00:00:07,370	Josh Hager, president of the Bismarck School Board. It’s 5:15 on Monday, November 10th. I call this meeting to order. Welcome to those of you who are joining us both here and also online. You can find our agenda and follow along under the school board tabs tab at Bismarckschools.org.

00:00:25,600	Uh, Dr Sher, would you call the roll, please? Mr. Hager, here, Mr. Eastgate, here, Mr. Lee, here, Mrs. Peterson, here, Miss Preskey. here. All board members are present and accounted for. Thank you, Miss Preskey, for joining us on, while you’re out on work assignment. Uh, Dr Fossna, would you lead us in the pledge? My pleasure.

00:00:48,500	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 with liberty and justice for all. Item 1C BPS Miss vision and values, the BPS mission is to empower every learner to thrive.

00:01:21,730	The BPS vision states together our strong relationships build inclusive, collaborative, innovative environments that create agency and inspire a passion for learning, excellence, and discovery. BPS values are inclusion, excellent innovation, and leadership. You’ll also find a link in the agenda to the BPS strategic plan. Uh, item 2 is to adopt the agenda. What are the wishes of the board, Mister Eastgate.

00:01:42,370	I’d move that we adopt the agenda I’ll second We have a motion in a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, Dr Schr. Eastgate? Yes. Lee? Yes. Peterson? Yes, Pressy Yes, Hager, yes. Item 3, focus on success.

00:02:09,700	Workface learning, Dr Fossnnat, um, good afternoon, board members, as I promised last time, uh, we’re going to have, uh, kind of deferred our presentation from the last meeting, um, to, uh, push it forward to this meeting and tonight we have in front of us, uh, Mr. Pat Phillips and this case Jans, who’s going to talk to us about our work-based learning program, so thank you, Mr. Phillips.

00:02:28,370	Thank you, President Hager, Superintendent Fassnna, members of the board. Uh, it’s always a pleasure to be here, but super excited tonight to be here to share, uh, work-based learning opportunities and programs, um, throughout BPS, um, and to start with, uh, on the first slide, uh, I think it’s an important, it’s important to consider, uh, that, um, our work-based learning systems are intentionally designed.

00:02:50,800	So prior to Mrs. Jones joining our ranks as a work-based learning coordinator recently, um, we actually had many opportunities in place for learners to, uh, authentically and personally explore, um, opportunities for careers, but, um, our goal here is to connect with our district’s strategic plan and also with the state’s workforce

00:03:11,070	priorities on this work-based learning program is actually a bridge between students’ classroom learning, and their real world opportunities both in the present and in their futures. Um, so this is really about student readiness.

00:03:34,100	Um, inasmuch we aspire that every student has multiple and meaningful opportunities to engage with career pathways, um, from awareness in elementary grades to authentic hands-on training by graduation. And lastly, um, I would emphasize that this is not an add-on. Um, this is not uh a work-based learning program alongside our welding program, alongside our electronics or engineering programs.

00:03:56,530	This is actually embedded in how we grow student’s readiness across all of our CTE areas. And again, um, every learner, regardless of which school they go to, um, having the opportunity to, to explore some of these experiences.

00:04:14,630	So as we move forward from that basic vision onto the next slide, um, I’m going to talk a little bit about this funnel, this, uh, this framework that we’ve talked about in the past from awareness, um, to exploration, to preparation, to training. Um, this is, uh, uh, right now we’re going to talk a little bit more about the, the sort of the, the tip of the funnel here.

00:04:40,270	There’s there’s these really focused experiences like Capstone’s internships, cooperative work experiences that students um have the opportunity to experience as they matriculate through our system. And again, our our uh aspiration is not just to offer opportunities, but to build a system that is both inclusive and connected.

00:04:55,700	Um, so that not only does every student have the chance to do this, but that they had the chance to do it in a predictable and supported way that is connected to their learning in school, which is actually the perfect opportunity for me to hand it over to our Work-based learning coordinator Mrs.

00:05:13,430	Jans, because she’s been really doing really great work to um not only continue to make sure that these opportunities are available to our learners, but to formalize how these experiences are structured, assessed, and scaled, um, so that our system has quality and consistency.

00:05:31,530	So she’s going to take it from here and walk us through not only some baseline data, uh, but more importantly, what these experiences look like in practice, how students are building portfolios, connecting with mentors, and demonstrating the careerity practices that our industry partners value most. Hello everyone, I’m Casey Janz. I’m BPS’s Work-based learning coordinator. Um, thank you, Pat. That was a lot of information and super helpful to kind of guide the further conversations into their real, um, kind of tip of that funnel.

00:05:52,870	So kind of what have we seen this past year was our first year of data collecting on work-based learning that’s happening, um, our state CTE department, um, specifically sends out requirements of let us know what’s happening in numbers, things like that.

00:06:09,700	And so this is just to give you an idea, this past year, um, what the numbers kind of looked like. I will tell you the state views, there’s two ways kind of of of being considered work-based learning experience.

00:06:29,730	There’s With the CTE classrooms, and he simulated industry related environments that they have that they’re a part of, so that’s a majority of our CTE courses that students are involved with. And the second way to be considered a work-based learning experiences, um, more of the sustained industry interaction. So that’s where you’re going to see more of internships, our capstone experiences, um, where students are, um, engaging with our industry for longer periods of time.

00:06:52,170	Go to the next So here are just some of the things that we make, um, a part of our work-based learning experiences. Reflection, self-evaluations, that’s number one thing that we want our students, um, not just putting in the hours um of this experience, reflecting on their experience, how it’s shaped, maybe whether that’s a future career opportunity, or does that shape, um, any of their

00:07:14,530	career a practice areas that they’ve developed through the experience. So we work a lot with, um, getting them to really kind of hone in on what that actually provided for them.

00:07:32,170	We work on portfolio development for our Capstone students specifically, which is like our 3 year type of course for students, um, maybe juniors, seniors, um, who they want to take their skills to the next level, whether that’s developing more skills but also applying it out in the industry.

00:07:48,970	And so we work with them to create a portfolio that they can leave this experience with, to include, you know, their reflections, any of the project work that they do because our students do a lot of project work from not only within our district requests, but our community requests, um, resume building, any certifications that they do, um, any industry connections that they’ve made throughout that experience just to keep that in one spot so they can

00:08:07,370	leave with that completed to start whether that’s a job opportunity and an interview that they have, they could bring that with. And then a final project which could probably be incorporated into their portfolio as well.

00:08:26,600	just kind of combining all of their reflections and really providing a great overview of what that experience provided to them. Um, and within this, there’s some additional things that we incorporate with the employer that we’re working with as well to hopefully add to their portfolio also.

00:08:52,730	yeah uh, big piece with work-based learning experiences is our career rate practice scores have become a big focus when it comes to scoring students or grading students within these experiences. Um, we feel at this point when they’re at the point of where they can do these work-based learning opportunities with industry. These are the gon be the things that mean the most to the students and also the industry partners that we’re working with.

