I have >> Thank you, Chair. Information that is in your board packet also posted online. I'll have posted on the screen here. What we really wanted to do is just make sure in an additional public setting that it would share the final candidates that were uh reported to the secretary of state and that will be on the November 3rd election for 2026. You can see there's four seats, five individuals uh and their current status whether they are on the board now or if they are new candidate to that. Uh there's two links on there. Encourage everyone in the community and others um Scott County and the city of Shi to be able to get any information on their polling locations and other voting information that you know I know probably more than I care to about. But the most important piece is the background on these five individuals. Uh and there interviews taking place this week. I know some here are a part of that. Um the chakra chamber is doing that. Um obviously unbiased and just giving an opportunity for candidate to answer the questions. Those videos will be posted online and then because we do have uh five individuals with four seats. They school board will be a part of the candidate forum. Location is hosted at Shack High School but is through standard facility rentals. It has no affiliation with the school district in that sense. That's September 24th. The exact time I'll have to defer to the chamber is in the evening. I believe it starts around 5 or 6, but they are the ones who formally announce that. And again, want to just anyone that will be seeing the recording um or just any board members here that you have all the information that you need. Um and then it is a general election. The school district has nothing to do with managing that. But we do have noted on here absentee voting begins Friday, September 18th. >> Any questions? >> Thank you, Tiffany. Item 10 on the agenda would be the second reading of a bunch of policies and I'll turn it over to our policy chair Chad Johnson. >> Yeah. So we had our first reading of these back in July. Um difference you might notice today is um we previously had policy 506 which is a discipline policy um in this list and it was uh noted as not needing updates. Uh but uh in the context of today, we're going to revisit that. Um so that'll go through policy. It's been pulled out of this because what was proposed here was to not change it. So we're going to revisit that. So it's going to go through the policy committee cycle again and we'll come back to it at a future date. My understanding is there's already some some ideas and concepts of proposals coming. So, um that's work in progress. Uh but as far as what's on the list tonight, um it's the same as we talked about previously. So, as you know, we don't read through all of them. That would take us all night. Um so, it's just really an opportunity now to um just a reminder, if you haven't read these, please And also anyone has any questions about any of these we can take the time now to talk. >> Yeah. What what was happening in policy 506 was the happened in 2024 2025 and then this version which we do an annual review. Uh section 11, uh parts C through J have one of those in bold where MSBA says, "Hey, add additional language here to describe things." Uh we had not done that in 2024, 2025 or 2026. And so, uh we then went looking for language for C through J. We found some from Edina, some from Midi. We put it in as as discuss And so that will uh I believe the first meeting and the next policy meeting is September 14th and we would expect that policy then back in January at the second board meeting in January for approval. >> Any other discussion on questions in regards to the policies that are listed on our second reading list? All right, we will move now to our action items on our agenda. And the first item is our adult meal prices. And David Dasco, our director of finance and operations, is here to present. Good evening. Uh wanted to bring the board the change into the adult and second lunch meal prices and we provided the guidance on July 27th, 2026. I raised our prices from $55 to $5.30. This would be for the adult lunch meal price and also the second student lunch meal price. This would be effective for the 26 27th school year. Um and we provides the guidance on what we charge for meal prices. We can go above and beyond that but the minimum floor is set by the board has to take action to approve that as we move forward into the new fiscal year. Molly would be here with me when she's on which is exciting for >> questions. Just one question. I always look at it from the budget perspective service. Does that 530 keep us in that? >> It does. That's why so I know Molly had looked at it and that's why we kept it at the 505 instead of bringing to the board beforehand and waited. guidance because we do find at the 505 we're not we're not winning at it making tons of money which we don't want to try to provide a meal service second lunch to students but it does keep us in the in the positives >> okay >> that was my question >> any other questions >> and we did cover this in finance committee today as well >> I figured the finance would have been all over >> and we asked the same question All right. So, this is an action item. So, I would entertain a motion. >> I'll make a motion to approve the uh adult and second lunch meal pricing recommendations. Second. >> We have a motion by Aldridge and a second by Johnson. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> Oppos. Thank you, David. 7.2 on the agenda is the holding of our high school graduation at the Mystic Lake Amphitheater and Tiffany Olsen, our director of communications and strategic development and our superintendent Redmond will present. >> Superintend I'll start and then uh if you have tough questions, we'll bring Tiffany in. She's actually done a ton of the leg work uh working with the folks from Live Nation Live Nation who run the amphitheater in town. But we've this is something we talked about this at facilities and finance as well. This is uh I think we were driving the Live Nation folks a little bit nuts because we were talking about hey would you ever consider holding a graduation uh even before they put a shovel in the ground? And so we we've had a number of conversations. Tiffany's been instrumental uh in that and uh at connecting and getting the right people in the room. And so we have moved uh significantly forward in this process. I'm not going to read all the notes here, but a a lot of a lot of work is has gone into this and in order to make this a reality there, you know, well, number one, we need to lock in on a date that they're not going to, you know, hold forever for us. But at this point, I would I would describe our interactions with the uh the folks who run uh the amphitheater live nation uh as being incredibly positive, incredibly supportive. We have uh asked, I don't know, lots and lots of questions, working through everything from, hey, what what happens with weather? What happened? Would you ever make an exception? You know, you got about 2500 people under cover. Let's say it's not a stormy night with lightning and thunder, but you know, kind of a moderate or a light rain. Do you ever let people who aren't under the cover bring an umbrella, which is typically they don't allow it during concerts, but they went, "Yeah, we'll take a look at it." Because, you know, you can kind of have enough space where it wouldn't wouldn't impact the view and things like that. But we're at that point where, you know, they've asked us what date. Uh right now we have picked the date that we if we could pick any one date on a calendar it'd be Thursday June 3rd and that's uh coming from the high school folks who put this on and lots of other things and so we've got that date on hold. Um you know I did talk about rain before you know there that was one of our other things. Hey what happens you know if there's some inclement weather typically in June it's while we've got you know thunder and lightning maybe coming through in this twohour time block. I know that happened in Prior Lake this year. I think Farmington where they adjusted the time of graduation within a day to avoid that and they said absolutely you know we would be blocking you know extended time on that date uh and potentially over a couple of dates and you know so there there's some flexibility which has worked well. Uh do feel obligated to mention that