good evening i'd like to call to order tonight's meeting of the isd 191 burnsville eating is the harvest today is september 10th i'd like to 20 20 and the time is 6 30 and i'd like to start this is our meeting of september uh the first day of school and i'd like to give a special welcome to our new student representative welcome mikome and i'd also like to um thank our audience for joining us um incredible times and we know that everyone's busy so thank you for being with us with that director courier would you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance 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 thank you very much we will start by approving tonight's agenda um i'll take a motion to approve so we'll move by director second second inviter at the miller any discussion or questions seeing none um ms kenny will you please call the role jobs i alt i chester i career i hume i miller i and the motion carries thank you starting with the information portion of our meeting tonight i would like to invite dave lake director of operations to join us we are receiving a report about summer projects welcome dave board chair directors and superintendent battle welcome let's take some time to look at the fy 2020 summer projects slide please uh bob pete stadium at burnsville high school we had a 12 year old artificial turf surface that was worn well beyond its use we were concerned about safety as we move artificial turf contains rubber pellets as well as fibers what happens over time is the the rubber pellets begin to displace as the fibers shorten creating a long-term safety concern if we didn't replace it in the near future so we went ahead and decided to replace it we went with a product called iron turf it's used with many professional clubs throughout the united states as a matter of fact the new england patriots practice field uses that as well as some of the soccer clubs in the united states so it is a top of the line surface that should give us a nice life long span we're expecting 10 to 15 years of usage out of it if you can as you look into this picture here you'll see at the bottom of the screen we did re-stripe the running track as well you can see the beautiful burnsville lettering there at the bottom slide please along with that we were able to replace the football goal post we've got the curved minnesota viking type goal post there we have a new soccer goal system it's a tuck under soccer goals where you can slide it underneath it's easier safer to transport to move about less damaging to the turf surface so we'll have a longer usage out of it easier use it looks beautiful and fits the new goal post system as well we did have the opportunity on the northwest corner of the property to replace a flagpole that was starting to lean to one side hopefully no one noticed but we certainly did with operations so we took that opportunity to replace the flagpole we added illumination to it so we can probably display the flag 24 hours a day we did some electrical updates as well added electrical outlets in safe locations around the playing surface so that we can utilize technology for both our sports teams activities as well as our physical education classes so i think we'll get multi-usage out of that and the users will certainly enjoy that update slide please yeah harriet bishop oh i'm sorry uh burnsville high school um moving to the east side of the property center point energy uh conducted a from one end of our property to the to the other gas line update they replaced two lines underneath our property they started underneath highway 13 came through our football practice fields through our east lot in between our tennis courts out through the varsity baseball field and farther north into burnsville so it was quite the undertaking the picture there i tried to do it justice the enormous two foot wide pipes hundreds of feet of pipe were put under our property and uh from what center point energy is telling us we'll we'll never have to do this again it should last they said up to 100 years so we're finishing that restoration of the property right now we're just left with the area in between the tennis courts as well as the baseball field and we'll have that done later in the fall and it'll be baseball be ready to go in the spring when when they're scheduled to start up moving inside of burnsville high school we were able to update the miraz center lighting to led we previously had uh inefficient high temperature sodium lighting which had been there for decades uh they were expensive to replace much shorter light lifespan with with the bulbs so we were happy to move to led it's a much brighter clearer area i think that our artists and performers in that area as well as our visitors will really enjoy the update and notice it any visitor i think will notice it right as they walk in it's a really pleasing display for us slide please so moving to harry bishop elementary we did uh the two miss reconstruction on most of the parking lot both on the upper in the front of the building and around back we were able to regrade some of our that land uh 30 years ago was was swamp area so we were able to regrade some of that to get a better runoff as you can see from the pictures it turned out wonderful we updated the lettering the drive-through drop-off lane for orderly safe uh busing and parents driving through that area we also it's not in the picture but we were able to update the loading dock the cement apron as you approach that area each year the as we got into the winter months the ice would cause it to heave so it would raise up a good foot and then come back down as the as the ice uh melted away underneath the surface so we're able to regrade that re-rock the entire area and we look forward to not having that issue in the future at heria fish we also added a new dishwasher it was nearly 25 years old due for an update we were able to update our hot water heater to a lower temperature system which will run much more efficiently and we added a booster booster heater and a nice energy efficient water savings model there slide please at eagle ridge we also did the same with the dishwasher it's the same model that we that we put in at harriet bishop it's a good shot of it there i think our our staff will be will be happy to use the new equipment i think it'll make their jobs easier and uh easier transition as well the carpeting if you haven't seen it you should check it out we had 1996 original carpeting at eagle ridge and it was it was due for a replacement we have top of the line carpet tiles that are replaceable along with that they're also stain resistant um it's the picture doesn't do it justice if you haven't been there please stop by and look the place looks beautiful