00:00:05,370	I call this meeting to order Welcome to those of you that are joining us both here and also online. You can find our agenda and follow along online under the school board tab at Bismarckschools.org. Uh, Dr Sher, would you call the role, please, Mister Hager, Here, Mister Eastgate, here, Mr. Lee, here, Mrs. Peterson, here, Miss Preskey.

00:00:29,470	Let the record show Miss Preskey is absent. Uh, Dr Fossna, would you lead us in the pledge? Yeah I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible of liberty and justice for all. Item 1C is BPS is Miss, vision and values.

00:01:07,370	The BPS mission is to empower every learner to thrive. The BPS vision states together our strong relationships build inclusive collaborate, collaborative and innovative environments that create agency and inspire a passion for learning, excellence, and discovery. BPS values include our inclusion, excellence, innovation, and leadership.

00:01:32,500	You’ll also find a link in the agenda to the BPS strategic plan. Item 2 is to adopt the agenda. What are the wishes of the board? Mister Eastgate, I move that we adopt the agenda. Oh, second We have a motion in a second. Any discussion? See none Dr Cher. Eastgate? Yes. Lee. Yes. Peterson? Yes. Hager? Yes. Item 3, focus on success.

00:01:54,330	Dr Fasner, we’re postponing that till the next meeting. Is that Is Is that correct? My apologies board members, but we had a passing of a family member for our um presenter this evening, so we’re just pushing it off on one meeting. OK. Thank you, Dr Fassatt. Um, item 4 is public comment.

00:02:12,470	The board recognized the central role that 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. and the spirit of its intent For classroom issues, it’s best to file the chain of command.

00:02:34,070	Teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, and superintendent. For district issues, please reach out to Dr Fossnott. 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. Groups are urged to select one spokesperson.

00:02:51,070	Individuals will be limited to no more than 4 minutes and will be notified with 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 would like to speak tonight. Seeing no one, public comment is closed.

00:03:16,500	Item 5 R4 personal development and community Rey, Dr F Fassnoff. Um, yeah, good afternoon board members. Nice to see all of you. Uh, yeah, we have our 4 personal development community ready, uh, ready for you to, uh, receive this evening, and I would invite the podium Dr Johnson. Hager and members of the board.

00:03:43,270	Um, tonight as we take a look at community ready personalson development. Um, we are bringing this forward with the recommendation of accepting it for making reasonable. Dr Johnson, is your, is that mic on? We’ll start again. Thank you. Thanks.

00:04:01,530	Uh, President Hager and, uh, members of the school board, we appreciate, uh, time to come before you and talk about personal development, community ready, um, tonight we are bringing forward this report with a recommendation for it to be accepted as making reasonable progress with exception.

00:04:21,730	Um, there were 12 indicators and 8 of those were making reasonable progress and 4 of those who are making regional progress with exception and we’ll get into a few details with none of the indicators failing to make that progress at the time. So as we take a look at this, uh, personal development is split into 21 is on community Ring and another that you’ll receive next month is uh regarding student behavior.

00:04:40,000	And so today we focus on that community ready, you know, as we know before, empower never learn to thrive. We used to talk about being college career and community ready. And again, when we talk about raising young people, my daughters included.

00:04:53,730	I hope that we’re raising them to be good people that you would want to be your neighbors as well. And uh, when we look at that, what does it mean to be vested as a member of your community. So part of that is an emphasis upon career exploration.

00:05:08,800	And again, uh we’ve done some tightening and some increasing of what it means to be career ready. And so our career advisors, um, are proud to announce because we do have such a strong commitment from the board on down in our community regarding career technical education and just vested interest in, are you ready for that next step when you get that diploma, whatever,

00:05:23,900	it means that we had 100% of our 12th graders completing that career exploration experience. um, far exceeding the 50% again we’re working on being tight on what that definition means and what the criteria is and how we record that.

00:05:38,730	Um, we continue to see good involvement in our middle school, uh, sports and activities. Um, we have 83% of our students that are self identifying as being involved in a sport extracurricular, co-curricular clubs, activities. Again, I believe that every parent sends their kids wanting them to be safe and be able to find their academic niche, but also feel like they can belong.

00:05:56,800	And so we know that there are some students that might be involved in activities outside of school. But again, we hope that everyone can find their people and make their connection there, especially in middle school, high school, we start to have those uh plethora of opportunities for them.

00:06:14,370	We do know that in high school, some of that stops and drops, but again, someone might be working, that might be their passion, they might be working on their farm, ranch, or just work another job and that becomes a priority, and so we’re proud that that number continues to be above the target and it’s at 61%.

