00:00:11,170	Wow. Good evening. I’m Josh Hager, president of the Bismarck school board. It’s 5:30 on a Thursday, May 28th. I call this meeting to order full house tonight. So welcome to those of you who are joining us both here and also online. You can find our agenda and follow along online under the School Board tab at BismarckSchools.

00:00:34,200	org Doctor Scherr. Will you call the roll please? Mr. Hager here, Mr. Eastgate. Mr. Lee here, Mrs. Peterson here. Miss Preskey here. Mr. Eastgate was unable to join us tonight. Um, doctor Posner, pledge of allegiance. My pleasure. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

00:01:04,570	And to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Item one C is the mission, vision and values. The mission is to empower every learner to thrive. The vision states, together, our relationships build inclusive, collaborative, and innovative environments that create, agency and inspire a passion for learning, excellence and discovery.

00:01:34,130	The visions are inclusion, excellence, innovation and leadership. You’ll also find a link in the agenda to the Strategic Plan. Item two is to adopt the agenda. I’ll move that. We adopt the agenda. I’ll second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none. Doctor Sharon Lee. Yes. Peterson. Yes. Preskey. Yes. Hager.

00:01:58,470	Yes. Item three. Focus on success. So we have to focus on success tonight. This is always a always a fun night. And focus on success is my favorite segment. So it’s it’s fun to have two of these. Uh, doctor Fastnacht turn it over. To you.

00:02:18,230	I think we’re going to let LDI come up and do the introductions. I thought we were going to head to Doctor Johnson, but he pointed right to you. So you got tonight. So welcome to the podium. Thank you. I’m Courtney Crane with learning design and Innovation team, and I’m here to welcome Sheila Peterson and Jake Leingang from Wachter Middle School and Legacy High School.

00:02:33,970	Unfortunately, Sarah Baugh was unable to join us, but she is a very integral part in this work. So just know that she has her hands on all of this as well. How are you guys? Good. Oh, good. Where do I look for? Oh, perfect. Awesome.

00:02:52,430	Um, I was like, wait, where’s my notes? Um, first of all, I want to thank you so much for the opportunity to be up here tonight and just share what our kids have been doing. Um, and again, I’m sorry Sarah isn’t able to be here because without her, we don’t. We don’t have what we do. And it’s.

00:03:04,370	I’m excited to share everything that we’re going to going to put in front of you today. So, um, you can go ahead and go to the next slide. Oh, I’ve got the clicker. If you know anything about my teacher of the year year, it was the clicker was an issue.

00:03:18,030	So, um, you know, I wish there could be here to chair this, but she just talked about, um, she wrote something up for you, and she just said in December of 2014, um, the CHS special education teachers, administrators, parents sat down and discussed like, a better ways to support all students. And she’s written this very beautiful thing.

00:03:34,630	But I actually want to tell the story that she told me, um, between her and Roxanne at the Cheesecake Factory in Washington, DC. Um, because we were invited to share what we were doing in Bismarck public schools at a national convention in Washington, DC.

00:03:49,770	And so, um, what I did not know about anything with peer to peer was that it really started at a pep rally one day, and there was Sarah, and she was doing a wonderful job, and she had all of her students lined up, and they were sitting watching the pep rally. And if you know Roxanne at all, she’s quite a phenomenal human being.

00:04:03,530	And she walked over to Sarah, and if she’s ever taught you anything, she does in the most gentle and graceful ways. And she said, Sarah, do you do you see anything here? And she was like, yeah, we got a pep rally. Isn’t this exciting? You know? And she’s like, but let’s look where everybody’s sitting.

00:04:16,770	And Sarah said, this big light bulb just came on. You know, kids are supported. We all loved our kids. Our kids had all great opportunities. But we had this like, here’s this group of kids and then here’s this group of kids.

00:04:29,570	And the vision was, how do we have this group of kids? And so that’s really where they started. Um, and it was a beautiful thing. It wasn’t just a school initiative. It was, you know, a parent and a school partnership. And so from there, I have the clicker.

00:04:48,300	So, uh, from there they started, they met parents, teachers, community members, administration, and they started talking about, what are we what are the things that we want our kids to know? Um, so what are we going to teach our students? How are we going to structure the program? Um, they didn’t want it just to be a component where it was an only in school component.

00:04:57,830	They wanted it to be something that was just in our blood. And what we do all the time. Um, we wanted our kids not to just. And by we, I say them because they started this beautiful thing.

00:05:08,170	They wanted it not just to be something from 8 to 3, but that’s something that you saw at the pep rally is something that you saw at the WDA game, something that you saw at the band concert, somebody you saw out at the at the yogurt shop getting some yogurt, teenagers being teenagers, kids being kids. That’s really the goal of what they wanted.

00:05:21,900	And so from there they built a pillar three, which was the extracurricular activities. And I think Jake’s going to speak a lot about that in a little bit here. I’m talking fast because I like to say a lot of things, and they said, I only have ten minutes.

00:05:35,300	Um, so when we started sitting down and make this presentation, um, what came to mind for me was where did we start and where are we now? I know it May 9th, four years ago, Lee Ziegler called me into his office and said, hey, we want to teach this class, if you know, May 9th and the teacher’s brain like it’s almost time for it to be done,

00:05:48,630	right? We happen to have a track meet get canceled. And I said, Lee, can I use my day to day to go over to sentry and watch what they’re doing, go over to Mandan, watch what they’re doing, and learn from there. And he said, sure.