it looks like brand new at eagle ridge so we're really happy with how that turned out aside please at william byrne elementary and you'll see in another school coming up with the school closings we had to adjust to the needs of our special education students so we found that at a couple sites we we needed to add 88 compliant restrooms to meet the needs of our students so we chose two sites the first here is william byrne elementary the first picture to your left is on the outside of the bathroom there's a washing area a drinking fountain some cupboard space moving into the bathroom everything is ada compliant of course this is an elementary school so you'll see the toilet very close to the floor both the sink the toilet the mirror everything is ada compliant for for our special needs students in an elementary setting you can't see it in the picture but there's quite a bit of storage area one wall's wall-to-wall cabinetry for the supplies that the staff needs and then you also can't see it in the picture but there's a changing table there for staff and for a student to use slide please so at nicolette here's another picture we're in a middle school setting now so you'll notice the the fixtures are a little bit higher again age-appropriate ada compliant uh again to service the needs of our students we we felt that we needed to add an 88 restroom over at nicolette middle school with the closing of metcalf middle school directly outside the bathroom this is near the link right in the where the center meets the the link or the circle building meets the link there we've got an ada compliant bottle fill station along with a new drinking fountain so i think that the students and staff will be happy for that we went through we had many outdated marker boards and old blackboards we replaced them with whiteboards and our staff are very pleased with that slide please at nicholas middle school we did more maintenance projects there first thing um i don't have the picture of it but we we have three um 50 year old boilers they extend from one length of the room to the other we were we were able to remove one of those boilers and we added two high efficiency benchmark boilers which will save us an energy cost quicker heating times of just better uh better temperatures in our building we're really excited to utilize that especially myself as a boiler operator i'm thrilled with that and i know our maintenance staff is as well the picture on the bottom left it's our cooling side we did some updates on there's two uh chillers there as a part of our cooling system we updated and overhauled them last year this year we added replay vfd variable variable speed drive which will provide much better more energy efficient cooling and keep in mind that heats and cools sky oaks elementary as well so so we'll be reaping energy savings at two different sites along with that i didn't have the space to put it in but in the main the main entry outside of nickelodeon middle school we we did many uh sidewalk repairs we took care of and and any trip hazards and concerns that we had so we've got a safer entry point to our school we did some along both sides of the building too the dock and then the area between sky oaks and nicolet so every year we're looking at our sidewalks to see where we have any safety concerns and we had a couple trip hazards there borderline trip hazards where we patched them up over the winter and we were happy to get that that's solved as you drive into nicolette middle school there is a sidewalk apron we replaced that as well that was per the recommendation of the city as it was degrading over time and so we were happy to take care of that at the same time flying please and that is it thank you very much thanks so much dave um i'll open it up for board members um questions and comments [Music] director's chats uh thanks for that report that was um i did not realize i saw how lovely that the new football field looked but i did not appreciate it fully without the side-to-side view of the previous picture of what it used to look like so i'm excited to see our teams and our marching band and everybody else out using the field in the track so um and i appreciate the safety you know concept move and the necessity for that for that track um and field replacement so thanks for that um keep you on top of that and for all the rest of the projects that keep us humming along thank you thank you director shots now director milton thank you uh dave i appreciate the report very thorough uh this is sort of what you definitely call a leading question statement um but just for the listening public um be clear uh because these sound like pretty large scale expensive projects this is part of our ongoing maintenance budget correct and uh planned was planned for this year a long time ago and it's all part of it we're in a budget tight environment so i just want people to understand this is how we run a district we do things like this on a regular basis to keep things updated so we don't have hidden costs that pop up correct correct this is part of our 10-year long-term facility maintenance we every year we're updating it and we we go 10 years out every project that i presented tonight is a part of the ltfm long-term facility maintenance with the exception of the two ada compliant bathrooms where we did receive federal funding for that that was approved by the board as well but yes we and all of these projects are planned out well in advance based on need good thank you any other questions or comments um i just had to um just really appreciate all of the advantage [Applause] of our facilities and just keep them looking so so beautiful and really welcoming for our students and families the now i've heard families talk about you mentioned the boiler and the chilling system at nicolette so does that mean that students can expect more regulated temperatures in that building yeah yeah especially on the cooling side it's easier to regulate and that's that was the um we were having some failures on the speed drive that powers that system and so we updated it to an energy efficient variable speed and what that means is it can much like what your home will do it'll it'll ramp up or slow down based on need whereas before it to oversimplify it it kind of ran wide open not as efficient as we would like but it was just the technology of the of the time but for sure it will provide and cooling for our for our staff and students and in both buildings is that expectation does that expectation helped you correct absolutely both buildings thank you and just going back in terms of the carpeting that you had mentioned at eagle ridge is that are we tending to be consistent with our carpet selections across the district in