00:09:09,000	And so we really hone in on scoring our students on these items, uh, maybe versus just continually doing like assignments and grading them on different things like that.

00:09:26,370	Um, with CRPs, we also have students start out by doing a self eval that’s related to the career Ready practice scores, and then at the end of their experience, we have them do another eval, um, kind of for them to see how they’ve grown, what skills have they developed, um, maybe areas they want to continue to work on.

00:09:41,900	And then we also include the employer having them do some sort of an eval related to the Core already practice scores, um, to let us know kind of how the experience is going, um, and maybe how they’ve helped the students through developing these skills as well. We can go to the next So maybe a big question is how would a student who’s interested get started in something like this. Um, we have a great career services team within our district.

00:10:00,530	Each high school has a career advisor assigned, um, and they are the great in my mind, the great first point of contact for these students because maybe their interest right now, they’re thinking like a work-based learning experience, maybe they’ve heard the word internship, but maybe they’re a junior and they haven’t even yet taken a class that might connect them to that type of

00:10:18,330	experience, that can have that conversation as well. We have some students who, um, maybe are interested in an internship but maybe haven’t yet had a job shadow experience with that company, you know, those can kind of be conversations that are a part of what they’re talking with

00:10:33,630	their career advisors on. Now, if the student then is at the point where they’re like, I’ve taken the classes, I have a company I’m interested in or this is an area I want to do, you know, we can further the conversations, that’s probably where I would come in is the career advisors was somewhat,

00:10:48,730	um, connect with me and tell the interests. Um, we always work with students and make sure they kind of know expectations that we have, um, before they even get into it, whether that’s just what’s a part of the hours that they need or um.

00:11:06,170	any of the coursework in order to get credit for the experiences as well. So we like them to know those things. Here are just some examples, um, of student stories. These are the, these have come from the final projects that we’ve had our students do that have completed a work-based learning experience.

00:11:30,330	These three are specifically internships that they’ve completed and at the end of the semester, they complete a final project and these are kind of some of the um quotes that I kind of pulled from some of those projects just to give an idea of what our students are taking away from the experiences.

00:11:45,730	I kind of highlighted just some key pieces, um, with prominent we, that was an internship that a student found and applied for and they’re a company who, um, I believe they utilized Operation Intern with the which is through our city of Bismarck, um, or the state, sorry, and so it’s something where companies can get some financial, um, help with providing an intern or having an intern position.

00:12:06,000	So those are things that we’re continually looking for as well. And then Sanford has been a great partner in providing internship opportunities for our students, um, a benefit too with these both of these companies and other companies that we worked with is they’re very understanding of realizing this is also still a career exploration experience.

00:12:25,900	They are high school student s We are not guaranteeing that they will be an immediate employee and their understanding of that, and that’s been huge, and that’s been a part of conversations I have continually with industry. Um, it’s just kind of making them aware of that, like, we’re still hoping that this is a career expiration.

00:12:42,900	It’d be great if eventually that does become an employee, but it’s not a guarantee, so, um, there’s a lot of companies that have been really great in having those conversations.

00:13:02,000	So some of the things that we’re already doing and we’re going to continue to do because they’re beneficial is just the individual partner, you know, industry partner meetings that we have. We have an industry that reach out, reaches out to us. They may reach out to our teachers and that teacher might want to connect with me so I can share more about work-based learning. Those are meetings we’re going to continue to have, um.

00:13:18,170	and sometimes these work-based learning experiences can take time to get developed. Um, we’ve had, I would say like last year we had an event in the fall, kind of to incorporate, you know, bringing industry in to share more about work-based learning, and it was the, the spring semester before I heard from an employer who was like, you know what, we

00:13:33,630	want to do something actually, so it can take time, um, but these are conversations I don’t mind having over and over and over again. Um, another area is our advisory committees, our CTE programming, um, we, they have advisory committees, um, associated with all of our programming.

00:13:53,900	In my mind I always say this, I believe that they’re low hanging fruit for us. They’ve already made the commitment that they want to be a part of our programming. So how can we further engage with them and engage our students with them.

00:14:09,630	Um, so continuing the conversation at, um, you know, our advisory committee meetings, um, anytime we have events or if I have a student who is interested in something specific to an area that they have, I will reach out to my advisory committee members right away.

00:14:24,330	Um, so the hope is that we can use them as prime examples as we’re sharing work - ba s ed learning opportunities with our community. Um, so we can use them in the future to share their experiences. Um, this is just an example of one event that this is the event I was talking about that we did last year.

00:14:45,100	We, um, I have been working closely with, uh, Mandan’s Work-based learning Coordinator, as well as the CRACTC’s Work-based Learning coordinator. Honestly, a big piece of that was we’re all utilizing the same people. So how can we make this easier for our industry partners.

00:15:04,330	So instead of there being 3 different processes and forms and experience options, um, to share the three different, um, kind of school districts, right? Um, how can we share our practices so that it’s easier for our industry partners. That’s the whole goal is how do we make this easier for them so that they have more buy-in.

00:15:21,530	And so we partnered together to provide a lunch and learn event, and we invited, we had over 30 industry partners, um, come to the fall event and then probably 40 in the spring, but a big piece of it was actually for industry to hear from other industry partners. We had a panel of industry representatives who are already providing work-based learning experiences. We had them share with other industry partners that maybe haven’t yet even engaged in a thought of that.

00:15:40,630	And then we also incorporated the state CTE department to share what the state’s working on. We included WSI because that’s a big piece of work-based learning, internship opportunities is, you know, the insurance side with 1617 year olds, um, and so being able to bring those people in for

00:15:56,630	industry to hear directly from them versus maybe just me. Um, it’s been a huge benefit and it’s something that will continue to do as well. So where are we going? These are things that, um, other than the things that I know we’re going to continue to do.

00:16:13,370	Here’s some additional things that we are kind of focusing in on a little bit more, um, incorporating more of our middle school activity days, um, we know students need to have these experience sooner rather than later, connecting them with industry, I believe sooner is also a huge benefit, you

00:16:29,900	know, the goal is, is that by the time they’re a sophomore, they already know companies that exist within our area, so then they can start with job shadowing.

00:16:44,170	They can go on a company visit and then the hope is, is by senior year if there’s an experience with that company, they can associate who that company is and they know more about them. So sooner, um um, industry partners engaging with our students, an area that I hope that we could possibly grow, um, a little bit more into is maybe more, um, internship opportunities for our students here within BPS, you know, we’re the largest, one of the largest employers in

00:17:06,170	the community. If we could have some great experiences that allow our students to intern within our school district. I think that would be a huge benefit and again for me that’s another way to say hey, look what’s happening here within our school district.

