00:00:07,370	I’m Josh Hager, president of the Bismarck School Board. It’s 5:15 on Monday, January 26th. I called 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 online under the school boards tab at BismarcksSchools.org.

00:00:26,630	Dr Sher, would you call the roll, please? Mister Hager, here, Mr. Eastgate, here, Mr. Lee, here, Mrs. Peterson, here, Miss Pressy, here. Dr Fossau, would you lead us in the pledge? I pledge allegiance to just like a the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation

00:00:53,370	under Godvi with liberty and justice for all. Item 1C, BPS, Miss, vision and Values, the BPS mission is to empower every learner to thrive. The BPS vision states together, our relationships build inclusive, collaborative, and innovative environments that create agency and inspire a passion for learning, excellence, and discovery.

00:01:25,630	BPS values are inclusion, excellence, innovation, and leadership. You’ll also find a link in the agenda to the BPS strategic plan. Item 2 is to adopt the agenda. What are the wishes of the board? A move that we adopt the agenda. Second, we have a motion in a second. Any discussion? Uh, seeing no, Dr Schr. Eastgate, yes, Lee. Yes. Peterson. Pressy Hager, yes.

00:01:49,500	Item 3, focus on success. Impacts on Avit Dr Fassnt. Good afternoon, board members. Nice to see all of you on tonight I’d like to welcome to the podium. Alyssa Sottner, who is, um, the BPS District Avid Director and uh coordinator.

00:02:09,370	I’m gonna get on those wrong, but I, um, Alyssa’s been leading our avid work not only as a teacher previously, but uh now taking on the district role, and we thought we’d have her showcase a lot of the avid work, so. well Alyssa I wanna grab the mic There you go Thank you, yeah sorry about that.

00:02:35,470	My name is Alyssa Sautner, and I’m currently the Bismarck Public Schools avid district Director and a member of the Learning, Design and Innovation Team. Avid stands for Advancement via Individual determination. Back in the 1980s, a teacher in California believed that if students were willing to work hard, she could teach them the skills needed to be college and career ready.

00:02:56,170	What started as her work in her classroom transformed into a systematic approach to increase college and career readiness for all students. Abbott is now found in more than 7400 schools nationwide, making a positive impact on K-12 students.

00:03:21,900	Averaged framework is grounded in relational capacity and focuses both on what educators do and what students need For 12 years, BPS has partnered with Avid to help students unlock their full potential. Through Avid students not only rise above academic challenges, but also develop lifelong skills like critical thinking to prepare them for success in college careers, and beyond. From a school-wide lens at both the elementary and secondary level.

00:03:43,170	Avi is designed to enhance college and career readiness while focusing on instruction, systems, leadership, and culture. Teachers are provided rolespecific training to equip them with research-based teaching practices that foster educational effectiveness in their classroom. At the heart of Avid where it all started in 1980 is the avid elective class.

00:04:05,730	This selective is offered in grades 6 through 12 in all 6 of our BPS middle and high schools and serves roughly 13% of our secondary population. Supporting motivated students in the academic middle, the class builds essential skills in writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization, and reading.

00:04:31,900	to prepare students to tackle the rigors of advanced coursework Students also grow in leadership skills, goal setting, and future exploration that includes both college and career pathways. Our avid elective students are seeing an average increase in about 2.5 points on their ACT. a higher percentage of credit hours earned, and increased core classroom grades and attendance. Last year, 98% of BPS avid graduates, graduated on time and met university entrance requirements.

00:04:54,700	As someone who’s invested in the system, I could share highlights with you all evening, but I wanted to provide, um, a current avid student, uh, his, his views on what he feels avid in the elective classroom. He’s not able to be here this evening, um, but I have Elijah Cage’s speech.

00:05:11,470	He’s currently an 8th grade student at S Sily Middle School who’s planning on enrolling in the avid elective in the fall. My name’s Elijah Cage and I’m here to tell you about how Aid has changed my life for the better.

00:05:30,100	First off, this academic course has helped me to be more organized and responsible. It’s also helped me be a more kind and mature person. I have my teachers, Miss Sautner, Miss Jolliffe, to thank for that, because when I first joined Avid, I was not the best behaved student.

00:05:45,000	And then when I started to take the course seriously, I realized that if I want to stay, I have to get my act together. I also feel that if I stay in this class, it can help me be ready for college. And so when I get to that point, I’ll be ready. This class is also really good for becoming a better note taker, so you understand what you’re doing.

00:05:59,270	This has helped me a lot in my class that I have to take notes in because now I can go back and look at them. I fully understand. Another way this class has helped me is by making me a better problem solver in and outside of school.

00:06:11,530	I see this course can take me far in life as long as I stick with it and don’t make excuses. I also feel this course can help me pursue any career choice in college. This class also helped me use writing inquiry, collaboration and organization and reading, also known as wicker, in all of my other classes.

00:06:31,370	And I’m really glad I’m in this class. So that’s how Avid has changed me as a person and a student. I’m so grateful for you letting me here to speak. I hope you have a good night. Thank you, board members, uh questions, comments? Mr. Eastgate, thanks, President Hager.

00:06:56,470	Thanks so much for coming tonight and presenting, um, and, and please send a thank you to your student just for sharing his, his time and thoughts that he put down.

00:07:09,900	I, I just appreciate the honesty coming from an eighth grader, um, about, you know, just knowing that maybe behavior even and different things to be able to stay in the classroom and then also acknowledging how it’ll lead to his future. I think it’s so great that what Avi does.