yep there there is the uh which hasn't you know knock on wood uh I'm not even familiar with where it's been used. I haven't seen it use any of our neighboring districts and been in the area for a while now. But that kind of option C or whatever, which you know, if worse came to worse and we couldn't get it in with the uh you know, the the shifts in time and the the spacing there, um we would go to an option C, which would be a two-part graduation and most likely in the fieldhouse, maybe threemies at a time or something like that, which less than optimal, but uh you know there's some some dependency on weather. Do do feel obligated to point that out. Um costs are reasonable, all of those things. Uh love, you know, we're partnering with people who are experts in holding events. Uh and that's everything from, you know, how to how to people, you know, access parking, how do you get them in and out of the venue, how do they, you know, we we did our own ticketing last year. We now have experts to go, hey, tell us how to do this and and make it work well. Uh experts in security, experts in all of that. And they they have hosted Live Nation uh graduations at other sites across the the country. And so uh we're bringing the recommendation uh to the board and seeking board approval to uh finalize an agreement with uh the the Mystic Lake Amphitheater to begin holding graduation in 2027. and with the expectation we will continue to be there. I'm looking at Tiffany's done a ton of leg work. Jim is pretty good if I missed some things that didn't make it from facilities or if you've got questions happy to try to answer. >> Question. >> Yeah. >> Well, you know, at the um last venue we have to have tickets, right? So, do we need to continue to have tickets again or can anyone? uh we're going to have tickets but we are not locked into the size of a facility like we are at Grace. >> Okay. >> So we do have you know we don't expect to have 19,000 people you know and and so >> that and those there's a lot of work that needs to be done in that way but that is one of the advantages where I'm look at Jim and Tiffany our max I think the absolute max at Grace is right around 3,000. I think it's 4100 >> 4100 >> you know you can conceivably do 6,000 8,000 without really any any issues >> and if I may add Dr. Redmond another advantage um with live nation is they do have ticketing software that is a part of the package not an extra cost and a parking lot is also included in that and there's options that both Mr. Claus and Mr. Christensen can look and go through as far as associated ticket to a individual and other pieces that we're exploring to understand. So it was a paper and office spreadsheet in the office prior. So there's a lot of advancements that would take place from that perspective. >> I like the fact that we're bringing it back to shopping. I will miss Grace because it's a beautiful facility and it really is a great place for for that type of experience graduation. Just sitting on the stage looking out it's just it's gorgeous. Um and the you know the audio video visuals that they do on the screen I think is is tremendous as well. One question that I had was are we still going to do live streaming on Saber Live? >> So you can see And to your point, Sher Peterson, I think that Live Nation will have the video streaming in in the venue. So, I think that some of the quality you're talking about from Grace, from a video perspective, we'll be able to have at the amphitheater as well. >> People have been asking for this graduation back for a long time. I hear all the time, why don't we have it in the football field? Now we have the perfect venue for it. >> Besides 2020 we had it at when was the last time we had graduation in shock. I was gonna make the same com some of the variability costs but as I understand it continues to additions but the idea of graduation backs >> at such an amazing facility. >> For those who haven't been there yet, it is tremendous. >> Yeah. Pay a visit. Go to a show. >> I'm not a bad seat. >> Not a bad seat in the house. >> So, um, so you're really would we be using like the ticket master app for? >> It is not ticket master. I know Jim um has it's being it's a software that they subscribe to that they would allow us full admin access to without any extra costs. >> Great. >> We would still handle the ticketing have people mess with ticket master. That's a great question >> because because they're called stick master, right? >> Yeah. But they did have other uses just like this, you know, where >> and if I may add to just the relationship, they're they're not uh nation, as Dr. Ren said, they're not offering this to make money off taxpayer funds. They've really come at this of we want this to be a hometown opportunity and how can we just ensure costs are covered and and I think they've been really good to work with and understanding what our due diligence is to the community on that >> and this date does stay away from state high school championships for softball track lacrosse and so we've had student athletes that have had to make a choice >> and have like last year We had people running in the championship that had a big sprint from St. Michael over here. Um and you know what do you do? Do you participate in you know an opportunity to win a state championship or attend your high school graduation in the make it's not fair to those students to have to have make that decision. And so I like this date because it's a week before all of those events really start to happen. I don't know about usually that's when the section meets are the week before if there's any foresight looking at the calendar to avoid those things. >> I think we have there there will be and I again I don't know that there's any perfect date having worked in that world as well but I do know there are sometimes accommodations that can be made at the section level that cannot be made at the state tournament level. I do know where they have adjusted section based on graduation. >> Questions? >> Is there a possibility that board members who start the year um the school year on the uh on the board who aren't going to be there in 2027 just at least sit on stage >> guest of honor kind of thing. >> Yeah, >> I think we should look at maybe an honorary member. >> Yes, >> that would be Meredith. Yeah, we're already >> I'll sit in like a fifth row in the back. >> I know the cost you said it's below the threshold of meeting board approval, but I was trying to find in the previous notes. What is that number again? Is it is it 10,000? >> We we're confident here I can give you but it's a draft and it's being updated constantly. >> I mean, >> we have a high level of confidence that it will not cost more above 10,000 more. >> Okay. Um that's all >> the threshold 17500. >> Oh the thresholds were way off but just thought yeah but thought this is one where the governance body of should weigh in. It's not just about the price and the price is significantly less than a US bank as well >> right and and trying to compare. I think that's what we're trying to capture some of the stuff that we can have on >> um this is more allin like hey you're buying this they provide it where >> we talked a little bit at facilities and finance there's a lot of sump costs like even we talk about hey we're making our own tickets well it costs this much to bring and do whatever it also cost x amount of hours of time for you know doing all that stuff >> no it's the right move for a lot of reasons I just want to get reality check is wildly more expensive then answer no. Well, and that doesn't take into consideration sort of raise their fees next year and then the you know ideate the volume of guests for the most because that's about the only other factor I can think of, you know, the logistics of having to walk to and from the venue if you can't get close. >> Yeah, but I can add I want to make sure Mr. Ml too, but both um the close time and an open time or reverse that order for the parking lot is something thorough on having tickets and then the accessibility in the entire day to go with that third date. There's no other events that are booked that date, so that provides flexibility as well. >> Yeah. And I was just going to say one um to your question, Chad, we'll save u money by not busing students to a rehearsal. Right now, we go to Grace, we practice, we come back, uh Jeff Peliki, so they're going to practice in the um uh in the fieldhouse