11/13/2023 Work Session

We held our first school board meeting at the City Chambers office at 5:30pm on Monday. The new space is beautiful, with a board table, microphones, cameras and large screens. New furniture and carpet gave the air “that new car smell.”

New chambers aside, our work session immediately followed the World’s Best Workforce presentation. The numbers speak for themselves as do the proficiency rates on the MN Report Card: https://rc.education.mn.gov/#mySchool/orgId–10761000000__groupType–district__p–3

• Owatonna Public School district 2023: Math 46.7%, Reading 48.3%, Science 29%
• Owatonna High School 2023: Math 37.2%, Reading 55.5%, Science 32.6%

One important question we need to ask is how are we going to do things differently this year? If we only do more of the same things we have done before, I don’t expect that we will get the improved results we need. As a school board, we have yet to review and discuss this report and the planned action steps for moving forward.

Mrs. Lori Volz, the director of finance and operations, presented an in-depth enrollment report. The predictions for future enrollment show declining numbers in the next few years, but then overall stability out to 2033. The graphs revealed that the declining student enrollment mainly affects grade 1-5 over the next few years. This is suspected to be due to declining birth rates. Given that our schools’ primary funding depends on the number of students enrolled, this could dramatically affect our budget. This may require an increase in the operating levy and also more work to maximize all funding streams that we currently have.

Ms. Deb McDermott-Johnson, our director of community education, presented a fall update with coworkers Alexa and Lydia. Alexa works with our youth programs and coordinates enrollment. She reported that all 4 of our School Age Programs are now in full swing as they were able to hire enough staff. They have also hired a Floating Supervisor and an Enrichment Specialist. These roles have helped cover programming needs. Lydia manages our Adult Education programs. We have 6 program sites which gives us virtual abilities and regional programming. The details of this report can be viewed through the district website. Overall, the depth and breadth of opportunities for our community members is incredible. While we tend to focus on our students preK-12th grade, it is good to remember that our district also offers a multitude of educational benefits to many members of Owatonna. This, in part, is done through partnerships with businesses and organizations, plus the Career Pathways program.

After our school board retreat last August, at which time we reviewed our 3-year governance work plan, our Chair, Vice Chair and Superintendent were able to fine tune the details of this plan and bring it for the board to review at this meeting. Briefly, we discussed that there were many legislative updates this year, which in turn, requires us to update our policies. We also agreed that it is important for school board members to be present in the community, attending school and community events when possible. In the past, the district has held community forums, typically when big decisions are being made, such as those regarding the new high school. I questioned if we would ever consider doing an annual community forum for anyone to come and ask questions or raise concerns that they may have with our schools. This idea will be tabled for now as we have scheduled Coffee with the Superintendent sessions and a public forum opportunity once monthly at our regular school board meetings.

Superintendent Elstad gave a quarterly update on projects currently underway that align with the district’s strategic plans. This includes work on our cybersecurity and the reunification plan should any buildings need to be evacuated. Also, the project with TeamWorks is ongoing to evaluate the elementary school boundary lines, plus progress is made toward the Owatonna scholarship and our Grow Your Own teacher development program.

During Board Forum, our student representative mentioned that he is taking a self-guided tour of Rome in December with a group of students. What an incredible opportunity, best wishes for fun and safety and wonderful memories!!

Soon to come will be the results of our Desired Daily Experiences survey of students and families. In addition to this information, I am curious to know how our teachers are surveyed, what they are concerned about, what’s going well or not well, and if they feel safe in our schools. How would teachers change things to improve our proficiency scores?

Until next time, take care everyone. Soli Deo Gloria.