[Music] He hey. [Music] Good evening. It is Thursday, August 7th at 6 p.m. We are at the District Service Center in Cottage Grove, Minnesota. We would like to acknowledge that the land on which we gather is the land of the Midawakatan Dakota people. Medawakatin means dwellers of the spirit lake. First item on our agenda is 1.0 uh call to order. Dana >> Louise Hines >> here. >> Brian Clark >> here. >> Sharon Vanlair >> here. >> Eric Tesner >> here. >> Belinda Dos >> here. >> Smi Pnik >> here. >> Katie Schwarz >> here. >> 2.0 Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. 3.0 is approval of the agenda. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda? >> So move. >> Second. >> Motion by Sharon, seconded by Simmyi. Uh all those in favor. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh 4.0 0 is workshop items. We do have two this evening. And 4.1 is introduction of Dr. Megan Hickey, a executive director of student support services, presented by Julie Nielsson, superintendent. >> Thank you. Yes, that is a long title, but it's uh it's bigger work than a longer title. Um I am excited this evening to introduce Dr. Megan Hickey uh to the board as well as to our community. Um Megan will serve as was shared as our executive director of student support services. It includes areas like early childhood special education, of course, all of our special education, multilingual services, um including our behavior and mental health, health services, nursing counselors, school psych, social workers, um um supervising the coordination of McKin Vento, our homeless, as well as title one programming. Um Dr. Hickeyi brings over 20 years of experience to South Washington County schools after spending time in uh Robbinsdale as well as AIO area schools and most recently Minneapolis public schools. Um she has her doctoral degree in educational psychology, a master of arts in educational psychology, a bachelor of science in child psychology from the University of Minnesota. She has a lot of degrees. In addition um she has hold her director of special education and principal lensure from Minnesota State University Mano um and her superintendent lure from St. Mary's University. So a lot of degrees and a lot of education she brings to us. Um Dr. Hickeyi joined us and began on July 16th and has been getting to know the people in our system um and what South South Washington County Schools is really all about. And so this evening I'm pleased to introduce you to Dr. Megan Hickey. Um and I've just asked that she share just a little bit about herself and perhaps what she has found interesting in the first 15 to 20 days if it's been that long yet. Megan, welcome. >> Thank you so much. I think that the first test is whether or not I can get my phone turned on. So, okay. Thank you. It is so nice to be here with all of you this evening. Um, like superintendent said, I'm finishing up here my third week in South Washington County Schools, and it's just absolutely fantastic to be part of this community. Um, I have been overwhelmed by the warm welcome that I've experienced and the joy and the enthusiasm that our staff um and are bringing to serving our our students and our and our families. Um, I am just incredibly impressed with the dedication to accelerating student learning that I'm seeing from the people here, as well as creating system alignment to make sure that all of our students are getting equitable experiences and really making sure that we are centering student well-being as part of the work that we do every day. Um, you've heard a little bit about how I'm overeducated. Um, but I wanted to share just a little bit about me professionally. I'm I'm really really passionate about multi-tered systems of support and making sure that we have the interventions and resources necessary to help sure make sure that all of our students thrive in areas of academics, social emotional learning as well as behavioral growth. Um, I'm particularly excited to think about how we use that framework to serve our multilingual learners and our students with disabilities so that they are able to access education in the least restrictive environment and making sure that they're getting the experiences and resources necessary so that we prepare them for whatever they want to do after high school. Um, I'm also really driven to provide our educators with high quality professional learning experiences and the resources that they need so that they can make sure that they're doing best by our students. Um, I'm also really deeply passionate about being a good steward of public resources and ensuring that we use all of our resources effectively and efficiently. On a personal note, um, I live in St. Paul with my partner and our rescue dog. We love to travel. We love to play pickle ball and I also love to downhill ski. Um when we can we always get up to our cabin in northern Minnesota. We love to enjoy the outdoors um and perhaps play some pole tabs from time to time. Um I want to thank you all so much for the warm welcome. It's honestly been just so refreshing to be here and to get to know each and every one of you and I look forward to working together to support the students and families here in SoCo. >> Thank you, Megan. Okay, on to 4.2 and that is overview of SOASKO language access plan and that will be presented by Sean Hoganorf, director of communications and Megan Hickey, executive director of student support services. >> No, I'll try to use the microphone. Um, good evening, Chair Schwarz, uh, Superintendent Nielsen, members of the board. Um I'm presenting to you um a plan uh the starts of a re uh plan that's the result of a recent legislation that um enacted by the uh 2025 special session um in which ask asks that the school board adopt a language access plan um starting in the 2526 school year. So my hope is to have the actual plan for you yet this fall, but I wanted to kind of walk through a couple of the things that um it this is about. And so we're in the final stages of creating a a language access plan that follows Minnesota statute uh 123b.32 and then the title uh title uh six of the civil rights act of 1964 which requires school districts to provide process and procedures that effectively uh assist students and adults who communicate in the