Oh, yeah. That road construction I don't know how much I'm going to have to say about >> Mhm. >> She's two, but she's two years younger than >> It's not letting me know that. >> This is This is happening at home. >> You like you want >> I'm not just frustrated. >> Well, you told me you were. >> I'm going to do one more. >> Okay. >> Oh, there it is. Let's start. And I will fix this as we Okay, just kind of Oh, here it comes now. All right, we're just going to start immediately. >> This regular meeting of the Independent School District 535 School Board is called to order at 5:31 p.m. on Tuesday, August 4th, 2026 in room 137 of the Edison building. Present at this meeting are school board members, Superintendent Kent Pekel, a non-voting ex-officio member, and Assistant School Board Clerk Ms. Ann Cramer. Ms. Cramer, will you please call the roll? >> Here. Here. >> Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. The board acknowledges this site and all RPS sites are situated on the ancestral land of the Dakota people, and we honor the Dakota nations and the sacred land of all indigenous peoples. At this time, we offer the opportunity to say the Pledge of Allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Our next item is approval of the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda? >> Move approval. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? The agenda has been approved. The agenda and documents for this meeting are available online at rochesterschools.org/assembly. There are no comments to the board this evening, so we'll move on to our information and outreach board member updates. Does any board member have updates from their committees or any community events or anything else to share? Director Marvin. >> Um excuse me, [clears throat] yesterday was an active I'm going to get this right, an active full scale exercise which commenced at Century High School. Um, it was an incredibly well coordinated and executed effort. Uh, which involved Rochester Public Schools, Rochester Police Department, our Sheriff Department, Fire Department, Emergency Medical Services, Communications, a Chaplin, and very importantly, Rochester Public Schools. Which I've already said. Um, along with hundreds of volunteers. They came together to test how they would cooperate in a response to a large scale crisis situation. Like having a shooter in our schools. Uh, both how they would react both during the event as well as in the aftermath math. Um, this was an incredibly realistic unrehearsed well planned but unrehearsed event. The first responders who were alerted to an event at Century High School did not know what they would find there. I was heartbroken watching this. There were a group of observers there from the city, the council, county, school board, and and other organizations. It was heartbreaking to think that this kind of preparation in the event that someone tried to hurt our kids was necessary. That's the time we're living in. But I was also incredibly heartened because of the way the first responders responded. At the first moment that they were notified, those first three responders from every agency didn't walk, they came rushing in. Their only thought was to make sure that our kids stay safe. It was um an event that was incredibly important because of the level of coordination and the level of cooperation. The and the organizations that have wrapped their arms around our kids and around our schools. Um it was inspiring. And I'm I'm guessing that our other board members will want to talk about it as well. >> Director Workman. >> So, I won't repeat anything that Director Marvin said because she really nailed it. Um but I remember when I was in first and second grade back during the Cold War and we all learned how to hide under our desks in case there was a nuclear blast. I didn't understand at the time that if there were a nuclear blast, it didn't matter where I was. But there was there was that fear, but I have to tell you kids are under so much more these days in terms of staying safe. Are they going to be able to stay safe? How do they stay safe? And what are the are are the responsibilities of the adults around them? And so, you know, I think that this was a really good opportunity for us to see that kind of coordination and the obvious expertise of all those who par- participated. It was it was truly amazing how the community of those particular people really came together and it was all about our kids and keeping them safe. >> Director Barlow. >> I like to approach this a little differently having participated myself in mass casualty incidents um training. And um I think it would be great, um while we acknowledge the important role uh that our readiness plays Rochester Public Schools. I think it would be great to also uh if we haven't already reach out and acknowledge the leaders of these various partner organizations uh and the hard work and important work they do to support our mission and the safety of our kids and and I will myself be reminded to do that. Uh you're right Director Marvin. It's difficult and yet there's always a willingness um on the part of emergency responders to step forward. The thing that I probably admire most at moments like this is the uh humility that it brings uh front and center to uh public education systems uh further uh accentuating the important role we play not only to ensure the educational well-being but the safety of each of our 17,000 plus children. So um you know thank you for uh those organizers within the department and those partner organizations. >> Dr. McLaughlin um I would agree with Director Barlow that one the first things I wanted to acknowledge is the partner organizations not only for their hard work and dedication to this but also inviting us to be observers so that we can learn about the process and be confident in their work as well. Um the takeaways that I had is that this was a full-scale practice and it seemed to me from the discussion is they've done similar events like this but not to the scale that they had before. And what I learned from this is that they what they were testing out yesterday perhaps for the first time or what happens after the location where the incident has occurred is is investigated and finalized and that threat is minimized or reduced or eliminated but then what happens afterwards and that's I think where a lot of RPS work would come in in terms of after the incident there's a there's two different locations where parents would either be reunified with their children or get information if their children are hospitalized or at worst you know one of the casualties in an event like this. Um what I also learned at the um the emergency response area is first of all the level of communication that's involved but also um very clearly they were explaining to us that they were one of the first things they were testing for the first time this year was an accountability aspect of this so that they could um evaluate how accountable and how um successful they were at re- reuniting children who are at school who aren't with their parents with their parents and making sure that all of everyone is accounted for which I think was important. Um and I know that we've um at the board table addressed gun violence previously. Um we're very much opposed to that anywhere or in our schools and we we have a resolution related to that but this related to that but also other threats that could face our students. Um and I think it was really important that we be involved as observers. I made some notes about some questions that I want to follow up here with our internal processes but it it got us thinking about um making sure that um internally RPS is on board with all of these processes and that we're ready to respond as well and partner with all those other organizations that um clearly are well trained and um and take this effort very seriously and also even um taking another step that they're offering the training to others organizations in the region on a smaller scale over the next couple days so that they can benefit from this opportunity to practice as well. Hopefully, we'll never need this, but if we do, we're ready. [clears throat] >> Um some of the Well, the first person I want to thank is Chris Lingon, our own Chris Lingon, um who um has apparently spent the past 10 months uh initiating this and planning this with our community partners. Um so, our internal people who have led this, um along with all the leaders that we met yesterday from all of our other partner organizations who each did a wonderful job of talking about what all the partners' roles and positions and how they work together. Uh that that working together piece was was evident all day long. Um I also left thinking uh how grateful I am for the individual people who have um identified roles that they were learning through this exercise and will be taking on um uh accepting to be on standby, if you will, should should this happen. Um as uh Director McLaughlin mentioned at the family reunification center, um you know, it's our administrators and our central office people who are going to be some of the first people that will be meeting um families um in a situation um where there was an incident. And um at the family um at the family assistance center that there's a team from Olmsted County um that is being put together specifically for this reason, um so that whatever the incident is, they have a team of mental health professionals, behavioral health professionals, social workers, chaplains, um all sorts of of individuals ready to assist families in the situation. So, uh what I appreciate is the longevity of this, right? It's It's it it it it not going to be an ad hoc situation should something happen. The readiness is is going to be established through teams. And I think my last thought is I couldn't help but think of our teachers and our staff. Because when we were at the family reunification center and they were walking us through uh where the students would go and and where they would wait until they were able to be reunited with their with their parents, the people who were with them are their teachers and the staff from the school. And we are explicitly told that that is a role that has been explicitly identified um that the teachers will be their point of contact um until the family reunification can happen. And Director Marvin talked about how emotionally difficult it was to watch, especially in a building where a number of us have had students attend. Um I uh believe we should do everything we can to prevent this from happening, and I'm also grateful for the preventative measures we're taking with our um learning environments, with our mental health strategies um to help prevent something like this from happening, but I am eternally grateful for this community who um takes this seriously and um will be ready if if the unthinkable happens. Anything else, board members? We can move on to another topic if you'd like. Director White, what? >> Um I just want to say thank you to all the board members that were able to attend. Um I did see it, but the only thing that comes to my mind in hearing you all speak is uh pre-existing trauma. So, you know, people like myself who have been directly impacted by gun violence, these things are not easy to attend, um which is why um my absence probably unnoticed, but you know, so there is um there's an importance of knowing what to do, but there are many people like myself that have been impacted by gun violence that although you can have a plan in mind, you'd be surprised what uh trauma or previous trauma can how it can impact how you're able to function in those scenarios. Um and in the times we live in now with so many individuals having some form of connection or impact to someone who has either been harmed with the gun violence or they've been exposed to it. It does make me um always think cuz I'm thinking of myself as a as an adult who is able to just pass on something because it could be triggering to me. Um you know, there's always continuous steps to take uh because the people that did participate in this uh did participate voluntarily. Uh but unfortunately, when events like this happen, uh some of these people in the spaces are have already experienced some forms of trauma. Um which uh sometimes is unaccounted for when we do these reenactments um and and they're they're some of our more vulnerable populations. So, side note, but I'm getting off that. Uh and that's what I wanted to say. But, back to school is coming up. We have our back to school events coming up. I want to make sure the families are aware our constituents are aware that August the 15th we have our big back to school block party. It is going to be at Soldier's Field this year due to all of the construction that we have all over our beautiful city. Um MLK was not available. Uh but if you know of any other events, you know, please share. Uh we'll continue to share as the board to reach out for families for our children to be prepared coming back to school. Um but that is one of the larger events. I do believe United Way will still be doing some things and some other organizations. And as we have more information, uh we'll we'll make sure that we share that with families so our kids are ready to go back to school with their supplies. >> And make sure you come visit us at our RPS table at the back to school event. >> We'll be there, all cute like with our little RPS stuff. >> Any other reports or observations, board members? And we'll move on to our consent agenda, items 5.1 through 5.10. Um would any board member like any item removed for separate consideration? >> Move approval. >> Second. >> It has been moved and seconded. All those in favor of the consent agenda say I. I. Opposed? The consent agenda has been approved. Our next item is our focus topic, Summer Academy 