good evening everyone I want to welcome us all to the Rosal Area School Board regular meeting for Tuesday March 19th I called order uh clerk please call the role yes director bashki here Treasurer C here chair Anderson here director gaggin here director Johnson here CL CH is here great thank you okay any agenda adjustments for the evening There Are No Agenda adjustments thank you uh under announcements comments and recognitions we have some wonderful fantastic uh guests here this evening um I think we'll start things off with the Rosell Area High School National Merit scholar forend L i' welcome Ben to the podium actually come to the table please join us at the table welcome it's my honor to introduce Ben Lee a senior at Roseville area high school who has been named a National Merit finalist and and what does that mean according to the College Board last year more than 4.5 million High School juniors took the pat of those students students only 7,500 students were named finalists that's less than 1 of 1% of all students who took the pie s congratulations and welcome thank [Applause] you the chair all right um but yeah so do have you decided yet what you plan to do after you get out of high school uh I'm planning to go uh straight to college so have to go to school of minds and technology wonderful hi there um just a question um is is it true that your your your work um with the firebears is solely responsible for you being here today okay sorry I can't speak sorry to couldn't back clear sorry my bad no I'm I'm just uh I'm I'm playing around um I know you're with the the U firebear robotics team yeah um so um uh first of all I am big fan of the firebears robotics team um and uh you guys have done some excellent work um what's what major are you are you thinking about uh industrial engineering nice I I I think I think Dr Chu is uh GNA answer that was my PhD oh yeah oh cool yeah Georgia ATT so congratulations anything you want to just let us know or just um your experience or this process if you wrote something please feel go ahead give me a sec good evening members of the members of the Roseville School Board I incredibly humbled and honored by this recognition while I truly appreciate this acknowledgement this achievement is a confirmation of the support and encouragement I have received from my teachers counselors and Friends throughout my academic journey I am grateful to the school board for creating an environment that encourages academic excellence and provides students like me with the resources and opportunities to succeed I'm excited about the possibilities that lie ahead and I'm committed to making the most of every opportunity that comes my way thank you once again for this honor and for your continued support for of students in our district wow thank you I have one more I'm G to break right I'm going to call out your father congratulations yeah you must be very proud and I know that you possibly had a lot to do with his success and his studying over the years so y very very worth and if you ever if you ever want to come back and be a teacher please please come on back to Ros schools man something well Mike it that's what I was going right thank you very much congratulations congratulations much all right uh moving on to the 2024 Schmidt music band educator of the year and students in our All State uh honor jazz bands um our all kinds of Honor bands I will say pretend L yeah I'll let everyone come to the table before I read the intro if Jason if you could go to the p please and then Joe and students to the table any students you'd like to bring up the magic Podium Jason has a magic if there's not enough chairs just grab some more and bring them forward there's room for everyone if everyone can make room for all the students are on the table squeeze over everybody to make room no one needs to sit in the back row come on up there we go we can just share as folks are talking right also uh students um when you're talking make sure you're talking into a mic all right now I would like to introduce Jason Ratliff the retail sales manager for Schmidt music who is joining us this evening to present a much deserved award to one of our wonderful music educators Joe churchich welcome [Applause] thank you and and just to keep this kind of clear concise and short and sweet I'm going to read so we can get out here I have a tendency to just kind of wander as I am now so um hello my name is Jason Ratliff I'm with the Schmid Music Company I'm here tonight because I have the pleasure to recognize Joe churich on being awarded the Schmid music educator of the year this award of remarkable achievement comes from a process by which an educator is chosen from three Fields band Orchestra and Choir The Selection process starts with hundreds of nominations from across the Midwest five or six states and it's paired down and picked by a panel of Educators being nominated by colleagues and then by being selected by last year's winners this demonstrates a testament to Joe's outstanding contribution and the high regard in which he is held within the music education Community a unanimous decision further underscores and that's right it was picked unanimously uh underscores the consensus among his peers in regarding uh that regards his exceptional quality as an educator Church uh Joe churcher's passion for music and commitment to nurturing the talents of young musicians have left a lasting impression on countless students and colleagues alike his dedication to the craft of teaching is undoubtedly deserving of this prestigious award please extend my heartfelt congratulations to him on a well-deserved recognition Schmid music's educator of the year for [Applause] 2024 all right look at that Joe you have the floor is anything we could ask Joe some questions or the students or you want to introduce students I you to put me on the spot now um they probably can introduce themselves yeah they themselves so uh I asked the students to come with because really none of this is possible without them I I think this belongs to them more than it belongs to me um I did want to just I'm not going to read this whole thing because we don't have time but find it um I I did I I just lost my mom about 5 weeks ago and so I did want to uh just dedicate this to her because she supported me in my musical Endeavors more than anybody in my life um my dad came to appreciate me being a music uh musician and a music teacher later on in my career and he would often chaperone Jazz B trips to the um Minnesota Zoo but it really was my mom that pushed me into it and then every time I doubted whether I should continue on my career path um she was the one that said no you were meant to do this so uh keep doing that keep doing what you're doing and the other thing I wanted to say is that I'm not here because of my successes I'm here because of my failures um you know when I graduated from the University of Minnesota Paul hack who is the the uh music educator professor of music education at the time had a running joke where he would give all of the uh music education teachers a diploma on the way out and say congratulations you you are now minimally equipped to do no certain amount of harm and in other words you don't know what you don't know until you've been out there and uh so you know I think about all of all of the things that I've learned from and all the people that have supported me I'm looking around the room at people that I've have been my administrators who've supported me and people who are wearing the RAS band's uh sweatshirt in the school board that have supported the the music department and and that's why I've been successful is because of all of these guys and my mom and all of the people in the in the district and admin and school board and everyone else so really I want to thank you guys for this this as much as as Schmidt and and all of the other people that have been there for me throughout the years so thank you thank you students anything you do you want I I'd like to hear your names if you could start please and what grade you're in and and what instrument are you playing to say that too my name is Aaron wals um I'm in seventh grade and I play Alto Sachs um my name is Spencer gone I'm in eighth grade I play the altto Sachs in the clarinet my name is Phil hug I'm in seventh grade and I play trumpet my name's Ronin Keel I'm in eighth grader and I play trumpet uh I'm Isaiah GS I'm in eighth grade I play baritone and valve trombone there you go I'm Andrew lenhardt I'm in sixth grade and I play percussion um I'm shahana sakar I'm in a grade and I play trumpet um I'm Riley wal and I'm in eighth grade and I play Piano thank you [Applause] wonderful anybody what school what school are you at Joel thank you for being here sorry go ahead I was trying to be nice okay let other people speak but since no one else wants to speak um let me just say thank you um for everything you you you've have done you know for these kids and uh the kids that um have come before um I have been um a a big fan of this music program and um I I I do stand by the when i' say to people that Roseville area schools has the best musicam program in the state hands down um I I have been very fortunate to um have raised my favorite music teacher um my uh my oldest will graduate this year uh from the University of Nebraska Lincoln with a degree in music um uh music Ed um and and that was because of the people that um they met here um through this program and so I I I thank you for being part um of of this you had mentioned that that um this is uh that this award is um uh about the the people here it please and and and and I thank you I thank you for that um but it doesn't happen if um very special people like you aren't making a difference so thank you thank you thanks [Applause] I appreciate you being here um under difficult circumstances um your passion dedication to the school district I mean I I think it's legendary I've I've heard of your name ever since we moved into this school district so it's just thank you thank you again what an honor uh thank you guys thank you all of you for being here it's a wonderful tribute to your mother thank you thank you so if I may car's made a request for communications director if we could please grab a very quick photograph with this group and then Ben if we could do the same with you could we do that quickly maybe against this wall carry or where would you like us sure any school members want to be in okay any Schoolboard member who would like to be in the picture as well picture we supposed to be yes okay charge on in there kids get on in there get on in there you guys are in there you're more important can see me I can see you okay all right about a lot of pressure taking pictures other people okay she's good turn sideways a little bit all [Music] right you know used to be people don't even know what he did okay so we're gonna continue the meeting director bashki and director Johnson thanks Melissa colleagues thank you yeah all right I'm moving on in the agenda uh summary of community input received for Action items I did