because they can get it done there, he believes. And then the other piece is in working with Canon and our SRO's, they're extremely excited about the possibility of working with Live Nation safety and security just because they're they're far more used to holding events of this size than a than a church. So we're excited about that. >> If I could add, it's a minor point, but again, when we say there's a lot of detail work to be done, some of that impacts the cost. the one we we sort of were talking about accessibility to the stage and they you know I think they priced in two one ramp and two stairs and if you've been there that stage is about 6 ft up and we then came back you know three or four days later after we were thinking about things and went could we ever put a lower stage in front where you could kind of come on and off and you know more like how we handle accessibility at may have not priced that out and there's things like that that might save us money compared to the the ramps and the stairs to the six six foot high stage or it might cost us a little bit more but that's why we say we've got that level of confidence and and of course then we need stairs to you know bring the board members down for the diplomas and things like that. >> Is there enough seating in the pit for the graduates? I I >> Yeah, the pit area the covered area depending on how you set the seats out. um is between 2,00 and 2500. So absolutely the 700 and some students. Yes. >> Y >> I think I'd be able to count for myself. >> And I'm looking at Tiffany. I've got that number right. Right. >> Yes. >> I think the fact that we're able to have it in shock and still have it as a free event. Many districts that go to larger facilities like US or they do charge for graduation, which doesn't seem right. That just doesn't >> This is That's not what we should be in the business of charging for. Um >> it's a celebration, right? I mean, it's a scam. I mean, it's a celebration, right? We should be charging to celebrate the success of our students. >> Dr. your figure is accurate. It's basically if anyone were to look at the amphitheater map, hundreds of thous are covered. Um and then they adjust the flooring. after that is uncovered. So, it's a little over. Any other questions? I'll make a motion to move the high school graduation for public schools to the Mississippi Amphitheater to June 3rd of 2027. by any further discussion. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. 11.3 on the agenda would be our updated school board vision and priorities. And I'm going to turn this over to Dr. >> Yeah, we've got the next two items and I'll probably if it's okay. Uh, Madam Chair, roll from 112 into 11 or sorry, 113 into 114. They're they're connected to one another, >> but they're separate codes. >> They are. Yep. And so, thank you. Then I won't roll into 114. I'll stop and pause. >> Well, I think we can roll them together because they it makes sense to do that, but when it comes to voting, we have to do >> Yeah. Um 11 and they're related. Um 11 what we've done and this is a process that goes back we did the uh at our organizational meeting in January the we split that meeting and do a board development section so we had uh we had a session there and then we've had other sessions throughout the spring and into the summer uh updating our our school board uh vision and priorities uh the guiding document and I'm gonna kind of if you just want to kind of scroll through there Tiffany um you know it's it's organized in three sections. The first was equity and inclusion. The next is student learning performance. Um and then you'll we even there's a little bit of overlap. We'll see some desired actions. The next document is all actions. Um and so we come back to that. And the third part here is is operations. And Notice that goes through a number of things and then if if I can take over and I'll flip to the actions which is really on item 11 for we'll come back and do each of those with with board approval or seeking board approval and I can I can stop anywhere in here. Um, I'm gonna actually I'm going to scroll really quickly and then I'm going to come back to the top just so we can see the connection. It's the same sections, equity, inclusion, student learning performance, and then operations and this we we spent time at our leadership retreat. We spent time at a systems meeting. We've obviously spent time at board development, but really trying to make make explicit, make clear the connection between um the document that is the vision and priorities itself which is what we've we've had that document for I think since April of 2020. Uh this actions document is really uh meant to be the bridge between uh school board and district management, district leadership and then all the other folks in the district where um kind of you know making sure that we're making the connection between the board vision and priorities and then hey what are we doing to reach those or how are we how are we attaining those things? And so uh this we've we've put um a number of things that then tie tie back to that original vision and priorities. Uh and you'll notice under equity and inclusion um there's a mention of going deeper with developmental designs. Um and then actually it's a live link under family engagement. I think we there were questions earlier about you know um how do we how do we bring families how do we bring parents guardians other folks who are in the lives of the students we serve how do we move from family involvement which is great positive to true engagement like hey this is what we're learning or this is where we're at how can you support your learner um and so that document is just some notes that you know from some experts in that area that that talk about family engagement Um, and then we get into student learning performance. I'm not going to stop at every item in here. Be here for quite a while. But student learning performance. Some things that you know for all learners um just you know what we're trying to do and I believe that all kids can reach high expectations. Uh we talked again about guaranteed and viable curriculum um earlier at the artisan letters presentation. We've had our our American Indian uh parent committee uh work with us and our American Indian education leaders going yep we want uh we certainly want to support our our native students and I think a lot of good things happening there. And then they've introduced us to this Indian education for all which of course education. So, we have to have an acronym and um and so there's some information on that. And then we're getting into, you know, all those other pieces there. Student learning, we go by age levels, uh preschool and elementary. And lots of great work uh continuing connecting our preschool learners, you know, to our elementary learners and having this E12 or E even beyond 12 kind of continuum of learning. Uh we've got subsecondary, we've got middle school, uh historic practices, part of that developmental designs. Uh we've got that continuous reimagining of themies of Shakipi uh and all the partnerships involved with that. And then we move into operations and I think this was the area that is probably changed the most. And it's a for very very good reasons. Uh in April of 2020, our intention was squarely where it should have been was how do we how do we make sure that the district has financing that's adequate to uh take care of the things we need to take care of and serve our students in the community and uh when we first wrote those vision and priorities yep the goal was you know one great example of that hey we'd like an unassigned fund balance between 8 and 12% over there and now it's about sustaining that unassigned fund balance which currently sits 10%. Um, you know, and then there is a bullet there, uh, talking about, you know, hey, we need to really, uh, focus on aligning our our priorities with our finances, but then we've gotten into other areas that were part of operations previously in the vision and priorities, but we go deeper with safety and security. Uh, having Canon Christensen lead that team has been a fantastic asset for our district. Um, you know, we've got things that, uh, You know, again, we've been looking at we've been studying like this anonymous threat reporting system where they're, you know, ahead of the laws and that's something schools have to have by the start of next not not this coming school