00:00:07,870	Josh Jager, president of the Bismarck School Board, it’s 5:15 on Monday, August 11th. I called this meeting to order. Welcome to those of you who are joining us both here and online. You can find our agenda and follow along under the school board tab at Bismarckschools.org.

00:00:27,870	Dr Cher, could you call the roll, please, Mr. Hager, here, Mr. Eastgate, here, Mr. Lee, here, Mrs. Peterson, here, Miss Preskey, here. Uh, Dr Fossnacht, Julius in the Pledge of Allegiance. My pleasure Item 1C BPS mission, vision and Values, the BPS mission is to empower every learner to thrive.

00:01:14,730	The BPS vision states together our strong relationships build inclusive, collaborative, and innovative environments that create agency and inspire a passion for learning, excellence, and discovery. BPS values are inclusion, excellence, innovation, and leadership. You’ll also find a link in the agenda to the BPS strategic plan. Item 2 is to adopt the agenda.

00:01:34,730	What are the wishes of the board? I’ll move that we adopt the agenda. I’ll second. We have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Uh, Signon, Dr Cher, Eastgate, yes, Lee, yes. Peterson, yes. Presky, Hager, yes, motion passes. Item 3, focus on success.

00:01:59,470	We do not have a focus on success for this August meeting. So that brings us down to item 4, which is public comment. Uh, the board recognizes the central role parents play in the education of their children and supports active parent involvement in the education process. The board’s practice of public comment reflects and aligns with policy BCBA in the spirit of its intent.

00:02:17,630	For classroom issues, it’s best to follow the chain of command. Teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, superintendent. uh for district issues, please reach out to Dr Fasnot. If you do speak tonight, we simply ask that you be responsible, be helpful, and be respectful. Our BPS students deserve to have adults model the expectations that we have for them.

00:02:36,900	Groups are urged to select one spokesperson, individuals will be limited to no more than 4 minutes and we’ll be notified within 30 seconds remaining to conclude their remarks. 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 wish to speak tonight.

00:02:57,870	Seeing nobody, uh, public comment is now closed. Item 5, monitoring district operations are one mega results, Dr Fassnna, um, good afternoon, board members. Nice to see you and work with you again. Uh, I would like to call up the podium, uh, tonight, um, Dr Johnson, to present to our mega results reports.

00:03:21,270	Thank you, Dr Johnson Thank you, Dr Fassland, and, uh, President Hager, members of the board, uh beautiful evening here, um, Rw mega results, it’s that time of year again, our monitoring report is always a year slightly behind, so this is from July 1, 24 through June 30, 2025.

00:03:41,530	So again, as we take a look here at the mega results, we, uh, listed that we believe that we’re making reasonable progress with exception, uh, 9 of our indicators, uh, 6 of them showed that we either met or are making reasonable progress to we’re making reasonable progress with exception and one failing to meet the target.

00:03:59,270	We continue to outperform the North Dakota State averages in multiple areas, including graduation rates and engagement in other measures that we look to value, even though we do have some ambitious and uh stretch goals for those targets. Um, graduation, uh, was down this year. We’re at 84%.

00:04:19,370	That’s 4% lower than the previous year, 11%, of course, below that 95% mark, but yet 2% higher than the state average and you’ll see if you look comparably with the state, you’ll see that the state dipped as well.

00:04:36,000	Um, part of that, we might attribute to a little bit being around, uh, still some of that post-COVID as kids moved out of uh and there’s other factors that we continue to dive into. I’ll share a little bit of data around that too, as I had indicated in the report that you see, uh, discussion that we’ve had before about that dosage and to the public as well as the board when we talk about that, we’ve done some other internal data that looks

00:04:51,600	at if you’re part of our school district for the last 7 years, middle school through high school. What are your success rates look like? And I’m proud to say that there’s a 97.82% overall.

00:05:10,730	So that means if you’re here and you stay with our district, you have over nearly 98% chance of graduating on time with that cohort. And to that end, just to clarify too, if you’re son or daughter might be part of LifeEd or some other things or continuing on or coming back for 1/5 year. Those won’t count as part of that cohort data too. So again, we know that we have some students that fall into that.

