the April 22nd regular board meeting of the Mountains View School Board. Good evening and welcome. Um the first item of business is item 1.2, adoption of the agenda. I would entertain a motion. Move. Second. Agenda has been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. We will move to item 2.1, announcements. Upcoming meetings. Our next work session will be on Thursday, May 1st at 5:00 pm. and our next regular meeting of the school board will be on Tuesday, May 6th at 7 PM. Both uh taking place here at the district center. Um at this time, we'll move on to agenda item 2.2, superintendence report. Great. Thank you, Diane. Tonight, yeah, I have two updates. Um, first of all, I'm very happy to let you know that Edgewood Middle School teacher Zoe Courage was named a finalist for the 2025 Minnesota Teacher of the Year Award. Uh, we have a photo of Zoe. Zoe is now one of only 12 educators uh in the state who've been named as finalists. uh that group is going to be narrowed down and the eventual teacher of the year is going to be selected and named at the banquet that's going to take place Sunday, May 4th. So tonight, I just wanted to make sure we congratulate Zoe on becoming a finalist and wish her well as she moves forward in the competition. Then I also want to recognize two of our high school seniors. Uh Lulu Samakula from Irondale High School and Kate Robber from Mountains View High School. They were each named this year's Athena Award winners for their respective schools. Uh the Athena Awards are presented to one senior female athlete from each high school based on their athletic performance. you can see the um handouts or the um materials that were presented or provided for for them as recipients of this awards. Um winners from the St. Paul area were honored at the awards ceremony took place Wednesday, April 16th at the St. Paul River Center. Uh Kate is still weighing her options about what she's going to do next year, but Lulu has committed and will be attending the US Air Force Academy. So, congratulations to both Lulu and Kate. And that concludes my report. Thank you, Superintendent Lennox. We'll move on to item 3.0, approval of the consent agenda. I'd entertain a motion. So moved. Second. The agenda has been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Next up is item 4.1, uh, quarterly bud budget report. and we'll welcome up Paula Steele, uh, director of finance to join us. Good evening, Paula. And I'm I'm gonna jump in as Paula is joining us, uh, tonight. We're very pleased to have, uh, Paula with us in her role. In your packets, you have our our quarterly budget information uh, for the public, as it sounds. We do these updates to the board and public quarterly. Um page one, the first page is just the original budget that was adopted uh last year uh back in in June and the quarterly information is provided in the subsequent pages. So I'm going to turn it over to Paula to take you through some of the highlights of this uh this quarter. Perfect. Thank you. Um so then following on the next pages um after the first one that one's the board approved budget on the next one it says summary based by fund um with the all funds being at the top and towards the bottom is the operating funds and then if you'll notice on the far left hand or right hand corner it has percentages giving a kind of where we're at now that we're threequarters of the way through the year. And then if we go to the next page, it's listing the um revenues by fund and by source. And again, if you look off to the right hand column, um there might there are a couple that um we variances that we might want to just talk about. Um one is the general fund federal revenues. It's showing um less than 1%. That's one that we draw down later in the year. And then also we have nutrition services local revenues that's reflect reflecting additional alleart purchases. And then under the capital state revenues, there's an adjustment related to the prior year long-term facilities maintenance aid. So they're adjusting for prior year. And then on the last page, it outlines the expenditures by fund and source. And we'll highlight a couple of those instances that are above 100% where if you look at the nutrition fund services service fund, you'll notice that um capital expenditures and other expenditures are above that and that is due to purchases that ended up coming up costing more than anticipated at that time. And then the final one on fund on debt service. Um that is over because we only do payments to debt service twice a year. That's in July and February. So we've made all our payments. So it's a good thing that's 100% means we've paid our debt. Um and that that would be it. Does anybody have any questions? I jump in. Just a couple uh highlights as as Paula went through. um on our revenues. Sometimes you'll see um we don't always draw those down uh immediately. So that's at the end of the school year where there's money waiting. So on that far right column, you're looking for numbers between 60% and 80% probably this time of year depending. So that's where you look if you see something that's uh like I said the capital revenues are 042 like well that what are you doing there? Well, we just haven't drawn it down yet. So that usually comes as we get to the to the end of the year. Paul is right where we do debt. You see like uh under total expenditure debt redemption that's 101.62%. I think that's on page two kind of top section. Um again we paid our bills, right? I mean that's the good news is that that's it should be. The other thing I would say about some of the numbers, remember the originals are always projections. So when you see something that's 99% one year and it's 