00:06:02,130	Within that 24 hours of time, I had everything I needed to get started because this fabulous the fabulous programs around here, the the philosophy is that what’s good for my kid is good for the kid on the other side, I’m Southside.

00:06:16,730	Ride or die all day, right? But I want the kids on every angle of the town side of the town to have a good experience at school, no matter who they are. And I really believe I learned so much from talking, you know, to Maggie and Mandan and Sarah, just about that. Like they opened their doors, they gave me everything that they had. But if you look at this picture, you see everybody fits in this one little tiny frame.

00:06:29,700	Right? So that was where we started. The top picture is the very first body walk that century attended. And then you look down here and this is where we are today, that century. That’s VHS, that’s legacy, that’s horizon, that’s simile, that’s water.

00:06:45,470	That’s, you know, anybody who wants to command in, everybody’s coming over. So you can just see how rapidly that this has grown. Sarah’s been doing this for ten years. I’m going to start my fifth year next year. And it’s crazy to me. So I always think spheres of influence are important, right.

00:06:59,030	And so you can see it started at century, went out to our middle schools. Now it’s up to four of our elementary schools and just continuing to build, um, momentum. I think sometimes people are afraid to do hard things. Are you’re afraid you’re screw it up. Right.

00:07:12,130	And one thing that, um, Sarah did beautifully with this program, and I think Jay could probably echo this, is that you do it anyways. Right? And so, um, she just let us really well through this process and, and did it all with a very little fear. Sometimes it’s scary to do things like that.

00:07:26,930	So how does that impacting our district at this point in time, besides the incredible fund that we hope our kids are having? Um, I know in my middle school, my eighth graders are getting trained with me two days a week, and then they’re pushing out to classes three days a week.

00:07:38,930	I get a phone call from an English teacher, hey, so-and-so having a bad day? Could you sing Camden Down to work with him? Because he’s just not having it for me, but he’ll sit down and work with her so and so. He’s having a hard time with his friend. I know they’re supposed to be in class with you today.

00:07:50,300	Can they come down and work with my kid instead? I’ve got kids that email me, hey, and Art, they’re doing clay. I know they’re going to need a lot of help.

00:08:00,500	And Clay, is it okay if I go to class with them today instead of coming in and working with you? This is a 13 year old kid. And you guys, if you’ve raised a 13 year old kid, you know, it’s crazy that they’re thinking that far ahead. And they’re usually eight steps ahead of me. At the high school level. We have interns in several of our high schools.

00:08:13,300	I shouldn’t say several because we don’t have several. But in all of our high schools, um, and these interns are filling in, um, just like an instructional assistant. They go down to the class, they work with students.

00:08:27,430	Um, a lot of times between our mentors and our interns, I know, like, when I go to schedule my next year’s mentors and mentees, I start to look at what classes are they in.

00:08:38,370	When we have peer to peer, you know, can I partner them up when they’re in a lab class? Can I make sure they got a mentor so that when they’re doing a dissection, we have that extra set of eyes, ears, hands to help. Um, but so that’s kind of how it’s been benefiting our district on that side of things. Some of the culture changes we’ve seen, um, you know, we’re pushing into general education classes.

00:08:54,930	And so when we looked at like, for example, Walker, how do you want to do your model, right? Do you want it to just be a certain class? And we go over here. And our idea was like, inclusion shouldn’t be that you’re included only in this room, right? We want to push out. We always talk about drops of water.

00:09:08,000	You know, we talk about diffusion and all that things, all those types of things in science. And we always talk to our kids about, like, I can give you each one little drop of water and I’m going to say purple because water. Right. But you put one little drop in, you make a little bit of change to the color of the water. Right.

00:09:19,700	But if everybody puts a little bit of a drop of water and we’re going to have a solid purple gallon of water pretty soon here. Right.

00:09:31,570	And so we wanted our kids the belief system for all of our schools is that our kids are out there making sure a kitchen have to work hard to fit. We should figure out how to adapt the world to make sure everybody else fits. And that’s the mentality we’re teaching our kids.

00:09:42,430	And so hopefully if you’ve been out in the public, you’ve seen it in our student sections in the high school, hopefully that you’ve been in lunch rooms, you’ve seen, um, things happening there in our hallways. Just hopefully kids have been a little bit more welcoming. And the funny thing is, is, um, usually for me, I’ll have a bunch of kids that I think will be good mentors and I’ll see them as seventh graders go, hey, I think you’d be a great mentor. Jeff.

00:09:53,400	And Jeff’s like, I don’t know, you know? And then about Christmas time, just like, hey, Miss Peterson, do you think I think I really want to do that. And it’s not because of me. It’s because one of their friends were doing it.

00:10:05,370	So we always talk about the Kevin Bacon game and like how you have, um, influence on another person. Right? And so everybody has a seven degrees of Kevin Bacon in their life. So if you and you get three friends in your life to see what’s going on here and see this is amazing, and they get another three friends and another three friends.