2026. Superintendent Pecor. >> Thank you, Chair Nathan. Board members, I'd like to invite Mona Perkins, Sheryl Linfor, and Malachi Johnson. I don't know if I see Ahmed Awad here, but if he makes it, we would be thrilled [clears throat] to have him come on up. Um board members, it's been a few years since we gave you an update on the learning that happens through Rochester Public Schools in the summer. As I know you recall, during the COVID pandemic, federal funding allowed Rochester Public Schools and many school districts to frankly greatly expand the reach of our summer programming. And um [clears throat] we did so both in terms of the number of kids who participated and the breadth of the experience that they that they had. Partly in terms of community engaged learning, but also in terms of increasing the for instance mental health staff and social work staff that were a part of that. Unfortunately, um those dollars are not uh continuing. And so, we have had in the last couple of years the imperative to continue to maintain robust summer program for students who need it, but on a much tighter budget. And so, I am really grateful to these folks for um 2 years running now of doing that and wanted to give the board and the community an update on the summer session that has just concluded and how we're thinking about some of that work, um, going forward. Um, to state a very obvious point, it is crazy that in 2026 our schools still work on an agrarian calendar. Less than 2% of American kids, and less than that in Rochester, work on farms. And yet we still take 3 months off every summer, and we know that the summer slide, or the, uh, impact of kids, especially kids who have additional academic needs, of taking the whole summer off, um, can be really problematic. And so this is a critical tool in the toolkit. I'm grateful to the team for, um, not only, uh, uh, reconceptualizing our summer academy faced with the financial constraints that I just talked about, but candidly enhancing the academic emphasis, um, in the last couple of years. So with that, look forward to, uh, the update. >> Thank you. Um, this is actually going to be Sarah and Malachi's show. I just want to just start off by saying when we started this 2 years ago, um, we did bring a group of teachers together to help us. We went through an entire design process to kind of talk through how do we want, um, summer programming to look, because ultimately the only thing that's really fixed was our budget. Everything else that we we have So we kind of gave them the sandbox to to plan. Like there were there were very few things that were, non-negotiable. Like you can't violate You can't go over budget. But otherwise we we really pushed them to think creatively about how we can service kids with keeping the focus on academics. Um, and so there are some some creative stuff that did come out of it. And there's we also didn't have like it's not unlimited dollars, so we had to, um, stay tight on some things. All right, I'll actually hand this to you anyway. >> Okay. Excellent. Um, I'm Sierra Lynn Forest. I have kind of taken on the role over the past 2 years as the K-12 summer programming coordinator, if you will. So, helping guide and lead, and then during the summer lifting up and making sure everybody has what they need to serve our students. And I'm incredibly proud of the work that our teachers and all of the people behind the scenes have done over the past couple years. I did have the privilege of working with RPS Summer of Discovery as a site director for several years. And so, I was part of the Summer Discovery programming that we loved so much, and felt strongly about keeping those elements alive and well that focus on the whole child and well-being, and thinking of it as not just an extension of the school year, but some of those core pieces alive in our Summer Academy programming. A historical view at the funding. Summer of Discovery had those COVID relief dollars. Those and and Dr. Bakken mentioned that as well. It was also funded with the targeted services dollars. Mona is a genius at what she does with thinking creatively about funding streams, and we've really worked closely together to think about how can we braid funds that we have existing to better serve the needs of our students. And so, Summer Academy funding comes from Lucan Elementary special education programming through extended school year, and I'm going to talk about that. Targeted services. We do have a $125,000 set aside for transportation. We do provide transportation to all of our K-8 students that need it. And then this year we did add on high school if they were at an existing or could get to an existing middle school or stop. And then we were able to allocate funding through our Title I and Title III funding as well. So, what shifted? What were those program shifts? Summer of Discovery had small class sizes, about 1 to 15 or 1 to 12. They had field trips out into the community and experiences. It was focused on whole child. We were able to provide a lot of material needs. So, we had a larger supply budget. There were a lot of wrap-around supports including mental health, ESPs, special education, and clerical supports. And then there were some student interns as well. What shifted? We now have class sizes of about 1 to 20. We leaned heavily into site-based experiences through strategic community partnerships and enrichment specialists. We increased the academic focus primarily in in literacy and math. And then the supports, the staffing at those sites, we had to cut back to a site lead, a classroom teacher, and then this year student interns. What did our elementary programming look like? I'm going to kind of walk through our elementary, our middle school, and high school programming and the assets to each of those Here's some exciting pictures. We know we talked about keeping that piece of that whole child and it being summer and the joy. So, here you see we have a partnership with Winona State doing some STEM lab stuff. We had a one of our enrichment specialists as a classroom teacher during the year. She chose to focus on for over the four weeks a different country and they did arts and crafts and music and all of those different pieces and brought that to life and did an art show at the end. And then you you see we're we're reading out in the hammock garden. So, there are a lot of great opportunities for our students here. So, elementary program components. One of our sites started at Overland last year. This year was at Sunset Terrace. We had a co-teaching partnership between our extended school year and our Summer Academy staff. That looked like having one classroom teacher and one special education teacher per classroom. There was time provided for planning and training and what strong co-teaching programs can look like. We emphasized a push-in model, which ensures students receive special education services were met through their IEP. But then those teachers were also able to help facilitate some small groups, differentiated instruction, and it brought down that that feeling of that large class size that we have that 1:20 or 1:22. We had that enrichment specialist that I spoke of at each site element each elementary site. One classroom or special area teacher for each site, and the goal is to provide engaging activities focused around movement, art, social emotional learning to all students. And then again, we had that increased focus on literacy and mathematics. We utilized really great reading summer program, and really great reading is a program that we do use throughout the school year. They have a really strong phonics piece that can help tie and bridge those those years. So, from first grade to second grade or third grade to fourth grade. We really focused on building positive mathematical identity, and then incorporated number talks and game-based learning to really enhance our number sense and our foundational math skills. A piece that was new this year that we are so excited about um was this partnership with our grow your own grant that we got and the grow your own student internship. So, this is a grant-funded opportunity through grow your own program. It was designed to introduce high school students to the teaching profession through authentic compensated and sustained mentorship. Students were partnered with a classroom teacher to work daily in small groups supporting whole group instruction, outside supervision, and building positive relationships. Students were supported with a designated mentor, and that's Malachi. He's He's one of the three that we had, and he's going to speak about his experience. Um and that mentor helped facilitate feedback, troubleshoot day-to-day, and model positive relationship building. The mentor teacher was also designated support for classroom teachers and site leads navigating how best to utilize their student interns. >> Right. So, before Malachi goes into his experience, what we decided to do is have one intern in every single classroom. And we were so impressed during the interview process, we also extended it really I just couldn't say no to the kids. The kids were incredible when they when they came in and interviewed. Um so, then we also added an intern in each of the enrichment classes as well. It was at three sites, and then each of the sites had a mentor teacher for the interns. And that's what Malachi is. And so, they met with them for 3 days prior to before summer school started to get them get them connected and then teach them like how to be a support in the classroom, how you can run help run small groups and that type of thing. So, we tried front load some of that cuz we wanted it to be a really great experience for the kids. We wanted them to be active members in the classroom. We wanted the teachers to really see them as a positive support, and we wanted the great relationships between the younger kids with the older kids. >> And that was a shift I mentioned in Summer of Discovery. We did have student interns, but it was one or two per site. This time we had 24, one in each classroom, hands-on with the students, and it was incredibly positive. And I can't wait to have Malachi here as one of our student intern mentors tell us about his experience. We did um hope to have a student here. Um life happened today, but we do have some of their voices and their experiences shared on the following slides. So, Malachi, let you take it away. >> Okay. So, I'm Malachi Johnson. I'm a second grade teacher at Old River and Elementary. Um I had the just amazing opportunity working with the student interns. And like Mona said, through the interview process, um one of my former students actually was a student I mentored. Um just to see them interview and then go from that process to then working every day with the kids is just amazing. They were in the classrooms hands-on, building relationships with kids in a short time, working with the teachers. It was just an incredible experience to see them interact with the kids and grow and just what amazing leaders we have in the in the district and in our classrooms and in our in our high schools, too. So, this program was just for me it was So, I I work with all the young kids. So, for me to see those high school kids jump in and they were doing the chicken dance with them. I mean, they were you know, but they just they flowed with it. They they could transition from that to then a serious working with education helping them learn how to read. So, it was amazing to see these kids any of them would be amazing teachers, amazing leaders. So, I was just really proud of them, proud of this program and the things that came out of it. >> And for some of the kids that are planning on once they graduate going on to become teachers, there are they can apply through this grant to also get support paying for tuition. So, it's all part of it to try to get them back here as teachers. >> And I should say we had over 105 applicants from high school students and it was a pretty tight turnaround. We put them they had they applied, we put them through the ringer with a speed dating style interview. They showed up, they did great. Um I got emotional seeing how the students connected with those positive role models. And I'd love Do you have anything to add? >> just going to say one of the biggest things that I noticed was just the diversity of the applicants and how that affected the kids that they were working with in our classrooms. Our our classrooms are very diverse and so to see all these different students working with these kids was just a huge piece of this, also. >> I do want to share of our students' words because they're the reason we did all of this. Um So, I asked them a series of questions and several of them communicated [clears throat] their feedback. So, I'm just going to read their words, but know that these are high school students that really thoughtfully responded to these. So, in identifying with might they continue to pursue education? The student said, "I wanted this job to see if I truly wanted to go into elementary education and after this experience, I know that this is the career for me. This job has helped me realize how much I love helping children." Another student shared, "This program has, in a way, changed my perspective behind working with younger kids. I've always thought that working with children would be stressful, burnout inducing, and something I'm not cut out for. So, yes, I do think that with further contemplation, working with children, but especially teaching, is something I would like to do in the future." Some of them leaned into the leadership aspect. "Because of this experience, I am much less uh much less interested in a career involving children, but I would be interested in a career in leadership." "I think I am more interested in a leadership role in schools just by being able to see how