00:07:20,000	Big fan of Abbott, I think we all are, um, a holla prepares kids and gives them that sight just to think this is what I can do this is what I can achieve, um, and, and then also then giving him the skills to go with that. He mentioned learning how to take notes, which we could all probably use some help with that at times, and so, um, and then not make excuses.

00:07:33,800	Like he mentioned that I think as well when you, uh, when you read what he shared. So thanks for what you’re doing. Keep it up and uh appreciate all the good work from you and and all the other avid educators. Thank you. Miss Presky. Yes, thank you. Um, the data of the growth from 2014 to 2025 is pretty great.

00:07:54,700	Um, do you see that there’s even more demand to grow more. I, I think so, um, where appropriate, right? We know that there’s a lot of things coming at us every single year and so being able to prioritize what do we feel is best for students and then how can we use Avid to help us get there.

00:08:11,230	Thank you. Mr. Lee. Thank you, President Hager. Uh, yeah, thank you for the presentation. It was awesome and I’m a parent of a daughter who went through avid, um, I, I, I just wanted to attest that it’s an incredible program, um, you know, the note taking section, I remember her going through that and

00:08:29,870	explaining it to me. It’s, it’s second to none. It’s it’s just amazing and it changed her trajectory as a student, so thank you for the work you do and thank you for the presentation. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

00:08:44,800	I can, I can attest to the impacts of Avadu having had a spouse who taught it for a period of time, um yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s a great program. So thank you for coming and and giving us a presentation Uh, appreciate your time. Thank you With that, we’ll move to, uh, public comment.

00:09:04,730	The board recognizes the central role parents play in the education of their children and supports active parent involvement in the education process. The board’s practice of public comment reflects and aligns with BC policy BCBA and the spirit of its intent. uh, for classroom issues, it’s best to file the chain of command. Teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, superintendent. for district issues, please reach out to Dr Fassnnott.

00:09:26,370	If you do speak tonight, we simply ask that you be responsible, be helpful, and be respectful. Our BPS students deserve to have adults model the expectations that we have for them.

00:09:43,000	Groups are urged to select one spokesperson, 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 wish to speak tonight. OK, seeing no one, public comment is now closed. Item 5 is monitoring district operations Academic achievement electives.

00:10:10,230	Dr Fossnot. Um, I’d like to welcome Dr Johnson to the podium tonight to bring you our 2.2 academic achievement in an area of electives. Thank you, President, uh Hager, members of the board, um, it’s our pleasure.

00:10:32,800	It’s got a short report here to look at uh the electives, and we present this to you that we believe we’re making reasonable progress. Um, we have continued to look for a great opportunities to add additional courses that are high interest and high demand areas for our students, um, continuing to see some great success with our middle school CTE programs.

00:10:54,000	We piloted some of that work here recently with our um sim 7th graders and are going to have our horizon and Water, 7th graders again. So again, looking for opportunities for students seeing their explicit elective courses as well as just those exploratory opportunities that we really think are cornerstone there.

00:11:12,170	Again, the sooner that we can do some of that and have some exposure um prior to high school and all those, uh, course selections. Um, that’s just a great opportunity for students to start uh controlling some of their future and where they head. Um, we continue to do some work around our career readiness practices as well.

00:11:28,170	And um we’re really uh passionate about that work and working side to side with the state as we continue to explore what that means for giving that feedback to our students as well as their families and potential employers about here, um, things beyond tangible grade knowledge, skills and understanding, but here’s some things that it means to be uh an employable individual and someone that you would want to

00:11:46,530	be part of your team. We also had the great opportunity um to have our first kind of regional career fair, that was at the Civic Center. And again, all these are just additional opportunities for students to see themselves potentially in careers and life successful here, um, uh, in their own community, uh, there’s a nice stat out there

00:12:06,070	that’s roughly that 70% of your kids, uh, settle within 70 miles of where they graduate, right? So that’s the latest that I heard regarding that. And so we know that sometimes when we’re talking about workforce, and we’re talking about students’ passions and interests.

00:12:22,170	What’s available here in our community? Where’s the opportunities for that? So we appreciate all those partnerships as well as uh the students really owning that experience. Um. Obviously, there’s some expansion in the elementary of all kinds of opportunities for additional clubs and um activities such as art, book, chess, Lego clubs.

00:12:41,530	We know that there’s now some feeder programs and peer to peer and what that looks like. Um, we’ll move forward with the only piece of data that we have before you tonight is really regarding students’ achievement in their elective classes.

00:12:58,900	And you might note and for the public, um prior years, uh, we used to have this judge based upon standards and we use a 2.5 at that time. The last year, and then this current year that we’re reporting on for 24, 25 as well as 23, 24.

00:13:14,870	We had that converted into letter grades of a B or higher, and we looked at in elective courses, you’ll see, and we would represent that we’re at 86.8%. And so we would again present this with me reasonable um progress, and I’d stand for any questions at this time.

00:13:40,070	Board members, questions, comments? Mister Eastgate Yeah, just looking through this and uh thank you for the report, Dr Johnson, uh, I guess just curious because it’s the one that had the biggest change, you know, we see some slight decreases on a few of them, but we have a nice jump in the freshman class and in the past, I know we’ve talked about freshman in particular in that transition year. Um, we’ve seen probably go the opposite way.

00:13:52,970	Is there any other factors you can see out there, Dr Johnson. Obviously he is an elective, we hope that kids are choosing things maybe they’re more interested in, but are there any other factors out there that you would point to for that, that jump? Um it would end up probably being just mostly hypothesis, but I think we’re trying to, we

00:14:09,370	continue to try to be more intentional about having students sign up for the electives that they really desire to be in. So I used to as a AP and a principal build the schedule. If a kid signed up for medals class or welding, I wanted them to get into that course.