terms of the carpet squares when they need to be replaced yes yes so it's a sim similar functionality to what we have at burnsville high school uh they're squares so if you know if somebody breaks a pen open or drops a cop a cup of coffee and we can't clean it out we're able to to pull that square replace it and just have a seamless seamless transition there that's great it's a great solution thank you very much appreciate all the work this summer and for um bringing this wonderful report to us thanks very much steve thank you i appreciate it uh next um we'll be hearing from dr battle on uh and receiving a report on the first day of school dr battle thank you chair alt and members of the board today was the first day of school and it was unlike any in my history as an educator and this will be a little different from the typical first day of school report so typically i can show um superintendents usually show a lot of pictures of students getting off buses teachers and staff welcoming students to schools with hugs and high fives and parents we mean goodbye to their children at school or at bus stops those scenes did not happen today however that did not stop our parents from celebrating a new school year or teachers from connecting with their students so here are a handful of photos that our staff and families have shared with us this one trent alicia thank you so much from burnsville high school enough in virtual learning starbucks eagle ridge and then our new principal mrs buchanan for her first day of kindergarten assessment time here's our fourth grade team one of them eager to get the school year started of course what we're all familiar with the little zoom pictures so thank you to everyone who submitted those pictures so i don't have a lot of numbers to share with you today but we did have 5 53 students log in to their devices today to connect with their schools in one way or another and i have a bit of a snapshot from across the district so high school held class meetings and students uh participated in breakout sessions such as the required digital citizenship portion um we're almost at 90 percent of high school students schedules being completed most will were sent last night the staff will continue to work on needed changes virtual academy report they had a great day at virtual academy with teachers reporting excellent attendance in most classes with reports of a hundred percent attendance um they spent time building relationships and everyone loved the live virtual sessions there was a power outage from lakeville to northfield this morning which did impact a few teachers but we know our teachers they know how to respond quickly using their cell phones and then they went to a building to reconnect the classes so thank you for that quick adaptation as so many of us have learned during this time um the tech department by 11 a this a.m this morning the team was working over 400 tickets from students parents and staff this does not include the calls and emails and i checked right before the board meeting i think they were down to 275 so they are still working so thank you for your patience um otherwise across the elementary and middle schools it was a good day there were some small technical hiccups at one site with zoom and then another at uh all technical issues with our technology um so i am continually impressed by our staff they they have put in a tremendous amount of work learning new skills and reimagining the way they work together to deliver high quality education they are rising to meet the challenge and keeping the best interest of our students at the forum and some families are noticing and they're sharing their support even though we have had some things we still need to work on so for example we did receive feedback about yesterday's good news that school meals would be given at no cost at least for a limited amount of time thanks to federal support and one parent posted the following comment this is amazing thank you for everything you're doing for our kids i can't imagine the pressure everyone is under what an amazing gift to our families so sometimes the hardship or the negative comment sticks in our minds and there's no doubt we still have work to do but we can look to what we've accomplished to get to this point and be proud and this concludes my 2020-21 first day of school in court thank you thank you very much dr battle board members comments or questions director shouts thank you theresa that's um you know it it's first day of school and it's exciting no matter what uh format that takes so thank you for that um i i just want to clarify that the number of students that you said logged into their devices today that's just the number of students that logged in that's not the total enrollment that we have that's just for one reason or another not everybody had to log in today and you know things like that so i just want to make sure that um our listening audience does not take that number as our total number of enrolled students that's just how many had to log in today for for their classes so thank you again teresa thank you thank you great point thank you director scheinstein any other comments or questions director miller yes uh thank you again um i did have a question about the uh announcement of the federal food services um just to clarification um for for myself and for the listening uh public so to be clear uh all lunches are free of charge correct yes and this going to help me with this since we just received this guidance yesterday correctly yes so we're going to be functioning under the summer food program which up until a few days ago we were we were not as the usda has changed that most recently and minnesota department of education has now provided guidance that there is the option to continue that particularly for schools that have been in the practice of doing it through the summer months it did mean a retooling of our plan it does mean that families age students ages 1 through 18 may receive meals free we do still encourage families to complete the educational benefits plan as that generates revenue for other programs in the district-wide process okay so i just because i mean it's a big deal i mean i obviously uh i mean i'm not done and i know you're not understelling it but it's a pretty big deal um folks do not need to be putting money in their uh accounts of feedback it's not right now whatever we've transitioned to at least for the time being um we're not gonna be charging kids uh the days that they're in the school when they go down get their lunch etc um lisa my you know the the over the summer when we went to pick up the meals we just drove up we handed a bag and drove off but there was no selection process i'm going to be