saw that Mickey's old. That's what we included on that. I would like to call to order the April 8th regular board meeting of the Mountains View School Board. Good evening and welcome. The next order of business is item 1.2, adoption of the agenda. I would entertain a motion. So moved. Second. The agenda has been moved and seconded. Any um excuse me, any discussion? Hearing? None. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. So, we're moving on to item 2.1, student recognition for winter activities. They're having too much fun outside conversing. Yeah, we're ready. Well, welcome to the podium. Um, athletic and activities director Chris Frink. Well, we're glad to be here. Um, we got a bunch of groups, one more than I anticipated. So, we're going to start off with Well, first of all, we had a fantastic winter season for all of our kids. We had so many different activities going on, it's hard to keep them all straight. So, we're gonna start with our boys swim team. Hi, my name is Henry Botton. My name is Lucas Man. Um, I'm a senior on the men's, uh, swim and dive team. And Lucas here is a junior and we're both captains on the team. And, um, this year we have built up the team and have put our numbers from not even placing at state to placing 10th. and um having a lot of our individual uh swimmers medal at state and we have a lot of up and cominging skill and talent coming up and we're excited to see where that goes. Um I'll obviously be gone next year, but can tell you a little more. Yeah, we we took our team from just four years ago we didn't win a single meet to this year going 10 and one being second best in the conference 10th at state just we broke six records in total this year too all the relays so it just shows how much our team has improved awesome that's awesome congratulations on the consistent improvement hello hello there. I'm Anessa and this is Karina. Uh we are part of the Ironell marching band as well as the Irondale color guard. We are not part of the Iron Drum line, but we will be talking about them today. My name is Karina. I am a sophomore at Irondale High School. I have done two years of marching band and I'm on my second year of winter guard on JV. And I wanted to come here today and talk about how marching band and winter guard have really changed not just me, but like every student that's involved in either JV or varsity. I say they get the exact same amount of treatment and they get the same amount of challenges and all the obstacles that come to it. And I feel like Marching Man Color Guard really taught me how to be great on time management and commitment and how to be a better person and know like adult situations and how to handle those situations. For me in my personal experience, by the way, again, I'm Anessa. I'm a junior and I've been in marching band for five years. It's going to be my sixth year this year. And then I've been in doing I've been doing color guard since third grade. And I've been on like the middle school team for a while. But I finally been in varsity for at least like the past three years. And my personal experience is that marching band has taught me a lot of things. Kept me stable. It's kept me alive. It's kept me moving. It's kept me wanting to be do things, wanting me to be more out there in my community, be more wellknown of other people. Me and Karina are both going to be drum majors next year. And that means we're really, really, really important to the band. We represent the band as a whole. And we take that with stride, confidence, and responsibility. And we understand how much that means so much to the band. Before we go off, I'm gonna talk about like color guard, what it is. Color guard is basically a separate section thing about drum. Marching band. There's like marching bands in the summer and then winter guard and drum liner in the winter. So, it's just two different things, but we are part of the same program. Karina's gonna tell you a little bit of the accomplishments we have and then we'll end off. The Marshian man has had a lot of compliments with the fouryear I think four year fouryear 3A championships at the youth and bank uh stadium the US bank stadium and we've also went to Indianapolis this year we got the great like opportunity to go there and we were in the 20s out of 80 marching bands 87 87 and we were in the 20s out of all of that we did not make finals but we did have the opportunity to go there and we are usually at the top of the music and visual ual aspects and we have lot won lots of like accomplishments throughout the year with Winter Guard and Drummond which she'll talk about. Some accomplishments that we have with like Winter Guard is that saying like we don't really make finals but we do get the opportunity to go to prelims and that's a huge experience. I just came back from WGI. Very big, very well known. I've seen world finals guards. We had guards from Netherlands come in. We had the guards from Hawaii come in. It's really big, really well known. And the drum line right now are leaving. They're rehearsing today. And they're going to leave at 11:00 p.m. tonight to go to Dan, Ohio as well and experience the same things we experienced at WGI Winter Guard. That's awesome. Great. Awesome. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Love the confidence. Thanks for sharing your personal testimony, too, how it personally impacted you. Bye. Hi, my name is Buana and I've done speech for three years. I am a junior. My name is Malaya Wessa. I'm a senior. I've also been doing speech for three years. Yeah. Um this year with speech, we're actually sending a record number of people to Nigh Talk, which is our um our national tournament. We're sending nine people as opposed to I believe we sent five last year. Oh, it was three. Or we sent three last year. And um a lot of these people are in their first or second year of speech. So, it's really impressive that they made it all the way to the national tournament this early in their speech. Um, first a personal thing that I have from speech is if I had been asked to do this in ninth grade prior to doing speech, I would have said no and probably be crying on a ball pit on the floor right now. So, speech has really helped me with like my public speaking skills. And a lot of the times when like during high, you know, high school can be rough sometimes. And sometimes when I'm going through like my darkest moments, I'll be like thinking, I just can't wait for like our speech meetings on f on Tuesdays because then I get to see my friends. We get to hang out and talk about like, you know, that person really didn't deserve first place, but okay. Um, also finally made it to the National Circuit of Speech, which is essentially where schools from all over the nation. It's different from your regular national park talk as we call it because these are consistent tournaments at schools like Harvard. There's one in Chicago, one in Northwestern. And for the first time ever, we've gotten to those places. Amazing. That's great. Yeah. Um, we're also gonna talk about debate because can't really mention about debate. I mean, let's be honest. Um, but yeah, actually, our debate team started only three years ago. So, it's amazing how far we've come. Started with only novice teams, but this year we're actually having two really consistent varsity, which is insane. And not only that, but even at the state tournament, we had a lot of break out of maybe outselves because debate is one of those activities