What chance? winning. [Music] I don't know. [Music] Good evening. It is Thursday, May 22nd, 2025 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. Midawakington means dweller of the spirit lake. Our first item on the agenda is roll call. Dana. Luis Hines here. Orion Clark here. Sharon Vanlair here. Eric Tesner here. Melinda Dos here. Smi Patnneak here. Katie Schwarz here. 2.0 Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand. I pledge algiance 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 our agenda. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. Moved by Sharon, seconded by Lu. Luis, any comments? All those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. Okay. 4.0 is comments to the board. At this time, individuals may speak to the schoolboard on any item relating to South Washington County School. The board will not respond to or discuss your comments. Vulgarity, character abuse, or specific complaints identifying staff, students, or task force members will not be permitted. The superintendent may be asked to prepare a future response to your concerns. Each speaker is permitted to speak for up to three minutes in total. The school board will allow up to three speakers per topic. At the three minute mark, the microphone will be turned off and we will move on to the next speaker or next agenda item. We do have several Consent items are considered routine and non-controversial by the school board and will be approved by a single motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items. Prior to this meeting, board members have had the opportunity to review each of these items and may request that any item be moved to an action item for individual consideration. That has not happened this evening. So, can I get a motion to approve? So, move. Second. Motion by Sharon, seconded by Eric. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. 6.0 information items. We do not have any this evening. We will move on to 7.0 and that is our action items and we do have three this evening. We will start with 7.1 and that is proposed policy changes and that will be presented by Julie Nielsen, superintendent. Thank you. Thank you. Can you hear my mic? Maybe it's just a little soft right now. We'll get it going. Um, this evening I am here uh to present the policies for a final reading and approval. Um, our board policy committee members reviewed the policies and made recommendations for board information and subsequent action. And as was shared tonight, uh, we know that prior to even coming to our board committee that um, a lot of work has gone into policies. Um secondly, policies were reviewed at the May 8th workshop meeting with questions and discussion occurring and in addition at that time we did have some community input. This evening I am bringing forth for approval policy 102.1 racial equity and inclusion 405 veterans preference 406 public and personnel data 408 subpoena of a school district employee 412 travel and expense reimbursement 416 drug and alcohol testing and 908.1 indigenous land acknowledgement. Um and as a reminder that portion um and that policy was created it was pulled out of the 102.1 racial equity and inclusion policy. So this evening I am asking for approval on those policy. Can I get a motion to approve? No move. Second. Motion by Sharon, seconded by any comments. I got a couple comments if you don't mind. Um I'll make this brief. I'm opposed to 1021 and 9081. Um it's not because I'm opposed to um equity. It's not because I'm opposed to uh inclusive environments. certainly not quite the opposite. Um the both of these policies or neither one of these policies or rather gets us to where we want to be. I believe that in in this school district um along with other school districts, our ultimate goal is is to uh to unify our student body ultimately to unify our society around a common goal. the the pervasive um obsession I guess you could say with racial identification is not going to get us there. This these policies continue to propel that. It is heavily based in critical race theory which is adopted out of Marxism. That is a that is that is a pure fact uh of what these policies are based in and as a result I cannot get on board with these. I understand the importance of teaching a multitude or or a a variety of of different cultures to all the students and I support that heavily. Um, but the constant, like I said, the constant emphasis on on race and this particular person needs this because of their race and this particular person needs that because of their race is not going to get us to a unified place where we can all surround ourselves with an education that will be conducive to success for our students in the future. as I I'm not going to go through the number of clauses in in 1021. I believe that that some of them certainly set the stage in my opinion for uh potentially lowering standards so that we're not uh expecting out of students their ultimately what they can produce. uh things can be set aside, you know, for the um under the guise of, you know, that's not um that doesn't fit within my culture, that doesn't fit with in within my ethnicity. Uh and I and I it's not going to propel these students to greatness, which they can all achieve. As far as far as 9081, I understand human history and anybody that knows