very selfish and ask a personal quest because my son tends to like want to buy an extra milk or something like that do those options remain available is there a way they could be adding to the free items you're receiving so with regard to the students in the schools as they are in person they will have on the opportunity to do a la carte for milk and for bottled water we do not have the ability for them to do a full meal in addition to the free meal that they're receiving but the a la carte is limited to just the milk and the water at this time julie has prepared the opportunity with lynx for when we are able to provide more than just those two items as all apart but we want to get everything up and running our food service staff has been working throughout the summer months after last spring and and they continue to now work this fall we do know that this summer food program is available to us until the money runs out or december 31st so um there is a chance we'll have to move right on back to the national school lunch program from january so that's why it's important for families to fill out the application absolutely yes because it's in their best interest to make sure that if they're eligible that we know that so that come january there's no hiccup form good thank you thank you any other questions or comments well it's been a different first of all i just had sorry i just had one other quick follow-up to eric's question um so what's up i think what i heard you say was you would have the lunches until december 31st or until the money runs out is there a possibility the money could run out before december 31st uh that's the big question mde has placed to the usda and they are not getting a definitive answer so they're making sure they're being very clear about that with us too so today in the mde call with superintendents they are watching what is happening in the senate or the cares funding it may be embedded in there and so uh they will be watching if there's another uh bill or package coming out of the federal government so they're hopeful great thank you very much dr battle as always an informative first day report and next let's see oh we're staying with dr battle we're going to receive an update about district 191's efforts to implement covet 19 related educational and public health guidance issued by the mde and the mdh respectively dr battle thank you so i first want to start off again thanking you the board as well as staff for their work to prepare for and to launch this school year as we all know the pandemic is ever-changing and there are many moving parts we have all especially the board and staff you have continued to change course based on new guidance for example what we just discussed about the change in our meal delivery and i really want to thank students and parents for your patience and support so as you recall in the spring we transformed our entire instructional and support system we added child care for health care workers and first responders and provided those needs and we did this all in eight days and so for this fall we did have some lessons we learned from this spring we piloted some of those in our summer session especially the live scheduled time synchronous learning um but it was a timeline that really relied on a lot of flexibility on your part as well as staff so june 15th and 16th school leadership teams principals and instructional staff spent two days in a retreat to review lessons learned from the spring distance learning and to begin to start planning for fall june 18th is when minnesota department of education and the department of health issued guidance to help districts plan and if you all know they did direct us to prepare for three learning models um and then july 30th is when the governor commissioner rickard gave us the minnesota safe learning plan it was a hundred and eleven page document and it also had embedded links to several other guiding documents for food and nutrition special education updated health protocols for minnesota department of health um they also unveiled that there will be a local decision about what learning model to start the following and so we chose a staggered hybrid model and they also asked us to look at some initial data based on the number of confirmed cases in the county and they also said we should continue to provide care for those workers in critical sectors august 3rd is when we presented our initial understanding and what we thought would be our plan um august 13th is when we actually the board adopted that resolution and august 27th we provided an update and then finally we had the majority of our staff come back monday august 31st our teachers and so i just want to emphasize um in seven days those staff brought us to today his first day of school and so that's why i wanted to start off the report so in seven days the school staff that came back on monday august 31st some of them were assigned a virtual academy they didn't know we would have the need but our parents had a choice and they really wanted to kind of take it slow for various reasons they wanted uh some wanted in person some wanted just to have a full distance line so i think we're all under stress and we have to remember in the midst of a pandemic and we're each carrying different burdens because of it yet i have seen you the board and staff you're creative and you're problem solving you're flexible i've seen all of you persevere in the midst of ambiguity you have shared your talents you shared your frustrations respectfully and professionally and i do know at times it can seem overwhelming but i know we will get through this together so i want us to breathe remain calm and to be kind to each other with this first day of school and the launch of the school year so um at the end of my remarks tonight bernie bean our licensed practical nurse will share information regarding an updated minnesota department of health decision tree for notification for suspected and confirmed cases of coronavirus and a home screening tool for parents and guardians and so in the four main areas of our cohort response health and safety academics student and family support operations and staff professional development i'm going to give you an update since the last two weeks so let's start with our baseline data which is the number of confirmed cases in the two counties we serve dakota county and scott county so from august 9 to august 22nd dakota county was at 22.3 per 100 000 residents and scott was 19.5 so this is the first report where we now have to switch from scott to dakota dakota because we have to use the numbers from the county that has the most cases that still puts us in hybrid and then today 11 a.m they release new county data so dakota