiway community, their elders, both past and present, as [snorts] 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 is located. This acknowledgement demonstrates a commitment to dismantling the ongoing legacies of colonial power and the district's desire to support the ongoing work of local indigenous communities to thrive in our schools. Thank you. [snorts] Okay, so tonight's meeting um should be fairly quick here. We have uh just one discussion item and one um one action item. It is recommended that the school board approve the agenda for August 12th, 2026 as presented. Do I have a motion? >> Second. All right. And um all who's in favor say I. >> I. >> All who opposed say nay. >> 70 Oh, six. Oh, yeah. Virginia's not 6. Okay. Uh, and let's start with our public comment. We have two public comments that are in. And we can start with is it Haley Sabat? >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Yep. Thank you. Before you begin, Haley, just one second. Um, to support our communication, the St. Louis Park School District provides an opportunity for the public to address the school board during business meetings. If you wish to speak, please complete the public comment signup form on our website before the meeting begins. Anyone in in anyone indicating a desire to speak during public comment will be acknowledged by the board chair and allotted three minutes to present their topic. During this time, the board and administrator will listen to comments. Please note that disrespectful comments or those of a personal nature directed at any individual either by name or inference will not be permitted. All right. Thank you, Haley. And Taylor here is keeping the time. >> Awesome. Thank you. Um well, good evening, superintendent and school board. I want to start with an immense thank you um to your service to our children in the schools. Um, our family has had an overwhelmingly positive experience here, which is why I feel compelled um and comfortable speaking today. So, my name is Haley Sad. I'm here to speak on um the topic of technology in our schools. I am the parent of two daughters at PSI. Uh between my husband and myself, we volunteer um we've volunteered for many years um at the schools. I coach and organize uh high school and youth sports. We've hosted AMD TAs at our house and we've tried to be involved when we can. Like many parents, we find ourselves very concerned about the role of technology and that the role it plays in our children's lives. I know I have personally struggled with the relationship with screens and technology as I think almost every adult has. So I question if that's the case, what is it doing? What impact is it having on our children? Um, [clears throat] research continues to raise serious questions about the effects of digital technology on children's attention, learning, and mental health. This is why I think the rapid expansion of technology in our schools deserves much greater scrutiny. Uh, technology today is outpacing its guard rails and being implemented at mass scale and before long-term development outcomes are clear. The reason this conversation can't wait is techn technology decisions that are made today impact um young learners for potentially a lifetime in terms of habits, learning and well-being. And once systems are built and um implemented around technology, seems they're calcified and it change becomes harder and harder to make. So I've seen St. Louis Park take some very thoughtful steps on this topic. Um, I've worked with other families in other districts on this topic and personally believe we can become we're in a position to be a model district in this regard um and on this issue. But I also think leadership is going to require us to ask very difficult questions. Uh, every school district across the US right now is trying to navigate this challenge and I don't believe educators should have to shoulder this issue alone. There are many parents who want to help. I am here as one of them. And in spirit of support and partnership, I have three questions or considerations. Uh first, could the district publish a technology transparency document outlining expected technology use by grade level? Second, could we establish a consistent evaluation process before adapting or expanding digital tools that considers not only long-term learning impacts, but also holistic impacts on student well-being, problem solving and things like reading and attention span and focus? And third, can we build a structured path for parents who want to partner constructively on this issue? At the end of the day, we're not interested in making demands from the guy from the sidelines, but instead helping build these guard rails together. We know it takes a village to raise children. We consider the district an essential part of our village. We hope you consider parents part of yours as well. Um there are many of us ready to help. So, please just let us know how. Thank you for your time. And now we have Carrie Steinlog. >> Hi, I'm Carrie Steinlage. It's It's a tricky last name. [laughter] Um, good evening members of the board and superintendent. My name is Carrie Steinlage. I'm speaking to you tonight on behalf of myself and my family. I am a lifelong St. Louis Park resident born and raised in our public school system. My husband, Bareric, and I have lived in St. Louis Park since 2011. When we were looking for a home, we chose St. Louis Park because we wanted our children to experience the same warm, inclusive, education focused community that I grew up in. Today, we're the parents of two children, an incoming sixth grader at SLP Middle School and an incoming fourth grader at Park Spanish Immersion. I'm a passionate believer in public schools, and I believe deeply that every child deserves access to a highquality, supportive education, which is why I'm standing before you tonight. I love St. Louis Park schools, which makes sharing our recent experience difficult but necessary. Over the past two years, I have watched with growing worry as students access far more than expected on district devices during school hours, including YouTube, Spotify, gaming, chatting via Google programs during class and distracting and sometimes inappropriate email exchanges. To demonstrate what students are encountering, I am handing you copies of two websites that were accessible on student devices during the last school year. The first was passed around my daughter's fifth grade classroom and contains sexually explicit emojis, racist phrases, and inappropriate references. The second is a site shared with me by an SLP middle schooler that students regularly access to play games with explicit themes, um, excuse me, such as Five Nights at Epstein. sites. Sites like these are not only harmful to students, they add extra work for teachers who have to navigate these distractions on top of their many responsibilities. It is overwhelming to know that sending my children to school means they along with other students will have to navigate these distractions in their learning environment. If adults access the same type of material I have presented to you at work, we may face discipline or termination. Our children deserve better. I want to be clear that I'm not anti-technology and I respect the incredible effort our teachers and administration put in every day. I know how much they care about our kids, but right now our students are being used as test subjects for emerging technology and platforms that haven't been thoroughly researched or proven to improve learning. Our kids will naturally grasp digital tools, but our shared goal must be for schools to teach students how to think critically and not serve as a testing ground for tech companies. I'm asking the board to partner with parents on four concrete actions. Implement a strict whitelist of approved website so student devices can only reach pre-approved educational sites. Require computers to be closed and put away