not receive anything specific tonight's don't have any action agenda anybody nope no okay all right uh that moves us to the consent agenda we do not have any retirements this evening um I will entertain a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda moved okay second a second right great any further discussion all those in favor say I I I all those opposed right consent agenda is passed and uh reading gifts this evening will be director gogin thank you Kitty thank you uh wor fortunate as always we're very fortunate with our community being generous to our schools a betua education center received from Monarch Health Management funds for sponsorship for Shan Johnson's Big Band experience ederton Elementary School received from Eaglebrook Church um funds for the community needs Falcon Heights Elementary received from Stuart Parker uh funds for student meal debt Park you Center Schools Reed from your cause blackbot on behalf of Val valde funds for the principal discretion Roseville area high school received a number of gifts uh one from Heather Wally for uh funds for the weight room from Ras girl soccer booster club funds for developmental Academy coach um AGR Queen uh EG rolls for the PEB haiv uh fundraiser Stacy tidb donated funds for family and consumer science department and Bobby Alcott also funds for the family and consumer science department thank you to all the contributors um that help our schools have opportunities and uh resources thank you director Goggins all right moving on to reports and non-action items um up is our intent to issue long-term facilities maintenance bonds we have uh director Sher Thompson and jod zespa from Ellers will be joining us welcome thank you even good evening so yes you have a we have a familiar face with us this evening jod zpa in the nice new space in the nice new space I said they Ellers and jod specifically worked on this project yes yeah we had to kind of switch gears a little bit for this one but yeah all turned out so fabulously we're excited yeah right we are very excited about that um I think all of uh the board members know you approved a long term facilities maintenance plan annually uh part of funding that plan is we do a combination of Levy as you go and then we work with um Ellers to help us uh structure debt or sell bonds so that we can do a lot more uh now and rather than deferring it later so uh as a part of the levy process last September uh you approved um issuing bonds uh long-term facility maintenance bonds um to fund the projects uh in 2526 let me get my ear straight um so uh you had authorized that at that time so now we're getting ready for the bond sale so this is informational this evening I'll let jod speak to that but we are looking at selling uh 17,345 th000 in in bonds to fund our um all of our Renovations at edw over the next two summers great so I will hand it off thank you Sherry so in addition to your uh annual Levy that you approve each year we do issue bonds usually every other year just to save on cost of issuance and that um Cadence works out pretty well when in conjunction with the MD process too you also do still get a little bit of state aid as part of this program so you still qualify for about $200,000 of state aid so the state helps a little bit with financing these projects which is great so uh with that I will just kind of highlight a few things in the pre-sale report that you have in front of you on page one just pointing out that we're financing the Deferred maintenance projects that are included in your 10-year plan that you approved and that was approved by the commissioner of education so they need to approve your plan every year they approved the issuance of bonds also and so both of those approval processes were completed along with your resolution last year so after you took action on that then all of that got submitted to mde and they approved moving forward on page two I'll just point out a couple of things um the rating that you'll have we'll be working with Moody's again on your rating and you actually get two ratings on your bond so the first rating is your State Credit enhanced rating all districts in the state of Minnesota get that nice high double A1 rating and that's based upon the state's credit rating so the state as you know is currently in excellent Financial condition they have the a AAA rating which is the highest that Moody gives and so under the State Credit enhancement program each School District just gets one notch down at that a A1 but that's really helpful to you in getting um more uh Underwriters and investors interested in your bonds and they guarantee the payment of your debt should you not be able to make a payment so it makes it even more secure than the general obligation debt that it's already being issued under your underlying rating uh has moved up so you're currently at a single A2 so we've been excited to see some progress on that over the last couple of years so just to point that out again and then in the middle of the page we will be uh soliciting competitive bids like we always do right now we've been getting a lot of demand for municipal bonds and so interest rates have come down a little bit as compared to last fall they went up to a little bit higher levels but now they've come back down nicely in the new calendar year and then um we'll talk a little bit about the premium pricing that is there's some language included on that and then the bottom of the page we are always monitoring your existing debt for any refinancing or what are called refunding opportunities in the Public Finance world and you guys have done that on a number of occasions and saved money for your taxpayers so just know that we're always looking out for you on that we're in communication with uh Sher and Jenny on that on a regular basis so nothing right now but we'll we'll always stay on that on page three then um a couple of regulatory requirements page four the other service providers that are working in conjunction with us on this issue so Kennedy and Graven as your bond counsel Bond Trust Services as the paying agent you're required to have a paying agent as part of the State Credit enhancement program and then the rating agency is Moody's on page five we show uh steps in the process so the resolution as Sher mentioned was authorized by you last September um we're presenting the pre-sale report tonight just so that you have some updated estimates going into the bond sale and then we'll be um going through a due diligence call to review the official statement that is like the prospectus that goes out to investors so we'll be um scheduling that for the week of April along with another call with the rating agency we'll distribute the official statement on April 11th we're scheduled to receive the bids then on the morning of your April 23rd meeting and then would present those results to you that evening and scheduled to close on the bonds on May 16th so that's when you would have your funds available so uh we just have a few financing schedules attached so page six is the sources and uses and you'll notice uh the power amount of the bonds at 17,34 45 we've been getting very large premiums on bond issues lately so this is our best estimate of what we expect to see the underwriter offer Us in addition to the power amount of the bonds that can be used toward projects so you'll see in the uses of fund section issuing 17 milon 345 we're expecting to have about 18.5 million available for projects and I know you guys have a long list of there's been a lot of projects accomplished but there's uh still plenty to do so that'll be welcome news if we do get that sizable premium which we expect to it won't be exactly that dollar amount but we expect it to be pretty sizable uh page seven is the uh schedule of payments so principal and interest payments and we're expecting to pay it off relatively quickly you've had some nice growth in your tax base and so we can fit this into a pretty uh Short Bond term and still keep your tax rate nice and level and you'll see that on page eight there are lots of numbers on this page I'll just draw your attention to the upper leftand corner the interest rate we're expecting on this bond issue is about 3.41% so we've been kind of planning for 5% rates for a while we still have those factored in for the future but it's looking like we'll um we'll be around under 4% for sure for this bond issue which will be great um we show your tax capacity value changes in the values your existing debt the uh lease Levy that you have and then future uh debt and in the um uh one of the tiny columns here you can see your estimated ltfm a and how that's changed a little bit over time but around that $200,000 level right now and then finally the right hand side shows the tax rates that we expect over time and you can see that a little bit better on the chart on page 9 where we're showing uh your tax rates for your capital and debt levies so not all of your school taxes school taxes uh education funding in Minnesota is complicated school taxes are very complicated so you have two different tax bases that your taxes are spread on so we can't put it all on one nice chart but these are the majority a big share of your overall School District levies and this is the um these are the levies that we monitor to keep things nice and stable for your taxpayers so with this issue we're still expecting the tax rates to be nice and level for a period of time and then we have a nice drop down starting with taxes payable in 2038 which provides some capacity for future needs we certainly have some flexibility will be along the way too if if um some needs uh arise and you need to take a look at some financing but for now we just got we have that nice level tax rate until that point in time and that's what we have as updates no action needed because you guys have already taken action last fall so really just an informational report to kind of show you how things are looking now that we're getting closer to the timing of the bond sale question so April 23rd thir will be the uh the action dat yes got it that'll be exciting that'll be exciting maybe not as exciting as our visitors before me but yes try our best yes well I just want to thank you for your expertise you've been a great partner your communication is excellent just really really appreciate you and the relationship you certainly have with Sher along with Sherry's good work and then I was wondering sh if this would be a time could you just give comment to the inflation on what $18 million bias in terms of edw compared to 5 years ago yeah that's a that's a really good point um and that's why it's it's also um important to see as jod had pointed out as far as how that Levy impacts um our taxpayers but when we did our facility study back before the ref Bond building Bond referendum in 2017 we were estimating that we um an elementary school to rehab an elementary school would be about $8 or9 million by the time we started with as far as deferred maintenance we knew we had a lot of deferred maintenance um I believe that uh when we started with