00:06:32,100	We see that most of our students continue to self-manage, um, their own behaviors and be able to take care of their business, and we want them to be, you know, we always say the ability to be self advocate as well as to be able to manage your time and, and act accordingly. So again, we’re seeing great growth there.

00:06:50,170	One of the areas that we’ve put an emphasis in the last few years have been for the secondary, we’ve transitioned away from what we used to do, respect, responsibility, grades, and I’m kind of as the side, we are now expanding what we’ve been doing for several years and actually led the state and

00:07:05,630	became a model for the career readiness practices. CRPs for short, and other alphabet soup, but Career readiness practices related originally from our CT but I know a board member Lee at the time has also had great conversation again, we want people to show up on time. We want them to be good, uh, collaborators in the workplace.

00:07:23,730	Those are important skills and being able to have those be standalone. not only to be emphasized, but also to be so important that we want to report and have a discussion with parents and students about where their sons and daughters are in relationship to that, as well as them to self-reflectancy,

00:07:40,900	where can I get better, in addition to my academic standards. So again, um, we’ve scaled that now, not only in our career in technical E. uh, classes and coursework is not only at the Career Academy, but throughout our high schools.

00:07:55,530	But now into all of our schools in our middle school and high school. Again, uh, teams are working to refine that we’re only in our 2nd year of implementation. We see some areas where we can continue to see some growth. It becomes one of those tricky ones, I think the board can talk about. We did see a slight decrease of 2.

00:08:10,730	3% and our students enrolled in Advanced or upper level courses. Again yet 72% of our students are in that and what decisions are they making? Perhaps a course isn’t coded as that, but it’s the right course for them to have selected. Again, I would not be too concerned by that. It is a decrease and so that is noted. Um.

00:08:27,800	we did see a slight decline, 4.6% of students reporting engagement in challenging work. Again, uh, I’d be careful looking for trends versus being too concerned about a few data points up and down year to year, but if that tends to grow multiple years, then we’d need

00:08:42,530	to kind of pull back and take a look at that. We want students to be, uh, I would say calculated risk taking, although that’s not the way the question was posed, but we want people to make, take risks and be able to put themselves in uncomfortable situations so that they can learn and they

00:08:57,270	can grow, and they can see that perhaps they can be successful in a different area. We want them to persevere. I think athletics and activities, sometimes, you know, those values are caught more so than taught. You learn perseverance sometimes, even if you don’t want a state championship.

00:09:09,630	We had our cross country, had a great showing, yet there was still only one person that won the race and one team that won the collective. But yet they persevere and we learn together. Uh, and I think grow, um, leaps and bounds from those experiences.

00:09:27,170	Um, we also see opportunities for continuing at our elementary and our middle school with that self-initiation, um, which is below some of the targets of what we’d like. Um, we have lots of work, K-12 around our instructional frameworks that are trying to emphasize the learning environment, having students engage in those things, not just in extracurriculars, but rather in their core

00:09:43,230	educational experience throughout the day. Um, we continue to do some work and making sure our social emotional learning supports our curriculum is aligned with our district goals, being well rounded and where we can support students.

00:09:58,530	Um, we have a task force, as you’ve heard, maybe a few items at times about authentic a personalized learning that intersects, especially, uh, with some of the work that we’ve been doing that where can we grow intentionally at the middle school, but also throughout the K-12, where we can have opportunities to make sure that kids see themselves in their future and in their coursework.

00:10:14,870	Um, and as we had earlier talked about the career readness practices, we’ve now started to report on those a little bit more intentionally. Um, at this point, we wouldn’t make any recommendation for a change to the policy.

00:10:30,170	Um, we really do believe that there’s a great foundation to continue to build upon the skills, the resilience, and um the community readiness that I think our district really stands above and beyond with that intentional work. So at this point, I’d stand for any questions. Or members any questions or comments. Mr. Eastgate It’s somewhat of a question Dr Johnson, a little bit more of a pondering maybe, but just something for us to think about.

00:10:48,730	I was joking, um, with people here earlier about things in the classroom that go on between getting a grade and also the learning process, right? And, uh, last week, Dr Fossnnott and I were at the ND, um, C E L, so the North Dakota Council of Educational Leaders panel, and we heard from a a

00:11:03,900	young lady that was a senior at a, not in our district, but she was sharing some experiences. Do you remember this Dr Fossnnott, and she, she commented, oh she’s taking AP classes and honors classes, and she’s getting a grade less than what she would maybe be capable of, um, if it wasn’t an honors class and and

00:11:18,900	just the, the friction that occurs from that and so when I look at indicator 2, you know, we, we do see in our 9 to 12, right? They get, they’re less apt to want to take educational risks.

