00:00:06,800	Good evening. I’m Dan Eastgate, president of the Bismarck School Board. It’s 5:15 on Monday, November 25th. I call this meeting to order. Welcome and thank you for joining us both here and also online. You can find her agenda and follow along online on the school board tab at BismarcksSchools.org. Mr.

00:00:25,600	Sher, will you call the roll, please, Mr. Eastgate here, Mr. Hager. Here, Mr. Lee, here, Mrs. Peterson. Here. Miss Presky. Here. All board members present and accounted for. Dr F Fasna, would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? Pleasure.

00:01:03,970	States of America for which Stan ation Right Justice Item 1C is the BPS mission vision and values, the BPS mission is to empower every learner to thrive. The BPS vision states together are strong relationship relationships build inclusive, collaborative and innovative environments that create agency and inspire a passion for learning, excellence, and discovery. The BPS values our inclusion, excellence, innovation, and leadership. You can also find a link in the agenda to the BPS strategic plan.

00:01:25,070	Item 2 is to adopt the agenda. What are the wishes of the board? I’ll move that we adopt the agenda. I’ll second. Motion of the 2nd. Mr. Sher. Hager? Yes. Lee? Yes. Peterson? Yes. Presky? Yes. Ey? Yes, motion passes. Item 3 is focus on success. Dr F Fast.

00:01:51,030	Uh, tonight we have several guests with us that are gonna come to the podium and talk to you about checking connect and check in check out. Both are elements of our PBIS framework, so I don’t know who’s coming up first, who’s gonna start CHS team. We’ll let you come on up first.

00:02:09,730	We have, uh, Jesse Scalzo and Miss Gina Phillips, who we’re going to talk about check and connect at CHS. Good evening. Welcome. My evening. Thank you for having us. Um, check in to Connect is a two-tier intervention that we use in high schools and um we have 4 main components of check and connect and so it is a mentorship program, so we have identified mentors in the high

00:02:29,600	schools that um have that role. It’s a 1 to 1 relationship with the students and um it is just the purpose is to stay sustain that over 2 years, um, each week as a mentor, we check the attendance, um, we check the data, so the data includes attendance, behavior, and course.

00:02:49,830	performance, so, um, like their grades, etc. um, and then at least once a week, we share that data with the students, and that is called the connect portion. So we meet with the students once a week, um, give them feedback, maybe provide interventions if they need some additional assistance, get them connected with other um adults in the building that

00:03:10,070	can help them, and then, um, at least once a month we connect with families so that they know exactly what’s going on in these meetings and kind of have an idea of Um, where the students are headed.

00:03:29,270	Um, so the mentorship pro uh training, sorry, we were trained last November by CRA and all high schools and um elementary schools were trained at CHS we currently have 23 mentors and 23 mentee students at Legacy High School they have identified 26 mentors and 23 students to go along with those mentors and at BHS there are 33 mentors and 28 students.

00:03:50,230	So we are always kind of looking for new students that need this step, um, as we move forward. So in in order to um determine which students we would, um, work with this in this program we identified them as students that were not in special ed, so our general education students we wanted to focus on freshmen, sophomores, um, students that could potentially be at risk

00:04:11,300	for dropout, but with a mentor mentor, um, opportunity hoping to keep them engaged in school. So, um, with that to identify the students, we looked if they were Not hitting that um 80% tier one target.

00:04:33,000	So if they’re attendance is below 80%, if they are failing more than 2 classes, um, if there’s maybe some sort of social emotional need that has been identified, um, those are the main things we look for to identify those mentees, um, we go through the process of the student assistance team, which is our problem solving process and the um SAT team approves the students and through that we work together to partner them.

00:04:51,970	With a mentor, um, and then in addition, the parental approval and that um, workmanship with the parents is really important. So with this, I mean, we have the connects and so it’s just kind of some of our data. This is some century only.

00:05:13,830	So when we look at centuries data connects those those those interventions that we do, so that could be family, parent meeting, that can be meeting with a kid and doing some strategies with them and those types of things. We have 397 connects and then the total minutes that we had, we had 3080 minutes.

00:05:31,430	Um, so as we move forward on we’re on to the right there, um, so currently right now this fall we have 30 5838 connects so interventions that we’re doing with kids, and then we have 200 and 2260 minutes. So what we found by doing this, these interventions and matching the minutes. We’ve seen success.

00:05:56,200	We’ve seen some, some growth in our students, so when we started with the kids we were like at 60%, a lot of them were at 50%, you know, so we’re failing two or more classes. So when we start now, as we’re looking at our data at 7. 4 % 72% and then 74%. That 14.9% that was in the summer months.

00:06:15,230	So we really providing so much of that, but that’s just how we got there. But right now in most of our kids are, you know, still at the, the, the, the lower part of the sea, you know, but we’re getting them from where they were to where they are now, so that’s, that’s really good with providing that mentorship and those strategies.

00:06:33,430	Um So here with behavior incidents, we’ve seen that fall. Now you see um behavior referrals have gone, it’s not so high it’s entry, but then on this fall we’ve seen some of that, but we got the buyback that’s still really high because a lot of our kids have attendance shoes on. Check and connect.

00:06:49,430	So they have to do buyback. So that’s where that’s up a little bit, so they do that buyback time so then they can earn the credit that they need. Um, so attendance, as we see, you know, miss classes.

00:07:07,000	So this is what’s what’s nice when we started with a lot of the same kids this year that we had last year. So now this fall, we can see that, you know, attendance has gotten better than I, you know, only really one was actually this, this first. Bart was the 2nd semester when we started the spring semester. So now this fall semester, we see the numbers are falling with, with missed classes.

00:07:27,030	So we’re we’re hoping that that will continue to grow with the kids that we have. In check and K. All right. So some of the successes we’ve had, um, obviously we meet every week with the students, so, um, we really get to know them as mentors and mentees, and we work closely with parents.

00:07:49,770	So, um, this opens a really nice communication door with parents and we’re all kind of on the same page. Um, we’ve noticed that students have felt, a better sense of belonging in our schools that they definitely can identify at least one adult in their life now that, um, is there for them, that can help them, um.

00:08:08,430	All of the interventions that we provide are trauma informed, so we have a variety of students coming at from different places in their lives and our interventions are safe and responsible for all students.

00:08:29,900	Um, we, we are monitoring that attendance and behavior and so as part of our um connect portion, that’s when we work on those strategies to improve their attendance, to approve their, um, grades and behavior, things like that. Um, we work with the families again to identify resources that the might need, whether that’s in school resources, um, changing their class schedule, things like that, or resources within the community that we might be able to provide for them.

00:08:51,670	Um, Let’s see, the data shows improvements in those tardies, unexcused absences, missed classes, um, overall in general, and I think having somebody checking on that at least once a week and kind of asking some questions and seeing if there’s a reason why and what they need has been really helpful. Um, it has also shown to have improvements in detention and suspension.

00:09:10,830	So we see those behaviors kind of going down. Um, I guess some final thoughts is that checking Connect is really good for building those relationships in our schools between the students and teachers and families.

00:09:32,170	Um, it’s working to foster that social, emotional and academic growth, um, it’s building trust and autonomy with the parents in regards to, um, you know, what we do in the school, grades, socially, emotional issues, interventions, etc. Again, we provide those resources, um, both within the school and outside the school. And then, um, this also gives us an opportunity to really figure out what the students need.

00:09:52,500	So it helps us figure out the right programming for the students since we’re getting to know them so well, um, you know, it might be that they need to move to a different tier of intervention, uh, maybe they need to go into some small groups, maybe a 504, things like that. So this helps, um, just kind of us understand the student and put them where they need to be.

00:10:10,630	Um, we’ve also found that it sparks that intrinsic motivation in the students. They, um, come to us and they want to do better, you know, and so, um, it gives us an opportunity to help them, um, and to identify those goals and steps that they need to take so that they are able to do better.

00:10:25,730	And, um, the last piece is that it helps us as mentors understand what their motivation is in school and then communicate that to teachers so that we kind of are all on the same page as to what the students need. Thank you, board members. Any questions or comments? Ms.

00:10:51,200	Presky, uh, when did this program start, um, initially? How long has it been going on? Um, we had our training in November of, um, 2023, and then we started right before Thanksgiving of last year. OK, so about a year, about a year.

00:11:11,430	And then, and is this a common program that is being um duplicated in other parts of the state, or how did you find out about it? Yeah, that’s a great question. It actually comes from the University of Minnesota, and it is a widely researched. best practice, um, tier 2 intervention, so it came to the district through, um, student services, I believe, student support services and yeah.

00:11:31,830	And then What do the, what do you hear from the teachers or the mentors that are giving their time and, um, to this. Project. I think they found that it’s really valuable because it does have that time where they, it is completely set aside for that one student, um, it’s built, built relationships with the students, um, I think it also helps in collaboration

00:11:52,870	between teachers as well, cause they can talk to each other and, um, learn to work with a student and get them exactly what they need in the classroom. I think it also given our general education teachers a really good perspective.

00:12:09,800	What happens with some of these students that struggle with socially, emotionally, you know, um, and, and it gives them the opportunity to see how they can grow from this as well personally.

00:12:26,000	So it’s really helped our teachers to help them in in in empowers them, you know, like they can do some of these 1 to 1 things with kids and, and kind of get to know them a little more personal level. So it’s been good for our teachers and teachers that are involved in this, you know. Yeah, thank you for bringing this to light.

00:12:46,570	It sounds like an amazing program and something that just highlights too, again, like the opportunities that we have in BPS to really meet the kids, students where they’re at, um, and help them succeed. So going that extra mile to help them, um, get where they need to go. So thank you very much. Board members, any other questions? I just had one quick one, I guess, for you. Um, and I agree with Ms. Presky on that.

00:13:02,070	I just love that you guys are setting up all these great mentoring relationships between educators and kids and the community members and kids. I think it’s awesome, um, and getting kids to buy in. uh, the buyback can, maybe I missed it. Can you tell me or define that for me and what that buyback period or looks like.

00:13:18,170	Yeah, so if the student has, OK, they, they missed 10 absences, right? So they, they need to earn that time back. So our assistant principals then will sign on that detention will buyback time so they can earn that, so they don’t lose credit and moving really lenient and working with kids, and that doesn’t happen cause we really want our students to.

00:13:35,100	to get the grade they need to pass ultimate goals for the graduate. And you know, so that’s that’s that buyback time, and we normally do that in our transition center at Century, and so they do that and hopefully they buy back their time for their class that they need to do extra hours and.

00:13:52,700	So normally do do their lunch periods. That’s why that buyback is kind of high during that period. Because that’s when you’re doing it doing it at lunchtime. Got you. Thank you. Appreciate that. What other questions? Thank you very much. Thank you. Now, if, uh, it works, we’ll uh invite up M S Galindo and Mr.

00:14:15,370	Fay to uh talk about check-in, check out at Miller. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening, board President would distinguished board members, Dr Fasnot, uh, Mr. um, Barnhardt. My name is Dave. I’m the assistant principal at Miller Elementary School, and I’m just going to introduce my team because they do all the heavy lifting.

00:14:44,530	So this is Maddy Galindo, our school counselor, and Tara Renner, our school’s social worker. They’re going to guide you through today’s program. Today I was tasked to go through the success of our check-in, check-out program at Miller Elementary, um, check-in, check-out is a tier two behavior intervention that really supports kids by giving them an adult, um, a positive adult interaction and also, um,

00:15:06,030	feedback throughout the day, of intervals of feedback, um, here is our 2023 and 24 numbers of check-in, check out students. You can see in October last year, we started with 9, and did the year in May with 26 students who were in check-in, checkout, um, success rate as you go through our lowest

00:15:28,500	number was 86%, which is still a fabulous number, so 86% of students that month were successful. And how we identified that is, um, if students maintain an 85%, um, we take an average every week if they maintain an 85% average for 4 weeks. That is their our success rate.

00:15:49,400	So our numbers, um, as you can see, um, it was very successful for us. Um, this is this year’s current numbers. Um, we currently have 12 in October of in our tier 2 check-in, checkout. Um, and out of our success rate was 92%. Um, we, September, we had 6 and then, um, or sorry, and then 50% were successful.

