I would like now to now call the order the April 7th regular meeting of the Mounds View School Board. Good evening and welcome. Our first item on our agenda is the adoption of the agenda. Do I hear a motion? So moved. Second. The agenda has been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? I. I. I. Next, we're going to move on to item 2.1, our student representative reports. And it sounds like we're starting out with Mounds View tonight. Why don't you both introduce yourselves, Fiona and I didn't get your name. Akashvi. Nice to meet both of you. Thanks for being here and sharing what's going on at Mounds View High School with us. Okay. Um just a quick recap of the March uh Mounds View High School's March recap. So, congratulations to the MV I girls varsity softball team on their season opening win against Eastridge 11-1 last week. Congratulations to the math team for placing third at the state tournament. The team went in fourth for the season. Also, Austin Wang, who is a junior, um qualified to compete on stage in the math bowl at the end of the tournament. He scored in the top 10 individuals in state on the invitational event at the beginning of the day to qualify. Congratulations to Cora Gentry and team who competed in America's Future Summit, a youth leadership competition where teams develop and pitch civic solutions for America's future. The team took the top prize at the summit with a proposal to help small businesses adopt low energy options and were awarded $5,000 to put their plan into action. Congratulations to the Mounds View students who competed against over 100 1,100 students in 70-plus competitions at the HOSA event. Competitors who placed in the top three in their event qualified for the opportunity to compete in the HOSA International Leadership Conference in Indianapolis. Individual placings and awards. Um Avisha Sirisilla got second um in life-threatening situations and first in foundations of medical terminology. Pranav um got [clears throat] third in family medicine physician. Nandana got first in veterinary science. Saejal got top fifth in medical spelling. Jaish got first in allied health statistics. Josiah got first in ATC biology. And Lena got first in dental science. Congratulations to Linnea Austiguy who won the U18 Junior Nationals Championship. Um this is Linnea's third win after previously winning the U16 titles. Linnea continues to post impressive results in Nordic skiing across the country. Mounds View also had their eighth annual student honoring powwow on Saturday. Um this was an indigenous vendors and food trucks on site all day. Um they ended their day of celebration with student honoring. Due to low attendance for our winter dance the past year, Mounds View Student Council is hosting a fundraising carnival in its place. Um this will take place on Friday, April 10th. Tickets are $10 and everyone is welcome to attend. Thank you. Great. Thanks for the update. Thank you. Welcome, Kenna. Hi. Hello. Okay. Okay, hi guys. It's good to see you all again and yeah, we're presenting Irondale's March highlights. We've had quite a bit going on this month, so excited to present that. So, starting off with winter guard, Irondale hosted the WGI regional in Minneapolis where groups from around the metro and Wisconsin participated in both prelims and final performances. And so, both Irondale, our maroon and gold team, competed and took first place in their respective classes. Um and so, we were the 2026 WGI Minneapolis champions. And Irondale gold will now be participating in the WGI World's competition, which will be in Ohio later this month. So, robotics also had quite a bit going on. Um Irondale's Nightcrawlers robotics competed in the Northern Lights tournament um in Duluth. And the team their team's bot's name is Monarch and the team seated second after 11 qualification matches and was selected by the first rank team to join their playoff alliance. And so, the Nightcrawlers also received the prestigious engineering inspiration award. And so, this award celebrates a team that demonstrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering. Um and this is the first time that the Nightcrawlers in the Nightcrawlers 20-year history at Irondale that they've received this award. So, congratulations to them. And they also qualified for the World Championships, which will take place in Texas later this month. There have been 353 teams across the world that have competed and the Nightcrawler is currently ranked three in the world for championship qualification. So, good job to Irondale robotics. DECA also had quite a bit going on. We had 29 DECA state competitors and 13 qualified for the international competition in Georgia later this month. Um kind of some specific student recognitions. Asma received the outstanding DECA member award and the speakers bureau award and qualified in all three of her events for internationals. Her partner, Jaco, received the outstanding DECA member award and the speakers bureau award and second place in his community awareness project with Asma. Um Amelia was recognized for the speakers bureau award and placed in two of her events and earned a scholarship of $333 and advanced and second place in advanced interview and earned first place in integrated marketing campaign product with her partner, Owen, who also received a $250 scholarship. And we had Samira, Areli, Roslyn also received speaker bureau awards and their advisor, Diane, she was recognized for being an outstanding advisor. So, a lot of good stuff going on for DECA as well. And quiz bowl, um Irondale's freshman, Hank O'Hara and Noah Johnson, along with sophomores, Amber, um competed in the Minnesota State Quiz Bowl representing Irondale um this past Saturday and they were undefeated in 11 rounds winning first place in the challenge division. And additionally, Hank was top individual overall score. So, great job to Hank. Irondale speech also had a great month. Um they first they attended the St. Anthony Village tournament and placed first among 33 30 high school teams. And then Irondale showed up to Columbia um Heights High School for the section speech tournament and we had 17 finalists and nine students advancing to the state tournament. And we also earned the distinction of the Section 4AA champion. So, great job to Irondale speech. And then some specific student athlete highlights. Um we had Azelle, which I think she's behind me. She was named the Region 5AA AAA award winner. And this is the most prestigious award that the Minnesota State High School League gives out. So, the qualifications for this award are having an overall GPA above 4.1, um excelling in arts, which she did in orchestra, and athletics, which she plays three sports, cross country, um a three-time state participant in Nordic skiing, and a state participant in track and field. Um also, congratulations to junior Griffin on being selected as one of 34 recipients for the MSHSL Excel Award. Um Griffin was elected from over 350 applicants for his commitment in community service, education, and leadership. And also, congratulations to Cameron for