during instructional time. Remove student access to generative AI on school computers, allowing students to develop their own critical thinking and foundational writing skills without algorithmic shortcuts. and provide full transparency on classroom tech. Sharing the research that proves any required platform genuinely improves education before it's introduced. I love this community. I believe in our schools and I'm fully committed to partnering with the district to make things better for our students. I hope we can work together to make sure our technology policies reflect the safety, care, and excellence our kids deserve. Thank you for your time. [applause] Thank you both. Um now we we will move on to our discussion items. Um we have the strategic plan update to support open comm. Well, this is um here because the purpose of the presentation is to provide the school board with an update on how the district is actively implementing the strategic uh priorities this year. The presentation highlights key actions being taken across schools including instructional improvement, staff development and initiatives. And we have our cabinet members who will be presenting. Yes. So I will um kick it off as our cabinet members are transitioning to the podium. And so this presentation um was tabled from our June 23rd meeting. Um so we because we had just a healthy agenda that day, we decided to table this topic and bring it forth um at the beginning of August in order to give the board an update on our first year of implementing um our strategic plan. [clears throat] So again, the purpose of this presentation was shared by vice chair um Anderson and I just want to remind us that remind everyone of our three commitments. So our three commitments to on our strategic p plan is that we are one St. Louis Park to invest in staff and to transform student outcomes and to build trust and community. So as our cabinet team navigated what this will look like, feel like, sound like, and how do we inform the community that we are executing our strategic plan? I just want everyone to be reminded that the strategic plan is I think Chair Mancini described it as um a journey. This is our map. This isn't our destination. Our school improvement plans are more of the destination where we set outcome we set goals for the outcomes that we are trying to achieve. That's in alignment with our strategic plan. So our strategic plan is really our our road map as to where our journey as to where we're we're trying to get to. So, [clears throat] as cabinet members are going to present to you um because every cabinet member has a part to play in executing the strategic plan within their department. You will hear elements of our overall takeaways that we want to highlight for the community and for the board as to the things that we were able to execute and get done this year. There are going to be some data points that will um align to the overall highlights um and it's for you all to just peruse but just to give you some in some guidance or a look into what did we use in order to say here are our highlights and we are making progress towards. So I am going to kick it over to Dr. Robinson and she is going to start us off with we are one St. Louis Park. Good evening, Chair, acting chair Anderson, uh, board members, superintendent. My name is Constance Robinson, executive director of student services. And today I'm going to share with you how we are becoming one St. Louis Park. Um, human resources, uh, community or communications and student services have been partnering throughout the past, I would say six to eight months. And this is not just a slide, right? This is a program that represent the departments working together to solve a real problem. Our student service department identified that we have high needs and that high need is special education teachers. We got high need special education pair professionals and our HR department was able to collaborate with AR. They designed a pathway for like a two-year program paid for our students to continue to be pair professionals while fully becoming a licensed pair professional. This is with next gen. None of these different things that we are creating would have come to pass without the partnership where we were able to name the problem, start to look at the data to determine what the issues were and then of course HR building the structure on working with our union, finding out who are the students that would like to participate and then of course communicating that to our building leaders and directly to our pair professionals. I share this because this is why it matters. Our pair of professionals knows our students and they know our buildings. They are also very talented and we want to retain them. We're showing how we're becoming one St. Louis Park by allowing them to showcase their brilliance. So without further ado, I'm going to pass it to executive director Loey so he can share more. >> Good evening board superintendent. I'm going to bounce back to this slide here and just talk about some of the overall findings when we think about strategic um priority number one. Um as we've done in many other years, we've looked at um consistent trends with staff retention. Um some of the trends that we're currently seeing looking at some of the tools that we have implemented with this priority in regards to staff retention. Um some of the things that we're seeing is an overall increase um uh or excuse me an overall turnover rate of about 18% which is pretty standard um across the industry. Notable that our um our racial equity gap is about 4.3 points higher than what it um when you look at the overall average. So we're definitely going to continue to dig into that and understand. On a positive note though too, I would say that um we are recruiting um staff of color at a much higher rate and it has been pretty consistently building over the years and 29% of all staff that were hired in the last year were staff of color. So some of the things that we can take away from that is that our efforts to be intentional on recruiting staff of color is working. Um, I think one of the things that we need to continue to focus on is how are we supporting those staff members, all staff members, but particularly staff of color as well to make sure that we are aligning um and making sure that those um where we're able to retain staff. One of the trends that we're noticing with our retention data is that we are losing people within the first year. So, we really want to hone in on that and be intentional in this next year of trying to look at what we're doing to help support our new people coming in the door to make sure that we're setting them up to be successful. So, that is something we're going to continue to monitor, understand, and continue to build on that. Um, one of the other things that we are also trying to do, as Dr. Robinson mentioned to recruit and attract or recruit and retain um staff is this nextgen um pipeline. Um we all know that looking at the data special ed department not just in St. Louis Park but um across education ha is struggling to attract and retain people and we believe that this partnership with the University of Minnesota will be a key opportunity for us to continue to do that. We were able to just this year um recruit five paras that came to us because of this program that are going to be working in special ed that could potentially be teachers for us in the next two years. So it's going to be a good opportunity for us to market attract and um hopefully we're able to help mentor them and support them. So when they do become licensed teachers um we're asking for a three-year commitment that they're staying with us and continuing to work as a teacher. So, those are just some of the things that we're going to be doing and um to help support and um retrain staff. Um looking at the staff um survey um we are seeing that um about 45% of staff departures