00:11:34,700	And so again, like I said, I don’t have a direct question for you on it, but it, it is something I, I wonder as a parent and also observing from students who, I mean, that, that young lady in particular, I, I think Dr Foss no offered her a job. Um, so, uh, just because she was really exceptional if she said yes, that would have been a good. That would have been a great risk.

00:11:51,800	Um, so anyway, again, it’s, it’s more, it’s an open-ended question for discussion, but I, I just think it’s something for us to pay attention to and think about as we look at, um, you know, even as a parent, you instruct your kid to take the class that it’s gonna get them that A or are we trying to obviously learning is

00:12:05,230	a big part of our process, so I don’t know if you have any comments or thoughts about that. I think that there’s a tension that exists there, and I think that’s a good tension, but it’s something that’s, again, I believe all of our relationships with our teachers

00:12:19,000	and uh will say without getting into details, I have kids that have gone through the system and one that’s currently in it, and it’s to that, we want you to be challenged. We want you to take that risk take.

00:12:32,370	So one thing that we have intentionally put in there is that there are some weighted grades that do occur. So sometimes that can take a little bit of the thing off of a GPA and allow, hey, I might get an A in regular, you know, US history or whatnot, but I’m willing to take that risk and take the AP class, and if I get

00:12:46,800	a B+, it might be a little, but it doesn’t affect my GPA. Of course, now it’s there. Now, one of the little wrinkles is if you sign up for dual credit it’s still going to be recorded that letter grade.

00:13:02,170	So, again, those are things that we’re having to try to navigate, but I think, um, great teachers like one offer, you know, the ability to be like, hey, I’ve been there and I’ve, I’ve received a B in college and still been pretty successful too. So when a teacher, I think, can try to share that with a student.

00:13:16,230	Um, perhaps that creates a little bit of that safe space and risk taking, but again, there is a lot of pressure, as you, I think allude to, whether it’s the viewpoint of scholarships and perfection, but also it’s messy and I respectfully will say to my own daughters and say to other people too, that’s why they call it learning.

00:13:30,870	If you knew it already, you wouldn’t be experiencing that. So um that’s a, sometimes maybe sounds nicer than it is, but I think what I’m going to go back to is that ultimately if parents and teachers can form that partnership around and with the student to be able to have those that safe space for conversation.

00:13:49,700	That’s where hopefully um there’s that guidance and the nudge, and we got you, not gotcha, you know, but like we got you and it may not be the grade that you want and result, but hopefully there is learning along the way. That being said, there’s a lot of pressure. I understand that. Mr. Lee Uh, thank you, President Hager.

00:14:10,100	I, I just think this is worth reiterating because it’s so important and we’ve talked about it so often, but that teacher engagement and parent engagement or what oftentimes drives student engagement, right? And that’s where student achievement happens. So it’s so important for our parents to, to be involved alongside our teachers.

00:14:28,730	We got incredible teachers in this district that do everything they can for kids and, and if parents can come alongside and partner with them and, and, uh, you know, push their kids into uncomfortable places to, to, to, to do hard things. It, uh, great things happen, so we’ll good report. Yeah.

00:14:50,070	Dr Fassettt Yeah, I, I would add to, uh, board member Eastgate’s comments that on the student who I did offer a job to because she was going into elementary education. Brilliant, was in a school that probably identified only one valedictorian. So you get caught in that selection of one where.

00:15:09,800	bigger system, we do that different way which um hopefully our kids don’t have to be putting that pressure cooker of a choice for like she was, but she was brilliant. And the other thing I think that to add, Mr.

00:15:25,900	Eastgate off your comments, is we had a panel of kids from across the state, exceptional, um, young people, and it kind of sings in here too, because they talked about student voice.

00:15:42,970	Are we talking to kids? Are we engaging them in the learning? Are we making learning real? Are you making it meet what I need as a kid, and they really challenged us as on the second day, I think after the panel discussion, they really challenge us directly that we as educational leaders need to start doing that more. We start engaging with kids, which I think by buoy some of our results here, if we took that really intentionally, and I’ll just point out quickly, you’ve heard me talk about it before.

00:15:59,500	Those, um prayer ready practices is a great transition for BPS. Other schools need to follow it and model it. It’s the right work to get our kids ready for the workforce, and the other one is that, um, career exploration experience.