receiving over 1,000 career points in basketball. And that's all for March. Thank you. Thank you. That was amazing. Now, we get to hear about more fabulous students in our district. And both of our high school activities directors are here, Jim Galvan, Bill Quan, Um, and some of our students for our winter activity student recognition. So, I'm going to turn it over to Jim. Thank you, school board. I'm Jim Galvin, the lame duck uh athletic director at Mounds View High School. [laughter] After 35 years in the district, I'm pleasure to uh move on and Gretchen Zanon will be taking my place and things will go very well. But, we've got I was supposed to have three groups tonight. We've got one of our clubs, Sources of Strength, which works with a lot of kids on mental uh mental health awareness and suicide prevention. We've got uh our Science Olympiad team, which seems to uh win every competition that they enter and are getting ready for nationals. And our Nordic team was supposed to show up, but I don't think they did. But, our Nordic's got a interesting uh story behind our Nordic team. We're uh pretty good in Nordic. Our coach, Ian O'Neill, resigned after last year to spend a little more time with his young family at home. Uh after 6 months of job posting, we had no applicants for the job. Uh we were going to have to We didn't know what we were going to do. Maybe not have a team. We had uh about five moms and dads from our students stepped up and said, "Mr. Galvin, we will coach this team. We know a little bit about Nordic ski. Um we know a lot about kids. And a couple of them actually had to take some State High School League classes to get certified. Uh they recruited Mr. Oberg, one of our teachers, to help get everything going uh logistically at school to work with Cindy and I and the bus company, all that kind of stuff. And Scott got them on the bus every day. And the parents, plus another 10 of parent volunteers, met them at whatever park they were skiing at that day. And it was a an incredible season for the kids. Uh we had multiple girls go to state and the whole boys team went to state. And so, uh it's it's kind of takes a village uh more than we think. And sometimes the village really steps up. Tonight, I'll turn this over to our next first student. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thanks, Jim. Thank you. Hello. Um my name is Nicole Anderson and I'm one of the leaders of Sources of Strength. I have a little um little script here. Um we are a diverse diverse group of students and adults from across our school community. We know that life has its ups and downs and our mission is to make sure that during the tough times no one feels so overwhelmed that they want to give up. Our club was started by our deans, Kazim Shahzad, Sarah Hattala, and Megan Childs. Over the last 2 years, we've met we've met every Wednesday morning to create campaigns for our school. Including so including a social media campaign is which we interviewed students and asking them about who or what their sources of strength are. These Sources of Strength focus on eight specific strengths: family support, positive friends, mentors, healthy activities, generosity, spirituality, physical health, and mental health. Currently, we are working on a new project. We are asking students to pick a colored feather that represents a source of strength in their life. You will write about that strength on the feather and place it in one of these bags here. Um once we collect them, we are going to display the feathers in a shape of wings in our common space. We want everybody to see that um the positive traits that we share, create awareness for mental health, and of course take photos with the wings to post with their friends. We hope We look forward to continuing these campaigns throughout the year. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] Hi, my name is Kashvi. And I'm Fiona. And we are the captains of Mounds View Science Olympiad or Mounds View Science Olympiad program. Science Olympiad or SciOly is the largest grade school science competition in the United States. And it covers many science fields including biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, computer science, and more. Both of us have been competing since elementary school for over 9 years. And this program runs from elementary all the way up to high school. Our team here at Mounds View travels to tournaments to compete against hundreds of other schools in tournaments where we compete in 23 different events based on knowledge, lab skills, and engineering abilities. Through this program, we've learned how to study and how to research much more than a traditional classroom learning, such as reading college-level academic material, and learning new lab techniques. Science Olympiad has taught us how to take initiative in our learning, which is a skill that's helped us not only succeed in competitions, but also in our academic classes and future career goals. Unlike other science competitions in the US, Science Olympiad is very dependent on teamwork and collaboration. All of the events are partner-based, which means that success depends on efforts from all partners and strong teamwork teamworking skills. Each member of the team usually competes in three to four events, which allows them to always have the option to try new events and get introduced to new fields of science. Because partners often change from event to event, students also develop the ability to work with different teammates and adapt to different working styles. This teamwork in our program has helped us build very strong bonds with one another. And we've We're proud to create a community where we support and push each other to do our best in our competitions. Mounds View Science Olympiad consistently ranks amongst the top um and strongest teams in the Midwest. We have won the state tournament 16 times in the last 20 years, making us the most accomplished Science Olympiad team in Minnesota history. In addition to state, we've also take place top 10 at nationals multiple times, even finishing second against the most competitive schools in the nation. This year, our varsity team won every single competition that they've attended to. And we took home the state champion title. We'll also be competing at the nationals tournament in late May. We're really proud of these achievements. But, to us, Science Olympiad is much more than just a competition. It is an extracurricular that has grown our passions for science and has become one of the most important communities to us here at Mounds View. Science Olympiad has truly shaped many of us and opened doors to future careers in science and engineering. Thank you so much for supporting us. Thank you. [applause] Good evening, everyone. I'm Bill Quan from Irondale High School for the new board members. Uh thanks for having us here today. Our student rep did such a great job. She checked off about half of my list of the things I was going [laughter] to talk about tonight. Uh so, I I won't repeat anything, but I will say in my first year at Irondale, I'm amazed by our