00:05:24,630	We also continue to outperform at nearly 80% of our special education students, if they’ve been part of our district that whole time, our graduating, um, 90, over 90% of our students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, if they’re part of our district the whole time, are graduating on time A again,

00:05:42,330	looks at showing that parent partnership that we so desire. When we drop into some of our indigenous populations. 100% of our students that have been part of our district the whole time, graduated.

00:06:04,530	Again, we obviously have that duty and the privilege to serve all students, whether you move here in April before your senior year or you move here in at the beginning of your 9th grade. But again, just knowing that sometimes people write a different narrative, but I want to know that I with good confidence believe that we’re doing a great job in serving the needs of our students here in Bismarck and meeting those

00:06:20,630	needs of of uh parents and family members who entrust us to take care of their kids during that process. So I just want to add that to that. Um, Comple rate, you see that we are at 91%, um, a little slightly below the 95%.

00:06:37,170	What that does is it adds in those kids that graduate maybe a year later, some of our Lifeed kids now count as a completer outside of their co h or t group of initially may have been part of, um, we’re up slightly 2% in our post-secondary enrollment, we see students again at rough target of where we want to be, but again, what’s right for you?

00:06:53,730	If that postsecondary enrollment, whether it’s going to the military, entry in the workforce, and apprenticeship. But with that, we do highlight our 2 and 4 year graduation, um or, or sorry, our 2 and 4 year, uh, university programs.

00:07:14,070	So, I also would take an opportunity to say that we continue to see increases in our service hours and our career exploration activities. We still hold pretty tight on that uh capstone projects uh that is a really defined and tight definition for us internally, something maybe we need to look at.

00:07:32,170	Um, our students overwhelmingly show that they believe that they’re engaging in critical thinking, and they’re also encouraging engaging in activities that um ask them to do creative problem solving and work through that.

00:07:49,970	We do believe that across the whole that we’ll continue to invest in some of the processes where we’re having reflective conversations with our leaders, as well as other uh work groups about how do we meet our students when they come to us at any point in their educational journey whether it’s PK 12 or whether they’re entering as the 9th graders or as a senior year.

00:08:05,800	How can we invest in our students? What kind of multi-tiered systems that support? Do we want to wrap around academic behavioral and social emotional needs to help ensure that our students are ready to meet their post se con d ary plans.

00:08:21,800	Um, we know that we do better than the state, and I, I try to bring that as a point of pride because as we’ve shared two, nearly 1 in 9, students are from Bismarck, so to do well and then outperform ourselves, um, that, that sometimes statistically is a tough uphill battle, but I think that’s met with a resolve as again what I would lastly say with this, I’ve said it maybe before, is we do celebrate kids graduating. But they don’t just graduate our high schools.

00:08:41,700	They graduate from our district. and that kindergarten teacher, that 4th grade teacher that middle school music teacher, all those individuals had a role in helping form that with the parents and the rest of the community.

00:09:03,330	So, I always enjoy taking a look at this report as it helps begin the year, reminding us that when we celebrated graduation and other festivities at the end of last year. It’s really about that larger, bigger picture of educating that whole student, so. at this point in time, I would, uh, certainly stand for any questions that the board may have of myself. Board members Miss Preskey Hi, thank you for this report.

00:09:23,870	I, I also really enjoy getting it. Um, I guess going to the um indicator 2 with the number of students who did not graduate. Um, I’m just wondering like, what are we doing to try to capture what some of those reasons may be.

00:09:47,270	Like, is there a survey that’s done? Are there teachers that are tapped to you know, find out what, what, if anything else that we can do as a district to to um help them and, and help them get across that graduation stage and get their diploma. Uh, thank you, President Hager, and board member Pressy.

00:10:08,470	um I think that there’s a short and a long game that’s always played, right? You’re trying to figure out individually what matters for one student as to why they might be making the decision.

00:10:24,070	Oftentimes our counselors or another caring adult who had been invested with a student might know some of that background of that story, you know, and sometimes we have to be professional onion peelers and peel back and figure out what’s going awry, but also then looking for trends.

00:10:41,170	So to that end, one of the um processes that we kind of put forward as alluded to this a few years ago, we really started double down and prophesized experience before was academic alert, really trying to track credits along, hey, it’s the end of their first semester as a freshman. Not saying you’re not going to graduate, but you’ve fallen, you’re just a little bit off course. If you compound that across the next 4 years, you’re not going to make it.