year but the 2072 28 school year. You got the things about buildings and you know facilities, buildings and outdoor spaces. U we've begun to move into that you know hey what does the future look like? um just in a number of our elementarymentaries like all of them today. Uh the buildings look great and you got to remind yourself they're actually older than we think they are. Uh and I think on the surface we don't see it but when you start getting into the the plumbing and the HVAC and the systems um you know we're starting to take a look at those needs as we look at the future. We had questions in the community conversation. Um, and we've begun to to really kind of and that's, you know, not in the next four months, but, you know, looking into the future and making sure again that we're good stewards of the resources that have been provided in our school district and and making sure that, you know, maintenance and if there needed renovations or improvements. Um, schoolboard community engagement, it continues to to expand. Um, and then community ed to of the Saber Connection uh which is the school school age care program which is that's launching very very soon. Uh they're ready to go and uh seeing some some really neat work there and very excited about the future of that in our district. uh want to uh kind of this is in co-curricular activities and athletics kind of take a look and reinforce uh you know the things that are there and make sure we've got uh high quality systems across that area. Uh we've done a lot of work with our with our leadership folks, our principles and our department leaders this summer about aligning vision really our our compelling vision at the district level. Uh we see that a lot in presentations. It's our breathing document. We want to make sure that each of our buildings and each of our teams was connected to that in ways that support their work uh as part of that. And so lots of good work and then schoolboard feedback on employee growth and development. I think there, you know, some of these pieces we, you know, they're there. We there's been a ton of work on uh getting great things in place, but it, you know, again to kind of revisit that, but then to make sure that we're we're sharing those with the school board. Um, I'm open to questions. I'm open to wherever you might want to go with that and go back to the approval individually. Yeah, I was thinking about, you know, just I think what's probably on a few of our minds tonight, you know, back to the topic of student discipline again, policy 506. I just I wonder if it's not worth codifying that somehow in here. Um it I was just looking for a good place that it could even really be discussed because I see kind of three areas where it can be applied you know both learning performance safety and security but also aligning vision because you you need you need the building administration to be on board with that as well just so everybody's clear on what is appropriate both from the admin from the teachers and from the students um you know to align with our vision of priority Maybe that's kind of practices. I know you talked about that as well. It's operational excellence in terms of staff >> and I have that on my as well discussion um the addition of policy 506 that I I kind of just had a note under the equity inclusion piece and maybe it was just because that's where popped into my mind at the time when I was looking at this but you know I I agree with with what Jeff said that you know we're all we all have been hearing u loud and clear from members of the community from staff parents, there are serious concerns um in regards to um one one of our schools, if maybe there's two um and you know, I just want to make sure that that has been heard and it's not something that the board is sweeping under the rug. I mean, we all know we've all been working on it. We in our last meeting, you know, I think we gave the administration strong directive on this topic that there needs to be improvement and significant improvement um in regards to disappointment student behavior in our buildings. Um and so obviously we heard tonight the same thing. Um and I I guess I just want to reinforce the fact that I think everybody deeply cares about what is happening in our district. Um I think it's I know that there have been conversations I know that there have been meetings to discuss how we move forward. Um it's unfortunate that those meetings and those conversations occurred at the end of the school year. Um where there was not time to show improvement before the beginning of the school year. And that's where it's kind of like there are things that are in the works and it's like we didn't have time to implement it because it was the end of the year. I mean, when you have those discussions in April and May and then school is out, how can you show that there's significant improvement when there isn't anybody in the building for three months? And so I I just it's frustrating um you know and we have to the thing that the board can reinforce because it's our responsibility is to establish policy from a governance standpoint. That is our job and our job is to make sure that we are enforcing and making sure that policies are being implemented in our district. And if they're not, then it's our responsibility to hold people accountable as well as maybe there's something with the policy that isn't working like we're going to go back and review 506 because we know that there are things in there that we need to do better. And so bringing it back to the board to say this isn't working. What are the suggestions then to be brought forward for those improvements? And I know in 506 it does say at the end that it is reviewed annually, but it's also reviewed annually. It's supposed to be by staff um in each building and if there are suggestions for changes to be brought forward to the superintendent and then brought to the board for consideration. I think it's it's the very last thing that's in that policy. And so I think this is just opportunity for us. We've heard, we've listened, and now we have school starting in a week. We need to we need to see improvement. I mean, there's just no doubt about it. I don't think there's a magic I don't think there's a magic solution. I don't think that there's one thing, but one of the things that I wrote down from conversations tonight that I heard I thought was really um that really stuck with me was We need to work together to solve this. And this isn't just the board. This isn't just staff. This is everybody. This includes parents because the school's job in my opinion is not to um behavior starts at home and we need our parents involved. We need that engagement. That's so critical. I totally understand that there are students that have challenges at home and they bring them to school and that's where the school maybe can play a bigger part in some of those kids' lives. That's just the reality of the world that we live in today. But again, I I still stand firmly behind what we talked about in our last when we finalized these vision and priorities and the action items. I still stand behind what I said with the director of this has to change and I don't know I don't know what the answer is and I haven't had anybody tell me what the answer is because I don't think there is one there isn't one magic bullet to solve this it has to be a collaborative effort of everybody going to add the perspective to kind of collaborative just mindset of like we know there's a problem And now it's us against the problem. >> Yeah. Little to piggyback on that topic. Essentially, as I read through this document in general, we have a lot of language in here that's continue to analyze, continue to develop, continue to strategize. And I would like I think we are all in agreement. But I would like to see more structure to our vision and priorities as far as streamlining the secondary process between both schools for policy 506 for development of strategies that we can actually implement and to see what they are so that we can at least it's really hard to for us to govern these decisions when they're quite as bad as they are. It's hard to say whether this is going to work or not based on the language we're using and the results that we're seeing and hearing in our schools. So, I personally would like something a little more concrete. I understand this is a visions and priorities document. Whether it's in here or