00:10:16,570	I’m not a mathematician, but we know about exponential growth and the cool things that could happen, right? So that’s kind of what we’ve seen really quickly in four years. Um, in my school and then, you know, ten years overall in the district.

00:10:30,170	So at Walker Middle School, for example, we started my very first year, we had 30 kids. The total year, um, we were only going to have 15 for the year, and we ended up doubling by half by semester time.

00:10:44,370	Currently at my school, um, last year I had 100 mentors, so and that’s in four years time that we’ve, you know, just continued to grow and grow and grow. And then that’s allowed us to branch out. Like, who who do we have as mentors? Because, um, some kids have diagnosed disabilities, disabilities. Some some kids don’t.

00:10:57,700	But to be able to seek out where a kid has a need and be able to match them and meet that need, there is huge to have that opportunity. Um, you know, we start with one school now we have eight schools, right? She started with it looked like maybe 30 kids as well. We’re at over 800 kids in ten years have experienced this program. Um, and then we’ve been able to branch out to unified sports.

00:11:12,630	Some of the things our kids work on, not just inclusion. Um, we do service projects at all of our schools. All of our kids do that. Mentor and mentee. Right. Because everybody’s got value.

00:11:25,570	Um, we work on advocacy and advocating, and I love it because my students always come back and tell them we’re going to go on a field trip. All the things I didn’t think about, like, did you think about this kid and what you’re going to do with them? Like, oh, no, I didn’t.

00:11:33,200	So we’re at the amusement park taking pictures, trying to figure out how we’re going to do what we want to do. Um, and then, of course, building leadership capacity not only in the mentors but also the mentees. I know all of our schools have had kids that started out as mentees and have ended as mentors as well. So it’s nice. To. To celebrate.

00:12:00,130	The inclusive, unified sports and unified PE world. Um, basically a unified champion school is something that, um, we signed an agreement for, I think two years ago at legacy. And what that means is that we are focusing on inclusion and as many ways as possible.

00:12:19,830	In order to do that, you have to hit three pillars unified PE or unified sports has to be implemented into your school. Um, unified leadership, which is peer to peer. And then whole school engagement, um, basically everything Sheila said is what got us to this point. And now we’re kind of trying to expand.

00:12:36,070	And, you know, what else can we do with this awesome model that we have? And whole school engagement is one that I kind of want to focus on a little more, and one that we take pride in at legacy. Um, is that video playing? Oh, yeah. It’s running on its own. Okay.

00:12:52,700	Um, so in the video here, if it is playing, um, that was from our banquet that the Special Olympics came to and got some footage of, um, we were able to have a banquet of our unified sports athletes, and they got a trophy. Um, we had a team dinner.

00:13:07,900	They got recognized, and it was experience that, you know, a lot of those kids might not have without unified sports to come up and, you know, have a night for them. Um, and it was really cool, you know, they were all dressed up in all their suit and ties. And, um, it was a super fun experience. And so I wanted to share that video with you, but it looks like it already play. Okay.

00:13:23,930	It’s nice. You got to. All right. So like I said, the whole school engagement, um, really starts at the top. And here are some pictures of our principals participating in our whole school wiffle ball game. Um, and this is an entire school activity, um, where everyone’s participating in a unified wiffle ball game.

00:13:50,630	Now, this is during the day. The stands are full of other students that are, you know, taking on a break or just wanting to come down. Some of the teachers took their class down to watch. Um, and we only played for roughly an hour.

00:14:06,300	But when your administration is leading the charge and out there helping, um, and modeling inclusion, um, in front of everybody, that’s what shifted the whole school. Um, and huge role models to be out there swinging in front of everybody.

00:14:26,430	And so I appreciate that as far as a unified champion advocate, um, I think we wouldn’t be where we’re at without our, our admin, you know, back in the South with everything that we’re doing. Um, it kind of to lead on to that. Um, they allowed us to start a unified P.E. class.

00:14:43,030	Now, unified PE class is different than adaptive PE, and it’s different than having a student with a disability and a general ed PE class. Um, for example, a student with a disability, um, in a general PE class, they might be doing pickleball and, you know, they may be off to the side. Yep, they’re in the class, but they’re off to the side. Maybe with that student aid that we were talking about or an instructional aide.

00:14:59,030	And they are part of everything, but they’re not really playing what everyone else is doing. Um, and unified, um, PE class. We would have, we would be using a balloon and everybody would be using a balloon. And so now everyone’s playing the exact same game. Everyone is set up for success.

00:15:14,530	And the way the class works is there are mentors that come in at a 1 to 1 ratio during that time, and the students with a disability are ID. Kids come down and we have about 25 kids in the class. Um, we run that four days a week.

00:15:29,430	And so not only are they out in the classrooms and getting physically active, but they’re engaging with their friends, you know, it’s no different. Can you do me a favor for those in the audience to find out? Sorry, what is. That for you? And I know what ideas. Ideas for intellectual disabilities. Thank you.

00:15:50,300	Um, and so we’re trying to expand on this as much as we can. Right. So we have a unified PE class. This, um, last year was our first year doing a unified science, so same format.

00:16:03,630	We had a general ed teacher teaching the class who teaches all the other, you know, general ed students. Um, but you took on a unified science class. So there’s a picture of them in science. You know, they’re doing experiments. You know, they just built kites on the last day of school and trying to fly them.