that just try your toes in. It's something that you have probably to muster up a lot. So, it's been really interesting to see how that also to see their accomplishments throughout the season. Thanks you guys. Congratulations. Hey. Hi, I'm Sophie. I'm a junior at Irondale and I'm a captain on the Nordic team. And I'm Estelle. I'm also a junior and a captain of the Nordic team. And this season was truly amazing. Our team almost doubled in size with the majority of the newcomers being middle schoolers, which enables us to continue to grow in strength and in size as the years come forward. And having no seniors also helps with that. Um, even though we had no snow, the team made the best of it and we busted to Battle Creek multiple times a week to ski on real fake snow. Um uh the team the athletes were super um energetic about it and didn't complain that we would bust like 30 plus minutes to get there. Um yeah. Yeah. And the team was also so connected to you this year and we had such amazing coaches that you could tell truly cared about us as like athletes and like as people and they just made us like so much better like as athletes and just in general I think. Yeah, thank you. Thank you guys. Uh I'm Franklin. I'm a senior captain on the Nordic team as well. I'm Luke. I'm also a senior captain. So on the guys side this year, we had a lot of seniors. Um and these were people that we have skied with for for him six years, me four years of our lives. Um so it was a really fun season. Um we did really well as a team. Next year is going to be a bit of a rebuilding year, but um I'm sure that the team can get it done. Um yeah, so a little bit more of like the team aspect. So we have a big team trip ski camp. It's in over winter break in December. Um that's really fun. All the seniors had a blast. And even if we have no snow here, we can always go to Michigan where it's at Ironwood so that we have snow there. And then we also continued our Nord team streak of sending people to state. So as long as I've been there, we've always sent somebody. Yeah. At least one. And this year we sent a relay. So this is the sweatshirt from this year. I went with uh one other senior in the relay. So that was a great time, too. Awesome. Congratulations so much. Hi school board. I'm Jim Galvin, activities director at Mounds View High School. Thank you for having us tonight. Uh since last time we met, uh Moundsu's, uh done some pretty cool things. Our students there at Mountains High School, um our student performance, the uh Shakespeare, uh performance the kids put on was outstanding this year. We had a couple hundred kids participate at the Suburban East Music Festival that Mr. Frink and Irondale hosted. Um we had a couple winter teams compete in the state tournament and a couple individual state champions again this year. Um it's been a fantastic year. Our our clubs and activities uh I think we had six of our activities that uh competed or excelled in the state tournament where we're representing Mounds View High School and the district at nationals. And tonight we've got some of our uh for students here to speak with you. Thank you. Thanks. Hi, I'm Nadine. I'm a junior. Hi, I'm Kosby. I'm also a junior. Hi, my name is Josiah and I'm also a junior and we're the captains for Mounty's Science Olympiad team. So, I'm just going to give a brief summary of like what we do and what we've been doing this year. Um, Science Olympiad is the largest grade school science competition in the US where we study different fields of science and work on them from biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, computer science, robotics etc. And um it exists on the elementary, middle and high school levels and we have all those in Mount Su district. So all three of us have been competing in science olympiad since fourth fifth grade. So for seven plus years and I think through this program the most important thing that we've learned is to independently study and research beyond the classroom. And whether it's reading college level material or learning new lab techniques. Um this program has taught us ultimately to take our own initiative with learning which is a skill that's helped us succeed not only in these science Olympia competitions but also in classes and other academic endeavors. Um, and one thing that I we kind of wanted to point out was that unlike other science competitions, Sci is really dependent on like teamwork and collaboration because we have teams of 15 and people partner with different people on events and because you are competing in three to four events, you always have the option to try out new events with new partners which really gives our students like a lot of opportunity to learn how to work with new people and develop problem solving skills. So, kind of a personal example, during my freshman year, I competed in the event cell biology. And not only did it strengthen my research skills and reinforce the understanding of concepts that I was learning in AP biology, which I was taking at the time, but it sparked a genuine interest in that field, which prompted me to get involved in other activities and internships um related to this area and sparked more passions that I plan to pursue in college and beyond. Cool. Yeah. So, and then on the accomplishment side of things, so this year we had over 60 plus team members and we competed at invitationals across Minnesota and Wisconsin. Then 15 of those team members were able to compete at the state tournament. This year we placed third at the state tournament with a margin of about 10 points. The last two years we've placed first place and the three of us and our teammates competed at nationals and represented Minnesota. Um, and it historically Mountia has placed first place at the state tournament 15 times in the last 20 years. So, we are the most accomplished team in Minnesota by a fairly large margin. We also have individuals winning medals at every single tournament, usually placing first in terms of medal counts at our invitationals, including at the state tournament this year, where we placed in over half our events. And every single team member placed top three in at least one out of about 35 teams from all over the state of Minnesota. And I think that's it. So, thank you so much. Thank you guys. Hello. Um, hi. I'm Scarlet and I'm here with Jana to share some exciting facts about Moundry Deca this year. Um, so while DECA is just often recognized as a marketing or sales club, it's so much more to um than that to us. We offer it as a co-curricular club. Um, so there's room for opportunity because we offer introduction to marketing, advanced marketing, and the marketing three course which is new this year. um including our before school activity for ninth and tth graders who are interested in the program in the coming years. So Manska equips students with real life world skills that are invaluable in any career. So for instance um DECA members earlier this year participated in mock interviews um with industry professionals where we created resumes, LinkedIn profiles and cover letters uh while practicing coming up with answers on the spot. And my personal favorite was tell me about a boss that you didn't get along with. Um uh but yeah, we were definitely ready for that and equipped with the tools we needed to answer those on the spot questions. Um so DECA is just far different than any typical classroom experience. It emphasizes hands-on learning and preparing students for success in