00:10:55,800	So having those honest conversations, you know, we always want to make sure that kids don’t feel like it’s not like you’re lost and you’re drowning you’re never going to be able to recover, but being able to have that conversation early in often not only with the student, but with the parent, I think is an important uh step.

00:11:11,070	Um, we do also have uh a process that I put together where we um work with the APs, uh, assistant principals, our counselors, our social workers, uh, school psychs, other. people that are wrapped around those services, liaisons, and um we call it kind of grad roundup, students that have, they have dropped out.

00:11:30,370	We have a tracking document that’s internal where it’s shared with each school and an adult’s trying to make a meaningful contact and talk to parent, talk to a student, invited him back in. uh, Mr.

00:11:45,470	Calvoto, Joe Calvoda, the principal at South Central, um, he has shared with me, uh, several times, you know, sometimes you make that call and you don’t think you get much you know, traction, but all of a sudden, 4 months later, when a kid comes back to say, you know, when you gave me that call, I didn’t think anyone cared. And you called and I had been thinking about no one even cares that I’m gone. And so I came back and now I graduated.

00:12:00,330	So again, we know that that’s individually best done one on one. We do try to look for if there are trends that are occurring, but uh, part of the discussion that Dr Fossa and I even had today was reflective of a conversation I had with our assistant principals at the secondary level last week is

00:12:16,730	just being cognizant of that our graduation rates are really, really strong. If you’re here for the 7 years. And in that is a celebration, but it’s also a call to action for understanding that when new students come to us, it doesn’t mean that they’re not.

00:12:35,070	You get those layups, you get the kids that have everything going right and their parents are going to help support them. But if we have some early signs, what can we do to rally? What conversations internally can we start doing, not just in high school, but even in middle school or elementary about, hey, how do we onboard, how do we

00:12:49,900	take care of this kid, wrap some supports around them so that academically, socially and emotionally that they’re on the right track and so, um I think that that’s one of the biggest, um, calls for us.

00:13:04,470	I think that we also are doing a lot of things about figuring out where can we figure out their passions? Uh, Dr Frostnot has talked about Korean technical education. Again, hooking into students. We know the data that sometimes when kids see themselves in a future possible that that can help. increase that.

00:13:20,800	I do think that it’s important for us to at times step back and realize that we saw that dip across our state too, but again, um we continue to have some demographic issues that are a little bit more challenging that’s growing. But with that, we still are outperforming, I think within those same controls.

00:13:40,000	If I could continue, what, what does that 84%, what does that equate to in the number of kids? Do you have any idea around about what that would be? Um in terms of the number of students that graduated last year did not I don’t want to miscalculate the number we’re around 900 some kids that graduated last year, so it’d be about 160.

00:14:04,900	If you consider that, that’s a little bit higher than I believe our numbers, slightly lower than that. So I’d say 120 That’s a relative that’s 120 students’ lives. That’s 120 sons and daughters.

00:14:27,100	Um, and then I guess the other question I have is just a lot of this data is 23, 24, 22, 23, like, how do we get more current data when we, you know, just had the 25 graduation. Why are we getting, why is it 2 years old? And does that mean that would we have more current data if we push this report a little later, you know, I don’t know if that’s a something we should look at to have more relevant numbers.

00:14:45,170	When, when we began the conversation with the Coherent governance and uh Mr. Lee, board member Lee can probably recall some of this. The discussion was the train is like, we always want to look one whole year at a time, and we don’t want to be in the middle of the year looking at

00:15:02,170	different data and then different data and then different data because then what year are we talking about? So that’s why we bring this data when we do.

00:15:21,470	Additionally, this data is not updated, um, on a regular insured date by DPI um until, uh, usually in early fall, so we wouldn’t be able to bring data for the 2025 year, but by having it the following year, we have not only graduation, but we have some internal mechanism data as well as our, for example, our postsecondary enrollment data we’re able to start comparing a little bit, um.

00:15:39,630	closer and so those were some of the decisions about 78 years ago when the board at the time said, OK, we understand that’s why we’re bringing this year, so it’s always kind of just trailing. That’s been the habit. Dr Fauss, do you have something to add? No, I think, uh, um, Board Member Pressy’s questions are really good.