anything about human history understands that it's complex. This policy oversimplifies it. It's interesting to me and fascinating to me that in in the 21st century we we write policies that look at human history through the lens of 21st century abundance and prosperity. In the in the 19th century when many of these things were going on and these human this human strife was was rampant in this country. Much of the strife was created by the need for human survival. And I'm not ex I'm not excusing atrocities that were committed, but certainly atrocities were committed by all different uh members of of different groups. And I and I think that this type of policy really discounts and and fails to recognize that those individuals in that society at that time were simply trying to struggle to survive. We have the luxury of being able to look back and judge those individuals and those people and those groups of people through the lens of the abundance that we all live in now. And I don't think it's proper to do so. And I also don't think it's conducive to meeting the goals that we wish to meet moving forward in our school system, in our society at large. Eric, per procedure, that is your three minutes. So, if you could wrap up, please. I'll wrap up. The the land acknowledgement says that or at least it implies that the land is not ours. I don't I don't know what ours means, but that it belongs to the Dakota people. Fair. I'm curious as to whether or not anybody did any research to determine whether or not where or who the land belonged to before the Dakota people were here. But I digress. What's more interesting to me is the fact that it implies that the land, I guess, was was stolen or taken uh through ill means, which maybe it was. If so, what's to stop us from simply giving the land back? Then, if we're going to use shallow words and we're going to um make the implication or or push the implication that the land is not ours, let's stop using shallow words, then let's put our money where our mouth is. It struck me when I first heard it and it's never really left me for that reason. I appreciate the time. Any other Yeah, I have a couple things I'd like to say, too. Um, so I understand the viewpoints of the folks that spoke on both sides of the issue. Um, I can understand and appreciate both perspectives. Um, I just think that this is misguided and we're putting ourselves at risk by doing this. We have an executive order that was passed by our president. We run the risk of having that come back to us in federal funding. And maybe that's not a large percentage of our funding, but given the imminent financial circumstances we're going to find ourselves in in the next couple of years, it's prudent to think that through first. Second, there is not a reference or standard MSBA policy for these. That means that we are adding this explicitly. Uh and that means it really is serving a political statement to support and advance a political ideology that by definition kind of makes this indoctrination. And I feel that that is anothetical to a classical liberal education. That's just my view. Uh it's actually a lot of people's view. It's a that's a view shared by people of all races and all colors and creeds and everybody. There's a lot of people who feel that way in our community to be fair. Uh so, you know, when I say that we should pull politics and political bias out of our school system and focus on the mission of educating kids for success, these are exhibits A and B, both of these policies. This is where I'm coming from. It's not that I'm against some of the things that are said. It's just what we're what we're doing is we're imparting a political view. It's a political viewpoint that is not shared by everybody. It's not shared by everybody in our community. So, it's it's just it's just really not right. And additionally, the data speaks for itself. The achievement gaps that are that we have now existed before this policy was put in place. They exist now, and I suspect I know that they'll probably they will exist in the future because this these policies do not get to the root cause of the problems. So it's it's just not going to solve the actual problems we do have with racial harm, which we had an incident today I'm aware of. So what that ultimately means is we're going to see more of this. It's just exacerbating a problem, not actually solving a problem. And that's the issue I have with this. Okay. Um so to that end about the political thing, uh some of you guys are going to know this, some of you will support this, and many folks watching this or listening will not know this. Um, but this is really part of this thing called a dismantle movement. I'm not sure how many folks here are aware of the dismantle movement or what that really means. But within education circles, we typically hear this as transformational education or culturally relevant or culturally responsive teaching. Uh, at face value, that sounds great. Um, what this really does though is it espouses kind of an illiberal principle that undermines young people's education. In my view, uh, this can true uh, knowledge acquisition, maturity, citizenship, Um, this corruption of learning affects all kids from all races and all backgrounds. It's not something that's specific to one group or another. Um, this is especially