whichever career path they end up choosing. Um additionally, mana, we operate two gold certified stores this year, Mustang Marketplace, and the Mustang Spirit Shop. Um, as someone with a personal u interest in finance, I've gained invaluable practical experience by applying these class taught business principles in this real real world setting. Thank you. Yeah. So, this year, Mount Deca had 35 chapter members who competed at the state level with seven advancing to the international competition in Orlando later this month. So in competition students can choose from a wide range of categories including personal finance literacy, marketing, management and adi and administration, entrepreneurship, hospitality and tourism and so much more. I personally had the opportunity to compete in the startup business plan event with my business girlies. It was an incredible experience to work on something I'm passionate about which made competition all the more fun and to present it in front of industry professionals. But DECA is not just about competition and recognition. It's also about community service. In October, we ran a week of giving campaign raising over $5,000 for the Ralph Reader food shelf. We also launched an advocacy campaign speaking to lawmakers regarding funding towards career and technical programs and reaching out to f future Mustangs at High View, answering questions about DECA and promoting their involvement in an effort to ease their transition into high school. From job shadows to guest speakers to community building activities, DECA prepares us for life after high school. It's not just about gaining knowledge. It's about developing leadership skills and becoming proactive members of our communities. We're incredibly proud to be part of this incredible program. We're deeply grateful for the opportunities DECA provides and we want to thank you for your ongoing support of this program that makes such a positive impact on so many students. I also we also heard that some of you were judges for DECA and we want to thank you for that as well. So, thank you again for your time and support. Thank you. Thank you so much. Hello, my name is Blessing and I'm a part of the captain's forward this year. I'm a senior this year as well. Um, what is Sor? Sor is a club for girls only. It emphasizes on sisterhood. I have been in Sora ever since I was a freshman and it was established in 2016. Um, for me, a big part of Sora is the fact that it made me very um, social. As a freshman, I was very, very shy. I could barely talk to anybody who sat right next to me. I would not even look at them. But this year, I'm right here talking to you guys. So, it has helped me in a lot of ways. Um, so where we try having volunteer opportunities, we try going to um, universities. We try having the girls like learn about different fields outside of being a high schooler. Um this year this year we had a financial adviser come in and speak to the girls about investing, spending and all budgeting stuff. Um last year we went on volunteer opportunities. We went to um feed my stomach children. We went also to um U of Master Century. We tried like um investing in the girls and telling them that they could be more than just what they're supposed to be. But yeah, that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Well, first of all, thank you all for being here. Um this is one of our favorite nights um because we get to see um the students uh who we advocate for every day and also uh just to hear all of the great accomplishments that all of the the teams and individuals have had. So I did hear that there were several seniors. So if you're willing to share um you know what you're thinking for your your plans for next year, we'd love to hear um but not obligated to share. So, Franklin, are you going to start us off? Yeah. All right. Uh, I'm going to go to NDSU next year to study ecoin science and a minor in aggra business. Great. I'm going to be going to University of Northwestern St. Paul to play baseball. And then I'm going to be a premed major. Um, I'm going to be going into the military, specifically the Marine Corps, and hopefully be going in as a air crew member. I'm committed to University of Wisconsin Oclair and I'll be swimming there and I'll be studying kinesiology with a minor in business over here. Um, I'm planning to go to U of M and I'm planning to study soft engineering. Amazing. All right. Well, congratulations. Well, congratulations. Thank you for making our night. before you guys all get away. And I I just want to congratulate you. I mean, amazing amazing things happening at at both of our high schools. And and uh in large part that has to do with with you guys um and also the programs and and people that support you. And and tonight, I was going to do this in my soup report, but since the gentleman is here with us, I I thought I would recognize our activities director from Irondale, uh Mr. Frink. Um I don't know that all of you know this. Uh recently the Minnesota Interscolastic Athletic Administrators Association 5A named Mr. Frink the athletic director of the year a Mr. Frink for all you do for for our students for our for our schools and our our community. Uh very much appreciated. and I wanted to do that tonight while you were still here and and in front of some of of the students uh and staff that you serve. Thank you for all you do. Thank you everybody. So, thank you everyone. Congratulations. Um you're more than welcome to hang out if you want. Otherwise, go enjoy the lovely evening. So, thanks for being here. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you for representing our district. Thank you so much for Yeah. Thank you guys. And congratulations, Mr. Fank. Congratulations. All right, at this time we'll move on to um item 2.2, student representative reports. Come on up. Who's going to go first? I'm going first today. Hello. Doing amazing. Um okay, so just a quick little report about Irondale or what's been happening recently um or what is upcoming also. So for student council, we're currently in the middle of planning our um second annual spring carnival. So, we're planning to have like games, food trucks, um a bunch of different activities and like free events and stuff. Um so, we're excited about that. And then we've also um been working on some smaller events for this month like a movie night, a paint and sip, and then like Cocoa with council. We've done some of these events before, but it we just thought it would be a fun like end to the school year. And then we're also starting our student council campaigns for the or the presidential campaigns for next year. Um, so students have been working on their campaigns and advertising them. And then we're also planning to have the election I think at the start of May. Um, yeah. So students are like very excited about that. And then Earth Club also has been working. Um, we're currently planning our Earth Week celebration because Earth Day is April 22nd this year. Um, so we're planning to have like a schoolwide event from or that entire week from the 21st to the 25th. Um, but we're still in the planning process. So, there's going to be like spirit days, um, fundraising opportunities, and then like a park cleanup to celebrate. And then National Honor Society, um, all of the volunteer hours are due May 1st. So, students have been working to make sure that they're meeting that deadline. And then there's also an upcoming blood drive that everyone's, um, participating