burm Hall it was just under 10 million so now our construction our total cost like at edw is is about $17 million W because we saw incredible double digigit 30% in inflation in construction while that's stay stabilized we don't necessarily see those costs declining um but that has and it has had an impact and that's part of the reason also that not just timelines and trying to squeeze a project in during the summer during that summer period to complete an entire building but also to spread that cost across two years um because those those costs have almost doubled thank you is that part of the reason why we also go for bonding rather than waiting for the money so that we can do it earlier so it doesn't continue to increase inflationary cost that's part of it and and right and just to complete and and it's also nice to be able to complete a building and then move on and especially for our summer programming because we could have buildings torn apart for multiple years but this way we're able to focus our summer programming we're able to accommodate um our students in our programs in the summer and if we can finish up at a building and then move on to the next one it makes it much easier for programming as well but that the cost is a factor yeah and I think the other thing that we talk about is getting that money up front and then spreading it out over time really spreads it across the people who are benefiting from the use of those facilities I mean if you if the taxpayers had to pay for it all in one year right that would be a tremendous amount of of of money but kind of spreading it out over time then kind of spreads it out over the people who benefit from the use of your facilities right because they're well used by all of your community members and you enjoy nice low interest rates as tax exempt borrowing with uh General obligation debt with that nice State Credit enhancement guarantee so um so it it makes sense to to uh to not put it off and try to peac meal it over a number of years to fit it into uh that type of schedule this just makes a lot more sense financially and then as we get the tranches of the cash right and I think you advis us too on what what do we do with it what do we stick we don't just stick it in a 75% bearing checking account over infinity plus right what what instruments do we use I'm just curious or does it vary depending on So within your investment policy that's approved by the board they um have some options um so important is security but you want liquidity right especially if things change as part of the construction schedule so all of those things are taken into consider ation right now treasuries are yielding pretty high rates especially some of the shorter term rates are even better than the longer term rates so kind of um kind of a mix and those are pretty liquid so I think that's one option that's been pretty helpful yes and we we work with Carl Sanderson too right so we kind of know our draw schedule yeah and it's easier Qui also on long-term facility maintenance because of the timing of the project it's not you know five years four years so um so that that is very helpful knowing what our cash needs are yeah than I was just curious thank yeah I'm thrilled with our our A2 rating we as a board we have that goal of making sure that that on assigned fund balance you know reserves are going up and up that's got to help in this case yeah that's really what was holding you back from um getting a higher rating for booties and as that has improved you've seen the Improvement in your rating which has been fantastic so and we'll continue to push on that anybody else all right thank you thanks for having me here this is just such a beautiful facility I'm so happy to see it yeah thank you okay moving on to the school climate report we have Jake Vonda Lindy and Melissa Sonic here thank you welcome thank you for having us this evening as um as you heard we are uh we're here to do the 2022 23 School climate report and I'm Jake vindi director of student achievement and along with me is Lissa Sonic familiar face good to be the assistant superintendent rary schools and thanks for having us this evening we'll walk you through the information in the report we're first going to start off with a slide that highlights our district goals and key strategies and the areas that you see um in teal are the areas that are really impactful for this report so deliver a challenging joyful and safe learning environment support learning learner resiliency for student social and emotional learning and mental health building a culture of belonging where all students feel welcomed included and safe partnering with families in the community to support students success and cultivating and maintaining Community Trust so in this year there is three sections to the report we're going to have some information from our tripod staff survey um we'll walk you through some of our discipline our student discipline referrals and suspensions data and then um introduce to you our social emotional learning and Equity survey so I'm G without further Ado I'll hand it over to Melissa all right thanks Jake uh so one way that we measure School climate is through staff stakeholder feedback uh we do that using the tripod survey which we've been using since 201819 uh the results that we're going to explore this evening as Jake said are from the 2223 school year so it's looking back um so as a reminder last year we implemented some improvements to the tripod survey you see them listed here all staff were invited to take the survey we're able to sort the data now by licensed staff and Rider support uh we added some new questions um and there's a logic model so the staff get the right questions that are more inclusive of raider support staff as as they're taking the survey there's an option at the end of the survey to sort the results um for um if staff identify as bipo or if they choose not to it's an optional um element but then we can sort the data by bipac staff taking the survey uh we're also able to separate the feedback by principal and Associate principles and there is a comment box that has limited characters that ask questions regarding School leadership so the data is broken down into the following categories that you see here evaluation Quality quality of professional learning community ities professional development quality School leadership and schoolwide Academic Press and organizational Effectiveness it's also good to knowe that the scores for school leadership and schoolwide Academic Press are averaged together to produce a school's organizational Effectiveness score yes I'm sorry what is school Academic Press um it's about like um our um how we're moving forward our academics like academic high expectations maybe another perceived rigor in the school yep got it you good question um so what I'll do is I'll share some data trends for each category and then I'll close with some insights um after you've had a chance to process the different categories visually um you're also going to see comparisons across years so the comparisons and I apologize for how small that is as I see it on the big screen right um but the comparisons start with 201819 and then they go to 22 23 so even if you can't see the um exact numbers you're kind of seeing that Trend over time uh the scale ranges from one which is the lowest to five which is the highest um and then I'll also highlight a strength in each category so what you see here is as it relates to evaluation quality one element U that was a strength in this category is the criteria on which I'm evaluated is clear if we go to the next category um this is the data for quality of PLC use time PLC stands for professional learning communities a strength in this area was we look at student work and brainstorm together about how to help students perform more successfully next is PD quality or professional development a strength in this category which doubled from the year before which I thought was interesting um is this professional development helped me to better meet the learning needs of my students next is this around school leadership uh two areas of strength in this category that were actually tied for the element that came through the strongest was school leadership supports teachers in their efforts to improve teaching and learning and school leadership is willing to have difficult conversations to improve teaching and learning this next one here is schoolwide Academic Press um a celebration in this category is Teachers here have strong skills to produce meaningful student learning and last is organizational Effectiveness uh a reminder that schoolwide Academic Press and school leadership are average to produce this category and have already highlighted strengths in those two areas so now that we've kind of seen like this balcony um highlevel overview I'll share some additional insights um we've got the data sorted into three categories um based on significant to less significant changes um we'll start with the quality of PLC time use like I said PLC stands for professional learning communities we trended down in this category this was actually the biggest decrease that we saw of 36 uh this was an outlier in the data plc's were really a focus area for us um as a district from about 2018 to 2021 as we focused more on Avid and English language arts and Grading for Equity this is a reminder that we also need to keep that momentum that we had going around um plc's as standard work um we've done this this past year in principal meetings but we'll also look ahead to what this could look like during the 2425 school year as well um new this year as I mentioned we're also able to sort our data by by P staff when sorting the data this way um School leadership increased from 3.78 to 4.12 uh this is an increase of about 42 and would be our highest scoring category and increase this also connects to our strategic plan um goal to retain bipac Educators um and then organizational Effectiveness also increased from 3.72 to 3.92 when sorting by bipac staff which is an increase of about um2 uh we also trended down slightly and when I say slightly I mean by like 07 or 08 in the following categories uh School leadership evaluation quality organizational Effectiveness and Academic Press uh this is something to keep an eye on as it's kind of an indicator of our overall C culture and climate um we've explored this in more details with principles and with individual schools as well uh and last regarding the tripod survey um in the area of professional development we remained in a similar position as we have the previous year this is a our lower scoring category uh to help with this we have provided professional development on how to lead highquality professional development uh for our administrators and teacher leaders as part of our school Improvement plans um and for our administrators at our instructional leadership meetings so with that we'll pause on the tripod survey and kind of pivot um to focusing and transitioning around student discipline referrals and suspensions yep I can pause