county did increase 23.86 and scott county decreased to 18.55 so bernie being stephanie white and i on fridays that's when we have our calls with the public health dakota county and then i also joined a call with scott county so i really don't have an analysis of the numbers until we talk to them and so it still puts us in the hybrid for the academic uh portion of the report we have been completing those assessments in person and online administration is in place and teachers will use this data to inform instruction and identify any summer or the spring learning loss you remember we have not had an in person since march 16th and many of our staff have not even been in the building since then at first so they'll be coming back too we're using fast bridge for k-8 and grades nine to ten are using the act aspire to indicate their readiness to meet those college uh entrance levels we are going to carry over some funds through our federal title uh six funds for american indian education for covet and it's about four thousand dollars um we did need to provide some additional curriculum materials for elementary for the hybrid for the making meeting we needed extra making meaning being a reader being a writer and calendar math for about seventy five thousand dollars um student and family support um the student chromebook pickup for k-12 did take place uh wednesday september 2nd um we did have a glitch at one of the sites and so staff really wanted to apologize to those families and try to get those chromebooks to them as quickly as possible we also had on september 8th and 9th virtual open houses um in activities we have a very short season for minnesota state high school league and we are part of the south suburban conference so we have tennis girls cross country boys and girls soccer boys and girls swimming and diving girls and i actually am going it's very interesting the swimming and diving they're virtual meets they're in their own home pools and they just take the times so i'm going to join in they sent me to zoom league so i can see how this happens so they don't come together they're in two separate pools and then they start them at the same time and then they track i think that's how it is so i'll let you go in the next update so there's a lot of adaptation going on um so the shortened season started august uh the end of august and it'll go through the second week of october operations uh we all know what pp is ppe is now personal protective equipment they have been delivered to all the sites and are being distributed um and then our enrollment so as of 9 8 k-12 thank you uh director shots for making this uh distinction so here is our as of 9 8 k12 is 7714 virtual academy was 2835 early childhood special education uh 67 excuse me ages 3 to 5 67 in school and 66 in distance learning virtual academy and 73 in birth to three and vpk has 247 with 103 of those students in the virtual academy food service plans we shared that update very happy i want to talk about another um from support from the state of minnesota a saliva test so employees um have been offered by the state of minnesota to all school personnel um that they received a code to request a home kit that will be sent to them the test will be submitted through the employees insurance for the state to be reimbursed these will be claims against our self-insured plan for our covered employees we did request a hundred more codes and today stephanie white sent out we received from the state 100 additional close for our employees so they should be looking for them i mentioned earlier about the issue at one of the schools um so but the chromebook distribution went well on wednesday the second um for opening week workshop week uh the 31st we really focused on all staff getting the health and safety uh new protocols um even here at dec all staff here i participated um and our presentation was delivered by bernie bean all the other school nurses delivered that information to the site other learning sessions from last week were on the technology tools virtual academy since it is a new um offering distance learning social emotional learning and building relationships and connections um as i mentioned on i think it was august 13th the board passed the resolution that did allow me to make changes among the learning models so right now i'm not changing our learning model but i do have a change to the in person for grade nine for next week so as you all know health and safety is the priority and um based on recommendation from staff i do believe that the high school needs a little bit more time to practice those very important health and safety protocols so for the burnsville high school ninth graders the first week will only include one day of in-person learning the high school will send out information beginning tonight in order to ensure safety routines are practiced and in place 9th grade burnsville high school students participating in the hybrid model will only attend one day of in-person learning during the week of september 14th this is a change from two days so cohort a will attend in person on tuesday september 15 and cohort b ninth graders will attend in person on thursday september 17th all other days students will participate in distance learning this change does not affect virtual academy students or any students in grades 10 to 12. they will continue with distance learning throughout the week burnsville high school will continue with the safe return to school plan after that with 12th graders joining ninth graders for the hybrid starting september 21st and all grades starting hybrid on september 28th if we do continue continue to see those county numbers keeping us in the um hybrid range and that we are considering the other factors of staffing because bus drivers we need to make sure we can transport students and so we are back on plan for all great starting hybrid on september 28th and with that i'm going to turn it over to bernie bean um our lead licensed practical nurse who will share information about mdh's updated decision tree it is a little different from what uh first presentation we gave you and then we are about to launch the home screening tool thank you thank you dr battle good evening board chair alt and members of the board i'm going to just briefly go over the decision tree with you and also talk to you a little bit about our home self-monitoring program that rolled out actually tonight on social media if if you aaron if you want to put up the decision tree this is not a new document it is provided but it looks differently actually it's the third revision of the decision tree as science changes as we learn more about covet our decision tree changes also one of the big things that they clearly pointed