damaging to vulner vulnerable children who don't have the the proper adult support structures at home. Um, it allows people to be easily captured by these alluring critical social justice theory type of things. And ultimately, it just puts people into boxes. It's about oppression. It's the power struggle of the oppressors and the oppressed. It's the black and the white. It's the rich and the poor. It's the conservative or the liberal. It's it's divisive group identities. And these are the things that we should not be advocating for in our schools. We should be trying to get away from that so that we don't have these problems going forward. And that's the viewpoint I'm taking. So, some might ask me, and I know I'm almost at time, but I got about a minute left. Um, where does this movement originate? Well, Paulo Fier, if you guys are familiar, is a Brazilian Marxist educator who taught at Harvard uh and also served um on the World Council of Churches. So, kind of some irony here is that's a Catholic liberation theology movement who taught religion through a Marxist lens and that has worked its way into our public education system. So, one might say we're teaching. Kind of interesting actually. uh his book the pedagoguy of the oppressed is saturated with the same narratives that we find in these these policies the inescapable I'm quoting now the inescapable and structural or systemic oppression racism and equity struggles so this ideology has been central to the types of teaching teacher training programs that we have in the United States um this has been going on for several decades now and it's worked its way now into our K through2 with our critical ethnic studies curriculums and these other things that are coming down towards our children. And as kind of a a consequence, American test scores, academic achievement, the pursuit of academic excellence has been in decline. Ryan, you are at four minutes. So, if you could please wrap up. Well, that's a perfect way to end it now, isn't it? So, I don't think we should be doing this. Um, it's just it's just not right. And that's why I'll leave it at that. Any other comments? Okay. Yeah. Oh, oh, yeah. We're getting ready. They know I disagree with all of this, but equity and inclusion is something that all students should have access to. The 1964, somebody mentioned that civil rights um legislation has been challenged for years. Look at Brown versus the Board of Education. Why do you think we have these rules in effect taking effect in our country? And you want to talk about a country, it's gone to hell in a hand basket if you ask me. All of our our constitution is being challenged executive order after executive order. But that has nothing to do with that. We are here in Washington County in district 833 to provide a a public education for a super education for our kids. I have been in this district for 50 years and I'm telling you this uh policy all of these policies that have we have we have honed them we have made them uh I don't know to the point I I am I'm really upset to the point where we have um enhanced our ability go to some of these schools and watch the Mung we went to the Mung um today the African the it's not the kids it's the adults that need to get a handle on themselves and do something about what what's going on in the schools if you got children in the schools fine some of them don't all these people that are talking about this crap some of them don't even have kids in our districts they send them to private schools get over to private school and raise hell over there not here this is not the place so I'm I'm saying that this policy James McGee worked on this policy the whole committee worked on this policy and I don't know what people you're talking about that uh our challenge is yes we may have some dis but we don't have to dis we can disagree professionally but with at the end of the day it's for all of the children not just your constituents that are feeding you this bunch of bull that about our our schools is crazy it is crazy and the indigenous people the Native Americans They were here. They are stewards of this land. And yes, they were this land was taken from them violently. Just like we were taken from our country violently. And so don't tell me about white privilege. You don't walk down the street and somebody tells you or you're driving while black. Don't tell me you have experienced any of that. We have. And so we're fighting for our rights and our privileges just like you. Done. Thank you, Sharon. Any other comments? I just want to say I'm part of the policy committee and I fully support this and until racism doesn't exist, which it does. I believe we need a policy to protect all students. Um, whatever color they are, um, it's very important. Um, equity and inclusion is not just about race either. It's about everything. If you've ever had a kid that gets speech services, special ed services, even AP services, that's equity. Um, but you know, racial equity is so important. Um, until you actually go in our schools, talk to all of our students, realize there's racism still in our schools. There's racism everywhere in our country, throughout the world. There was an incident just today. Um, it is so important for us to continue to protect our students and make sure that every student feels