are related to family circumstances as a primary reason for leaving. Amongst them, job satisfaction was a leading reason of 27%. So [snorts] when we look at why staff are leaving, we're going to continue to use all of the different tools that we are implementing through the strategic priority to help us understand what we can do different. One of the things particularly that kept showing up in the staff survey was around professional development. How are we supporting staff have asked for more targeted professional learning and I think that as we're continuing to move through the year, I know Dr. Cooper and Megan and the team have been continuing to work on that and find ways to make sure that we're helping support people in um targeted ways. I'm going to turn it over to next step. All right. Thank you board members, Superintendent Hines. I'm Dr. Kino Cooper, assistant superintendent, and I'm giving an overview of our second priority with our assessment, research, and evaluation office led by Dr. Lafayette, where we're talking about investing in staff to transform student outcomes. In the next couple of slides, you will see the investment we have put into professional learning and the feedback we gathered to go forward and also creating a platform that creates transparency and also um being visible and also creating data that is visible to everyone. So I'm going to pass it over for the next part to Dr. Lafayette. >> Thank you Dr. Cooper. Uh good evening Dr. Hines, members of the board. So just some key things that the assistant superintendent's office and assessment research and evaluation have done year one of the strategic plan is to build tools that we can then use for the next four years. We've been studying lots of data, different types of data from families, students, uh staff, academic metrics, different things. And this year, one of the things that we're going to really do is to launch our portrait of a learner and to continue studying data as we continue to plan professional development. Um on this slide, what you're going to see are some of the tools that we built in year one. Our little team of three went uh we worked really really hard and so this year what we're really doing is building the capacity of our system to use those tools and on the following slides you'll see what some of those tools are. One of the things that we have is uh we are sunsetting our internal student data dashboard system where it was called who knew it. It was connected to power school. Now it is next path. We spent about a year and a half talking to other districts really seeing what is working out there and one of our uh nearby school districts pointed us to next path. So what you're looking at is an example of a data wall that teachers are able to create um for their own classrooms in the next couple weeks. And then also what's new about this tool and different and unique from other uh products that are out there is that these data tools can then be used internally with grade level teams. So they can create a collaborative space kind of like a Google drive but with their own data walls so they can continue to study different data points um and upload their own formative assessment data so it's not just numbers. And then also one of the things that we've been working on is a response to our community because they've been asking for a public data dashboard that they can go in and take a look at if they want to disagregate the data themselves and to find out sixth grade how are they doing on reading metrics or math metrics or if they want to disagregate it by race. So what we've done is we have built um and we'll be launching this fall our own public data dashboard. So stay tuned and then in uh woo couple days we will be launching our portrait of a learner with our youth data analyst interns who have been working really really really hard to help our system understand how our uh how we are currently living up to our portrait of a learner and how we what steps we need to take as we move forward to continue to support our students. What we've also done in this area is to study our uh culture and climate survey. So that's one of the tools that we built. Um, and so we had over almost 400 staff respond, over 500 families, and over 800 students across our system respond to this survey. And some of the big themes that we've seen is that just like our youth data analyst interns are about to do is we really need to launch Ascend, our portrait of a learner. We need to study the gaps in professional development, make them more tailored to the different roles that we have in our school system. And what we need to do is communicate better to our parents about how that professional development is impacting their students experience in the classroom. And then also what we found from our secondary students is that they're looking for more opportunities for leadership as well as academic rigor. And then next steps, some of the things that I've already heard tonight, what we need to continue to do is to build collaboration both within the schools. Uh an example is our learning walks to make them feel less evaluative and more about collective responsibility and so that we can learn from the brilliance of each other in our school buildings across classrooms and then also close the communication gap with families and continue to collaborate with families in different ways. And so I just like to ask our community to stay tuned for our climate and culture survey for spring 2027 so we can study whether or not we are continuing to have an impact on the metrics that we are looking at year one. >> All right. Thank you Dr. Lafayette from the assistant superintendent's office which also includes learning and innovation this year. And this slide here talks about what we did this past year by gathering feedback from our site implementation teams and our district instructional program advisory committee. Looking at standards, looking at our review reviewing our report cards, looking at our professional learning and bringing teams together to continue to build alignment with literacy and math at the elementary level. Also at the secondary level, preparing for the block schedule. This picture with the cycle that's going around is the professional learning ecosystem that has been developed and will continue on this year. From the information collected from surveys, many felt professional learning was just one thing that you did then all of a sudden it was over. But here it will be on time professional learning that will take place then go back into the classrooms and evidence will be collected from data meetings, learning walks and then brought back into some more on-time professional learning that will continue throughout the year. So sticking with the five goals from last year, we're not adding anything more. It's just going deeper into each of the five areas of the strategic plan, the portion of a learner, our elementary literacy plan, transition to block, and MTSS for all. So the information here is feedback that came from a pilot that was done this spring with about 45 teachers that came together uh for math and they came together to work on the standards and pacing guide and they really really enjoyed that time and opportunity to come together and have that shared leadership and partnership with the district and content partners on working together. So you can see those high favor favorable scores. And then the last one here is also feedback here in the picture of the flying geese. You're probably wondering what does that mean? Well, if you think about it, geese is all about shared leadership. When the lead geese gets tired, then the other one would come over and take the lead. So, what we're creating is that shared leadership collaboration across all our sites working together. >> And lastly, we have building trust in our community. And this is uh more on our internal and external communication