somewhere else along those lines, I think we need more specifics. Yeah, I guess I I don't disagree, but also just recognizing that it's a vision statement. So, it's going to be like broader goals. So, I can say like for myself, I have a vision to like live a healthier lifestyle or something. And then but then it gets down to like what am I doing about that this month, this week, today, this morning. Um then you're transitioning from like vision to execution. And so I don't know that prescribing execution and monitoring and assessment in this necessarily appropriate. I was going to say the same thing because your vision and priorities is the 50,000 foot view and then your annual operating plan or your OKRs that's the exeject. This is the macro version. Every single line item could have 15 different >> bullet points saying this is how we're going to do this. >> This is, as you said, we're looking down and then what are we going to do? It's it's going to be interesting. What's this going to look like in five or 10 years? It's going to be a lot added to it. There might be some subtracted from but it's a uh it's a chart of accounts where just that's the chart of accounts the right thing but what do I know that's just >> um but it it's just a list there's more to this than what it says. This is >> this is the macro. >> So I I did have a couple perfect because I hope we'll have an answer for those. Um, I just shifted to student learning performance because I I appreciate the conversation and I think that governance is broad and global. Uh, I think as we and it's but it's an important part and that's the reason I shifted down to uh student learning performance. If you remember the early sort of vision and priorities when we talked about our comprehensive literacy framework, we didn't select the curriculum at that time. We set the parameters what's acceptable, what's not acceptable and have worked through things which then becomes and it's a system that we're developing. Um, and if you're dealing with complex challenges such as how do we improve student learning, it's not as simple as, hey, do these three things and everything will work magically. That's never happened in the history of schools and it's not going to. It's a myriad of things working in concert. It's what are reasonable class sizes? So, there's an economic part of it. What is, you know, how do we hire? What are what is our professional learning? We had to make a summer talk about those things. And that is why if you look at the second bullet under student learning performance under all learners, continue to build out a high quality system and cycle of curriculum adoption and implementation. Giving the examples that we're using in literacy in elementary literacy with foundational skills, arts and letters. and then the building thinking classrooms which is a core part of our math curriculum and so none of that would have been written back in in April of 2020. So as these things progress and move forward, we're continually bringing it back to the board guidance. Are we within the parameters? And then I think you know the next part of some of these things which we're also bringing back is all right how's the performance? What's happening? And again we have a ton of internal measures that are being built and that actually is the bullet above. I'm not going to go as as deep into that. Um but we are it's a continual systemic process to build a system of you know datainformed instruction. What are we measuring? How are we measuring it? We've made some key decisions along the way of you know building out this multi-tered system of supports. wanted them to use fastbridge assessments because that's a best growth model that we have available to us and it can inform instruction in a much more timely and useful fashion than hey we get MCA results kids took them in May we get it back in August it's really great feedback on your curriculum but not so much on an individual learner of hey how do you help them move from where they are to the next next best place of learning um and then even that um I'm looking because I don't want to get this wrong. I'm not sure the next path system of of data warehouse was available up until the last two three years. >> Correct. >> And we knew we were doing a lot of data work with mult with their multi-tered system of supports and rather than what a lot of districts had done, hey, they drop a data warehouse and go that tool's going to fix every problem. Not if you don't know how to use it and why you're using it and you're not ready to use it. And so for us that right now is becoming a huge asset as we're implementing it for this school year because it's replacing a lot of individually designed spreadsheets with pivot tables things like that with the opportunity to inform and assist and support each of our teachers uh as as they're digging into data and how do you take that data to inform the next piece of instruction and I think similar to uh you know we look at all aspects of perform performance across the school district and want to make sure that we're systemically improving. I did add a statement here to go back to I heard a whole bunch of things mentioned. I do want to be really clear. The initial phase with policy 506, which is a very long and very detailed policy, was just to get it renewed. Uh the air was it said no changes and somebody pointed out, hey, it says C through J. You should be writing information. So that's really the step for January. Uh I did also, you know, there's been feedback as well of could we take and have something that connects that because that's a you know that's more like a legal document into hey part of how we we help uh in terms of improve student performance. um and get it to connect with our core foundational uh science and art of teaching which is developmental designs to better connect the expectations of policy 506 into the student handbooks which is where you know and that is you know that's not as simple as creating a list and go yep I think this does it uh but we've already started looking at different districts I mentioned and mamed that was just a language in C through J looked But I'm trying I can't even remember who I've looked at. I think I looked at Edina as well because they had something that informs their student handbooks. So did Eastern Carver. Um you know and you're trying to you know there's there's pros and cons of each but you need to make sure that it fits with all those things and it helps us in terms of of holding high expectations being clear being accountable in all kinds of ways. So, uh, again, I think this fits in with what we're doing across myriad systems. Uh, we've talked about, you know, if you go back to when, you know, 2018 and some of the folks started on the board, uh, yep, some of the some of the challenges in our district were really public. A lot of the financial stuff, some of the superintendent management, others were not. And one that I was shocked by was just simply the absence of systems. And so when I hear NICA talk about, hey, we have an energized our elementary teachers had a phenomenal well really the last couple years, but really just digging in, making sure that our our learning resources are well used in terms of literacy, in terms of math. Uh, and I think those same things we, you know, we we have student performance comes in all shapes, sizes, packages. um how we interact with people as part of student performance, how we you know how we connect, how engaged are we in learning and all of those pieces that sometimes get oversimplified to a word that I I think we think we know but uh you know what what are the behaviors or the you know pieces of that and even you know other pieces we're working on emotional intelligence and all that stuff and what's the right developmental time and how do you do that and So, but I've added that if that's I I think I maybe captured it. I was scrolling up and down. I wasn't just mindless either. I was literally trying to find >> the right place to put that. I think that's it for now. We could move it later, but >> I I think it is the right place, but I'd like to see added expectations not just in the student handbooks, >> but also in staff >> um >> on that topic or >> Yeah. Well, that that's where I I mentioned the the aligning vision >> because you need to you need to get everybody on board at every level, right? >> That's that's kind of where I was going with that. >> And