00:16:10,700	So those students that, uh, were not successful with our check-in, check out. We move those students to maybe a modified or remove them onto a different intervention where they can be successful.

00:16:27,600	These are some things that we feel like are unique to Miller or I should say, or why we’re successful with our check-in check-out program. Um, we do utilize our numbers, be we use, um, be respectful, responsible and safe. Um, we do 12, 3s versus 0 12s.

00:16:45,770	We feel like it’s kind of looking more at our positives instead of kids seeing that 0, kids also graph and are very involved with their daily averages, as you can see, they colored that. We did not, um, that is a student’s graph and so they get really excited to see where they are, um, and how they’re doing, um, and then our magic. So every time a student, um, meets that goal for the day, they get a cross off.

00:17:00,730	A letter when they get to the, you know, and when it crosses off magic, they get to choose, choose from some kind of reinforcement, and I will be honest, most of the time it’s having a lunch with an adult, getting an extra recess. It’s normally not one of those trinkets or toys. It’s kind of that interaction with that adult.

00:17:16,730	Um, Down here too is something we started this year, um, it’s identifying those feelings, so everyday we have our students identify where are you feeling? I know they kind of just look like a whole bunch of um markers on here, but our students identified, we have it listed out if they’re feeling, you know, calm, happy, sad, angry,

00:17:32,800	um, as you can see most of the time it seems like when they’re checking in, those kids are at that calm rate and the majority of the time they’re checking out and they’re feeling happy and successful, and on that one rate. So we’re starting to kind of look at that data and starting to track like.

00:17:46,200	where our kids check in and where are they check out and is it helping them so. Um, this is from the Mao students, so we put, I asked them, what do you like about check-in, checkout? Are students stayed, um, I like to get 100s.

00:18:02,530	I always do, um, and it reminds you this is from students answering these questions. So, um, I like to see the teachers. You get to cross off magic. I get to know how I’m doing throughout the day. It helps me be good. Um, I just like it. So most of the students, and we asked random students and that’s what we got. Oh, you have it.

00:18:20,170	OK, so as we looked at that versus our outcomes, we have really noticed that, um, we’ve had a change in those students that are following our schoolwide expectations. Um, we’ve had reduced rates of behavior incidents for those students.

00:18:40,470	Um, increased academic engagement and social skills or the prosocial skills and improved relationships with teachers and adults within our school building. OK. Great. The next piece we have is what we call our positive affirmations program, and this came to be last year in the 2023, 24 school year, um, sort of naturally as we were realizing that we were seeing a lot of students popping up with uh low self-esteem, lots of negative

00:19:03,130	self talk, and we felt like, uh, maybe check in check out wasn’t the right thing for them, but could we find something that would be, um, and so the reason for affirmation specifically is because research shows that there is a positive correlation between self-esteem and academic achievement, so we felt that affirmations would be

00:19:19,900	a great place to start. Um, other things that affirmations can do, um, it helps increase engagement in the learning environment. It allows students to be more likely to set challenging goals for themselves, um, higher grades, improved resiliency, um, and then fosters motivation within themselves, um, so students will come down, um, to an environment similar to how we

00:19:42,430	do check in check out, but we have a different space for them as our program is growing. Um, and they will do a little bit of journaling to start their day. So there’s an example of a journal entry up there, um, a student answered, I am grateful for.

00:19:56,230	She put my teacher, what would make today great, uh, me doing my job and then her positive affirmation was, I can make a difference. And then, um, they spend time talking with one of the adults that’s down there, breaking down the different pieces of that, um, and really, how can that help me throughout my day and what

00:20:11,230	pieces can I hold on to, um, and then on the right is an example of another affirmation, um. They, um, he chooses a new one every day and adds it to his list.

00:20:26,830	I think he’s on like his 3rd sheet, um, by now, and so we talk about his affirmation for the day and then actually go back and a lot of times we’ll reread ones that they have already identified, um, just to really build up that, um, positive self talk repertoire that they have, um, and so it’s, it’s been a really positive thing for them to do that.

00:20:44,900	Um, so some success that we have seen with the affirmations and the journaling, um, we will ask teachers typically about twice while the student is in the program, um, if they feel they’ve seen a positive change in the student, um, 100% of teachers have said yes, that they have seen a positive change with their students, um, and then we kind

00:20:59,930	of asked them to give us a rate of their improvement from starting to improve, moderate improvement up to major improvement, um, so you can kind of see that graph there that it’s encouraging to see that all teachers are seeing, um, a difference in their students’ self-esteem.

00:21:18,430	And then I got to go back, uh, from the mouth of our positive affirmation students, we kind of wanted to hear directly from them as well, what they like about doing their affirmations and their journaling. Um, so here’s a few responses we got. I like that I get to write out all of my affirmations.

00:21:33,500	I get to write about my day, and it helps me to solve my problems, um, so it’s, it’s really filled a gap that we felt needed to be filled with our, our learners, and it’s a growing program as we go along, so. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for coming in and sharing about these great programs you guys have going on at Miller. Really appreciate it.

00:21:52,170	Um, board members, any questions or comments? The staff from Miller, Ms. Peterson, I had one question. I don’t know if you guys are the ones to answer, but agreed with, um, you know, the previous comments and I think that these programs really show that you guys are taking a solutions based approach to, you know, just

00:22:08,730	increased, you know, behaviors across the district, and I’m just wondering, are you guys sharing with your peers across all the other schools like in these programs and same with kind of at this.

00:22:23,630	secondary level with Jesse and his team, just wondering, are, are you guys the only ones or have you had the opportunity to collaborate with other schools to see if these are programs that are working. We do PLCs, um, assistant principals do PLCs and we share much of this information, what we’re doing at PLCs. We’ve had sister schools come in and, and share with sister schools.

00:22:43,600	We’ve also had the opportunity to go to other schools and, and do those pieces as well. So, and then both of these team members also have PLCs where they talk about check-in, check out. I believe I might be wrong, that we’re one of the school’s few schools, or if not the only school right now that currently does, um, positive affirmations.

00:23:02,200	So we It was just something that we felt was a niche for our students to fill this past year because of some of the depression, the anxiety and that feeling of lost and loneliness. So it was a piece that we added throughout the school year last year. Thank you. And I’m glad you did.

00:23:20,270	I, I love that part in there, and I, when I saw it, I’m like that’s something staff should do every day across the district and not just the BPS but other places in the world, you know, um, the one student that you guys, um, pulled out their example, positive affirmation. I can make a difference.

00:23:34,200	You know, I mean, what a, what a cool way for a kid to have, uh, their thoughts and mindset their whole day. And some of the other ones, I was just kind of like I read through the the list they had over there, um. What was the other one? I get better every single day.

00:23:48,500	I mean, just these great things and, and I, I’ve done some research on some of these things before too, or these positive affirmations as journaling actually starts to, to change how we, how we view our own life and the world around us. So I think it’s great you guys added that in to whoever, whoever grabbed that, and that should be spread.

00:24:01,630	I mean, I’m really hoping that that’s something that we can continue to share and, and care across the district. Uh, board members, anything else? Dr F Fasnot. I just want to thank, um, Our team members are up here today, both these just please understand, again, check and connect, check in, check out every single kid needs to have an adult in their life, a

00:24:23,900	positive, caring, Compassionate adult and some of us are blessed because we get those pretty naturally, right? We get them in other places, not just in school. We get in with teams, we get them a church, we get them at home.

00:24:40,470	We get them from a family member, right? But here, it’s just being very intentional that we have to reach out to some kids and make that special connection with them, and, uh, uh, yeah, it’s a, it’s a absolutely wonderful mission that we’re doing that at all grade levels, so I applaud my people, so they’re doing great work. Thank you. Thanks very much for presenting tonight.

00:25:03,300	Great focus on success, Dr F Fasna, thanks for bringing everybody in from the schools and to your team and um sure appreciate that. Adam Flo on our agenda is public comment. The board recognizes the central role that parents play in the education of their children and support active parent involvement in the educational process.

00:25:20,900	The board’s practice of public comment reflects and aligns with policy BCBA and the spirit of its intent for classroom issues, it’s best to follow the chain of command from your classroom teacher to the principal, to the assistant superintendent and ultimately to the superintendent for district issues, please reach out to Dr F Fasnot’s office.

00:25:37,630	If you do speak tonight, we simply ask you to be responsible, be helpful, and be respectful. Our BPS students deserve to have adults model the expectations that we have for them. Groups are urged select one spokesperson. Individuals will be limited no more than 4 minutes and we’ll be notified with 30 seconds remaining to conclude the remarks.

00:25:54,900	The board will not debate issues as presented, but will take such matters under advisement. With that, please stand and approach the podium if you’d like to speak tonight. See nobody approaching the podium Public Common is now closed. On the agenda item 5 is monitoring district operations. Dr Fasnot.

00:26:24,830	Yeah, tonight we will have uh Dr Johnson, come up and present to R3 Personal development behavior. You Dr Johnson. named President Eastgate members of the board. Um, appreciate the opportunity to Talk about a topic that often gets a lot of uh conversation, um, director of student support services, uh, Danica Nelson here and her team, uh, and all the school psychologists, the counselors, the social workers and other titles along with all of our

00:26:57,100	general ed teachers and our administrators, it’s a collective effort, but again, that is founded upon the system. So sometimes we use that education needs and we talk about MTSSB or PBS and really what that means is.

00:27:18,900	What are our systems of support regarding behavior and how can we collectively um be really intentional about that work and, um, for. Today’s focus on success, I think you see some of the systems and elements that we’re putting into place and that it’s people and it’s all really based upon the relationships, the relationships with caring adults and sometimes carrying, um, just like when you go to the Dr and they say, hey, it’s

00:27:36,030	time for a booster vaccine or something like that, and you’re like, I, I don’t want that. Well, you know, this is what you need, you know. You know, don’t want to get Tetanus.

00:27:51,500	So I’ve experienced that before in terms of tough love from my parents, and that’s a good thing sometimes, so again, we’re educators, we’re going to use discipline to educate, but it doesn’t mean that kids are bad, um, but they have behavior that’s not acceptable, that we need to help educate them with.

00:28:06,900	So, as we take a look at this with behavior, I think that we need to be, first of all, really proud and happy to live in a great town, have an amazing school district that has so many personnel led by Ms. Nelson and all those, um, other folks that fall to that soon support service as we talked about. Um, we continue to do, we are, we marked ourselves making a reasonable progress, and uh you’ll see that pretty good data throughout when you look at this.

00:28:26,870	Um, we continue to work on making sure that we have consistency for major infractions, again, that’s how we document. We also know that there’s a lot of social-emotional um learning process and supports with reteaching and building up skills, running a small groups.

00:28:45,900	We, um Have done a lot of good work, but part of the reason as I visited with someone that talked about there’s a lot of history and tradition in our district. But part of the reason that we can become The best and stay the best is that we continue to invest and bring in people such as Brian Meyer from Midwest PBS who’s really helping join us in that journey

00:29:00,970	and helping share this is best practices and here’s the next work and as well as working through that. We also invest in our people, professional development, um, not only general ed teachers, but student support services, our administrators, Brad and I have sent a lot of people over the years to, uh, Midwest PBS and

00:29:17,830	they come back really learning a lot, but we also um have some people who have been in this work. And again, what’s that next work opportunities present locally, uh, Dr, uh, Don Kincaid is another individual who helps support our teams at the secondary.

00:29:35,070	He has done a lot of work there and again, that focus has been on tier 2, so you heard some of that. Um, functional behavioral assessments, really what’s driving the behavior, so that’s again work that we want to continue to uh refine how we can help support teams so that they can effectively identify and share that workload that’s needed to help identify what

00:29:51,630	students need most. Um, as we go through the data I’ll just jump through a bunch of it here quickly, but there’s a lot of green data and what that’s showing is that we’re either meeting or we’re exceeding, and when we have targets, people might say, well, why do you have a target at 85% for uh

00:30:11,300	systems work, they The research shows that if you have 80 to 85% of your students achieving something, then your system can handle the supports such as the check and connector, check in, check out.