protocols. And this year we started doing a couple different things. We had a few very large initiatives uh including the roll out of parent square which we're in our initial phase of um and based on some of the initial survey feedback that we received. There's still a strong desire for two-way communication. We've resolved some of the big issues with two-way texting and emergency alert notifications that were occurring when we were on multiple platforms. So really trying to streamline our communication structure of through a singular unified channel. Um we also launched a website which was a big undertaking so that we could better market and promote our school district. Um in addition to doing some communication and customer service auditing across the district um something that is still ongoing. Based on the initial survey results, we did see some high um feedback in some areas around some of the efforts that we made. We also assessed in our climate survey some areas that we haven't actually rolled out yet. So including um having some more communication protocols and uh communication plan that is publicly made. We assess people on it at this moment in time. We don't currently have one in place. We do have one that will go into place for this coming school year. Um so we hope to see that when we run our spring um climate survey that we'll see some increases in some of those numbers but there were some um big areas where we had um like no response or non-response on. Um so as we continue to work towards building trust in our community we are still pushing in different services and support to have better communication channels and protocols. Uh we also rolled out thought exchange which is a tool for us to do the we use that for our climate survey but we're also using it for our internal engagement around things like professional development um and communication with our families. So that's our survey tool where we can ask questions to our community and do some pulse checks. And so you can expect moving into this school year we'll have a few more pulse check surveys as well. We ran a at the start of the school year, we ran a uh presentation for all of our district staff called our Shine Squad, where we are building all of our staff to be brand ambassadors. And through this, we highlight individuals who do a really great job of using branding through their own communication that they're doing at the district level. Uh but it also allows us to do some of the other communication training that might be needed. So, as we are uh reaching federal guidance on ADA and accessibility, we are starting to do training with our staff on what does that mean for them at the site level? How do they use Seesaw in schooly and make sure that all the content that they're creating are adhering to those guidance. So, some of that is coming from our shine squad. Uh again, this is just a highlight of some of that survey feedback. These were the goals that we had set and shared at our initial strategic planning session or strategic plan presentation last year and where our progress was. I know there was a question about our communication advisory in our PTO group. So this past year we organized a communication advisory group which included individuals across the district of those who express interest in being on a communication board. We have since kind of revised that board moving into this year. We started with a bringing together our chairs of our PTO's. We did that our first meeting in May. We had our second meeting in July. And we're planning to do a six-w weekek meeting cadence. This group of individuals is going to come together both to help organize some coordinated effort around district priorities and areas like fundraising, for example, where we had some fundraising efforts that were coming out across the district. How can we help unify and share commonality across things that are happening at our sites? um unifying events and calendaring but also thinking more strategically as we align all of our organization. Uh we still will be maintaining somewhat of a communication advisory. We had some members of that group who expressed interest in in staying together. One of the unique things that we're planning to do this year is a different structure for how we do our district advisory committees. So, we'll be running four district advisory committee days where we're either at the high school or the middle school where all of our committees are going to be meeting at the same day. It's an opportunity for Dr. Hines to share big major updates like a strategic planning update, a budget update um for the first half hour and then afterwards all of those groups will break out into the high school and or middle school depending on where we're at um and do their committee work. And so, that's one of the things that we're planning to do when we have those quarterly meetings. We're planning to bring that PTO group together in addition to those who would like to maintain on the communication advisory. So that group will maintain a quarterly meeting schedule as well. So there's an opportunity for us to get some other parent touch point. Um this is just in some initial parent square data about where we are at. Um we have like a 99% contact reachability in parent square which is wonderful. It's feeding directly from the student information system. uh you can see just how many people are receiving emails, how many people are using the app. We do have high app integration. It also tells us if something doesn't get through to families so that we can course correct if we need to and paired square support has been really helpful for that. Uh these are just an overview of our social media analytics. As you can see, link clicks and this was from May or June when we originally had this um presentation scheduled. link clicks were down because we've been running fewer links on our social media pages and really have been you utilizing our website more and our pairs square posts more for getting people to utilize links but uh social media maintains one of our higher ways of reaching people within the district. So what's next for us? We did have a secret shopper program where other schools were coming to our district and providing some insight into our enrollment processes and experiences as well as our school site tours and phone calls. Um that program was running right around February where we were hit heavy with Operation Metro Surge. So our school communicators put that project on hold. We did receive some feedback which was very helpful. We do anticipate that program kicking back in for this coming school year. So we anticipate having more feedback. And likewise, I have some new team members um joining our enrollment center, which is great because they they will have the opportunity to go shop somewhere else so they can bring ideas of what they've learned from other districts to ours. So, that communication plan is going to be a big thing that's going to be rolling out, I believe, in the next couple weeks. We're going to be soft rolling it with our cabinet and our site leadership. Um two-way texting, which will be coming from Parent Square, and then this the PTO council that um has now been redefined. Thank you cabinet members for your presentation. Um, one thing that I also I need to this has been weighing on my on me um as I have been reflecting over the summer because I and I in my final evaluation communication was um a resounding issue that was brought forward as an issue and I had to really sit and reflect on that and I think I'm not I I I think I'm gonna I have to push back on we have a communications problem. I believe we have a trust problem. And when I what's landing with me on the trust problem is in order for there to be trust, there has to be consistency and predictability of how a decision will be made. And I will say that I am owning that because I am new to the district and the