quick question before we move on um the percentage of uh staff that uh took the survey from from year to year is do we have that information or i' have to look like what you're asking is how many staff actually participated in the survey well I I can I I percentage is fine because the number of staff could change from year to year you know I don't have it on my fingertips but I can find out yeah okay because because I I I I'm curious um well as as as I look at at the the the changes from year to year there there there there are smallish because we're using such a you know we're going from one to five but it would be interesting to see if there's any correlation between the percentage of people that actually turned in you know that might have something to do with it so right we also encourage principles to provide time at a staff meeting so staff are able to take it during the contracted day something else that I'm very interested in that we don't yet have from tripod is um nationally normed data or comparison data because we're really just able to compare schools to the district or the district to oursel over time right um and I heard from them heard back from them again just yesterday saying they're still exploring that organization they don't have it yet now prior to tripod we used to use what was it called five Essentials um and five Essentials did have nationally Norm data but their price take was also significantly higher so pros and cons to whatever survey you use sure um when you look at the um percent participation it would be also interesting to see how many people were comfortable identifying as bipod is that percentage similar to what it is in the population which could mean if it isn't that they either didn't identify or they didn't participate obviously we wouldn't know which but just some insight around that yeah um I'll let somebody else ask question no I think I think that was actually my question right like who actually participated right and I'm how many I can visualize the dashboard that I can see and I don't have access to that data from My Lens but I'm sure they do um with my um colleagues that I work with through tripod with so I'm sure we can find that out and so I just want to clarify when you say significant or somewhat signicant that's significant not statistically significant no it's just significant in looking at our own data Jake and I had the same conversation yeah okay just want to make sure that we have not talking about statistically yeah um at what point in the year is it given um right about now right around that spring break time and we try to give it around the same time every year so we're comparing kind of Apples to Apples because I think if you asked staff to take a survey in September it might look different than December than it would look in June so that's why we have a right around spring break said by June they're all just really tired um you mentioned that Raider staff were offered for the first time to participate in the survey um when you reported results were you comparing Raider staff to were you incorporating Raider staff this year to last year when it was only teachers oh that's a good question yes this year everybody who took the survey is included in this analysis you may want to look at teachers just so that you have a comparative y um to see if those trends that you're observing are the same yeah yeah you're luming because you're luming the other ones right to see to see how Raider uh staff affected the overall results I also would have to go back and make sure because it's a logic model so Raider support staff may not take the same survey questions as teachers like it it's kind of a responsive so for example there's questions about collaborative teams and plc's that Raider support staff probably wouldn't get based on the way the logic model is set up but teachers would so be interesting to hear how they differ in some of their perspectives also get the results for both groups mhm yeah um you were mentioning you look at differences within the district is that particularly insightful has that been a a useful tool to help uh further development of particular buildings I think where it's most helpful is um in two ways one for school Improvement plans um because um staff like the leadership team and the staff and the principal will look at this around like what's going well what do we need to do better so for example one school um they noticed like everything um scored um kind of in that same like higher realm and then plcs were an outlier and they're like oh well we need to do some we're going to add some um elements to our school Improvement plan around professional learning communities to kind of um include the or boost up the rigor in that um so I think that's one way it's used and then I think also in principal evaluation every principal gets feedback as a part of their evaluation around strengths in their stakeholder feedback and then opportunities for growth as well thank you I think the board feedback has been really good we'll continue to add more information information to their report I just want to thank Melissa like usual anything you touch gets better and this certainly has gotten better over time with your leadership and I would agree that the percentage of Staff taking the survey is very high because we push it into the day when they don't have students so you will see that result when we're able to report that back out um I had one more thing I should have written it down I write most things down right and I think I was going to agree with you that that PLC piece what happens and you can disagree with me when we add initi it was like a real hardcore focus on like you said literacy and Avid people feel the weight of that and so what is going to shift and we I think we're seeing a shift in PLC so agreed thank you for that I guess my question is we had guessing what might have shifted in PLC do we are we going to do deeper dive from a street data standpoint yes right like what happen here's what I think the street data would show I think it's about letters and I think it's about principles trying to create space and um capacity for teachers to engage in that training and so I think that's that was the like tension was between those two things it would be good to validate that right you talk to a few teachers it's like what is actually happening and I remembered my last point was that around that street data Melissa you also am I correct incorporate tripod data into a principal evaluation correct and like you said that school Improvement plan so there is meat to the information as well great thank you all right we will then transition to student discipline referrals and suspensions um so we'll start off with office discipline referrals uh this slide shows ratios and the target ratio is 1.0 um that would be proportionate to the amount of students um meaning the referrals for their demographic would match the student enrollment demographic um anything without a data point means that we just didn't have enough um students to report it publicly which means less than 10 students um you'll see this impacts the data we have on American Indian students which is the lighter Blue Line uh here are some of the things that we noticed about the data for our office discipline referrals um one if we look only at our bipo students as a group that's the dark blue line we would see that it is slightly over referred but it's important to look more closely otherwise it might be easy to miss the disparities so the referrals for black students the purple line are twice the proportionate rate and I've shown a decrease the last two years but this last year trended up slightly um American Indian students the lighter Blue Line are also a smaller number of students so it's expected that we would show greater V variability because it's a smaller group um also the sample size was too small um so we don't have data for the last two years that we can share out publicly our white students as the turquoise line and Asian students the red line they are both under referred um for their proportionate amount uh referrals for Hispanic students which is the green line have trended down and this you're at 1.0 which is proportionate to the student population uh this is the same data uh but the previous slide was duplicated um that means it's the total number of referrals unduplicated mean it's the number of single incidents by one student the data doesn't look all that different um but we still wanted to share it with you uh this data is the same as the previous slide but it's the total amount um again anything left blank means we didn't have enough students to report it public publicly so that means less than 10 students what's important to note is there is a significant decrease in the total number of referrals if you compare 201819 to 2122 um this that year there was a decrease of almost 2,000 referrals we saw a significant decrease last year there was um an increase of about 250 more referrals than the year before but it's still a significant Improvement compared to previous years is that due to the pandemic or what what's that's really hard yeah that's really hard to say um because if we look at those numbers it was um the like the rebound in there I don't know if you have thoughts around that uh I I do so we actually left out the pandemic year so so 1920 and 21 uhry 20 and 21 um because they were so different in terms of like we were in person and then we're also in in hybrid so we left those years out and then you know have comparisons between 1819 and the 2122 and last year as well the the feedback that we get when we talk with our principles is that that um there is still a lot of a lot of behavior and be a lot of needs that are out there and there's just more complicated um situations that are that are happening um with students maybe not more but just different um and I I do think that's an impact because of Co and being out of school um for a certain amount of time as well too and just coming back to to a different uh different environment so if we look at the 2122 data we did have less school days that year maybe not to significantly impact the numbers that greatly but we went between synchronous and asynchronous learning a few different times that school year um and also we were suffering again that chronic absenteeism problem we we'll bring that to the board this spring for discussion but that also impacts referrals as we look at that significant jump between 1819 and then what we have in 20 the following two years because both of those are significantly lower what would you change say is the main cause of that have we changed our criteria for referrals have we changed how I mean how we deal with referrals I mean what what um do we believe was the cause of that yeah I think that's really hard to answer I think it would look different at different schools right like um you could talk to um um schools that have like seal um increases in Staffing or so some of that social worker support or mental health support that was pushed in like that could be