00:14:24,370	I didn’t want them to necessarily be put into a facts class unless they want to do both, right? So I know that our um counselors and our administration just really tried to do a lot of work ahead in the spring and through the summer to make sure that students are actively engaged in courses where they find

00:14:40,900	meaning and success and uh can see themselves. I also think as Alyssa and others talked about, like with avid, we’re trying to identify students and be able to support them in that and say, hey, what does it take to really be successful in realizing you can play now and pay later or pay now in terms

00:14:56,630	of putting in the effort and be able to be better off later on. So I think as we have those ongoing conversations, it’s just an opportunity for that. But again, anything else would be hypothesis. Thank you. I don’t see anything else. Thank you, Dr Dr Johnson. So with that I would entertain a motion, Mister Lee.

00:15:17,730	Thank you, President Hagar, with respect to R 2.2 academic achievement electives. I move that the board accept. The report is making reasonable progress as presented. And I’ll second Motion in a second. Any further discussion? Seen on, uh, Dr Sher. Lee? Yes. Peterson? Pressy, Eastgate. Hager, yes. Uh, item 6 matters reserved for board action. Our 2.

00:15:48,170	1 academic achievement, mathematics revisions. Dr Fasant. Um we’d like to present this to you to make some adjustments if you’re so willing, uh, within your indicators for R2.1, uh, mathematics.

00:16:10,600	This is really following the same logic and premise that we did previously, um, primarily with literacy, you’ll see those indicators mimic uh literacy almost exactly, except for removing ELA for mathematics, and I hope that doesn’t bring too much concern or questions you cause we’ve navigated that before within the, the literacy um indicators. However, I would like to point out indicator too in your document, there’s a new indicator too.

00:16:26,630	We kind of slid the rest around. I, I placed it in, um, order underneath indicator one because that deals with the NDA plus, which is new state assessment, um, so indicator 2, is really trying to mimic and follow what I see, what we see being uh recommended or uh maybe not recommended being put

00:16:51,270	forth by D P I um, particularly Mr. uh Stan Sauer, who runs or helped kind of coordinate testing and diagnostics for the department and some testimony that he gave, uh, last summer in front of an interim committee dealing with special education, uh, funding, but during that presentation,

00:17:08,370	he was talking about the state assessment, how we use it, how it aligns, how it really triangulates with other assessments trying to help give some background to legislators. And one of the things he mentioned was we’ve always been for since um No Child Left Behind, really putting kids into 4 buckets.

00:17:28,100	You are, um, either novice, novice, partially proficient or proficient or advanced, and his premise was we put a lot of emphasis on the top two buckets, proficient and advanced, and really have not um maybe counted against schools too much the partially proficient because really partially proficient kit can be very close to proficient.

00:17:52,600	It, it’s just a question or two on the test or a skill that your gap that you’re missing, and his point to the legislators was you know, our kids are constantly learning, constantly evolving, constantly getting those skills.

00:18:10,330	So when you’re partially proficient, it, it really could just be one or two skills of the kids still progressing with to become proficient. His point to legislators was the gap we really should be focusing on as a state.

00:18:29,900	His point to legislators, and I guess what I’m articulating to you as maybe we should be also not just looking as proficient and advanced and which is identified in your indicator one, but in this new indicator is we really should be focusing on shrinking our novice because novice kids are the ones who are they’re just farther away from that proficiency.

00:18:47,100	It’s not one or two skills they’re really lagging, um, we right now as a district have a lower um in the mathematics area, we have less kids in the novice area as compared compared to the state, but I think it was worthy of an indicator to say let’s focus on that area, which DPI is also focusing on.

00:19:03,270	I begin to put people’s attention to the novice category, because I think it really reflects where the hard work needs to be done. Let’s move those novices up the trajectory, and that’s what should be where we’re keeping an eye. You might say, keeping an eye on the prize. So I added that one if you’re OK.

00:19:16,900	Honestly, if you like that one, I’d probably bring it back to you, and with the others and revisions because I think they’re really worthy, particularly in literacy, um, keeping our eye on that and, uh, the rest of the changes in this are very, again, reflective of what we’ve done in the past to make those, uh, changes in the other documents. So I’d just stand for any questions you might have.

00:19:36,630	Board members, questions, comments? OK. Seeing no, no, we’ll bring this back for. Yep. 2nd. 2nd reading next month. OK. OK? With that, I’d entertain a a motion. Yeah, if you want to do it for first reading, that’d be great. Yeah. I would move that we approve the revised coherent governance results indicators are 2.

00:20:07,330	1, academic achievement, mathematics as presented for first reading. We have a motion in a second, any further discussion? Seeing none Dr Sher. Peterson. Pressy, Eastgate, yes. Lee? Yes. Hager? Yes. Let him be sale of certificate of indebtedness.

00:20:34,370	I think tonight I’m going to take this one for, uh, um, Dr Scher, but, um, if you remember, we went out and we’re selling bonds today to continue the project with our partnership with the BO Authority, um, for, um, track resurfacing and rebuilding and then turf installation at the bowl. So those bonds were sold today and, uh, I’d like to introduce to the podium Mister. John Lindy.

00:20:55,070	He is the senior vice President. Collier explained the sale and uh how we did today. Great, thank you very much. Uh, good evening, President Hager, members of the board.

00:21:08,500	My name is John Lundby with Collier Securities right here in Bismarck, and I’m happy to be with you all here tonight to present the results of today’s public sale that we conducted this morning for the district’s state aid certificates of Indebtedness Series 2026, uh, the bond issue. I’m pleased to report the sale went extremely well. Uh, the winning bid resulted in a true interest cost of 2.844% to the district on a 10-year maturity.