way I lead is much different than how others may have led in the district. So when we talk about well communication is a problem and I think it's not necessarily how much is being shared. I think it is well people have yet to figure out my cadence in how I move to try to predict what the outcome will be and that's going to take time. And so I just appreciate the grace and the time that is being given in order for trust to be built because I know that trust can be broken much quicker than it can be built. So, um, we will continue to provide opportunities, um, for people to get to know me and my leadership style because I'm I would say that I'm very collaborative. I am very intentional about listening and taking in information both formally and informally to help inform decisions. So with that, this is our presentation on our strategic plan, our first year on it, and we'll open the floor for questions. >> Questions? Anyone? >> All right. Well, thank you all. Oh, [laughter] >> space for other people to go. Okay. >> Thank you so much. And I'll I'll try to be uh brief because I know that we're on a timeline here. Uh we're trying to be better with our timing on our meetings. First of all, thank you for the presentation and for the updates and all the work on this. Um Superintendent Hines, I wanted to just um reflect on what you just said and uh acknowledge the vulnerability that goes into sort of having that expression in this public space um and the work that you're doing to build trust through communication and transparency. And I think we've had conversations about um communications and about [snorts] ways in which opportunities for growth I guess is how I would best phrase that or frame it. >> [snorts] >> Um and I do think it fundamentally will as we build trust. [snorts] Um it will help people feel more confident in our communication and as we um seize our opportunities for growth in the areas of communication in terms of consistency and transparency and clarity um that that will simultaneously feed the trust building that needs to happen. Um I did have a question about the advisory council change um and it sounded like um Ashley you were sort of speaking not just about the communications advisory but [snorts] more broadly a shift um in the way that's going to work and I think I would just like to know a little bit more about what went into that decision because I think this is an opportunity for transparency [snorts] and collaboration with our community which is exactly what we're talking about here and I I know we had folks presenting today and at prior meetings for example about asking for opportunities for technology collaboration. I don't know if that's one of the areas we've discussed but I think um that is a this advisory council or however you want to phrase it is like a really critical point for both communication >> and trust building. So if somebody could elaborate on >> I'll take that one. Um, thank you for the question and yes, how we got here was um after being very intentional and listening to parents, teachers, students, and um other stakeholders within the city, I've it dawned on me that I needed to ask some more questions because something happened in the district where there was a disconnect between central office and the sites. What I was hearing is that there was a relationship with um sites and parents and students and administrators but there was a gap of a relationship and connectivity to central office. So I was like how did we get here? What happened? And I learned some things and I said well why don't we have these advisory committees? So what we what we what we will be doing and I think it's coming out >> next week. >> Next week um we are we are doing our recruitment process for all of our advisory committees. We have four five okay I'm going to try please do not quote me because there may be more than what I will actually say. We will have a superintendent um advisory committee. We will have a learning and innovation advisory committee. We will have this name may change but it is in relation to digital learning platforms. So there will be an advisory committee for that. We will have our well wellness well-being advisory committee. We will have our finance advisory committee. We will have >> special education >> special ed it because they have a acronym but our spe so we will have our special ed advisory that's up to six see I told you not to >> community education >> APAC American Indian parent advisory >> yes and then our communications advisory committee >> so we we will be um rolling out the descriptions of those committees. We will be rolling out the times and dates of those four um common dates where we will all we will bring all of those district advisory committees together in order to have a centralized meeting and then they will break into their um committee um groups as um executive director so suku explained um in order to build that relationship so that we are working in partnership with our teachers, our parents, our students, and any other community member that wants to be involved. >> Thank you for that more in-depth explanation. Um, just a follow-up question. Um, thank you. [snorts] Is so the four common dates and building relationship with, >> you know, sort of with sites and district office and across these different committees all make sense. I'm big fan of breaking down silos. If these committees ultimately say like we need to meet monthly or more regularly. I [snorts] assume that will be celebrated and welcomed. >> So, some committees are going to be meeting monthly, but there there will be just this common four dates and all of that information will be in the description. All of that is going to be spelled out because we are going to use the month of September to do some recruiting. We want to make sure that families know that they ha that we have these opportunities and we really want them to come and participate. Um and like what are those needs? If we need to have some child care on those we we are looking for the feedback to make it most um convenient as possible so families can or parents can participate. >> I think that sounds great. Um what I hope will be my last question and then I'm going to seed the mic. Um, maybe it's more of a comment than a question is that my hope and I know you so I I know this to likely be true but I'm going to just say it out loud that as [snorts] these committees are coming together if you all have said like this committee is only going to need the four common meeting dates and this one might need monthly but if the group feels differently about that that that will be there will be an opportunity for exchange and dialogue around what the group needs and then more specifically only because they're here and it's top of mind this digital learning platforms or whatever you end up calling telling it, [snorts] you know, as that's a new committee, it sounds like we have a lot of interest in our community and helping co-create what that space will look like. And so my ask would be that both the folks who have been here tonight and in prior meetings um have that we have some specific targeted outreach to those folks to invite their ideas and collaboration. >> Yes. And I believe that and I'm looking at Dr. Cooper and um Dr. Lafayette that there has been some um connection and communication already that has happened last started last year, last school year, right? >> Great. Well, I'm going to seed the mic. Thank you for taking on my question. >> Thank you. Um I had some of those questions, so thanks for asking them. Um I had I have two points. First about the digital technology. I want to thank the parents for coming. It sounds really thoughtful. And I also want to just say that some of these things are kind of critical for this school year. And so we don't want to just say we're going to meet in October and then talk about what we're going to do. And so I'm would love to see action