00:15:55,600	I, I would add, um yeah, when you ask the very personal question when it’s when we’re talking about, uh, let’s get the number right 84%, right? So we’re talking about 16% of kids that started that ninth grade cohort, didn’t graduate on time. That’s real souls, right? That’s souls of kids.

00:16:15,900	Um, I would add, if you go into insights as well, you see our dropout rate is 4%. So part of that group is 4% of kids who dropped out at some point during the pathway, um, and I think Dr Johnson’s right, we just had this discussion today about some of that data as if kids that really stay in that seven-year window with us

00:16:34,600	start, stay with us at 7 years. That graduation um result is very powerful. Not, not only for the total, but even some of our most um challenging subgroups, um, as, uh, and I’m gonna question you on this.

00:16:53,800	You said 100% for indigenous students was at a 24/25 data, or is that a 23, 24 death? That’s actually 25 Dan. OK, so that’s fresh data. Um, so that, that’s a really good result when we have those kids all the way through, but I think you’re exactly right, and I would, I would offer to you, uh, Board Me Pressy and the board members you’ve heard of us talk about that panorama data warehouse

00:17:14,070	pro product that we’re rolling out actually this fall to teachers and our staff. We started last year. Um, that early warning dashboard that Dr Johnson’s mention mentioning for our leaders to follow and track how our kids are doing so you can pick up those indicators early. was at best difficult for people to navigate.

00:17:36,070	Um, that took getting data from multiple data sources and having someone who is good enough to put that into one shared Excel sheet and be able to interpret that. I think the beauty that I see with the panorama product is taking that early warning dashboard, being attendance data.

00:17:55,170	classroom performance data, um, behavior data, put it into one suite. So really, teams of teachers can now see that early warning data and intervene to your point. Let’s get to these kids earlier so we can and make a difference.

00:18:14,530	And again, if we’re gonna need to focus on the ones that are, um are coming into us outside of that seven-year window, like they’re coming in, leaving, coming out, leaving, uh, coming back to us. OK, that’s good, but let’s keep an eye on him. Let’s be ready to intervene earlier. I think that’s a positive. Hopefully that’ll do that, but um, yeah, you’re right. I mean, the data is always a little older.

00:18:28,170	Could we push this off, um, a couple months? I would push it off even though I know DPI usually gets us to, to us in August. I’d probably push it off a little deeper in the fall, just so that data was um consistent, but again, I think to Dr Johnson’s point is all through this year, you’re gonna be

00:18:45,170	looking at 24, 25 data, right? Got that right, 24, 25 data all year. Um, if we did that, we just need to push it off to where DPI has it on ND Insights. Um, really, all this report is built off ND Insights, so it’s uh public consumable data.

00:19:03,000	We use the same suite information as anybody can look at today. We just have to push it back, um, so we got that data to us since we’re still waiting for some. Mr. Lee. Uh, thank you, President Hager. Um, yeah, I appreciate, uh, the integrity of the data.

00:19:23,800	It’s, I think it’s tough sometimes to acknowledge you’ve dropped 4% points. Um, but I don’t think it’s systemic, uh, you know, anything we’re doing in, in BPS. I’ve always felt that target of 95% is really high, especially when you think of the, uh, um, the dropout rate being 4%, and that’s just unfortunately, yeah, we would love to, you know,

00:19:42,430	have a target of 100% and have it achievable. I don’t think it is. I don’t even think 95% is, so. I think it’s one of those, uh, metrics we could look at, um we’ve been at 85, 88, 84, uh, you know, we, I mean, even moving it down to 90% leaves us

00:19:59,000	with a stretch goal. Um, but, uh, really, um, exciting, I think is the, the completer rate. I think that’s hugely important that you know kids, uh, who don’t graduate aren’t just done. We’re reaching more to, to complete their education. That’s more important to me, uh, than probably any other metric.