out in this decision tree is on the very top of the header it says people in schools youth child care programs so that includes all staff all essential visitors all students that attend our building this is the decision tree that we we use other disciplines have identities businesses have different just decision trees but this is the one that we use in the school when we're in a hybrid model it's a requirement that we follow the decision tree during the summer i was the if you want to say the triage center for all illnesses for staff our camps our students and i would follow the decision tree and and work with mdh or local public health to make sure that we're doing the correct guide we're guiding families correctly on on the decision tree it can look pretty easy to follow but as we know every situation is pretty unique and um it is a complicated tool when you're first looking at it but that's what the the nurses are there for we now every building nurse has been trained by mdh on this decision tree and so they are the triage center for covet illness in their buildings those it makes it a little um more streamlined for them some of the big changes on this document is with the data of positive cases they looked at the symptoms and they now have divided the symptoms in that in the majority of positive cases these symptoms were present the least common are those symptoms like the sore throat the congestion that we know can be many different symptoms many different illnesses i'm not going to spend a lot of time going through that the algorithm but it does give us guidance as to how we advise students and staff whether they're healthy enough to be in school or not i it can be complicated and i would encourage families staff to reach out to the health office because we need to partner together we need to keep our our buildings safe and healthy and we are always going to be abundantly cautious and and and do the safest plan for our students and our staff one program that we rolled out tonight is our home screening program now that's not new for staff that's the program we have always encouraged and required that they monitor for illness at home and not to come into our buildings if they are sick that is self-monitoring for illness is critical for all of us to wake up in the morning and take an inventory of how we are feeling it's not only just for going to school but it's when you go to the grocery store when you go to a take out drive-through restaurant you you we really need to make that a part of our daily routine um to keep our where we go safe so we are asking parents to partner with us on this program we have given a lot of soft educational blasting of what this will look like with our summer programming asking them to do the screening giving them that tool in their hand to look at and to review we have on the social media that tool is available to parents now we will be giving a sunday night blast to remember don't forget to check for these symptoms and i encourage families make this a part of your daily routine with your child now no different than brushing your teeth or eating breakfast get them used to making an inventory of how they are feeling and if there's questions call us we will go through that in decision tree with you and make sure that we're doing what we need to do to keep our students and our community safe um yeah it's a confusing document um i'm really happy to say that they have just translated in in spanish and somali that came out today and they will be doing that in other languages also um yeah so being back at school this week there has um been lots of emotions lots of emotions in the community and so one of the mdh conferences i was in today the epidemiology epidemiologist read this poem and i'd like to just share it with you because i really think it's summarizes our journey our worries but how as a team we we can do this it's by stephanie kraus this school year is ideal for no one not for teachers not for parents hybrid is not ideal virtual is not ideal face to face in the midst of a pandemic is not ideal for every kid who is anxious to get back to the classroom there is another who is anxious about returning for every parent who wonders how am i going to manage this there is a student a teacher wondering how am i going to manage this often a person wears both titles for every kindergarten parent who is sad that this is how their child will begin their education there's a parent of a senior who is bummed that this is how their child will end theirs for every person angry about their child having to wear a mask there is a person who was petrified their immune compromised family member will get sick life has thrown us a huge curveball a plot twist it will not be easy we will be challenged we will get frustrated i hope we rise to the occasion i hope we help one another we will all need help i hope we treat each other with grace we will all need grace i hope we realize that at the end of the day our kids need us to be the light set the tone see the good take a really unfortunate situation and do our best to make it okay for them i would change one sentence in this poem instead of saying i hope we will rise to the occasion i know district 191 has risen to this occasion and health and safety will guide what we do and we will get through this together thank you dr battle you're you're muted thank you bernie and so uh we really want to encourage families to call your school nurse that decision tree is very complicated um it will be updated again and so bernie just confirmed on our website we have a leak a link directly to mdh so it's always the latest yes okay yeah so it may change and you know because as we learn more information minister department of health will update and that concludes the covet 19 report great thank you very much i will open it up for questions all right uh director chester thank you gerald um this is a not related to kovid but just because we're also attuned to our enrollment i know that dr battle you let us know what the enrollment was today or as of today do we have any do we know in comparison to last year what our difference is yes we do i'm going to ask executive director of human resources stacy sovine he's done that comparison so um looking at the kindergarten enrollment we were i think the last report we were down um some kindergartners i think we did enroll some more and so stacey can share some more details um just just to clarify you were asking how our kindergarten enrollment looks compared to last year at this time it was overall the general enrollment and i just knew the kindergartners the last two weeks we were a little concerned we hadn't had the same number of kindergarteners last year yeah we're down kindergarten