um or you know maybe some things we can do before the school year starts instead of just making it a committee that we talk where we talk about things. So what I would love for you to respond to that. It's on the study session for the 8th. We're So on the study session for the e uh September 8th, we will be talking about our communications plan, our professional development plan. We'll give an update for um a recap of summer for summer opportunities through community ed. and we we will be um updating the board as to what are what steps we have already taken in order to put some safeguards in place for technology. Thank you. Um I think we all could see these are pretty alarming websites. I certainly don't want any of our children to access these this year. Um and thanks for bringing the printed copies. Um, the other thing I wanted to ask about, which I apologize I didn't ask about ahead of time, was one of the things that I don't think anyone touched on was the um the idea that some teachers feel um less supported by leadership. And I'd just love to hear like some conversation. I know you seems like you have a very good plan to, you know, connect with parents this year. If you could just talk a little bit about your plan to reach out to teachers and also the school leadership at every site, too. So during this last round of negotiations, um we agreed to create what we call a collaborative review committee. And that collaborative review committee is just one opportunity for us to create a two-way communication between our teachers and PAT leadership and district leadership. Um, one of the things that was a a real hot topic was class sizes and just how the we as a district are very thoughtful and very strategic in how we do that. But our way of communicating that to the teachers is not always felt. So we developed this class size and case load review committee that is provide that we meet a couple of times a year. We have conversations. If class sizes exceed what the board has laid out in the um as part of the agreed upon numbers, we are reviewing that, having conversation and finding out what additional supports or things we can do to help support the teachers where those class sizes exceed the numbers. Um we also are doing things like a we're going to continue to build on the calendar um committee. That's another opportunity for us to make sure that we're providing two-way communication between our teachers um and really work with PAT leadership because I think the communication's there. It's just not getting out to all the members. So, how are we helping support each other, meaning us and PAT leadership to make sure that how we're making decisions, how we're meeting and collaborating consistently is also being communicated out to the people. really relying on the relationships with the building reps and how they're communicating with them as well. >> Last call for questions. >> Oh, be less of a question. So, did you have a question? I just >> It's probably for Jason as well. Um the so you you'd kind of mentioned that there's a a gap between uh uh the staff of color retention rate and and the the um uh white staff retention rate um as well as I think in the slide also mentioned higher or sorry turnover rate is what I meant to say and you had also mentioned uh higher turnover rate for maybe the special ed uh staff as well. Um are there some and you you had mentioned that you're looking into some how we can address that. Can you give a little bit more detail in what that might look like? >> Yeah, so I think you know just um as Ashley mentioned using thought exchange as a way of gathering more um targeted and intentional feedback on staff that are leaving and looking at that and reviewing that because I think that's really going to help us understand why people are leaving. I think you know continuing one of the themes that we saw in the staff survey was in regards to um communication, transparency and decision- making. So we're hoping that some of our intentional actions through the contract negotiations and the agreed upon things that we have put in place will help um increase the transparency, the communication between so people will hopefully start to see and feel that. Um another thing that you know I think that Dr. Robinson and her team did that was very intentional is looking at our special ed staff and the need for support. Okay, particularly when you look at the numbers when staff are leaving within the first year. So, how are we being intentional in providing support? So restructuring the special ed department, taking away leadership positions and adding the opportunity for teachers to step up and be leaders within their current positions as teachers and putting in place the uh TOSA positions, the special ed TOSAs who will function as like a lead within the building to help support, mentor and provide um structured feedback and you know support to those teachers that might be struggling or might not you know they might be a great teacher but they're not getting their paperwork done and it's overwhelming them because we hear that quite a bit from, you know, new teachers who are trying to master their craft to try to make sure they're being compliant with paperwork. So, all of those things are just, you know, certain things or all those are actions that we're taking to try to help support teachers. >> Thank you. I appreciate that answer. >> Good question. Um, so I I will say thank you Dr. Hines for pulling us from our earlier discussion, giving it some space tonight. This seemed like we got some space. I I was also a person who saw all the information and said, "Wow, this is a lot of information." And said that I appreciate that this was was a sort of a trim down, but a lot of information in here. And I recognize as somebody who's been on this board for a while that there's way more information beyond what we even see here. Um, so there's a lot of work that I know goes into it. This gives you a pretty good snapshot of it of layers and layers of information underneath. So, um, appreciate that we've had a time to sort of sit with it a little bit, have have a little bit more space, not be tired from the end of the year, but kind of right here as as you know, some of my colleagues have been saying kind of before school gets started and just hearing some of the things that are already in place. Um, so I think I just had two questions that were maybe one was a easy I think a easy question that's athletic advisory committee is another committee. I don't know if that's coordinated. I know that that Andy had sent out some messaging about dates for that. And that's it. >> So that that's our outlier. And the reason why the athletic advisory committee probably won't align with the um district advisory committees is because of the cadence of athletics and their schedules. Yeah. >> Right. So, um, we we're we're going to watch it this year to see if there are opportunities to align next year. And but it's, you know, we are being very um responsive to >> um um Ewald in his request to keep the calendar in this in this cadence that he has laid out. >> Yeah. uh and I've been part of that athletic advisory committee uh since its inception since last year and been been one of the leaisonants to athletics from the board and so I'm I'm familiar with that and that for my colleagues that that aren't part of that or haven't been part of that um parents students and coaches that are part of that and it's kind of intentional and it is sort of like um uh director Ewald has been like trying to look at things like okay yeah like let's talk about the season or let's talk about our conference or let's talk about how we are um we are doing things related to um whether we're you know how are we managing things with middle school students and in high school and how do you kind of weigh the options of middle school only or allowing middle school students to to move up into high school