kids and the sports and activities and the clubs and all the opportunities we create. And some of the kids the the things that the kids do um our one-act also made the finals this year, which was fun to watch. They They do a lot of comedies. It was outstanding. One of the walls actually fell when it wasn't supposed to in the finals. I was sitting with one of our guys, but we were still good. Uh our MVI gymnastics team sent three girls to state this year. One Osseo One Osseo, good. That's my old school, sorry. One Irondale wrestler went to state this year. Our boys swim and dive sent two relays and four individuals finishing finishing ninth in the state. Um I do have some uh groups talking today, robotics, um Nordic, and hockey. And then also Azel and Griffin are here to talk about their award they won with the high school league. Um I do want to say before these guys, I went to the North Star meet this Saturday. And their robot is amazing. Like we saw a bunch of really good robots and then we saw their robot, it was a different level and different different class of it than everybody else. So, they are they are amazing. Here you go. We have handouts for you guys. You guys can just take take a look at it and then pass it down. Hi, I'm Nicole. I am a senior and one of our co-captains. And I'm Afomia. I'm also a senior and I'm also one of the co-captains. And so, we are a team 2052, Night Crawler. We are a FIRST robotics team from Irondale. Um and we This is the 20th year of our program, 20th year anniversary. I think she's wearing her 20-year anniversary shirt. Um and so, we started off this season with 75 plus students applying to the program. Um we had kind of a two-season format, but midway through we ended up doing some cuts. But, then at the end of the season and right now, we have a roster of about 50 students and 19 mentors, most of which are volunteer-based. And Quan went through a lot about our Duluth competition. About Again, we were finalists and we won our engineering inspiration award. And then what we She didn't talk about was that before that, we hosted two teams from China at our school to help build their robot. They had to bring their robot in suitcases. And we offered up a off-location space for them. And our space they were able to practice. And then one of those teams was our alliance captain. So, that was a very cool experience with them. And then Quan talked a bit about this past weekend where we competed at North Star. And this was our second regional. It was at the Mariucci Arena at the University of Minnesota campus. And so, at the end of qualification matches, we ranked number one and became alliance captains. And so, we partnered with teams from a team from Illinois and a team from Alaska. And we ended up becoming regional winners of the event. And we also won the autonomous award, which recognizes consistent and reliable non-driver operated programs. So, things like vision and sensors that help on our robot know where it is on the field without being driver operated. Um also, one of our students was recognized um by winning the first leadership award, which recognizes individual contributions. Um yeah. And then for upcoming events, we have our world championship, which is in Houston. That will be again end of April. And that will be 600 teams from around the world. It's a really big event for us. And then after that, we will have state championship, which is May 16th. And it's an open event at I think at the Concordia. Yeah, at the Concordia University. So, if you guys want to show up, it's a great place to be. And we won last year. So, um yeah, state is a really fun event. We get to get together with a lot of teams from locally and around Minnesota that we might not see as often. Um so, some of our biggest goals, particularly this past season and future seasons, is outreach. We do a lot of STEM demos at elementary schools and also with other community programs. And also, again, we have a really big program and it just keeps growing, so we're really focusing on providing a meaningful experience for every student on our team. And also, making things free and accessible, so doing more fundraising so that STEM's accessible to all and there's no financial barriers. And also, looking for a space for our team. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, I'm Rylan. And I'm Griffin and I'm a junior and he's a senior from the hockey team. Um to start off, we set a couple goals this year. Um this is the first year in a while that we had double-digit wins. Um we won 14-11-1 for boys hockey. Um that place us at third seed in section 4A. And yeah. Yeah, this was uh the first time in over 10 years that we've had that good of a record and placed that high. So, that was really cool for us. And our team was also awarded the second place in state for the highest GPA on the team. Uh we average over a 4.2 GPA across the section roster. I think anything else? [laughter] I think uh next year we hope to continue this. I'll be on the team next year, but he'll be graduating, but yeah. Hope to make another great season. Awesome. Congratulations. Thank you. [applause] Hi, I'm Azelle. And I'm Sophie and uh we're both senior captains for the Nordic team. Uh so, we finally had a winter with snow this year, so that meant that we were able to practice at Irondale, which is the first time we were able to do that for two two three years, yeah. So, that also meant that we were able to host our um meet at Irondale for the first time in a couple years as well. Um this also meant that we were able to have a really good uh successful trip to Michigan, which is where we spent three days up there and just ski like nonstop, but um it really improves the team and it was super fun. Um and we were able to ski in both snow and rain on that trip. [laughter] So, our team has continued to grow in size and strength over the years. And um throughout the season, we have we had a lot of strong performances from both our new skiers and our veteran varsity athletes. Um so, at our final uh meet for the season, our conference meet, um several boys and girls received conference awards, so all-conference and all-conference honorable mention awards. Um and our at sections, our boys relay team finished third, narrowly missing out on state, which was a bummer, but it was super awesome to see. And um our girls relay also finished fourth out of the nine teams and I was on that relay. It was super fun to compete with my relay partner. It was just an awesome opportunity. Uh at sections, I finished sixth and qualified for the state meet, which was super exciting. Competing there was a great experience and after both of the races, I ended up placing 24th out of like 110 competitors, so I received all-state honors. So, that was a really fun way to end my senior season. Uh one of my favorite memories from the season was at the conference meet when we were watching Sophie and the boys relay ski. Our team would run from one side of the course to the other cheering them on for like 10 minutes. It was It was more tiring than my race, so it was that was one of my