00:30:29,970	We can do that, um, my wife’s school psychologist used to use a phrase that says you can’t triage your way out of poor Core. Same with behavioral, you need to make sure that enough students are doing the right thing so that you can meet the needs of those others, and so this is a high target and we’re exceeding it in most cases or making the reasonable progress, um, but that’s also a healthy thing for

00:30:47,170	our systems so that we can be responding to that and realizing too that even if we do a perfect job year after year, um, we have, you know, between 14 to 15% mobility so we have new families, new students coming and moving into the district too. So again, we have to reculture that.

00:31:06,430	Um, uh, bowling is, is a phrase and we can talk about that another time, but we have some common definitions on that here, but again, true bullying cases are investigated when reported, and we take that very seriously.

00:31:23,430	There’s a process here and um just really taking a look at it again, most of our students do not experience that um extreme, um, incidents that occur, uh, we take a look at the behavior incidents and we talk about that again, high percentages in the 90s at E.

00:31:43,200	mid 90s, and you see at the middle school, there’s been a little bit of a dip over the years, um, having some COVID kind of effect, maybe perhaps some students there, but also we know middle school can tend to be one of those areas where um a lot of stuff is handled um more disciplinary office versus maybe teacher redirecting a younger kid time again, that’s how you document some of that, um, and then high school, um, maybe wising up and figuring

00:31:59,770	out a little bit. Um, there’s a combination of those factors, but again, we always want our data to be accurate and be reported, so sometimes even when we see some increases, that’s not a bad thing. It just means we’re documenting that well and being able to have those conversations so we can support students.

00:32:16,330	Same thing that when you get into in school and out of school suspension. Again, um, we need to maintain the safety and security of all students and staff. So sometimes we have to apply disciplinary situation that removes a student for a day or several days from them.

00:32:39,770	typical setting that they approach and sometimes that’s how it’s in school and sometimes that necessitates being out of the building at the time, but what I’m really proud of is that our team always works to try to ensure that the learning continues and that we can support our students through that.

00:32:55,900	Um, so again, when people are taking a look, for example, you might see the out of school suspension. Again, 90 plus, high 90s, mid 90s of our students are not experiencing any form of suspension. Um, I think that’s place to celebrate, an area that we did flag with the data where we saw some increases restraint and seclusion.

00:33:17,200	And you can look at some of the raw numbers, and I know, um, several of our, our excellence of behavior, excellence, uh. Uh, sorry, the personal excellence looked at this behavior data a few uh weeks ago or a month ago, and we see an uptick in the numbers, but again, we’re still talking about a relative percentage of 1.23% of our students who are experienced this.

00:33:39,000	It’s still a very small relative number again out of 14, 137 students, only 174 experienced in that. And then you drop into some of the charts you can see, again, there’s heavy emphasis, Dr. Um F Fass night and uh Mr. Barnhart and Ms.

00:34:01,970	Nelson and Hyatt as well as others have had a lot of conversations about where is that occurring and the resources and intentionality around the early grade levels that are in elementary, that there’s some need and part of that is that we’re teaching some things that maybe in the past since would have come or had some of those social skills, but how do we do that intentionally in the work surrounding that doesn’t mean that it all goes away, but

00:34:16,900	again, it’s decreasing as we see that. We also have examples, even at the high school, I won’t. Call out individuals, but administrators talk about where year to year and Mr.

00:34:31,570	Nelson knows this, sometimes there’s some students that have some heavy needs, and we sometimes host ah students here that are in placement, and they have some really intense needs, but as they work with our staff and um we better program for them and work sometimes on medication, other elements, it helps them be successful and you sometimes cannot uh believe the improvement or the, the reduction of restraint seclusion that occurs there.

00:34:52,170	So again, um, It’s data that we have always worked with the BEA since uh several years ago about really trying to be transparent and have those honest conversations doesn’t mean that that’s not intense work. Doesn’t mean that that doesn’t affect um teachers as well as student support service personnel and administrators that are really working with those students.

00:35:08,300	So again, having that team figure out how can they program and best support the students there. Expulsions, it’s never a great situation, Dr F Fasan and I sit on almost all of those and uh we have a hearing panel that goes through there, um, but again, when we have expulsions, it’s done for the safety of 14

00:35:27,900	or 1000 other students and 100 staff members that are there, um, those aren’t taken lightly, and again, being really proud of that we don’t give up on kids’ education, there’s still a path forward um that we can figure out what we can do to allow for that student who will likely re-enter.

00:35:44,030	For our building either later that year or the following year. So again, um, Some things to be proud of, even when you’re dealing with some sticky situations. Last, uh, we talked a little bit just about how students view um conflict, and again, Self-reported, but we have high percentage of students that feel like there’s not incidents

00:36:03,700	there and um again, lastly, we end where we see most students are. Uh behaving appropriately in that tier one, just blend in on having any major issues when you’re talking about in the high and mid 90s.

00:36:25,270	That means that When you send your child to our schools, they’ll probably come to a safe environment where they’re connected with adults, connected with their peers for the most part, and if not, we’re there to try to help support those needs that um we can do to make them feel like they belong, and they feel connected so that they’re able to learn their best. So at this point, I’d stand for any questions. Board members.

00:36:42,700	Questions for Dr Johnson. Ms. Presky. Uh, I don’t know if this is the right report to collect this data, but do we collect the number of assaults on teachers or staff and um. Is that reflected somewhere if it’s not dealing with student behaviors.

00:37:06,930	Yeah, we have some incident reports that we do collect I don’t believe that we, well, I know that sorry, I don’t believe that we have that as a line in here, but we do collect that data and look at that, that’s part again, um. Anyone can fill up that incident report, um, no matter your role, and we share that periodically with staff so that they know how to fill that out.

00:37:25,470	Sometimes those results in the restraint exclusions. Obviously, but again, that doesn’t mean that. Each of those restraint seclusions was tied to an incident at that level, right? I, I, I, I kind of draw, drew that same conclusion as well that, um, it would probably be the result of that or be involved in that, but probably

00:37:46,700	wasn’t necessarily involved in each one, but, um, I guess I have a ballpark then I’d say it’s probably far less than the. Becky Lobella is the one that like. Reviewing those and Incidences and then if we need to work together. Um, if they’re related Or whatever that looks like, then we have.

00:38:06,670	this but You’ll take the lead on the. Thank you. Yep, so just for the public and those who couldn’t hear on microphone, uh Miss Nelson was recounting that uh Becky LaBella, our director of safety, um, coordinator.

00:38:30,200	She would take a look at reviewing those incidents, and again, Working with administration and if there’s any patterns identifying that, and sometimes it involves the student outcomes, but we would, uh, definitely take a look at that periodically and when we see trends, we talk about that. Thank you, Mr. Lee. Thank you, Mr. President. um, So Dr Johnson, when we look at this and we see the percentage without incidents.

00:38:54,030	What does that mean per se? Means that uh for example, if uh. 95% of the kids have, don’t have an infant, that means that they haven’t been flagged to have been someone that’s received in school suspension, 97% of our students have not received out of school, have not gotten a referral.

00:39:14,230	So again, we sometimes hear about the behavior or those that are needing to be restrained again, that’s a much smaller population than most of our students come in to school, not experiencing that. Thank you. I, and that’s kinda how I read it.

00:39:34,100	Um, I think the thing to keep in mind as a, as a district and as a, as a system is that it’s not 96%, even though there’s 96% say without incident, that doesn’t mean they aren’t affected by an incident. Um, and that’s kind of what we’ve always talked about on this board is there’s a small percentage, by and large, we have great kids and, and don’t have a lot of problems, but, um, there can be, uh, a small percentage.

00:39:53,830	that are, uh, let’s just say repeat offenders and were having trouble gaining traction and, and that can interrupt the educational process, and I think for me that’s, that’s um what I worry most about, you know, is how, um, we are empowering our classroom teachers to be able to manage their classrooms and what are, um, you know, the,

00:40:14,130	the consequences that are that are in place and are they, are they strong enough and do teachers and buildings feel supported, so that’s one thing. I, um, I continually want to focus on, and I’m not sure this, this report necessarily grasps that.

00:40:29,170	I do think there’s a lot of really good things going on around uh MTSSB and a lot of things were implementing in our schools and, and like we’ve always said, we can, we can always get better, you know, so. Appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. Lee, Ms. Peterson.

00:40:49,970	Thanks, President Eastgate, and I, I think that’s the, um, that’s the balance when I read a report like this or hear the focus on success. I, I think that it’s just continually both amazing to me to think of how many different ways that we’ve got those solutions for some of those, those behaviors that are just a very small portion of of those students that are that make up our entire um student population, but also I think it

00:41:11,230	does become something that we kind of hear at the board level and And in that administration level. So I’m, I’m glad to see that some of these numbers have gone down, but then I’m not sure if that’s always what what.

00:41:28,830	The perception is or what um is maybe felt by continually having to kind of go back to the drawing board to have those solutions about how to meet the needs of those maybe very small percentage, it’s increasingly, um, having to get more creative and and more programming or additional, um, aids that are that are maybe harder to find, so I think that’s the, the balance.

00:41:47,070	This is a good report, and I think that we would accept it, you know, as making really good progress, but I think that that that feeling or that struggle that we hear sometimes out at this, you know, the school visits and things that that has been a continual struggle struggle, um, and, and hasn’t gone away, so I, I

00:42:02,570	sometimes it’s that it’s that balancing act of getting a great report that has lots of good data in it for the majority of our students, but also recognizing that there’s still a lot of challenges that require continued and additional resources always, so I don’t know, I’m, I’m, I’m constantly conflicted with that a little bit when hearing some

00:42:22,530	of the stories. Dr Posner. Um, yeah, I just one thing, uh, Dr Johnson for the report, and I would echo, I guess, so Miss Peterson’s comments and Mr.

00:42:43,630	Lee’s comments is it is a good report, but remember, the report just monitors our systems, and it’s just trying to give us a status or system health, as Dr Johnson mentioned, if you go to any of those, and you’d find that 30% of our kids were being suspended or in school, out of school, or 30% of our kids were, um, engaging in major behaviors.

00:43:01,200	OK, now we have to go back and realign like, what are we doing within the system. So this tells us that the system is relatively healthy, but I would echo, um, we still have work to do.

00:43:20,070	I mean this in no way, shape or form should tell us, my team, or the general public that they’re still not work to do, I would tell you that we still see gaps in the services we’re able to provide our most needy kids in relation to. behavior, um, I would. Miss Nelson sitting in the audience, and she’s gonna shake her head up. I won’t even look at her. She’s gonna shake her head yes on this. I need more counselors. I need more social workers.

00:43:38,570	I need more psychologists. I need more special ed staff that are trained for, um, emotional disturbance behavior. All those I need, um, to address some of the gaps to Mr. Lee’s point.

00:44:03,200	We’re still at that 4% is still affecting the 96%, um, the other thing I would say is um To your point, it, it, it Yes, we have a lot of kids who are doing the right thing every day they come to school, but I would tell you without the report looks good, but I will tell you 100% I trust my teachers.

00:44:21,300	When I’m in front of teachers, I trust what they tell me, and it was just last week where I heard anecdotally from our teachers, behaviors are escalating and getting tougher. They’re feeling it, so I don’t think the report by itself tells everything, right? Again, it’s a system analysis. It’s not maybe the reality that’s in some of our classrooms and our hallways, so I think we have to be cognizant of that.

00:44:41,100	Um, you can see a little bit with restraint and seclusion numbers, OK, those are, those took a significant jump. I don’t think we can ignore those that some of our kids are extreme enough that they’re having, we have to engage them physically. That’s not something we want to do, but we’re being. Trust into doing it. Um, I would.

00:44:59,230	Challenge you that not only within BPS but within our community. We have significant gaps on the continuum of care for kids with behavior needs. Um, I think schools, um, had a meeting today about future legislation for the upcoming session, and what was one of the big talking points, schools all around our state are being

00:45:22,770	challenged to provide services that really are Clinical. They’re medical clinical therapeutic services and schools are having to do it because there is a gap in services in our communities. So when we can’t provide that um we can’t find that support in our community.