00:16:19,800	You saw that on Indicator 4 at the end, one of the final pages 14, that is now, it is reflected now by our counselor’s reporting it, not our kids, but our kids are all are getting an experience where they get to go see the work site, they get to see jobs, they get to see those experiences.

00:16:35,800	You might have seen some already at the Creer Academy that were put, put out by um uh this our kids were engaging in to see jobs just in our community. I know we had Bismarck PD Fire Department, National Guard at one just recently at the Creer Academy.

00:16:51,870	So I think getting kids engaged about careers early, getting them the right skills is, is getting them all ready for the workforce, which is good. So, um, thank you, Dr Johnson for a good report. Thank you, Dr Johnson Uh, Ms.

00:17:09,430	Pierson I was just going to make a motion unless we have additional, um, I was gonna say with respect to our four personal development, um, community, taken as a whole, I would move that we make, we find it making reasonable progress with the exception. Second, we have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Uh, seeing on Dr Schr. Lee, Peterson. Yes. Eastgate? Yes. Hager? Yes. Uh, I B GC 5 board member.

00:17:36,700	committees. So this will be our public reading of, uh, this policy. The board may create committees if they are deemed helpful to the board in the performance of its responsibilities.

00:18:02,870	If committees are established, they will have been used be used exclusively to support the work of the board as described in policy GC3 and will never be created or used to assist the superintendent in operational areas. The board one, the board committees and other such entities by whatever name created by the board will not direct, advise, assist, or oversee the staff. Committees customarily will prepare recommendations for board consideration, Board committees will have no authority over staff.

00:18:32,330	and may exercise demands on staff time or organizational resources only to the extent authorized in this policy. 2. board committees may not speak or act for the board. The responsibilities and authority of all the board committees are carefully stated in this policy to assure that the committees fully understand their duties and the extent of their extent

00:18:50,270	of authority and to assure the committee work will not usurp or conflict with the board’s own authority or conflict with authority delegated to the superintendent. 3 all board committees are considered to be ad hoc or temporary. The termination date of each committee is listed in this policy.

00:19:11,600	Committees may be renewed or reauthorized upon their expiration, but unless the board acts to renew the committee’s existence, it shall cease to exist upon the date specified. Board 4 Board committees may or may not include members of the board, 5 all board committees are listed. That concludes the reading. of GC 5 Board Member committees.

00:19:38,370	board members See no comments I’d entertain a motion. Mister Eastgate, President Hager, I would make a motion that we retain GC 5 board committees. We have a motion in a second any discussion? Uh, Signon, Dr Scher. Peterson. Yes. Eastgate? Yes. Lee? Yes. Hagger? Yes. Mr. Eastgate.

00:20:07,170	President Hager, I would also make a motion that we are in compliance with GC 5 board committees. We have a motion in a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, Dr Sher. Eastgate? Yes. Lee, yes. Peterson. Yes. Hager? Yes. Uh, item 6 is matters reserved for board action Item A is R3 behavior revisions. Dr Fosst.

00:20:35,170	Um, yes, we shared this with you last meeting, so I just stand for any questions you might have for this before it’s, you finish your second reading. or remembers any comments, questions based on our second look at this.

00:21:00,000	If not, I’d entertain emotion I would move to approve the revised coherent governance Results Policy R3 Personal development behavior and the revised Supporting Indicators as presented for the 2nd and final reading. 2nd. we have a motion in a second. Any, any discussion? Seeing on Dr Scher Eastgate? Yes, Lee, yes. Peterson. Yes. Hager? Yes. Item 6B board member school visits. Peterson, I believe you have one. I do.

00:21:28,370	Um, I had the pleasure of going back to um Wachter Middle School, um, last week, and um, you know, I’ve been back there a couple of different times. My, my children all went there. I no longer have a child and walked her after many, many years of, of having all three boys go through there.

00:21:42,730	So it was nice to go back and then not necessarily just always as you know, conferences and everything else, but, um, so I got to meet with, um, uh, Sharon Espland, who is the principal there and you know, I don’t, obviously I have a really strong relationship not only with Sharon, um, as a previous, uh, employee of the district and worked really closely with her, but also, um, as, as somebody

00:22:01,700	who was leading the school that my kids went to, so it was really nice to to have just a a a a heartfelt visit and, and I do think that sometimes, um, it’s both good and bad when we have such a solid relationship with some of these, these folks

00:22:14,900	or are our own children’s schools because it’s nice to be able to go in and then just, just really, really talk, but we were able to um kind of get past some of that and and really um she showcased a few things that are kind of evident, you know, when we talk about we’re doing the

00:22:30,970	community forums and some of the other pieces about our long-range facility planning, and that had never really come up in any of my previous conversations with Wachter cause I was always going again as as kind of a parent and and so I’ll share some of that, but then also I do think that what

00:22:46,970	is evident when you walk into the doors at Water is the strong relationships and the deep care for its students. You have a lot of teachers who’ve been there for a long time. The leadership team is, is really strong and I think it shines through kind of everything that they do.