many students grow attached to you and outside of your own classroom." "This experience made me even more interested in careers that involve working with children and leadership. I will enjoy building relationships. I really enjoyed building relationships with students, supporting their learning, and seeing their progress." And some really identified some transferable skills beyond education and leadership. This student identified communication and adaptability are pretty big and important for a team, and time management is just a good thing to have in general. Good skills to have for future jobs. "This internship strengthened many skills that will benefit me in my career. I became more confident communicating with both students and staff, learned how to adapt quickly when plans changed, and improved my time management by balancing different responsibilities throughout the day. And this is where our program really >> [clears throat] >> shined, if you will, was the feedback that we got from classroom teachers and mentors. Um every time I would go out to a site, I was met with, "We couldn't do this without them." Um extra help and support is great. It's the big and little things, like relationships, extra hands, and additional teaching, and trying to be in two places at the same time. This from classroom teachers and mentors. Having an intern was extremely helpful in managing centers and rotations. My intern did a fantastic job building relationships with my students and was always willing to do whatever was asked. It was nice to have another person to bounce ideas off to off of and talk about teaching, almost like a coach. She also gave me a fresh perspective. It made a great impact having more adults in the room to meet the wide range of student needs this year. And in this setting, the student was viewed as an adult. The support they gave students and the lead teacher was so awesome to see. Positive relationships were made between everyone involved. And this is from a mentor. I saw our kids make deep connections with kids helping them through challenges and inspiring them in activities and reinforcing positive behaviors. I saw our high school students grow as leaders and become more self-aware each day of the program. They needed minimal direction and they took all of the feedback well. We had outstanding kids in our program. That was all for elementary. In middle school, when we did our program design, we leaned heavily into career exploration and igniting the idea of different career pathways that our students could explore. These are pictures over the past couple years as we've dealt have dived into this. We have a partnership with Mayo Clinic where Dr. Hill comes with his whole team and you see there we've got phlebotomy, we've got ultrasound, we've got they're moving kids with or moving like they have a helicopter situation going on. They're doing CPR and to all of the different Stayin' Alive and all the songs and then the kids are naming songs that also fit the beat which is also great to see. Um when we co-located our program at JA because our middle school and high school programs are co-located at the same site which was a shift as well. We were also able to have a partnership with our 21st Century Grant that brings in big ideas and here we have they're doing like virtual welding there in that bottom middle picture and exploring those careers. We partnered there's a program working out at C-Tech with career exploration and we had carpentry. So a lot of great opportunities and outside of what you're seeing here with the community partnerships, they are exploring that in their classroom as well. That same focus on academics does come out. Focus on math skills and math positive math identity. This what we did have funding to have a math intervention and a reading intervention at our middle school site. And they focus specifically on morphology and that literacy piece, morphology and comprehension through teacher created resources. Focus on career pathways. We continue to explore and explain expand career exploration. Partnership with C-Tech. Some of the pathways that they've explored are agriculture and STEM pathways. Again, I mentioned those co-located programs and the benefits that they have through experiential education. And then the Mayo Clinic partnership where they explore phlebotomy, ultrasound, and emergency medicine. Finally, high school. We offer credit recovery. We have increased our in-person programming and then we have Edgenuity programming which is another credit recovery option. This year we required them to come in person, which did help with some of that completion as well. We also offer ML summer program courses. They are offered only to students that are identified in receiving ML services. It is one required credit high school credit course and it's rotates which course is offered each summer. Some summers there's one, some there's two and it utilizes a three teacher model where there's one ML teacher, one content teacher and then a project teacher and they work together to really wrap around the student and support through some of those those language needs as well. We did have fantastic community partnerships with Winona State, the office of the mayor the past two years we've had a wonderful experience in our elementary sites with artists coming in. Um, Mayor Norton will come has come out um, and I've already been touching base with uh current people pursuing the mayorship here in Rochester to try to continue that partnership because it's been fantastic for our students. Olmsted County Public Health came out and worked with our high school credit recovery pieces. Mayo Clinic, the library, we utilized our bike fleet um, as well. So what is happening from this? Ultimately our goal with summer academy programming is to sustain our academic performance from spring to fall or help bridge some gaps. What we are seeing this is 2025 data so coming into last year fall. We don't have all of our spring or new fall data yet. School hasn't started, but we did see that 98% of our students maintained or decreased their risk level if you will. We use FastBridge as our our indicator there. 66% of third through eighth graders maintained or decreased risk level. And then in math first and second grade 78%. And then third through eighth grade 55%. And the kids that the kids that get invited typically are high risk in both math and reading. So, we're taking the the highest risk kids. >> Yeah. And something to note I didn't mention um that is that our our numbers of students that we're serving, when we were serving [clears throat] students in summer of discovery, at elementary we had over 1,000 students, 360 as this is the 24-25 school year, and then 516 at high school. And that's when we had that full experiences and field trips. This most recent year, and again there's those funding stream shifts um and increased class sizes, we are serving 371 elementary students at three sites, 101 students at um one middle school site and 414 high school students for credit recovery and the ML resources. Um at the elementary and middle school level, we have well over 1,300 students that are qualifying again based on their risk levels in FastBridge as well. >> Can you say that number again? That last one? >> Uh that qualified? Well over 1,300. >> 1,300. >> Mhm. So, looking forward, we're continuing I'm continuing to gather feedback of what our strengths and our needs are moving forward. Um our student interns delivered strong unprompted value to the everybody. Uh site level organization and our leaderships, our teacher leaders that we have are fantastic. And then the community partnerships have significantly enriched the student experience, and it is our hope that we continue and we continue to grow that partnership. In needs, class sizes and staffing ratios don't always match um our student support needs, and that is consistently shared um by our classroom teachers. Um aligning student placement and staffing support needs before students start versus after when we're trying to We identify pockets of challenging situations that we might need increased staffing in, and we think it'd be better to be proactive versus reactive in that. And then setting clear expectations and earlier logistics for both interns and staff so that they can you know the teacher that they were assigned to so they can meet and collaborate together beyond the first day. And what I want to make sure that I say is that none of this is possible without all of the human beings behind the scenes that make all of this happen. People from every department it truly is a school that is functioning in the summer and so every department is all hands on deck for our kids to make this happen. >> Board members questions come we're going to start with Director Whitehorn. >> Oh I just so real quick cuz right here at the end you mentioned some numbers. So are we only servicing about half the kids that are >> Probably less. >> that are eligible? >> Less less than half of the students that are eligible. >> So what is it logical to ask what are we doing with the other half of the kids that need the services or how are we determining >> So we can't mandate it. We don't we don't mandate it. So we send out the invitations and then we we don't turn kids away. So we're programming for the number of kids that sign up. So I think what we just need to keep doing is I think the more engaging it is so we keep working on that the more kids want to come. >> So the 1500 is from the summer the stuff >> The this summer is yep that would be the K8 number that qualifies. I think a big big one for me that really stands out is our middle school programming. Last year there were well well over 800 students that qualified and 100 showed up and so and that is a big need. That's that's over 800 students that have needs in both math and literacy and so continuing to think about and bring teachers together about how we can increase programming and get more students here. >> So the so I guess what I'm making light of is the difference in the Summer of Discovery. It looks like we had about 1,500. Is it just Are we just attributing the lack of enrollment to the change of the program? Cuz that's a big jump to go from 1,500 enrolled last summer to less than 1,000 this summer. >> here during Summer of Discovery, but was it open to anyone? >> The qualifying factors were different. I could recommend as a classroom teacher, I could say Mona really needs some social emotional learning and support with her her peers. >> [laughter] >> And that that would in itself was enough to to qualify for program lead because we had the additional funds to support that student. When we're just going off of targeted services funding, the requirements for that use is a little different. And so, we have to have an academic need. A student's not going to qualify just because of social emotional learning or mental health needs. It's only it's academics. It could be ML services. It could be They could be in transition or different identifying factors. And so, the number of students that we could serve based on those qualifying criteria decreased. >> So, it would be nice to know just since we threw the number out there like how many kids were referred the previous year. Because because we have what you given us was the number of kids referred and the attendance. And the previous number you gave was how many attended, which makes the numbers look very askew. Now, if 3,000 kids were referred last year, let's say, then it would show that we're still kind of keeping with the same pattern. So, that's what I would I guess that's where my concern would be is is there a drastic shift in the pattern of the kids that are referred and show up? Or is it You know what I mean? Is there something else going on? >> is. I think you are you're absolutely making sense. I think one of the things we could also we wanted to focus on the kids that had the biggest gaps cuz we really want to try to close those gaps. I would say we're seeing in our enrollment data that we're not necessarily um able to get all of them. We could also expand cuz you don't have to be You don't have to have a math and reading need to qualify. You could just have a reading need. So, we could expand it and open it up to to grow our program and that actually like might be a a direction to go. We can start to grow it. I think the bigger it is, the more kids want to come, right? When your next-door neighbor is jumping on the bus to go to summer school, you want to go, too. But, if when you when you have smaller numbers um I'm not happy with with how with the numbers. I feel like we we should have bigger, more robust programming. >> I was just asking for for clar- clarification why the numbers decreased. It's just the shocking difference. >> It is a shocking difference. >> To just understand how we got to that space and and um and what the Like I said, if we could know what the how many kids were referred, even though it was under a different metric, which I understand, it would just still give us a little bit more apple-to-apple to compare to. Cuz it really wouldn't matter what the qualifications were. It would still give a better map as to what the average enrollment is um for kids that are referred, period, right? Because you're always going to have a percentage of kids that are recommended and don't go. So, just so that it's not such a shockingly uh different number. That would just help to clarify that a little bit. And I'm sure I'll have something later, but I'll let somebody else go. >> Director Marvin. >> Thank you. Um question and a comment. Do kids get transportation if they need it? >> Yes. >> Okay. And the comment is I love the student intern idea. We know from experience and I think this district is absolutely committed near-peer tutoring and work. Young kids love it, having someone