00:45:46,330	We’re being thrust to accommodate that because, you know what, kids between the age of 7 and 16. are directed by law to come to school. They come to school and I think a fellow administrators said the other day, you know, kid goes to residential treatment because of therapeutic needs and because of their significant behaviors within 2 or 3 days, they’re out of that therapeutic session and

00:46:06,270	guess where they come back to. They come back to school because they have to. And I think that’s a challenge we still need to address within all schools, and BPS is one of them, and I would tell you one thing that you will see from my team very shortly and you know about Renewed.

00:46:23,100	It’s a Wonderful program to address therapeutic needs for some of our most significant kids that just need, um, behavioral interventions and support for our secondary students. In our metro, and I will add Mandan into that. We need to start talking about that for elementary age students.

00:46:44,370	Day treatment, how, what would it be a great day treatment type setting, so they can provide receive some therapeutic care while getting an education and still going home tonight to be with their most important teacher, their parents, but then come back to us in a safe, uh, safe environment. We need to start having a more earnest conversation, which we’ve already started at how to bring that forward.

00:47:01,500	So to address some of your concerns, I think, Mr. Lee. Thank you that, and I, you mentioned the gaps of continuum Care, Dr Johnson and I were having that same conversation just earlier today, and just to summarize, you know, board members, thank you for sharing your thoughts and opinions on this because I think this is a big one.

00:47:14,830	I think we can all agree, we’ll have a chance for a motion here in a moment that the report itself is good. We do believe that our office is trying to put together systems that are helping report back, uh, the things that are happening in our classrooms, but as, um, both Mr. Lee and Ms.

00:47:29,270	Peterson brought up, well, to summarize, you know, we support students that have great need. I think our. board does, um, but I think you’re hearing from this board as well is that we’re very big on supporting our educators, uh, to be able to handle classroom management and giving them tools or supports and, and maybe that is

00:47:45,900	counselors, social workers. I don’t, again, um, you know, we trust our leadership to help us make some of those decisions where it’s going to really affect and impact our educators as well in the classroom, so, um. Sorry, Mr. Lee, you know, thank you, Mr.

00:48:02,970	President, yeah, I, I would like to, um, I do think this, this, uh, you know, one thing we always talk about is recruitment and retention, and I do think this is a big piece of the puzzle too, because I think teacher burnout is accelerating earlier in the year from a number of administrators that I’ve talked to, um, and that they, they’ve

00:48:18,300	kind of hit that, uh, that wall, so to speak, before Thanksgiving, which normally comes at Thanksgiving and it’s just, uh, it’s not something that is a BPS problem. It’s universal, and I think you could find this in any district in the United States. It’s a societal problem, we recognize that.

00:48:37,700	I do think we’re doing a fantastic job. I think this is a great report. I think we’re ahead of the curve, and I think, um, you know, we’re challenging um our, our system to, to be on the forefront in many different areas.

00:48:54,570	You think of CTE and those things, but I’m challenging us to to be in the forefront of, of addressing behaviors because I believe more than anything, um, if, if we get ahead of behaviors, um, we move the needle faster on student. than we can in any other uh area.

00:49:13,970	So I appreciate all the work that is being done, that’s being shown us tonight and just what challenge us to, to, to keep thinking outside the box and looking for ways to make our our classrooms and buildings more manageable. And with that Mr. President, please uh. I would move that we approve R3 personal development behavior, um. Let me get up there. My apologies. As making reasonable progress as presented. And I would second. We have a motion in a second.

00:49:46,470	Any further discussion? Seeing none, Mister Sher. Lee? Yes. Peterson? Yes. Presky? Yes. Hager? Yes. Eastgate? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. And thank you, Dr Johnson, for the presentation this evening. On the agenda item 6 matters reserved for board of Action. We’re actually, we got, uh, 6AR 2.

00:50:11,970	1 academic achievement ELA and we’re gonna actually start tonight with Mrs. Peterson presenting. Thanks everybody, um, as, as part of the, um, learning Excellence Committee and as kind of the board appointee for that committee, we were charged with really looking at, um, our 2.

00:50:34,100	1 academic achievement ELA and much the same as what we just talked about in some of these, um, you know, and a lot of these coherent governance policies, we’re, we’re looking at kind of system health and and overall just um some of the results that we’re getting as as an entire district and so We tackled this particular indicator, um, for a couple of different reasons.

00:50:51,500	One, I think that um there was just a, a, a notable, um, need to maybe shift from sort of just an ELA, which is a, a teacher speak for English language arts to maybe an overall concept of just literacy when we’re just expecting academic outcomes, um, overall, we know that, um, ELA doesn’t just happen in an

00:51:12,830	English classroom or in an English subject. It is, we expect literacy outcomes, um, really K-12 and and beyond, um, we expect there to be a focus on literacy and then also then how are we assessing that, um, That all all encompassing standard.

00:51:36,370	And so the, um, there was some really nice rich discussion in the Learning Excellence Committee about not only changing some semantics, um, with the ELA to literacy and, and then therefore, um, some of the wording kind of throughout the entire policy and, and board members, you have this, the actual printout, um, in a copy just so you can see some of those some of those changes and some of the reason

00:51:54,700	why, and I think folks at home also see some of the, um, the new, the new terminology and even the red lined indicators so that you can see that although there was a lot of, there’s a lot of red on those changes.

00:52:11,730	It really was, um, more to make a more readable report and to be, um, in the second half was when we think about the assessment changes and I’ll, I’ll let Dr Foss not even speak more intelligently about the, the actual need for the specifics, but I, we we felt that there need to be maybe a vendor agnostic, um, even though the report when we

00:52:28,800	actually see the results, um, come through. There will be consistent tools at all levels, um, we didn’t want it in the results policy be beholden to any one tool because we already have seen changes kind of at the state level, um, for the older kids when we think about ACT and the new summit of

00:52:49,570	assessment um called NDA plus, um, that’s happening, that’s already happened and needed a change, but then we also see a need, um, all the way through down to our our lower kids.

00:53:07,700	and looking at, um, early literacy and, and K-12, there’s gonna constantly be a need to look at different tools that are assessing at that level. And so rather than kind of stick to one indicator, they’ll still be results reported with those different, um, assessments and, and each of our, uh, esteemed, um, Superintendents will share when when they share those results, they’ll explain what those assessments are, but I think the committee overall thought that we could combine

00:53:30,300	those indicators, um, in in certain reports so that it would make a little bit more sense. So I’m going to turn it over to Dr F Fastna to, to walk through any other specifics that I may have missed, um, but that was sort of the, the general consensus of the, of the committee.

00:53:45,130	And then just a reminder to the public when we talk about that learning excellence, there’s definitely a, um, I’m the board appointee. But there are parents that are on that, um, there are, uh, elementary, um, secondary, middle school, a lot of educators on that so that we’ve got a robust, um, membership to that committee that are kind of

00:54:04,370	informing some of these changes. And with that, I’ll turn it over to Dr Dr F Fassnap. Thank you, Ms. Peterson. OK, so I’ll just explain the documents because I think this is a little bit of a dialogue as we go through, um, because you might have questions as we get to certain parts, and I’m, I’m

00:54:19,830	very open with that. First of all, you have the document that was on the screen, and that was M Peterson’s eyes best attempt to try to explain to you a little background to, uh, the changes we’re making, OK? You have the redline copy, which was in the board packet, so you can see the actual ads and

00:54:39,600	deletes that we’re making, um, and The one that I’ll probably reference the most, which is also in your packet, is the monitoring report, kind of so you can see what we intend to show you in the monitoring report. It’s not the whole thing. It’s not the cover page.

00:54:55,700	It just goes, uh, starts with like page 5 on the front, OK? So, I guess to just hit the first one, why literacy? We just, we made a recommendation that committee agreed that ELA is pretty narrow in its scope, and this is a public consumable document, right? So let’s broaden the scope into something that’s more understandable.

00:55:17,970	When you talk about being literate and being a literate with English language that seems to be more graspable. Easier to grasp for our public and ELA is does get very narrow in its scope or literacy does cross more boundaries, even though we’re assessing it specifically with, with very finite, uh, assessments. We thought literacy was more comprehensive.

00:55:40,530	So that was our first change. Then, um, before I get into the indicators, the assessment changes, as Miss Peterson mentioned, um, we were talking last year about the ACT is no longer the state assessment for 11th graders, OK? We as BPS made a decision that we’re going to keep that assessment in place for 11th graders, but

00:56:03,900	we’re no longer necessarily comparing to all 11th graders in the state. The state, um, on the state assessment, it says North Dakota academic progress of learning and understanding of student’s NDA plus is the new test, and DPI has changed that statewide, so that’s, we thought we’ve really didn’t have a, a desire to.

00:56:24,170	I mean, we had a desire, but it’s like we have to change our indicators because the states changed the test. So you’re going to see that in some of the changes tonight, OK? Um, we talked about the ACT because we’re keeping it. Then on the multiple assessment site on the back of the discussion page.

00:56:42,070	Uh, thank you, Mr. Bernard. Um, you can see we’re using several different interim assessments that are required by law in 15.1 21, 17.1. So in kindergarten, we use AM’s Web for an assessment, OK? In grades 1 through 5, we still use the map and 6 through 8 and 9 through 10 we use star because it’s required by law.

00:57:05,870	We just brought that. present assessment system into some of our indicators as well, because we thought, um, to Ms. Peterson’s point, your indicators shouldn’t be test specific. They should just take into account all tests that we’re giving kids so we can broaden the scope of what we provide you.

00:57:26,730	We want to give you more information, not less, OK? So, if you, I will take those concepts and walk you through these individually. So if you go to your red line document. I’m going to take you to indicator one. OK. And if you want, that’s on. Hold this up for the audience.

00:57:48,570	That’s on this reporting document, you can see indicator one and a table. It’s mimicking your monitoring report, OK? So, we are recommending a changed indicator one to say students in grades 3 through 8 and 10 who are advanced or proficient on the NDA plus because we changed the test, so the state doesn’t have the NDSA anymore.

00:58:09,830	It’s the A plus, ELA section will meet or exceed the state performance. Subtle change on that, not a lot, but we’re adding. because we don’t have that necessarily 11th grade, everybody across the state taking the ACT and at the 10th grade is required by state statute that all 10th graders take the NDA plus.

00:58:31,700	So we’re gonna do 3 through 8 and 10 as required by law for the NDA plus and then on the res the reporting side, the bottom table in the past, you’ve got every grade, every grade reported with the target, and it’s one of the things that we talked about in.

00:58:49,370	our retreat this summer is maybe looking at one target of the sum, so we would look at your target would actually be in the bull box showing the sum that’s on this page. OK, so your target would more look like we’re better than the state as a sum. Then we are just by grade. That makes sense? OK? I’m looking for affirmation I’m being a teacher today. OK.

00:59:13,400	Um, indicator two, and indicator 3, which are also in your, um, manual or in your, um, monitoring your report document are no changes. We’re really the only thing we’ve done instead of reporting 10 years, we’re only going to report 4, and that’s just to be simplify the report.

00:59:33,800	So indicator, um, 2 and 3, no changes because we’re going to continue to still provide the ACT for 11th graders. So we’ll be able to compare them to the state. The state data might change. I’ll honest cause less less kids are taking the ACT but we still think it’s important to BPS to provide the ACT. OK. Summer jumped the indicator 4.

00:59:52,830	Um, students and grades, and we’re going to expand that instead of doing 2 through 8, we want to represent to you K through 10 will show continuous improvement towards or attainment of the identified target indicating the percentage of students at grade level, and you used to say just in the map because that’s where the map was given in grades 2

01:00:08,500	through 8. So, now we’re going to report to you. As kind of you can see on here, we’re going to report to AMS web data for grades K1. We’re gonna report. Map data to you in grades 2 through 8, and then we’ll report star data to you in 910. OK. Makes sense. OK.

01:00:31,830	And we won’t do it by grade. We’ll do it by section. So we’ll sum up those those kids within that section will sum up so your target applies to one large group instead of each grade group, because we know how those demographics, um, work, OK? Indicator 5 will do the same thing, uh, uh, Um, show continuous improvement

01:00:53,330	grades K through 10 will show continuous improvement toward or attainment of the identified target indicating the percentage of students meeting there expected growth target on a reading assessment.

