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Monday’s School Board meeting had a light agenda, with no votes taken and updates on the district’s crisis response policy, enrollment numbers, goals, and calendars.
Crisis Policy First Reading
Mark Fortman, director of operations and Sarah Lein, director of special services, presented a first reading of the district’s crisis policy. This policy is reviewed annually, though this year’s update is happening sooner in order to comply with state laws around responding to cardiac emergencies.
- Every building in the district is equipped with at least one Automatic Electric Defibrillator (AED).
- School nurses and other health professionals are responsible for making sure the AEDs are maintained and kept in good working order.
- The district will train multiple people at each building in identifying cardiac emergencies and using the AED.
- The goal: ensure that an AED gets to a person who needs it in three minutes or less.
This was a first reading on the policy, so no vote was taken.
Enrollment Update
Deputy Superintendent Peter Mau shared an update on the district’s enrollment numbers for the current school year.
- New enrollments are down slightly from past years, but this is within the margins of current trends.
- Currently, about 62% of elementary-level district residents attend ISD 197 schools, with the others attending private school or enrolling in another district. This is somewhat higher at the middle and high schools.
- District-wide, there are 5,078 students currently enrolled, or 27 fewer than was originally projected.
- Based on these projections, they have cut one kindergarten classroom, but added support staff at a couple of schools.
- The district saw a decline in the number of English language learners this year, reversing a long-term trend. This decline was likely due to Operation Metro Surge.
- Overall, the district gained 1,084 students from open enrollment, while losing 655 students who open enrolled in other districts. The overall trend is toward more students enrolling in than out.
Board discussion around these numbers focused on the long-term trend of enrollment decline driven by lower birth rates. This could present a budgeting challenge in the future, though nothing presented tonight was surprising or suggested an immediate crisis.
Annual Plan for Student Achievement
Cari Jo Drewitz, director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment, joined Peter Mau in presenting the district’s annual plan around improving student achievement.
Most of the goals in the plan are mandated by the state, with the district having flexibility in how they define and implement these goals. Tonight, Drewitz and Mau presented the plan, and they’ll share updates throughout the year as the plan goes into action.
Highlights of the plan include:
- Providing students and staff with better access to social-emotional learning resources, including classroom curriculum and services provided through counselors and social workers.
- Focusing on equity in how students from different backgrounds are taught, supported, and disciplined.
- Expanding opportunities for career exploration and preparation.
Future Academic Calendars
Drewitz also provided an update on the current drafts of the academic calendars for the 2027-2028 and 2028-2029 school years. This was purely an update, and no votes were taken.
- Drewitz suggested one revision to the 2027-2028 calendar: Moving a professional development day from October 1 to October 11 to better accommodate the Yom Kippur holiday.
- The 2028-2029 calendar includes days off for election day, a shift to semesters instead of quarters for grade reporting, and the last day of school on Thursday, June 7th. They’ve also added two teacher work days on April 23 and 24, which both breaks up the long stretch between spring break and Memorial day and also gives people the day off for Eid.
- The Board will vote to finalize the 2027-2028 calendar and give preliminary approval for the 2028-2029 calendar at the November meeting.
Engage
- Watch: Superitendent Peter Olson-Skog and Board Member Jon Vaupel offer a video recap of the meeting.
- More: Agendas and minutes for ISD 197 School Board meetings are available online.
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