00:23:02,870	And, um, I, I will say with confidence that their Wachter’s culture is one where educators really know their kids and um has a really strong foundation.

00:23:22,600	One thing I think though that kept kind of resonating with Sharonon and my conversation was that although that is the goal at Wachter, you know, you’ve got a, a different demographic feeding into it. There’s a lot of at-risk students.

00:23:38,370	She did say that it is getting harder, you know, to to know as many students just the size of the teams and the size of um the, the, the kids that they’re seeing, especially kind of like at-risk students, and I think we’ve talked about that in here before and how many students at risk are on those teams that that make it a little bit more challenging for them to meet those needs.

00:23:58,370	So I think that what I kind of observed is just, um, even as we’re we’re talking about kind of the, the work that they have, um, around kind of collective efficacy and the, the really strong leadership that we see Sharon, um, and Mr. Henderer and Mrs.

00:24:15,500	Eddinger do in terms of just, you know, strong PLCs and, and the teamwork that they have with those high expectations and rigor, which again, Wachter, I, I think has it and um, but it’s coupled with this intentional increase in sort of those wraparound supports that have to happen.

00:24:31,000	and that does kind of, you know, that, that increase about both of those things is probably, I mean, I’m just making some guesses, contributing to some of when we, when we see teachers, you know, struggling, you know, with recruitment and retention and just the, the those high expectations. That’s where I think they’re feeling it, is that they, they want to have those high expectations, but also those high wraparound supports.

00:24:48,530	Um, so I think that that is just something that is is constantly, we talked earlier just about the, the, the tension between rigorous standards and high grades. Like, I mean, I think that’s a tension that we’re going to see continue to exist and something that I think as a board, we’re looking at all the time as we think about just the the

00:25:06,170	budget and everything else about how do we keep those high expectations but also continue to fund the supports. Um so one of the things, I mean, she just talked about the, the grade level teams and I, and I thought it was so echoed because earlier last week, or

00:25:21,170	right before the school visit, we had had a BPS Foundation meeting and we had also talked about just um kind of just middle school as, as that catch-all. It’s that really important bridge from our really strong elementaries and a really strong secondary, and sometimes I think they’re getting the brunt of those those high, high number of

00:25:41,000	students that they’re striving to impact. So we had had that conversation with the arts and, and just those numbers, um, really climbing at the middle school level and then kids taper off until like all of their different pathways that we were just talking about before.

00:25:59,530	And so I think that tension and, and really thinking about middle schools as that audience where kind of all students are getting all things, really resonate with me and and really thinking then of our at-risk programs and so on.

00:26:18,270	So I’m hopeful that when, when we, when we’re thinking about some of those, um, structures that, um, some of those, those class sizes and other things. It’s not really just class sizes cause she didn’t really talk about, I think that stays relatively smart, but it’s the team sizes and how many students are on, whether we call them caseloads or how many, how many student s each individual teacher are

00:26:32,270	seeing every single day, and I think, um, you know, for those of us on, on, on the board that have either, uh, family members or previous uh work experiences in the middle school. I think we’ve seen that, you know, how, how that tension continues to grow.

00:26:47,630	And then one of the things that I think that, um, again, I had never gotten the the tour of the locker rooms or of, you know, some of the the facilities, the way that I had seen it this time and I was really appreciative of that because I know that that’s gonna come up in some of those

00:27:05,330	community forums and some of the things that they are requesting. And so, um, she was able to kind of show, um, some of just the public areas, you know, one of the things I had never thought of, even though many of us have participated in all school assemblies that Water hosts at different times,

00:27:23,600	and they’ve always been outdoors, and I just thought that that was like a really cool thing because they were outdoors at the end of the school year, but she emphasized that they actually don’t have the space to have all of their of their kids and their families and everybody else in

00:27:38,500	one spot like the rest of our schools, most of them, especially our, our, our secondary schools, um, do, and so that was just something that she acknowledged, and then, you know, most of that comes from the jimms being separated by a brick wall, um, or a rock wall or whatever we want to call it.