favorite memories of this year. Yeah, I think that's all, right? Yeah. Um it was also just super fun to a few of our girls went up and supported Azelle at state, so that was also super fun. It was a great um team bonding experience and we really were a tight team this year. So. Awesome. Uh like Kenna mentioned earlier, I was one of 30 students 30 high school juniors selected for the Excel Award. This is an award uh that the Minnesota Minnesota State High School League awards uh to juniors for excellent excellence in community, education and leadership. And it was uh really an honor to be selected and I actually got to be featured on live television when I received this award at Williams Arena. I was last month I was named the Region 5 AA AAA Female Award winner, which Kenna announced earlier. I was one of 32 out of more than 600 applicants to receive this award and it recognizes students who excel in the arts, academics and athletics. Uh we had an award banquet on a Saturday morning and after that, we were honored during the state boys basketball tournament on the court, so we were on live TV, which was super exciting. Um and it was an just it was just an incredible opportunity to be surrounded by so many other accomplished students and be awarded the high school's high school league's most prestigious award. Congratulations. [applause] Thank you so much for being here. We are um so excited to hear about each one of your teams and individual successes and and I appreciate you guys each sharing um what participating in your activities means to you and that connection. Um that's really important to us as a district. So, um thank you and congratulations to all of you. If any of you are seniors and would like to share what's next for you after graduation. We know we we have you for a couple more months. Don't leave yet. But after graduation from Mounds View Irondale, if you know what your plans are and you want to share them with us, feel free. If you don't and don't want to share, pass the mic. Um I'll be studying engineering at Northwestern University next year, so. I'll be studying um computer engineering at the University of Minnesota. I'll be going majoring at organizational leadership at Northern Iowa. Uh I'll be studying environmental engineering at Yale. I'll be studying mechanical engineering at University North Dakota. Uh I'll be studying biology at St. Olaf College and will be continuing my athletic career in both uh cross country running and track. I will be studying chemistry next year's health exercise health science on a pre-med track at the College of Saint Benedict and I will be competing on the track and field team. Thank you so much you guys for coming [applause] tonight. Yeah. And also, thank you Mr. Galvin. Congratulations on your retirement. You'll be missed all your years of service to the district and thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] All right, we are moving on to item 2.3, announcements. Jim, could you read the gifts for us tonight? Oh, it would be my pleasure. So, there were 15 gifts for schools and programs received this period for a total of 8,000 $440.40. There were also 33 gifts received for the Ralph Reeder Food Shelf for this period for a total of 93,004 and 83 cents. It is recommended the board accept these gifts and extend thanks to the donors. Great. Thanks, Jim. Um upcoming meeting dates are next um meeting of the board is Tuesday, April 21st at 7:00 p.m. here at the district center. And our next work session is Thursday, May 14th, 5:00 p.m. here at the district uh district center. Shauna, would you uh share with us about comments to the board tonight? Yeah, so the board is available this evening starting at 6:30 to hear comments from the public. At today's comments to the board, community members shared their thoughts about the new middle school model. Since there has been some confusion about the new model, I wanted to share a little bit about how that model uh was developed. Um so, the district has been very intentional in this work. Uh 3 years ago, all three middle schools began exploring uh pre-adolescent developments, the middle school experience and programming at the middle schools. A national education consulting firm was selected to work with the middle schools to gather input from families, students, staff and identify opportunities for growth. Again, this was 3 years ago, so it would have at that time. Um the survey feedback was collected uh from a sample of those students, teachers and parents who were engaged in our middle school programs. Uh the consultant worked with our staff to review our schools and visited all three of our middle schools. They offered four recommendations, including a schedule change that prioritizes additional flex learning time for personalized learning opportunities in daily advisory programming. Uh in addition to engaging staff at all the middle schools, the middle schools presented uh to the curriculum advisory committee and made three public reports to the school board. Uh one of those was in May of 2024, December of 2024 and again um in April of 2025. And I just want to say that the school board supports this process and the changes that are being implemented. Um and as a result of all that work that was completed, all three middle schools are adapting this new schedule. The High View uh started already. It's in place for sixth graders and it will be expanded to include seventh and eighth graders in the fall. And the new model will take effect for sixth graders at Edgewood and Chippewa next fall. Thanks, Shauna. Yeah. Moving on to item 2.4, superintendent's report. Great. Well, thank you, Heidi. Um I think the students tonight did a wonderful job highlighting their accomplishments, so like they said, I'm not going to duplicate that, but I do have a couple um principles that I want to highlight because the recognitions they're getting. uh first as you might be aware, Principal Rob Reetz was selected as the Minnesota recipient for the High School Principal of the Year award. Uh Rob will now be traveling to Washington, D.C. in the coming days to be recognized along with his peers uh from states across the country. We certainly want to wish him well and thank him again for representing not only Mounds View, but the state of Minnesota with this exceptional honor. So, congratulations to Rob. And second, new news, I am pleased to inform you that Vichey Say Fong was selected as this year's Capital Division Representative for the High School Principal of the Year award. So, Vichey was selected by his peers for having demonstrated outstanding leadership, a commitment to student achievement, and a dedication to fostering a positive school culture. So, congratulate Vichey when you see him, and we wish him the best of luck as he moves forward in that competition. And that's my update this evening. Great, we will move on to item dot uh 3.0, approval of the consent agenda. I would entertain a motion. So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Motion passes. We are moving on now to item dot 4.1, termination of permanent probationary