just a little over 50 students from where we were last year in some ways that is almost expected we're seeing that trend across the country for when families are deciding whether to have their first experience of school if they have the option of delaying one more year you know i had a birth date over the summer i i think we'll hold the child back for one year before we start we're seeing that trend pretty much across the country our budget number that we were looking at was 76.06 for an end-of-year enrollment for kindergarten through 12th grade right now we're at 77 14 right there around that area typically after spring semester we lose anywhere between 120 to 140 students high school students that are either graduating out or or or dropping so it's going to be really really close to our projected end of year numbers this is where we are maybe a little bit a little bit south of it at the moment thank you stacy board members any other questions or comments well i would like to um thank you dr battle for again another very thorough report um keeping everyone up to date on where we are and and where the uncertainty remains um i also wanted to thank bernie bean for the poem that was that was really lovely and and just the takeaway set the tone and see the good that just that kind of stuck with me so thank you very much um next we will receive um first student representative report of the year hello my name is i am currently a senior at burnsville high school and i am this year's school board for this first meeting i would like to say how excited i am to take on this tour dr battle mr hawking and i have always had this year's off strong with a meeting with me and my fellow peers we voiced our concerns and our wishes for this year we were able to discuss about health regulations class schedules low-income family issues health meals for students and so much more this gave me the opportunity to see just how much impactful my role has going forward what i already was i'm excited to see how this will um draw out and what will come in this time to mention here and hopefully thank you very much really appreciate already knowing that you're that you're already busy thank you next we'll turn to dr battle with the superintendent's report thank you again chair alton members of the board tonight you have heard about a very different first day of school and about how we are responding uh continuing our response to covet 19 so for my personal report i want to focus on something that may have gotten lost in the shuffle um so despite all the challenges and uncertainty this last six months we still have students who achieved so megan hasey a 2020 burnsville high school graduate and one of six students in our emergency medical technician course became the first student in this year's program to pass the national emergency medical technician exam the ent program at burnsville high school is a wonderful example of our pathways approach it's collaborative it's a collaboration with inver hills community college and the burnsville fire department it gives students real life experience and leads to accreditation and puts students on their pathway to success megan has shared with our communication teams that the pathways model helped her find the classes she needed to pursue her interest in health care and she ended up taking both the emt course and the certified nursing assistant course and we all know how important our health care workers are and we just really need these great young people to enter in the field so i want to congratulate megan on her accomplishment and give specific thanks to ann werner dempsey who teaches those courses um and has been instrumental in building our health care pathway options for students and also i really want to thank our burnsville fire chief um bj youngman for his partnership and mentoring of our students megan is by no means the only burnsville high school student taking full advantage of the opportunities at burnsville high school but this first is exciting to see especially because i know it's the first of may so thank you and that concludes my report thank you very much dr battle uh board members are there reports from board members director courier yes a chair alt and superintendent battle i have a report um from basically 917 jill lewis was our chair for several years at 9 17 and was challenged by pancreatic cancer and had passed away in early june and the family is having her memorial service this saturday and i'll be representing our board and it's going to be a drive-through memorial service so at an elementary school and in the grove heights so i just wanted to share with the board i'll represent us at that event and she was just a remarkable and accomplished person so um and she did a fabulous job in sharing sharing the 917 board so i'll be doing that on saturday for us and that concludes my report thank you very much director carrier we we appreciate you representing us this weekend uh any of their board member reporters okay seeing them i do have one um giving a report on a board meeting model during covet 19. as i mentioned at the last meeting we are planning to move to a hybrid format for our board meetings starting with the september 24th regular board meeting in a hybrid meeting format the first meeting of the month would continue to be virtual while the second meeting of the month would be hybrid with some or all board members attending the meeting in person during in-person meetings strict social distancing will apply accommodations will be made for board members who wish to attend remotely as allowed under state statute 13d 021 in all cases all board meetings will remain open to the public through online broadcast and this concludes my report next we'll turn to a business portion of our meeting and the consent agenda although board action is required it is generally unnecessary to hold discussion on these items in the event a board member wishes to discuss an item that item will be moved for separate consideration are there any items that board members wish to separate seeing none uh i will take a motion to approve her second shots and seconded by director chester ms kenny would you please do the roll call both hi i so you i you i miller i and the motion carries thank you uh next i'd like to invite stacy silvan executive director of human resources to join us we are being asked to approve seasonal casual and temporary employee rates for 2020 2021 welcome back stacy thank you cheryl last spring march 6th i believe it was we approved the casual wage scale going into 2021 since then a couple of different things have changed that we need to update this one we have a teacher's agreement now in place at the time where we passed this we didn't