so the expect to me the expectation when you look When we go further into this document talking about employee growth and development, then we talk about review, update, and better communicate the characteristics of the shock of the employee as defined of our six pillars of the district. Um to me, I my head goes right to can we create what is a portrait of a shock employee? What do we want that employee to look like? What are our expectations? And how are we going to achieve excellence? We should have the same expectations of our staff as we do of our students. And so when I think about all of the different handbooks we have, whether it's student, employee, the board, as well as there's one for athletes and you know, as far as what they have to follow, what rules with the high school, whatever. To me, 506 should be a high enough level that touches all of those different books that sets the expectations in our district regardless of who you are that we expect the same thing of everybody. >> Does that make sense? >> It does. And policy 506 talks about that. I probably I think it I now actually think it fits better there. When I look at deep learn implementation of key tenants of developmental designs, that's adult driven. So it's it's in there. But I did that in student and employee handbooks and I don't think I do think it fits better up there. Um and it doesn't diminish in any way. Um you know this the stuff down here where we're talking about some of that's more accountability and operations. Um you want to move it down there. Fine. I don't think that's much I don't think that I was suggesting move it there, but I was just going back to the characteristics of the shop >> and that to me, as Jeff said, this is a system, right? Everything needs to be in alignment in order for it to work. And that's what our, you know, mantra has been for the last couple of years. Um, and I don't think that that is working right now because if it was, I'm not would have the same challenges. I don't know. But it's an opportunity for us to really put some teeth into this and make sure that we're all in alignment. I don't when it comes to this topic, I'm not sure that necessarily 100%. >> I would just like to add to I completely agree with that. Just when we say expectations, it's not just expectations of your behavior but your expectations of um you know giving respect to others but the expectation that you will also receiving dignity and respect as well from others. So it's the expectation to and from this call >> and there's skill development across the spectrum there as well. >> Thank you. A couple other items and things that have come up over the last couple weeks that I feel like is something we should address and this might be the right document to do that uh is a lot of some of the behavior things that we're seeing and the student learning things have kind of come from a core not all of them of course but a big chunk of them of phone usage and techn technology usage in schools. Um, I feel like sometimes we're putting our teachers in tough spots where they're the ones to determine whether or not students should or shouldn't get to use this device this time. Um, and it's it's managed differently from classroom to classroom where if we had more of a plan, more of a system, I don't even know if it'll work. That's the tough part of this job is it's not I'm not here to find solutions. We just want results. So for me, I would love to see a plan from the district that says we're gonna pilot this or or try this in seventh grade at East or whatever. I don't know exactly the solution or the answer to that, but I don't think it would hurt. I've heard from students and teachers and seen plenty of examples where a small fraction or a small scuffle starts from that particular topic and then can escalate into a worse relationship between students and teachers and staff and faculty. So, I know I've brought it up a few other times before. I have heard that it's not a huge issue at our schools at some spots, but I'm hearing from plenty of other staffers that they would love to have uh that something that at least. >> Okay. And I think we need better data on that too. I think hearing from someone that's a good first step possibly. Um we do have on the January policies as well. MSBA's put out an AI sample policy which is kind of gets into the same things. I would say in terms of our use of devices, we've been incredibly thoughtful and been a leader of other districts. I think we see movements in both directions that are all or none and I don't think that's the right answer. Different ages, different developmental stages call for things. And I think Nick, you alluded to the age-old thing. I don't know if I've ever seen a rule that's been enforced uh exactly the same in all classrooms throughout a school building in the history of schools, whether it was don't chew gum or don't do whatever. And we do have and I'm going to look at Jim for our our secondary you know where we have prohibited the use of cell phones except as directed by teachers for a learning thing or >> yeah we updated we updated that this year in the handbook and there's no phones bell to bell at the discretion of the teacher meaning teachers have every right ability to say no cell phones in my in my classroom. I think passing time is the one time when they they're allowed to be out. >> And I even look at that even a little through a different lens. They're not allowed unless you specifically say they're allowed in your classroom. >> Correct. >> And if you choose not to enforce that, you know, because even, you know, there's not much difference in that. If we say, "Hey, there's a moratorium on phones, you're still at the same place." I don't know that that moves us a lot further because the rule is they're not allowed for use unless the teacher permits it within their classroom. And even back when I was teaching, there were some folks that allowed kids to chew down when that was the rule or whatever. Well, I don't know like I don't have a good answer for this, but it's like uh then when it's it's like you want to give discretion to teachers and ads and such and like that's that's a good thing. But then when someone's more flexible, then that gives kids ammo. Well, Mrs. Jones, let's >> and it's like the classic uh like when you get a sub and everyone's trying to convince the sub that the teacher is the most and lets us do whatever we want like >> is making stuff up. >> But it's I like I said I don't it's maybe not constructive because I don't have a solution but I think it's in a okay place right now because I definitely don't agree with like like the lock bags and stuff and like the more rigid then also invites kids to like defeat those systems and decoy tone. Sounds far, but like >> we we actually saw that at the TLC when they went to a phone band >> and it led to more I mean they've been able to handle it without going to the steps that you describe because when they tried that they found out they had more challenges than they did before. >> And again, I think that's this is that part of in terms of you know and again we're happy to answer these questions anytime. This is a great example of one that's complex, you know, the use of cell phones and other devices and we it is being done very collaboratively. Brian Dro and his team we you know their titles instructional technology and that's true. He's got uh folks car Osmanson uh Eric Hills who have led a lot of work with teachers feedback and even you know student feedback at times and really trying to look at the different developmental needs and and you know where how we've done devices, what devices at different ages. Do we have it perfect? Probably probably not. But I think we've been much more thoughtful than a lot of places and we've actually had folks come to come to us, hey, how you doing that? Um because it's and it's even, you know, yeah, cell phone has obviously can be misused super easily, but I also think we have at certain ages with our young folks, they're going out into a world as adults and how do you how do you develop those skills? And I'd rather have them mess up when they're 16 than, you know, the first time they've experienced, you know, some of that. And it's even, you know, how do you how do you have this highowered supercomput device that you carry around and yet you need to be employed? You need to be, you know, a good employee when you're hired and