language other than lang uh English. So, the board must approve this language uh this plan every two years after the first uh time that's approved and then as I said that we'll bring this back to you uh later this fall. Um it will be both on our website. Um and then also in a handbook as well will be kind of the way that you'll see it. Um and then as I've kind of said the purpose of the plan is to document the language access tools, our process procedures, our tools. A lot of these processes, these these resources, these tools are in effect. We're using them in our district. we're using them in our schools as as currently and we have been for quite some time. Um and so this is this this plan really is to document those things so that we can you know have continuous growth and uh toward that. Um and so uh and then when completed the access plan will be available like I said on our website and then we will be sharing that with our families in multiple ways as well. Um this plan will include uh you know how the district uh uses trained and certified spoken language interpreters um to communicate about ac uh academic pro uh pro uh progress and placement as well as specialized programs and services. Um, so a lot of times, you know, um, when you get into translations and interpretations, um, you don't use AI or Google Translate, things like that for important things like IEPs and and legal documents and things like that. And so we've always used um, uh, different vendors, um, language line, things like that where people can can get the information in a way that they can understand it and um, use it. And so um you know the the other part of this is that how uh families and the communities will be notified of their rights under this plan which then would include receiving the information of their child's education in their home language. Um we use preferred language a lot of times. And so their home language may be different than their preferred language. And so when we do our annual um update which many of you pro um if you're parent got got this last week and we're doing through August 15th please go do that. Um but but that we have a a a part in there that says preferred language and then that would be so that um everything gets sent in English but if you have a preferred language of Spanish or Somali or um Arabic then that would be the language that we'd also receive that in. Um and then it's also that you have the right to an interpreter for important meetings about your child. Um, and so that might be an IEP meeting, that might be um behavioral meeting, that might be, you know, um it's a lot of different things, but um but that's the that's the that's the gist of it. Um and then the language access will also have resources. And so we'll have staff guidance around how and when to use um professional interpreter services, how and when to use translation services. We'll have definitions of what the difference between an interpreter is versus a translator. You know, so interpreting is an oral language. Um and then the translations is the written language of the of the document. Um we'll also have uh guidance around uh um when to use our digital to translations tools. So right now um our website is able to translate most of the information that we have there um into eight different languages right now. Um and so there's there's digital tools there, but that wouldn't be something you would use an for an IEP or for a legal document. um that's more for maybe an open house and things like that. Um and then we'll have uh staff guidance around how and when to use AI translations, how to um effectively work with um uh multilingual families. How do you write in plain language so that when you're using AI translations and things like that that it that it actually is more effectively communicating your message than if you use complex words or things that don't get translated um in literal languages. Um, and then part of that too is that a lot of our languages that our families speak are um oral in nature, M or Somali. And so, you know, the best practice there would be that that's not we're not going to translate that information, right? Because um well, it's better delivered in a interpreting situation. Um, and then from that, we would be uh training our staff both with in-person workshops and uh you know, step-by-step guidelines and best practices of how to do that. Um, I think I'd finish with the the language access plan is has members of several teams. So, communications is a part of that. Student support services is a part of that. And then adult uh education is also part of that. And so, uh, we've got about a team of like se six or seven people who are sort of working to put this together. Um, and like I said, we're hoping to have this maybe ready for October or November for you all. Um, and then every two years it would be um up to be to be re re uh revoted on or or reapproved. So with that I would open it up to questions and then I can put my glasses back on so I can see you all. >> Thank you Sean. Does anybody have any questions? >> Uh I do. So thank you very much Sean. Um you had mentioned that our website currently is translatable into eight different languages. Um, but I think Kelly, you had said at a meeting earlier that we have like 85 languages spoken by students in our district, something like that. >> So, what do we do for the other like 77 languages? >> Well, that's a good question and that's where this sort of comes into play, right? So we have our top top eight languages in which we translate on our website and things like that in all of our communications. And then when when through this this is when you'd maybe call language line or we would use inco um international which is the vendor that we use for translations who can then um do maybe testing materials or um be you know um legal documents, IEPS, you know things like that. And so um that really falls a lot more under our multilingual services. um umbrella of things. Uh the nine languages or eight languages we kind of go back and forth. That's through communication. That's for the mass communication. Um and so if people request it and they and they do it, we're required by law to to provide this information in a language they can they prefer. >> Okay. And