01:01:14,500	So again, if you go to indicator 5, this is your expected growth target indicator you’ve always had, but now we’re going to do it in more grade bands across 3 assessments instead of 1. That makes sense? OK? Hopefully we’re giving you more information and it’ll, you’ll actually, I think one of the benefits of this is you’re going to get a little bit of early childhood.

01:01:32,770	Indicator as well about how your system’s working because it doesn’t wait till grade 2, you’re going to get K1 data now, OK, if they’re meeting their expected growth targets. Oh, by the way, on indicator 4 and 5, we haven’t changed the target. It’s still, um, 65% and 55%. Those we didn’t change the target, we still want that number of kids to meet the target. OK.

01:01:57,400	Um Indicator 6, that was your subgroup target, remember where you look at, uh, performance on the map by subgroup, so we change indicator 6 to say again, students and grades K through 10, we’re going to expand the number of kids we’re looking at will show continuous improvement toward or attainment of identified targets indicating the percentage of students within subgroups meeting their expected targeted growth on a

01:02:17,570	reading assessment. So now again, this one, we’re probably making your report larger, not smaller. We’re going to do groups by Ames Webb, map, and Star. So you can see performance based on subgroup.

01:02:38,430	Um, the committee did think about going down to, we actually asked the question, could we go to like two subgroups and only report to? I will tell you very strongly that that committee did not agree with that. They said every subgroup’s important. How dare you, Dr Fossnott, just picked two subgroups. Um, so they were very much like, don’t just pick a couple subgroups or 2 or 3.

01:02:57,670	We want to see all subgroups reflected in this report so we can monitor their performance. So that’s the way we left it. Questions yet. Indicator 7 and 8, which you used to have, were about the pre-ACT and since we don’t give that anymore, it’s not. We’re giving different assessments to our kids, um. We needed to remove those too.

01:03:26,100	So we took those indicators out, OK? Old indicator 9, which is new indicator 7, if you want to call it that, is students in grades K through 8 will show continuous improvement toward or attainment of the identified reporting target of a 2.5B in coursework. This is where we match how you’re doing on the assessment with how you’re doing in class. OK, so 2.

01:03:48,300	5 be elementary, um, uh, performance reporting. B would be middle school, high school performance reporting and we’re just going to give that data to you across all grade bands of how they’re meeting or what percentage of kids are meeting that threshold, 2.5 or be depending on what, if they’re elementary or secondary division.

01:04:07,570	OK, we’ll sum those up as well, so you have a middle school number, you have a high school number, and you have an elementary number. OK. Um And then lastly, indicator 10. This is the one that’s in your ELA, your math, your social studies, your, your, um, science where you have like 50% of kids will take courses. More courses that are required for graduation.

01:04:29,600	And I would tell you our recommendation is to pull this out of this report, even though, um, it’s an ELA. Um, indicator, um, we would like to take all those and put those into Um are for personal development communityre because we think it’s better represented in that report and put those indicators in that, uh, results policy, so you can

01:04:54,100	see him there in one shot versus in this one where you say, hey, we’re doing all these things, and it just seems like it kind of stands on its own. We’ve had questions about it. So we’ll put it into the communityre because we have some additions we’d like to make to R4. So this is a lot.

01:05:11,700	I respect that. If you have questions, um, I think Mr. Peterson will answer them all. No. Thank you both, Dr Faszan and board member Peterson for the work on all of this, um, board members. Yeah, Ms. Presky.

01:05:32,100	Uh, just a clarification, so if we’re making the move from ELA to literacy, and then I see in the indicators we’re still using the ELA language. So is that an oversight or is that deliberate or it’s deliberate because that’s the test. OK. That’s the ELA assessment. Yeah. Any other questions from the board? Ms. Peterson, oh, Ms. Peterson.

01:05:55,030	I was just going to add to that piece because I think that’s a really good, good point. It’s, it, it really is all encompassing, but when you think of just if you look at each indicator separately where there are some specific Assessments that you know are called ELA or whatever, but then there are other components like kind of throughout that are gonna maybe overall extend an information about whether

01:06:15,170	our students are literate, so it’s, it’s, it’s semantics, but I think that it, it’ll end up kind of showing a broader picture. Mr. Hager. Yeah, just a quick question. So, formally indicator 10. is going to move to R4. are 4. OK. So, then we’ll, when our 4 comes around, we’ll have.

01:06:39,930	Revisions, red lines of that as well. That’s correct, Mr. Eger. We, we will, uh, we’re working on that one too. I think that’s in the queue. We have what,, 55 of these that are in the queue that we’re working on in different committees and stuff.

01:06:54,630	So we would like to bring that one to you with this one included. If you’re taking it out of here, we’ll make sure to include it there. Does that address your question? OK.

01:07:12,370	And Dr F Fassna, in regards to that question, I think What indicator 10 is, that’s the one where I not only just the wording about ELA coursework, but this is the one that we always ask questions about like if we’re asking in every single area to increase by a certain percentage, you know, at some point you, you run out of different courses that they can take, you know, we want CTE to grow, science to grow, math to grow.

01:07:27,500	So I think not only just should it move to a different results policy, but really look at The, the what are we, what are we measuring and what target do we want to set, you know, do we want to just have lots of opportunities.

01:07:41,230	Do we want to see an increase? Like I’m, I’m not, I don’t know the answer to that, but that’s, I think, what we always kind of see whenever that one comes up on any of these, these indicators is just that how, how can they all grow when students are choosing have so many amazing choices to choose from. Thank you for that, Ms. Peterson.

01:08:01,430	Board members any of their comments? Or what are your wishes following the recommendation from the district. And if you don’t mind, my recommendation is if you’re OK, that, uh, you would approve this for first reading, then you’ll come back later to 2nd reading next time. What are the wishes of the board? Mr. Lee, uh, Mr. President, thank you, uh, and thank you we do a board member Peterson.

01:08:24,900	I think there’s a lot of really good work in here. Um, it’s always a little, uh, Tough to change, right? When you see so many, so much red, it’s like, uh, but that’s good.

01:08:41,930	That’s what we want, right? And uh it, it all makes sense to me and why we’re going this way and I agree with it all. Um, I, I think, uh, the only thing I would question, and I don’t think it’s anything we, we can really tackle tonight or just, just the targets and, and I think that’s why these, this, all these documents in coherent governance are are living documents and we can change them in the future.

01:08:59,000	These changes, um, That I see tonight, I’m very comfortable with and I would move that we approve the revised coherent governance results policy R21 Academic Achievement ELA and thereby supporting indicators as presented for the first reading. One second. We have a motion on the 2nd. Any further discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Sher. Peterson. Yes. Presky? Yes. Hager? Yes.

01:09:22,600	Lee? Yes. He’s good. Yes. Motion passes. Item 6B board member school visit updates and I do believe we have several board members presenting an update tonight. So whoever’s light is on can go first, Mr. Lee. What I’m sorry. Thank you, Mr. President. I, you caught me off guard and you caught me with my light on. Great.

01:09:46,670	Happy to go first. I, uh, I visited with Principal Flaland at Moses Elementary, um, which back in the day, this kind of caught me off guard. I guess I’ve been keeping up, but it used to be home to the Mavericks and the marauders, at least in 1980. Um, now it’s home of the Stars.

01:10:03,100	So it was, it was great to visit there. I think one of the Mavericks back in my day was, uh, none other than Mr. Steve Feeney, who was a star, uh, at Moses, um, Moses serves around 400 students, uh, which when you think about all of our elementary is pretty average population, uh, for an elementary school, however, the

01:10:24,500	school is anything but average. Uh, they have a, a remarkable staff that serves some pretty incredible kids. My visit reminded me how different and diverse our elementary buildings are and how each one has different obstacles to overcome. And it’s true, they’re, they’re all very, very different. So I want you to do this. Imagine if you will.

01:10:48,500	A child living below the poverty level. English is a second language. Comes from a single parent household. And is also autistic. Now imagine if that child with 4 strikes working against their ability to learn is also emotionally disturbed. It doesn’t sound real. It sounds made up.

01:11:14,730	Like it’s not even possible, but I can tell you this situation is something our people in our buildings are faced with every single day. I witnessed this firsthand at Moses. Our professionals faced with every imaginable circumstances through skill and creativity find ways to move the education needle in the life of every child. Every child that’s put before them. And it’s beyond commendable.

01:11:38,670	It’s beyond amazing what it is, the work our people do each day, what it is, is nothing short of miraculous. Principal Flaland shared that around 60% of their kids are at or below the poverty level. 60% Because the diverse needs they employ a systems approach that starts with teamwork.

01:12:01,100	Nothing happens without teamwork, and he feels they simply can’t afford not to work together. Moses is thriving because his people are not just working with each other. They are working for each other. And that’s what makes a difference. About 18% of the students at Moses speak English as a second language.

01:12:23,570	And the school serves as a pilot for the school within a school model building on initiatives started under Dr Hornbacher when he served as principal. They have a skill center for tier 2 and tier 3 programming. And I believe they have the largest Title I budget, which certainly helps them do what they do, but I’d point out there are also operating without an assistant principal.

01:12:42,770	Which has its challenges. Uh, Principal Flaland feels much of the success that happens at Moses is because of its highly struct it’s highly structured, which leads to being highly predictable for those kids. And it allows them to be firm in their expectations.

01:13:05,730	Uh, he speaks very highly of all his staff, and it really does take, um, it just was really impressed on me. It really takes everybody. It takes a village, right? Um, he speaks highly of all his staff, teachers, social workers, special ed title staff, all in his words are top-notch people. And part of his village at Moses, the custodial staff he believes are the best in town.

01:13:25,430	It was just, I, I can’t really capture what it was for me to see the work they do, because it was so different than any of the other elementaries I’ve been in, um, there are similarities between some of our Title One schools, other Title One schools, and Moses, um, but just maybe it was the

01:13:41,600	day I was there and the kids I saw, it was just, it really made an impression on me about how incredible our people are and what they do every day. So it was a great day. And I’ll leave you with this.

01:14:00,700	My visit also reminded me of how amazing our public school system really is in this country, in this state and in this city. I still believe public schools are what raises the tide, and that’s what lifts all boats. It’s been one of the distinctives that have made our country great.

01:14:21,570	Public schools are what support and embody the promise of America, a place where every child has the opportunity to be whatever they want to be, and schools like Dorothy Moses work really, really hard to make good on that promise. So it was, it was a fantastic visit. Thanks very much, Mr. Lee. Appreciate that. School visit update from Mr. Hager. Thanks, President East kid. I’m actually gonna have some overlap with, with. Mr.

01:14:45,730	Lee just said. Um, so I had a visit to Northridge in and. Speaking of Mr. Lee, who’s an alumni from Northridge, um, Little disappointed to to learn that the superstar nickname was not. After Mr. Lee, I just assumed. So another, another lesson I learned at at Northridge Visit.

01:15:12,730	If they, this is for other board members to keep in mind if they ask you. To come 30, 30 minutes later than what you had scheduled for an assembly. You’re gonna be put on display. So, so, so that happened to me, um, as a kids affectionately call her Miss Miss E. assistant principal there, text me, asked if I could come 30 minutes late.

01:15:35,770	So I did. So my visit wrapped up with me. On stage, playing the this or that game, very similar to our opening day with the coin flip. That Mr. Eastgate did. However, this time it was me choosing different Thanksgiving food. Um, was not ready for 400+ kids screaming when I selected turkey over ham.

01:16:04,070	So that, that, that shocked me a, a little bit. Um screaming and in agreement or Oh, yeah, they, OK. They, they, I picked all the traditional stuff along with all the kids, so there is a lot, a lot of, a lot of screaming in agreement. It was, it, it was, it was fun.

01:16:18,600	So I was literally on stage and in front of a bunch of kids. Which I suspected was going to happen. So Principal Mertz and I, we had, we had a nice conversation with kind of a, a broader list of topics.

01:16:34,630	I mean, we talked about something that’s on our agenda yet tonight, you know, the transportation, you know, changes in, in belt time changes, what that may look like to, to, to school safety to to us as board members and ways we can support her work there. Um So you know, having that, having had the original visit....

