11/27/2023 Regular Meeting

Our regular school board meeting took place at the City Chambers and began at 5:30pm. After the call to order, Pledge of Allegiance and approval of the agenda, Superintendent Elstad used Mission Moment to highlight the OHS Magnet, our high school’s newspaper written by OHS students. This team of students and their director, Ms. Wagner, have achieved a Gold Ranking and Second Place for Best of Show recently. Congratulations to the Magnet team!

There were no comments for the public forum.

The enrollment report was reviewed briefly, no significant changes at this time, but we continue to note the growing difference in numbers of students between our elementary schools. Lincoln ranks highest with 150+ students more than the number of students at Wilson, which has the lowest enrollment. This is a work in progress as we use TeamWorks to help us redefine the boundary lines for school attendance in the future. The board recognizes that the upcoming changes may be very difficult for some families.

During board forum, our student representative announced that Newsies will be the first winter musical to take place in the new Wenger OHS auditorium!

The board completed a first reading of policies 413, 416, 506, 507, 532, 534, 601, 603, and 604. The policy committee reviews and updates policies and presents them to the board for questions or concerns. I had a few comments and questions that I will summarize here, however please watch the meeting video to hear the details. The policy discussion begins at approximately 10:41 into the meeting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYdGWJzfraY&list=PL7udvyWfNrd3ROTWcu7VO0Vt0NPX_ae51&index=1.

Policy 413 Harassment and Violence

III. Definitions

D. Protected Classifications: Definitions

6. The original definition to be replaced: “Sexual orientation” means having or being perceived as having an emotional or physical or sexual attachment to another person without regard to the sex of that person or having or being perceived as having an orientation for such attachment, or having or being perceived as having a self-image or identity not traditionally associated with one’s biological maleness or femaleness. “Sexual orientation” does not include a physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult.

The new definition will state: “Sexual orientation” means to whom someone is, or is perceived of as being emotionally, physically, or sexually attracted to based on sex or gender identity. A person may be attracted to men, women, both, neither, or to people who are genderqueer, androgynous, or have other gender identities.

My proposal in this change is to maintain the last statement of the original definition and keep this statement in the new definition. My reason for this is to clarify that a physical or sexual attraction by an adult to a student is not acceptable. The policy committee will discuss this at their next meeting and the board will have a second review of this policy at a later date.

Policy 506 Student Discipline

XI. Removal of Students From Class

B. If a student is removed from class more than 10 times in a school year, the school district shall notify the parent or guardian…

My concern was that 10 times is too many and that parents should be notified sooner. Mr. Elstad confirmed that the policy is written to follow state statute, but that Owatonna Public Schools has its own procedures that notify parents after one removal from class.

Policy 601 School District Curriculum and Instruction Goals

III. Definitions

D. “Culturally sustaining” means integrating content and practices that infuse the culture and language of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities who have been and continue to be harmed and erased through the education system. (This is a new definition not previously in policy 601.)

My concern for this definition is that the second half of the statement is an opinion and should not be stated as fact and policy. I fully agree with integrating a variety of ethnic cultures into our education system, but do not agree that “we continue to harm and erase” any cultures. I do not believe our teachers do this or that statutes and policy should state this. This policy definition comes from MN Statute 120B.11, and a simple reference to this statute in our policy would suffice in place of this statement. I do not imply that we do anything against the law.

Also in policy 601, IV. Long-term Strategic Plan, A. and B. and C., and in Policy 603 Curriculum Development sections V. and VI., there are multiple changes and several statements that are removed, specifically regarding literacy and reading. When asked about this, I was told that other policies will be updated in the future that address these things and therefore they are not needed here.

Lastly, policy 604 Instructional Curriculum

VI. Civics Test. (This whole section for a civics test requirement is crossed off as the MN Legislature has removed the civics test requirement for graduation.) I asked if OPS would still want to have a Civics class. Mr. Elstad confirmed that our district does have a requirement for students to take a Civics class despite not having to take a formal test as a requirement for graduation.

Mrs. Julie Sullivan, our director of teaching and learning, gave a summary report of the World’s Best Workforce presentation which I have previously outlined. Opportunities for questions were offered. I asked about the action steps moving forward to improve our numbers. Mrs. Sullivan and Mr. Elstad informed us that each school has unique goals and action steps based on the needs of that school. So while the action steps given here are generalized to encompass all schools, each school is working on its own individualized plan and programs.

The board reviewed the Guiding Change document by TeamWorks for the attendance area development project that relates to the enrollment report referenced above. We will vote on this document in December. Currently the design team is working on this project. Then in January, they expect to involve an “input team” of parents and teachers, with a goal for final decisions to be made in March 2024.

The consent agenda approval included minutes from the previous 2 meetings, the disbursement report, and the personnel report.

The board voted and approved 3 items:

1. Resolution Establishing Polling Places. Each year, the school board designates combined polling places, no changes were made.
2. World’s Best Workforce Plan
3. Gifts to the district. Of note, a large donation of $57,142 was given from the Thelma Rice estate in honor of Thelma Rice and Vernon Kasper.

Meeting adjourned.

To all the Mamas ~ The Christmas season is upon us, especially you. Take care, take deep breaths, pause here and there. We are making memories, some hard, but many good. Look at your children’s eyes, smile, kiss their foreheads. The best gift is your time.

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given...” Isaiah 9:6

“…these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that by believing you may have life in His name.” John 20:31