101% the next, it's just a projection. It's going to be about that much. And that's uh coming in. That's fantastic. Um the only one I'd really draw your attention to uh she mentioned was the um nutrition services and that's page four. When you look at something, you say, "Well, wait a minute. Capital expenditures is 160%. What's going on there?" We're buying equipment. We're buying stuff for the for the cafeterias, whether it's a walk-in freezer or uh new appliances or even furniture in those areas. And and the revenue is is going to be less than the expenditure because we we're spending fund balance that's required by the state. We have to spend that fund balance on those in those areas and on that stuff. So, we're actually intentionally buying equipment for our um for our cafeterias and for nutrition services. uh and that's why those over time you'll see that go up over uh 100%. So some of the highlights I think this is a a great job. Paul has been going through this in tremendous detail for us. So really appreciate her work and and all our team. Um and then we'll bring back, you know, a final uh again quarter four. But this is always important, I think, to get in front of you guys and in front of the public for that fiscal transparency, right? I mean, you always go through and say, "Hey, you guys see these all the time and a lot of the work, but we want to make sure we put it in front of you and the public at least quarterly so you know um how we're doing and and where things are at." But if you look down that right column, you'll see we're in great shape. We're really really in good shape um for this time of year. So yeah, thank you and we appreciate you. Appreciate it. Thanks for the update. All right, we will now h move on to 5.1 um the dot goal of implement middle school program recommendations. So we'd like to welcome up Angie Peshel um executive director of curriculum and instruction uh Jen Lodin, executive director of student support and engagement. uh Molly Halahan um principal of Chipoa Middle School and Rich Twe principal of Edgewood Middle School. Welcome. Hello. Thanks for having us tonight. We're here to present to you our final report on the district operating goal that supports the comprehensive middle school review. We are in year two of this goal and pleased to report that we are on track to meet this goal by the end of the year. Um we're here tonight. We're going to talk to you about we were last here in December to give you an update on that work. And so tonight we're going to talk to you about the work we've been doing since December. Um and even though the uh goal comes to an end this year, the work really will just continue. So we'll talk to you a little bit about some of those um next steps as well. So I'll turn it over to you. Yeah. Hi everyone. Um I'm going to talk a bit about kind of why we're here and how we got here. So really the purpose and rationale and then we'll kind of uh also review the recommendations that we've been working on this year. So, as you know, middle school represents a critical time in students development um academically, emotionally, and physically. During these years, students experience two major transitions. The shift from elementary to middle school and the preparation for high school. Successfully navigating these transitions requires intentional support and responsive systems. Recognizing this, we've established a multi-year operating goal focused on strengthening the middle school experience. Now, in the second year of implementation, this goal is grounded in the belief that middle school is not just a bridge between grade levels, but a foundational stage that shapes long-term student outcomes and success. To ensure we are meeting students evolving needs, we have actively assessed both the strengths and the areas for growth within the middle school experience. This evaluation has guided um the development of systems and structures that are aligned with the unique developmental needs of early adolescence and provide a more comprehensive and supportive learning environment. By refocusing on this critical stage, the district continues to aim to enhance academic readiness, emotional well-being, and long long-term success for all of our middle school students. And the recommendations that we've been working to implement this year include establishing a design team to continue um developing a shared vision for the middle school experience and with that including the creation of a purpose statement and learner profile. Um recommendation number two, align all middle school courses to common student centered instructional approaches that support adolescent development and fosters greater student engagement and ownership of their learning. And recommendation number three, expand opportunities for students to build future ready skills throughout their middle school journey. Um, ensuring alignment with the demands of rapidly of a rapidly changing world. And lastly, um, recommendation number four, explore alternative um, schedules and structures that allow for increased access to exploratory courses that reflect students interests and promote a well-rounded development. By continuing to advance these recommendations, the district is committed to creating a middle school experience that is developmentally responsive, engaging, and prepare students for success and the dreams um that they are looking looking ahead to. Next, Angie um will share with you more details about our district design team and the work that they have engaged in this year. Specifically um want to talk to you about the times that we met. So December, January and March, we brought together teachers from across all three of the