01:16:54,870	11 thing that actually came to me this weekend, and it, it ties back to to my visit. So I was at, uh, Barnes and Noble, and I ran into my first grade teacher. Miss Olsson, who’s who’s retired retired teacher, she’s been retired for for some time, um, and she was talking. Just as Mr.

01:17:15,400	Lee did about, you know, the challenges that teachers and educators have to face this day and age and. How she doesn’t think, you know. She could handle those things. So I started talking about my my Northridge visit with her. And was telling her how.

01:17:39,670	Immediately after school started Northridge saw 30 new students, so the first couple weeks they, they were having to address the needs of 30 students finding placements for them, um, on top of the additional challenge that A lot of them were EL students. So then you had those language differences to have to deal with. So at Northridge alone, there’s, there’s 13 different languages that are spoken. So of some of these new students that they were having to deal with, um.

01:18:00,670	One of the languages Fulla. Which is kind of an African French language, Google Translate doesn’t even have. So They’re, they’re trying to To work with those students and get them to just understand English at all. And now kind of a long Mr. Mr. Lee’s lines, the, the, the connections that some of these, these educators make with these students.

01:18:22,330	So you have one of these students who, who can’t speak English. There’s no way to communicate with, with them through an app. But this one kindergartner. In particular, had such a connection with, with their teacher through, through unspoken. Language because really they, they, they couldn’t communicate otherwise. Um She fell down on the playground, skinned her knee.

01:18:45,230	So aides and staff went over to try to help her with, with her skin knee. And she couldn’t understand him, ran, ran right past him, ran down the hall, ran to her kindergarten room to find her kindergarten teacher. Who fortunately eats lunch in her classroom. She’d only let her kindergarten teacher.

01:19:06,500	Mentor her wound that day and that, uh, kindergarten teacher Miss Miss Bent just. Thinking of Kind of the trust that she she built in that moment. Um You know, so I was talking to Miss Olson at, at Barnes and Noble there.

01:19:28,970	Then her comment back after I shared that story with her is just Not only the educators at at Northridge, but educated across the district, um, How they go above and beyond to make those kids feel safe and valued so that they can learn. So Hearing that story, you know, hearing An ex-educator who retired, I should say retired educator. You know, give that kind of praise. It’s, it’s. To Mr.

01:19:53,330	Lee’s point, there’s, there’s a lot of great things that are going on, going on in this district, and it was, it was a great visit. Thank you, Mr. Hager, and thank you to Mrs. Olson for helping you get through the first grade and at this table with us tonight. I believe that. Thank you, Miss Olsson. Um, Ms. Peterson.

01:20:10,630	All right, uh, thanks, um, you know, we did have, we did have 3 this week, this week, and I just went today so I could have easily and I just want to shout out to our, to, um, Principal Haugen and, and the Liberty team.

01:20:26,270	I got a, I got a gift today and I was gonna wear it um over my over my clothes, but that probably would have been as professional, but, um, I was greeted at at liberty with um not only by, by joy and Carrey, the amazing kind of secretarial staff who, who greet everybody that walks in the door, um, but also by Riker and Macy, and, and I really appreciate it

01:20:47,500	because actually Principal Haugen had another meeting and I kind of came in just said, oh, you know, told Joy that I was here and then there were two kids sitting waiting their turn, and I assumed, you know, for, for the next step and, and actually, um, Joe asked, so I sat down and then she asked the

01:21:05,170	kids if they were waiting, they’re like, no, I think we’re supposed to. actually take Mrs. Peterson and I was behind the pillar and I walked up and then we immediately um kind of went on our way and the kids totally took the lead and Principal Haugan met with me later.

01:21:19,630	And so I was just, I’m always impressed with um with that that strategy, um, to have the kids take us around and they know their school, um, and, and I just thought that was a really good use of, of, of their time and of Principal Haugen’s time as well. Um, Riker and Macy are fifth grade students in in Mrs.

01:21:36,370	Carr’s class, and so um, they were, were very proud to kind of just show, show me around and I’d been at Liberty a couple of different times.

01:21:52,600	In fact, we had a community forum, I think last year at around this time, um, with a lot more snow on the ground, um, I might add, but, but that, so I had been been there, but it’s really cool to see it through a student’s eyes. Um, so they, of course, stopped in um really emphasized kind of their celebration wall where they get their, uh, they call them power slips and so lots of different proud moments where students are recognized.

01:22:10,770	I mean, I think that just connects with the things that we saw earlier today about the behavioral supports, those positive interactions, um, they have awards called like the Silver Spoon Award and the golden whistle and the trash can award and all of these that are, are really celebrating different classrooms.

01:22:30,170	different students, um, for, for key moments, um, in each month and so that was really nice to be able to see that. Um, we, we couldn’t, uh, not, not leave liberty without me taking a peek into Mrs. Langing’s classroom.

01:22:47,630	She’s a first grade teacher at Liberty, but I have a special place in my heart because she taught two of my, my boys when they were kindergarten students. So, um, she’s moved on to the first grade over at Liberty, but um, got to give her a hug and, and a shout out.

01:23:01,970	And what I loved about when we walked into her classroom and You know, she and I were, were hugging and telling the kids, but they couldn’t help but but keep calling out Rikker and Macy who were their 5th grade, um, mentors, and I just thought it was a really cool moment and they were in the middle of a literacy.

01:23:19,070	Speaking of that, and, and one thing that I’ve had a couple, you know, I have a, a former experience, um, in, in ELA and, and I’ve had several teachers reach out because there was a new curriculum called Wit and Wisdom, um, presented to all elementary teachers, which for a lot of us that are not in the education world.

01:23:34,100	It might just seem like yay, we get new curriculum at the beginning of the year, but that is an immense amount of work for educators and and all of uh of the instructional coaching staff, the district staff who are supporting those teachers, but also just those teachers who are navigating a brand new literacy curriculum so that more students can can read.

01:23:53,830	It’s just a, it’s a burden on educators, so all that we just talked about was supporting all the behaviors. It’s also supporting through new curriculum changes, um, I, I talked to, um, Mrs. Haugen afterwards, and we talked about that because I know that that’s been a challenge, but she also said that the buy-in is is getting there and they’ve thought of some really creative ways, um, I, I was still on the

01:24:14,100	tour, but later on, um, Hayley told me about something that she’s calling the liberty Learning Lollapalooza, where it was, you know, a lot of times when we talk about just these amazing educators we, we add a lot to educator’s plates all the time, and we don’t always take away.

01:24:32,370	And so one of the things that Hayley um was really brainstorming with her leadership team is how do we give more time to these educators to really dig into this new curriculum, not only as a as a PLC, um, but, but she thought of this opportunity to really get those those educators, um, and, uh, some time with the curriculum,

01:24:54,730	they’re right next to, um, a, a business in town, um, Knutson’s homes, and so she, she basically as a leadership team, they um invited speakers from the community, parents, they kind of use, use all of their things, you know, their, their PTO and, and as an opportunity for those, those teachers to just go dig into the curriculum.

01:25:15,500	They had a whole day of of learning in 2 hours just of time to really dig into that while kids were exposed to other professions and other speakers, so just a really creative way of using their time and where the teachers really could not, not just get like time, um, that they always

01:25:33,530	get, you know, to, to, to assess and meet with each other. It was a 2 hours specifically geared towards that, so that was a really cool, cool thing that they did. But I got to see the wit and wisdom in action in Mrs. Linkin’s class.

01:25:52,030	Um, you know, we went throughout the, the way, um, throughout the tour, got to see them kind of setting up lunch, talking um through all of the different classrooms and then got back to to Principal Hagen, and it was just really nice for for Rikker and Macy to to take me around, um, I think that as I sat down with um the principal and really it was timely because

01:26:09,170	we’re also going to talk about the transportation, um, studies, so we talked a lot about that and I, and I think that really was a nice time to kind of with some of the, some of the challenges, but also some of the some of the successes, and I think that, um, I’m, I’m

01:26:25,130	excited to kind of hear some of the things that we talk about in the board when, when you get that opportunity to sit down with those, those principles and really hear it from their perspective.

01:26:39,570	It informs a lot of what the comments that we make here, the, the things that we bring up in the committees and then of course in in the retreats when we have more candid conversations just about budget decisions and so on.

01:26:56,500	So we talked a lot about AIDS and You know, making sure to uh really think through how, how we’re working there, and then, um, and then really just wanting to give a shout out to the fact that, um, also, uh, I think, uh, liberty would just became HRS level one certified, so they’re going to be recognized and so I talked about with with Solheim that they’re kind of going through those pieces, um, all the schools are kind of doing it at the at the level that makes

01:27:11,470	sense to them and, and, um, I always, I, I really appreciated um Principal Haugen’s like. approach that that all of these things kind of go together and and she’s really being strategic, um, with that piece and that trust and communication with the family that she has, so, um, all in all, a really great day to day,

01:27:30,200	really impressed with, um, Liberty’s ability to have that positive connection with their families, with their students, and then of course just really building in. She highlighted the fact that this was one, you know, liberty was, is, is now 77 years old, which seems crazy when we think about some of the, the different growth that we’ve

01:27:49,370	had, um, but this was, uh, they, they maintain the same amount of staff and just that that um ability to to have a similar growth, and then they do have an assistant principal and they think the board for for that piece of it.

01:28:06,900	This was their first year with that assistant principal, um, they are just about to cross the 500 student threshold and so just a lot of, a lot of growth in that area and that they’re kind of navigating to to do that. So um appreciated my time there. and, and things, um, Principal Hau and for for for meeting with me. Thanks very much, Board member Peterson.

01:28:26,270	And what was the Lala? Uh, I had to write it down, liberty Learning Lalaliber liberty learning Lollapalooza who doesn’t want to be a part of that? I was like I wanna be a part of that and they’re they’re looking for their next, their next two hour time slot come in right before Christmas break.

01:28:42,230	So for the next module for wit and wisdom, so very, very cool. Thanks very much to all board members for reporting tonight and sharing about the board member school visit updates. It’s, um, it’s great to hear, you know, you guys get a chance to come in, we all do.

01:28:55,430	We give our updates, but to share a little bit about what our administrators are, are thinking and how they see things, we get to witness firsthand educators and the kids stuff and I, and I, I catch those little nuggets and they’re even about um the fifth graders mentoring the younger classmen and things like that that are going on in the schools.

01:29:10,870	I hope, I hope people don’t miss those little details that come through in the updates because I think it’s really important. It’s more than just a board member meeting and talking to a principal, there’s so much more going on in those school walls. So thank you so much for highlighting those things.

01:29:23,870	Um, we have a lot of great Great heroes and highlights to bring up at at these updates, so thank you. Item 7 is the consent agenda. What are the wishes of the board? Mr. Hager, I’ll move to adopt the consent agenda. One second. We have a motion in a second. Any discussion? Mr. Sher, the roll, please. Pressky. Hager? Yes. Lee? Yes. Peterson? Yes.

01:29:47,270	Eastgate. Yes, motion passes. I made is the superintendent’s report and actually in a curveball tonight, we are not going to start with Dr F Fasnot with his own report. He is, uh, handed that over to start anyway, bat and lead off Mr. Josh Hager on item 8A, the bell time presentation. Thanks, Mr. Eastgate.

01:30:08,030	Um, I’ll just be brief before I turn over to Dr F Fassnot and let him run kind of through the bell bell time presentation just kind of a quick background and, and how it came to the operational excellence Committee.

01:30:24,030	To kind of talk through some of some of these things, so board you’ll remember about a year ago, we got that Transpar study back that kind of laid out the idea of um You know, transportation within the school district and how we can. Be more efficient routing kids, um, which. kind of led into, you know, bell time talks. They had, they had 3 different Potential options, um.

01:30:45,430	that we can move forward with to kind of help, um, With those, those transportation issues and efficiencies, you know, one was uh. Come Secondary, first, elementary, 2nd, first start times, you know. And then elementary 1st, secondary, 2nd for start times or kind of multiple tiers across.

01:31:10,170	You know, different levels, different elementary schools starting at different times, different middle schools, different high schools, you know, uh, a, a whole mix of things, so. All that was put in front of the operation, operational Excellence Committee, uh, met multiple times last school year before summer break, kind of discussed these, these things, well then. We after that operational exit committee met a few times kind of discussing those things.