00:16:18,270	Um, and now they’re in the classroom right there in the hallways. And so kids are coming out of their classes. Hey, how is science? You know, or, you know, where are you going? How? I’m going to science. And so that’s the goal. And a unified champion school is really getting the whole it’s the heartbeat of of legacy right now.

00:16:35,200	Um, that’s kind of what’s driving everything. And um, whole school engagement. We’re trying to get a bunch of activities, as many as we can. Um, Ben Ensminger was our homecoming king. Um, if anyone knows Ben, he’s an awesome one of the most hardworking kids.

00:16:52,400	And I think, you know, not that that is the whole reason, obviously, that he won, but, um, for the student body to recognize, you know, and vote, um, I think that’s our goal. Um, unified sports, we had 40 plus students involved with wiffle ball, flag football, track, the bowling, and we tried to implement some basketball this year.

00:17:13,630	Um, I kind of get to that on the next slide. Um, but peer to peer, our peer to peer started. Not with me. Before I got there, they had seven students and our peer to peer teachers at legacy have grown that, um, to 60 plus students in ten years, very similar to the other schools around us. Um, but unified PE is something that’s possible.

00:17:35,500	Um, if you have space, you know, and I believe that unified PE should be in every single school and without having that space for increased sections, you know, um, it would be awesome to be able to offer more types of unified PE.

00:17:51,500	Right now we only have one section, and that’s due to gym space. And I’m sure a lot of the other schools aren’t able to implement something like unified PE. Um, because they don’t have space. You know, there’s a lot of kids in PE and there’s not a lot of room.

00:18:08,030	So that would be one thing that would help us all get to being able to offer a unified PE class, unified sports. Um, I know as one of the unified coaches we’ve practiced in the hallways, um, and our goal is to give the same opportunity to every one of our athletes as any other varsity athlete. Um, but they have to practice in the hallways. And I get it.

00:18:23,500	You know, there’s a lot of teams that need space. Um, but that’s one thing that, you know, we don’t believe is right to have our kids in the hallways practicing while all the other students are are getting that gym time, um, district wide unified champion schools is something that we could do as a BS, um, district.

00:18:41,400	And we would need 50%, over 50% of our schools K through 12, um, to sign the agreement. And if we do get that, um, all of our schools get some sort of funding, I’m not exactly sure what the Special Olympics would fund.

00:18:58,970	You know, I don’t think they’re going to buy us all brand new gym, but I know they would help with some of the equipment necessary to start a unified PE class. And, um, some of the unified sports help there. So, um, there also is a program that runs ages two through seven, so it can go K through 12. And I know that we have a pretty good push for that.

00:19:18,530	And this is exactly what’s happening when you sign that agreement. And so that’s what I wanted to share. And I appreciate your time. And I think just to add on Jake, uh, what Jake was talking about, we currently have all of our all three of our high schools have signed that agreement.

00:19:34,970	In all three of our middle schools have signed that agreement. So now we just have to branch into the, the elementary level. Um, and the funding source for that, it um, tiers down. So, like, you get so much every for like we’re in that agreement for five years.

00:19:50,570	Your first year is I think we got 2000 and then every year it just kind of Peters down a little bit. And so, um, there’s a lot of things with adding unified sports. The busing costs, you know, costs and all the other things that go along with that. So if we can get that accomplished, that would be absolutely amazing.

00:20:03,970	And then, um, I think as you see that grow, the amount of kids that want to be in something and you think about your own children and what sports have done for them and how they’ve changed their lives. I remember my daughter went to high school. We were hoping for a C average.

00:20:16,230	We sat in her IEP meeting and made that decision about, are we going to do general math or are we going to get her into, you know, freshman algebra and thinking about, well, what if she wants to go to college someday, not really knowing what our track was going to be? Right? I remember looking at our case manager and going, you know

00:20:29,200	what? If she does this and we get a C average, I’m going to be really happy with that. You know, if she can get through all of these and still have that ability, I’ll be really happy with that.

00:20:44,100	This last spring at WER at State Wrestling, unbeknownst to me, because bless my daughter’s heart, but, um, she’s academic all state. Her name was up on the on the thing and I was like, what? Oh my gosh. And it just, I know I talked to a wrestling coach because he just retired last week and I said, sh this, this isn’t what we envisioned.

00:21:00,970	And I know that that impact is athletics, arts, music, all of those things that those kids do on the side and the way that it changes their lives. So to have this opportunity for every kid in our district is so important.

00:21:15,830	So we always talk about kids these days, right? Kids these days? Kids these days are mobile, and kids these days don’t want to make they’re bad kids these days. I want you to see kids these days. These are our kids. These are kids that are involved in a million different things. They still show up at night to do these other things, not because they have to, because they want to.

00:21:27,770	Kids start out my class, go, do I have to go to do I have Miss Peterson? What if I, I said, you go, you go when you want to go, man. You show up when it works for you. That’s what this is supposed to be about.

00:21:38,370	And to watch that change in them, right? That they want to be there in their having so much fun with their friends and like, hey, can we hang out outside of school? Yeah, that’s the goal, man. They’re like, wait, what? I’m like, yeah.