in. Not everyone, but a lot of NHS members are participating in. Um, and then we're also having or we just had a food drive um where we collected around 272 pounds of food. So that was awesome. And I think mac and cheese was the most donated. It was fun. And then also, so this year I formed their very first model United Nations um delegation. Um, which is exciting for us because we haven't had one previously. Um, but the conference was April 3rd, I think, and it was at the Minneapolis Marriott Hotel. Um so we sent about seven students to that. Um so students were like given the opportunity to debate like global issues and like take on like a certain country and represent them. Um so yeah that was an exciting opportunity. And then also our tri society which just is just a formation of different like the different like orchestra band choir um came together and they're hosting the open mic night on April 25th. So students are planning to like participate in that and perform and yeah we're excited about that. And then we also have some award winners. Um so Lulu Semakula was um selected as the 2025A award winner um for our like region. Um so she was recognized for her like different achievements but she is like captain of the swim team. um she's taken a bunch of really hard classes and then I think she also founded the Black Student Union at Irondo. So we're super excited for her. And then also Aphomia Mesin um she's an honore for the Minnesota Aspirations in Computing Awards. So she's played a big role in our robotics team which has actually been very successful and yeah so she was recognized for that and we're very excited for them. And then also um the Irondale drama department is performing their spring play I think at the end of April. So that will be called Puffs. Um it's similar to like Harry Potter, you know. Um but yeah, so we're excited about that and yeah, I think that's about it. But thank you. Thank you so much. Welcome. Hello. Hello. So, we already heard from some of the activities from earlier from other Mounty students. So, I'll just be elaborating on the activities we had this past month. So, um to start, we had our basketball team wrap up just before um our spring break. They ended the season with a record of 20 to eight. Um they earned all conference academic champions award for the sixth consecutive year in a row. Um we also have two players named all conference, namely seniors Cody L and Alex K. We also have honorable mentions Jack Doll, Natal Element, and Jack Jacob Simpson. And we also have a new spring sport launching at Mount Zoo. So, it's going to be girls flag football. Mount Zoo is actually one of 51 high schools in Minnesota launching this sort of team. Um, they will be receiving assistance from the Vikings. So, um, I did some research and they're committed like about $600,000 to assisting these schools. So, they will be helping with coaching and officiating and transportation and it'll just help with empowering our female athletes and really just, you know, setting a president for our school. Cool. We also have a fine arts spotlight. We have um a freshman um she's involved in chamber orchestra. She won first place at the 2025 Music Teachers National Association um junior piano competition. Kind of a mouthful. Um this was from the 15th to the 19th and it's often referred to as like the most prestigious student competition um in the country. and she also competed in the most competitive division, junior division. Um, so we'd like to note that. Um, we also had a large group contest for our symphony and chamber orchestras um, this past Thursday that I was a part of. Um, it's a part of the Minnesota High School League um, sort of large group competitions for the arts. Um, we had three judges and we got two perfect scores and then one gave us 39 out of 40. Although he did say that we did sound lovely. So, but I think there might have been a little bit of bias there, but um they did note that they're extremely extremely impressed by how robust our music programs are and how much effort and how our technique across the entire ensemble was just beautiful. So, it's really important to note. And we also had DECA, which was um talked about earlier. Um we had 34 students compete. Um we have three or four students moving to the convention in Orlando, which will be taking place um from April 26th to 29th. And for an idea of comparison, approximately 6,000 students across from Minnesota compete in um DECA each school year. We also had our Music for Mounties uh concert um which I talked about the last meeting. It was on Saturday the 15th. Um I think our turnout was reportedly doubled of last year, which was amazing. Um we were able to earn almost um $1,800 for um all our charities. Um we had a variety of performances. We had quintets, quartets, um students played traditional Chinese instruments, solo vocalists, and it was a hit. So, it's good. We also had our physics fair on Thursday, March 13th. Um students got to hear from Metronic, Regions Hospital, the U of M engineering program. Um our big chain reaction, which happens each year, where everyone watches um students try to get their project all the way from like one project to 13 projects, and it's just crazy. But um it was not successful but it was fun nonetheless. We also had some notable themes. We had like a crumble cookie theme project which was a hit with the judges which is really exciting. And then we also just have some small awards. We also had the aspirations and commuting uh award winner from the Minnesota Technology Association awarded to a senior named Tanish Kashetti. We also had our math team place sixth in state for the regular season. Um and we also have our best buddies program um which is a part of an international chapter which is um basically about creating opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Um they had a day of belonging so students and teachers wore tie-dye and bright colors. Um they got to participate in a big sale, music and art. And they also signed a pledge to create inclusion at Mountains View. And then just for April, um we have um our prom that's coming up, which is not this month, but we're planning for it. Um it's going to be at the Mall of America um in the Nickelodeon Universe. I believe this is the last year it'll be at the Mall of America. Um students will be able to go on rides and dance and have photo opportunities. And the dance is going to be themed Gleam and Glow. Um I think it's supposed to be sort of a reenactment of the movie Tangled, which is exciting. And then lastly, we have our cultural festival um held by the diversity council which will be held on Wednesday the 16th. Um they'll have henna and dance performances and students each year they like to dress up and traditional wear and it's just amazing to see all these posters where everyone's representing where they're from and it's just a beautiful show of the diversity we have at Mountains View. And we also have our blood drive on the 21st and that will be it. Thank you. Great. Thank you so much. Well, enjoy the rest of your evening. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Thank you. Um at we'll start with the gifts. Um item 2.3, uh Shauna, could you please read? Um there were five gifts for schools and programs received this period for a total of $2,230. And there were 25 gifts received for the Ralph Raider food shelf this period for a total of $57,258. It's recommended that the board accept these gifts and extend our thanks to the donors. Thank you, Shauna. Upcoming meetings, uh we have our next regular school board meeting um on Tuesday, April 22nd at 7 p.m. And then we have our next work session on May 1st, uh at 5:00 pm. Both here at the district center. Um at this time, we'll move on to agenda item 2.4, superintendence report. Thank you, uh Diane. I have a few things tonight. Um, first I'm proud to announce that the orchestras from Chipoa and High View Middle Schools were selected to perform at orchestra hall as part of the middle level honors concert. Um, they were two of 11 orchestras that were selected from schools across the state uh to perform last evening. Had an opportunity to go down last night and hear their performances. They were absolutely fantastic. I just want to take this opportunity to congratulate the students, their families, and especially our directors, Brian Larson, Kim Tur, and Jet Janet Elliot for all their hard work. It's just wonderful to see them recognized and want to congratulate everyone associated with those programs. Um, I also want to congratulate our finance team. P Paula Steele, uh, our director of finance, let me know that Mountains View Public Schools once again recognized were recognized for excellence in finance. uh we were presented with the certificate of excellence from the international association of business professionals. So just wanted to also recognize uh Paula and her entire team for all the work they do much of which is done behind the scenes. People never really see all that work uh but critically important to the success of our schools and our school district. So congratulations to Pa Paula and the finance team. Uh and finally, I want to let everyone know that during the week of May 5th through the 9th, uh our schools will recognize all staff during our staff appreciation week. Uh each day during that week, you will see employee groups spotlighted on our social media pages. And as always, there are opportunities for people to send notes of appreciation uh to our Mountains View Public School staff. Last year, more than 3,200 cards were sent to hardworking staff members. So, if you're interested and want more information, please visit mvpschools.org backthank uh where you'd have an opportunity to get more information and create a custom card if you'd like to do that. So, I encourage everyone to have take advantage of that opportunity. And with that, I'll finish my report. Thank you, Superintendent Lennox. We will now move on to item 3.0, approval of the consent agenda. I would entertain a motion. So moved. Second. The agenda has been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. None. Any opposed? Motion carries. Next up is item 4.1, uh, termination of probate probationary staff. Um, we will have Julie Coffee, executive director of human resources, join us. Hi, Julie. Hi. Good evening. So, annually each April, we present um on the termination of our probationary teaching contracts. The probationary period for teachers is defined in Minnesota statute. Um and during that probationary period, the teacher's annual teaching contract may be renewed for any reasons. Um performance, budgetary, staffing reasons. Um we have some teachers who are hired to one-year positions. Um and then lensure reasons as well. Um so a probationary teacher is deemed to have been remployed for the ensuing school year unless the board gives written notice before July 1. Um, so we're taking action now in April to meet that deadline as as well as to allow those teachers um, sufficient opportunity to pursue other employment options. Um, all of the teachers recommended for non-renewal this year were notified by their principal prior to tonight's meeting and we're asking for the board tonight for approval of the non-renewal of the probationary list teachers listed in the resolution. Any questions? All right. I would entertain a motion that the teachers listed in the attachment A um be terminated pursuant to the attached resolution. Moved. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Julie. Moving on to item 4.2, uh resolution authorizing the sales of certificates. Um and I'll turn this over to Superintendent Lennox. Great. Yeah, thanks Diane. Um this is really for the public. I know as board members you've been involved in this process. Uh but just for the public for many years uh now the MU public school district uh has been leasing space at the NYFS uh building in order to have enough space to provide the necessary programming for our students. Uh recently in conversations with NYFS leadership, it became clear there would be a benefit to both organizations if we flipped that relationship where Moundsu public schools would become the owner operator of the property and NYFS would lease space from the district. Uh we subsequently entered into negotiations are now at the stage where the school district is offering certificates of participation. those are similar to bonds um that will actually be used for the financing of this purchase. So, the next step um this evening is to have the school board take action to enter a lease purchase agreement uh that allows for the issuance of those certificates of participation and will allow for the acquisition and financing of the NYFS property. So, administration is recommending approval of the authorizing resolution you have in your packets tonight. Great. All right. Any questions? I would entertain a motion. So moved. Second. The resolution has been moved and seconded. If there's no discussion, um all in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Um now we'll have um item 5.1 um DAP goal uh social emotional behavior support. And I'd like to welcome up Jen Lodin um executive director of student support and engagement. uh Darren Johnson um executive director of school management and Stephanie Mars, director of student services. Welcome. Thank you. Good evening and thanks for having us here for this report. Um, as you mentioned, Darren Johnson is here, executive director of school management, and Stephanie Mars, who's the director of special services. And we're going to report out this evening and provide an update um on the review and evaluation of programs and services being offered to students who are in need of additional social, emotional, and behavior support, identify those strengths and gaps, and make um recommendations for improvement. As you'll remember, we reviewed these with you in depth during the Mark March um work session. First, I'll share how we went about gathering the information needed to address this goal. Um the student support team hosts a district interdisciplinary team which includes support staff from all of our schools and programs. This team meets monthly and is a driving force in identifying those supports and student support services available across the district. As part of our initial fall meetings, we worked with each of the building student support teams to create a list of current services and resources through a resource mapping process. A document um was created then that identified the common supports that are available across classrooms, buildings, programs, the district, and through our external partners when available. Data regarding student needs and their participation in services. um available for support were analyzed for patterns and trends at each of our school sites, district, and community partner levels. Early data indicated that the expected supports at a classroom and building level are