middle schools to work on this district design team. And their work really was around recommendation number one and number three. And those again were around creating that portrait of a learner and then developing what should the essential skills be um that a student would develop as a middle school student. So the design team came together and developed a product. Um you have a pro the product is in your packet tonight. So we'll go through that in some detail as we go through the presentation. I but you can have that as a reference as we go through here. As we created that portrait um the design team put it together and then we brought it to other people to collect feedback. So we got feedback from students. We got feedback from parents and our curriculum advisory committee. Um we brought it to staff and then we also brought it to our community some community business partners to get feedback. It was um considered and then addressed in the final draft that you're looking at in front of you. High uh High View Middle School will implement all four recommendations next year and Edgewood and Chip will follow um in the 26 27th school year. The design team at High View has been meeting to begin u planning for the structures which uh was addressed in um recommendation number four during dedicated daily time for sixth grade specifically. So they're going to start with sixth grade for next year and um in that first year of implementation. Uh so what they're looking to do is they're thinking about what what community builders look like, lessons on the essential skills that you'll see on the um document that was created and then opportunities for students to have voice and choice as they learn more about that. So I'm kind of burying the lead here and actual what the document looks like. So I'm going to turn over to Molly um and she'll talk a little more specifically about that document. Yeah, I'm super pleased to be able to show you um a near final draft of the portrait of a middle school learner. Um I don't know what the copy looks like in front of you. that's a little bit hard to see. Um, and we're going to break down all four of those essential skills for you that make up the portrait. Um, under the four essential skills, there are four to six traits that are listed below. First in adult language and second in studentfriendly language. We do however need to work a little bit on the student friendly language. Right now, it's adults trying to sound like kids. Um, and I guarantee we missed a couple of times. Um, so, uh, you know, when adults are using teenage language, it gets kind of cringey. So, we are going to ask the students for their help in translating these traits into more kid-friendly language. Um, but we're really proud of this portrait. Um, and we have begun sharing it with all three buildings. And we're planning to use the this portrait and start teaching these essential skills next year. Even though High View is going to do full implementation um in a daily fashion for sixth grade, both Edgewood and um Chippoa are going to be doing different activities at Chipoa, we're going to put together some interdisciplinary teams and start coming up with some unique and hopefully exciting opportunities to intentionally teach these skills. So the four main elements are um that we really want middle school students when they leave us to be curious thinkers, resilient learners, solution seekers, and empathetic community members. And Rich is going to break those down a little bit. Good evening. Um the first uh essential skill that I'm going to discuss is curious thinkers. Essentially, we want our students when they leave our system um the middle school system is to be curious about the world. Some attributes is to investigate the world and why things are the way they are. Seek a variety of perspectives, evaluate information and sources from diverse platforms and try new experiences. Being a curious thinker and the following attributes such as being a lifelong learner and critical thinker are not only vital to academic success but also for lifelong learning and innovation. The next skill on slide eight is resilient learners. We want to make sure that our students are overcoming obstacles. The attributes associated with that is identifying things you're good at and practicing what you're not. Viewing and embracing challenge as opportunities for growth. Take control of your learning. Learn and grow from feedback and reflection. Respond productively to changing circumstances. We also want our students to persevere through challenges. Overcome setbacks and adapt to change. On the next slide, the next essential skill, excuse me, is solution solution seeker. We want to make sure that our students are problem solvers. Some attributes associated with that is to use smart uh strategies in different situations, set goals, communicate thoughts with purpose and clarity, work together and play to everyone's strengths, think outside the box, do something that really matters. We really want our students to be team players. Um we want students to work effectively with others and communicate their ideas clearly. As future leaders, we want to ensure that they are developing the skills continually to solve problems not only for themselves but for others. And I'll pass it back to Molly. The fourth one is around empathetic community members. Um we want students to be able to learn with and from each other to be aware of social dynamics and adjust accordingly. We want them to include others and make new friends. We'd like them to develop conflict resolution skills. This is the one that's the most cringey when we tried to put it into studentfriendly language. I think it says