a decrease um it could be at some schools I know they have um some Specialists that focus on social emotional learning um so it could be many different things um that can contribute to that it also could be restorative practices um so I think it looks different at different sites I know that was something that we tried to kind of get like Street data around more so last year and that was some of the feedback that we got um and we are looking a full year back right so like I would want to um go back to principles and get more um information on what what did like what did shift or create that change certainly is a call to action that students belong in the classroom so that is right that is our call all right oh sorry y so akin to the the like the the tripod data is there any is there any national data that we can kind of see how we oh compare we have so we we do have some comparative data that we used this year so that was a request from the school board last year so we are actually looking at our numbers compared to the state data and then also our numbers compared to some comparative districts um over the last few years I don't have National Data but I do have Minnesota data okay we'll get to a couple slides but National Data that's a good question I don't know all right thank you all right so we are going to um transitions from Office disciplinary referrals to suspensions uh again our goal to here is to be at 1.0 to prevent racial disparities um you can see that that's the case for our Hispanic student that that's the green line um with our bipo students the dark um Blue Line not too far off the Mark um multi-racial is a category um the orange line that was recently um added and also Trends higher than it should be at 2.0 um but it is down from 2.3 from the 2122 school year U black students are the purple line um that is still disproportionate meaning there are more suspensions for our black students than there should be based on the number of black students enrolled in our schools and white and Asian students are disproportionate but from the opposite perspective as there are less suspensions for white and Asian students than there should be based on the number of white and Asian students enrolled in our schools this slide is unduplicated data um we see similar Trends in this data and if we look at the number of suspensions um you can also note an increase of overall suspensions of about 90 suspensions When comparing 2122 to 2223 but still an improvement um from roughly three years ago um with that context um Curtis we're off to the um comparison data uh so if we look at this uh this is our suspensions compared to the state as you can see for the most part we have less disparities by uh in our suspensions by race compared to the state with the exception being the multi-racial category I also think it's important to note that in the state of Minnesota the state of Minnesota American Indian students are suspended at a higher rate than any other racial group um this has imp implications for us as we need to do all we um Can to ensure that this is not the experience for American Indian students in our schools uh to continue with comparisons um we're going to take a look at comparable districts um when we do that we notice that black students are suspended at the most um desperate desparate rates the average is 2.3 which is almost 2 and a half more times than the um proportionate rate unfortunately if you look at Roseville um we are above that average in the 2122 school year um multi-racial students are also suspended at a much higher rate than expected uh Asian and white students are disproportionate in their lack of suspensions compared to the overall population um the overall rate for bipo students is around 1 and a half times the proportionate rate which is why um again it's just really important that we look at it um by race and ethnicity as um Asian students are typically under referred um so I'll close by just sharing some um insights and then I can open it up for questions and turn it back over to Jake um but I want to talk more about how we're going to move forward towards our goal of eliminating racial disparities um and to be transparent I will not be the educator that I want to be until we have eliminated racial disparities in our data um so here's some of our next steps in um first let me go to our insights if we look at a three-year Trend um both the number of referrals and suspensions have decreased that means students are in class learning more which is where we want them to be um and while there is variability in the discipline data um white students are consistently underrepresented and black students are consistently over represented um black students and multi-racial students are the only students um over represented in our discipline data so here are some of our next steps in how we're going to move forward um this year we're reviewing policy 520 um with the district Safety and Security team and also with the advisory Council we're also putting together a supporting Student Success and non-exclusionary discipline committee uh to look at concerns and how we can replicate success from some schools to all schools this will be a co- facilitated team by myself and director Thomas in partnership with EMR um we are also working to build a better system for restorative circles we have collected names of circle Keepers from each school and plan to send our group it started off as 30 now I think it's up to almost 50 um to um mde to an mde training this summer um that way we'll have more staff trained in circles at each school and part of that um learning is also about what does it mean to be a restorative school so not just circles but it's a bigger um Vision we're also in the process of building a multi-tiered system of supports that will have clear expectations for tier one social and emotional learning and interventions and to build on that social and emotional learning is also in that curriculum review cycle um so with that I can pause for questions and then we'll turn it back over to Jake um a couple questions here as how this all works so it is a suspension a subset of referrals so if there were 50 referrals for particular cohort and and five suspensions does the 50 include the five suspensions okay so it's like it could be a pathway like if I'm a student I could get referred referred referred and finally maybe like how does it like how does a referral you see what I'm saying so there's office dis yeah like and I think part of is if we break it down by secondary and Elementary it might look a little bit different to too so in elementary um students are much more likely to be to receive an office discipline referral or you're referred to the office that's different than a suspension yes right two sets of data right right well so my question was because I looked at so I looked at the most recent year 2223 for the number of duplicated referrals and then compared that to 2223 for the the column that showed the number of duplicated suspensions and if if you take the the the white students um there were 579 referrals and 53 suspensions so roughly 9% oh I see so you're looking at how the referrals can lead to a suspension I so white was 9% and Black and Hispanic were over 15 close to 16% so that would suggest that regardless of what is happening within the referral World in itself and whatever is happening within the suspension world and and of itself there seems to be a greater propensity to result in a suspension among Black and Hispanic kids than among white kids because the percentage which is like 9% to 16% that's quite a big difference in terms of the cohorts of all referrals that many more being suspensions for Black and Hispanic students but I I want to make sure I'm understanding that that's actually true given how it all works just mathematically see what I'm saying just I I can give some secondary experience um referrals would not be a subset of the suspension right so at the secondary level we really only would suspend for those bottom line behaviors that really W result in a ferral okay right because it would be a student fighting bringing a weapon to school Distributing chemicals and those things are on the spot move through an administrative process without a referral so hardly ever in my experienced it a referral lead to a suspension okay that that's good to know from a secondary perspective right because it it means that it's not true then that a disciplinary process around a particular student is moving more quickly to suspension right we we wouldn't accelerate the discipline because that's what I that's what I was okay thank you good question and I think you might have been going here next but is there is there a way in the future that we could get that separated by secondary this information secondary versus um yes I just ju just to be able to speak to yeah would look very different um Elementary and secondary so there is there's very few amount of students that are suspended at the elementary level right much more at the secondary level so it would look it would it will look very different when we see it and there might not even be enough reportable data right to provide for elementary and so that's typically why we put it together but I I certainly will look at that that and ref but if you were able to do that for for suspension and referrals then for sure we can do that we we we can we can know explicitly if we're comparing Apples to Apples um or or not because yeah right question yeah I I've been sitting with a major discomfort as to what we are trying to do because where discipline and behavior is concerned what you want you what I'm I'm going to speak speak out loud and it might not be all right process what you want to do is to say yes there's disparity right MH so if if two student misbehave in act and one group of students are constantly more punished than the other that's disparity because in a lot of ways we want all of them to have very low see what I'm saying that's something about that that it's not sitting right with me in terms of how we are comparing it is not as if we want more white student to be you know just the whole you know the getting to one right being at one so I do wonder whether there's another way to look at it where you're looking at the behavior right because ultimately it's about for the same behavior what is happening that's what you want to look at see what I'm saying um not not so much that we are luming everything together and say Yep this this group of students never get referred well because they don't have that the same behavior so if the same the same behavior is treated differently that's the disparity that I'm interested right and I'll further complicate that because I think context matters yeah so I could have a student regardless of race yeah um and this is like um bring a knife to school and come to the office and tear saying we had Boy Scouts last night and we were whittling and I didn't know it was in my pocket and I don't know what to do I'm going to treat that very differently than a student who comes to