commonly available and and accessed easily. District level and community partner supports are being more closely examined, specifically um as it pertains to special education supports. As part of that closer examination, partner data is being monitored for students who receive programming um outside of our district. As an example, we now have a dashboard provided um to our district level staff by intermediate district 916 that identifies all of our students who are currently receiving those services and those that are um placed on the wait list to receive services. Districtwide listening sessions were also held with special education staff from all buildings and programs to gather feedback on that programming and what was happening at both the district and building levels. Themes have been identified and followed um and follow-up meetings are currently taking place to identify opportunities for alignment and improvement. Uh now that I have shared with you our process for gathering information, Darren Johnson is going to talk a little bit more about the classroom and building supports. Good evening. Throughout our district, students social, emotional, and behavioral needs are being met in classrooms that are prepared by highly trained and caring staff. The key to the success of classroom supports is based on relationships and a personalized approach which individualized the needs of students served in MSU public school district. During our review of classroom strategies and learning environments, a variety of strengths were identified. Elementary and middle school teachers are providing direct instruction related to behavior expectations and social emotional skill development during morning meetings and advisory periods. Teachers are differentiating the needs of students within their classrooms and understand how to access building and district supports when necessary. Teachers are actively engaged in forming positive environments and meaningful relationships with each student. The impact of these efforts is being measured through each building's connectedness goal. The success of these goals are determined through a process of data collection and analysis, driving leadership teams through an ongoing process of strategy abandonment, adoption, and adaptation. Physically, classroom environments have been set up to include sensory tools and quiet, calming areas that students can use to regulate their emotions and behavior. A variety of flexible furniture options are being included in classrooms to allow students to find the best fit for their learning needs. Classrooms and individual student behavior plans are being implemented as necessary across all levels. And finally, additional adult support staff in the form of smallroup licensed educators and pair educators are being introduced in classrooms to support the needs of small groups and individual students as necessary. Additionally, opportunities for growth were also identified in our review of classroom strategies and learning environments. The learning profiles of students we serve in Mounds View will continue to require our staff to have greater flexibility and expertise in order to give our students what they need. Our plan for providing professional development opportunities uh to our staff will continue to evolve and will need to take into account up-to-date best practice and a clear understanding of the skills required to serve students in buildings across our district. Students social, emotional, and behavioral needs are being met by a structured network of specialized staff who work collaboratively collaboratively to meet the needs of students. During our review of these building structures and frameworks, a variety of strengths were also identified. All schools have consistent and well-communicated behavior and frameworks in place. These frameworks provide behavioral guideposts for the larger student body while still allowing systemic flexibility as needed when situations arise. Specialized support staff and resources are readily available to students and staff across all buildings as needed. General education structures and special education case managers take great pride in working collaboratively to create a plan that meets the needs of each student that they serve. Daily and weekly schedules have been created that enhance student connectedness and engagement. Strategically, strategically created buildingwide scheduling at all levels can make a big difference for how students interact with their peers or how students increase their ability to deal with difficult situations throughout the day. Schoolwide expectations have been set for positive student behavior with acknowledgements attached to the attainment of both individual and building goals. All buildings have student support teams focused on reviewing data and providing necessary support for individual and small groups of students. In addition to ste to teachers serving on building student support teams, key players on building teams include administrators, deans, school psychologists, nurses, academic intervention staff, para educators, special education case managers, and pareducators to name a few. On any given day, buildings may offer student groups around the areas of relationship development skills, family change, and other groups based on the needs of students or situations that may arise. Additionally, opportunities for growth were also identified in our review of building structures and frameworks. As is always the case, our system will continue to find new and innovative ways to engage families in the partnership of student development in the areas of social, emotional, and behavioral needs. Building practices wrapped around our structures of parent communication and partnership will improve outcomes for our students through our commitment to working productively with families. Additionally, a review of district practices and strategies as well as our relationships with external partners were also reviewed. And for that report, I will turn it over to Stephanie Mars. Thank you. Um, so you've heard a little bit from Darren about the important supports that are happening at the classroom and the building levels. And so I'd like to share a little bit of a look across the district. Um we've developed systems systems and structures to ensure consistent and equitable support for all students, particularly those with specialized needs. And these aren't just sitebased initiatives. They are a part of a coordinated district-wide approach to student success. Um I'll start with the district-wide coordination of 504 plans. Um that district level coordination or districtwide coordination ensures that students with disabilities receive the needed accommodations to access their educational environment. Each school has a designated 504 coordinator responsible for compliance documentation and collaboration with families and staff. Special education services are offered in a comprehensive continuum across the district, including setting three programs in our neighborhood schools, setting four programs for students requiring separate placements, and transition level programming for our students aed 18 to 22. We also have alternative to suspension programs. At the elementary level, we have the reset program and at the secondary level, we have the tribe program. These district-run programs aim to reduce exclusionary discipline through structured inschool interventions, seal instruction, behavioral coaching, and