00:27:56,000	And then also just like really looking at kind of the public facilities and when they’re hosting, um, different events there, um, tucking through some of the, the restrooms and um and then the locker rooms just not being at capacity for for how much growth that that school has seen over the years.

00:28:12,100	So I, I do think that that was really good to see. And then also just um reiterate as we think about the long, long range facility planning. So, um, you know, we always talk about the new schools and we know that those have been the focus because our growth was needed.

00:28:30,170	And now I think, um, in these community forums, I hope the public is using this as an opportunity to attend one of those. I think we’re still what, 6 left, maybe 6 left, um, so hopefully the public will find a time on the schedule to go in and advocate for some of the your opinions about the

00:28:47,800	different schools. They don’t just have to be the schools that they’re hosted at. And, and I do think that we are in a space of needing, you know, we’ve had a lot of deferred maintenance, you know that Dr Sher talks to us a lot about, as we’ve made way for other um budget decisions, but

00:29:02,100	some of those are kind of coming to a head. I think as we look at some of our facilities. So um excited to continue to hear the results of that and um and so on.

00:29:20,870	And I just think that Water kind of stands as a testament to what our relationships, the high expectations, dedicated staff, um, and it also serves to remind us of that, we need the structure, the support, and the space to make all of that happen together, so you can’t ever just do one without thinking about the other, and so, um, it’s a, it’s a constant tension between those two pieces.

00:29:37,470	So, um, I’m excited, you know, hopefully to address these challenges and, um, I think that as we look at that, they’re going to be critical to ensure that Wachter, all our middle schools, all of our schools can continue to build that strong bridge. So it was a great visit. I want to thank Sharon for her time.

00:29:52,800	Um, I want to thank the Water team for it was, it was a busy Monday morning right at 8:00 a.m. um, so it was, it’s always nice to walk around and see just the kids coming in, the kids, um, the, the staff busy hustling people, you know, from, from place to place and just a really

00:30:09,270	um, just really good culture down there. So thanks Sharon and thanks to the team and thanks to all of you guys for listening. Thanks. Thanks, Ms. Peterson Well, I’ve got a school visit I’ll, I’ll do here quick too. Um, I had the opportunity last week to go to South Central Principal uh Joe Calvoda.

00:30:28,730	We spent quite a bit of time in his office, just, just chatting, um, talked about some kind of district-wide decisions that I guess we as a board have made that have impacted his staff as well.

00:30:43,530	So it’s interested in getting his, his take on how some of the things that we’ve done that maybe you wouldn’t necessarily associate with impacting directly South Central, kind of dating and roundabout way. Um, the one thing that was a little bit different having been in South Central a number of times this year was, um the addition of R R Nuad down there.

00:30:56,900	So now you’ve got a, a portion of the building that is housing, um, renewed. So it’s a little bit different of a change and Joe talked about how they had to. maybe adjust a little bit kind of how they utilize some space to to adjust with that, but beyond that, things have been going, going well with, with that change.

00:31:12,370	um as we in this room know because we’ve, we’ve been there all of us a number of times at South Central that it’s, it’s just a unique place when you talk about the students that go there, the, the plans for them is it’s an individualized learning environment, so it’s not exactly the same as what we

00:31:32,700	would see it at the other high schools that we, we go to visit, you know, for an example, you know, talking about the the staff down there, Georgia can’t say enough good things about that staff, and they have to have such patients, and they have to care for those kids a little bit more than maybe the

00:31:48,730	other, the other schools do. I know it’s not totally fair comment, but you guys know what I’m saying is it’s, it’s that compassion side to, to really help those kids, so.

00:32:02,900	one of the things that, that we had noticed is you, you walked into the gym and the gym teachers playing badminton with the kid and Joe had mentioned, well, you know, it’s, it’s one of those depending on how the kids are, are, are functioning on a different day. You you as a gym teacher, you have to plan for all, I could have 8 kids one day or I could have 1.

00:32:14,800	and having those lessons plans and being being flexible, um. so that was one of the things that he had mentioned when we were walking around, um. the one thing that, that really struck me. and it does every time I walk in there is the generosity of our community.

00:32:34,600	When you walk in and, and you see the the, the perishable food items, the nonperishable food items, the toiletries, the things that have been donated by our community that are there for those students in need is, it’s, it’s moving to walk into that room and, and just see all sorts of food items and toilet

00:32:54,270	toiletries and uh Joe had M all this, all this was donated by Century Baptist. And then another example of kind of our community coming together is so for Thanksgiving, they’re putting together like a little dinner meal for, for all of the students.