staff, and I would like to invite Julie Coffee, Executive Director of Human Resources. Good evening. Um so, Minnesota statute defines the probationary period for teachers, and during that probationary period, the annual teaching contract may be non-renewed for any reason, including performance, staffing, licensure. And then we also have some teachers who were hired on 1-year only contracts. A probationary teacher is deemed to have been reemployed for the ensuing school year unless the school board takes action to non-renew those contracts prior to July 1. We're taking action tonight in order to meet that deadline, as well as provide teachers sufficient opportunity to pursue other employment options. All teachers recommended for non-renewal this evening were notified by their principal prior to tonight's meeting. So, tonight we're asking the board for approval of the non-renewal of the probationary teachers. Thanks, Julie. Any questions from the board? Great, we went over this at our work session. Um if no questions, I would entertain a motion. So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Thank you, Julie. And Julie gets to stay in the hot seat. And we will move on to item 4.2, ratification of the 2025-2027 custodial labor agreement. Yes. So, we have a reached a tentative agreement with SEIU Local 284. That's the union that represents our custodian and building and grounds staff in the district, again for 2025 through 2027. Um SEIU did vote, and the um employees in that group have ratified the agreement. So, it covers a 2-year agreement. Um there are increases in each year of the contract. There was an uh as you know, an off-schedule payment that has now been eliminated. We moved that on to the base salary and then applied um the increases on top of that. We also did some different increases. Um there's a probationary rate and then a non-probationary rate. We did some different increases based on those two classifications. Um we also increased longevity increments, um differentials, and then the 403 403b contribution was increased as well. Um there were also several language items that were clarified and updated. And so, tonight we're asking for approval for the 2025-2027 custodial labor agreement. Thanks, Julie. Any questions from the board? I just want to say thank you for your work. I know that takes a long time and involves a lot of people, so thank you. No questions, I would entertain a motion. So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Thanks so much, Julie. Motion passes. All right, we move on to item 5.1 with um one of our district operational plan goal updates, environmental outdoor learning, and looks like we're inviting Angie Pechal and Carl Brown to share with us tonight. And Ryan. And Ryan. Good evening, I'm Angie Pechal, Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction, and tonight Carl Brown, the Director of Community Ed, and Ryan Munson, instructional support for science, are here to present on the final presentation on our dot goal for this year. Um environmental learning and outdoor learning. So, we're going to start with uh reviewing with you the rationale and goal that we set forward. So, outdoor classrooms and environmental learning experiences, they will provide students and teachers with a dynamic, interactive learning environment that can enhance traditional classrooms that students are in most of the day. We feel it's important that all students have access to this style of learning, and that these learning experiences taking place outdoors in nature can stimulate students' curiosity in a way that that can't happen in the classrooms. We like to engage their senses and foster a sense of wonder. And when provided with these types of enriched learning environments, students are able to engage in hands-on, experiential learning that leads to a deeper, more lasting understanding of concepts across a variety of subjects. So, to that end then, we wrote a goal that really focused on developing a comprehensive plan, a master plan if you will, that will outline outdoor classroom spaces and and environmental learning opportunities that are available to students across the district. We um have had these things in our system for a long time, but there hasn't been purposeful, intentional alignment of those experiences for our students. And so, one of our goals was to see what was happening out there and then create some alignment around that. And we're happy to report that this goal has been met, and the work will continue. So, we'll review with you the four strategies that we had um in those areas. The first strategy, uh we looked to develop a vision and some guiding principles for those that outdoor those outdoor classrooms and then environmental learning. And um as part of that then, we created this vision which we'll use as we move forward then um in all of the environmental learning that we do. So, we want to empower students to become curious investigators and critical responsible stewards of the uh nature through an immersive, curriculum-aligned outdoor experience. Um this vision will use the outdoors as a dynamic classroom and bring in concepts and real-world phenomena to foster academic excellence, physical well-being, and lifelong environmental connections. And then to that end, we have three guiding principles as we do that work then. So, we want to make sure that that work is curricula curriculum-integrated inquiry that is aligned to our Minnesota state standards, that students have experiences that are authentic and that scientific practices, and that um the student experience and access are standardized across the system um as we move forward. I'll turn over to Carl for strategy Well, good evening, everyone. Uh strategy number two uh really is a kind of an assessment that we've been doing over the course of the year. Uh we wanted to create a district document that includes a listing of all of our current physical locations and areas where we're using outdoor classrooms, but also some of those spaces that uh could be used for outdoor learning. Uh we looked at our current school campuses, surrounding spaces, looked for things like natural features, um open spaces, gardens, benches, tennis courts, and all those different places that uh would be available or we are already aware that uh teachers were using for those spaces. Uh in addition to that, we want to look at the proximity uh within the school areas to nearby spaces, so looking at parks and park shelters, uh trail systems we have, uh looking for areas that are within walking distance of our schools, knowing that transportation is not only a time constraint, but it is also is expensive. Um and so, we we documented those pieces and have a a good list for uh all of the areas within our district. Um another component we looked at were the partner organizations and opportunities we have. So, really looking at two different uh areas. One are offsite locations where we would bring our students to those places, and then others where we would have partnerships of bringing students uh or bringing experts to us at our spaces. So, the