00:21:28,170	These bonds are callable in 6 years or in 2032 in the final paramount of the issue was 2.2 million as as shown, excuse me, in the updated resolution. Uh, today we saw a total of 11 bids come in from across the country. Firms located in New York City, Minneapolis, Chicago, Dallas, Milwaukee.

00:21:44,270	quite a few others, um, and what I mean is that it was an extremely strong response from the market, uh, with tight competition in amongst those 11 bids, and that’s just a direct correlation to the strength of the school district.

00:21:59,730	Uh, I’ve handed out, uh, copies of their credit report that were prepared for the issue, that were prepared by Moody’s, the rating agency. They reaffirmed the district’s existing rating of AA2. Um, it’s again, it’s a very strong rating and something of which the board and the district should be very proud.

00:22:17,270	Scott Wagner as your bond counsel has prepared the resolution before you tonight with your approval, we’ll move forward to finalize all documentation for a timely closing on Monday, February 9th. And, um, just in closing, I’d like to say thank you on behalf of Colliers to the school board, to Darren and his staff. It’s been simply wonderful working with them and appreciate the opportunity to work with you all once again.

00:22:31,800	It’s been a great pleasure and if, uh, there are any questions, I’d, I’d stand for those right now. Thank you, Mr. Fend Be. Questions, comments, board members. Not seeing any. Thank you. Thank you very much. So with that, I would, uh, entertain a motion. Mr. President, I would move that we approve the resolution.

00:22:56,800	Second, we have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Uh, seeing none, Dr Scher. Presky. Yes. Eastgate? Yes. Lee? Yes. Peterson? Yes. Hager. Yes. I C uh school visits. I know we’ve got a, a couple to report out Mr. Lee, looks like you drew the short straw.

00:23:22,000	Thank you, President Hager, for the short straw. Um I recently met with Principal Madler at Century High School, home of the Patriots, Ro Patts, uh, all three of my kids went through there. My last one’s a senior, so uh, my brother also, uh, taught there for over 30 years.

00:23:38,000	So, just very familiar with the building. I’m up there all the time as, uh, as is Mr. Eastgate. Um, but, uh, so I had kind of a unique visit, um, basically, uh, just met with, uh, Principal Maddler in his office and just wanted to talk about um how things are going, uh, things

00:23:53,100	that, um, he’s proud of and uh maybe for the future kind of some of the things uh for the board to keep an eye on. So, um, Principal Madler is especially proud of how his teachers have responded to a significant demographic shift at CHS, uh, particularly with growth in English learner and special ed populations, um, despite these

00:24:14,370	changes, the school continues to perform at a high academic level, which he credits directly to the dedication and adaptability of his teachers. So over the past 15 years, and I thought this was really interesting. CHS has shifted from being 93% Caucasian to approximately 84% today.

00:24:36,730	Um, so that’s since, uh, roughly 2010, and as diversity has increased, academic achievement has continued to grow alongside it, and he views that as a strength, which is really, really kind of a cool, uh, stat, and, and something that’s just great to hear.

00:24:53,270	Um, one thing that stood out to Principal Madler uh at CHS is the peer to peer program, and I’d give a shout out to Sarah Boh, um, the amazing work that she does with that program. Um, it’s been fully embraced by the school community. There are currently 10 0 students participating, which is amazing to me. Uh, along with 14 highly competitive, uh, paid internships.

00:25:10,630	Um, so we talked a little bit about that and by funding uh 4 interns, uh, they can do that for the cost of one aid. So Principal Madler thought or felt the program is able to extend its reach and impacts across the school and gives some kids uh on the job experience, which is really neat.

00:25:30,800	Um, Fine Arts and, uh, extracurricular activities are also very strong at Century, uh, Mr. Madler noted that when the Century Band performs, whether in a parade or in the gym, and I think most of us can attest to that.

00:25:47,800	It consistently draws attention and pride from the community and uh, you know, right away you just think of those drums and the uh the uniforms, uh, it’s pretty special. Uh, the other thing he noted was school spirit is off the charts this year, which he attributes largely to a strong senior leadership.

00:26:05,330	Uh, he feels the current senior class has set a positive tone that carries throughout the building, so and I kind of feel that I’m sure, uh, Mr. Eastgate does too when you’re, you’re at a football games or a basketball games, uh, they’re, the kids are pretty engaged and uh it’s fun to see them out supporting each other.

00:26:22,900	Um, CHS continues to host the district’s life education program. Um, it’s in the metal building, uh, just in back, uh, I think it used to be bump and tilt, uh, I used to go up there and, uh, hit, hit up that arcade and play Donkey Kong. Uh, but just to the east of the school.

00:26:36,330	So moving these students, uh, it was really interesting his take on it, but moving the students into a separate learning environment has been a really positive change in his, in his mind.

00:26:54,530	There’s a strong synergy between the programs as student develop uh life skills while also contributing to the school through tasks like, uh, delivering mails to classrooms was one of his, uh, uh, things he noted. So Principal Madler feels the highly structured routine supports both learning and the overall school environment, which is, uh, neat to see. So that’s all students that have graduated from Legacy Bismarck High or Sentry when they enter our Lifeed program, they’re housed up there.