00:17:25,270	What else could we do outside of that? And then again, I’m just going to reiterate the industry partnerships, I mean, I have conversations all the time with industry, whether that’s, um, going to an event and someone pulling me aside and just wanting to know more, what does that look like? Um, you know, sometimes it’s industry

00:17:40,270	learning what an internship for a high school kid could look like. Industry is often very um aware of college internships, high school interns is a is a little bit different for them to grasp, and so it’s conversations I’m open to all the time and something I really enjoy.

00:17:55,370	um, and working with our teachers a lot to know the partners they’re already working with and how can we kind of further that, um, partnership as well. There’s a lot of information, but I’m open to questions. I’m sure Pat’s open questions as well. Thank you, Ms. Chan. Uh, board members, Mr. Risky. Thank you, President Hager.

00:18:17,230	Thanks a lot, Ms. Jans. Appreciate you, uh, sharing the report tonight and you too, Mr. Phillips, for being here. Um, you mentioned, you talked about some of those industry partners and you met, you know, BPS being one that hopefully we can continue to expand that.

00:18:27,800	Do we have any other gaps that you can think of that as we’re sharing, you know, if we have community partners out there that are maybe at home listening or somebody can tell them.

00:18:42,270	Yeah, you know, I would say that we’re pretty fortunate that a lot of our program areas, I will say up at the Career Academy that we have specific to CTE, we have a good amount of mixture of careers that are looking at providing internship opportunities.

00:18:59,330	I will say maybe more, I’ll always say engineering is an area that for surely we get students who are interested and that’s just, you know, I will say the age of 18 can often be a barrier, but it is something that our state, um, CTE department is working heavily on, and so, um, maybe there’s more of that conversation happening, um you know, with, I would say electronics too.

00:19:17,970	I think that’s an area that, um, we know we have students who are doing like an articulation program with BSE. It’d be great to really, um, provide them an experience before they’re going on as well. Um, Health and Human Services. I’m trying to think of other ones specifically. um. Welding, we’re very fortunate. They’ve been great.

00:19:40,000	We’ve had a great, um, I, I will say I think it stems on our involvement from our advisory committees most often of how great of experiences we have and how many we have. Health sciences, we have quite a bit.

00:19:56,270	I mean, I guess I would, I would add to that, uh, if, if your community member of potential industry partner that’s, that’s listening to the report and wondering how you can connect advisory committees is that, is that first step to really stay connected to the program, but, um, contact information on the present ation you know, please reach out. Yes. Thanks. Yep.

00:20:13,370	Miss Pierson I thank you so much for your report. Um, I, I really like, you know, you talk about this being kind of a baseline year for collecting some of the data. Um, it’s, it’s really impressive to see how many of our seniors actually participated in NCTE.

00:20:28,330	That’s always a number we’re we’re getting kind of on and one of our results, um, metrics as well. Looking at the one that talked about the second one connected to sustained industry interaction, which is the one I think that you were even just asking about in our and our partners and it talks about, you know, 96 students.

00:20:42,730	Would you say we’re s er ving all of the students that have like made a request or are there students that come looking for experiences and then can’t get looped in, or are these is maybe a goal to just get more students. aware of these programs.

00:20:56,630	So just kind of wondering if there are is are there students that have not been able to engage in a learning experience if they’ve reached out. I would say that students who, you know, the awareness of this even being an opportunity, maybe, um, could be more right in front of our students cause I don’t, you know, there’s a

00:21:14,170	lot of times we have students who will interchange job shadowing versus internships, um, and so sometimes it’s just having the conversation of verbiage. Um, I don’t feel like there’s a lot of students who reach out specifically and will say no, that’s not an option for us.

00:21:31,000	Um, I think we try to take case but everyone is case by case. I mean, I could have a student connect with me right now, and if there’s some interest area in a program area I meet and I can find a company that’s interested. Um, I’ll do what I can to get it set up. Sometimes it’s a timing thing too, um.

00:21:47,370	but I would say if students have an interest, they and they start the conversation, it, it should lead into something, but time frame wise, we can’t guarantee that it’s going to happen that immediate semester.

00:22:05,000	I would, you know, hopefully it can happen within like the following semester, but it just really depends because especially if we’re starting an initial conversation with a company about potentially having an intern, it can take some time for them to really be like, OK, what does that program look like? What can we provide? Do we have a mentor? What kind of hours? And so I think we take all the

00:22:20,530	requests case by case. I don’t have any in mind that have just been completely turned down. I have a student who actually applied for an opportunity because most of the time the employer will ask for an apply and they didn’t get it because of an age restriction, so that might be the possibility that

00:22:36,630	could happen, um, but we do try to connect students who are interested and try to find something for them, yeah, yeah. Mr. Lee Thank you, President Hager. Um, yeah, thank you, Ms. Jans and Mr. Phillips. Uh, this was just a great informative, uh, report. It was, it was really cool.

00:22:56,800	I, I can’t remember how many times I heard Dale Haroff say he was living the dream, but congratulations, Mr. Phillips. You’re now living his dream, um, no, it’s, it’s just such exciting stuff.

00:23:14,900	I think this is something, uh, that we all appreciate, uh, a success that’s being focused on tonight because it’s tonight because it’s, it’s really that, that those industry partnerships are are so, so key and, and it’s so cool to see a lot of these things we’ve talked about for so many years, come to fruition thanks to both of you and so many other people that are involved.

00:23:29,530	Um, one thing I took away, um, you know, that the work-based learning is not an add-on. I, I think that’s such an important distinction that it’s embedded in the work we already do. So thank you for that. And then, um, I like how the student stories, they highlight that these opportunities are exploratory, and sometimes there’s not a fit with the occupation or the industry. Um, and that’s OK.

00:23:48,100	That’s, that’s what we want. Um, both are equally valuable if it is a fit, if it’s not a fit, that’s great because it saves time and money in the future. So, um, just wonderful things. So thank you both for what you do everyday. We appreciate you and thanks for the report. Dr Fassa.

00:24:06,100	Um, yeah, you’ve already well recognized that these two are brilliant assets to BPS and our kids. Um, thank you both for doing that, but I will expand upon Miss Jans’s comment about BPS as many times as we’ve talked about, pathways for kids, CT pathways to become welders, plumbers, construction, Automacc, Autoac.

00:24:30,800	and not until recently have we said, we haven’t, we’ve been worrying about these other industries, but we haven’t worried about us. We haven’t worried about teachers. We haven’t worried about, um, we have trades, we have skilled tradespeople working for BPS Plumbers, do construction, electricians, um, we have people who work in food service.

00:24:50,600	We have nursing care, health care, um, so, um, just recently in the last probably 24 months, we’ve really said how do we get these internships as, um, I think, um, for remember Lee reported Grimser.

00:25:05,630	We talked last year about bringing those students over from CHS to help our kids, remember that? Well, now, can we take that to the next level instead of just helping our kids and maybe give them a check. Well, can we talk about credit and an experience and a little pay on the side and then help them become teachers of the future to come back to BPS, um, we’re doing that, we’re building that right now while it’s flying.