reflectionbased supports. We have a wide array of district level supports including health services, mental health, that's expanded access through school-based therapy and partnerships, and chemical health supporting students with prevention and intervention for students experiencing substance abuse challenges. Our cultural and student support liaison provide advocacy, language access, and help families navigate systems especially for multilingual learners. Um, and additionally, we have support for students expering homelessness. Uh, district staff ensure access to meals, transportation, and seal supports under Mckin Vento protections. We have risk assessment and crisis response protocols. We use a district-wide risk assessment protocols to respond to safety concerns and coordinate with mental health providers and law enforcement when needed. And as Jen mentioned a little bit earlier, um as far as datadriven decision-making goes, we access the Minnesota student survey that informs our priorities around mental health and substance abuse and climate. And now, uh also starting to implement the search institute survey to help us understand student strengths, belonging, and resilience. Uh we have clear district level procedures and coordination for 504 and special education services across the district. We have a comprehensive continuum of social, emotional, and behavioral supports and a use of standardized student voice data to guide our decisions. And I'm going to pass over to Jen now and she'll finish up with districtwide or community partnerships. Yes, thank you. Um, as schools, as you all know, we cannot possibly meet all of the needs in the community. But when those needs impact our students ability to learn, we do have an obligation to partner with others to remove those barriers and assist families so their children can come to school and be ready to learn. That is why our community partnerships are so valuable to us in MSU public schools. And I'm going to mention a few of our partners, but recognize that this is not a comprehensive list of those um key partners. Uh we currently work closely with Ramsey County and their um services to be able to provide um supports to students and families. We work closely with um Suburban Suburban Ramsey Family Collaborative. All of you may remember Mary Sue Hansen was here this fall to provide um information and update to you all. We also work very closely with Ramsey County Children's Mental Health Collaborative to provide um those supports for mental health for students and families. Um we also um are fortunate that we have a partial hospitalization program in Roseville that we can um serve and help students um in that partnership with them through our mental health um partners in the community. We work with Clues um Northeast Youth and Family Services, Natalyst Psychological Services and Life Stance Health who provide colllocated um services in our buildings throughout the district. And then we work closely with Intermediate District 916 as far as our um special education um services. Um as you heard, these are examples of the access that we have to a breath of programming that we could not offer independently without these long-standing relationships and trusted partners in our community. Um as you've also heard, the district has a strong um collaborative um collaboration with these partnerships. And yet we know the demand for social, emotional, and behavior um supports will continue to increase and that we need to be very aware of who those partners are to help us remove those barriers so students can access learning. As part of this goal, our next steps will be to continue to analyze the strengths and the gaps across classrooms, schools, district supports, and those external partnerships. work closely with Intermediate District 916 to gather information regarding the barriers to student access and enrollment and develop and prioritize the recommendations that will continue to enhance um strengths and address gaps address gaps in our continuum of services. That concludes our report for the evening. Thank you for your hard work. Great. Yeah, great work. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. All right. Um, next up is item 6.1, um, DOPG goal online academy, and I'll turn it back to Superintendent Lennox. Yeah, thank you. Um, just a brief report, uh, was with you earlier this year to to talk about, um, our goal looking at online programming for our students. And one thing I can say is it's become quite clear as part of our work to date that offering online uh courses for our students is not only viable, it really is a uh necessary next step in order to meet the demands and expectations of our students moving forward. Um you might remember we talked about students and their desire. Why do they want to take online courses? U most of them were articulating uh flexibility. They wanted to go at their own pace. They wanted some opportunities maybe for a break in their day, but that was really a driving force uh for these online courses to be able to to get them in and and accomplish all of the academic demands that they have um kind of put together. Uh based on that information, our high schools have been working to identify opportunities to effectively add online programming while trying to maintain a balance to the existing hybrid and in-person courses uh throughout the in instructional day. So that's work that's starting and and beginning to move forward. Uh, one thing that we're doing this summer right away as a as a response to this demand, our our high schools will be expanding access for students to existing online courses, specifically physical education and health. That's probably the top demand for online opportunities. So, we're making sure that we we begin that this summer. That will carry into next school year as well. uh our principles and school staff are working with um our curriculum team to identify additional courses that we think may have potential to move to an online format and then we'll develop the appropriate curriculum and assessments necessary to do that. Uh one specific example uh that's been asked about a lot is the the new state requirement of personal finance. Like would we look at that? How are kids going to fit that in? Is online an option? Well, we actually have a group that's already been formed and we'll be working on developing that course. They'll certainly look at providing an online option. Um, but as well, we're going to have inperson and you know, you don't just have to take it online. There would be in-person options, hybrid options. They'll look at all of that to determine what seems to make the most sense uh for students and staff moving forward. uh timeline on that would be really to make sure that those offerings uh align with next year's high school registration. So that's usually December January uh timeline so that they could be offered for that that following year moving forward. Um, additionally, uh, I think an expectation that we want to talk about for our online courses is to make sure that they're available, uh, and are not specific to either specific high school, that they're available to any kid at either school. So, if you think about that, if a student registers for an online course, you could have students from Mounds View and Irondale in the same course at the same time earning credit for that for that learning. So, as long as they meet that requirement, it would be reflected back at their home