00:20:20,970	So, um, yeah. Just a few comments. Thank you, Mr. President. President Hagar, just to comment again, you may know this, but again, as we speak to you tonight, also to the community to um board members, Lee’s comment too is, if I, as a 16 year old complete my GED two years early before I

00:20:39,070	graduate, I actually count as a dropout. I don’t count as a graduate. but yet I’m a completer I might actually be in the military serving my country overseas as a GED. and enrolled in the military. before my fellow classmates walked across the stage. That’s possible and that has happened.

00:20:59,370	And so I think to Mr. Lee’s uh Bo member Lee’s, uh, point, that’s also why we do care a lot about that completer rate because it also takes those uh those unique situations into consideration. Mr. Eastgate Yeah, thanks, Dr Johnson. Thanks, President Hager.

00:21:16,530	Um, I was just gonna comment also on the targets actually and I was going to throw in the idealistic comment of the evening and just saying, why isn’t it 100%? Because I, I know it’s not realistic. I know it’s not what the state’s at, but like even as we looked at the 84%, Dr Fassnnat’s quick math right, it was 16% off.

00:21:31,500	He didn’t say we’re 11% off of our goal. It’s 16% because those are all real students, real kids. So again, I, I would just gonna throw it out there. I like, I do like, I was glad Mr.

00:21:45,800	Lee brought up the completer rate though too, and the Dr Johnson talked about it because I think complete arrange maybe what we’re more looking at for that, but I’d be personally as a board member, I would rather see a target of 100% for that, and I don’t care if we put an asterisk by it because we know we’re gonna fail to make, not no, but the realities of all

00:21:58,530	the data states that we won’t get there. But that seems like one that we’re OK failing to make, you know, reasonable progress on because it is our goal. I mean, I, I would say every kid we get through here, we want to get to either graduation or to a completer stage.

00:22:12,800	So again, idealistic comment, but um thought it’s worth putting out there. If, if I may. Doctors. Um, uh, President Hager, I respect that very much. I think of all the data points that have been talked over the course of my career of tracking student success, tracking school success.

00:22:30,800	The one I’ve always put my wear on the front is graduation rate or completer rate, right? Because that’s the ultimate goal. We all know that. You start kindergarten, what do, what do parents think about? Getting my kid to graduation, right? It’s, I mean, I didn’t have a graduation party for my son, for my son, I had it for

00:22:45,330	me because we got him across the inline, right? It’s, it was the, that big committee goal. So I do appreciate that. Um, I think the other part of it that, and, and I would tell you, never in my experience have we had a, I’ve never been in school that had 100%.

00:23:00,600	There’s always been a life story that impacted a kid, that caused them not to complete, right? Um whatever that may be. The other one that I would say, which would need some tweaking. Is that choice Ready indicator.

00:23:18,700	I think just as like now, you, you have an indicator that says what, uh, 70, I think that’s your goal, um, da da da da, 60, 66% of your kids, um, will attend a two-year school, sorry, your goal is 70%. Um, I think that’s modifying over time too.

00:23:40,100	I think the idea that you have to go to a two-year school has, has tempered over my duration and education, and I want you to graduate high school, and I want you to get into a career that you want and be successful with that career.

00:23:54,500	There’s 2 goals, that’s it, right? If that’s directly out of school you go to a career or 2 year or 4-year, I don’t think it’s as much important for me to go to a post-secondary institution, as was follow your passion, find a career, be successful in it.

00:24:09,370	And we don’t really have a really good way of tracking that, um, that’s the, that’s the hard part with this data is you can’t go out and grab information from those two-year postgraduates, you might say and say, are you in the career you envisioned yourself being in, um, it gets to be a little loose data, but, uh, um, I wanted to point on that one too, just, I know we’re not reaching that 70% mark, but I’m OK with that.

00:24:22,870	Again, philosophically, I think you know, I want kids to find their passion and get into the job they want that doesn’t necessarily mean they have to go to BSC or UND or NDSU just find that passion and go, go seek it out. um but I’m also very proud of our Choice Rey indicator.

00:24:36,800	I thought that was a highlight of this report as well. Our kids are coming out with more and more skills, so they do have an option of where they want to go post graduation, so. Mr. Lee thank you, President Hager. Just, just one more, uh, follow-up comment.

00:24:55,330	the danger of, of a target being too high here, and I’m not suggesting that we do this in any way, shape, or form currently, but would be that you create a, a diploma mail, you try to get kids a diploma no matter what. And we don’t want to do that either, right? Um, we want it to be meaningful.

