Thanks to Inver Grove Ford for their support.
The ISD 197 School Board approved their 2026 budget, covered teacher performance pay and coaching, heard an update on world languages, and discussed the Equity Policy.
Budget Approved
The school board unanimously approved their 2026 budget and a revised 2025 budget, which were reviewed at the June 2 meeting and had no significant changes.
- 2026 budget: The total budget is $136 million, including all fund accounts.
- Fund balance: One continuing issue is the fund balance, which is effectively the district’s savings account. Board policy is an 8% fund balance, but the board has gone below that in recent years to avoid classroom cuts. The 2025 budget had a fund balance of 3.43% and the 2026 budget has fund balance of 4.46%.
World Language Curriculum Review
District staff gave an update on the world language curriculum review.
- Timing: The last review was in 2013-2015. It’s roughly a five-year process and they’re currently in the second year.
- Key areas: Several important areas for review are enhancing instruction with new technology options, smoothing transitions between courses, and expanding offerings with a native Spanish-speaker and Ojibwe course.
- Progress: Teachers did a rigorous review of multiple curriculum options and narrowed it down to one choice, but then opted to delay implementation for another year so they could more throughly plan.
Performance Pay & Coaching
District staff gave an update on the Alternative Teacher Professional Pay System (ATPPS), also known as Q-Comp. This program includes peer coaching and evaluation, new teacher mentoring, team collaboration, and performance pay.
- Colleague observation: Required teacher observations were tweaked to allow for observing a colleague, which research shows is the best approach to professional development. 31% of teachers took this option, which is double previous years. The district hopes to get it to 50%.
- Bonus pay: Performance pay is a bonus teachers can receive for setting a data-driven goal and meeting that goal. 99% of teachers met their goal and earned the $1,300 bonus.
Equity Policy
The board discussed changes to the Equity Policy, a newer policy that saw more consistent inclusive language, input from stakeholders, and tweaks from legal.
- Debating ‘test’: Board Member Jon Vaupel raised the question of if the Four-Way Equity Test should be called something else, avoiding potential negative impacts of the word ‘test,’ noting that it’s more nuanced than a simple pass or fail. Board Member Tim Aune pushed back, arguing that it’s an important policy and should be rigorous. He was leery of giving any indication that the district was relaxing its approach to equity. After further discussion the board agreed and Vaupel withdrew his suggestion.
Other Items on the Agenda:
- Open enrollment: The board closed open enrollment for fifth and sixth grades for the coming school year. This does not effect current open enrollment students. This is the earliest the district has closed open enrollment, though they are leaving room to reopen it if they receive enough applications to justify a whole classroom.
- Policy: The board approved a policy related to fixed asset accounting, which is a minor change in how they track items and relates to audit compliance.
- Facilities maintenance: The board approved a 10-year facilities maintenance plan, which covers deferred maintenance and certain health and safety projects.
- Closed session: The board had two closed sessions to discuss labor negotiation strategy and the superintendent evaluation.
Engage
- More: Agendas and minutes for ISD 197 School Board meetings are available online.
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