did the state provide any um support for districts, resource support for districts doing this? >> No. Okay. No, >> just just wanted to make sure. >> I was just making sure to um with with Dr. Hickeyi here. But yeah, no, I mean this is this is I think what I would say to you um Simmyi is that this is work we should be doing. That's how I I believe this. So this is a state mandate, but we also should be providing this information for families to be able to engage with them in the language that they understand and best best know how to engage with their child's education. >> And so we've been doing a ver a variant of this for probably longer than I've been on the board. Correct. >> I would assume so. >> Yeah. Um, and so how much incremental work is it for us to be in compliance with the state versus what we've already been doing? >> It's documentation, like I said. So, we've been doing most of this work. I don't think we're creating anything here. Um, we're just documenting what we're doing. Um, I do think that some of the procedures and things like that are going to help to to solidify with staff. You know, the these are the processes and the procedures that we all stand by and support. But I think that I don't believe that there's anything new that we have to do to create this plan. I think it's just putting it all together in a coherent way for people to understand. >> That's it. Thank you so much, Sean. Anybody else have any questions? >> Yeah, I have a quick question. How difficult is it to find interpreters for some of those languages that are, you know, with more newer immigrants or less common? And does it delay services ever like IEP meetings or anything when we can't find interpreters quickly? Go ahead. >> I'll do my best to answer that question having only worked here for three weeks. Um, but I think that that's part of the reason why we've selected a number of specific vendors because they have access to those languages that are most relevant to our families and we have a number of um relevant vendors so that they can quickly access resources and interpretation services in languages that we need quickly. So Sean talked about Inkco, Inkco, >> Inco International. We use Language Line and then we use University Language Services. >> Yeah. So hopefully between those three vendors we would be able to get any language. Language Line honestly has I I've never come across a language that Language Line did not have, which is pretty awesome. Um so that's always a good resource. And then obviously our goal is to provide in-person interpretation services in all ways that are possible. And then in the event that we need something specific using some of those other platforms. >> Yeah. And and I I also think that sometimes we run into situations if maybe multiple schools have an open house or or or um conferences on a single night. So then we would use a little bit from language line a little bit from university language uh university and then um inko also has translation services as well as as translation. So that's why we have multiple um vendors is so that we don't have to delay services and things like to people. And the only thing I'd add to that is next week we are actually rolling out to all of our schools a specific iPad that will act as um the on demand interpreter and it's a person that we tried it person that comes on it's like a FaceTime call and so each school will have an iPad that can go like it'll be in the office and as soon as a family comes in it there will be a sign and then it it was probably 30 seconds before someone came on in a language that was pretty obscure. it wasn't like you know Spanish where mo most of our families. So um so all of our schools will have that and like we said we strive for that in person but um the face to face has gotten really great. So this is like uh you make the call or whatever and then you say I need a speaker of like I don't know Armenian, right? >> I can't even tell you how many there was. >> They bring like an Armenian speaker on the >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Yes. So, it's like a a human person, not an AI person. >> Not Not that we know of. >> It was a human that came on and we were like, "We're just testing this out." She's like, "Oh, okay. What do you think?" You know, so >> Okay. And so then the families speak can speak their preferred language to this interpreter who will then communicate in English to school staff. >> It's very similar to what you see in hospital systems. Um, if you see like the rolling iPads, it's just like that. And so for the cost of something like that, is that like just an embedded like a we pay, you know, X dollars per school year or X dollars per month or is it like X dollars per interaction or how does that how does that hit our budget? >> Lang language line is by the minute wi-i which which the 247 is is great because that's a minute to minute. Um I think so when we get into the the personal interpreters it's it's blocks of time. It's by the hour I believe. And then the the translations um if if it were using inco for those things um that becomes per the document. So it's it's a word count. >> All of these sorry >> no no sorry >> um all of these interpreters are like certified interpreters. It's not like I mean like I I know when I was a kid like I and I I know this still happens where children will end up going to the doctor and interpreting for their parents and it's but we don't like we would never do anything like that or we don't try to. So that's a great comment and that's what we're that's what this is getting away from, right? We don't want children to have to interpret medical or educational things with their with their with for their families. And so yes, they are all all certified interpreters and and translators who do this work and you know and that's where some of the AI guidance and some of our websites I mean because you know we you know that's AI and and so context matters right. Uh, I think that when AI or or Google Translate, they're going to translate word to word. When you're interpreting or you're translating information, the context is what matters. And so that's that's why these interpreters and these translators are are, you know, know how what they're doing, right? I