00:27:13,100	uh so I kind of put him on the spot and I asked him about the school’s academic success, um, that they’ve had, and he emphasized that the faculty truly believes in students’ potential and teachers push classroom rigor and the combination of high expectations with engaged and competitive students makes a

00:27:31,970	meaningful difference. We also discussed the physical needs of the building of CHS and the importance of equity with the district’s other high school, other high schools, um, of course we’ve, we’ve known all along the auditorium, um, it’s kind of landlocked, and we can’t really add on to it, but we talked about through uh

00:27:49,900	through some possibilities, maybe for the future of how um um they could repurpose that space and and build a new auditorium. I don’t know if that’s going to happen or not, but it does remain a pressing need, and uh the most critical issue in his mind, uh, is the jimm, um, and an additional

00:28:06,630	bay-like legacy in Bismarck I have would, uh, create 4 teaching stations and as enrollment approaches that 1500 students, um, the school he says is going to need 64 course sections, but currently only has space for 48. So it creates some limitations uh driven entirely by, by the facility.

00:28:27,800	Um, our conversation then led to in a different direction, uh, covered distance education and uh he just kind of explained to me when a course is already offered in the building, um, he just feels students are generally much better served through in-person instruction.

00:28:47,700	And there’s a growing concern about students opting for distanceed, uh, instead, uh, uh, about the in-person instruction they can get in the building. So courses that are offered, uh, in the building, um, and kids still taking Ditined, which she feels is kind of a way to, um, free up their schedule and, and, uh, skirt having to go to to class in person, um.

00:29:06,800	but he felt the learning, uh, of the material in the same depth and quality just isn’t, isn’t there in his experience. And the speed at which some students complete coursework, raises some concerns about both learning time and outcomes. So something to, to keep an eye on. I’m overall, it was a great conversation.

00:29:27,600	Uh, Principal Maddler is clearly proud of his staff and the collective effort that makes Century High School, a special place, uh, and a supportive place for students to learn and grow. So I just had a great visit. Thanks, Mr. Lee. Yeah, great report. Mr. Eastgate. Yeah, thanks, Mr. Lee. President Hager, thank you.

00:29:44,370	Um, I actually just had my school visit just, uh, this morning, so I was down at Jeannette Myyy, home of the Mustangs, and, uh, had a chance to to drive in there.

00:29:59,330	I’ve been to Myory before, as if I think everybody else here at the table, but as you know, it can be difficult finding the entrance sometimes down at Jeannette Myyy. I want to make sure I mention that. We’ll talk about it again in a little bit, but I know where I’m going. I’ve found my way, um, and I was able to get a parking spot pretty close, which is pretty sweet.

00:30:09,900	Somebody must have just left, um, and I was able to, to head into Jeanette Myyy, um, safe entrance, like all of our schools a buzz in. They let me in. I had a chance to come in.

00:30:23,700	So, um, Miss Herman met me there and we, we sat down, we did a little combination of both meeting, a little touring, and then meeting again, um, because we had a, they had a special surprise for me, which is always fun, so, um, we sat down and we just started discussing a little bit of some of the demographic of Jeannette Myy and some of the different statistics, um, you know, having Ben at Bismarck my whole

00:30:37,700	life and, and knowing quite a bit about Bismarck public schools. There’s some numbers that get up there on, and we look at them and there’s statistics, right? And there’s, there’s some, there’s some tough stuff that can go on sometimes in our schools, and I don’t want to spend a ton of

00:30:48,270	time because behind those statistics are also those are kids and those are people and but when we start looking at it and we see a number of how many, and these are stats from last year because they had finished stats from last year.

00:31:01,530	Um, but we started looking at students in transition, um how many food bags are going home last year. How many, um, you know, we have Guardian not being the parent or, or foster homes, and we have a a high number of percentage of students in that in that building with some of those needs going on.

00:31:15,530	And, and I just bring that up because then we’re gonna, we’re gonna talk about what Jeannette Myyy, some of the great stuff they’re doing to help address those things, um, but that is a real reality, so I just wanna make sure that we all know that and that it’s there and there’s some things that need to be overcome and also get to be met

00:31:28,500	with, um, and that the school and the teachers and the staff there get to be the ones, uh, to greet kids with a, with a smile and um have those food bags going out and doing a great job educating kids. Um Dr Herman was excited to show me the library. They had done some new remodels down there.

00:31:44,100	Jeannette Myyy and she said they’ve tried very hard to make that school with what they currently have. I said we’re gonna talk about facilities in a minute, but what they have right now, they’re trying very hard just to make it as nice and as welcoming as they can and the library was great.

00:31:55,100	Um, we didn’t, I didn’t walk all the way in because I had some students in the back of the room being presented by an aide in there, um, but it does the library looks great. They’re doing a good job. They’re really proud of that. Um, they were able to get some new desks.

00:32:05,330	I’d like to point out that, um, May has, I think it’s 25%, Mr. Barnhardt’s me, but 2 5 % of the students qualify for, uh, would be title title students, and so Jeannette Meyers are heavy on title funding. We get a lot of federal funding there.

00:32:19,800	That’s an important part of some of the funding structure. Am I right on that, Brad? It’s a little higher now, OK. Sorry, it’s a lot higher. I’m seeing. I’m seeing people point up, so it’s a lot higher. Um, bad percentages. I wasn’t math was not my major.

00:32:33,800	Um but so it’s high and, and I guess what I’m trying to get across is that federal funding is important to what goes on at Jeannette Myer, and I also think it’s important to point out that that federal funding has to impact students directly in some way, shape or form, and again, I’m looking at the they’re nodding with me, so I have that fact right, and I, I

00:32:48,370	think that’s important for people to hear is that when we talk about title money coming into our schools that it is going directly to students and and what’s going on with their education and their care.

00:33:01,470	So they were able to get some new desks for kids to set up their rooms to to help with some of the capacity issues that we have going on at Jeannette Myri. Um, there’s a number of awesome classrooms, different wings going on. There’s two sections of BSEP also at Jeannette Myyy. Um, so it’s very full. Um, they’re having to do indoor recess today.