partner uh offsite locations, some of them we have uh ongoing relationships with Springbrook Nature Center, Tamarack Nature Centers, Becker Park Reserve, and um areas like Wolf Ridge, which we'll talk about later. But um and then there's other onsite ones that Ryan will talk about uh shortly. In terms of progress, uh that evaluation we were looking at uh not only what our spaces are, but we also made the determination that our best efforts would be placed uh putting that focus on elementary, knowing middle schools are um pretty diverse campuses. There are a lot of choices for students, and there are a lot of opportunities. Not to say that outdoor learning can't occur, we just are in a better position uh with spaces that teachers uh can bring students out to. In high schools, we have a lot of opportunities. It may not feel like a nature center, but high school bleachers and other places are very easy for people to use when the weather's nice, and we see a lot of our teachers bringing students out. In terms of the elementary uh our different sites and buildings, um we've talked a little bit about Bell Air. That was one of our first uh kind of projects we worked on. Um they're near completion. Uh some of the work was done on not only the space, but uh shade structure as well as ordering furniture. Uh we've taken delivery of the furniture. It just needs to be assembled, so that's Um some of our other schools had outdoor learning spaces in there. So, Sunny Sided a number of years ago um a school group and their PTA uh had put that in there. Um and some of the other places we're looking at either ones that have been around in the past and trying to decide if they need to be updated, but also working with our schools and principals to determine what are those spaces that's avail- that are available, and then what's the best fit for the school, really engaging staff and administration and families in that process. Um while we don't have dedicated spaces currently at all of our buildings, we do have space that we know we can uh find for outdoor spaces or that in the meantime doesn't mean that people can't take students outside and enjoy a lot of the outdoor learning opportunities. It's just not as formalized with seating and other pieces that maybe a little more creative uh options maybe needed until we get other pieces in place. Uh and then strategy three is to create a comprehensive list of curricular environmental learning opportunities for students across all grade levels. And again, we specifically focused on elementary schools, so that K to 5 group. The big thing is we wanted to make sure that we were intentional and purposeful with these experiences. So, we wanted to make sure that all of our experiences connected to units that students were already doing in class, so that when they went through these experiences, it wasn't just a thing that we did. It was a thing that was connected to curriculum that they were already doing. Um this year, we were able to do all of the field trips where we had uh people leave the building and go somewhere else. So, in kindergarten, they do a zoo field trip. In second grade, uh we created a maple syruping field trip to um Where did they go? Tamarack uh nature center. Uh and then in fifth grade, we uh they go to all the fifth grade teams go or schools go to uh uh nature center and do Minnesota wildlife and wilderness skills. Um at the other grade levels, uh what we're going to focus on next year is the on-site field trips. So, those are the field trips where we are going to bring experts to the schools uh to do different things. Um and so again, to make sure that they they meet with the units that are already in place. We're going to work with the uh with the naturalists [clears throat] on what uh what specifically we want to accomplish and then work with them to make sure that when they come and they engage with our students, we are successful in having it connect to the work that they are already doing. Um [snorts] one thing on this slide that I want to point out is there's a uh an identifier here, SP and CL. Uh in our uh elementary schools, we have uh science specialists. Uh and so, students have an opportunity to work with science specialists on on a rotation. Um it's one of our rotations along with like uh physical education uh and things like that. Um and then, we also have units that are classroom uh instruction where the regular classroom teachers are leading the instruction. So, we identify when a unit is a specialist unit and when a unit is a classroom unit. Um the other focus area is on how we're going to utilize the outdoor classrooms. Uh and again, one of the big things is we wanted to make sure that all of our outdoor classroom experiences were connected to units that that are already there. Um so, what that basically means is we'll try to create lessons that are connected to units. So, we have the units already in place that we're doing and then how do we create uh extensions to the units or how do we build in additional learning into those units to uh to have some successful outdoor experiences. Uh we find that connecting things to units and doing it that way gives uh gives more motivation to actually go out and use those spaces because it's again, it's not just a one-off thing that we're doing on an individual day. It's actually part of the curriculum that we are working on. Um Yeah, and then we just have the different grade level activities and the units that are connected to them uh that you can see on those two slides. So, as part of when Ryan was putting together uh what those opportunities might be, so these are units that we have, these are outdoor spaces, how do we connect them? We shared our initial thoughts with our building instructional leadership teams to get feedback from teachers at each of the sites to say, "Do these make sense? Um are there things you're already doing that we're missing?" So, we we got feedback that way. So, as those teams looked at that feedback and we uh reviewed that, the strengths of the plan that we've just shared with you, positive feedback on the curriculum alignment, instructional impact. Um teachers really appreciated that our students are going to have similar experiences um in those areas as they as we move forward. Um that the plan is educationally powerful and it will likely increase student engagement is what the teachers told us based on that. Um some components to address. Um I I liked what I saw because they're all things we can work with. So, it's really about feasibility. It's about planning. It's about the logistics. How do we make time to have the naturalist come in when we've got other competing interests around that. So, we uh know that we can work through those things and we'll uh work with um teams of teachers and administration to do that. So, just wanted to highlight that we're not doing this in isolation, that we are getting feedback from the teachers that are um going to be implementing some of these pieces as we move forward. And then uh some of our next steps um for the on-site field trips, so the ones where we're