who looks like a teenager and sometimes acts like a teenager uh to be with them. And I loved the comments from the interns that you provided, because even if kids find out teenagers find out they're not all that into little kids, what a good lesson to learn at this point before you you know, go on and get your education. But also, the things they were talking about the other skills that they needed and that they developed that their parents have been telling them for years, you got to be on time, you got to be responsible, and now there's they're figuring out, oh, that's really important, and these kids are these little kids are benefiting because I'm here being responsible. So, on every level, it's a win. So, thank you so much for doing that and for pulling this together with It must be really it have been complicated to figure out where the funding was coming from and figuring out a new model, too. It sounds wonderful. Thank you. >> I want to add that that having the kids there was so great, but I also see a connection with this to our A&I plan as well, because a lot of these kids some of them some of the kids that took already took the college in the schools the intro to teaching class applied and and were a part of this. And I have a feeling some of them will now take it next year. And so, it it is it's to me it's all kind of combined. You know, we're trying to create a For me, I'd like to create a community of kids that really see themselves as being college bound, and even if you're not going to school to be a teacher, you're still want to be college bound and start heading in that direction, and you've got this great community cuz you guys built an amazing community. When I went to visit, and just tell them about your snack cart. Oh, wow. It was so amazing. >> Well, I was going to say that one of the students that I was mentoring was in the college too, in the college program, and was telling the other students about how to start and sign up and how to do it. But, they had all come together and I had like a cabinet and they just filled it with snacks and they took over the room. We would meet before and after. But, the one of the most interesting thing was that for them was after we would after the day we would meet every day and the way they would just come in and just be tired, just exhausted. And like we'd talk about it and you know, walk through what happened or how was your day and just that every day they were just so, you know, worn out cuz they were just putting their whole heart, everything they had into this experience and it was just it was fantastic. >> Dr. McLaughlin. Um can I think it was mentioned earlier, but I didn't quite get the full information. What is the schedule? Is it a certain number of weeks? Could that Is that Do you get input from families? Is that impacting when people can come? That kind of >> When we did summer of discovery years ago, it was 3 weeks in June, 3 weeks in July. Uh last year we cut it down to three 3-day weeks, um but extended the day, so it was 8:00 8:00 Is that elementary was 8:00 to 1:30, secondary was 9:00 to 2:30. This year's programming was 2 weeks two 4-day weeks with those same time frames. So, we extended the day and then shortened the um how long we were in session. >> That's helpful, thank you. And then when you think about the students that are invited and and, you know, somewhat disappointment in not having all of those enroll. Do individual teachers do outreach to the families? Can you prioritize the kids that, you know, that really, really, really need the help that really encourage them to come? How does that, is that >> we do is um after the winter FastBridge window closes, I work their offices or with research and our assessment team. I have them help pull the data and then we we get the kids into who is some or high risk in both math and reading and then in math or reading. So, I get all of those lists and then I email those to the site and I say based on academic performance alone on fall and winter FastBridge, these are the students that qualify. These look at this list and let us know if they would be a good fit for summer programming. Some of that might be we've got a tight turnaround. We've got students that we're we have consoli- like consolidated sites meaning multiple different sites coming to one one school. So, can the student come and focus and have build those positive relationships right away? How can they function in that, you know, larger class size with minimal support, high academic needs? So, the teachers and the and the administrators and building staff give that feedback and then based off of what they check off, we send the invitations out. We sent them this year, we did PDFs that were sent via TalkingPoints so they could be accessed in their native language, but learned that the the link to click to register didn't look like a link to register. So, you know, little notes like that that we can help and improve the processes and I've talked to many families this year compared to last year, which is also an exciting part of my role as well. So, yes, teacher feedback is absolutely a part of it and then leaning into sites and saying, "Hey, we've got one more week of registration coming." Another piece that I want to make sure that I put on the invitations this year is when is that deadline for registration cuz sometimes that wasn't clear as well. >> And great that you're super involved in that, but do the classroom teachers then support and encourage that too? >> do. Yep, they it is the classroom teacher that sends out the invitations. We've talked for me to send out invitations to anybody, nobody's going to know who I am in the classroom level. So, all of that communication goes through the classroom teacher. >> As a classroom teacher, we we do send the invitation, follow up, follow up again, follow up again. So, yeah, we do really work hard to get students who need the support there. >> That's awesome. And then one final thing, where's the hammock garden? >> There's several in our district. I'm That particular one was out at Overland. >> Okay. And are they just there for the summer? It seemed like those posts were pretty >> They are permanently there for teachers to access and check out. >> Okay. >> I have never been in one. >> [laughter] >> I'm not I'm not that brave. >> So, teachers have to check out the actual hammocks? >> Yeah, they Yeah, they can the hammocks are come down at the end of the day and they can check them out. But >> Can people bring their own if they wanted to? >> [laughter] >> I'm going to send you an invitation. >> I want to bring it to the next board meeting. >> I will send you an invitation for that. >> I was wondering if they had plus-size hammocks, you know, how they have >> I've got my own. I was thinking students might want to attend there. >> Do they need weight restrictions in there? >> Thank you. For Oh, Director McFarland. >> Okay. So, I just a few things and off of what Director McFarland said. One big thing that I get through the summer is parents. Parents that reach out, they reach out to the board, they reach out to everybody because they want their kid in summer school. They didn't get an invitation. They don't know how to obtain an invitation. I don't know exactly how we um how we fix that, but that is a concern. Often times, parents don't know it was starting or the kid didn't get invited cuz they may not have been on that short list, but the parent is very concerned and wants them in in there. So, I don't know if this is a question or a comment, but I don't know how we kind of fix that. That is something that happens every year. Um and then you were mentioning and she asked the question about the scheduling. I think also what would be nice when you guys come back with the with the data is to see what the hours time spent were. So, you know, we'll get the the these percentages, but I'd like to know if you know, we've we've lessened the time if that's an impact or if there is no impact, you know, from the kids being in less time. I think that would also help as we build this out and decide how this is funded or what is needed. You know, I just want to make sure that we're not because we are making so many changes cuz we lost the funding that we are giving a very real um outlook on what it looks You know, what what these different things look like because I I personally feel that if it's something that's needed, you know, that's something that we should be aware of. I know that we've lost a big batch of funding, but I don't want to be in a space where we're in a land of delusion and just assuming that the program is running great when we've cut all these things. So, it would be nice to see what you know, what the actual impact is. You know, how many hours? So, if the numbers decrease, how many hours were they getting prior? And how many hours are they getting now? I'm just trying to think of um stable data points that we can easily track to to actually measure the success with the with the change if that makes sense what I'm saying, right? >> versus summer of discovery? >> Well, right, cuz we're moving out of it. >> But I have a question about my question. The only thing with summer of discovery because it wasn't a um a clear academic focus, we don't have the academic data. Like it wasn't tracked the way we like we track this. We look at their spring fast bridge and then their fall fast bridge to tell us if there was a summer slide or not or >> Right. >> and we don't have that to compare it to. We do have We could look at the number of of hours. One of the things we did, the reason we extended the day, is that's a way because funding is so tricky. $5.50 an hour when you're paying a teacher $48 an hour plus, you know, whatever else. You need at the You need at a minimum of, you know, 12, 13 kids to be in the classroom just to pay the teacher salary, and it doesn't include covering anything for transportation, the nurse, the lead, like all, you know, any other supports you have. Um, but transportation is a set cost for the day. So, I can generate more money for the kids if we lengthen the day, but they may be going one less day in the week. So, you're still getting the same amount of time, so I decrease my costs. Um, so we play around with all of that to try to maximize um, because ultimately it's the impact on the kids that's the most important. >> Right. So, I guess what I and and and I appreciate all the additional information, but I guess I was thinking way simpler than that. My brain went over there. Uh, but I was just thinking that, you know, if we, like you said, with the fast bridge, if there is any decline, you know, it just would be nice to see if if there was a change in the amount of hours that the kids were there. Just just, you know, I was just trying to uh, determine how do we compare these pro- this program's success with as many changes as it's had to the previous program, if that makes sense what I'm saying. Cuz the the program has changed. So, let's say when the numbers come back, it goes from 98% to 95%. It would be nice to know that there was a decrease in, you know, hours that the kid You know, I'm just trying to think of how do we continue some kind of um, constant even though we've made so many adjustments to the program. Does that make sense? So, we >> Yes. And we can do that with our programming, the Summer Academy. I can't answer that for >> to be able We're building the longitudinal data, and so I think as we continue to look at it, continue to reflect on where could improvements be made, what were some some context that added to those numbers and performance. And so I think we can continue to do that, you know, next summer if you know, if I'm back next year presenting the same information thinking about um how we can think about these are the shifts we made from fall or from last year to this year and this is how we're going to move forward and showing that longitudinal data over time. >> And I do want to say I'm not fussing. I just I agree I think this is a wonderful thing. I know we have to make these adjustments. I just want to make sure that as we're adjusting that we're not letting some kids fall through the cracks cuz it it could be done very easily when we're focusing on the budget. >> And I think we should have maybe connect with you early like if families are reaching out to you, I'd like to know who they are even ahead of time cuz one of the struggles we have is once we shut down registration we hire based on that and we the way we had to hire to maximize our so that we don't end up in the hole is we know I tracked like okay, we registered this many kids, this percentage didn't show up at the elementary, this percentage didn't show up at the middle. So then that this year we said we're you're going to have to enroll 22 kids cuz we're going to anticipate 20 are coming. So once we cap it when people want to register later, I don't have a teacher. And so so the deadline is really important and I also buses have already been our staffs have been created. So we want we don't want to exclude anybody but I need them on the front end so that we plan for them. So if you're able to help us like access some families, we will we will [laughter] we will utilize you. >> One thing we did do this year that I think really helped was making the website Summer Academy website available to the public that we did not have. My phone number is on it and boy was it used but that's why it's there so that we can get questions and things answered and that did help with some of that. >> And if I'm honest, a lot of that comes a lot of times from grandparents or caregivers who have the kids so they're not always there through the whole school year. So then when the summer starts, they're like, "Hey, why is my grandkid not in uh you know, they can't they can't read to you know, what they think is an acceptable