00:25:22,100	Thank you to Miss Jans, because you don’t do this stuff really when Mr. Phillips is busy running a very large organization with lots of teacher s and a lot of moving parts. It really took getting someone who everyday wakes up, and that’s her job every day to do this, and you’re seeing it flourish because of that, so well done.

00:25:39,630	Yeah, Miss Chan, Mr. Phillips, thank you guys both again for the presentation is as Mr. Lee had kind of had said there that, you know, the idea of the opportunities that you provide these, these kids and the experiences that they get, whether it’s ultimately the path they choose to go down or

00:25:54,170	not, but to have those experiences now at, at this age before they get to that next level, then decide it isn’t and mom and dad have potentially spent some money and decided to turn the other direction.

00:26:12,270	So appreciate both what you guys do, kind of excited to see what, uh, it looks like for BPS going forward now you add another thing to your plate, Dr Fost nu That’s why I That’s. Thank you both. Thank you. Uh, item four is public comment. The board recognizes the central role parents play in the education of their children and supports active parent involvement in the education process.

00:26:34,100	Uh, 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. Teacher, principal, assistant, superintendent, 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.

00:26:53,100	Our BPS students deserve to have adults model the expectations that we have for them. Groups are urged to select one spokesperson Individuals will be limited to no more than 4 minutes and will be notified within 30 seconds to remaining to conclude their remarks. The board will not debate issues as presented. We’ll take such matters under advisement.

00:27:10,900	With that, please stand and approach the podium if you wish to speak tonight. Seeing no one public comment is now closed. which brings us to item 5. There is, I guess, monitoring district operations. We do not have any, um, for this meeting.

00:27:32,370	So that’ll bring us down to item 6, matters reserved for board action. The fall 2025 Superintendent. evaluation um so board members, we have that attached. You know there was some, some comments um made within the, the document itself, um, I guess at this point I’d open it up to kind of board member discussion if anybody had any, any comments they would like to make.

00:28:01,070	Dr Fossna, do you have anything you’d, you’d like to make beef. I’ve, I’ve got some comments about. Yeah. Put me on the spot. Put you on the spot. Uh I just, uh, will say I appreciate you as a board.

00:28:15,530	Thank you for the guidance and the leadership, uh, not only for myself but the district, and I appreciate that. Really, this is your time to give me good quality feedback, uh, maybe even. you know, marginal feedback, it’s your chance, you know, but, uh, I just really appreciate working for you. As I said when I first started, um, I love working for BPS. I have the.

00:28:32,600	most wonderful job I could ever have imagined leading up to in my career and uh hopefully I’m doing a good job for you and our families and our kids, so. Mr. Lee. thank you, President Hager.

00:28:54,070	Um you know, sometimes silence is a good thing, and, and uh I just, I just want to speak for myself because I think I owe it to you, but um, you’ve done a fantastic job. Um, we’ve, we’ve highlighted so many of your strengths in the past. Um, um, your communication skills are, uh, just, uh, just incredible. I mean, you’ve done, you’ve done a, done a great job.

00:29:08,330	I know, um, I’ve been extremely happy with your performance. Nothing’s ever perfect, um, it, it really isn’t, and we, we know that, um, but, uh, I would say the last couple of years have gone about as close to perfect as we can get I mean, it’s been really, really good, and, uh, and we’ve,

00:29:27,600	we’ve made some major changes. You navigate those things very well. Um, we’ve, uh, you, you don’t shy away from the hard questions, uh, um, you front face the community very well, and you’re, you’re willing to stand on decisions you’ve made and the board’s made and on behalf of the board, you’ve been a great partner for

00:29:46,800	the board. Um, so I just, I just couldn’t really be more pleased, so thank you for everything you do, uh, uh, I should say that more often, but I should definitely say it tonight. My skate Thank you, President Hager. Um Mr.

00:30:07,170	Lee touched greatly on the communication, so I’ll just mention some of my comments that I’d submitted into the report, but just to make sure that they get, I want to make sure they get out into the world, Dr Fasnan, so people know it, but, um, you know, one of my comments was that a lot

00:30:15,630	of our reports here, we talk a lot about data and a lot of numbers and statistics and things like that, but I, I’ve always appreciated that whether it be on a phone call that I have with you and in-person meeting or hopefully for our community that they see that um behind that data you see real

00:30:29,530	families, real students, and real stories. And I think that’s really important is that there that they know it’s not just about what we see on a graph, um, that you are thinking about the student in the seat in the classroom, and so I, I just appreciate that and, and I mentioned I

00:30:43,370	think that that goes for your whole team at the central office. I, I really do, um. some of the other things, you know, we’ve had some large scale changes in the district this year, and not all of them have been easy and we’ve had a lot of phone calls and emails

00:30:55,800	and, and, and I’ve appreciated that, you know, we’ve had, we had several phone calls you and I did at the beginning of the semester with a lot of that going on and, and just that your pledge to continue to monitor, monitor and evaluate and listen to our community as well, um, that we can, as was

00:31:11,170	just said, we’re gonna, we’re always, we’re not perfect, but we’re always trying to do the best we can for our families and our community, and you’ve certainly continued to live into that, as you said you would when we, uh, when we first brought you to Bismarck and, and I’ve just really appreciated that. So thank you, Dr Frosnoff.

00:31:26,100	Mrs. Peterson Thanks, President Hanar and, and, and Dr Fastnett too. I mean, I think we submitted, you know, several comments, and so you don’t want to, you read the entire report, but just to build off of what, um, Mr. Leean, Mr.

00:31:44,270	Eastgate said, I think the, the, when, when John or when Mr. Lee says, OK, it’s close to perfect. I think the what we appreciate is that open communication on when things are not going well or are going well.

00:32:01,870	We’re getting, um, some of the information behind the scenes on whether it is emergencies that are happening within the community or whether it is good news, um, you know, we, we get that open communication, open dialogue so that we’re usually poised to be able to respond whatever it might come. So if we’re getting separate emails or we are getting um questions when we’re out and about.

00:32:21,170	Um, I always feel equipped based on that open communication to be able to respond, whether it is with data or personal stories or responsiveness from you or your team. Um, I feel very, um, well informed to be able to do so.

00:32:40,330	So I think, I think we can all aware that or be we’re all aware that not every decision that’s made at this table is accepted by all equal equally or um some people really like change or uh appreciate different changes and other people have questioned some of those, those motives, and, and I think what I appreciate though is our open opportunity to hearing whether it’s public comment at at a board or um

00:32:59,000	in community forums that we’ve set up or in some of the um question and answer sessions that I think we’re having right now on facilities planning. I think that there are opportunities, whether every member of the public chooses to take those opportunities or whether we’re able to respond, um the way that maybe that the

00:33:18,170	public would want us to, I think at least we’ve been responsive and we are collecting that feedback and really taking some of that information in as not only a board, but as your team depending on whether it’s appropriate.

00:33:33,170	So I think um I’ve really appreciated your ability to kind of set up structures and processes so that we can make informed decisions, whatever that might might be or whether it’s a a um whether it requires change or whether it requires us to stay, you know, in status quo. So I, I just appreciate that that open communication.