00:25:07,800	We want it to have something of substance behind it. So, that would be, you know, where if we were ever hitting 100%, I’d be, you know, you’re gonna be taken aback a little bit, like, hmm, really? So it’s tricky with, with these data things because of course we want every child, um, to graduate.

00:25:28,530	We want to be at 100%, but I, I think there is something to being realistic. If we were to hold admin’s feet to the fire on 100%, and they were to change the way they were doing things that wouldn’t necessarily be good is my point, so. it’s all yeah Thank you, Mr. Lee. Good comments, good dialogue. Thank you, Dr Johnson.

00:25:47,600	Um with that, I would entertain emotion Mr. East Skate, President Hager, I would move that we, uh or one mega result, making reasonable progress with exception. I’ll second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? OK, seeing none, Dr Sher. Lee? Yes. Peterson? Yes. Presky? Yes.

00:26:15,430	Eske? Yes. Hager. Yes. Uh, I 6 matters reserved for board action. We have, um nothing on tonight’s agenda that falls into this columns that brings us down to the consent agenda. Mr. President, I move that we accept the consent agenda. I second. We have a motion in a second. Uh, Dr Sher. Peterson Yes. Presky? Yes. Eastgate? Yes.

00:26:41,600	Lee? Yes, Hager. Yes. Uh, item 8, Superintendent’s report, uh, annual superintendent’s Report. on. Thank you, uh, President Hager. Board members, you’ve already received this in your inbox and actually it’s been out for the public consumption on our website and sent out via social media for the last couple of weeks.

00:27:02,100	So I don’t mean to, um, kind of hit old news, but it is a little bit old news, but I just wanted to reiterate to the public that this annual report is really part of the super intense communication plan that, that’s my commitment to you and this community that I’m gonna share some relevant data about your

00:27:18,700	district and just a different way. Um, again, you have all these governance reports you get to see how your district’s doing. There’s multiple ways you can keep track of how your, your district’s doing, including ID Insights, so we talked about tonight.

00:27:35,170	This just becomes a really short primer kind of hopefully informing the community about what we’ve been working on the last year, and also maybe what we see is our future endeavors. So inside there is a little quick letter to you and the community, and then you have two pages of just um good facts, things that I really think are um people want to consume. They want to read, uh, really simple and easy.

00:27:55,370	I would tell you, you see your, uh, average daily membership. That’s the average number of students who are enrolled in BPS on any given day across the last two years. So we’re seeing that grow by 99 kids from our spring 24 to 25 report. Uh, you have everything from ACT to state performance.

00:28:14,470	Again, we just talked about that, um, but that’s more focused on E L A and math. Um, I would point out something that we did this year is add the AP and dual credit at the bottom, just to see the number of the participation rate in all those, and I had

00:28:28,330	for the viewing public, as you already know, we’re going to bring to you a report here very soon and our focus on success, uh, on our AP d credit programs so we can highlight those a little bit and give you some more background information, but really proud of that as far as the participation rate and

00:28:42,730	all those, uh, both those programs. And then on the second page of the fas you’ll see things about our budget and what our previous, this is last year’s expenditures and revenues we’re sitting at, um, a section on staffing, so people know like, um, we’re 2nd largest employer, I believe, in

00:29:01,000	the community. So, um, it’s important to keep track of that and, and people have been watching in the past some of our retention rates. I’d say, um, in the area of teachers and our retention rate is actually going up, so that’s good. We’re keeping our professionals. Um, that ’ s important.

00:29:18,600	Um, we’ve talked about that a lot about keeping them, retaining them, so we don’t have to go out and find really hard to fill teaching positions. So I really, really proud of that.

00:29:35,730	Um, you have some information on what it costs to educate every single student in the state or in our district, sorry, um, some number of lunches and breakfasts we provide, which become a really big number when you talk of over 2 million meals in a year. Um, our team does a really good job.

00:29:51,600	And then transportation and transportation is a challenge And when you start talking about, we have buses that do over 2600 trips across the state of North Dakota in any given year. Um, nearing almost a million miles. I mean, we’re bearing down on a million miles, um, that’s a big system, that’s complex.

