9/25/2023 Regular Meeting

The school board Regular Meeting started at 530pm at the district office on Bridge Street. As the meeting began, all members were given a laminated card, each side clarifying and asking the relevant questions:

Governance: Why? To what end? At what cost? Through what policies? (School board’s role)

Management: What? When? How will this get done? Who will be responsible for doing it? (Administration’s role)

Superintendent Jeff Elstad used Mission Moment to recognize student Carter Hanson as a National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist. Congratulations Carter and best wishes to you in all your future endeavors!

Mr. Elstad also gave an update on the Learn and Earn initiative which is connected with our district’s Career Pathways program. This is a new project funded by a $1 million grant, organized by a collaboration of the Owatonna Chamber of Commerce, Riverland Community College and ISD 761. The initiative includes the new Owatonna Scholarship and will help to fulfill Mr. Elstad’s vision of educating our pre-K through “grade 14” students. The class of 2024 will be the first class eligible to receive the new Owatonna Scholarship. More info on Career Pathways can be found here: https://ohs-reg-guide.weebly.com/pathways.html. If students are interested in the Owatonna Scholarship, they can talk to a teacher or principal at the high school.

The enrollment report was reviewed and again noted that Lincoln is over 100% capacity. Because of this, the board previously approved the Teamworks proposals on 8/28/2023 to address boundary lines and possible changes for the next school year to help with this.

During board forum I took the opportunity to make a statement to the board and noted this a few days ago in the previous blog post here. Since the board’s work seems to be focused on policy work, it seems reasonable to me that we need to be having respectful discussions as a whole board regarding topics of concerns or questions that any one of us as a parent, community member, or board member may have.

The first reading for policy revisions was reviewed for policies 513 (adds gifted and talented student provisions, early admissions), 514 (adds malicious and sadistic conduct prohibition, updates general policy statement and notice), 524 (adds cell phone provisions), and 602 (adds E-learning provisions).

Mr. Elstad gave the Administrative Report noting that the round-about on Bixby and 18th should be completed in early November, hopefully mitigating some of the traffic congestion on 18th Street. The auctions at the old high school building will be completed October 4th, with October 8th as the last day to pick up items. Then on October 9, 2023 the old buildings will officially be a construction site and the public will not be allowed in the buildings moving forward. Parents in the district will soon be notified of a 30-day window to comment on the updated Social Studies curriculum proposals. This is info organized by FAIR and can be found on their website: https://www.fairforall.org/join-us/

Minnesota K12 Social Studies Standards Instructions, artifacts and sources   Deadline for comments: October 25, 2023 at 4:30pm Administrative hearing: November 8, 2023 6-8pm & November 9, 1-4:15pm (contingent upon receiving 25 requests for a hearing during the comment period)   Statute that outlines how K12 Academic Standards must be established and reviewed: Minnesota Statutes 120B.021   Proposed replacement of the (2011) K12 Social Studies Standards: Final draft   Instructions for comments and to request an administrative hearing: Notice of Intent to Adopt Rules   MDE’s rulemaking page   MDE’s justification for its proposal: Statement of Need and Reasonableness (SONAR)    p. 17 MDE’s summary of the history of academic standards in Minnesota    p. 33 MDE’s summary of establishing the review committee      p. 51 MDE’s summary of feedback received during drafting process    p. 63 Itemized justifications for each of the 25 new standards

Mr. Elstad also noted that on October 10, 2023, at our next work session, we will be hearing some operational plan updates. Lastly, he noted that the open house at the new high school was a huge success with an estimated 5,000 people in attendance.

The Consent Agenda was approved including minutes from previous meetings, the disbursement report and the personnel report.

Several votes were taken:

Director of Special Services Sarah Knudsen noted that we have a $65,000 grant to cover social services in the district and the long-held agreement with Steele County Children’s Mental Health is due to be renewed. Vote passed 7-0.

Policy reading #2 with a vote to approve them (policies 102, 406, 410, 413, 414, 415, 419, 504, 506, 507, 509, 515, 522, 807, 901, 902, 905, 906) was met with discussion regarding transgender girls (biological males) playing sports with biological girls. Ms. Deborah Bandel raised concerns about the fairness of biological males playing with biological females. Comments were made about the guidelines and limits within our district’s membership in the MSHSL and with regard to the Title IX funding we receive. As I understand things at this time, our membership in the MSHSL requires us to allow transgender females to participate with biological females and to use restrooms and locker rooms of biological females. Title IX is a less clear on this topic. Title IX was put in place in the 1970s to prevent discrimination for females playing sports. However, in today’s era of various opinions regarding biological sex differing from gender identity, Title IX is not well defined… yet. I asked about clarity in our district as to the process of transgender students’ participation in sports. Mr. Elstad noted that there is a process to follow that does not allow for hasty decisions in this matter. At this time, I am not aware of any transgender students participating in sports or using locker rooms of their gender identity. I would appreciate more discussion on this topic, out of fairness to our female athletes that work so hard (as Deborah mentioned) and more specifically out of concern for the safety of all our students, on the field/court, in the restrooms, and in the locker rooms. The policies were approved 6-1.

Several other votes were taken and approved, and I will update the Decision Updates section with this information soon! This includes ratification and tentative agreement for custodial employees, preliminary tax levy certification, assurance of compliance report, extended trip requests for OMS students to Washington DC and FFA students to attend the National FFA Convention in Indiana, the old high school asbestos removal contract, and gifts to the district. Meeting adjourned.

Congratulations Huskies Football for their Homecoming WIN! I had so much fun in the homecoming parade with my boys Carson and Michael! I only wish we had more candy since we ran out 3/4 of the way through the parade. Noted for next year… !!