not going to a location, uh we haven't done those this year, but next year we're planning on doing those. So, we want to build those wildlife specialist experiences for students next year in the grades that we identified for that. Um the next thing is um we have identified ideas, [laughter] lessons, and extensions to units that we have, but we haven't actually created those lessons yet. So, next year we will focus on uh working the curriculum team will uh will connect with teachers and work with teachers to build those lessons and connect them to the units that they're already teaching in their classes. Um and then, the third thing here is uh as we continue, uh right now our main focus with science cuz we felt like that was the easiest uh easiest in for the uh outdoor spaces and utilizing those outdoor spaces, but we would like to look at other content areas at the grade levels uh and how they can create lessons connected to units uh in those uh in the same way. So, like when you have a a literacy, you know, when you're you're in that content area, what things can you do outdoors that connect to what you're doing in the classroom that will make a a purposeful lesson that utilizes the outdoor space well. All right. Our fourth strategy, um as we look at uh becoming more purposeful and intentional with the work we're doing during the school day uh for all of our students and the experiences that all students will have, we're also looking at those areas to enhance and provide enrichment opportunities for students across all grade levels uh K through 12. Um some of the examples that we have are really looking at our community education enrichment opportunities. Those are before and after school classes at our schools. Uh we're also gearing up for summer day camps. We have a lot of opportunities for elementary and middle school students uh morning block and uh afternoon block programs that people can pair together. Um we've done some star watch programs with um evening things with telescopes and and giving opportunities to do that. Even those are multigenerational, so family events. Uh some of the other pieces we have a number of our schools and we'll always support them when they're we have groups uh come forward as student organized and student and staff organized sustainability groups or clubs that just want to meet and uh talk about areas of interest. Um and we also do a lot of field trips. Uh some of the ones we see are um a pretty popular one coming up this summer will be our third year is the overnight Wolf Ridge summer camp trip. It's a residential environmental learning center for a week. Um not everyone is into that, but for those are, um students have a lot of fun on those trips and learn a lot. Uh we also do a number of day trips as part of our summer camp programs, but also uh school release days. Uh some of the places we'll go to are back to the zoo, either the Minnesota Zoo or Como Zoo. We've done Bell Museum, the Science Museum. Uh really anywhere that um has a lot of interactive pieces for students are usually pretty popular. Um so, a lot of things happening and we're always looking for ways to continue to expand into that second year and and beyond of this goal. All right. Um this last area really wasn't part of the goal, but as we started planning for this and looking at it, uh we just want to highlight that a lot of the things we're talking about is trying to make connections with students and the curriculum. Um as a district, we've done a lot of a number of projects in the last uh five or so years that really have some great uh curricular enhancements and and connections. So, some of the ones that we've looked at is really um three areas are solar programs, uh geothermal energy, and uh recent one a GreenStep for Schools. The geothermal energy uh will have three projects, Highview, Irondale, and this coming summer at Pinewood, which just a note on Pinewood, that's one of the reasons why we haven't moved as far ahead with Pinewood on outdoor classroom. There will be a lot of construction that we're not exactly sure how it will uh end up, so we want to not uh create something and then have to move it right away. Uh with that though, it's something where uh really looking at that idea of harnessing the energy, the Earth um ground temperature is a consistent 50°. There's a lot that can be learned about that, how we can become more efficient within our um heating and cooling, not only in the energy we use, but also in the cost, which is real uh financial savings to the district. Um and also a commitment we've had about having green energy or renewable energy sources as much as possible. Uh solar for schools, we've we have uh solar panels and installations on 13 of our schools currently and they all have monitoring systems that um can people can log into and get real-time updates based on weather and see what those uh differences are and then also see the calculations about the not only the energy produced, but also the potential savings for that. Uh we are also up for um waiting on hearing if we have um in more recent rounds of solar energy um grant programs. And then, the last one is GreenStep for Schools, which uh we came to uh talked a little bit about earlier in the year. This is really a program, it's a statewide program where districts are recognized and really um given recognition for the sustainable practice we're having, but the curricular components are really allowing us to pull that together uh and show the things we're doing, but then also use it as a learning tool as much as possible. So, not directly tied to our goal, but it fits in very well like many of the things we're doing. So, yeah, we're pleased to present the way we met the outcomes of our goal and the work will continue. It is really just we've got the plan now and now we got to work the plan, right? And work on implementation. So, this concludes our report and we'd be happy to take any comments or questions. I think we did ask at the work session Angie when the puddles unit will be at the garden. [laughter] I'd like to participate in that. Um, that look like a lot of fun. Um, but also I appreciate your update Carl on that last slide. I was on the board when we had a group of students from Irondale come to the board and say we want a commitment that we're going to, you know, consider sustainability in our decisions as a district and in my tenure on the board I've seen so many of those projects and so much attention to that and love to then share that back with students, right? That that group of students is the one who came and asked us to make headway there and um for all of our students to learn about the initiatives and and what it means to our district. I think it's really exciting as as well as all the other programs. Any other questions or comments from the board? Carl, I have a quick question on the grants for the solar panels. Can you tell me about where those originated, some of those grants? Sure. The original grants that we have for the 13 schools, that was a Department of Commerce, Minnesota Department of Commerce and um a Made in