00:21:52,400	I always tell people it’s just about we want kids just to be kids, okay? I just want kids to be kids. I don’t want you to be the kid who uses a wheelchair. And I want you to be the kid who’s the varsity athlete. I don’t want you to be the kid who’s really good at art. I want kids just to be good.

00:22:01,230	You know, be kids and enjoy each other. So, um, just wanted to share that with you guys, and we’re so grateful we did have, um. Oh. That’s me. Okay. Um, these comments come from a doctoral study from Jordan Bentz.

00:22:22,770	Jordan Bentz was in the very first class of peer to peer at Century High School, and she just passed her PhD approval, and she runs a Tap program at Ndsu that helps us as students to be able to have that college experience just like every other kid, too.

00:22:34,970	So you want to talk about folks you know, full circle and how this is impacting our district in ten years to go from a high school senior to a PhD who now runs something that continues to change lives for, for for people after high school. So I don’t have anything else to say but a couple of things, sorry. You’re like, oh, I thought she was going to be quiet.

00:22:49,500	Um, I have a parent letter. Um, the parent asked that I would read it. Um, Dallas Hinder just wanted to say our family would like to. If, you know Ryker, hinder her at all. Okay. You do? Um, our family.

00:23:07,700	Right? Our family would like to extend our sincere gratitude to you and Bismarck Public Schools for the incredible support and opportunities provided through inclusive sports. Watching our son, Ryker, participate in flag football, bowling, wiffle ball, and track and field has meant more to our family than words can fully express. These experiences have provided him with confidence, friendship, teamwork, and a true sense of belonging.

00:23:26,170	The joy and pride he feels when competing alongside his peers is something we will always cherish. We are especially thankful for the dedication and encouragement from the administration, coaches and the CHS peer to Peer program. Your commitment to creating meaningful opportunities for all students demonstrates the very best of what education and community should be.

00:23:45,900	The kindness, patience, and enthusiasm shown by everyone involved has made a lasting impact on Ryker and our family. We’d also like to recognize and thank other inclusive teams from Legacy and Bismarck High School.

00:24:05,170	The sportsmanship, encouragement and friendship shared between all the athletes and programs have developed or have helped create an environment where every student feels valued and celebrated. Thank you for believing in inclusive sports and for continuing to provide opportunities that positively change the lives of students and families throughout our Bismarck community with sincere appreciation, the Hindu family and one last thing to close. You gave me the mic. I’m sorry.

00:24:24,830	Um, Sarah would have shared this had she been able to be here. If you wonder how this is impacting the world, um, Sarah shared this with me and it sometimes brings me to tears, so I’m going to read it. Uh, two years ago, Mister Rattler received a phone call from someone outside our school district asking to talk to him about what peer to peer is.

00:24:39,500	She was a parent of a child with autism. Her and her child had been traveling, and while they were in the Minneapolis airport, when her and her child got separated, as you can imagine, she was so worried and stressing to find her child.

00:24:54,970	Once she found her child, her child was calm, communing, the communicating the best they could in a sensory space that was calming them. Her child was with someone who she did not know but was calm, communicating all of the things she asked this person who happened to be a high school student, how they knew how to communicate, calm down and calm

00:25:10,870	her down. And the student went on to talk about how they were in a class called Peer to Peer Leadership and explained what this class was, what they learned, and how it changed their culture. This mom then shared with Mr.

00:25:24,770	Mather that she was now considering looking into jobs that would be able to bring her to Bismarck, so that her child would be able to have the peer to peer experience. Thank you. Yes. Have questions? Do you get stopped now? Yeah. Thank you. Board members. Questions coming, Mr. Lee? Thank you. President Hager, um, more of a comment. Thank you, Mr. Peterson. Mr.

00:25:45,230	Leingang, for for being here tonight and for everything you do. Um, you brought up two people at the end there. Uh, Mr. Hinder and Miss Bohr, who, uh, when they presented to the board, um, I think it was nine years ago when this was just rolling out.

00:25:58,970	I don’t think any of us on the board had any idea how big this was going to be, or the impact it would have on not just, um, um, those mentees, but the mentors as well. And I’ve seen it in the life of my kids. Um, and a lot of BS kids in going to many of those inclusive sports.

00:26:14,730	United sounds a lot of those events. Um, I just haven’t been, you know, I couldn’t be more proud of our kids and how, um, it’s not just inclusive. It’s almost overly inclusive. I mean, they’re just all wrapped around them. There’s no doubt. Um, my nephew Ryker is leaving feeling loved and supported and part of a community.

00:26:34,170	I actually worry about him next year. Because it’s going to be a big void in his life. But it’s been so incredible in the life of our family, and to see it in our kids is just amazing. So thank you for everything you guys do. Mr. Peterson, thanks.

00:26:53,570	I have one question, and I don’t know if this question is for you, Sheila, or if it is for the administration, but, um, obviously you talked a little bit about funding and that’s a need.

00:27:10,370	But I wonder, just like what in general, other than maybe the funding, the resources, what is maybe stopping those other elementary schools for not, um, participating either in the peer to peer program or in or signing that other commitment. And if if so, just kind of want to know what some of those barriers are as, as we think through and in our future planning as well. Yeah, I think one thing is obviously space.