00:33:50,430	So, thanks for that and um look forward to kind of the next, the next couple of years. Yeah, one more thing I wanted to add. So, um a great example of this is that last week at one of our public forums, um, it, it’s very conversational.

00:34:05,800	Dr She and Dr Fassntt sta stand up on the stage, sit on the stage, and it’s very conversational, and people are challenging Dr Fosn not a little bit on a few things going on in the district.

00:34:17,530	And I loved your response of just we’re gonna have to sit down and have a cup of coffee and you’re gonna have to help convince me because right now there’s no way that’s happening.

00:34:30,370	But I like the idea that you’re, you’re, and you mean it, that’s just it, you mean it, and I, I, the next day I talked to you and you had just had a cup of coffee with somebody, and so, um, I think that’s just a great example of, of how you lead the district, Dr Fossnnatt, is that, hey, I don’t always agree with you. I’m not going to, let’s sit down and talk about it. So just wanted to, to note that because I think it’s a great real life story of how you do it.

00:34:46,800	Mr. President, Ms. Preskey. Thanks, thanks for letting me chime in. Um Jeff, if I was there, I’d give you a high five, shake your hand, pat you on the back. Um, thank you so much for the job that you do for um all of Bismarck and our students appreciate you, um, and.

00:35:06,070	again one of your greatest strengths, I believe, is just your communication skills, not only with us as the board, but the parents, the students, um, the community. So, um, again, thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Presky Uh couple quick comments from, from me as, as well. Dr Fossa, you, you have a hard job.

00:35:28,530	That’s not lost on any of us. We, we see it firsthand, um again, like Mr. Lee and other board members have, have pointed out you have difficult decisions that you have to make and, and you do those.

00:35:47,730	with open communication, the ability to, to continue to evaluate those decisions in real time as, as you’re making them and making adjustments and that’s very important. Um, when you, when you came in, you had a vision for the district, and I, I remember that very clearly, kind of your path forward and it’s been fun to kind of watch that unfold and kind of see

00:36:00,530	where we’re going in a, in a big piece of that is, is that communication, um, your availability to us us as a board when we have questions, um and sometimes tough questions, and you don’t necessarily always have the answer, but you always follow up on that answer in short order.

00:36:19,100	And I very appreciate your your availability to us and your ability to, to, to sometimes tell us I don’t have the answer, but I will find out. Let, let, let me look into that. And then as Ms. Peterson kind of pointed out here too, you. you’re listening to, to the community and Mr. Eastkit’s example was, was, was the perfect one.

00:36:37,530	Your ability to to, to reach out to the community, to talk to those individuals one on one. They’ve got a question Hey. have them call me. I don’t know how many times you’ve, you’ve said that. Hey, have them call me, and, and you do, you, you talk to people one on one. So, thank you for your hard work.

00:36:53,430	Thank you for your time. Thank you for your dedication to, to our community, to our kids. With that, I would entertain emotion as to satisfactory unsatisfactory. President Hager, I would motion that we accept the superintendent’s Paul 2025 formative evaluation as satisfactory. we have a motion in a second, any further discussion? Uh, Cigna and Dr Cher. Lee? Yes.

00:37:23,900	Peterson, yes, Bressy Yes, Eastgate, yes. Hager, yes Thank you. Thank you, Dr Prosnot Uh board member school visits. I know we’ve got a couple tonight. Anybody want to go first? Mr. Lee.

00:37:50,000	Thank you, President Hager Um I was able to visit Grimstrude today, uh, and, uh, my brother got me into backpacking a number of years ago, and we, uh, we do not like grizzlies, but I, I like, I like the Grim Grizzlies a lot. So, um, growing up in uh in Bismarck, uh, I was in Ardd kid. Grimsrew was our rival, but I always thought their school was so cool.

00:38:10,800	It, it kinda looked like a spaceship. If you’ve ever seen an aerial view of it, it looks like something out of Star Wars, you know, it was just, it was just so neat and, uh, I was a, I was given a tour of the building by Principal, uh, Dr Brittany Upton and Dr Upton pointed out,

00:38:25,230	she, she had heard there’s, and I’m going to check this out, uh, a school that was built at the same time in Jamestown, the exact, uh, replica, uh, because I’ve always thought Grimju was so unique. Uh, I think that’s cool. So, um, it’s definitely an older school now.

00:38:43,870	Uh, we, we started, uh, the tour in the gym, um, they’re one of our schools. Uh, we have a number of schools like this that it’s a multi-purpose gymnasium. It’s turned into a cafeteria, uh, uh, at, uh, lunchtime, in the morning as well.

00:39:00,970	Um, I noticed right away they’re, they’re short on storage, especially with the lunch tables, but, but like in, in all our schools, they do a fantastic job, uh, just being creative and making it work. Um, and it’s, you know, we, we talked a little bit too.

00:39:18,000	It’s, it’s, you know, a school isn’t a building, it’s, it’s the people that make it up and, and it really is, uh, uh, a special place. So, um as is the case with some of our older schools, accessibility inside the school is, is pretty limited. Um, these are things we, we all know and we’ve talked about, and this is one of our schools that’s on our radar that we need to do some things, some updates too.

00:39:36,100	Um, I just, whenever I’m in those schools, I love uh the creativity, um, that are on brand, right? The Grizzlies, so the different wings of Grimrude are aptly named the Upper den, which is grades 3 through 5, the lower end, grades K through 2 and, and, uh, the cub den, which uh

00:39:57,000	evidently is where we housed the two BSEP classrooms, uh, last year. They’re no longer there, but just, uh, I just love that. I don’t know why, it just, it’s just so cool and, uh, that’s such a big part of our experience growing up, right? Our elementary school and and our mascot and who we

00:40:12,970	are, um, all of those things, uh, uh, all of our schools do such a great job of that. It’s, it’s, it’s really cool. Um, Grim Jude is primarily a two-section school. Uh, this year, uh, Dr Upton pointed out they only have one section of 5th grade, but that will change next year.

00:40:29,000	Um, we walked into the learning center in the Upperden. It’s a, it’s a calm space. So we kind of talk through those things. It’s calm Space made possible in part by uh our wonderful Bismarck Public Schools Foundation, a grant they gave for light covers.

00:40:47,630	It seems like a small thing, but, you know, when you go through these schools, you know, you notice the playground, how great their playground is, that just doesn’t happen by accident. There’s community partners, parents having fundraisers, you know, the PTO raises money.

00:41:03,730	We have a foundation that we get grants from that that really go into making a school what it is, uh, so we did talk a lot about future plans for the building, um, and even after the building, uh, what I would say it was right size by the addition of Elkridge, um, you know, pressure was relieved, uh, relieved from, from that building and the, the physical space that got relieved.