mean, they're certified. >> I think maybe just to close by saying that the scale of our work in terms of interpreting and translations has changed. there are more more languages being spoken, but it really is no different than when I was a principal or a teacher and you had families that needed to access an interpreter for conferences or part of open house. That that service was always available. Um, and now it's just making sure that we uh train our staff so they know what tools we have so that families can access the information they need related to education. >> Okay, thank you. Okay, on to 5.0 and that is our information items. We do have one this evening and that is 5.1 first reading of proposed policy changes and that will be presented by Julie Nielsson, superintendent. >> Thank you. Uh this evening I'm bringing forward nine policies and these policies are actually all schoolboard related. Um our board policy committee met um I believe last week and reviewed the policies and made any recommendations in the way of changes. So this evening I'm going to walk through the nine policies being brought forward this evening. policy 203, you're going to see in that policy some updated legal references. Um there is the removal of section 4, meetings of the school board. Um as well as um knowing that uh there is a lot of information that's defined by statute and that it's not part of the um model MSBA policy 203. As I move into 203.1, 203.5, and 203.6, Six, the consensus from the uh board policy committee is that we take a look at those and move uh information from those policies into a procedure. Um two of them there is no MSBA model policy and 203.6 consent agenda. Um it really is better suited just as procedures. So you will see that 203.1, 203.5 and 203.6. We're looking at combining those into a pro procedural form that the board would need to discuss. Policy 205, open meetings and closed meetings. Um, in that particular policy, there were updates to uh grammar and legal references. In policy 206, again, the very same grammar and legal reference updates. Policy 207, public hearings. Let me just page through here. Policy 207, public hearings. Um there are some grammatical and legal updates to that policy as well. Policy 208 um again updates to grammar and legal references and policy 209 which is our code of ethics. Um there are some legal updates and there were some formatting changes um just in the way of some of the capitalization. And so this evening um I am bringing these forward on behalf of behalf of the policy committee and opening it up to any board members for any questions or comments. and I think they're best given back to board members since these are the policies that board members um really support and work under. Thank you. >> Okay, Dana, did we have anyone sign up for public comment? Okay, board members, any questions or comments? >> Yeah, I got one here. Uh so in 203, is it true that we suspend Robert's rules of orders during our workshop meetings? So, can you explain which rules we were suspending specifically? We still call motions and second motions in a workshop. So, I'm guess I'm curious to know what that is. >> I think historically it has been that we don't sit down and do a formal when they do presentations, they're not addressing chair shorts, board members, that kind of a thing. It's just been a less formal uh practice. >> So, this is really speaking to formality versus rules >> in pra in practice. That's my observation. >> I'm not sure that that tracks with the observations I've had since Okay, fair enough. Do you have something you want to add? >> So, in our formal board meetings, I would generally call We have not done this. Um, I tried to go back to it at that one meeting where you have two minutes to speak and then I would call another board member. That was was is what happens at our formal board meetings. This one it would be like Sime asked those questions. There was no time limit. Then Melinda went into No, but but then Melinda asked questions and then back to Simmyi. And in a formal board meeting, if Simmyi spoke and then Melinda spoke, it would not go back to Simmyi unless >> all other board members have had an opportunity. So there's not that formal I would call on each board member to speak. >> Okay. So like a pro and a con. >> Correct. >> Yes. >> Okay. So my other question was kind of answered because so we're going to consolidate three of these policies into a procedure. Is there anything that we will lose from our governance role as schoolboard members by having these policies put into a procedure? >> We would not because they're technically a procedure right now. we just list it as a policy versus a procedure. There really isn't anything in there that would change as having it as a procedure versus a policy. >> Okay, makes sense. Uh and then so I understand that there's this time, place, and manner procedure. Which policy specifically does that pertain to? Was that 206 or 207? Um, it was originally attached when the board first created that, it was originally attached to policy 206. And then policy 207, um, if I remember correctly, policy 207 references that underneath a general statement of policy, but when it was first created, uh, gosh, I remember five years ago, four or five years ago, it was attached to policy 206, uh, because procedures then are posted online underneath, uh, board policy. So at that time it was listed uh procedure uh 206. >> Okay. So uh I've had some people reach out to me and ask about this specifically. There are people who wish to be able to see the public comments to the board while we have our meetings. And so I I read through the rationale for why we don't do that and some of that makes sense. However, I think it would be prudent of us to maybe reconsider that if people come to speak to the board and they're following the the procedure to speak about things that are specific to the school board or to the school district and speaking to the school board, not on behalf of community or trying to solicit some opinion, then I think we should allow those to be made public. And when say when chairws gives the like the opening pre the preface, right? So, you're going to go through and say, "We're not going to allow this. We're not going to allow this." You