level." So that's where a lot of those come in. So you know, I just I try to steer them in the right direction, but I think that's a much larger situation, but that is something >> Jerk, you good? >> Okay, Jerk DeBrova. >> Uh thank you Malkai for uh answering a question I had. So the classroom teachers actually do the outreach in terms of uh parents, grandparents, caregivers. Uh not once, not twice, but seemingly three times or so. >> Yeah, I mean I can I can always speak for my building and what we do, but yes, we do reach out quite often. >> And uh so uh that's important to hear. And um I think in terms of um just a thought of a maybe um during the an earlier break uh be it winter or earlier point in the school year informing parents, caregivers uh of what's coming up during the summer so that when the summer occurs, we may have less uh people uh wondering or feeling that they've been left out of the loop. Uh uh I'm glad to say two of my children, grandchildren participated in this year's program and uh um um um I I think it went well. Um I know their mom was glad to see them out of the house for a little bit. >> [laughter] >> But uh uh I think the very point that was uh that Dr. Picault alluded to earlier, the uh schedule that we tend to be on of the summer slide and kids go from being in school to now what am I going to do if they're not employed uh with a summer job or uh enrolled in some type of uh uh private tutoring uh sessions. So, thank you for the hard work. Thank you for the great information and uh I look forward to future reports coming back in. >> If I could just say real quick, uh what an amazing job the summer teachers and interns do. When we're talking about this, we talk about having a 1 to 20 ratio of students with the highest needs, uh they're really working magic in those rooms, right? They have very challenging students who have a lot of um things to fill in in their learning and they have a lot of them. So, I just want to give a shoutout to those teachers that are doing They're doing amazing work and with those interns in there, too, um they're just doing a great job. >> Dr. Horton. So, looking at the 2025 performance data, um do you have any kind of baseline for what the summer slide is for students who are maybe not as much at risk or for students who are already doing well? >> Um that's a good question. I don't I don't know >> Or might that be something to look at to see the effectiveness of the program? >> is. I think what we actually should do is look at the same kids. >> Right. >> Who the kids who are in the same risk band that attended versus not attended. Um yeah, and that's what we We continue to refine our practices. I remember doing Summer of Discovery and trying to figure out what data could we bring and make sense of that make sense in these settings and so we continue to refine that and I think comparing students that enroll and students that maybe didn't enroll but were still in similar risk bands is a great step forward in that we can think of >> Dr. Cook >> Um yeah, no, I'm glad that you that you said that Mona because that was exactly my thought that it's in some ways fortuitous for our purposes that there's sort of a uh an a natural laboratory here of the the cohort of students that were invited to participate and given the the rates of participation a comparison between those that participated and those that didn't and see the extent to which there's a difference in this regression measure I think would be um really interesting both to evaluate the impact of our work but also as a useful marketing tool to help explain to parents what the value proposition is here so um yeah, looking forward um the next time we talk about this um I I think that would be really interesting information to look at but thank you so much for the work and especially on the uh um on the work with the interns I I think that's just such a valuable program and and really dovetails with [clears throat] the near peer mentoring that um we think is really valuable here so thanks for all your work on that >> I want to talk a little bit more about those summer interns um given that we are trying to develop uh pathways and connections for our students with real world experiences I'm wondering are we following these interns going forward to see are they enrolling in our C-Tech teacher pathway courses or perhaps we hiring them as our some of our staff staff um is there is there a way to keep cuz I feel like we've trained like we've trained this new set of employees of RPS and you know what what else can we do with them >> So out of the kids that that responded to the um survey that she put out end of the um have the end of the year thing even the ones that said they didn't want to want a job later on with kids, they all said 100% they would return and do this again. So, like that that was amazing. Um but yes, we will It's not going to be hard to track them. It was like what? 34 kids? 24 24 total. Um and some of them we already know have taken the C-Tech course and sounds like summer they're helping them get the other kids registered. >> Um I do have one anecdotal story of a student that thought for sure he he wanted to work with stu- with with kids and he wanted to go into education. He thought for sure secondary. And then he did this program and oh my gosh, he was remarkable with the kids and his foresight and his thought and his intentionality. So much so that he did apply and interview to be to work for SAC. And then he wanted to continue doing that. So, when we talk about continuing those opportunities and and he is actively considering elementary education now um as well. And when I was out of the middle school, they heard about the program and they're asking for interns also. So, >> Ever- everybody wants them. >> Sounds great. >> Any else, Martin? Superintendent? >> Well, I'll just be very brief and it's it's completely superfluous to share, but I will say what I went over to uh see the uh programming at Lincoln and was on the playground with the kids and was in the gym moving with the kids. And of course, uh it was this my fault. It was July and I was wearing a suit. So, the sweat is showing through the suit in a very visible way. And I'm in the classroom and a kid touches me and it goes, "Oh, what's that?" And he All the kids had to touch my sweaty pants and my suit. >> [laughter] >> That's not the reason I'm telling the story. The intern in the room literally said, "I thought I wanted to be a teacher before I saw that." >> [laughter] >> He was kidding. Um but you know, you get a sense of what uh young children are willing to do. Thank you for really great presentation and the great work. >> Thanks so much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Who said summer school was a bad thing, right? Our next agenda item is a prep for action, our 2026-2027 ABCD approval, and we are scheduled to take action on this item at the August 18th meeting. Superintendent McKell. >> Thank you very much, Chair Nathan and board members. As board members may be aware from your collaboration with other school boards across the state and maybe other governmental bodies, there are governmental entities where the administration really sets the whole agenda for the elected board. Um I certainly and our team has a role in that, but since I've been here, the board has ultimately set its agenda for the work that lies ahead. As board members who were on the board when I joined in 2021 will recall, not only did we create this at minimum year-long set of priorities that we map out, we also redesigned the board agenda. Cuz how you use your time ultimately has a deep impact on how you lead the district. Um and so, here we are again. We are at a point where we're on the verge of the submission and I assume approval of a new strategic plan. And so, it's time to think about the board's agenda for not just in this instance the years ahead. It is the hope of my hope and the chair and vice chair's hope, who I've worked with on this, that broadly stated this is a structure that we will utilize for each year of the RPS 2030 strategic plan, such that the board and the community will know that at certain points in the year, the board takes up certain issues and certain lines of inquiry. And so, this presentation is a brief overview of a long detailed document that you have posted in Simbli that we are presenting tonight in the prep for action category so that we can continue to receive feedback from the board on what we are proposing. I've already received feedback from some of you since the draft went out and we're cataloging that. On August 18th, we will present the board with a full version of the board calendar that includes not just the major issues that I've added here tonight, but all of the board's process items like the consent agenda, human resource items, the business and finance items that are very important, but that are not the kind of deep dive issue that I've tried to highlight here. And so, it's our hope that before the start of the new school year, we will have this calendar approved and then we will be aware of when those things are happening. Um this is therefore not the full calendar. It is the major issues that we are proposing to take a look at. Um broadly stated, we designed this calendar with the flow of the intended flow of moving the board agenda items along those lines, setting the direction, monitoring results as to where we are, focusing on where we need to improve, and having the board provide direction where we need to act and adjust. There are four big buckets that I'm proposing become recurring items in the board agenda. The RPS 2030 strategic plan as a whole, the six systems that are core components of school improvement that I'm proposing would be another major focus of the board agenda item, what we're calling the change projects, the initiatives that are intended to shift processes and structures and programs in RPS, and then ultimately the school improvement plans that our buildings are producing and data reports on the outcomes that we're achieving. You can see that um we have proposed time certain opportunities for the board to receive an update on how we're doing in the performance measures that the board has approved and equally importantly what we're doing to improve those outcomes. And so we would this year be looking at MCA reading and math. That is later this year because there's a new reading test that will not be available till September 30. Absent that it will normally be around September 1 as the state usually releases that MCA data right around the state fair which is an interesting time to do it, but that's when they release it. That's when we'll report to you on it. The ACT measure as you know is the focus of our high school work and so we would report to you on that in November. February we would take up post-secondary enrollment. That's about the time there's a tremendous lag of course and when we know kids have actually enrolled in college, but that's about the time when we have the most recent data on who where our graduates went. We will look at the five essential survey. We hope each May in late spring looking at the discipline data in July and then attendance rates in August and then as you see next year we would get into the MCA data and the school improvement plan. So those would be the reports to you on the quantitative data. You can see that broadly stated there's a flow here that is really about the start of the school year launching the work for the year doing things like this year you'll be proving the strategic plan in October and December. Obviously governing and improving happens all year long, but really when we're in that budget season it's a critical time for you to be providing direction and then as we get into the end of the school year closing things out and then of course during the summer engaging in a lot of the work like we're doing tonight. Um so the feedback not so much on this PowerPoint more on the larger written document that's there. Are there major issues that board members would like to see taken up? Um does the timing and sequencing seem to make sense? Are there any major topics that are missing? And then do you feel that the calendar has broadly stated a good balance? As you probably noted if you looked at the long document that's in Simbli, the core proposal is to alternate between looking at one of the core systems for improvement, professional learning communities, the school improvement process, our individual employee development process, and then the next meeting we'd look at one of the change projects, career pathways, the work we might be doing around near peer tutoring near peer relationships that the board just talked about. So this is an effort to provide a high-level overview of the long document that's there and any thoughts you have either tonight or before the next board meeting will be pleased to work into [clears throat] a proposal for you to take action on. >> Board members? Any questions, comments, perspectives? Director Workman. >> Um I I really like this. It's it's really well thought out and should give the community the opportunity to see the kinds of things they might be interested. Um however, it is just a draft and so things can change during the year. Um hopefully these major things will be able to stay in place. Um but it's not approved till it's approved. >> Yeah, that's right. Sometimes people get confused as you know Director Workman by this term we use the ABCD. For those of us in the inside that the intent is technology exactly that that it's the annual board calendar draft such that it's not the governing document. And one thing that certainly will happen cuz we know we live in interesting times that as there are new things like state uh legislative policy, um you know, incidents that may happen in the community, we'll always add