school with a knife that has intent to harm and has made a threat and says they have a knife in their backpack and they do right so even in that it's the same behavior in the sense that there was they both brought a knife to school but the context was very absolutely so I think that comes into play as well yeah so for example if if they two students who brought it um with Sim accidentally and we treat one as Z no we don't believe you because of your skin color versus another group that's the disparity that we want to really get at right what is the bias that we are getting at about why why we treat a certain student differently uh or is like oh that that kid couldn't have done that that's a bias right without even understanding like you know what I'm saying so so so that's the part of me to say is there another way that we look at that so that we are looking very clearly at the the behavior with context of course a situation let's say situations right situations that that that students get um that that race a r flag and are we treating those situations differently good then it then it gets that you know how are adults treat treating those situations and looking at the students differently I think the only way that we will find that answer to your important question is when we are more aligned in our Behavior systems to which is the goal of your work this spring and I'm not saying this is easy but I'm just kind of kind of Shifting how we think about it because otherwise it is not like we are trying to achieve academic success so we don't want the dispari so we want one right but here it's like this is is almost more a reactionary right it's a it's a different different way of looking at data right I mean one data is like we do not want a disparity and so we want to achieve that you know one but not in in in in kind of Behavioral I want it all to be low average be Z exactly zero if you can right so we we don't want to look as if somehow somehow yeah just the way we look at the data right then the the white and the Asian data feels like oh they are low so we need to think about how do we reform no of course not right of course not yeah right and that that's definitely not what we're what we're looking at but if you had 10 referrals yeah in a school you would want those referrals to be equally distributed correct across our racial lines if that's what we're looking at like we wouldn't want all 10 to be black students we wouldn't want all 10 to be white stud so we should say that you know if we are truly uh an equitable School District that we would have those distributed by the certain number of um of students by race in our school if it if truly we're an anti-racist District so that's where the 1.0 comes from so you'd say by the percent of the student we're not saying we want to refer more students who are white or Asian because they're below we just want to say that when we're referring we're looking at that in a way that that is not targeting one or two groups of students like what what is currently happening and so that's Opening Our Eyes to disparities that are saying there's something happening for our black students and our multi-racial students that aren't happening in our other groups well I mean I agree it's just about how do we frame it in a way that um so for example if if the goal is only3 for every group then you say why is it not point I'm making this 3 for the other group right that's the disparity right and and what I'm getting at too is what I really wouldn't want to have us report out is to say here's what our white students are here's what our our here's what it is for our black indigenous and um students of color as a group because that also hides some disparities as well right so when we see those at you know 1.3 for our bipox students that hides some of the the things that are happening behind that as well too so I no I hear you and I and I agree as well that's very hard to pull out it's very hard so I don't know if that's even possible this is where it's really this is where you you talk about Street data right right understanding the why right understanding what is what is happening that that that result in those um those numbers on both end sorry this is kind of like oh let's give MX a chance here um do we know about students who have IEPs can we track that to see if it's any different that can be uh another data point within here as well too absolutely we can plan to include that in future report I mean the other is the data or the data and it kind of gets what you're saying it it doesn't really give us an indication of causality right and that could be very subtle and very more uh entrenched right because it's not like if Rose is a teacher and two kids behave the same way badly and Rose has some unconscious bias against the green one versus the yellow one it might not even be that it could be well if more green kids are acting out why what's what's What's the culture what's the environment why do they why do they feel they can or should or have to or need to act out in a class why do why do kids in a certain cohort feel it's okay or or or they need to bring a knife you know are they afraid is it fear is it you know I mean what's the environment so it'll be very it's G it's difficult to get it causality because it might not be individual bias of a of of of Staff it could be kids reacting to their perception of the environment they're in and then them reacting to that in ways that that then result in a referral or a suspension right I also think which is a long-term that's that's that's what we're all about right the whole anti-racist culture I also think that Co changed the landscape and just like adults adult well-being um I think has shifted in our world I don't think that's unique to like our school district or the state or the country we live in um I think that there's still like lingering um effects of that that we're you know seeing students grapple with and we live in a world where there's mental health concerns and deil disabilities that manifest and so I think that it's about you know being both proactive and as responsive to really have the well-being of students and in ensuring that we're doing everything in our power to not perpetuate stereotypes and bias and and the disparities that schools were built on schools were built to Advantage some and disadvantage others absolutely um and so that's not necessarily the fault of anyone at this table or in our schools um but it's our responsibility um and so that's kind of where our our like intersection point is with principles and with the work that we're doing um with the committee in partnership with um EMR as well thank you for that robust conversation that was good U so our last part is just our social emotional learning and um Equity survey and um we can continue on to the next slide um we did a uh we conducted a survey pilot last year for equity and um information um and we were able to and we've wanted to do that for many years there's been like a a metric that we've wanted to do and and have tried to work with a lot of different um entities that had different ones but none that we felt like had the amount of um validity and reliability that we were looking for um and we actually did get one through um the University of Virginia and working we were working with some um researchers at the University of Minnesota who had connections to University of Virginia who were actually conducting a really big survey out east um with a large school district and so we have been working with them to hone and create um a survey their their survey was 100 some questions and we honed that down to 20 to 30 um some like that um but the survey has broken into two main areas the first is um students answering questions abouts eles and their experiences in school including their social emotional learning competency um experience with bullying and their perceptions of equity and the second part of the survey asked students about their school experience their teachers um and their and their perceptions around Equity um and we did learn a lot from piloting that survey last year um we gave it right at the end of the school year and we learned we didn't provide enough time for students or families to opt out um we've provided a lot more time this year um at least 6 weeks in advance that we started messaging out to our families in our district um newsletter as well as our school newsletters um we also received feedback from some of our um from our teachers especially at the elementary level that said they'd like some of the terms that were used in the survey defined for students in a way that they could um provide some understanding and just how to walk students through the survey so this year we did put in a um administrative guide um to help students walk through that and help teachers U be able to provide that and we received further further feedback from um teachers and families that some of the language that um were in the question and items needed to be tweaked because it was discussed uh it was just hard to understand or get at what that um for students to understand what their the question was asking so we worked with the University of Virginia to tweak some some of those as well so that was um some positive changes um so looking at um the survey this year it's actually being um it's being conducted this week as well as last week um and we are planning to have that continue on um as being a March um time frame that will provide that each year kind of like the tripod survey um and we do have it as a metric or a gauge as in many parts of our strategic um District strategic plan within those five goals um we also continue um to want to use that um data for metrics within our achievement and integration goals um and we've written that into our mde plan um and we also plan to continue to use that to get some Trend data um over time for our school Improvement planning for curriculum review um and both ele and secondary to be able to use some of that information that we can continue to use and especially those years and off years when we don't have the Minnesota student survey data as like this year so we don't have that um that student um climate uh information that we that we sometimes get from that student survey every three years so this will be a good interim um survey that we believe will we'll have well I'll I'll just start with thank you Jake to you and your team this took a lot of work and research and time and planning and has been administered extremely well and will prove to be some really useful information for us so as well Jake Don and te thank you I had just a really quick question um it's probably way too early but any possible preliminary numbers on the feedback we might be getting this year number of students or opt out we do we know anything this point this year compared to I haven't looked at the numbers yet I just I just haven't had time but uh last year we had about a th000 students take it out of about uh 4,000 some so we had about 25% but um this year we're hoping for at least 80 to 95% in the last meeting