have an approved bargaining agreement so you'll see a couple of lines that were addressing overloads are no longer relevant we cross those out because they are part of the master agreement with eu also we're adding two other areas that came up since march 6th we are adding a covid uh minnesota department of health liaison this is a we're hoping a limited stipend for one year but it will also be covered under our coveted relief funds that we have to spend for the the spend through december and this is uh quite frankly for all of the additional work that bernie in the leadership that she has provided to the district so she will be named the coordinator for for that finally uh from um our athletic director was also requesting um a tennis site supervisor of um stipend uh stipend a rate for supervision we have that in a number of our other sports but we didn't have one for tennis so this will also assist him so with that i'm making the recommendation that the board of education approves the following rates of pay for the 2020-2021 school year according to the casual wage scale thank you i'll take a motion so moved moved by director courier second second seconded by director miller questions or discussion seeing then uh miss kenny would you please call the role esther aye career i next we'll stay with stacy we're being asked to approve the memorandum of understanding between independent school district 191 and the burnsville education association um this is kind of just a matter of course with our hybrid model and the different components the logistics that we have going on one of the ways in which we're able to make this work is by doing an early transition for students from on-site to distance learning at the end of the day and to do that it helps with our transportation it helps with our building cleaning it will assist us with allowing a uniform teacher prep and conference time all at the end of the day as well as for principals and administrators and building leadership teams to evaluate how did how did today go did anything come up that we weren't expecting did anything come up that we need to address and communicate with parents it just will allow a little bit of extra time as well for each building to evaluate are we doing everything as safely as we possibly can and and make sure that we're adjusting on the fly as we need by doing the earlier transition it has the the hood have an impact possibly as far as interpretation that we are shortening our student instructional day which would impact our student teeth our student teacher our teachers contract which says that prep must be during the student contact or the instructional date so working with bea we came to the agreement that yes we both both parties understand that the instructional day truly has not been shortened it's transitioning that the uniformed prep time at the end of the day still falls within the contract language therefore we don't have any um anything to grieve there's no grievances with this so the the mou really is just making sure that both parties are in agreement and understanding this model is not in violation of the contract and that the student instructional date is the same quite frankly as far as the length as it was last year well with that it's my recommendation that the board of education approved the proposed memorandum of understanding with the burnsville education association and independent school district women thank you stacy i'll take a motion to approve don't move don't move moved by director miller seconded by director hume questions or discussion well um thank you stacy uh in these times we appreciate the flexibility and the partnership between our staff and the bea and maintaining high expectations for learning for our students so um thank you mrs kenny we please call them courier i hume uh finally we will shift to back to dr battle we are being asked to approve a birth to eight joint powers agreements thank you again chair alt and members of the board at the august 27th board meeting i presented a report about the birth to age eight initiative that is bringing together key um constituencies from public health human services community non-profits and education in dakota county um the goal of this uh birth to eight initiative is to ensure that children reach key developmental milestones and so tonight i bring the birth to eight age eight joint powers agreement and my recommendation is that the board of education approves this agreement um between the county of dakota and district 191 for the birth to 8 program services thank you i'll take a motion so we'll moved by director shots second seconded by director miller questions or comments director courier was that your handout yes just for just for clarity this comes up we have students that live in scott county and this is a dakota county initiative could a superintendent battle explain will this will this uh affect our scott county students oh yeah go ahead thank you uh director courier so this actually is a pilot program that has been approved by the legislature so it was very specific for dakota county i will get some more information to you about what scott county does to ensure that those students have some key developmental milestones and i'll make sure staff will give you what support we do provide for the scott county so it is specific for dakota county okay yes make sure that that's that's clear because we bumped into that over time where students that go to our schools um now it's interesting embedded is if they're born in dakota county so you know how mobile we are among the camps so i think that will serve even though they may live in scott now um there is a provision in here if they're born in dakota county so we'll get clarification for you okay thank you and just to clarify dr battle i think um all board members probably would appreciate receiving that same interest director chester is it born in dakota county and or reside in dakota county because i'm just um there is a there's a chart as described in exhibit uh two and so that's what i need to check on to make sure all of the criteria because it is through legislation and so we know how very specific it can be and the nuances that one or two words so yes i will get that information for the entire board and if it if they're not covered under this then we will get the resources so families know scott campbell what we provide great thank you very much any other comments or questions all right miss kenny would you please call the role you i miller i shots i alt thank you uh that being our final agenda item i would like to thank everyone for joining us board members thank you for um for your work this week and i will declare us a german have a lovely evening everyone you