sports and some of those things. So really interesting conversation, but I appreciate that that you clarified that and um and uh the the other question that I had um u Dr. Hines went back to sort of that comment. I think what I heard you say too in terms of that trust is helping people understand the decision making process and cycle as well too. I know that for us at the board it's like we we see a lot of things and we're always like these things are all here in board meetings. [laughter] a lot the decisions that we make are here and I'm just thinking about ways that people from the community can can kind of understand that when do we do the budget process when are we looking at those things when do we have to kind of evaluate facilities all of those things and so that's where I think like we have a lot of decisions that happen here but if people have sort of that bigger calendar and it's it's an I know it's a challenge right and some things slide a bit and stuff too but just I think that's part of the problem that is sort of where we feel like there's a disconnect And we are we we are an elected body. We are elected to represent the community and be that voice you know and um but um you know giving people some sense of that probably will make our work a little bit easier too. So so just a general comment about that >> we are putting plans in place in order to really address all of those points that you just made. Well, thank you all for your dedication. Um, I appreciate your willingness and all the hours you put into making our community a better community. Okay. Now, we're moving on to our consent agenda. Um, and we don't discuss this, right? >> All right. So, it is recommended that the school board approve the consent agenda with the following business and personnel items for August 12th, 2026 school board meeting as presented. I have a motion. >> We have Ballwin and Cox second. >> Oh, okay. >> And um all who uh all who all in favor say I. >> I. And all oppose say nay. 6. All right. Moving on to our action items. So we have the um executive director of student services contract. It is recommended that the board approve the 2026 through 2028 executive director of student services contract as presented. Do I have a motion? Cox and second. >> Okay. Thank you, Kaufman. And um all >> Oh, we got to discuss it first. All right. Thank you, uh, Director Loey, you are back. Okay, >> that's okay. We can just move on. >> Good evening, members of the board. Superintendent Hines, I'm here this evening presenting to you the executive director of student services contract. This is the same contract that we issued to all of our other executive directors and our assistant superintendent. It was um just needed a little time to review. So, it was not brought last um June in regards to all the with um all the other contracts. So, we're just bringing this this evening. And this is the same exact contract aligns with all the rest of them. And it is a two-year contract for our executive director of student services. Um, can I just >> question >> make a just a really quick uh note that I something I just noticed as I was re-reviewing this, which is that [snorts] um the date on the signature block is [snorts] it says uh day this 8th day of 10 2026. So >> yes, uh Patrick pointed that out and I was able to get an updated signed version with the corrected date. Dr. Robinson signed it just before the meeting. So, the contract that is signed will have the correct date on it. >> Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Patrick, for catching that before me. [snorts] >> All right. Do we have any questions? >> No. Okay. Thank you. We appreciate you. >> All right. Now, we're going to vote. Um, all in favor say I. >> I. >> All oppose say nay. 6. All right. Now to some lighter stuff. Uh, board member updates. who would like to start about what you've been doing with your time this summer. >> Okay. Director Cox. >> Um well, um I don't know if if you were going to mention something or whatever, um but I know some of our board members and community members were involved with the with the vote yes committee and um I think we're extremely proud and happy to have the community support as um I'm not trying to take the privilege here, but I've been through three of these. So, um, and it's and it's exhausting and as I said previously in a in a board meeting, I get kind of tired of these things, but I know that they happen. They have to happen. This is how our funding is set up that when we need major sorts of things, we can't we don't want to pull from our general fund and we don't have a lot of levers. So just again appreciation for the for the for the community effort for what our um all sorts of people in our in our administration did in terms of the um the communications and finance and facilities work there. Um but I'll leave that open for others to comment on it as well. Um as I mentioned earlier I'm part of the athletic advisory committee. We do have our meeting date set for 202627 and I know that um director Ewald has been reaching out to some students and some other parents for recruitment. The dates just in case anybody's curious that we mentioned are um uh was at 92 was that September 2nd uh November 4th, March 3rd and May 26. Um, I've been part of the early learning public early learning advisory committee and um, they've had a hot button issue of, no pun intended, related to some heat on their playground and trying to get some shade and it sounds like efforts are underway now to resolve that and so appreciation and as I said to our early learning committee um, who were thanking me. I said you guys did all the hard work here. you guys were doing asking questions and assembling information and I just tried to help um make a connection which I I see largely as sort of our role as sort of um liaison. So um but hopefully that that will continue to move on and I'll learn more about what they're doing in early learning as we move into the fall here. Um AMSD um uh there's been a you know we had a bit of a break but we're back at it. We had our first meeting of our legislative action, our legislative committee, and we had a first regular meeting of AMSD. Um, both we talked about the I'm a Minnesota kid effort that's underway to help bolster public education and there was a link to it, I think, that was shared with with um board members in it. There's a video that you watch and if you look very closely, you might see the son of a board member that's in the video. um look for a kid running around the track. Um but um there's some other things to to check out in that video and some of those efforts that we'll hear more about um as as things continue to roll out. Um AMSD has put together a 2026 state election guide following yesterday's primary. Um we're moving into full um general election and there's information in there that I think is helpful for any number of people. Might be informative for you all just to take a look. It was informative for me in terms of the kinds of issues, where general stances, what are these issues, why do we have these issues, things like that. It's a pretty simple guide, a good thing to use um as we talk to electeds as well. So, I just really encourage people take a look at that. Um there's also some um stuff related in AMSD and um I know we'll probably have some more conversations about this, but there's that state permanent funding agree um uh amendment effort that's going to get underway. A more broader bipartisan effort to get people to vote yes. It doesn't raise people's taxes, but it does and it has an impact on our school and maybe not as much as, you know, we don't want to oversell this thing, but it would be beneficial definitely if um if this passes and so that will be on the November ballot. Um and then finally, there was just a kudos that um was taking a look at our website today and I saw that the information about our new special education