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The school board celebrated the birthday of Superintendent Peter Olson-Skog to kick off last night’s school board meeting. The board also heard an update on the district’s American Indian Education plan, introduced a new policy on posting advertisements, and discussed the academic calendar for the coming years.
American Indian Education Plan
Kevin Sheridan, educational equity coordinator, and Nell Barri, American Indian education coordinator, provided an update on the district’s American Indian Education Program.
- The goals of the program are to improve education access and opportunity for American Indian students, as well as to improve the school climate for those students by raising awareness of American Indian culture and providing relevant, accurate information on these groups to all students.
- As of this year, the program gets $110,500 from the state, based on the district’s American Indian enrollment, which currently sits at 161 students.
- The district continues to establish Native Student Groups at each school, with Garlough being the latest addition.
- They’ve taken trips to Augsburg Native Youth Day, Red Lake Nation College, and the South of the River Powwow, among other stops.
- They provide professional development training for all new staff to help them understand and serve American Indian students.
- The report made it clear that they’re making progress toward their stated goals, but still have a long way to go.
Advertisements Policy
Sara Blair, director of communications, provided a first reading of a change to the district’s policy for advertising products and services to students, staff, and parents. The policy change is mostly technical and would incorporate guidelines about where advertisements can be posted directly into the official policy instead of listing it as an addendum.
Academic Calendar
Cari Jo Drewitz, director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment, led a review of the proposed academic calendars for the 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 school years. The board approved a draft of the 26-27 calendar last year, and will be voting to finalize it in December.
- For 2026-2027, the district will switch from releasing formal grade reports quarterly to only releasing them twice per year at the end of each semester, resulting in some changes to teacher work days. They will also move some days off in January to keep the two semesters roughly equal.
- For 2027-2028, there are no major changes being proposed, but they have aligned some days off with major religious holidays and election day.
- Several board members raised questions about having two-day weeks around major holiday breaks, wondering if this would negatively impact attendance, but data from past years suggests that this isn’t the case.
Engage
- More: Agendas and minutes for ISD 197 School Board meetings are available online.
- Watch: School Board Members Sarah Larsen and Morgan Steele give a recap of the meeting.
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