something like handle drama like a boss, not a mess. I don't know any middle schooler that actually talks like that. But we do know that this is essential for them to develop some of those conflict resolution skills. We want them to listen, to understand, to stand up for what matters, and to recognize their role to contribute to a larger community. And you can see how these can cut across all content areas. So our next steps um we are planning for these essential skills curriculum development. Again at H High View it's going to be on a daily basis um for sixth graders and at Edgewood um and High View to Edgewood and Chipua um put into our charger time and our nest time as well as across some interdisciplinary content areas. This summer there's going to be teacher-led curriculum design. So, we're going to have teachers from all three buildings come together and um design kind of a scope and sequence, see how it can be aligned with student needs and create those learning objectives. And then really going to support H High View in their implementation um as they look to successfully have this every day. Um and then we're excited to learn from High View and to be able to have the next iteration at Edgewood and at Chipua in 2627. So, as I said, um we're on track for that goal to be met by the time we meet the end of the year. And really, while the goal might be met, we really is just the start of the work as you think about and u listen to the next work that needs to be done at the building level. We would like to thank the teachers who participated. You know, it was um an extra lift for them to be part of the district design team and then also site level design teams. We want to thank them for their participation. Um very proud of the product that they were able to put together. We also would like to thank um parents of the curriculum advisory committee who took a look at the portrait and gave us some feedback. Um and also our community and business partners who looked at the a draft of this and and gave us some feedback that we're able to um take a look at as we're preparing our students for um you know what that experience is for a middle school student and then lifelong learners around that. And I also want to um take some time to thank the principles. It's through their leadership at the building levels that really um will make this become a reality. And I think that we have over the last two years uh worked really hard to get some great things in place and create an environment where this can really be successful for middle school students. So we would answer um any questions or comments that you have at this time. I just love the collaboration. I mean from I mean just all the aspects um and and I really look forward to hearing how you guys are going to incorporate the students language. I know I've spent a lot of time with couple middle schoolers lately and I've learned the word bra. So I didn't see that anywhere. Is it bruh? We know that. Well, yes. Some people in the audience. Is it bruh? I I thought, you know, say what you mean, me you say. Bruh. If they just said that, I think we fairly universal. Look at he's cringing. He's cringing. So I I I think I I nailed that. Um but no, I really do appreciate the work that you guys are doing on this and I I'm excited to see uh where this where this heads. Thank you. Did Did you have something? Yeah. No, just thank you. We've been with you guys start to finish and a real big thank you to our principles who lead on this and are going to have to implement this. So, uh um it it you know it's important and um we saw this as an area that we needed improvement and uh you've laid out a great plan. So, thank you. Welcome. I just want to echo I mean great work. Thank you so much for taking us along this journey with you. Um I know a lot of time and dedication has gone into it. Um and I look forward to hearing updates um on how it's implemented at High View and um you know Chipoa and Edgewood to follow. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you. All right. Next up is item 5.2 DAP goal. Um so um of let's see here the Read Act implementation. And um Angie, we're going to keep you up here and then we're going to welcome um Heidi Sarna um sorry, sorry, director of curriculum and instruction. Hello. We are here tonight to present our final report on the district operating goal that supports the readact. Um we shared many of these details with you at the work session that happened earlier this month. Um but we're here to report uh to the public on this. So tonight we're going to highlight the three areas of the goal. You'll remember that the three areas uh that the readact focused on for um this year was professional learning um for our teachers around the science of reading. Um a screener that was used to help identify students who are um needing additional support to develop their reading skills. And then the third area are the core resources that teachers use in order to provide um literacy instruction. So I'm going to turn it over to Dr. um Heidi Sari to provide some details in each of these areas. Okay. Thank you. Um so I just want to start with a review of the rational and purpose behind the work this year for the read. So um last year July 2024 new state requirements went into effect um for reading instruction across the state and as Angie mentioned that fell into those three large buckets. So um required professional development for uh teachers uh the purchase and implementation of a new reading screener for grades K through three and then a review of core resources for 2526 implementation in our school district. So uh those are the three we'll be reporting out on tonight. Um and we'll start