Our work session began on time at 5:30pm at the City Chambers board room. Main topics on the agenda included the 2024-2025 Operational Plan Update with comments from each of the executive cabinet members in the district, the Superintendent Quarterly Update, and then the Three-year Governance Work Plan review and update. As always, these documents can be reviewed on the school district website: School Board, Meetings, Agendas, and view the attachments.
Presentations began with highlights from the Operational Plan Summary for the 2024-2025 school year, focusing on each of the district’s strategic directions: High Quality Teaching and Learning, 21st Century Learners, Equity, and Safe & Caring Community.
- HUMAN RESOURCES, given by Chris Picha: the special education teacher apprenticeship program (created by Chris Picha!) began with student teachers in several of our schools. There is ongoing work in the “Grow Your Own” Pathways program to encourage Owatonna students to receive their teaching degree and then come back to Owatonna as a teacher. Chris notes that there are ongoing budget considerations as these programs require funding, however there will be a grant application in 2025 to assist with this. Work is being done to digitize student records, and embed cultural competence into staff evaluations. The Desired Daily Experiences Survey coming this fall will allow for review of how well our staff is feeling valued.
- TEACHING AND LEARNING, given by Julie Sullivan: ongoing training for teachers with the READ Act (Functional Phonics for K-2) and Word Work (grades 3-5). They are working with the District Curriculum Advisory Committee (DCAC) regarding the new social studies standards (to start the 2026-2027 school year) and new math standards (to start the 2027-2028 school year) and what that means for curriculum changes. In support of equity, the new social studies standards require an ethnic studies component (check out state statutes for requirements). Our Online Owatonna student enrollment is down so far this year, from 305 in the spring of 2024 to 215 to start the fall of 2024. We lost a relationship with one MN school district but gained the Moorhead, MN school district. In addition, they continue to research how AI can and will be used in the future, working to prepare for the inevitable.
- SPECIAL SERVICES, given by Sarah Knudsen: working to improve consistency with the various co-teaching that is being done at each school, focusing on what is working well. They are working with the Professional Learning Communities (PLC) to ensure due process and meeting all legal requirements for our special education students. Find ways to expand special education services for our online students. Continue training and application of programs Teach to Heal, Ukeru, and Safety Care which stress non-physical strategies rather than physical restraints for those times when students become dysregulated and/or aggressive.
- COMMUNITY EDUCATION, given by Deb McDermott-Johnson: she notes that our program had a very successful year, logging 18,000+ hours with students in community education. However, moving forward, there are now requirements of an almost 9% increase in achievement scores, so they are working toward using skills-based assessments vs strictly written based assessments. All 4 of our elementary schools now have a School Age Care (SAC) program providing childcare for students before and after school, with very few children on the waiting lists, this is much improved from recent years.
- FINANCE AND OPERATIONS, given by Lori Volz: summer was focused on cost analysis, comparing our district to other similar districts. While this will be ongoing, there will now be more focus on the financial forecast as we move into the school year. Specifically, our early learning preschool programs will need attention in the coming years. There will be work to develop a Return On Investment (ROI) analysis for financial resources and programs. The finance committee will meet soon to review the budget.
- FACILITIES, INFRASTRUCTURE & SECURITY, given by Bob Olson: partial renovations on the middle school pool have been done with future bids on more renovations expected in January 2025. Work is in progress to move forward with the sale of the district’s Bridge Street building and then the Rose Street building. The old high school renovations are ongoing, and plans are in place for the new IAQ/HVAC systems to be replaced at the OEC and McKinley school. They are hoping to finalize the reunification plan by November in the event that any school needs to be urgently evacuated, and students need to be moved to a safe location. Superintendent Elstad took a moment to recognize the tragedy of the school shooting in Georgia recently.
Superintendent Elstad gave a summary of his quarterly goals and action plan. He specifically noted that he hopes Owatonna students, after graduation, are either employed, enrolled in further education, or enlisted in the US military. He is currently working toward:
- Ongoing work with Riverland Community College to meet needs of various students preparing them for life after high school and continued growth of our community.
- Finalize and execute the threat assessment procedures and reunification plan as noted above.
- Review finance plans to identify district needs over the next 10 years, realign funding, staffing and programs as needed, and strategize how to meet future financial needs.
- Present the Owatonna Opportunity Scholarship for its first year qualifying 2025 graduates. He estimates approximately 60-65 students could potentially benefit from this “last dollar” scholarship and therefore we need about $700,000 annually to support this fund. Because there is no state or federal funding for this, the scholarship is locally funded only, relying on generous business and community donors. This is a work in progress.
Vice Chair, Lori Weisenburger, led the board through the Governance Work Plan review and update. This plan outlines work and goals for three years, reviewing last year’s work in 2023-2024, updating this year’s work in 2024-2025, and also looking to the future year 2025-2026. The plan covers the school board roles in district policy, annual operations oversight, unique operations oversight, board governance, superintendent relations, annual public engagement, and unique public engagement. This is a working document and guide that we will review and update a few times yearly.
During board forum, Ms. Weisenburger, who is on the policy committee, noted that after the last meeting’s discussion on policy 616, the committee will review the questions and concerns raised and bring the policy back to the board in 2 weeks. SI Elstad confirmed that if any major amendments are needed, the policy will go back to a first reading. Preparations are underway for homecoming and high school students are voting for their homecoming court! I started reading the book given to us by Chair Sebring titled The Anxious Generation, and admittedly skipped ahead to the chapter titled What Can Schools Do Now. Two main recommendations are given by the author: 1. take cell phones out of schools and 2. add creative play to the school day. While I don’t agree with everything the author states, these 2 concepts make sense to me and hopefully will lead to future discussions.
Meeting adjourned.
Lastly, I wanted to follow up to my previous Title IX discussion and the requests I made to my fellow board members to discuss this. Chair Sebring has informed me that the policy committee is obtaining more information and will bring further discussion and possible revisions to policy 522 when they have updates and information they need.
Keep an eye out for my letter to the editor in The People’s Press coming soon!
As we rev up into full force election season, I feel much heaviness and stress in the air among us, as I’m sure most of you do too. Stephen Covey teaches, seek first to understand. Also, of much importance is to listen, be respectful, but stand up for Truth and never give up. We know who wins in the end – *wink*
Soli Deo Gloria!
Elizabeth for Owatonna Schools 