high school. Um, moving forward, um, we also are working and one of the things I I know from a from a board perspective with contracts, we have some language in our teacher contract already around hybrid or online learning. We think it's important that we look at that and and have conversations with our teachers uh as we go through this next uh process, our next contract to make sure that language exists and is strong so that as we move forward um we can have clarity and consistency in offering these courses into the future. Uh additional information obviously will be offered as it's available. But um in terms of the the goal and the viability, very clearly something uh we want to do and are starting now to make plans and and move forward. Our long-term intention is to continue to expand offerings uh where there's high demand for our students to be able to uh be in competition with some of the alternative providers that our students are currently choosing. We want to make sure that we're a viable option for them to stay in district uh to take these courses for us. Um and we'll always continue to offer a a variety of programming whether that's in person, hybrid, or online to meet our unique students um needs, whatever they personally want and kind of be able to find a pathway for them to get the content and the curriculum they need to meet their needs. So, um, take any questions if you have them, but that's really my update on the online do goal moving forward. The only comment I wanted to make, not a question, I think that students um, commenting on flexibility is is really key to, you know, the world changed in education around COVID and um, students saw some different flexibility options, but um, I'm glad to hear the staff responding so quickly to offering more courses during the summer. I know that a number of our high school students are looking to to fulfill those credits during the summer to enable them to be um to take even harder courses and really look at what they want to do after high school um or pursue passion areas. you know, we have, like we've heard tonight, we have phenomenal music programs. And for students to participate in that fully, um, for them to also have options to complete those courses at other times that are just one semester and kind of could knock off a whole year of a music or some other course that they're really interested in. Um, I think it's a great response by our staff to enable students to really pursue what they're interested in and um, make those meaningful connections while they're in high school. And it allows the opportunity for extended day, extended year experiences, right, for for students. And again, for those who are looking for that, right? Does this not going to be a requirement for all, but for some and few who may want that, we want to make sure we're responding. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to item 7.1. Um, AMSD legislative updates. Jim, uh, yeah, we had our AMSD day up at the Capitol and Chris and I participated in that. We had about a hundred superintendent and school board members there. Um uh the big talk at the capital is the budget this year. Um uh both the Senate and the House have looked at uh fiscal year 2627 and they want to keep education at a zero gain or zero loss. That is their goal. Unfortunately, in 2829 where we have a lot more budget difficulties, we're looking at about a $700 million cut to education. So that could um really affect some things. Um, you know, uh, Chris and I have both been up there, uh, testifying from everything from Q comp to elections. Um, we've got a lot of interesting bills this year. There's a consensus on some, uh, student absenteeism and tour uh, uh, absentee programs and um, some updates on the Read Act. We're still trying to get a little more flexibility in that. And uh interestingly, I've followed this one for years. The school start mandate. We are mandated to start after Labor Day. And this is the first year I've actually seen it get out of committee and move along. Um that we actually might get to pick our start date at uh at uh Independent School District 621. It won't be dictated to us. So anyways, but uh uh they're supposed to be out May 21st. There's a lot of work to do between now and then to get a budget done. Um, legally they have to have a budget done by June 30th. They could call a special session and do budget uh up to June 30th, but on July one they have to have the financing in and have uh a new budget for uh the next fiscal year, otherwise things shut down and get messy. So, um I don't know which direction they're going, but I I don't know if they're going to get done by the 21st, but they certainly will be done by June 30th. So, great. Thank you, Jim. Asha, any um Northeast Metro 916 updates? Um yeah, we met last week on Wednesday and um we had started with a maker space presentation. So we had uh a teacher come and show us how um the maker space works for 916. So it's everything from really low tech to like Legos and Duplos to robotics and programming and 3D printers. So um that was pretty neat to see. Um we h recognized um a couple retirements. One noteworthy was a uh teacher of the deaf heart of hearing who had 35 years of service with 916. Um and then we recognized 59 staff members who have completed either 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 or 35 years uh with um the district which was great. Um and then the only other thing was some um policy work. Otherwise it was a pretty standard meeting I would say. Thank you Shauna. Thank you. Um now we have item 7.2 uh schoolboard member reports. Does anybody have anything that they'd like to share? There's a lot of great upcoming things going on in the school district. I have um tickets for three different things in my phone. Um so chalkboard keepers is this week. So, um, whoever hasn't experienced chalkboard capers and you want to see your child's teacher up on stage doing really funny things, now's your chance. Irondale Auditorium. I think tomorrow night's the first night if I'm if I'm right. Um, and then, um, as a as a former drama parent in the district, um, the Irondale play is coming up. Um, like they um like our student representative talked about tonight. And I believe the first weekend in May is um, the Mounds View High School play. are doing Mean Girls. So, great theater and music. I know this is such a busy time for families and parents with all kind of the end of the year concerts and celebrations and all those kinds of things. So, lots to participate in. Keep your ears open. Join when you can. Anyone else? Yeah. Yeah. Well, the spring sports season has started and I just have to say, um, you know, I'm very excited for new programs. The Irondale boys have a volleyball team and the Monzu girls have a flag football team and I certainly plan on doing that. And I would really like to note that uh our uh staff that received the finance award. Um the people in the district get to see how wonderful and excellent our teachers are every day and how our staff is great in the buildings. But um at the core of this whole endeavor, we have a lot of staff and they're really really excellent and it's great to see them recognized. They're not the people you see out there all the time, but there's a lot of people out there that make this thing really work well. So, thank you to them and congratulations. Thank you, Jim, for recognizing. All right. If there's nothing else to come before the board, we are adjourned.