with the professional development. So teachers uh in grades K5 are um training with CORLA. They are currently working through the last few modules 7 through nine. They've attended two live sessions already this year. They have the last one coming up early June and then they will be completed with that training. Our early childhood teachers are doing um early childhood letters training that was uh the vendor provided by the state um and they are finishing their last two units and we anticipate they will also be done this summer as well. So, um, our phase one teachers will be wrapped up this summer. The next steps for us, we will have additional teachers who are coming into our system who may not have been trained with redact training, um, approved vendors. And so, we will work on getting them registered for training for the 2526 school year. We are still waiting on guidance from MDE for the phase 2 teacher training. That will be like our 612 secondary um, ELA literacy teachers. So, um, once we get guidance from MDE on that, we will begin work on phase two. The next thing I'd like to report out on is the reading screener. So, you might remember that last spring we had a group of teachers and teacher leaders come together to review some state approved screeners and they chose FastBridge. So, this year we've been really working on getting that implemented into our elementary buildings. The focus of the work this year was to really support our teachers in understanding a new screener, looking at that data, what that might mean for instruction. And so the instructional support team has been doing that in a few ways. We've been meeting regularly with the FastBridge vendor to learn more about the screeners and the reports that are um being generated now in FastBridge. We have been working on implementing a train the trainer model so we can support our teachers and our principles at the sites. and teachers uh K3 have administered the assessment for fall and winter. It went pretty well and we are working our way through the data and the the reports from from K3 screener. Uh the next component for the screener is the screener that will be used in grades 4 through 12. So we've been waiting on MDE for some additional information around that and in late March they released that information. The screener that will be used is called Capy Assess with Read Basics. And so we are quickly learning to about this assessment. Um getting up to speed on what that might look like and creating a plan for the 2526 school year. Um that is currently the um the state's implementation timeline. So working to get that together. uh also working with principles, intervention teachers, our special education teachers as as well as other teachers across the system to learn more about these assessments and try to determine which assessments might be used for which students in the 2526 school year. So learning a lot um this spring about that new screener. The third uh and final component of this goal was selecting a new core resource. So this fall we had about 40 teachers apply and then participate in the process of reviewing some core resources for kindergarten through fifth grade. They were compensated using redact funding. Uh we split our work groups into two different um work groups. So we had a whole set of teachers that we called like a deep dive workg group and they really reviewed that resource in its entirety K5. So looking at the scope and sequence of the resource, the standards, the flow, um did it did it do its job that we wanted it to do um from a a K5 perspective. And then we had teachers in another group who taught directly with the resource in their grade level in their classroom. So we were able to really get a broad perspective of what these resources um might look like in our system. On March 12th, those teachers came together with principles and uh submitted a recommendation to the executive team for approval. The resources they submitted for recommendation are 95 phonics core for the foundational skills and they would like to have that used K5 TKLA they submitted for recommendation for knowledge building also in grades K5. Um, so we are working right now on um finalizing the quotes and the pricing for that those resources, working on training for our teachers, knowing that this will be a shift in the way they do instruction for um reading. And we plan to have those resources delivered July 2025, so this summer in time for for training and to get ready for the fall. Um, I just we just really want to thank our our teachers as well again on this one. This was a very heavy lift for those 40 teachers who agreed to participate in this. It was a lot of hours of prepping and um diving into the resources on top of the professional learning that were already doing this this year with course. So really grateful to the teachers who who took additional time out of their their day to do this um to to provide some great recommendations for us moving forward. Right. So, um, as with the previous goal that we talked about, while this goal has been met, uh, the work is really just beginning for our teachers, especially as we look at implementing the new core resources. A lot of excitement around those new core resources, it's been a while since we had one. And also, um, a lot of you when you don't know and change is is hard. So, um, how we're going to support teachers, they're up for the challenge and looking forward to be able to support them as we, um, go through that implementation for next year. So, if you have any questions, we'd be happy to entertain any of them. Oh, just a comment. Um, you know, thank you for doing this. This is a big bite. It is a really um um substantial