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First up was the Futures/SUN and INSITE School Report
Jessica Waterstreet, Lead Teacher at Futures School, and Samantha Steinman, Assistant Director

There was a question about CASEL standards brought up during open forum. The best I could do was this website.

A reader wanted to point out that CASEL, developed and is separate from Equity planning and developing. I am personally not very familiar with SEL or CASEL and welcome any additional insight.

I am not sure what an Equity rubric is, I did ask Franklin Principal about the rubric, and he said he was unsure if he could tell me about it, since his staff was still going through training. From what I understand, all principals and directors have access to the rubric and then teacher get access after they go through training. I also asked Mr. Lutsig who said it is similar to the ones used in Coaching for Equity Tools and here is a direct link to their equity rubric.

I am unsure what a second step SEL curriculum and a building Equity Plan are, but part of the vision cards is to reduce the disproportionality of suspensions among minority groups.

Again. I am not sure what an Equity Walkthrough Rubric is, but Mr. Lutsig said it is similar to the ones used in Coaching for Equity Tools and here is a direct link to their equity rubric.

MAPS “principles of restorative justice” – Response from Mr. Lutsig:

The MN Department of Education is a resource for school districts in regard to restorative practices. My experience over the past 25+ years is that the education system has shifted to use the term Restorative Practices instead of Restorative Justice, and sometimes they are used interchangeably..
The MDE website has some materials that may be helpful for you. 

Lustig also sent me documents about restorative justice that I can send you if you email me: [email protected]

COVID 19 Update Report

The school had 139 out of 8478 students test positive for covid, which is 1.6% of students. Data is from November 29th to December 2nd.

There is discussion to update protocol for vaccinated vs unvaccinated students. There was no mention on if Teachers will need to abide by these same protocols. I am not sure if these will become recommendation for a later date, if this is an issue you are concerned in, pay attention to the school agenda, when they are released.

The school is looking into hiring staff to teach online to students that are quarantined. They did acknowledge they are already short staffed but thought they could tap into student teachers.

There will be additional property tax Levy’s, there is a lot of information here and you can get the full data at the link at the top of the page.

Policy 466 was among many policy updates

Here is Elizabeth Hanke’s full response to the school board.

“Retention strategies may include providing financial incentives for teachers of color and teachers who are American Indian to work in the school or district for at least five years and placing American Indian educators at sites with other American Indian educators and educators of color at sites with other educators of color to reduce isolation and increase opportunity for collegial support.”

Policy 466 Passed Unanimously. This is from State Statute 122A.70 which says MAY INCLUDE and the school board, and the school board approved this suggested portion.

I did watch legislative sessions, and this was part of an omni-bus bill. Here are my very shortened notes from the legislature:


Legislative session discussing 122A.70 also referred to as HF2 in the omni-bus bill:

https://www.lrl.mn.gov/media/file?mtgid=1014838

Floor Session 2

 Minute 27:26  

Rep Kresha motioned to re-refer this amendment because there was no public testimony. “short cuts and short circuits do not make for better policy,”

https://www.lrl.mn.gov/media/file?mtgid=1014838

Floor session

minute: 11:30

Hodan Hassan: This is the largest investment in 15 years. . .This is a compromise agreement between a divided government.  It has many great provisions for equity. . .Our students must be in our classrooms, chair Richardson has worked on the pre-k suspension ban and was hoping to expand that on k thru 12, sadly this did not make it. . . also prohibiting restrictive procedures under 5, SSL curriculum, requiring ethnic studies in all academic standards.  But this is still a fantastic bill. . . I am proud to fight for all of our students.

Minute 25:17

Rep Erickson – Motion to RE-refer. . .It has been a long time policy that when policy changes occur in the omnibus bill that the bill is referred to the policy committee for discussion. . .we should have a more robust discussion and for that reason, I would ask to refer this to the committee on education policy

Rep Kresha supports Erickson; there has been no public testimony. . .There was not ample opportunity to do what we are supposed to do in the legislature. . .This isn’t what we are supposed to do. . .we should have had a discussion and afforded people the opportunity.  This doesn’t make for a good policy. 

The motion of re-referral does not prevail 57 to 67

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The superintendents contract was actually discussed at greater length at the prior school board, but his renewal was voted on during this meeting. This is just a shortened version of his contract, please view agenda packet for full details.

There were several Bids for building projects. It is worth viewing the Agenda Packets for the Full details. I am just providing the general information:

It was mentioned that a contract teacher will need to be fired. There was no mention of teacher’s name or circumstance that would be grounds for dismissal. The teacher being dismissed can still request a hearing, and until that time, their name and circumstance cannot be mentioned.

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Also worth mentioning: Only Ms. Schuck mentioned communication concerns regarding a school shooting threat at Mankato West High School. There was no discussion amongst the board.

This is the threat that was found on tik toc:

There is also a photo of a student making the threat while holding a gun, in what appears to be a room of a house with two other people, who are also holding guns.