01:31:34,070	We, we moved to a forum. Set up To hear From the general community and kind of what we’re, we’re looking at here, because when you’re talking about moving. Moving the bell time, it’s going to have an impact on everybody.

01:31:51,630	Um, so we’re looking at this as kind of almost as a cost-benefit analysis in the sense of. What does Moving the bellt time mean. For the kind of the, the, the greater good, if you will, for the, the whole district. So. We have Multiple options, one of which would, would have been to do nothing, you know, and as, as we look in the presentation that Dr F Fasno will have here, um.

01:32:13,500	Ultimately, the committee came to a recommendation and, and I’ll let him. Take it from there. Thank you, Mr. Hager. Right, get my mic on, um, yeah, what I really appreciate Mr.

01:32:39,870	Hager and his work on operational excellence, um, the committee met last spring, um, began to dive into the report, make a recommendation that we needed more input than just the committee, even though it’s a wide, um, well represented group. It just, this is, uh, as Mr. Hager said, this is moving everybody’s cheese just a little bit.

01:32:58,070	So, if we want to be a more reliable, efficient, and uh Uh, have a quality transportation service, then we just need to get, uh, take into consideration more views than just ours, so that did lead to the forums which I’ll talk about and also some community and staff surveys. So if my little remote works, look at that. I’m just gonna bring everybody back in time a little bit.

01:33:15,000	This is maybe a little hard to read. This is a snippet from the Transpar report. So if there’s grammatical errors in there, we can blame Transpar. Um, but I want to point to just two of significant bullets in there.

01:33:35,970	One, the two red arrows, school start times all fall within a 35, 30 minute window from one another and special program times like that at BEP, that’s a grammatical error directly conflict with special education times. So there’s just minor release time issues to get bussing service to serve all those. And the last one, the size and use of transportation facilities being stretched as transportation needs.

01:33:56,200	continue, and I think that’s not only maybe our facility, but it’s just equipment. It’s the buses, it’s the drivers as we continue to grow and get bigger and have more kids, and we know we’re growing every year. We continue to put strain on the system.

01:34:16,300	So one of the recommendations Mister Hager said that they gave to us last year was to consider A route analysis and going to a two-tier system, and they said you could better um provide a more efficient, reliable and high quality system if you would do that. So what they proposed is again Mr.

01:34:38,830	Hager said earlier was 3 different options, and the committee at that time last spring said we prefer option A, the star, which was elementary starting before secondary, OK? I will state for the record, um, they have elementary starting. 7:50 I think on this graph, and 8:30 for secondary, um, it’s really about not any one division moving a long ways.

01:35:02,830	It’s about both divisions moving slightly to create that, again, that, that 45 minute separation hour separation for one bus and one driver to fill and drop kids at. One division or one school and then go out and fill and drive a route and then drop at another school, so we immediately, um, double our efficiency within our system, OK? So we took that recommendation from the committee, and we went out to a

01:35:24,700	community forums this fall, and my apologies for blue on blue there. Our links are going to be hard to hear or see, but hopefully people can find them online, but we held our three, input sessions had 161 attendees, um, and then all those evaluations, all that feedback when the consensus council and then the board and

01:35:44,500	the committee received that compilation of feedback. So I mean, it’s gone out to the group and to others. Multiple times she, they can digest it. I won’t get into the details tonight. We also did a staff survey. Um, I did put the link there if people wanna watch it.

01:36:01,530	We had a community one as well, which I’ll hit upon, but we had 208 people respond to a staff survey, really watch the video is very much like the forum. Give you the details of what we’re considering and then allowed staff a free open text box response to share their concerns or what they were supportive of what the questions they had, and maybe

01:36:20,270	some areas of concern. From the staff input you can see we took those 208 responses and just drove them down into what were supportive themes and what were areas of concern, and you can see efficiency and improvements supporting for tiered system, alignment to best practices as far as which really that’s about which one’s scheduled

01:36:42,600	first and one kid starts school, improving reliability and benefiting students. Those are supportive themes from our staff, areas of concern, what’s going to happen extracurriculars, particularly of secondary is moved later, OK, um, childcare and supervision challenges was a concern for themselves as parents, as staff members or parents, and then also, um, our kids that we know

01:37:06,200	are in schools, uh, families just, uh, scheduled disruptions, longer school day for students, which I would tell you even though it’s brought up that it’s a longer school day. The, the actual school day isn’t changing the length, the, the concern there is now we push you later and now.

01:37:24,470	Evening activities go later, evening practice go later, that’s where their concerns are, is that we end up pushing the clock backwards for kids. And then equity and accessibility. We’re worrying about families who might struggle with transportation, and if there was a cost involved because there was some discussion about charging or increasing walkout distances, and that was, um,

01:37:44,070	part of their concern. We also took the staff input survey and just said, what are the 10 big questions, and we’re doing that so we make sure we’re responsive. to what the concerns are.

01:38:01,630	Um, I’ve highlighted a few here for you, um, just to look at, and I want to cover like how will later start time affect extracurricular activities, including clubs and sports. Well, when looking at other schools, they have a two-tier system, um, practices start times are moved back accordingly. Um, we don’t start practices during school.

01:38:21,630	So I think if we do move to a two-tier system, we’re going to accommodate that shift in time, um,,,, 1520 minutes that we perceive that could be Moving practices back. I would tell you, um, when we talk with about varsity sports and when traditionally varsity, you know, you think about, we’re in basketball season, first day of practice today, OK? Or you was, yeah, today for boys basketball, you know, when you throw the ball up in the air, that’s

01:38:40,070	usually at 6 o’clock. That’s not gonna change. Those times are going to remain the same no matter what we do. Those times are going to remain consistent. Um, another question is how will longer bus routes or adjustments affect student attendance or readiness for school, I think based on those insights from the, uh, report

01:38:56,830	during the review, they did indicate that two-tier system, we should be able to see reduced rides, so kids are actually on the bus a shorter time, which might be more attractive to riding the bus and getting to school.

01:39:15,700	Um, what plans are in place for managing supervision of students arriving earlier, waiting for the buses after school. I would tell you we already have a problem there. We already have a problem, particularly after school at our middle school levels about kids waiting. Our Our plus at schools before a bus arrives to take them home. So we already have challenges there.

01:39:35,630	I would tell you a change we’re already working with CRA and Bismarck Park and Rec about expanding and enhancing afterschool care, particularly at the elementary level, because we know we that could be changed the most dramatically. Um, we’re also making some changes within our secondary division to make sure we can accommodate maybe more students working in afterschool care. It’s hard to believe it.

01:39:56,830	I think we were just talking about before the meeting, we have 112, 117 high school kids working in after-school care already. Um, we need to try to see if we can bolster that and get some more, um, support for childcare. Um, will there be additional costs for transportation services.

01:40:15,070	Um, I think our staff are concerned about the cost for kids and being a barrier for kids and even though it’s been talked about, it was very unpopular. Nobody, very few people came to me and said, charge me for bus service, so I don’t think that’s a, that’s a widely supported idea, and it’s not in our recommendation.

01:40:33,770	In addition to the staff survey, we did put out a video just for parents, um, you can see in kind of mid-November. We did get over 1000 responses to that, which I thought was amazing that we got that many, and then, um, again, you can see the summary of their feedback.

01:40:51,500	So out of 1000 responses, look at the top 5 supportive themes. Yeah, there’s people who just say, we need to do something. We need to change something, um, it’s alignment with budget realities we see in I’m gonna share a slide with you with that with where our budget’s at and there’s just some constraints we have to, that are real.

01:41:09,530	We, they’re not made up. Um, we needed to look at improvements. Is there potential for benefits to reduce delays, uh, improve efficiency, um, be at a bus stop when we say we’re going to be at a bus stop, and then community flexibility, acknowledging that why the changes are challenging, they think a lot of people respond

01:41:28,770	and think they’re manageable, right? We’ll get there. We’ll realign just like a lot of. Other Class A schools in North Dakota have two-tier systems. We’re really the only one who doesn’t. So, um, for large, large schools, multiple high school schools, so, um, we, the people were seeing that as an option. Concerns for the families, though, daily routine.

01:41:49,200	You’re moving my times. You’re changing our family routines, right? Childcare, yep. Definitely widespread comments on childcare and how are we going to address childcare, transportation length and fear of cost, which again we’ve already talked about costs, but just people not wanting their kids out to ride the bus longer.

01:42:13,130	They, they don’t want that, um, increased traffic delays. There was some concerns, a lot of concerns about just dropping off kids, getting to schools, a lot of buses on the road at one time, um, surprising. There’s a lot of people that have noticed that problem that we do congest the roads at A certain amount of time.

01:42:29,630	And then even parents talked about equity, low income families, access to childcare, getting access to afterschool care and making sure there was enough, um, so they could be accommodated.

01:42:52,570	Um, their questions again we garnered from their 1000 plus, uh, comments, open-ended comments, how will elementary start times impact working parents who rely on a consistent schedule, you know, I think as many parents came and talked to me and members of, in our forums, everyone was uniquely different.

01:43:13,600	There are very few, there’s nothing consistent about our work schedules and, I mean, I know that it’s usually 8 o’clock, but everybody has a unique story, but I will tell you that, um, an example like Fargo Public School has a two-tier system, actually kind of a slight modified two-tier system. A lot of their elementary schools are opening at 8 o’clock, um, doors open at 7:30 for breakfast, you know, so it is affecting their families. Do we think we could adapt? I do. I think we could adapt to that.

01:43:32,730	Um What provisions are being made for families with children attending multiple schools. Again, this depends on your family. Um, if you’re dropping two kids at the same elementary school, it seemed like a small hurdle. If you’re dropping a kid in elementary school, then you’re going to a middle school. We just made that hurdle.

01:43:48,770	Thank you, Mr. Hager. We just made that hurdle a little, little tougher. We raised it up and made you give you a 110 hurdle, not a, not a, um, not a quarter mile hurdle, so, um, it’s a little bit tougher to jump because we’re going to separate those times, but again, It might be depending on when

01:44:04,030	you’re able to drop them off and when they can get breakfast at one school and when they get breakfast at another school, and when the bill actually starts. So I think each one of those is, is uniquely different. Um, can the district guarantee that bus times won’t increase with the change.

01:44:22,300	I try not to make guarantees on things I’m not fully aware of yet, and we’re just doing the routing right now, but Transpar did indicate in the report they believe route times should be able to. Decreased, should shorten the amount of time kids are on buses, and we’re really hopeful that that’s turns out to be the case.

01:44:41,630	And lastly, how will the district evaluate the success, which I think is a very fair question. I would tell you very simply, and Any board members get calls about bussing. You want to raise your hand if you do. Yes, you all do, right? We get many calls about bussings, particularly early in the year.

01:44:58,600	If we could have a change that on the first week of school, all the buses showed up at the bus stops that we say in town, and they all are there within. I’ll even give you 5 minutes either side of when we say we’re going to be there because stoplight might happen, you know. I would call that a major success.

01:45:15,630	Because we’re picking up kids, and if we could have a line of buses outside of each of my middle schools at the end of school, so that when all the kids leave, they get on a bus and they go back home. That is a huge success.

01:45:30,770	If we can get there, that we have made the system better. We’ve made the district better. Um, intersections just between staff and between parents and the community. These are 4 the 4 big themes that we see in all responses. You’re impacting my schedule. yep, we are. What about child care? cause I ain’t gonna move my childcare.

01:45:54,630	Yep, heard that loud and clear that we need to support support families on that impact on extracurricular. Yep, we’re going to change some extracurricular times, even to the point of, if secondary starts later, we could have some activities in the morning just to be. fully transparent, there could be some activities in the morning.

01:46:13,500	And then, again, equity and access, uh, how do we ensure that we give kids the best opportunity to, to ride a bus, get to school, get to school on time and learn. So, uh, I would let you know that Mr. Sheer is heading up along with a lot of our, um, Secondary, elementary staff, uh, secondary elementary leadership.

01:46:33,100	We have, uh, we’re going to be bringing some CUNY members. We have a park board and and Korea representatives and others that are starting to talk about some of the questions, like how do we address childcare.