00:33:17,170	It’s been cold out, news flash, so and and you know, I just, every teacher I saw, you know, I’m just like, God bless you. You know, I just wanted them to know because, um, indoor recess after I’m sure they had to do some of it last week as well.

00:33:26,800	Um, that can get those good to be long days, right? And, and for teachers too, um, for the kids and for the teachers. Um, so we talked through to some of the behavior stuff that goes on too. They have 21 AIDs, uh, they have a school psych that’s there for 3.5 days. They share that school psych with SilverRach.

00:33:40,970	They have one full-time counselor, and then they have some title instructional aids, one full-time academic, one behavior, and one that’s a split between academic and behavior, helping out in our different classrooms. Um, Ms.

00:33:56,730	Herman is very appreciative of AP to her height, first year doing that at the school for her in that position, um, having moved on from being an instructional coach and I’ll being the assistant principal there and just really appreciating her work there at the school. Um.

00:34:07,900	we had a chance, as I said, we were meeting in a conference room and this comes back to some of the facilities I want to talk about and discuss to you, both with the board and also with our community at large and that as we’re sitting in that conference room, it’s the same conference room that our administrators have to meet with parents as they come in, or anybody else from outside the community.

00:34:21,970	And right through the walls there, you can hear, unfortunately, they had a student going on with some pretty severe behavior things going on. Um, loud yelling and screaming right through the wall, and if I’m not there for that student and I’m there for a different meeting, I, I can’t imagine being the principal and trying to keep things at task and to get something done.

00:34:34,730	Um, I’m OK with it because I, I, I, I knew what was going on. And so, but I also just said that these are some of the things as we know that Jeannette Myery has been one of the 4, and now we’ve added to probably 5 elementaries that in particular are very high in our priority list.

00:34:49,600	We’ve had a number of long-range facilities, conversations over this whole last year. Um, they’re ongoing and, you know, with operational excellence, uh, portfolio, we continue to talk about these things and, and so it needs to continue to get brought up because there are space issues I already alluded to the parking lot, um, they need a formal entrance at that

00:35:05,100	school. Um, she did say how appreciative she was of both Mr. Bernhardt and Darren Dr Schr for listening on some of the safety stuff, and they’ve enclosed the fence over there.

00:35:18,900	Jeannette Myyyan just made it, so it’s a little bit better as far as any, uh, transit traffic coming in and out around the school. She did say she would love to see more safety things continue to get put in there, even for teachers that maybe want to come in on the weekend or in the evenings at times, just to continue to make our school should be safe places for our educators, as well as for our kids

00:35:32,270	during our daylight hours. So just a couple of those long-term facility things. Um, we just need more room for our kids is part of the thing as well.

00:35:43,870	Um, we took a break from our meeting in the middle because the 4th graders had assembled, and I don’t know how they did it so quietly because we hadn’t heard them. They had a knock on the door, um, but all the 4th graders had assembled sitting down right outside the conference room, um, and that was Miss Jomstead, Miss Waals, and Miss Clark’s class.

00:35:55,470	Um, they also had Jen Bena who’s the Y Ell teacher out there and some aides as well. I didn’t get everybody’s name, but they were all out there and all these kids were assembled, and as you all have, I’m sure have had a chance to spin the whe el um, to see what house you’re in. I’ve I’ve already done that because I’ve visited this school before.

00:36:07,470	So I’m Tim Mohana, um, but in this case, they were having me spin, uh, to then find out some bonus points because as you every month they do a surprise field trip, right? We’ve heard about this, we’ve talked about it a little bit, but it was fun.

00:36:19,230	This, I had a chance to do some Q and A with the kids. It was really great because they, they’re all in all the different houses. So I mean, I got different cheerleaders for every different name up there and I let him know we talked about Wheel of Fortune for a little bit cause I’m a big fan.

00:36:30,530	Um, but I had, uh, Sadie was a 4th grade student who stood up. She explained the wheel to me exactly how it works, um, how they get points for being, you know, being good for things like, uh, respecting substitute teachers when they have them for finishing their assignments on time.

00:36:45,970	And also these notices, right? Like when they notice somebody doing something good. When somebody gets caught doing good things, they get points for that too. So it’s just pretty cool deal. They’ve been to the zoo. Some of the groups have been to the zoo, some have been to an art museum.

00:36:58,070	So they’re always educational, these secret field trips, but they could do some pretty cool stuff. Um, and then Amari, who’s also another 4th grader, he’s the one who kind of told me all about the secret field trips.

00:37:09,470	So he stood up, popped up out of his spot, um, he had raised his hand respectfully to be able to be the one to do that. And the 4th graders just did a great job of showing um good behavior for kids and just letting me know about some stuff. And then we did some Q&A.

00:37:20,070	They talked a little bit about my favorite sports and movies, which then the teachers had to tell him it had to be about school board, um, so I, I got to share a little bit about, um, my 4 friends here on the school board with me as well as our superintendents and our business office and just sharing some of the great stuff because they want to know, do

00:37:32,370	you guys, I, I, I joked about us doing things with the lunchroom, but don’t blame me. Talk to your principal. Um, I told him I like cookies, but there were just some really good conversation that went on with that. Um, Jeannette Myyys also hosting A Parent Night once a month.

00:37:48,070	They’ve done cooking with a crock pot, um, exercising for health and then some life business skills, pretty cool stuff sent to anybody that came to that home with a crock pot Community partners have helped donate those.