00:33:10,900	Well, they ordered uh what they thought were going to be like chunks of ham. They got an entire pork flank. So then Joe’s like, what am I gonna do with this? This doesn’t even fit in a single oven. Well, through talking and and connecting with the community 3B meets.

00:33:29,630	took that pork flank, cut them down into 44 pound chunks, vacuum sealed it. They have them in the freezers down there. They’re putting together kits for them. So again, these community partners donating time and skills to do these kinds of things is just, just amazing to me. And one last note um, Joe and I were talking about, you know, how they are unique down there.

00:33:46,800	And one of them is, you know, we as the board do a lot of data-driven results, you know, when we sit up here and we look at things and we look at the data, and he emphasized in, and he couldn’t be more right that.

00:34:04,270	the data driven results just don’t work for South Central because those individual learning plans, and he gave me an example. just recently of a student who at South Central, he said, you know, she was, she was tough.

00:34:18,700	and we worked hard with her and we got her to that finish line, and he said, you know, you just you just don’t know the data wouldn’t capture what what it was like for her in that, in that moment. And he said, 9 years later she called him and said, Hey, Mister Calvoda, um I’m in college right now going to school to be an educator.

00:34:38,000	because of what the impact you guys had at me at, at South Central. I want to be a teacher and give back. And that was 9 years after the fact. So, very cool story, as you guys know because you’ve been there, South Central just a unique place, just, just a, a great spot. So that’s, that’s my visit.

00:34:54,970	Um, item 7 on the agenda is the consent agenda. What are the wishes of the board? that we approved the consent agenda. Second. Motion in 2nd, Dr Sher. Lee. Yes. Peterson? Yes. Eastgate? Yes. Hager. Yes. Amate superintendent’s report, Dr Fasan, I will defer the financial report to Dr Scher.

00:35:30,230	Thank you, Dr Fassnnatt, uh, President Hager, members of the board tonight, we have our actually first financial report because the board approved the budget. Most recently, um, format should look very similar or familiar.

00:35:47,900	The one thing I will say with the kind of the hiccup that we had with the the tax credit and all that, so we adjusted analytics to to kinda um we adjusted the analytics. I was gonna say we trick the analytics, but we adjusted the analytics to uh adjust for that.

00:36:10,270	Uh, you can see that kind of how we’re trending, um, actually trending ahead of projections on revenue and behind on expenditures which are both positives for the district, so, um, that is good. I really don’t have anything that I feel like. I would need to point out to the board that’s out of line, um. you can I guess I would answer any questions that the board would have related to the financial report.

00:36:31,630	I don’t see any Doctors here. Thank you. Be, Transportation update. Dr Fossna. Oh, you made that really fast. I wasn’t that ready, Dr Sher. Thank you. Um, yeah, I just wanted to give a little update on transportation. Uh, we continue to do work in this area.

00:36:51,430	um, we just recently, um, been giving updates to operational excellence Group as well, so I thought I would just share with the broader community, um, over the past month, I think I’d mentioned earlier that Mr.

00:37:07,430	Middlesstead and his team were going to be reviewing our routes and applying a kind of a revised stop cri ter ia to all of our stops and, and just making sure they met that criteria. Um, he informed me last week that they had gone through 160 general education routes and ensure that they had driven every rural route, so if it’s outside the city limits, they had driven all of them, um,

00:37:25,730	and they had tightened up some stops in areas that had little or no protection from wind or had some visibility concerns, so they did moose and stop locations and um using the stop guidance that we’d provided, they did indicate that they had made 56 stop changes and, and they’re

00:37:45,000	hundreds of stops, so we’re not talking 15%, we’re talking much less than that, but hundreds of stops they had made some adjustments and uh um really thanked him today, got a chance to meet Mr. Middlesstead and just thank him for that work and his team, because that was important work.

00:38:00,270	Let’s make sure before we get into deep fall, winter that we had made those adjustments to address any concerns that that parents or families or we had. So, um, really pleased with that.

00:38:16,800	The other thing that we’d mentioned operational excellence, and I want you to know I were shooting for a week of November 3rd is to have a survey go out to parents in regard to transportation bussing bell time and um we kind of weeding through a lot of questions.

00:38:34,600	We had some draft questions we’ve been trying to process through, but trying to get something that’s manageable for parents, um, to give us their feedback as far as our new two-tier bussing system stops and where stops are at located at now, um, just transportation in general and then also how you feel about Bell time and trying to just capture some of their thoughts.

00:38:51,000	So we hope to have that out again that week and then we’ll be using that to inform operational excellence and bring that back also to the board so you can, so you can see those. I think that’s good information as we get into the other part of um transportation, that’s the RFP process that’s out now. Dr Cher has released that.