00:27:25,370	I mean, like I just sat down today and was trying to start scheduling next year and I’m already emailing Dallas like, can we have a gym on? And I’m trying to think like, when will the not be games? When will the not be a concert? One will.

00:27:37,970	They’re not, you know, all the things that happen in our gyms are it’s amazing. Right. Um, and my teacher of the year year, I’ve been so proud of every like, everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve like, never left going, man, I wish I taught there. Do you know what I mean? I’ve always been like, wow, our district is great. I’m super proud of what we do here.

00:27:51,370	Um, so that would be one thing. I think that sometimes the funding can be an issue because I know, um, you know, we have parents who are generous donors. We have people in town who have donated to us, um, Special Olympics signing that agreement have helped us.

00:28:06,370	I think there was a little bit of like, wait, you’re really going to give me this money? And I just have to sign this agreement? So I think there’s a little bit of nervousness. Um, when we entered into it and, and we sat down and met with Special Olympics and really looked at the checklist, I’m like, we’re doing all of these things already, you guys.

00:28:18,530	There’s nothing to be afraid of where, you know, like, there’s not no extra work for us. But I think the elementary hasn’t quite fully entered this, so they don’t realize that. And it’s kind of a little scary.

00:28:29,800	But I think when you talk about space where where, you know, I’ve got blast programs going on and all the other things, um, where are you going to do this? The next thing I would say, and I don’t want to be in trouble, I’m sorry, but, um, if you think about the amount of hours, I don’t know, Jake, um,

00:28:40,630	you could probably speak to this, too. But the amount of hours that are done for free. So, um. And we don’t mind because all of us have a heart and a passion. But I also don’t teach special education.

00:28:52,600	So I think about behind you see me in the front of the scene, but you don’t see behind the scene all the special education teachers and instructional assistants that it takes to make all of the events go.

00:29:08,370	So, um, I know on a Sunday night I can find I know I can find my special education teacher that I work very closely with at Walker Middle School doing work. And then I might ask her to come in on Monday night to help me at at the peer to peer night. Right. Or the instructional assistant, who’s much more of an expert on that child than I could ever imagine. They know they could inside out, upside down and every which way. Right.

00:29:22,500	And so these programs don’t work with all of all of those people. So how do you make sure that you’re able to pay that instructional assistant to come in, you know, for their time? And I will tell you, 90% of the time they come in for free.

00:29:36,830	I’ve probably had I would be willing to guess at least 20 to 25 hours of free work by people who make a lot less money than I do. But again, I don’t need to open a can of worms here. I respectfully do not want to, but you ask the question.

00:29:48,970	So, um, uh, so I think that those are some of the barriers and realistically like the amount of time that goes into this program because you can’t just do it halfway if this is something that you love to do, you spend a lot of time. I don’t know what you spend, but I spend every spend. My kids know.

00:30:00,430	If your kids have had me for peer to peer, they know that they got to have their stuff in by Vikings on Sunday morning. But from eight to noon I go to church on Wednesday, but I’m from eight to noon. Is is peer to peer for sure. And then at least a couple nights a week just, you know, coordinating all the things.

00:30:12,100	Then you start talking about busing. Um, all of our administrators have been amazing and supporting us. So this is not a complaint at all, but it comes down to a point where we can go do these events.

00:30:24,500	But like in middle school, especially because kids can’t drive, we really do need to do them during the day so that every kid has accessibility to this amazing experience. Right. Um, but then if I’m taking these kids all these experiences, I had three community service projects that we were able to go out and do.

00:30:37,070	I had this, I had that, but then it’s like, okay, but then one other student in my building doesn’t go on a field trip because we’re, you know, so you’re looking for money and all the places you can find it. And I know that this is a that’s just the nature of the beast with the funding formula and all of those things.

00:30:46,800	It’s not really your guys’s fault either. Right? Like, we’re very well supported by you guys. We say, hey, we want to do something crazy. You guys like, yes, go do it. You support us fully, but nobody has some money tree or buckets of money. I hear that a lot.

00:30:58,900	There’s not a magical bucket of money somewhere. We wish there was. But I think a lot of times that that’s the big barrier. Um, figuring out how to get the right people and the right places. Um, our special educators and our district are phenomenal, but have so much on their plate. When you look at the numbers that everybody’s case managing. Right.

00:31:13,870	And they love, I truly don’t think I’ve met any one of them that does not love every kid that they work with, with all of their heart.

00:31:24,230	Um, I know in our school system and I think Jakes and some of them, what we’ve done in our peer to peer is we’ve partnered like a PE teacher with that program. So so all my special education, um, experts in my building, they they lift me, they tell me what to do. They tell me where to go, how to do things, you know, and be real successful.

00:31:37,900	I do a lot of the planning and getting the people organized to take that off of their plate. But when you get to the elementary level, if the expectation is that those are going to be the people that are going to run the peer to peer program, which their heart and soul will 100% would be into and would love to do, you’re also asking them

00:31:49,630	they’re managing however many IEPs and maybe they have their own children at home, right. And they have all the things going on. And I just don’t think it’s realistic to put that all on their plate. I said it really fast though. That was. A lot said that. Really. Well, your future administrator. No, no.