00:30:07,900	It is not something that just, you start a bus, you drive one around and it’s really simple, much more complex in my years in Ellendale with my nine little buses, um, it, it is a big system and uh provide a little information on that.

00:30:24,170	The last two pages, uh, for, um, consumers has a little bit of information again about some of the big things that we’ve tasked with this last year and what we see coming forward, um, really want to talk about our efficient services, most of all of us, we’re gonna talk a little bit about bell time here next and, and working on Bell time and transportation, um, but also our work in CTE, um, some of our budget constraints due to federal funding and that,

00:30:42,470	and that this was written a little bit before we knew federal funding was coming, and then just about some of our ed uc ator s we are 2 years in a row and just for the sake of, again, community knowledge, um, M Wheeling, if you haven’t heard, Miss Leah Wheeling at Similely Middle School, is now

00:30:57,170	3 years in a row. BPS has had a North Dakota Teacher of the Year candidate. Um, we’ve been lucky enough to get two of those as North Dakota Teachers a year, and we’re hopeful for, um, a trifecta, 3 out of 3. That’d be great.

00:31:14,330	So, um, the last page deals with, um, our strategic plan. I know we talked about that when we built it, that this report becomes a feedback loop to our community. So just kind of circling that feedback loop for readers of this to know what we’re doing a strategic plan and the and the one little sliver of value this report has for for providing

00:31:31,470	information to our community about how your school’s doing. So I just present this to you officially tonight, the board being so our community can have it. So, and again, it can be found on our district website and people don’t have it. Thanks, Dr Fostnott. Be, Transportation and bell time.

00:31:52,000	Well, it’s, it’ll be going out over official communication channels, um, this week again to remind uh parents that bell times are changing, um, starting next week, Tuesday on the 19th, first day of school. Um, I just want to reiterate to everybody listening that this is a project, a process that’s a year and a half in the making.

00:32:09,870	Um, this worked to improve the efficiency, reliability of our transport ation system was really underway before I even took the chair of superintendent in the district. So it’s something we wanted to work on.

00:32:27,630	We knew we were going to bring in a consultant to, to tell us, give us recommendations how to approve that, and that happened my first year in the district and then all of last year we spent time talking to patrons, talking to public in our community forums about what could we do, what’s it look like, particularly focused on focusing on, um, a two-tiered bell time schedule.

00:32:45,600	And so it’s coming to reality We’re a week away from that starting, um. I do want to, I do want to appreciate that it will be a challenge on some families. I do, but I also know that it was a challenge before. What we were doing before the last two years wasn’t working.

00:33:00,870	Uh, we had buses that were not showing up at AM stops when there’s, we planned on them. Uh, we had gaps in our employees, um, finding drivers to get in those buses and be on time.

00:33:20,070	We also had kids at multiple of our element or middle schools, sorry that were waiting 90 90 plus minutes to find a bus at the end of the school day because of route disruptions and the time it took to get there. Um, having middle school kids waiting 90 to 120 minutes for a bus is never a productive thing, right? So we had to do something. Um, we’re hopeful that that won’t happen.

00:33:40,270	I talked to, um, our, our transportation director today and I said, now, OK, now the goal is, the goal is that on the first day of school, maybe all through that week, that at our bus stops when we say we’re going to be there at X time Within a couple of minutes either way, because the traffic lights, I hope that we have

00:33:55,070	buses at all those stops within that window of time. Um, so parents can trust that we’re going to pick up the kid and take care of them and get them to school on time. And, uh, that would be our goal.

00:34:07,100	And for the parents that maybe want to be able to track that. Remember this year we have the new um Bussfinder on your phone, the app, so you can’t track every bus and all those, but you definitely can watch and see when your child’s bus enters that pickup stop.

00:34:25,530	You can put a little circle around it, say, give me a text when that bus is in that little radius, so I know that that bus showed up on time either picking up or dropping off their child. So, I think that’s a positive step forward too, so parents have some confidence that we’re doing, providing efficient and reliable services to our community.

00:34:42,530	So um, I’m hopeful, and, uh, I hope it works like a charm, so we’ll see. Hopefully, you haven’t taken too many calls. Please send my way, so. Thanks, Dr Fasstnatt. Um, I C, School policy updates. Uh, yeah, if you don’t mind, I just thought it’d be beneficial to inform parents of a few policy changes.