00:41:23,630	It, it still feels full when you’re in there. Um, there isn’t much wasted space and there’s certainly a need for updates, like I said. Um, music is held in, in a portable right now and in the library, uh, you know, when you go through our numerous schools, you go through that library, do

00:41:37,500	you see it’s, it’s, it’s pretty small, but it’s, it’s functional and they do, uh, again, they, they solve problems creatively and turn around books in there, so kids always have new things to read. So, um, kind of good to talk through that stuff.

00:41:54,470	Uh, after the tour, just walking through the building and high fiving kids, uh, we had time to visit about, about the school and this is just amazing. I don’t know, I, I just always get blown away by some of these stories, but Dr Upton shared that 12 languages are spoken at Grimtrud. Um, the most common is Spanish, but second on the list is Chuukis.

00:42:14,170	I’m like, what is Chuki? Um, it’s derived from the islands of Micronesia, uh, very remote islands just north of Papua New Guinea and just east of the Philippines, um it’s pretty amazing when you go in there to look at the world map they have up in the foyer with little grizzly stick pins of all the places their

00:42:35,600	students originate from. Um it just, it’s just amazing. You, you just think of this tiny school and this little city and this small state in our modestly sized country, reaching learners from all over the globe.

00:42:57,070	Uh, it’s just, uh, I don’t know why that had a huge impact on me today, those stick pins are pretty cool. So if you’re in there, take a look. Um, and that kind of goes into segues into, you know, what we talked about. Grimstru has seen tremendous growth in its Eel population, which was at 17 in, in 2022 and was 48 in the spring of 2025.

00:43:19,900	Um, pretty amazing growth, 48 kids, which represent 29% of the building population. So the lot of the needs at Grimtrude are not surprisingly driven by EL Lerner’s and, um, Dr Fassnanttt mentioned earlier, you know, we talked about this last year.

00:43:37,530	They have CHS students who are Ell mentors, and it’s just, it’s just been a wonderful program. Dr Upton, uh, couldn’t speak highly enough of that, and it’s such a cool thing for our, for our students to come down in their feeder and work with those kids.

00:43:54,100	Uh, Dr Upton remarked that, uh, they have received a lot of community support through programs like the dental Boss, and they’ve received a lot of food for their pantry and boxes of winter gear for which they are very appreciative and it just kind of hit me, you know, it really is true.

00:44:08,500	Um, we have these schools, we have these kids, and it really does take a village and, uh, Bismarck, North Dakota’s a, a pretty darn good village, you know. It warms your heart when you hear those stories. So uh, when I asked Dr Upton, what she was most proud of about Grim Judah. She didn’t hesitate. It’s her staff. Uh, staff is very committed. Many of the instructional aids have chosen a career at Grimtrud.

00:44:27,800	And the staff is, uh, really starting to lead, which is bringing more good to great moves in the school. Um, every staff member, I thought this was interesting, is on a committee and whether it’s student engagement, parent engagement, or things like safety, um, they’re on those committees, and she pointed out one math teacher, and I’m going

00:44:46,370	to name her Miss Odell, who brings the speaker outside every morning to greet kids and dance them into the building. I mean, how great is that? It is really cool, yeah. So just a great visit. Dr Upton is very grateful for her staff. Uh, she’s very grateful for Mr.

00:45:07,800	Barnhart’s leadership and the intention that BPS pays to class sizes. Um, we talked about that a little bit and recognizing that it’s not always the number of kids in a classroom, but also the makeup of the kids in the classroom, I think any teacher we talked to, uh, um, would, would verify that, uh, so, um, she was really appreciative that we do

00:45:24,800	look at those numbers, that they do have those discussions with central office, and she’s always felt very supportive. The priorities at Grimtruded, uh, I just had to touch on this. Uh, they focus on setting the table uh for learning to occur.

00:45:47,370	Um, and that’s meeting the kid’s basic needs, creating a sense of belonging and then implement implementing predictable routines. Um, they’re just really cool. If you know Dr Upton, you know she is all about student achievement, and I was really impressed with her commitment to creating a foundation for that to occur.

00:46:04,870	And as she told me, she likes to go, go, go, but sometimes you have to kind of hold back the rein. She’s had a lot of turnover this year. She, she said, you know, with, with those challenges always come opportunities, um, get a number of new teachers there, some from outside the district that have a lot of uh experience and some that are brand new teachers and uh.

00:46:19,900	very, very appreciative of her instructional coach, and there’s just so many things she says they do in their building that she couldn’t do without, without that coach. So, great, great visit, uh, yeah, it wasn’t afraid of the Grizzlies at all. Um, so it was good. good trip. Thanks Thanks, Mr. Lee. Great report. Mr. Eastgate.

00:46:40,100	Yeah, I thank you, President Hager, from one of our older school schools in the district to one of our newest. I had the opportunity and privilege to visit Oak Ridge.

00:46:53,170	Um, it’s been about 2 weeks ago or so, I suppose, so, um, as soon as I got on my vehicle, I was greeted by a friend in one of our cultural coordinators, Chadwick Kramer, as he was visiting the school. So it was kind of fun to visit with him about heading in for one of his groups.

00:47:06,970	Um, greeted by Roberta N Nas, who just does a great job of, uh, leading, leading the ship over there at Elk Ridge and, um, as I was just waiting for Miss Wamboldt to come out, uh, assistant principal Mike Jacobson was there. He, he’s just a great educator. It was great to see him there that morning, brought great energy into the office and um, it was just really exciting.

00:47:21,800	So Ms. Wambo came out and we just visited briefly right there in the office and we, I could tell we were maybe waiting for a couple more people because we, I said, you wanna walk around or she said, um, well, let me introduce you here.

00:47:34,900	I, there’s a young man standing behind me, and this was kind of a fun way to do a tour, but, um, Dallas and Aspen, 25th graders at Elk Ridge where my, my tour guides for the day. And so Dallas and Aspen, thank you, if you’re listening out there.

00:47:52,700	Um, but they talked to me a little bit about, they have a trailblazer program there, um, as well as ambassadors and over 65% of 4th and 5th graders are in leadership positions there at the school, um, serving in different capacities, different committees, and, um, helping out, just creating good culture there in the school. So that was pretty fun.

00:48:05,530	Um, as they led me through the school, I’ll just hit on some of my notes as we go, but, you know, everybody likes morning recess at a school, right? at an elementary school and so we touched on that a little bit, which I’ve actually had a lot of conversations about morning recess with parents this semester, so I think that also,

00:48:18,900	um, discusses that a bit, but as we moved our bell times up, that creates some potential challenges for schools, both because of how, how light or dark it might be outside as well as just timing. And I, I really like what E E Ridge has done to look for solutions.

00:48:32,730	They’ve created a club men uh club programming basically there in the mornings and so all the kids, they, they essentially have these different breakfast clubs in the morning, so they have a a cafeteria kind of a hangout breakfast club, but then they have an art club, an arcade

00:48:45,530	gaming club, a reading club, a walking club, and the kids kind of rotate through these over the course of the year. Um, so they all get to experience different parts of these, and I thought what a great way to help solve um what could be some lighting issues out on a playground and still giving

00:49:00,000	kids activities, some things to look forward to in a great way to start their school day at an elementary. So, uh, there’s some choice of movement with that. The ambassadors and Trailblazers really help out with that a lot.