01:46:54,030	That committee is already working on how can we expand and enhance childcare in our schools so we can address the questions and concerns parents are uh uh proposing, um, so we’re already trying to work on the solutions. I would tell you based on your questions tonight, board members, you’re gonna, we’re gonna talk about when you’re gonna hopefully look at making a decision on this, and I would tell you by Mid January, we kind of need to know something

01:47:10,430	to plan ahead, but if you have questions or people have questions, we want to be able to answer as many of those for you as we can too. So that way you’re have an informed decision. Um, committee recommendation, Mr. Hager, myself and the committee met last week Thursday. We looked at the Transpar report.

01:47:28,270	We looked at the report from the community forums. We looked at the survey data. I actually sent the raw survey data in a, in a searchable database to all the committee members so they could look at all the responses, um, for, from staff and the community, and after we left that unanimously, the committee

01:47:47,130	said we need to move forward with a two-tier system and we agree that elementary should start first. OK, so I think that’s what Mr. Hager brought to you tonight.

01:48:05,530	Um, I would tell you from and I purposely changed the color on the slides, because now you’re hearing my voice, it’s before it’s the board, it’s people’s voice and it’s the committee’s voice. This is my team and my voice. Our recommendation is if you want to improve the reliability, quality, and safety of our bus bus fleet and transportation which nobody is saying no on that. I haven’t run into anybody who says, you bet we love unsafe buses and we want them to be.

01:48:24,730	More unreliable or more less reliable than they are now. Nobody’s saying that, then we need to do something. We need to change some aspect of our transportation service. So the other thing I would tell you, and I, um, it’s kind of like, um, The definition of insanity, just keep doing the same thing over and expect a different outcome.

01:48:45,100	That’s, we’ve all heard that saying, right? So look over the last 4 years, what you’re spending on bussing. And you see that, I mean, 2 years ago, 14% of 5%, up 5% this year, actually, they wanted more. We just held the line on 5%. It could have been larger than that this year.

01:49:05,530	Um, particularly with our Harlow’s contract, um, If you want to keep doing the same thing and be pressed because I will tell you we’re going to have more kids in our building next year than we have this year.

01:49:23,070	Odds are in our favor, right? And we’re gonna have Just as difficult or more difficult getting bus drivers than we are now, so we’re going to have the same problems with, um, our system, and we’re going to pay more. I, I just don’t see how that is a feasible. Choice. It is a choice.

01:49:43,970	I just don’t know how it’s a feasible choice, OK? Um, so, Again, what do we need to do? Our recommendation is to go forward with a two-tier system of some with elementary starting first, um. We’ve already started routing, actually, Mr.

01:50:03,100	Cher met with Transpar today to begin the routing process and put all of our kids on routes to make sure that we can hit those time targets that we’re shooting for, um, that would help inform a lot of people and turning internal and external that I can start planning when I know school in the elementary is gonna start at 7:50, 8:00, 8:05, they can start to shoot for that, OK? Um, that’s what we need to do when we get done with routing. Childcare, we’re already working with.

01:50:23,870	and wrecks andrea and our secondary, um, admins on how to expand services and offerings, um, we’re working with our HR department already and could we hire Some of our aid support instead of hiring more 35 hours a week.

01:50:43,000	Could we move that up to 40? And get them to help provide some afterschool care for our kids, that would be beneficial, OK? So, all three of those we’re working on right now. And again, we’ll plan on having more questions answered when the board makes the final decision, which we have slated that decision-making time to be in Monday, January 13th, and the only reason that is is because I think you could make the decision in December, but

01:51:04,030	respectfully, uh, Mr. Eastgate said, uh, Dr F Fast, you’re not going to at that meeting, and I will divulge that I will not be at the next meeting, um, that we shouldn’t do it without you here, so we’re going to wait till January. So I would stand for any questions you might have.

01:51:21,570	Board members, any questions? Miss Presky. So again, just to kind of go back, um, I just pulled up the possible future bell time scenarios slide. Do you, have you? Do you have, um, a time frame you’re kind of landing on then for us to base this decision in January on? Um, again, that’s the projection from Transpar.

01:51:48,730	We’ve started routing as of today. Um, we believe we should be able to have that done before January 13th. That’s kind of a, a, a timeline we think we can do, but what we have told in all community forums is I can’t give you an exact time till route, but that’s what we’re shooting for. OK.

01:52:04,870	We’re trying to shoot for those times is reflected in option A. And then along with the childcare aspect, I’m sure that there will be discussions or, um, our discussions already on those middle schoolers and maybe the high schoolers that aren’t driving that need to be dropped off before their start time that there would be, that would

01:52:25,600	be allowable. There would be a place and. Yeah, I, I think for middle school and high school, you can see from the elementary example on the. I’ll, I don’t know, think, think, think. Uh, my backup don’t work. Um, Behind the the back the the back the the back the sound effect would help didn’t work.

01:52:43,900	Yeah, I know. I just made the, the backup, the backup sign. Oh look, now it works on and off. Amazing when you reset the technology. I think when you look at this anticipated, you see the really dark purple in front of elementary, that’s at 7:30.

01:53:04,130	This was an idea that we would be trying to drop off about a half hour before elementary starts, so kids can go to breakfast, right? Um-hum. There would be a similar drop off, maybe not quite a half hour, but slightly ahead of secondary, so kids can still have a breakfast time, have a gathering time before they go to school.

01:53:21,630	So, I tell you, the, I think your question, yes, there would be, we just don’t have it reflect. on this. Um, but I don’t think it’ll be as long as it is in the elementary. Again, our routing, once we know that will be quite beneficial for us to know where that falls out.

01:53:39,330	And I guess when I think about who else needs to know about this or what other partners should be looped in, um, the chamber comes to mind that, um, hopefully we can. Try to get some communication to them, messaging to them to share with their members in, in the city because I think, um.

01:53:59,770	This is going to depend, or we’re going to need work, uh, employers, um, to be a little flexible as well on this for our working parents. I agree. So, I think, um, maybe just trying to loop them in on these discussions and maybe there could be a short article that could be, um, published that just says that this is in the talking stages or we wait

01:54:16,700	until we make a decision, but either way, I think that they would be a great resource. I, I appreciate that. Actually, we’re writing an article for our parents. newsletter that goes out next week, kind of to summarize this, I will share that. I’m actually in the chamber tomorrow morning, so I’ll share that with Brenda.

01:54:34,800	Board members Ms. Peterson. Um, first of all, thank you for all of the, the, the presentation and I especially I hope the public, um, takes into account sometimes like the consensus consensus council report, kind of summarizing what everybody said.

01:54:57,230	I really appreciate the slides where you summarize those those talking points that came from all of the surveys, both staff, and, and families, and one thing I just would, would ask cause we’re, I, you know, obviously there’s, there’s still some decision making that needs to happen once we have some of the details, which was.

01:55:11,170	One of the things that came out in the forums without having some of those concrete details just like any family, if you don’t know the start or the finish time, you know, knowing. What, what you might have, um, in terms of childcare or needs or anything like that, um, it remains a little bit of a question mark, but one thing I would like to just put a pin in or or something that we maybe,

01:55:28,670	maybe it’s for, um, board member um Hager to bring back to the operational excellence Committee is obviously the bell time is the most. The biggest thing that we’re asking for kind of move my cheese type of stuff where it’s like, OK, that’s really gonna affect all families regardless of bus bussing, but I did think that

01:55:45,830	there were a lot of notes that came in and about the kind of the safety and the quality that I think and I hope isn’t missed because of the bell, time takes a lot of the, the focus.

01:56:02,300	There still was a lot of just making sure that they’re feeling safe and that super supervision is there and um, and then not only supervision at the schools once they’re dropped off. anybody that’s just affected by the belt time, but then what’s happening on those buses, so I know that that was, um, and is consistently taken into consideration by those, but I don’t want to forget that in, in, in this because there is

01:56:21,530	still that, OK, so what’s happening when they’re on the bus? What’s happening, um, to, to just that overall, um, Quality. I, I, if I can respond to your question, and I maybe should address it in there one that we heard many concerns that the forum about just bus safety and conduct and I’m

01:56:40,300	gonna guess back in the Early 70s when I was riding a bus that as an older student as a senior high student, right? I was not always the best example to the young riders on the bus, even though I was a good kid, but, you know, mixing those age groups, sometimes you get to be

01:56:59,470	exposed to some other behaviors that you, we just like our young ones not to be exposed to. One of the benefits of this is for the most part, and I must say, not all, because we have some really long routes where we might be combining age populations.

01:57:15,130	There is an opportunity to kind of segregate populations and say we’re just gonna pick up elementary kids now and they don’t cross segregate with middle school, high school kids, then you go and you pick up the high school kids. So there is some benefit in there. I think we heard at the forums people would appreciate. Yeah Yes Board members.

01:57:36,270	Any further questions? Thank you for that report, Dr Fasan. I appreciate it, and Mr. Hager and your work with the committee. Right. You want me to go right in the next number two? Yes, sir. Non-resident student Report nonresident student, this you get annually, so we’re just providing this to you.

01:57:57,930	I will, uh, so you can see the number of students that non-resident students that are attending into Bismarck, you know, you’re policy changer, that’s probably drifting less and less and less all the time due to policy revisions in the past, but you also can see the number of students that are resi are attending schools outside of BPS district, so their, their BPS.

01:58:16,870	students who leave us, I would, um, I will make a call over to Dr Bittz and let him, you know, have him wonder where those 60 kids of BPS go to MADA.

01:58:33,430	And I know some are educators, kids and stuff, I know when I worked over there, they bring their kids to school, which I, good for them, but we have 60 kids going to Manan. The other one I want to point out is Yellowstone at the bottom, cause that one maybe you haven’t seen on previous reports that was opened up by Century Code, Yellowstone.

01:58:54,730	is a small K8 school that is providing virtual content, virtual coursework to to students throughout the state and any student in the state can open and roll into them, particularly we’re seeing that with homeschool kids. So homeschool families are opting into the Yellowstone curriculum, which again is 100% online, um, so that is, I would bet almost exclusively all home educated students taking part in that. Board members, any questions on the non-resident student report.

01:59:17,530	See no, Dr F Fast, we can go to HC Financial Report and uh culminate the evening I’ll kick that off to Mr. Cher. Thank you, President. Theseate members of the board, um, always pleased to see you, always save the best for last.

01:59:39,770	Um, so in front of you we have the financial report that we have, last time when I reported, we were tweaking the the boxes with the favorable and unfavorable, those are fixed, so this is our um final new financial report that you’ll receive monthly, um, couple things, uh, as you look that you’ll notice that we are unfavorable by a lot.

02:00:03,670	Smaller numbers than are favorable, so that’s always when you look at the big picture, um, that’s what you want to see. I kind of like this. We take all the revenues on one and all the expenditures on the other, and then you can do your two year comparison, um, not only, you know, it’s hard to compare a number to a number, um, which

02:00:19,000	we do on the left side of that tabular part, but then you can also say, well, how does that relate percentage wise, OK, well, we’re, we appear to be tracking very similar to last.

02:00:37,270	in the year prior, um, but it also showed those anomalies where OK, explain what’s going on there? Why do we, why are we seeing that? And I will say that some of the interesting things are, you know, we’ve dealt with Esser funds the last couple of years, so that’s kind of created a uh a wrinkle in, in what we could expect to see on some of these and then we also do include, uh, just the report from our accounting

02:00:54,830	software. I will say that there’s really nothing that I feel like. Stands out to bring to the board’s attention, um, in the report, and I would answer any questions the board would have concerning the financial report. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Hager with a question. Uh Thank you, Mr. Eastgate.

02:01:12,100	Not a, not a question, just, just to comment to Mr. Scherer in the accounting department. I appreciate you guys’ Work on modifying this report that you guys have done over the years and and gotten to this point. I, I, I like the way the data is presented at the top, just.

02:01:28,600	Makes it easier for somebody who’s maybe doesn’t have an accounting background to to get a quick glimpse of maybe how things are looking, being able to compare to year to year quickly, so I, I appreciate you guys work on this. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hager. Any other questions or comments from board members. Sing Nan, thank you very much, Mr.

02:01:48,300	Sheriff, for that report, and Dr Fost for your superintendent’s report. All agenda items have been considered. I declare this