those things on an ongoing basis. But, these would be the core major issues that we would be building. And as as you know, the the staff work that it takes to prepare a strong update and presentation to the board is not insignificant, and uh that's appropriate, but I think this calendar really helps us balance that out and um and and calendar it out uh in a way that just candidly, I don't know many districts that right now are likely to be able to say, "These are the major issues that our board will be working on for the foreseeable next several years." >> Okay, so is this the time I get to talk about how excited I am about the annual board calendar draft? >> Of course. >> Um because uh I think Julie, was it 2018, 20 It was my first year on the board, 2019, and it was It was you and I and I and Melissa Amundson and um Michelle Severson, who was the clerk at the time, um who brought forward the idea of having a a calendar that was very clear and and covered the year. Um and That's going to take care of it. Um and it has evolved um with a lot of um work and thinking about um the cycles of how we do the work, but I think this is the first year, and maybe it's a new strategic plan that gives us that opportunity, that we're actually thinking more than a year ahead. We're thinking multiple years ahead. And um I I really do like what you said about um it being a governance cadence. That this is reflective of the work of the district, but um this uh what what we try to emphasize to the community is that the school board does its work here at the board table. Um the superintendent and and and staff develop recommendations, do a lot of work before a recommendation comes before us or a report comes before us, but we have to do our work here as the seven of us um here at the board table. We can't make decisions anywhere else. So, it's so important for the community to know uh when those decisions will be happening, and then also to back that up um for the work that the superintendent and um his staff have to do to gather the information, get uh stakeholder feedback, um and bring it to us. So, I I can't emphasize enough how important of a document this is, both for us, but for the community. This really does give you a map of the issues that Rochester Public Schools is going to be um um facing and deciding on um um especially over the next year. Superintendent, um if um board members have any additional um ques- uh questions or comments or edits or additions, should they email you with them before Do you have a deadline for that that you'd like it by? >> I would like it by the uh Wednesday before the August 18th meeting, whatever that date is actually. Um that'll be when we send you the revised recommendation, but we can send this out to board members. >> Okay. >> We do that. I'll I'll just say very briefly the the additional uh items that I've had requests from board members that are not on the proposal before you tonight are um an update on special education um in Rochester Public Schools, both in terms of the number of students we serve and the nature of those services, a discussion of screen time, um what we know about what what's happening and what the recommendation would be going forward, an update on our communications strategy and how we're engaging stakeholders and an update on the language access plan that the board received last year. Um so those are four that are not on there that we'll be adding and if there are others that occur to you, uh we can always, of course, as we were just saying a moment ago, add on an ongoing basis. Um it is helpful to be able to um calendar it out so that we can um we can get planning, but um thanks again for the opportunity. >> Director Wubker. I think that date is the 12th. >> It is the 12th, very good. >> All right. >> 12th would be great. >> Duly noted. Director Cook. >> For the um I I I really like this idea of providing updates on these performance monitoring measures throughout the year and um you touched a little bit about why some of these months make sense given when the information is available. Is it uh I mean, I think for the most part the the nature of of this monitoring is doesn't always lend itself to decision points, but to the extent that um I I I guess what I'm trying to ask is other than when the information is available, is there anything about presenting that type of information that drives other decisions elsewhere that makes this timing either appropriate or not? >> Yeah. >> Um uh yeah, thanks, Director Cook. I I think that I worked with Peter Rock, our research director, to identify the dates that are there because they are both close to when we think we get the data from the source of the data and he has time to do data analysis. So, there is close to when we find out where we are as possible. I do think you're right, as we are actually asking you to make decisions, there will be multiple decisions that need to be informed by that data that won't necessarily come on that date. And so, for instance, as we are uh making recommendations to you about the shape of the career pathways work that I expect will be a core component of our next strategic plan. What courses are we offering? How are we changing graduation requirements, if we are? Um then those things would happen um tied to uh board's decision-making cadence. But we'd be using data that is coming out, for instance, with that ACT um release on our ACT results. So, those performance measure updates really are sort of agnostic to a decision. They're coming and updating you and the community as we've got the most recent data. Um but then we certainly will be going back to those data sets as we are making recommendations for action over the course. And I do anticipate, too, that once the strategic plan is approved on October 20th, we'll be able to add some of the major board decisions to this calendar that will be, you know, action items that will uh will will put there with enough time for stakeholder feedback and board analysis, and also so we don't have meetings that go to 11:00 p.m. um as well. >> Director McLachlan. Um this might be getting a little bit in the weeds, but the performance measures, the post-secondary enrollment, that's about where students attend after they're done with RPS, not enrolling in our post-secondary classes. >> No, it's where they end up afterwards. >> Is there a different way to de word that so that people aren't confused by that? >> Post-secondary enrollment. I'll give that some thought. >> Okay. And then the May graduation, is that the current year or would that be the prior year? >> Prior. >> Okay. >> It's It's when the state releases that in graduation rates are one of those measures that even though we, of course, track what's happening with our kids, you don't know if a student actually graduated or not until we get the full data file from the state because, of course, if they transfer to another district, it doesn't mean they dropped out. >> So, it's state data that we're evaluating in May. Got it. Thank you. Okay. Wonder if it's post-RPS enrollment. Maybe that's what brings look at. >> Yeah, that's good. >> I'll find some kind of a term. >> Okay. All right, so we'll revisit this at the next meeting with comments uh from board members in the meantime. More questions? All right, our next prep for action item is related. It's the 2027 school board meeting dates. Um since the superintendent identified dates in his [clears throat] ABCD, where we are discussing things, we thought it would also be appropriate to do a uh first approval of our dates for next year. We usually do it in the fall, and then if necessary, we do an update at our first meeting in January. Um so uh we're following the same cadence of uh two meetings a month. You will see uh in some months we're only meeting for uh once. That accommodates um holidays, particularly in the months of July and um November. Um all of the meetings next year are at 5:30 p.m. because we do not uh have any um electoral dates or primaries with one exception, which is our truth and taxation that must begin at 6:00 p.m. And you'll also see that there are no study sessions listed as we've done this year. Um we've really not scheduled study sessions unless there was a specific need uh for one, and we can always do that as as part of a specific notice as we've done in the past. So any Given that, any questions? >> Dr. Work. >> Yeah, I just like to make a comment. I think this is really, really helpful. Um my early years in the board, it was basically just block out every Tuesday for the rest of my life. Devoted to board. And some of those early early months, we were having board meetings every single week. And this is so much more efficient. We're getting a lot done. And I I really appreciate it. I hope my fellow board members do as well, especially those of you who like to travel. Anything else? All right. >> I request 5 minute recess. >> Absolutely. So, at we'll take this up at our next meeting in action and we have a request for a 5 minute recess at we'll return at 6:58 p.m. >> Mhm. >> action item facility strategy recommendation and financing plan. The board discussed this item at a June 9th study session and under prep for action at the July 21st meeting. Um, I'll read the resolution and then we'll open discussion or further questions. >> [clears throat] >> Be it resolved that the school board of Independent School District number 535 approves the coordinated facility strategy recommended by the administration including relocating the majority of CTECH programming from leased space at Rochester Community and Technical College to Century, John Marshall, and Mayo High Schools. Combining the Churchill K-2 and Hoover 3-5 programs into a single K-5 school located at Hoover without changing elementary attendance boundaries and relocating about half of Hoover's early learning classrooms to Gage Elementary. Relocating the middle school alternative learning center to the existing Churchill building and constructing an addition at Churchill for the Rochester Academy for Independent Living. Renovating the Education Service Center as the long-term location for Phoenix Academy. Temporarily relocating Phoenix Academy to Friedell during construction and placing Friedell on the market after Phoenix Academy returns to the renovated education service center and continuing the relocation of RPS Girls Gymnastics in Friedell to One Athletics. Be it further resolved that the school board approves the recommended financing framework for an estimated $44,560,000 capital investment consisting of $20,572,958 in long-term facilities maintenance revenue, $14,970,900 $14,970,954 through a lease purchase agreement or certificates of participation for the rail addition, $6 million from the district's committed facilities reserve, and $3,016,088 as a temporary use of the unassigned general fund balance expected to be offset by proceeds from the sale of Friedell. The financing framework does not include capital facilities bonds and is structured to result in no net increase to the district's property tax rate. Be it finally resolved that the superintendent is authorized to proceed with the design, bidding, construction planning, and financing activities necessary to implement the approved facility strategy with contracts, financing documents, and other actions requiring separate school board approval to be brought before the board as required by law or board policy. Move approval. Second. It has been moved and seconded. Any questions or discussions or other comments, board members? Dr. Cook. >> Yeah, thank you, uh, Chair Nathan. So, I this, uh, this proposal has certainly generated a lot of community interest and is um, yet further evidence of the importance that our our schools play in our community. So, I I just wanted to take a moment to explain my reasoning. Um I'm going to be supporting uh the facilities redesign proposal. Um and the way that I look at this, one of the the primary purposes of [snorts] this board is balancing specific concerns of individual neighborhoods with the overall health of our public education system. This proposal strikes that balance. Um we are facing enrollment-driven financial pressures. And at that time um or because of that, we have a fiduciary obligation, in my mind, to optimize the utilization of our available facilities. And also to carry on with divesting assets that no longer serve our mission. Um crucially, this plan will enhance our operational efficiency while maintaining the current elementary school attendance boundaries. This offers meaningful stability to the families um and our current our current families while looking ahead and retaining some elementary capacity for expected population growth in the northwest. Uh furthermore, this plan enables critical long-overdue investments in our students. Frankly, I'm not interested in continuing to operate the Rail and Phoenix Academy programs in facilities that feel perpetually temporary. These students and families deserve a similar measure of stability that our elementary families um are able to receive with this plan. Providing educationally appropriate spaces that reflect this district's commitment to them is a key objective of this plan and a key reason that this facilities redesign initiative was included by this board as a specific objective of the superintendent's most recent academic year. That was back last July. Accomplishing these upgrades in a cost-neutral way required making tough decisions to use available resources without increasing the expected net tax burden. And in my mind, this is an example of responsible planning. I also I I just I wanted to address briefly the alternative of keeping and renovating Friedell. I understand there's a lot of people that question the proposal of avoiding an indoor air quality project at Friedell um that is going to require some capital investment. But