00:32:05,070	Yeah. Thank you. I think to answer your question, um, Miss Peterson, exactly right. Everything we talk about it all the time, dollars you spend in once, you only can spend them once. So it’s about choice, right? But I would tell you, you see it here. We all see it.

00:32:20,600	If you go out in schools, you feel the work that they’re doing. Okay. This is a good investment. So yes, when they’ve come to us like yep we can help you. Let’s how can we make it work? Let’s make good choices. Um, I would tell you, you already have four schools that are in it. They’re trying.

00:32:34,500	Right? When Sheila went to to century to see it, it was a similar schedule and a model. So they could copy it, replicate it. That’s why you’ve seen it in secondary.

00:32:48,400	Once we have some elementary schools say, how can we how can we do this in a school setting, in a school schedule, during the school day, make it operational. I think you’ll see more schools buy into that. But it takes someone being the first one. Take some people being pioneers, so then we can copy. Well, thank you guys for presenting.

00:33:06,200	Um, Miss Peterson, I did have a son that had you for peer to peer, so I do. I do know the deadlines that that he was under at that time. Yeah.

00:33:18,500	And and as you kind of touched on to the, the, the culture that has developed over time, I saw that from from my son and you, you referenced it outside of the school hours. I remember him going to a dance, and my son was very shy, and that was not his scene. But for that particular time, for his mentee, he’s. Yeah, I’m going to go to the dance. He’s going to be there.

00:33:35,130	He’s going to need, you know, somebody to be there with him. So the experience for him was amazing too. Um, and then one, one thing to on Miss Peterson’s question too. And you touched on it as well the spacing.

00:33:49,830	And I know we’re going to talk about it later on in the agenda, but the bond that we have out there and we’re talking about gym spacing, you guys touched on it that it’s it’s space needed for our students to be able to expand these programs.

00:34:04,700	And it does trickle down to the elementary schools when we’re talking about adding multi-purpose rooms so we can get blasts into different locations and and adding space so we can do more of these things. So thank you guys for for being here and presenting this. This was this was great. Thank you. So much. Thank you. Have a good summer everybody. So more fun stuff. Uh, Foundation scholarships. Doctor Dr Fastnacht.

00:34:23,900	I would like to introduce to the podium, uh, Miss Talia Nell Nygaard. She is our director of the foundation. Good evening. Talia. Good evening. President Hager and members of the board. Uh, my name is Talia, and I got. And I am the development director for the foundation. I’m excited to present the 2026 scholarships. At the heart of the foundation’s mission is providing opportunities that empower learners to thrive.

00:35:24,370	We are grateful for the partnerships that make these scholarships possible. The foundation introduced three new scholarships this year, including the Bobcat Company Scholarship. Through Bobcats commitment to innovation, ten $500 scholarships are being awarded to seniors pursuing careers in Stem engineering, technology, manufacturing, and skilled trades.

00:35:44,030	The Jan Andresen and Miley Candy scholarship was established in 2026 to honor Jan Kennedy’s lifelong dedication to music education and student success. This. I. Attending BSc for sociology. Nora Walker Dickson Wightman, Scholarship recipient, attending James Madison University for intelligence analysts. Kevin Warner, Century High School scholarship recipient, attending Minot State for English Education.

00:43:56,930	Brinley Wittenberg Legacy High School scholarship recipient, attending the University of Mary for Occupational Performance. Jasmine Wong, Century High School scholarship recipient, attending Colorado State University for biology. Emily Zane, Lincoln Community Club scholarship recipient, attending UMD for elementary Education. I will hire you right now. Congratulations to all of our bodies. This year, the foundation will award $73,000 in scholarships.

00:44:43,530	We now invite awardees, families, and donors to join us for a reception at styrene Bank. Thank you and congratulations again. Thank you. Talia, one of the things that always strikes me on this night when when we do these scholarships, is the names of the scholarships themselves.

00:45:08,700	And in and you look at the community impact and folks that see Mr. Kranz back there folks that I’ve had for teachers or principals, Don Prouty, Tom Hess for the Wold family, who was my backyard neighbors growing up, and how they’ve set up these scholarships for the next, next generation and how this community comes together.

00:45:27,170	And you see it in these, these names. It’s just it’s such a fun night. Um, Mr. Lee, thank. You, president Hager, I just have one comment because my son got this award tonight, but Dickson Whiteman was an incredible coach. He was my coach back in at Hughes Junior High. We had junior highs back then.

00:45:46,930	Um, but, uh, the one who started funding that was Steve Brian and he, he had another scholarship that he funded for his mother, who was just a sweet, sweet lady. But that just speaks to the community we have in Bismarck and how we support our students. Very proud of all of you. And thank you for being here tonight.

00:46:00,270	And I think President Hager will probably release you to go to your event. But thank you. You’re always welcome to stay. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. We’ll let you we’ll give you guys a moment, uh, to head off to the the social. Congratulations. Thank you all for coming. Thank you guys so much. Coming to. I hope. Congratulations.

00:47:07,000	Thank you. You have a job? Yeah I do. It’s waiting for me. I’d sign that paper. Yeah, yeah, I love, I. All right. Back to back to the agenda. Item four is public comment. The board recognizes the central role parents play in the education of their children, and supports active parent involvement in the education process.