00:38:00,900	That’s not being funded by the school, um, but through some united Way and other third party funding, they’ve been able to do some pretty cool stuff with families. um, of course, we couldn’t get out of there without talking about bell times and bussing.

00:38:15,230	Um, my two favorite topics of 25, 26, um, the Bell times have actually been really good for the educators there in particular um, they, they said it’s they’ve really enjoyed it actually. Um, they’ve seen tardies go up a little bit, but they couldn’t necessarily pinpoint that on bell times. Uh, a lot of these cases, there were some students that were continually maybe more tardy than others, but there was a slight uptick. Bussing is not, nor has it ever been necessarily an issue with Jeannette Meyer.

00:38:30,530	They said they have one bus, um, and it’s continued to be good and on time. So, um, biggest things, worry about title funds, making sure that those are continuing to come.

00:38:43,530	I think it’s important that people know that those are important, um, no matter what’s being talked about all the time that those funds are going to kids and that they’re important that they get to our schools, um, and then we need space for and um to keep our staff there as well. um, so the safety and, and some of those things I talked about, but that space is a big deal.

00:38:55,600	And she did say, and I want to make sure I get this to you, that with all this, we have good systems, we’ve got great teachers, and I couldn’t back it up enough. I mean, some of the other ones, Mr. Wangan, uh, the counselor and, um, Mr.

00:39:07,600	Armand was walking a student, spending some one on one time in the halls with some students, um, and just watch them do all that, so it was a great time at Jeannette Myyy, um, as it always is. I, I think they do such a good job, uh, with all that they have, and, and we need to again, I just will continually say it.

00:39:20,100	We need to continue to care about Jeannette Myyy, both how we treat the space, um, taking care of our staff and making sure it’s a great place for kids to continue to get an education, so thanks for listening to my report, appreciate it. Well said. Thanks, thanks, Mr. Eastgate.

00:39:37,800	uh, with no other school visits, we’ll move on to the consent agenda Mr. Lee I thank you, President Hager. This is one of those nights where I see someone in their retirement and I have to say something, um. Doug Vanderban has been a, a fixture in Northwest Bismarck in my neighborhood, for, for many, many years, and all my kids went through Horizon, phenomenal Guy.

00:39:59,270	Um, I have him at the top of the top. He’s just, he’s just the best, and I just want to wish him, um, the best in, in retirement and, and with that, I would move that we accept the consent agenda. we have a motion in a second. I, I, I’ve just got to add to the Mr. Vander Pan piece as well.

00:40:19,900	Have actually happened to run into him this this weekend and he, he is going to be a big loss in the district. It’s just, he’s one of those guys just always positive. hardworking, just generally a terrific person, so he, he will be missed, so I wish him all the best in retirement.

00:40:37,100	Uh, we got a motion in a second. Dr Scher Eastgate? Yes. Lee Peterson, Presy Hager. Yes. Down to the superintendent’s report, uh, financial report, Dr Scher. Yeah, so the financial report, uh, a couple things like to point out to the board, um as you can see we’re, we’re definitely trending, uh, the right way, uh, we have some

00:41:08,600	additional revenue projected and some and our expenses are reduced. Um, the, so that’s the we got page numbers on these now, oh, you know what, and we, we did them last month and not here. We are going to get better at this, I promise.

00:41:30,100	Um, so, um, you can see that our we’re under 2 million, um, overrun revenues, now we’re over 2 million, so that’s favorable. And then on the next page, uh, I think it was like 1.1 R now close to 1.7 under an Expenditures we’ve, our revenue is 50.

00:41:46,530	9% and we should be right at 50%, so you can see where 1% and in the district our size 1% means a lot, um, and then on expenses we’re way under 50%, so that’s a, it’s a, it’s a good thing, um I already pointed out, uh, some of our challenges with maintenance, uh, so I don’t need to do that again.

00:42:06,370	And really, I don’t feel like there’s any other line items. There’s some small, small ones that were over, but it’s, it’s just a small number of a small number, so it’s not really of any concern, um, and I’d answer any questions the board would have on this month’s financial report. board members.

00:42:27,070	Questions? OK, seeing none, Dr Fassnnat, legislative update Yeah, I did want to bring to your attention and maybe for viewers at home, um, some of the implications from the one big beautiful bill that our legislature addressed um this week and this uh last week in special session as they worked on that rural healthcare initiative and those funds

00:42:47,900	going to HHS, I think what um everybody should know is North Dakota did very well as far as receiving federal funding, that was due to the quality of the application that our state officials put forth to the federal government for and uh um so a slice of that, those

00:43:03,900	dollars coming to us, I if I remember the governor’s address, 8%, um, coming for healthy living for North Dakotans and health nutrition and healthy lifestyle.

00:43:20,270	Um, part of that, those dollars we anticipate will be coming to schools and uh we’re kind of, we’re gonna have to wait for guidance from HHS, so what we possibly could qualify for. There’s been some talk about some physical education dollars, a supplementer, our PE classes, but one of the components that was, I think, a driving force of the quality of the North Dakota application was a presidential physical fitness um exam.

00:43:38,800	And if you remember some of us in school, we probably did that, right? With the pull-ups and the sit-ups and the, and the run. Um, that has now been put into code as part of a requirement for PE, um, we’ll have to wait for the department and Superintendent Bachmeyer and the department to give us the rules on that, but we’re already talking about

00:43:55,870	that, um, coming into our classrooms. Um, so you can expect that, um, by next year, that the Presidential physical fitness exam at some point in the child’s career, probably not every year, but at some um key years, that exam will be um part of our PE courses and, uh,

00:44:16,100	your kids may be experiencing that, um, inside their classes. So something we’re looking forward to and waiting, waiting for the guidance from the department on how we implement that, but I thought people would like to be aware there was some components in the, in the work that our legislators

00:44:31,530	did last week that definitely affected schools. So I’d say for any questions you have. or remembers any questions. Not seeing any uh gearing up for kindergarten. Yeah, last thing I’d asked, uh, Mr. Barnhart to do a presentation you might have seen on social media, um, his work, and Mr.