could have that as part of that statement, and we don't want you to come up here and speak to the camera. You're speaking to the school board. And then we would be able to have those schoolboard meetings or the the public comments to the school board during a business meeting, as an example, available to the public. And should someone violate that and it needs to be edited, well, that's a different a different discussion. So I think that that's something we ought to think about >> and that is something that since we are bringing those other procedures forward that would be the time that that wouldn't fall under this discussion for policy because it's not actually in the policy that we don't do it as procedure. So that is definitely something that when we bring the rest of these forward for a procedure that we can definitely add. when we consolidate the 20.15 and >> we can also discuss that at that time because that would fall under that versus when we're discussing policy right now but we can add it in there definitely. >> Very good. Thank you. >> Any other comments or questions regarding the policies? Okay, then oh my goodness, we will move on to 6.0 and that will be reports and comments. Um, we'll start with Superintendent Nielsen. >> And once again, I want to make sure that we hold this meeting until at least 6:30. I was going to say seven. You're lucky. Um, all right. Reports from Superintendent this week. Uh, we are in full swing. And you know how the end of the year there's the countdown. I just read something that there should be like the count up or the countdown to the start of school. And I would just ask us like how many people do a countdown until the kids come on December 1st? Well, if you were, there are 26 days until students show up. That is counting Saturdays and Sundays. And that is with all of them returning on September 2nd. And we know that the full fleet, all of them aren't coming back until September 3rd, right? Because we have testing on that first day. Um, our targeted services and extended school year opportunities for our students who qualify for special education uh wrapped up last week and our kids club programming will continue through August 22nd. Um, our leaders have been busy. Uh someone asked me in the community like is it a slow time for you? And I said no my class of kids are back when the leaders are back. We are all on. And so just in this last week we had a welcome back uh system leader meeting. We had a dayong safety retreat and that dayong safety retreat was filled with everything from reviewing the bullying policy to harassment to um sex trafficking. one of our SRO's presented on sex trafficking to a whole host of other opportunities around crisis and making sure that um safety is a high priority in our school district. Um we had training around our new data warehousing system and we can't wait to show it off to the board what we're going to be able to do with data boards and graphs. Um give us a little more time and we will be able to really throw some really cool things at you. And I say that because much of our staff time was spent trying to put graphs together. And now with this new program called Edgeclimber, which is one of our pieces of big work this year, it will really support what we're doing with kids when they get it and what we're doing with kids when they're not quite there. And so please stay tuned for more information around that. But uh both our elementary and secondary leaders were in full days of training asking good questions having a lot of ahas being able to look at attendance discipline from multiple angles. So just an incredible uh data warehousing system. Um on Monday, August 18th, which is just a little more than a week away, we welcome new staff along with our year two and year three teachers back to our um soash co- academy. We call those teachers our P2s and P3s. If you hear that little acronym, probationary year 2 and probationary year three. We will, however, have our brand new teachers all in the auditorium by themselves. So, we'll get to zone in on anyone who is new to South Washington County Schools. And then, um, next, we are engaged in upcoming parades for our communities we serve. Uh, Newport will be this Saturday. We're looking forward to that. We are number seven in the lineup. I always like when we're at the beginning. Um, St. Paul Park will be the 15th. And then we round out our community parades with Woodbury being on August 24th, the day before everybody ramps up to come into work on the 25th. And then finally, um, and the board will hear more, but just the construction update. It's a little bit messy and a little bit all over, but we are definitely moving along. And at system leaders this week, we had the opportunity to watch some um drone footage of the construction and really just in a really short period of time how the space has already been transformed. But I would want the board to know and our community to know that um while we are so excited and passing this bond uh meant a lot for our students, we're going to go through some messy times and some tough times, maybe some noise of drilling and digging and all of the other things that come with that. Um, but we really believe that it's going to be great for kids when it's all done. And so with that, um, those are the items I have for this week. Thank you. >> Thank you, Julie. Um, board members, do you have any upcoming events that you would like to share with the board? >> Not an upcoming event, but I mentioned to Jake, so just a shout out to community ed. I went and um took a look at some of the classes that were going on, a theater class, an art class, and then uh went to a schoolie event and was so impressed with how many collaborators come into that from the community, the nature center, the 3M wizards. It was it was just wonderful. >> And we do have some upcoming, correct, Jake? When are the Do you know when the >> Yes, they're starting to wrap up. >> Okay. >> Okay, perfect. Okay. 7.0 is our future meeting dates and that is August 21st. Um it is a schoolboard business meeting here at the district service center at 6 pm and then September 4th is a schoolboard workshop meeting also here at the district service center at 6 p.m. With that 8.0 And we are adjourned.