00:35:05,000	The first one, FFI, personalson Electronic communication devices. That’s the cell phone policy. I mean, it, that’s the official name. Everybody calls it the cell phone policy. Um, I trust that all the schools have sent out information to parents about the cell phone policy and those changes. Um, everybody should know this policy revision is due to statute.

00:35:24,270	This is a law change in North Dakota. All schools in North Dakota are adapting to this, and I would encourage you that if you have questions about what the policy, how it’s going to be implemented, what the rules are, uh, maybe what the consequences are, how do, uh, even if you have questions on how to adapt

00:35:38,100	to maybe something your child has a unique health need. You need to contact your principals. You need to talk to your buildings directly because how that’s going to operate in an elementary school, middle school, high school, is uniquely different based on that level.

00:35:55,530	Um, but really, um, I think our, our, I know our principles and leaders have been putting out information to families. So hopefully they can look at that and see that, but I did provide a link to the policy if people want to see it or they can find it on our website.

00:36:10,170	The other one is GACB, patriot, I guess, do you have any questions on that one? We’ve talked about that one for a long time. So it’s an extensive conversation on cell phones. Uh, GACB is about patriotic exercises. That was again passed by our legislature this last session that the start of everyday, every student, every grade across all schools and state of North Dakota, just like we did.

00:36:28,970	We’ll stand and have an opportunity to recite the pledge. Um, so there’s some revisions there, um, just so we’re very clear, we have to provide the opportunity. It’s still a kid’s choice to stand and recite the pledge. I personally hope they do. I I hope my children would, but at the same time, it’s a personal choice.

00:36:46,000	We live in a country of freedom and we want to encourage kids and guide kids on how to do it, but they’re, um, you know, some kids may make it not make a choice to do that, but we’re gonna provide the opportunity that they can stand and recite the pledge with us.

00:37:00,530	So, all the schools will be doing that starting the first day of school. And any questions on that one? OK. And last one is FFK suspension and expulsion and probably this affects very few families, right? We don’t suspend or expel many kids as a total population, but there was legislative action again on expulsions this last session

00:37:24,370	that allowed schools to expel for greater than the school year, um, before, unless you had a weapon, you brought a firearm to school, you could be expelled the calendar year. Everything else could only go until the end of the school year.

00:37:43,600	So theoretically a child could do something pretty egregious on May 1st and would technically only be expelled to the end of the school year, um, for 2 days, let’s say 25 days, um, the legislative change now says if you did something very egregious, like drugs, bring him into school, distributing something like that, that would only be an expulsion thing in

00:38:02,730	this school year. Now the, the expulsion board can consider going longer. They can push it beyond the end of the school year into the next school year. So I just think it’s good to be aware that those consequences lay out there for, for if something would happen, those consequences are available to the school.

00:38:22,170	So hope to never use them. We don’t want to, but they are out there, so. I would stand for any questions you have OK, you start to pros. Seeing none, um, major projects Dr Cher, Dr Fassnnat. Thank you. I will, uh, give the major projects updates. So we’re to the um point where we need to be ready by Tuesday.

00:38:48,270	We will have students there, so I just got a text from Mr. Muller, our director of technology, that said we are live network and WiFi is up and running today.

00:39:05,170	Uh, tomorrow, hopefully we’ll be able to hook in the fire panel because we need to have life safety to get our certificate of occupancy from the city and uh so yeah, it’s exciting. It’s, it’s one, it’s that po in construction, uh, project where you can go day to day and you can see change.

00:39:24,900	So that’s pretty exciting, uh, Director Pat Phillips, um, we’re starting to stage, uh, the equipment and uh that goes in the labs and the furniture and stuff, so, uh, we’ll be ready for for students on next Tuesday.

00:39:46,000	I do have a few pitchers there for you, and like I said, these were probably taken on Friday if we would go there today, you, it’d be even more change, um, and then the financials there for your review. Um, I would entertain any questions the board would have on our singular project we have right now. I guess technically we, we still have Hughes on there, but um our active project. Silver Ranch Career Academy Not seeing any questions So it brings us down to item 9. All agenda items have been considered. I