safe in school. Thank you. Any other comments? We see anything? Yeah. So, you know, at the workshop, you know, I mentioned um a couple instances where my own students were um treated in ways that I don't think all students are treated, right? And so, obviously, I support this policy and I have for a long time. You know, we have great racial disparities in this district and it's not just, you know, white students versus black students. You know, you can look at you can map out lots of different students, lots of different ethnicities, and you can find that there are a lot of students who are not performing the way that we would want them to perform, right? And so, while we have these disparities, you know, when I was talking to Julie earlier, she mentioned something about looking at the disparities and admiring them, right? Like, we can't just look at them and be like, "Oh, we have disparities. it will change. We have to actually act, right? There's no point in uh in looking at these racial gaps, whether it's between black students and white students or um Indian students and white students or Indian meaning Indian-American, not n notative. Um you know, whatever it is, and saying, "Well, okay, that's just how it's going to be. um if we don't take some sort of action, I just don't know how we fix anything. Not choosing, choosing not to act is also an action and I think it's an unacceptable action. Smi, how would this policy achieve those? So, you know, I don't actually know, right? Because I'm not in management and I'm not the one who's going to be doing the the data and the work of we govern the district, right? Brian, this is Simey's time. You had you you had your time. Simei is making her comment. I can ask a question. Sure, you can. Uh, and you're welcome to ask that to Julie because Julie and I had a conversation about that earlier today. Um, I don't know all the solutions. I'm not in management and as as board members, we set the policy, right? Our job is governance. The the action of administration is management. And we know statistically, the Texas School Board Association has done a ton of research on this. When board members get involved in management decisions, student outcomes decline. So, I have zero interest in getting involved in management decisions because I have zero interest in watching student outcomes decline. At any rate, all I'm going to say is I'm in support of this policy. I'm in support of the indigenous land acknowledgement. I was able to go to the um senior uh graduation ceremony for our native students and it was a wonderful thing to experience. I'm so glad that I was invited and um when I you know it's sort of it's celebration season and being at the I was at the park awards last night. I was at the Woodbury Senior Awards earlier this week. Being going to plays, going to sporting events, going to concerts and being able to watch how our students are so excellent in so many ways. Um I cannot imagine voting on in a way that would somehow dim any one of our students shine. That's it. Any comments? I feel bad if I don't comment now. Um, but it's um it's going to be short and sweet. So, inside each of our schools after results coming from testing, those disparities are looked at and plans are made as part of the second group. As I'm taking a look at this and and you know thinking back to my teaching career, we talk over and over again about personalizing teaching and taking that back and how can we possibly do that if we don't actually see children. And part of this policy to me is just saying see me for who I am. Thank you. I said this policy to me is just making sure that that we see students for who they are. Okay. All those in favor? I I opposed. I motion passes. Okay. We will move on to 7.2 and that is the resolution placing an assistant principal on unrequested leave of absence and that will be presented by Abby Baker, executive director of human resources and operations. Good evening, Chair Schwarz, members of the school board, and Superintendent Nielsen. Tonight, I will present on a resolution placing the assistant principal on unrequested leave of absence. The following is the resolution to place an assistant principal on unrequested leave of absence effective at the end of the 2024 2025 school year. The assistant principal received written notice of the proposed placement on ULA on April 25th, 2025. The assistant principal was provided the opportunity to request a hearing over the placement on unrequested leave within 14 days of receiving the notice. The district met all contractual obligations to allow the board to take final action regarding the unrequested leave. Administration recommends approval of this resolution. Can I get a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Motion by Sharon, seconded by Sammy. Any comments or questions? Okay, Dana, can I get a roll call vote, please? Louise Hines, yes. Ryan Clark, yep. Sharon Vanlier, yes. Eric Tesler, yes. Melinda Dos, yes. Smi Fetnak, yes. Katie Schwarz, yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Then on to 7point theory and that is release of long-term substitute teaching contracts and that's also presented by Abby Baker, executive director of human resources. So, in compliance with Minnesota statutes, we are required to terminate the teaching contracts of South