pouring uh elsewhere, I mean. Pouring millions into an aging facility with significant deferred maintenance is simply not a wise use of taxpayer funds. Given our forecasted deficits, committing to Friedell would exacerbate our fiscal pressure in the out years and would inevitably come at the expense of our core educational mis- mission. Uh divesting Friedell preserves our future financial flexibility ensuring we can adequa- adequately resource our teachers and classrooms with a realistic number of students rather than sinking those funds into maintaining the status quo brick and mortar footprint. And then lastly, uh I just wanted to address the concerns of the Churchill Hoover community specifically. I recognize the sense of loss that this change brings to that community. Um as someone with four kids of my own in the district and who made a very intentional decision on which neighborhood to put roots down in in our community I completely validate the families who chose that neighborhood because the K-2 and 3-5 model resonated with them. They thought it was a good fit for their families, and those preferences are entirely valid. Uh and I'm I I find myself sorry that this proposal will mean changing a model that so many have embraced. I'm hopeful that uh that the changes um will be navigable, and I'm confident that efforts will be made to make these transitions as smooth as possible. Um but it it's not going to change the fundamental nature of what is being proposed. Still, when weighing the district's realities and obligations, I believe this proposal is the most responsible decision for the district. Um and for these reasons, I plan to support the plan. So, that's all I have. Thank you. >> Director Barlow. >> For me, uh words like community and neighborhood uh speak to connections often times based on proximity, identity, and shared goals or values. Um the drivers of change which were identified uh are real. They're not imagined. I think most of us are familiar with them. Declining enrollment, deferred maintenance upon many of our buildings, uh our programs outgrowing or and then a projected 8.3 million-dollar general fund uh gap. So, my thoughts are this. I am hopeful that program and grade level relocations will not diminish the district's commitment and ability to provide high-quality education at all grade levels. For me, that perhaps is uh one of the most important things and drivers of uh the reason why I will uh vote in support of uh the recommendation. And I also want to acknowledge um I ran uh to become a member of the school board primarily as uh an individual who did not believe that as a member of a represented group, as a pastor who saw the challenges of many of the parishioners of my congregation, uh I potentially ran with a one-dimensional view of how it would benefit those that uh I um dealt with on a regular basis, neighbors, if you will. But, upon being elected to the school board, I quickly came to realize that we don't have the leisure of simply representing a particular school and or neighborhood, uh but we have a shared responsibility uh for over 17,000 uh children. I don't know how many families that represents. And a fiduciary responsibility that uh we would be negligent if we simply made decisions based on what was popular and or uh what elicited or garnered the majority of emails uh and the passion in which uh those individuals uh presented. It is important, however, to fully acknowledge that uh voices are heard, uh voices are respected, and that uh we will continue to work to prove uh to uh various communities that this is a decision that only serves as a model of what can occur when a district, when administrators, when board members are challenged to make hard decisions and we step up to the plate and do so. So, I will be voting in support of this recommendation. >> Dr. McLaughlin. Um I agree with my colleagues say, so I don't necessarily want to be repetitive here, but I think it's important to recognize that this has not been a quick decision. It's something the district started looking at a year ago and it's about the district-wide facility needs. And there've been some difficult trade-offs, but I think that this proposal, and I do plan to vote in favor of it, comes down on the side of not changing the boundaries. I think that's significant for our our students and our families. I also think it's important to recognize that this is a coordinated plan and that we can't pick and choose from the various pieces of this, that all of these things are working together um to come up with a plan that meets the district's but long-term facility needs. I think it's also really important to point out that the no net increase in our property tax rate. I think that that's important uh for our district and for our community to uh to create a plan that fits that category as well. Um thinking about what my colleagues were talking about in terms of students, um I think it's, you know, it's an important obligation to do what's best for all of our students, but I think back to the I think every year we go through the state School Board Association ethics and I do believe that meeting the needs of all of our students is not only a practical need of ours and something we need to hold true to, but also an ethical need as our responsibility as school board members. It's an ethical need to meet the needs of all of our students. And I think about that in terms of um our community in terms of what our community looked like in the past, perhaps when some of these buildings were built, and then our present needs and also our future needs. Um and all of those things are important, but recognizing that there's been a significant change in our community, perhaps from when some of these buildings were built in the '60s or '70s to um present day, and then also our obligation to think about the future of the district both in terms of facilities and remaining financially viable. I also think that this plan recognizes that we've had some discussion at the board table about uh current enrollment and the likely trends of future enrollment. Um that we anticipate a decrease in our enrollment based on birth rates and the way um our community is evolving. And some of that relates to you know, change is difficult, but I also think that this plan, again with some trade-offs, but I think it is the best plan in terms of um a word that I came up came across over the weekend when I was reading some of my school board work was right-sizing our district to our current community and current enrollment trends that we anticipate in the future, that um a lots of schools are going through this right-sizing concept in a variety of reasons. Some are having to close schools, and we're not doing that, but we're right-sizing our district for our community and for the buildings that we own. I've always looked at Friedell and I came on the board when the decisions [clears throat] about what to do with Friedell has been on I think it's been an underlying current the whole time I've been on the board that the Friedell middle district wide program was terminating but that we were using that space otherwise. I've never viewed it as a neighborhood school and I never viewed it as a permanent site for the programs that are currently that what we're using it for and I think it's important to recognize that it's a time to make a permanent space to meet the needs of the students in that program and I I think it's perhaps long past due and something we we I know was on the radar but I'm glad we're doing that and I'm thinking that it perhaps should have been done sooner. Um so I think ultimately this is the best use of our facilities it meets all the needs of our it meets the needs of all of our students and I think it's important to recognize that as we sit here at the board table we don't have any alternative other than look to the future of our district and I think that this plan again with difficult trade-offs but we need to look at the bigger picture and I believe this plan meets those needs. Director Marvin >> I can't add much to what's been said already the reasons the logic behind this plan that has been months and months in the making and the importance of as was mentioned doing what's right right for all the kids in our district. I can say from a personal experience I raised three children here in Rochester public schools. Because of changes the district made they went to three different high schools and it's emotional. You you grow connected to the school your child is going to. And in our family, it ended up being three different high schools. And they're fine. They're raising their kids, well, two of them are, in this community. Um you adjust, you adapt, but at the end of the day uh we as parents, I think, are responsible for ensuring making sure our kids know they're going to be fine. I know that the Churchill and Hoover staff, along with the school district, are going to do everything they can to make that transition a little bit earlier than the Churchill students thought to Hoover, make it as as gentle and as seamless and as positive as possible. They'll be going together. Their teachers will be going with them. There'll be an unfamiliar sort of unfamiliar building, but very familiar people and friends will be traveling together. And at the end of the day, this board has to do what's right for this district, and I absolutely believe these are the right choices to make. >> One of the uh things that struck me in the materials that we we have provided and and from those members of the community who don't follow every decision that we've that we've made as a board, I I think this process and this decision um has generated maybe the most amount of information, the most detailed of information, um the most background along the way of what was being considered and then why alternatives were being um uh considered instead of original plans, and the most specific and direct response to the feedback that we received along the way from stakeholders. Um, I think it was a 50-page document that was in our um our our assembly agenda item with every single response that was received on the feedback form. Um, I think I counted about 39 or 40 emails that the board had has received. I know I've read them all. I know my fellow board members have mentioned that they've also read them. I know that the superintendent and and staff have issued multiple FAQs and and Q&A documents to respond to questions that may not have originally been addressed in the materials that were presented in the recommendation, but were uh addressed in the follow-up Q&As. So, I believe my questions have been answered. I also believe that the questions that the community brought up to for for consideration in the in the recommendations have also been answered. But, what still sticks with me is this one comment that came in this uh document that was originally presented to us in the um July or in the June 9th study session when they were talking about the conversations that they were having with stakeholders. And it was one of the the RAIL uh stakeholders who said the physical setting sends a message about how students are valued. And what our Phoenix Academy, our highest needs students have had to go without for years in that setting. The description consistently that people feel people say it feels like a prison. And that students who have needs for the services in that facilities, their parents won't send them there because of that impression. That has to change. Um, we've met so many RAIL students at graduation and at other events and have seen um what they strive for and what they're capable of. And we've also heard about how the facility at Friedell does not fully allow them to meet those needs. And we had uh Travis Bain and our middle school ALC people uh our staff here talk about how many more students they could serve for whom a current middle school uh environment does not match their needs because they don't have the capability of doing that at Friedell. So, we're we are are addressing the needs of three of our highest needs groups of students through this facilities change. And I think it really does send a message to those programs who um I understand in the past may not have believed that we prioritized them and they had every reason to believe believe so if you look at the number of years in which there has not been a facilities recommendation that has improved the facilities for those three programs. So, I hope that through our action tonight they will believe that we believe in their programs and that we believe in what can be provided to those students. Um I too um feel and empathize with the Churchill uh families and the Churchill community. I was a Churchill parent for a year. When we first moved to Rochester in 2000 we looked for a house, we looked at the quality of of schools and we bought a house northeast and we happened to be in the Churchill in the Churchill boundary. I was a first-time public school parent sending my kid to kindergarten for the first time and I sent him to Churchill. And God bless Stephanie Lamb if she's out there because she was his kindergarten teacher and we had a fabulous year. And then I got pregnant with our second child and realized they'd be 5 years apart and they would never be in the same or they wouldn't be in the same elementary school. So, I started looking at options and we made the decision to move my oldest child to Lincoln K-8. So, I went from a K-2 and put my my baby in a K-8 school. That same child, we also made the decision to move them out of Lincoln K-8 to Kellogg Middle School when he was a sixth grader because the curriculum was was better for him at the time. What I learned from that experience, similar to what uh Dr. Marvin said, is that every building in this district is ready to welcome every student, no matter where they come from, no