Minnesota component. So, there were a lot of pieces put together with that. We engaged in those not only as a competitive grant process. We somehow at that time we got very lucky. It was a lottery and so we had a very high number of our schools that received grants, which was fantastic. For those projects, it was part of a power purchase agreement that we had engaged in. So, it was something the district had no upfront cost. The energy produced is all green energy and we were able to purchase that energy at a reduced cost, so lower than market rate. And we had recently put in for another grant to see if we can make it to the next round where that is a another Department of Commerce grant program, but this one would the district would get the energy immediately from that process. So, and ideally without any out-of-pocket cost for the grant. That's awesome. I work at the department, so that's great. We're hoping to hear today. Fingers crossed. [laughter] Awesome. Thank you. Yeah, Andre. Angie Ryan, I want to say thank you so much for the scientific approach that you've taken to experiential ed. It can seem to folks who aren't familiar with that process that it's kind of a light or fuzzy way of educating, but I want to say thank you so much for your transparency in how we've made those decisions, what work we still have to do and I had some questions about, you know, teacher training and and that kind of stuff and you answered those questions before I even asked them. So, I want to say thank you to both of you for taking on such a serious and dynamic way of teaching um that will more than likely reach some students in really profound ways. So, again, thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Great. Thank you so much for Thank you. All right, we're going to move on to item 6.1 updates. Jim, do you have an AMSD legislative update for us at all tonight? Um, yes. Actually, my AMSD meeting is this Friday, but we have and next Monday is AMSD day at the Capitol and I will be there um lobbying for um kids and schools, but uh it's a non-budget year at the legislature, which means there's a lot of stuff floating around and um in a budget year there's a little more urgency to get things done. This being a non-budget year, um there's a lot of stuff floating around, but it doesn't look like there's going to be a lot passing. Um, the AMSD has been really focused on the $250 million reduction in aid for special ed in the state, which would hit all of us really hard. Um, and so there is a small surplus this year in the legislature and we have tried to persuade them to make that cut a lot less um severe than it is now. Um, the budget that passed three years ago gives us an automatic bump up with formula, so we don't actually have a formula fight this year. It'll probably end up somewhere around 2.5% and um you know, AMSD the other month or last month released um um school district's financial shape and I was really proud that we were on the list that next year we will be a school district that doesn't have a deficit, but the 40 largest school districts in the state will have 200 224 million dollars worth of deficits that school boards will have to deal with. So, there is a lot going on at the Capitol, but um I don't know what's going to get through, but as I said, I'll go Monday. I'm going to go Friday and we will see. Great. Thanks, Jim. Shawna, do you have an update from Intermediate District 916? So, those of you not familiar with Intermediate 916, it is a school district made up of 13 member districts and Mounds View is one of those member districts. They provide services for special education and career and tech ed education. So, we met last week on Wednesday. And I would like to say April is autism acceptance and awareness month. Um, so we talked about that and then we had a really routine meeting. We had first reading of several policies. We approved some calendars and labor agreements and we will meet again the first Wednesday of May. Great. We'll move on to item 6.2 school board member report. Who would like to share anything that they've been doing and seeing and participating in across the district? So, if I might, Pinewood is having their cultural heritage awareness. It's the first annual and it's it's titled We Are Pinewood on April 16th from 5:00 to 7:00 and they're asking people to community members and families to create a board and represent their culture and and have some great food at the event. So, we're really excited about about that happening at Pinewood. Um, what one other thing I I did want to just bring up is that uh um our students went to Europe with our with our music program and they sent back these wonderful amazing postcards and I don't want to, you know, read kids' names or anything like that, but I I think this is a demonstration of how consistently we have supported and support our music programs. We did have some some comments this earlier today that the the the through line in all of that is that people are really proud of our programs and they're really happy with um with the kind of service that we give historically and I don't want to be presumptuous, but I do want to say they might be surprised that some of those things might not change as much as they think that they they will change and and this postcard really gives me a lot to think about as we move forward in in addressing our program. So, I'm really proud. So, thank you. Thanks. Well, me and several of us attended the powwow on Saturday. And some participated more than others. [laughter] On on Saturday and it was just great. It was great. It gets better every year, more participation. It's a real cultural experience and uh um I came early and I came late, so I actually got to eat food this year, which made me very happy. So, thank you to our Native American students who put this together and our advisory committee that puts this together. It's a lot of work, but it's a great celebration. I just I think I made it seven out of the eight years and it's just fabulous. It gets better every year. So, thank you. The local cable station 9 North was there and both Andre and Tasha were interviewed and I saw a little segment that they had posted on Facebook that was I thought a great excellent representation in just a few minutes of what the powwow was like. So, watch that. Find that online if you haven't. Yeah, it was really great and I'd like to acknowledge Jill Spencer and Felicia Gavin for putting the whole thing together and being our amazing the coordinators. Yeah. Nice. Great. I was able to travel with the um Irondale band on their spring break trip to Spain and the kids got to play three concerts and they played in a castle and they played in an orchestra hall and it was amazing and they got to play with a school from Spain. So, students high school students from Spain and the kids from Irondale got to play together for one concert. They played with a community band at another concert and it was very incredible. Good time. [snorts] Yeah. Great. Is there anything else to come before the board? Thank you. We are adjourned. Thank you, Heidi. Mhm.