Washington County Schools long-term substitute teachers. A long-term substitute, by definition, is one who worked all or part of the school year replacing a specific teacher who has return rights to their position. The contracts of the long-term substitutes must be terminated. Failure to terminate these contracts would result in the district allocating two teachers in each affected position as the regular teachers exercise their contractual right to return from leave. Administration recommends approval of this resolution. Can I get a motion to approve? Moved. Second. Motion by Sharon, seconded by Melinda. Any comments or questions? Okay, seeing none, Dana, can I get a roll call vote? Ryan Clark, yes. Sharon Vanlair, yes. Eric Tesmer, yes. Melinda Doss, yes. Smi Pa, yes. Luis Hines, yes. Katie Schwarz, yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Okay, we'll move on now to 8.0 and that is our superintendent report. Thank you. I think Simmy did a little bit of a job, but it is um the craziest, busiest time of year. Um and I think I've shared with board members that the calendar was stacked with award and uh various celebrations from AVID. Uh all of our high schools have an avid celebration. And this year I think something new. They chose student speakers. And so to listen to the student speakers and the impact of the relationships. Uh a student today defined success um for her education and what's lifting uplifting her to college as the opportunity to have students in her class that she could lean on that could support her that could pick her up when she was crying. um that could help her manage um the workload on a day-to-day basis as she dealt with multiple things at home and what was happening at school. So, just really our AVID celebrations have been a highlight throughout this week. In addition, as Simmy shared, uh all three of our high schools have had senior award programs. Um and really just to share with the community and the board how grateful we are for our incredible community, the amount of scholarship dollars our students have received right from within our own community. Uh we have a student uh from Woodbury High School and there are many students across the board that received the trifecta. That's what they called it. The Wallen scholarship, the Dell scholarship, and I forget the third scholarship, the Toer. Thank you. I gave that out last night. The Toer scholarship. So the trifecta that led to um almost $50,000 and in addition to scholarships from the university, so this student could go to school debt-free. Um, so really just amazing, but really a thank you to our community members. Um, we probably had 25 to 30 uh different um, businesses represented last night during scholarship time. Also, just to share, um, we had another successful employee recognition banquet. As I've shared, it's my favorite family reunion of the entire year. We recognize our years of service. Uh, we recognize um, our allstars. And then finally, we recognize our retirees. And this year, um, I would be remiss not to share a 40-year retirey of South Washington County Schools and Kelly Fensky. I know Kelly is off having a private party. We did happen to stop over there earlier just to say hello and congratulations again. Uh, but Kelly Fensky was our most senior teacher um, putting in 40 years in South Washington County Schools with many of those being um, at Crestview Elementary School. Um, just a reminder to the community and the board, we have graduations coming up from NextPE and Pathways, our online um, all three of our comprehensive high schools as well as our alternative high school. So, those dates and times are out on our website. Um, I think I shared, maybe I didn't, our PD day is tomorrow, so it's a no student contact. Our teachers will be finalizing their redact training. Um, our nutrition services, bus staff, office staff, pair professionals will all be engaged in professional development. And then finally, June 4th is our last day of school for students. And it will be a sad day as uh the hallways come down and we prepare for summer work and then we'll ramp back ramp back up for August. Thank you. Thank you, Julie. 9.0 is our future meeting dates. June 12th, 2025 is our school board workshop meeting here at the district service center at 6 p.m. Then June 26th is our schoolboard business meeting, also here at the district service center at 6 p.m. Then we are on to 10.0 No. And that is a closed session pursuant to Minnesota statute 13D.03 just one in July. Labor negotiations. Can I get a motion to move to close session for the purpose of labor negotiations? Second. Moved by Eric, seconded by Simmyi. Any comments? All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. We don't come back. Remember, we just have to come back to adjourn. Yeah, we just have to come back to We don't have to come back up here. No, we literally stand in the back. I got to come up there because our You want to make sure you try your bones, right? Are you going to graduation? What were you saying? Make any of them. I got I went to graduation last Friday. Oh my look at it and go over the next day. Graduation back home. Our graduation is next Friday, right? No, Saturday. Saturday. And then we we got all these. I am You got to be a little bit graduated. Texas. Okay. All right. [Music]