00:44:52,370	Kuntz’s work on gearing up for kindergarten and had a lot of positive comments about that program coming to support our, our parents and our new little learners about ready to enter kindergarten next year.

00:45:09,630	So I thought I’d let him give a little shout out to the program and uh maybe even if you have a young one, get them registered for kindergarten, so Mr. Berner, yeah, thanks, Dr Fau, not President Hager and members of the board. Before I do that real quick, um, we, today we began our marketing campaign for kindergarten registration.

00:45:23,000	I know that Steve Koons isn’t here, but a shout out to him. He spearheaded this, and, uh, had a really tight timeline, but we were able to reserve two, billboards located south end of Bismarck one by Lucky thirteens in the mall as well as down by South Walmart.

00:45:41,970	So, real quick, this is what you should expect to see on that billboard, but hopefully we’re able to get the attention of parents just jog their memory that this is the season to get your kids, uh, registered so that we can get them a seat at their boundary school and we can start projecting staffing and and whatnot.

00:45:57,630	So, um, those billboards will, will run for the next two weeks and, and in addition to that, kindergarten registration opens on Sunday, February 1st, so let’s go time. All right, gearing up for kindergarten. Um, this was an initiative that we discussed and, and talked about uh this fall.

00:46:17,730	And coalescing with Andrea Sibel just through some ideas and thought about this could be a pre uh year or pre-planning year and really looking at something to launch in 20627. But forgetting that you have high-flying leaders in buildings and hardworking district staff, um, once they started to coalesce around what this would look like, they found the need needs to be now.

00:46:37,530	And so they really worked really hard over the last 6 weeks to be able to put a program together and we launched our pilot, um, gearing up for kindergarten just recently, and I’ll get to that in a moment.

00:46:51,430	So really the purpose of the program is to help support and equip our families and students to be more prepared once they begin their 13-year journey with uh BPS. We want to partner with families to ensure their transition into kindergarten is successful. We have 3 schools that have offered to run our pilot this winter spring sunrise, Roosevelt, and Grimsrud. And just last Thursday night we opened the doors up at sunrise, and we had 41 registrations. I thought that was remarkable.

00:47:11,170	Team felt that it was a great turnout with lots of information that was provided to parents, including what’s needed for registration as as well as the first session was based on what to expect in kindergarten. Additional sessions will be scheduled throughout April at those three schools as well.

00:47:28,270	In totality, they’ll be 4 sessions at each school. Those sessions, um, session one, as I already mentioned, what to expect in kindergarten. Session 2 play, talk, and learn. Session 3, explore and empower, and then session 4, friendship, uh, friendships and feelings. And really it’s a collaboration amongst many staff within the district, leaders, uh, district staff.

00:47:49,070	We have partnerships with the University of Mary OTPT programs, um, it’s phenomenal to be able to sit back and, and see the work that they put together over just the last couple weeks. Um, for those listening at home, if I can get the person in the back just to show my screen real quick.

00:48:06,100	If you go back to the home page on our uh BPS home page. If you scroll down you’ll see this banner for kindergarten, uh, gearing up for kindergarten. And if you click on that, if it works here.

00:48:22,100	you’ll scroll down and you’ll be able to see where you can register for one of those sessions at one of those 3 schools. We tried to provide different time options, whether it’s evenings, um, mid-afternoon. Hope that we can meet the needs of most of our stakeholders.

00:48:38,800	There’s an informational flyer there that’ll give you a little bit of background of the information that we are trying to get in the hands of parents so that when those kiddos come through the doors in, in the fall, they’re prepared, um, but most importantly, we really want to make those and build those relationships with parents so that that journey in BPS is, um, is, as best as we can possibly make it, so if you

00:48:54,630	click on the brochure, here, here are the sessions again lists the schools and times. and again, like I said, we tried to capture different times to try to meet the needs of um our families. And then hopefully, hopefully in next year we’ll continue to build out the program.

00:49:12,800	We’ll have more sites available, be able to go back, learn what worked really well, what do we need to tweak and, and whatnot. And then just finally, um, just wanted to thank Andrea, Tina, Jody, Molly, and our amazing principals, Mrs. Dorry, Mr.

00:49:29,970	Flaland, Dr Upton, many school teams to help move this initiative forward. We have high school students from the National Honor Society and AI to help, uh, support students. uh with these sessions as well. So um, stand for any questions if you have. Thank you, Mr. Bernhardt. Ms. Peterson, Mr. Bernard, I just have one question for that registration.

00:49:48,600	Do you have to be a kindergarten parent, having your kid at one of those 3 schools to attend or can can they attend one of those sessions even if they aren’t very good. It was in my notes and I missed that. So we’ve opened those, those schools for anyone within the district.

00:50:03,700	Um, we’re hoping that we can build this out so we can make it more personable with uh the school that you will be attending, um, for the previous year, but we just haven’t got there yet. So if, if a time works and a date works, and it’s at the other side of town, you’re free to come and attend, yep. Thank you. It sounds like a great program. Excited to see um.

00:50:20,600	people take advantage of it Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mr. Barnhou. It’s nice to see that that mic works back there too. It’s been, it’s, it’s been a while. Well, with that all agenda items have been considered, I