uh know when to use it, when not to use it. And I would say the cell phone in some ways is the tip of the iceberg on when to use it or when not to use it. uh compared to AI which is why I mentioned that policy because you are now it's like well you know and we all have we all go through these like I'll just ban it well it's everywhere and so how do you what's appropriate and sometimes it's appropriate sometimes it isn't uh our kids can handle that and uh yeah they're they're different challenges they're different nature challenges than than you faced before and uh I actually I didn't know about the the bags I was going to use other schools. Yeah. They found the check in and there was a lot of dead phones that I just put in the I put in I put in the lock bag >> on the way in. Yeah. >> And I got my real phone somewhere else. And uh >> I had one one question here. Um under the last topic on action list which is employee growth and development. The third bullet conduct a comprehensive anal a process and protocols across the district by which employees may share their concerns as solution oriented ideas for improvement. My question is one does it exist today? >> Yes. >> And two, who's part of that? And is that a building or is it all the elementary get together, middle schools get together, the high school? >> First thing we're doing, it was on our leadership team agenda this morning was hey, we're gonna we need to do an audit. There's a lot of things and and do people know them? How do they avail themselves? And for different types of employees, there's different sort of pathways to that. And the teachers just by the nature of the job and the nature of having a union have, you know, how do you work through your, you know, your direct supervisors? What does that look like? And then when do you bring in, you know, a union representative? When do you do these other things? And, you know, so we did have that discussion. And there there's a system. There's all kinds of things. there's, you know, all kinds of stuff in the collective bargaining agreement for teachers, which is much better to find than, you know, our other work groups. Um, but this came out, you know, this was mentioned at one of our previous board developments and it's one of those that I think we need to, you know, it's kind of some of the presentations we do at the board and make it visible, take a look at it, how's it working, get feedback and, you know, and and sometimes because the process is there, that was our discussion this morning um you know where I think the folks in a well you got this this this and this and it's like okay do people know where to where to do that how to do it what does it look like and then there are a number of things where statutoily required we actually have forms that go with various forms of harassment and we talk students the bullying form is right in the policy it's right in the student handbook and how do you do it and we've got some anonymous reporting things and others so thought that that you know coming as a suggestion from the board. Uh absolutely something that we want to dig into and and have a better answer than yes, there's a system, but I can't really describe it very well or point to a place. And so we want to take a look at that and share what that system looks like and take constructive feedback along the way, too. Keith talked at length this morning about different um different chain of command type things that are written in policy. Mike just kind of mentioned them, but Keith was able to to rattle off the different ways to to report things if you had concerns. >> And I know this is really broad and it has to be division priorities, but what I would love to see from the um audience that in the buildings they know best because they're right there living the moments. What I'd like to see is a partnership of all schools where we dedicate maybe two teachers that would come together and then you know what are the challenges what are the you know solutions that they've come up with like what's going on in the building and then present maybe quarterly to the board. I'd actually like hear from the people that do the work themselves versus like other people because they're the ones that know best. What are the what's working well in the buildings, what's working, and what like improvements. >> I would need to learn more about that, what that might look like. We have a number of things that are designed and built that way. Each each building has a building leadership team. Um, even and again, there's a union process and Jim and I meet with the executive board once or twice a year. Um, and again, I think we want to make sure that we're bringing people that have great information about it. Um, not that I feel or I think, you know, that that's real, but I think it's, you know, how does it align with what's been laid out? And I think, you know, we've done that. You know, I'm picturing literacy stuff. Again, we spent a lot of time there. But we bring the practitioners in to share with you, hey, how's this working? How's it going? Where are you at? What are you doing next? And so uh I think you know certainly that you know trying to make sure that it's connected to something that we've established and again I use kind of the curricular things we've done all that in a collaborative manner like the whole curriculum purchase and study and teams and and all of those things and the implementation plans. So I think if it's coming out of that you know type of a framework now we do want to bring people who are the actual practitioners who are closest in doing it and certainly um I think we could do some of that. I'm trying to think if we've done it or not like with developmental designs or even restorative practices, you know, anything that we have on this list. That's partly why we've got this actions list is you know we're trying to do you know we listen to the board and we try to do that. Now we only have amount of meetings in a year, >> but we're trying to we we've invested so heavily in the development of curriculum and doing that that comprehensive literacy framework. Um that's probably I'm not going to say over represented, but it's been a big part of that. We're certainly if there are other pieces that you want to want to hear from folks, you know, developmental designs, restorative practices, you know, use of data, whatever that might be, what have you. When we as a board go through developmental design program, the board had some opportunity to participate. How many years ago was that please? >> I'm gonna go six >> that long. >> Doesn't seem like that. >> At least five. >> Yeah. So, that would be good as well. the um develop speaking of developmental designs um I know teachers have an opportunity to go through that program I know it's required but what about parents >> yes >> parents also >> done some some training it's shorter >> but yes the core concepts and developmental designs absolutely >> we've done it with food service as I have a moment here. Just add one more thought. I'm struggling to figure this out. Is how do we how can we add some way to measure success or improvement to this specific topic. I know it's difficult because we don't have a lot of data from schools as far as discipline and I don't want it to get to where we're not having disciplinary actions because we don't want to have a high number or something of that nature at an individual building level. But I I'm trying to find the words for this is trying to find a measurable goal for our district because I think we've all most of us have seen or heard that we do have some issues or some concerns in our schools specifically some buildings that have very challenges on behavior, challenges on discipline, challenges with just culture and climate right now. So whether it's in this sement or something else, how are we going to not be sitting here next year and going through a wish list as far as knowing what we'd like to see happen versus what's actually happen? I don't know if that's a great answer for that. I guess it's not totally a fair question, but it's a thought that I just want to bring up more on the subject. >> Yeah, that would I would need a lot more information, I think, in terms of defining exactly what it is, what that looks like more than, you know, anecdotal feedback and things like that. And those are, you know, again, I think there's systemic things across the district. There are number