you did report on a number of families technically opting out is six to nine something like that we had nine okay at my last look so that's exceptional right thank you question do they take it in a certain class like where do they take it at they do actually um so in elementary they take it typically in their just their home room class their with their class classro teacher um in the secondary schools they actually take it during a certain hour so like at Raaz they took it um third hour during uh one of the school days so then they um the actual questionnaire asks them to respond to the teacher in their classroom at that time um so that we get broad feedback on a lot of different courses when we get the feedback back how is it broken down is it is it by is there self-report some stuff or do we have it like is it race or other things or yes so students actually um it's it's a Anonymous survey they do add their um uh their student ID number so then we can look at that student ID number to connect it to um any IEP race um social economic status all those different things that we typically use to disaggregate our data but we we don't do it by name and we try to like eliminate that from the the survey as well when we put that data together so all right thank you thank you both very sorry so are the questions from a language standpoint different when it is for the elementary versus the secondary how young are we talking fifth grade so fifth fifth and sixth grade are the the only grades at elementary so they're very close there is some difference between Elementary and secondary but mostly they are um the stem is written in a way that you can use comparative on a whole school yeah our whole District all right thank you thank you so much you so much thank you both yeah thank you okay we do not have any action items for the evening to the study session report director go okay uh at the last um meeting our study session uh the topic was around culture responsiveness and we watch u a video put get uh where Anton Troyer talks he is a professor at Bimi in ojibway um and he's also an officiate of ajibo Ceremonies and he does Dei work so he came from a great perspective and he really used um his native American Heritage and experience as a way of illustrating how schools may not be real welcoming for various groups um and uh I wanted to share a couple quotes with you that I found particularly interesting um he was talking about that we teach and this kind of struck with me is we teach more about animals that don't live in Minnesota than do I mean kids know more about zebras and giraffes but not as much about beavers and skunks and I thought oh I never thought about that from that perspective and that if we don't teach people um around something or someone it's so much easier to be ambivalent about its destruction um and we then talk in small groups about um uh how our education system is designed or not designed for the needs of to uh needs uh to educate our students ways that Raz is changing our education system and ways Raz is preparing students for the world they live in and we got to see another uh clip from Anton and here he's really bringing in his heritage to talk about students feeling welcome in school and he mentioned that I could go to school for 13 years to learn what I needed to be successful and none of it was about me or my people and um and that lack of motivation or the lack of a feeling connected and a part of it um is is is really a very key motivational concern so then we uh kind of talked about individually with Partners um what were experience our experien in school and what experiences made us feel like you mattered I mean how um so we could kind of relate to that and relate to that whole concept of how we make sure that every student feels that they mattered and feels welcome in school thank you director Smith for putting that presentation together and guiding us was wonderful really powerful training yeah that together for just you do have each other's back don't you do thank you director gogins okay that moves us on to board reports um one treasur Chu if you wouldn't mind leading off for us to see you please oh goodness um I think the thing that I would just mention is um some of us being new officers for the school board um attended the msba training for Officers Training so I went to the one that was well there was a general one and then there's a part that is more for each of our position whether a clerk AAS or a chair so that was very informative in terms of kind of like some of the legal legal framework of uh what it means to be a clerk and then to also understand you know we sometime take for granted in terms of like um how how it works here in in in Roseville and then you hear others smaller districts and what they have to do to kind of like fulfill all those duties legally so I thank you Michelle I thank you seriously right all of us thank you uh to to Sherry it's just that we have such great support from the school district to do some of the work to make sure that we meet our legal obligation so thank you yeah thank you m you uh I along with uh director Clark and uh assistant superintendent Sonic attended the annual msba and this year joint msba masasa Minnesota Association of school administrators uh legislative day at the capital so there was pretty well attended probably 150 people in the room and there were two panels the first panel made up of state senators the second made up of state representatives and uh the msba and MSA executive leadership had put together a set of six or seven questions that then they asked each panel to get their response and their reaction so we could kind of hear what they had to say they were asked about their support for things like a 2% budget increase um their support for um changing or clarifying um seat time and what that means in instructional days versus instructional time and allowing more flexibility and was interesting um e e like on the 2% either everybody said yes we're for or said well maybe um on the seat time it was like either yes we're forward or well yeah we could be for it but we got to look at that because you know I think you had a couple of them that were still very much uh school is about reading writing and arithmetic and what are you doing all this other crazy weird Innovative stuff for so uh right I I I think that's accurate so it's just interesting to hear them it was a little um dissatisfying in that there was no interaction at all I mean they just answered the questions and they ran out to their respective caucuses uh so um we just kind of heard their their what they said without a chance to really you know talk with them or chat with them but it was interesting you know at least to see and at least they came and they heard I think um msba uh the the both the msba and MSA uh lobbyists at the end uh kind of capped everything emphasizing that if there's one thing that they'd like every school board and Masa member to stress to their represent atives and their Senators across the state it's the it's the react funding that was number one uh do it increase it improve it and make it retroactive so even more than 2% that was the thing if you only have time to put one idea in their head do it and I think I heard something very interesting too and I'll close on this um uh keep doing it keep doing it keep doing it do if you do it if you're there on Tuesday and you said the same thing on Monday say it again on Tuesday if you're there two weeks from I say the same thing and the reason was very interesting to me which of course once you hear it it's because the senator and the representative may be the same but the staffs have a high level turnover and it doesn't make it to the ear of the legislator generally in any kind of coordinated way unless it comes from the staff or through the staff and so it maybe you have an intern or a staff person or something that is really on board with you you go back next month they've gone on there's somebody new just have to keep hammering that message again and again and again more to the staff that support them to get that message up and keep it bumbling up so that was it thank you for being there thank you I would just um reiterate both what was said about the training as well as the msba day Masa day um just a quick update on 916 um they gave a presentation about their where they're at with the read Act and the curriculum that they chosen wasn't one of the approved curriculums but they're going to wait until May to see if any additional gets added there um they also provided us with the annual report um that they give every year and then we also had a presentation on um career in Tech no education that about 100 of our students attend um at Cent College there that was a good presentation on two of the programs it was the entrepreneur travel and social media marketing program and the EMT program so they both were the program so that's wonderful thank you okay um yesterday I got to attend with um uh board memb formerly Johnson F whatever and superintendent Lake um a um NPR news with Angela Davis podcast recording at the high school um they had a panel of three of our teachers and three teachers from other that spread across different districts um and Marley mafa lagundi and James darlo and Amy wesland wesland did a really excellent job and um it was just exciting to hear in in this presentation because it was all about you know so many districts are just starting to um have to take on ethnic studies but of course uh we have been doing absent narratives for over 10 years and trying to intercorporate that into all classes not just social studies and then also talked about you know seven years ago that the American histories the US History through African-American lands and history uncensored were added which around ethnic studies and more recently so sociology of race class and in gender and how the enrollment has grown that this is a elective class but the interest in it just continues to grow and we had two students on the panel of five students um Evelyn SEO and Madison low who did a wonderful job they both were in the sociology sociology race class and gender um classes and um it was fascinating to talk because you know we hear a lot of um concern about you know you know forced uh you know indoctrination and uncomfortableness in the class and the kids were um really talking about how that they weren't seeing that but they really the teachers provided a great framework so that people could deal with those uncomfortable conversations and that was where a lot of their learning occurred is having those and having a place where they could have those Brave conversations and um the young woman who is a a person of color said it was so important to see myself in the curriculum um and and that was so powerful but it was just a wonderful thing and as of Thursday morning the podcast is supposed to be available it's less than an hour would strongly uh recommend that I think you would find it interesting and worth your time um uh this afternoon I attended my first senior council meeting um