00:49:14,800	So again, just really neat seeing students leading both their peers as well as younger classes. Um, as we were heading out of the office, they mentioned too. I just had a note about it that they had, they had done some community care Mr.

00:49:24,630	Lee talked about it in his visit as well, but some community care, taking care of homeless, and they didn’t, they didn’t go on and on about that, but they obviously as a school had, had come together to do, um, some drives to try to get, I, I think it was food and supports and things like that for, for homeless in our community, which I just thought was, again, it’s just getting kids to be thinking outside of

00:49:36,900	themselves and just what their, their experiences and how they can help impact others. um so they, the different wings that all creates, there’s 3 different wings of, uh, educational classrooms that you could say, and they, they do the buddy system there, so they have 3rd and kindergarten and 1

00:49:51,470	wing. Um, they have 4th and 1st and another and 5th and 2nd. So you always have these upperclassmen helping look out and kind of help take care of the, the younger classman if they would need it. So they talked about this buddy system.

00:50:06,700	I noticed on the doors, uh, many of the different teaching, uh, teachers’ doors was booed. It was right before Halloween. You’ve been booed and it was a, a culture builder where teachers were caring about fellow teachers.

00:50:20,230	So I think they were given little gifts or little words of encouragement, um, and again, I, I like these things like John, Mr. Lee had said, you know, these different ways that we create culture in our, in our schools. What a great way for, for teachers to help take care of teachers as well.

00:50:32,330	Um, so as we were going through the different, through the building, and I just have notes about different spots, but for instance, uh, Mrs. Wamboldt brought up math and that they have accelerated math services and she just really appreciates the district supporting and helping provide that, that they do have kids on an advanced track of math and because they have enough of them, they’re able to actually have those be offered to kids right there that maybe

00:50:47,000	are ready for some of that middle school education. Um, talked about the collaboration again through the different buddies. They have a lot of different projects going on. The walls are just covered in great artwork all over. Um, one of the things I love about elementary schools is seeing all that.

00:51:02,470	They have the navigation station, and that would be um helping out with individual supports, including special education, some emotional supports, behavioral supports, and, um, like so many of our elementary schools do such a great job, just to calm, calm room from the lighting to the sound in there, and it’s just a, it’s a good place for

00:51:18,170	kids to be able to be that really need to zone in and focus. And there are two students in there that had AIDS with them that were able to continue to move forward with their education in a way, in a setting that was going to be best for them.

00:51:28,900	Um, 4th and 1st grade, again, they just kind of, you know, showed me around the wings. We had a chance to pop into a few different classrooms. Um, the 5th and 2nd grade wing.

00:51:44,630	Also, oh, I should mention the first graders, the first graders at Elk Ridge, um, the century is obviously their feeder school, and so the football players have a kind of adopted first grade buddies and so all the first graders, uh, little coat hook locker area has a football player on it. And I know they’ve been stopping in there a couple times every year.

00:51:57,430	And again, what a great way for, for our BPS schools to help look out for and take care of each other, encourage each other. Um, so they were really excited when those players show up. I know that it’s, it’s something I think they started a year ago or so and it’s continuing. So I, I love to see it.

00:52:09,630	Um, I also asked as we’re kind of walking around, I’m talking to Dallas and Aspenn and what are some of the things you’re looking forward to. I, I love to ask what’s your favorite lunch? I think it’s an important thing. I love cafeteria food, big fan. Uh, the hot ham and cheese and the pancakes.

00:52:22,370	So I’m expecting, I’ve been given an invite back to come try the pancakes. I also am a big fan of the hot ham and cheese, so I’ve got to come back for that and, and looking forward to my next visit.

00:52:33,270	Um as both being fifth graders, they’re really looking forward to their 5th grade track meet, which is a, is a staple and a tradition in Bismarck, um, that I think all of our fifth graders, Ms. Van, nodding in the back. There is an elementary teacher, you know what I’m talking about. Um, so the track meets always look forward to Um, let’s see what else we have.

00:52:47,370	Shell talked about community partners. She talked about, uh, legacy Methodists making a donation to the, to the food pantry marathon. Um, there’s a few others as well, but just how she just appreciated how we have some community partners looking out for our schools.

00:53:02,070	Um, we toured the orchestra room, which is great. They actually have spots right now for all the orchestra instruments to be stored, which I think is a pretty big deal to everybody in the building, uh, to get the stringed instruments up and off the ground. And also just appreciate having that there.

00:53:16,800	Um, the hoof prints, a lot of times there’s these rewards at the different themes. So here’s the hoofprints as kids do something if they’re caught doing something good, um, they get a hoofprint and they’re building up to 15,000 and they get an extra recess, so they’re getting pretty close already. I saw that they had kind of a, a meter on the wall.

00:53:32,730	um I want to try to jump into some of the other great notes that Dallas Nasin shared with me, but student ownership in the, in the school, they showed me this great little production room where they have a green screen and the students through their projects are actually able to, they created

00:53:44,270	themselves and they, they know how to use the technology and they talked and walked me through how they do this on this set. And it, it just blows me away.

00:53:56,800	I mean, I, you know, we had a camcorder about the size of this desk, um, that we used to use, and now these kids can just use all this technology and it’s, it is really cool. Um, they talked about their program, their music program what a great job their music department does, their, their teachers and how well attended that is. Um, so that’s just they were very excited about that.

00:54:09,730	They had just had 11 of the younger grades had just performed and just, I guess the community showed up greatly and the parents and the other students. um, Mrs.

00:54:23,100	Wamboldt also took a moment just to let me know about an open invite that she had extended to parents to come in for an assembly of sorts to hear about academics and proficiencies. Um, she said she’s always looking for new ways to, to get the community into our schools, and that as, as board members and as our district, we should continually be looking forward, uh, looking for those opportunities, which

00:54:37,530	I really appreciated. I know it was a board. I mean, we just talked about that here with Work-based learning, right? How do we get our community into our schools, um, to, to partner and collaborate in the best ways we can.

00:54:49,800	Um, so, and she just said some of that also helps parents in the how to help with their kids’ education as well, because we know it’s the teacher, the kid, the student, and the, and the family that helps kids succeed in school.

00:55:03,170	Um, a number of staff members, I just want to give shout outs to because they allowed me to interrupt their classroom for a moment, but Mrs. Paulson in music, um, Mrs. Bonnett, the social worker there, um Maria Loeffler in kindergartener and hiding in the 5th grade, Mrs. Buoltz, who taught two of my boys, God bless you for still being there.