ways that people can bring things into that system. I don't in terms of a measure or a performance. Um, you know, I think there there are a number of pieces of things too that we've got to be careful and um, you know, we're trying to improve those systems and I think getting to know what what's happening or how things are being worked on, I think is important and I think we even You know, again, I I don't want to, you know, de labor some of these, but this will be my ninth school year. I've been here about eight years now. Um, when I first got here, we hadn't done like principal evaluations in like a decade. We really weren't doing teacher evaluations consistently. We didn't have any kind of formal assessment system of student learning. And so, uh, we're trying to get feedback along the way. And I think it's still refing, but those were asking about trusted adults in classrooms. We're looking at you know if students are more engaged and learning better that time is being spent better and um you know I think we're also gathering you know information in our community conversation. We've got longitudinal data. I just looked at it because part of the welcome back is, you know, that the grade that the community gave our and it's for about our employees, talking about supporting them, but the grades that people gave to our schools, to activities, to all of those groups and up from last year to this year, you know, and that's the stuff. It's tough to capture um, you know, deep meaningful data. I think we've got to be careful when things that are you know when it's anecdotal when it's hearsay when it's I feel um you know and not that those aren't valid as starting points they are but it's how do you go about and ascetain you know what what is what's objective data and define what you want to do and how do you move forward and improve that and I think if you don't do that definition and don't spend that time on that you can put all the time and resources you want But if you don't know what it is, it's really tough to improve. So I think as we move forward, we'll certainly look for some of those things and there's pieces of that and I think it does come into student performance in lots of way academics and other things. But there are some to to your point there are some very real challenges that we've been dealing with too and one of them is simple. You look at data. Um you you've been the ones that have approved it. Um if you'd have told me that we would have level three centerbased classrooms, two of two in each of our elementaryaries when I first started, I wouldn't have believed. We have seen a huge increase in the number of students entering kindergarten and other grades with with different types of learning challenges than we've ever seen before. So, I think there's a lot of factors, but I I I think we share the the ambition to be better in that. I just don't know that it's, you know, I also worry that if we try to oversimplify something not based on good data, um that, you know, it's tough enough in education to do something like, you know, adopt a curricula, do it well, do it across. Uh, and you've heard people say, well, Nick, I believe, said it's the first time in 13 years she's seen that done in our district. There's a lot of really really good things happening in our district and they're being built systemically. They're being built deep. Um, and that, you know, it takes time and it takes energy and pushing in the same direction. We're trying to do the best we can to bring those to you. And if you there are other things that you want to see or understand or what are we doing? What does that look like? We're happy to do that. I appreciate I'm wondering if us as a board could consider more of this. You said the word resources. Our biggest resource, we talk about it all the time in budget issues is our staff% of our total budget. So are we potentially something that we could either have a study or look at some some way we need to shift some of our resources or at least look into shifting of our resources to some of our hot spots in areas that seem to need more work than others. Well, we do some of that already >> building by building. Um, I'm gonna I'm gonna go back and I apologize for doing it. I >> One of the things I think we're better staffed in terms of class sizes than many of our comparable districts now and that's a, you know, our community has supported our schools. Um, we do our our buildings have individual discretion through what we call compensatory revenue. Um I we do have one of our elementaryaries has done uh and I'm not even sure what the position it's a support position but what they've done is they've taken some of that FTE and compensatory revenue uh and they put it into a student support position which is at a cost of a 1.0 teaching FTE which you know they they're getting their feedback on that uh how it's been working. They've done it looking at Jim for two years now or three three or four I should say >> this will be the fourth year coming up and one of the early things was well you had people well we have our class sizes are bigger >> yes but that was their building leadership team decision and they felt they were better and so each of our 10 buildings has that has some level of discretion through compensatory revenue to do that uh I do think the other four elementaryaries continue to look at them and ask some questions about it none of moved in that direction. Um but they do not um they spend their compensatory revenue in different ways. Most have used it to make class sizes even smaller but there are differences in hiring pair of professionals doing other things. Um but the one elementary swingy uh has really taken that it'll be the fourth year. So we can certainly so we are doing some of that but Could we do more? Maybe. But I think also we get into as a district, we put our money closest to the classrooms. We've really really focused on class sizes. There's great research that shows that's important. Um, you know, for the most part, we're we're pretty light administratively across places and, you know, we rely on teams and other, you know, building leaders and principal leaders to to do some of the probably more than other districts. So, but yes, I could we look at that in other ways. Yeah. And I think David D Oh, he's still here. Wow. I've shared this. I don't know if I've shared it. Um, I like a lot of things about David. Um, one, uh, >> in fact, he hung in on this board meeting and he's still here. But, uh, he, uh, he, and did, if I share this before, cut me off. But he, um, he has taken the coding of our expenditures to another level. We literally coding every item, every expenditure, which is the beginning of a foundation of a system where we can pull reports and we can things and even um you know now the one I mentioned at Sweeney that's pretty obvious we could do that I mean we you know we have looked at the data we've looked at academic data we've looked at you know discipline referral data and things that have gone along with that um but that is going to allow us the work David's done to maybe do some of what you're talking about what I would call action research hey pilot this you want to try it great um there are different ways to fun that where we might you know, hey, you you kick in half the amount from compensatory revenue, you kick in the other half. Or, you know, there's some things and we've tried. Um, I think we we've got a leadership group that's more willing to look at some of those things and try some different things. We early on, kind of pushed a number of things that, you know, didn't happen. Now, we're seeing some split classrooms. We're seeing some different things. Um, but certainly open to that. So, I think that's a great We want people to have some of that discretion and different buildings are in different stages even, you know, in terms of sometimes the makeup of their staff. You have a lot of veteran teachers. You got a lot of newer teachers. Do you have a lot of teachers in the elementary really strong at literacy but growing and developing more in math? Are you, you know, where are you at? Um, you know, but we've, you know, as a district, we wanted to make sure we're providing developmental designs for all of our teachers and using that Other discussion on our actions. >> Oh yeah, we're still on that. >> I'm in favor of approving the amendment to reference the policy 506. >> So before we do that, The