coordinators, meet the team, and I really liked that. I really appreciated that. that was like a feature on the website. Um, really highly visible, a good way to do to just kind of highlight some things that change or just some of the people besides having like a directory of people or things like that, but just really helping people understand who these people are. So, that's it for me tonight. Thank you. >> Next, um, thank you. I just wanted to take an opportunity um to talk briefly and just um express gratitude to our district and others in our community for our response after the Helix apartment fires. [snorts] Um Chair Mancini is not here um but she was heavily involved with that. Um this is a really significant impact on our community. Um, and [snorts] one of my favorite things about this community is the way that we come together and the way that our schools are just like truly embedded and like part of the fabric of this community. And so I believe the fire happened on July 17th. And then [snorts] um the next day it became apparent when I was down at the area where folks were gathering to drop off donations that there had been that there was challenges that the Red Cross was having challenges um finding shelter space. And I had been in touch with Dr. Hines. I was able to reach Dr. Cooper who came who when I called him actually um was at Cub buying bottled water and was already planning to come down there [snorts] and so he met me down there um and we were there with the fire chief Hanland St. Park Fire Chief Hanland [snorts] and um we figured it out, you know, and that's just what it looks like, right? Like so we brainstormed [snorts] and um there was calls that were made and the middle school was made available and people [snorts] pitched in like lots of people. I couldn't possibly name them all, right? Like the air conditioning was off and we had to get I can't remember but we couldn't do it in person. And it was some computer um some online technology thing that needed to happen and someone made that happen. And then we have these like lights in the field of the gym down there that are like old school like you put this like metal thing in to turn on the lights and none of us [snorts] had that. But you know who showed up? Principal Corey Meslowski when I called him to ask if he had any idea where we might find a key because I knew he'd been in that building before. and he just picked up his day and drove 25 minutes to meet us there and made it happen. And [snorts] um you know, Patrice Howard was there. We had to do a walkthrough of the school. Principal [snorts] Masowski and I went around and just gathered fans, like standing fans while we were working on the air conditioner. Um but this is just like what it looks like when our schools show up for our community. Um, and so I just want to say thank you um, for the way that I that we showed up. [snorts] Um, there's a lot of people that I can't name that, you know, that deserve thank yous as well, but that I just wanted to use my update time to say thank you. [snorts] Real quick, I want to add that step is taking donations um, for the Helix Fire. Um, there are folks that are still in need of clothes and food and probably more fans and stuff of that nature, but just reach out to staff, go in, donate. Um, and I'm sure there will be some families that are really appreciate that. Next, >> I can go next. Um, I will uh uh double down on on the thanks uh on on both the response to the the Helix fire and also the um uh again the the community for coming out and and uh voting yes and supporting our schools. Um and also just expand on on Colin's point. Uh, I know the uh the staff here and the directors here put in a lot of work uh to communicate what was needed uh in our schools over the over the summer or over the last couple months. Uh I can't even count how many info sessions uh you all had late nights uh uh explaining is 11 10 nine. Okay, should started lower but yeah nine. Um uh yeah, and thank you uh for for making that effort and and communicating very clearly uh what was what was needed and I think that helped uh our community understand and and uh uh um support us in that way. Um I also had a chance to attend uh the reading fair launch uh for children first at Aquilla. Um that was this last weekend and it was a fantastic event. Uh nice and and sunny. uh got a chance to uh interact with the community and see the joy in uh reading uh that that uh you know kids getting into reading uh and then um also had a chance to um scoop some ice cream later on in the at children first. So it was a great uh great day uh for uh kids to experience the joy of reading and uh the amazing ice cream at both events does not hurt at all. So, um, thank you, uh, Patrice and and everybody else who helped, uh, put on that those events. We're skipping you. Okay. Uh, I guess I also want to echo the thanks uh, to everyone for their help. Uh, the Helix response. Um, it was also good to see everyone. Kind of had some time off, right? So then seeing folks at Aquilla and at the children first thing last weekend was nice. Um, but I also want to say I spent a lot of time this summer uh knocking on people's doors. Hello, I'm here to ask you to raise your taxes. Um, and it it was actually it was an easy ask, right? The community wants to support us and it was it was clear that um we had you all had done the work and those those information sessions. It was I could tell the difference between when uh people had gotten the the mailer um you know there was it was shorthand so it w it wasn't u you know it's always good to talk to people um I enjoyed it and I just wanted to thank you all for your efforts on that. >> Uh I I'm going to just be fast and echo everything that everybody else said. Thank you for our wonderful community in all the ways. Thanks. >> Same here. Um I just want to thank the community for all the help and um the people that came out and do did the door knocking and hosting yard signs and even writing um into the sun sailor. Like I'm a reader, so I appreciate seeing some sunshine in there when I do check in. Um and um thank you Dr. for being transparent a little earlier with the um it's not necessarily the the communication that's off, it's the trust and how it's going to take some time to get there. Um but I also want to say that this Thursday, I believe, is our back to school celebration. We're partnering with basketball in the park at Aimsworth Park. Um so it's not just basketball. I' I've went a couple of times. The um SLPD is out there. um Henipin County Sheriff. Um some of our city council members frequent there. Um it's a good opportunity to meet parents and kids in the community. They'll be doing free haircuts for the kids. Um school supply backpack um school supply giveaway. Um and again like there it's not just basketball. There are other type of um sports that kids play out in that field and other little I I don't remember what the van is. Does anybody know what the van is called? It's like the park something van with the games and the >> Last time I was at basketball in the park. It's uh >> you said park and wrecks. >> Yeah, it's a park, but I don't remember what it's called. >> Okay. Well, the van is out there with all the games. So, come out, enjoy. Um they have a grill going. They cook the food right there in front of you. So, you know, for those of people like me that like to see where my [clears throat] >> You might be surprised. Just just show up and see. >> Is that tomorrow or next Thursday? >> This Thursday? Tomorrow. Yeah. >> Can we get some professional basketball play? >> We'll shoot for that. Let's send some emails to our Henipin County Sheriff who kind of helps facilitate this. Um, and just welcome back. It's good to see everybody. Um, and I will leave it there. It's if anybody else, no one else has any other comments. Okay. Well, it is when is it? >> 7:39. >> 7:39 and we are closing this meeting.