change in the science of reading and how we teach it and we're, you know, have great expectations, but uh the state has put on some really tough guy or timelines and has messed with us a little bit by giving us a little late guidance. So, I'm just really impressed that um you folks are making these timelines and we're going to be ready for the fall because it's been I know it's been hard. So, um you've had a lot thrown at you and uh you know, bravo to the teachers too because they're the ones who are going to have to do this. So, uh thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. Yeah, I just echo I think appreciation advance for all the staff who like you said are open to change and are uh buckling down and and I'm sure they are there's probably some reticence as well, you know, with um some new resources and and new methodology, but um we're really grateful for all the work of your team as well as all of the staff who will implement over the next year. Thank you. And I I just want to thank Angie and Heidi. Um, this doesn't just happen. Make it sound easy. Well, we had teachers and everybody did their they worked their tails off. I mean, they work super super hard every day. Uh, to Jim's point, this came late guidance. We're we're doing what we can do and they're working overtime because of it. And I just want them publicly recognized because um, you know, not not a lot of complaints. It's just work. It's like we need to get it done. we're we're picking it up and a lot of great people, but these two uh really are the face of this work and and I want them to know how much we appreciate them. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Uh moving on to item 6.1. Uh we'll go over to Jim for some updates for AMSD and legislative. Oh, AMSD is spending most of their time at the capital these days trying to figure out the big question, which is the state budget. state budget $66 million. 70% of it is in HHS and in education. Um the legislature seems to have made good progress on all their budget bills except education and HHS because they're the hardest. Um, the House has actually proposed uh $40 million worth of help to implement the Read Act, which is uh interesting, but they hold the budget level pretty tight on um on uh education, except we do get a 2.7% increase on um our formula. The Senate and the Governor also have a 2.7 um uh% increase on the formula, which is great and very generous. But um in the long run, as they say on the budget tales in 28 and 29, there's a pretty substantial reduction in education funding by $700 million. So um as I said, um the first bianium not so bad. The second bianium um likely to get hit with some things. So as I said, that's a May 20th deadline to finish the budget. What happens if they don't get it done? Well, they usually go out and they finish up before June 30th when they have to uh get the budget done. So um hopefully uh May 20th will be the time you uh we u get a budget so we can plan but uh we don't approve our budget until June because uh we are very dependent on state funding. About six of our $10 in the school district come from the state of Minnesota and we are greatly appreciative of that. So um that's my report. Thank you. Thank you Jim. Um no 916 updates um since we met earlier this month. Um, so moving on, uh, we'll go to item 6.2. Um, any updates from schoolboard members? I would like to share that I was able to attend the Pike Lake PTA meeting last week and I know this is the first year or two that we have PTAs at Pike Lake and Snail Lake. And um, during the meeting, they talked about uh, how many interested parents they had at um, kindergarten roundup events as well. So, it's great to see parents uh engaging right away when they enter our district and just encourage anybody with a new kindergarten to get involved um in those PTAs. Um all of us around this table uh get to go participate and hear from all the schools in the district and it's always great to hear, but it was fun to hear from those first time um parents in the district as well. Um lots of fun things happening, lots of sports and other activities happening. I just urge everyone who's interested to attend the um district powo on Saturday at Irondale and uh this weekend is also the Irondale play and next weekend is the Mountains View Musical. So, lots of great stuff going on across the district. Heidi, anyone else have any updates? Yes. I also attended a PTA over at Bair and as Heidi mentioned, parental involvement's very important in education. They really the parents are very supportive of our schools. their helpers. They put on book fairs and carnivals. So, thank you for all their efforts. I did get to go see a little lacrosse at Mounds View. The girls team played and that was a lot of fun. And I also attended briefly uh military academy night. I got to see the West Point and Air Force um presentations to not only our students but the students of the fourth congressional district, which is basically Ramsey County. And it um is quite an education. And I was very excited to see our Irondale uh Athena Award winner heading to Air Force because I think that's uh we've had about three Air Force folks in the last four years. So that's uh that's really terrific. And to add on to Heidi, 1 to6 Saturday is the POW at Irondale. It's our seventh annual and it's always a fun event. You can kind of come and go as you please. So if you come at 1, that's great. If you come at 5, it's great. Good food, great traditions, and a lot of fun. Thank you. Thank you, Jim. Any other updates? No. Okay. If there's nothing else to come before the board, this meeting is adjourned. All right. Thank you, Diane. You guys have any questions for us?