00:39:07,530	That’s all those proposals are due to his office by 2 o’clock I think on Friday this week, Halloween, scary time, uh to get those, um, but get all those, then start to compile all that information before we make recommendations for the next year.

00:39:25,430	So, um, I think we’re, we’re doing the work, trying to get ready and address some of the challenges that we’ve had, um, but also preplanned so we can really make some decisions really before that early January time, so we can plan, just takes so much. especially if we make um schedule changes, route changes.

00:39:41,000	It takes a lot of time to get that work done, so we have to get that done early in the season. So I’d stand for any questions on transportation. OK. And I really only had one thing. It wasn’t on the agenda today, but I’ll just going to say it to you and I’ll say it to the audience at large, um.

00:40:01,470	drive safe Um, you probably heard today on social media that we had, uh, unfortunate accident with a student at 7th Street right outside of BHS. We had an accident with a student at Century last week, um.

00:40:19,730	and it, I mean, we all probably have stories, right, how we interact with drivers or other drivers in our community every day, and I would tell you, uh, there are some question about how we communicate when those events happen.

00:40:39,530	I would tell you the event last week at Century, um, we did not send out I think big social media posts on that, um, it was uh I won’t say minor, but it was a less um didn’t affect transportation and have a big police presence that causes tension as much as the one today.

00:40:58,170	Um, today shut down most of Seventh Street, became not only disturbing to our student and our, our BHS community, but the community in general, um, so I think that and timing, CHS was at the end of the day, almost 4 o’clock, where today is right noon, right in the middle of the day, highly noticed, highly, um, disruptive to the community and the BHS community.

00:41:16,700	So, um just there are different variables that go into how we communicate that, but I would like to also say when we’re communicating, there were several questions today about concern about uh parent’s own child. Like, how do I know when my child’s OK, and that really goes back to our cell phone policy and kids not having their phone directly on them, and how do I know how my kid’s OK.

00:41:34,500	I want to assure parents directly that if your child’s involved with something like those events today. we are as rapidly as humanly possible, contacting the parents who need to know. Are we contacting all 1300 students parents. No, not necessarily right away. We’re contacting the parents who need to know.

00:41:55,800	It’s kind of like calling the accident happens Be in being an an ex-firefighter. I hope that when the fire happened at their house, the first call was us, and then it was to their neighbor or the family or making calls of the people who need to know immediately, and then we’re working out that circle and and families of children affected are in very

00:42:10,630	close circle to that that decision making and how fast we get communication out um if your child’s not affected and you’re way out in the circle, um, probably not as fast, and it may not be anything where we’re necessarily putting anything out on social media to inform all the masses, and that’ll depend on the nature of the

00:42:28,270	event and the timeliness, time of the event, and the disruption in the community. But I do wanna, before my final comments on this, just make sure to extend heartfelt prayers to our student today. their family I also want to extend that to the driver of the vehicle in no way, shape, or form.

00:42:46,430	I’m sure that they intend that to happen in their day, right? So, my prayers go to them. Our people who responded today. absolutely a one They were there, they took care of our kids, they responded as best as they could and not of all of them are always as trained like EMS workers, they

00:43:03,100	did their very best and they did a great job. So really proud of them. So my prayers go to them and uh just ending today is just be careful. if we can Eys up looking out the window, we all get distracted.

00:43:23,800	We all get distracted by devices, um, those are not just around our schools either. I know people are saying slow down during around schools. I just say we could just slow down in general, just try to, particularly with cold weather, rainy weather like today, um, it’s, it’s probably better for the entire community just to take an extra beat.

00:43:38,730	slow down, try to be safe as we can. It’s good for us, but, um, in regard to today, um, yeah, it was a tough day for a student and a family, and we just hope, um, their recovery is positive and heading in the right direction this evening, so I’d answer any questions you had over that.

00:43:56,330	Thank you, Dr Foss. Now. Well said, you know, obviously as board members, that is a concern for us too when you hear something like that happening at, at, at your school, so we’re definitely. Um-hum. Praying for the families. Thank you, Dr Frostnut. Um with that down to item 9.

00:44:17,630	executive session Miss Peterson I would make a motion to enter executive session pursuant to North Dakota Century Code Section 440419.1, Section 9 for the purpose of discussing negotiation strategy. 2. we have a motion to second any discussion. See on Dr Scher. Peterson. Eastgate, yes. Lee? Yes. Hager. Yes. With that, we will now