00:55:20,270	Um, I met the cook, the head cook, Jesse Schweert, and we talked about that hot ham and cheese. And then um Troy and Tiffany, who were both in custodial, I believe, and Tony and Tiffany, um, just, just thank you for all of them, for all their hard work in the school. Um, just lastly, we talked about bell times.

00:55:36,100	We talked about transportation, we talked about safety. This is at the end of our tour, Mrs. Wombolt and I just had a chance to sit and visit about some of this. Um Safety obviously very important.

00:55:50,000	Education and keeping kids safe and she just talked about it at Elk Ridge, if you know, it’s some busy, a busy road on that east side with Tyler Parkway coming through and that every morning, um, they have two crossing guards on that side. They actually have 6 on the western side of the school because of the number of crosswalks. They’re allocated to.

00:56:02,500	but she has made it a point to have extra staff out there so they can at least have 6. And I believe they have other volunteers that help out with that as well. But just talked about how they’re doing their very best, um, when I asked all the years going, she said, is it perfect? No, but it’s really good and that, you know, they’re committed to constantly getting better.

00:56:17,170	Um some of the other good things she really appreciates and just said thank you for having a full-time social worker, full-time assistant principal and Mike Jacobson, and she, she mentioned, um, very, very much so how much she appreciates district support. Mr.

00:56:35,470	Barnhart, Dr Fossnott, and just your openness to ideas and allowing to to share with your principal and your building leaders as well. So, um, that was kind of a lengthy one, but again, having those students with, um, it was a blast. I just had a great time conversing with them and also getting a chance to talk with our educators in the building.

00:56:49,270	So thanks to our staff, um, really to all of our staff for, for that day that we get to come in as board members. They, they open their doors and they let us have a chance to get to know some kids and, and really hear and see what’s going on. So appreciate that. Thanks for listening.

00:57:01,000	Thanks, Mr. Eastgate Nice report Uh that brings us down to item 7, the consent agenda. What are the wishes of the board? Mister Lee? I move that we approve the consent agenda. I would second We have a motion in a second. Dr Scher. Peterson. Yes. Presky Yes. Eastgate? Yes. Lee, yes. Hager, yes. Uh, I made superintendent’s report.

00:57:31,470	Doros I’m glad you guys had two good times. I was actually before I get into, I was out at Elkridge today, um, see my social media posts cause it was all about the art. We had an artist in residence there with some first graders. Make your day. It’ll make your day every day.

00:57:47,000	You just go watch first graders and enjoy them. And I took a picture of those same lockers cause it was, they had it right down on their locker.

00:58:00,330	They’re so proud of their little athlete, you know, their little football player and they’re going to state, you know, so they get to be in the Dakota Bowl this week. So even, even better. But um, yeah, if you wanna, if you want to bring some joy to your life, just go visit an elementary first grader kindergarten room, it will.

00:58:14,900	So, um, I had two items today just give you an update about or really, you guys, as you said, are probably well aware of these, but I think more for community update just so keep people informed of what we’re doing. The long range facility plan discussion as um was referenced earlier. We have 5 schools done.

00:58:31,630	Again, we’re focusing on the school s that have the projects that the board has talked through and, and knew you had as you kind of referenced Boman really about knowing Grimsud was kind of on that needs list, so we’ve been focusing on those schools, um, that were high on that needs list.

00:58:49,270	Um, this week we’ll be at BHS, which is really a Southide feeder that’ll be focusing on not only BHS but Wachter and any Southside Elementary School. So if you didn’t make or didn’t have a, a meeting in any one of your schools on South Side, this would be your chance.

00:59:02,900	That’s a Wednesday night at BHS, um, and we’ll be talking about all of them and given opportunity for community feedback, um, and then we’re on at Pioneer on Thursday night, Simile will be at next week. That’ll conclude all of our kind of focused building level discussions, I should say the simile um meeting is next week is actually an Eastside feeder, so that’s uh if you’re in one of the elementary schools, middle schools, high school on

00:59:22,970	the east side, you can attend that meeting. Uh, we’ll be talking about all the schools there, but that’ll conclude our work um, we’ve been collecting through kind of a feedback form from all the attendees, kind of their thoughts by school, what we should change, alter, add to the present long-range facility plan.

00:59:42,170	Our intent because we’ve had really good questions at multiple meetings like how are you gonna get input from people who are not able to attend the meeting.

00:59:58,170	Um, you can look for sometime late next week, something going out to all parents kind of referencing them to the uh long range facility plan and then a questionnaire for them too so they can put their feedback in and we’ll take all that, we’ll capture all that and build that into the revised long-range facility plan which will be coming to operational excellence on the board sometimes in the next couple months. So, we’ll get that all wrapped up.

01:00:13,630	Um, the other thing that I’m sure many people are aware, we had over 2300 responses. So I think a lot of people are aware of the parent transportation slash bell time survey that went out last week. Um, that concluded over the weekend.

01:00:32,000	We’re presently looking at the data on that again, 2300 over 2300 responses. That’s going to take a while to kind of, uh, particularly the open-ended responses to, you know, grind that down or condense that down into some themes, but working on that, um this week, actually, today, the staff level survey went out.

01:00:49,530	So that was much more focused on bell time and cause I think staff members can see the impact of bell time, positive and negative. So we asked a lot of questions of bell time to our staff, and then if maybe just a couple dealing with transportation, particularly like pickup and drop off, how they’re perception is of those.

01:01:04,970	Um, that’s out this week and we’ll do the same thing as we’re doing with the parent survey. Um, you’re well aware because, um, we’ve talked about before the RFP for transportation services that that shut down or we, it was due by October 31st, Halloween. Um, we are presently reviewing those.

01:01:24,170	I think we have 3 respondents for that, 3 possible entities that want to, um, vie for our transportation and bussing business, so we’re busy working through that, that, all that work is leading up to probably in the next couple months, a recommendation from us to you about any changes um we’re recommending as far as bel time transport ation services for next year,

01:01:46,000	and we’ll take all that impact all that input together along with the the financial costs, the um of the service through the RFP process. So, um, hopefully it’ll be next busy couple months.

01:02:03,630	A lot of work to do to get those ready for you, um, but we’ll be bringing those to you, uh, hopefully between December and January. So, if you have any questions Thank you, Dr Fassett I got one. Go, go ahead, Mr. President.

01:02:28,870	I just would like to thank Dr Fossnott for um I guess continuing to engage with people, the parents, staff on this issue and collect information, um, I think it’s important since we made such a big change to, to just really keep our, a pulse on it And, and assess how it’s working. So thank you very much for doing those surveys. OK, thanks, Ms.

01:02:48,470	Presky Uh, 11 last item before we Adjourn here, um we’ve got, uh, a letter here referring to our, our very own Dr Sheer, the North Dakota Association of School Business Manags. um, at their conference in October awarded, uh, Dr Sher the silver and gold Medallion award certificates. So a certification of merit or a Doctor’s share for his dedication as a school business manager for Bismarck Public Schools. So congratulations, Dr Sheer.

01:03:20,530	And with that all agenda items have been considered. I declare