matter who they are. And hearing from our Churchill Hoover um staff, the ones who will travel with our K-2s, and the ones that are at Hoover now, those Hoover 3-5 uh staff can't wait to have those K-2s in the building. I know what the experience was at Lincoln with the teachers being able to have a relationship with students for for eight uh for from kindergarten through eighth grade. Those eighth grade teachers wanted to meet those kindergarteners on day one because they knew where they were going to get them eventually. And that's the kind of experience we see in our other K-5 buildings. So, I know it can't be reassuring to the Churchill uh parents who are still feeling uh trepidation about the trans- the the the the change, but I personally, and I think all of our this board, the superintendent, we are all committed to making sure that that experience for you is positive, and that um you're being welcomed into a community you're already a part of. And then I think about what we heard from the Sunset Terrace um community when it was a possibility that we were going to use their building as part of our facilities change. And I have to contrast that with um I have to contrast the decision we're making tonight with the impact that would have been on the 487 students at Sunset Terrace who would not be moving together to a community they were already a part of. That Sunset Terrace community would have been shattered. Students would have to be sent to four or five different schools of which they are not a part of now. Boundaries would have had to be reset including for perhaps some students who aren't yet Sunset Terrace. And we would lose the capacity that we have at Gibbs that we have right now for the growth that we're anticipating on the northwest side. So I think we are hitting the right notes to have our physical settings show that we value all of our students. Um the renovations at Hoover will give the Churchill students fresh classrooms that meet their their size and their needs. The early learning uh classrooms at Gage open up another pathway for families to send their children perhaps to a school from pre-K all the way through fifth grade if they choose at a Gage building just like they could do at Hoover right now. Um and the and again the the long-standing needs of our of our three highest needs student programs are being met. So um for that and for the other reasons that frankly the other options that we were looking at were far more expensive. Um I I I look at the $40 million at a minimum cost to build a new building for Phoenix which would be of course a wonderful thing for that program. But we can give them the same um experience we can give them the same upgrades in the upgrades that we're doing at ESC for $19 million. So the difference uh am I right? $19 million? Um the difference in cost is is right there is is is a fundamental difference. So that that and among those reasons is the reasons I'll be voting in support of this tonight. Board members does anybody have any other comments or questions? Super uh uh Director McLaughlin. >> Um it occurred to me while you were speaking that the one thing that I haven't for heard from any of my colleagues that I think is important to talk about is that um and I think it reflects a little bit on our experience yesterday with the responding to the active threat um planning and and training is that I'm confident that all of our students are safe in all of our buildings. I know that isn't the experience of all of our students every day but the district is committed to that safety at all of our buildings and I don't think that changes anywhere in the district and I think it's important to recognize that um we're committed to that. >> Any other questions or comments? All right. Hearing none. All those in favor of the resolution say I. I. Opposed? The resolution has been approved. We'll move on to our next action item which is the 2026-2027 student handbook. Um but before we get into the resolution, I believe there is a presentation. >> There is. Thank you, Chair Nathan. Uh ask Eric Johnson, our Chief of Schools, to um come to the podium. Um and I will hand him the magic clicker. Um Board members, the decision uh of the board to approve the student handbook, I think is an important one. Thank you for being willing to take it in a single meeting so that we can have it ready for the start of the school year. Um the uh changes that we've made in the handbook the this year compared to previous years um are going to be the subject of Eric's brief presentation. I do want to say the Chair and I um have very recently begun a discussion about the level of detail in the book and the degree to which it should do things like link to board policy. I want to commit to sustain that dialogue um as we look at further revisions for next year, but I'm grateful for your willingness to consider approving it this uh version tonight so that we can have the authority of the board approving this handbook as we uh get into the start of the school year very soon. So, thank you, Eric. >> Good evening. I'm pleased to present the proposed 2026-2027 student handbook for your consideration. The handbook serves as an important resource for students, families, and staff by clearly communicating expectations, student rights, and responsibilities, and the policies that guide our schools. This year's revisions continue our effort to ensure the handbook is clear, current, and aligned with both district policies and state guidance. I'd like to acknowledge that much of the work reflected in this year's handbook was led by our former director of positive behavioral supports, Angie McAndrews, before she departed for a superintendency in another district. I'm grateful for her thoughtful contributions, and my role has been to help bring that work across the finish line for the board's consideration this evening. Student handbook highlights. While many sections of the handbook remain unchanged, there are meaningful updates this year. First, we've incorporated model language from the Minnesota School Boards Association in several sections to ensure the handbook reflects current legal guidance and best practice. We've also reorganized portions of the handbook to improve clarity for students and families. Attendance expectations, cell phone expectations, and our PBIS framework have all been moved into the student behavior section, creating a more logical and user-friendly organization. Finally, we've refined the descriptions and examples of level one and level two behaviors and the corresponding responses. These revisions are intended to provide greater consistency and understanding for students, families, and staff when addressing student behavior. This slide highlights the areas where we've aligned the handbook with current Minnesota School Boards Association model language. It's important to note that in almost every case, this content is not new. Rather than introducing new expectations or requirements, we've updated the handbook to reflect MSBA's current model language and ensure our handbook remains consistent with current legal guidance and best practices. The one exception is the um the inclusion of language related to student health seizure plans. While this topic has not previously appeared in our student handbook, supporting students with seizure plans is not a new practice throughout Rochester Public Schools. We've been implementing these supports for years. The revision of adding it to this document simply documents the existing practice within the handbook in alignment with MSBA. Overall, these updates represent refinements in language, organization, and alignment more than substantive changes in district practice. Continuous improvement. I'd like to close by emphasizing that while we're asking for approval of the handbook this evening, we don't view this as the end of the work. A student handbook is a living document. As we implement it throughout the school year, we continue to listen to feedback from students, families, staff, and administrators. When opportunities arise to improve clarity, consistency, or usability, we'll bring those refinements forward for for future revisions. We'll also continue to monitor updates to the MSBA Association's model language and, when appropriate, recommend revisions to keep our handbook aligned with current legal guidance and best practices. Tonight's action represents an important milestone but our commitment to continuous improvement and to maintaining alignment with the evolving guidance will continue well beyond this evening. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. >> Board members? Any questions or comments on the student handbook? Um Can we say something about the uh the way that you've rewritten it to align with the language access plan in terms of we're trying to make the the language clearer. >> Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. The this version of the board will call that we you reviewed a language access plan that commits to have all of our documents in the most easily understandable format possible for the intended users. And in practical terms that aims at a fifth grade reading level including for documents that are for adults. And so one of the things that our communications team is doing, we can't do every document at once, is revising the materials to reflect that. We're also doing a lot around translation and interpretation. And so this version of the handbook is a step in that direction in terms of the brevity of the language and the terminology that's utilized here. I don't actually want to suggest that it is fully reflective of that commitment, but given that this [clears throat] version of it needed to be completed soon enough to be in force for tonight's vote, there's still more that we can do, but it is one additional example of our commitment to continue working on that in the years ahead. >> Dr. Marvin. >> Yeah, I was really impressed with how clear it was. I appreciated to the in the appendix that you provided policies that were mentioned and people could click on them and get to the policies. When you when you do that you get to our whole policy site. Some of them are a little bit out of order a little bit but because it's electronic I'm assuming that with time that's going to get fixed too. But I I found it um I won't say it was fascinating reading but it was really informative and it was really well written. So, thank you. It wasn't a novel, but it was good, really good. Oh, Director Workman. >> Unfortunately, um nobody in this room or outside of this room aside from the parents involved have control over whether or not they read the handbook or not, but I would have really appreciated having had something like this when my kids were were going through school. Um I think it could be very helpful, very good discussion between parents and students so that everybody knows exactly what those expectations are, even if they do it in small chunks. So, this is great. I think it's you guys have done a fabulous job of putting it together. So, thank you. >> And can I I know in the past we used to print them out, send them home. Can you speak a little to where this will eventually be housed and found and how we will let students and parents know there's a handbook you need to read. >> You can find that right on the district website and all of our schools will be communicating where it's located as well. Um in the event that somebody would actually want a printed copy, they would have came here and be make sure that they were able to get one as well. >> And because our uh website allows for translation into multiple languages, they would be able to in real time translate the student handbook web page using the Google Translate function. Okay, that's great. Any other questions or comments, board members? Then hearing none, I'll read the resolution. Be it resolved that the school board of Independent School District 535 does hereby approve the 2026-27 student handbook. >> So moved. >> Second. >> It's been moved and [clears throat] seconded. All those in favor of the resolution say I. I. Opposed? The resolution has been approved. Thank you. And for other business, uh the current version of the ABCD is available in this agenda item for reference. Upcoming agenda items include on August 11th, we will be having a study session um for monitoring of our school board self-evaluation and our school board goal development for next year and a reminder that that is from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. On August 18th, at our regular meeting, we will discuss school board committee assignments for the next school year. We will have action on the 2026-2027 ABCD as well as uh we'll have action on the school board meeting dates we talked about tonight. And we will have a closed session on the superintendent leadership evaluation. Uh reminder that these are draft um until we approve the agenda at the meeting. Are there any additional agenda items board members would like to add for separate consideration? Hearing none, we'll move on to our meeting dates. We have um this August 11th meeting that is our next meeting study session that I mentioned was from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. I'd like to let the community know that it will not be held in the board room. It will instead be held in room 26, which is on the lower level of this building, because the board room will be in use that evening. Uh that also means that the meeting will not be live streamed or recorded. But the public is welcome to attend the meeting in person. We also have three regular meetings coming up. August 18th at 5:30, September 1st at 5:30, and September 15th at 5:30 p.m. and all of those meetings are here in the board room. And hearing no other business, this meeting is adjourned at 7:37 p.m. >> August 11th is in room 26. >> Yes, got it.