we haven't been um I hadn't known when they were occurring so I've missed many of them um but uh this was great um and uh they have a group that's very dedicated to trying to um provide opportunities for our seniors and uh they were actually working on a survey of to go out to seniors you know that listed the various things we have and what some other possibilities some other ideas asking for soliciting for feedback Etc um they had a real robust conversation about really the need for a grief support group um for our seniors in addition to a caregiver support group which is quite different um and something that's ongoing that um seniors could do and they're exploring uh what would be involved in that how they would go about that and they've got a u kind of a charter that they put together of what their role is and what their objectives are and uh to kind of provide Clarity to all the memberships then I don't know that everybody gets a chance to look at the list serves this last week and I just there was was something I just couldn't pass up sharing with others uh three of the principles talk to the impact on literacy of of the work that's been being done this year um and Central Park um principal Sutton reported half of the teachers uh report the new curriculum has had significant or very significant change to their literary instruction and they are feeling more comfortable with the curriculum as they teach it longer and they're currently completing assessments uh uh screening Assessments in fastbridge and across many of the schools it sounds like and from fraa Spring they saw 65% of the kindergarten students made typical growth and 22% made aggressive growth which is 87% growth and um the Falcon Heights reported uh for they also did the fast assessments they've seen double digigit increase in students in all the grades one to three um and um the percentages were just really impressive as did ederton and they had um the second graders had completed it and they had a 73% growth I mean it was just you know we've talked a lot about the read act we've talked about literacy we' talked about this and I just I just thought wow this was really some powerful data that um if in case anybody isn't on those lift serves was worth sharing with the group um I uh um the lays on for the middle school and I got to sit down with principal cook this last week and we talked about things that are really going well and in in the challenges uh that are facing the district going well um it's uh the DS dlsi program has really made huge progress and he was saying a big shout out um to uh lordis uh Flores Hansen because finding teachers that could both teach the language and the subject is very hard and she really put in a lot of effort to make that really ex uh work well for them and how important and valuable abot has been to the school as well as they're they're doing a intentional effort of every month really doing a positive activ AC ity like a pep rally a Dance Etc and that is just being really well received um by the students um and and the biggest challenge is really around mental health and um the students um you know really um having more needs than ever and um he's very excited because evidently their numbers allow for Dr leakas and uh assistant superintendent in they get increas resources for next year to decrease class size and invest in student services and there's just such a great need so that's really um a valuable and powerful thing the other thing I asked them you know was there something you think the board should be aware of and one of the things he's concerned about is the impact of social media and and he sees often the school name being used and they actually try to track the different um Medias and when the school name is being used they try to report the issues staff and administration but sometimes the um provider will oblige but often times not and that causes some real issues in school um especially over the weekend things that are exchanged on social media and then they come on Monday um you know with concerns and so that was something that um he mentioned uh would be interesting uh for us to be aware of that's it okay um I'm just going to piggyback a little bit on the the NPR um podcast um on Thursday um it'll be available also on YouTube so it was it was also videotaped so um record video recorded showing my age all right um yeah so um I will also just reiterate um the kids were the students were amazing the the um it was it was also amazing work by um by our teachers um um you know personally uh it was it felt like uh the completion of of a circle because I've been working on um ethnic studies um for the last three years and it was just really nice to be um on on this side of it and and really the the things that we have been doing at um R are schools were the things I brought to uh the social study standards Review Committee and it was just helpful to be able to see all these other groups these other students and the other teachers um are are doing some the same things in a different way and that that's cool too it's like there's you know I I I'm looking forward to seeing what this looks like for us um in the in the next couple of years um had the opportunity to attend my first district curriculum advisory committee and I will have to uh say chair Anderson I do understand why you've kept that one close to you for so long um uh had a had a great time um and um spent only actually a very very small about time actually looking at um a new coursework but that was just that was okay um because we had um a really nice discussion about re 2.0 um and uh roseville's implementation of the react as we know it you know today so um we had uh uh Dr busman um teachers hu Hernandez um and Kevin raky who taught my kids how to read so just you know um absolutely great looking forward to um my my next uh meeting um attended the firebears robotics um open house um and U that was at Roseville area high school and um that team is getting ready for um a another run over at uh Minneapolis um there at the beginning of the year there's a they they call r r MRI it's a it's a Minnesota robotics imitational um we we will have it again uh in the fall um and I'm just letting folks know now to get your tickets now so because they'll be gone and you'll be upset and you'll say Curtis can you get me in I'm like I can't get you in so all look at all these people so um but these the these folks are passionate about what they do um and um U Ben who is here earlier has been doing robotics for firebears for um uh pretty much his entire time um at at Roseville area um high school so I'm not saying that if you join robotics you will will be a National Merit scholar I'm not not saying that either so um but no it's been a good week looking forward to a little time off coming up for everybody sure everyone is that's all got awesome glad you're on the I always look forward to the dcac meetings perfect representative on that now thanks Curtis I'm just a few things um as uh Rose and manx um alluded to uh attending you guys attended the the M msba officers train in line had the opportunity to go in person um up in St Cloud uh the morning sessions reviewing the open meeting law statutory duties of officers then the fabulous breakout sessions for chairs and vice chairs and um I was I I have to say I was always proud to say that I was chair of a high performing board because I think we all know but I heard plenty of stories there are not high performing boards folks um I heard that loud and clear with questions that that I I heard from a lot of the officers and you're right um there are clerks and greater Minnesota and school districts who have to run the elections who have to do all kinds of things I can't imagine what they have to do besides their their daily jobs so but I I I was glad to have attended that um to keep growing and developing my role of chair uh this past week we had a meeting of the district Safety and Security team uh one of the main things we did is we broke into groups uh to review policy 520 our student discipline policy we're going to be just one of I think several groups are going to be looking at this important uh policy I think it's a great idea you know trying to um answer questions like what parts of the policy are working as intended and what could be better but I think it was a great exercise um to be going over that that policy uh right before the meeting I had I had an opportunity L superintendent Lake to attend Central Park Elementary stem event for families and students uh great stem activities in the media center and the spark lab was was open I I love visiting uh the spark lab an opportunity to speak to the spark lab um Lead Teacher Sarah Rainey um it is it is such a it's a joy to watch the kids it really is a spark and again I'm reminded um that it's a jewel it's the jewels again another Jewel that this school district has um but I had an opportunity to talk to Sarah and look at the kids in the spark laab and and families interacting and last last but certainly not least uh as director Johnson was alluding to uh Roseville area schools this is a spring break reminder next week I hope everybody has a restful and safe break please safe travels everybody no matter where you're going or if you're staying at home for a station restful and safe break everybody super and harbe will keep the learning going session that they're in session yeah thank you chair uh good evening going to start my report with a quote from John of Salisbury we are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants we see more and things that are more distant than they did not because our sight is Superior or because we are taller than they but because they raise us up and by their great stature add to ours I read this quote tonight as this past Friday morning our very own n Thomas director of student services was formerly awarded the Minnesota Association of special Educators leader of the Year award in Her speech NAA humbly thank the leaders who came before her specifically the importance of black female mentors in her life her family and the draw of working in an organization that now prioritizes being an anti-racist School District thank you director Thomas for your leadership and thank you for now serving as a mentor for those who follow in your footsteps speech speech finally I'd like to publicly acknowledge and recognize our Roseville area high school black student union students two weeks ago this group held a cultural convening where dance song and spoken word were shared the show was brilliant and our students should be celebrated the events that took place Following the show involved young people not identified as attending Ros it was an unfair connection to our student population will continue to always shine a light on our district cultural celebrations and our cultural wealth our student and family diversity in Roseville area schools is a strength that we will always cherish and honor thank you thank you thank you Dr Lake all right if there is no further business before the board We Stand adjourned thank you