00:47:43,330	The board’s practice of public comment reflects an alliance with policy, CBA, and the spirit of its intent for classroom issues, it’s best to follow the chain of command teacher, principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent for district issues. Please reach out to Doctor Foss. Not if you do speak tonight.

00:47:59,530	We simply ask that you be responsible. Be helpful and be respectful of your PS. Students deserve to have adults model the expectations we have for them. Groups urge to select one spokesperson. Individuals will be limited to no more than four minutes and we’ll be notified with 30s remaining. To conclude their remarks.

00:48:18,000	The board will not debate issues as presented, but will take such matters under advisement. With that, if you do wish to speak tonight, please stand and approach the podium. Okay, seeing no one public comment is now closed. Item five is monitoring district operations OE ten learning Environment. Doctor Boston. Um, yes.

00:48:41,030	That was a wonderful start to a board meeting, even though we’re well into it. So I’d like to introduce tonight, Mister Adam. Chris and I think, uh, well, I was thinking Lindsay would be here, but you got it on your own, mister. Chris. Yes. Um, tonight for ten learning environment. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you.

00:48:55,430	Uh, president Hager, members of the board. Thanks for having me tonight. I’m here to present e ten. Um, so just wanted to hit on a few highlights. Um, in terms of what we accomplished in the field, we were to say 24, 25 school year.

00:49:11,330	Um, looking at this. So just on page three, looking at some of our, um, items, maybe to pay attention to in there, one of the big changes we have this, uh, for this report this year for indicator ten, 1.

00:49:30,970	1, uh, on page six and eight is instead of reporting scores by individual buildings, how we have always done it, we decided to do it more by division, thinking that would be a better indicator of how we’re moving overall. Um, in terms. And so the data there is presented more as medians and or averages, depending on the context of the item within it.

00:49:50,900	Um, based on the data looking through in the 2425 school year, elementary stayed pretty consistent in terms of responses on how we’re doing overall school wide with behavior. Uh, while the secondary did see an increase in that median score, um, one thing that is I’m really proud of, I primarily work with our secondary buildings.

00:50:12,730	Lindsay, our elementary, but in meeting with our buildings every year, I’m astonished by the amount of continuous improvement mindsets they continually have, no matter how well they’re doing in a certain area. And so they’re constantly improving on and finding ways to either streamline, make more efficient, or increase in terms of services and supports. We’re providing for our students. Uh, pages.

00:50:33,230	Uh, and maybe a new item on page nine. Um, or multi-tier systems of support. Um, this year we ended up doing a new visual, um, what we’re trying to do as a district, we have our a, our academic side and our B, our behavior side, and we’re trying to do a more integration approach to it rather than be individual

00:50:53,870	silos. And so our visual that we identified this year has those essential components that have been identified nationally and as a state. But then we also have in there how we what we do as a district to kind of meet within those individual components in there.

00:51:13,070	So I just wanted to highlight that, um, would be a new change from the previous report. Uh, pages ten and 11 is our student survey data. And with that, we did see pretty consistent scores. However, we did see, um, a little bit of a decrease in the engaging goals from the previous year.

00:51:35,130	Um, again, going to our social emotional curriculum, all students are provided that curriculum. But we do have additional assessments that can be completed as part of that. And so we did see pretty consistent scores within the completion of those. But all buildings do have set aside time in their schedules for providing of that instruction.

00:51:56,330	And lastly, just wanted to highlight that our scores are a little bit lower on completion of some of those policies. However, all staff that are with students consistently during the day do complete those modules that we have outlined there.

00:52:14,470	Um, but some of the support staff like custodians, child nutrition staff, with the amount of kind of attrition we might have or um, throughout the year, it’s hard to always get some of those staff completion of those modules so that that would be a little bit lower. And the last thing just pointing out on page 19, in terms of our capacity building, it’s a little weird saying these are recommendations.

00:52:28,670	Even though we implemented most of them this year. Um, but did engage in quite a few professional learning opportunities for our staff. Um, just around general behavior. So you can see there some items of note are some de-escalation training we provide to all staff.

00:52:46,530	And so that’s varied in terms of, uh, job role in terms of what that might look like. We do have some best practices in terms of in implementing individual groups or small groups with some of our students who might be struggling, uh, really hit on some additional training with our special education teachers who support our students with emotional disabilities, really had a lot

00:53:06,830	of engagement with training with that. And then, um, continuing to provide our new staff, uh, classroom management training as well as some of our instructional coaches to help some of that as well. Um, some other things we did expand, renew, add into our elementary division.

00:53:26,100	And so that was a quite a bit of a help this year. Um, continuing to work on our continuum, as I mentioned, on our visual of having that alignment and integration of our academics and behavior together. So it’s more streamlined.

00:53:44,730	Um, and, uh, we engaged with a new data warehouse called Panorama, uh, this year. And so it was a lot of learning. But what’s nice about that is it streamlines all the data in one place.

00:54:01,900	And a lot of our staff are teachers, social workers, counselors are reporting much better ease of looking at all the data and understanding what, maybe how to help a student with that. There does it does provide you some supports that are some potential. You could utilize.

00:54:19,930	Um, and then one of the other big things is as we continue to increase some of our supports and systems, um, this year we are working on there’s a program called Check and Connect, um, that we have decided to rather than rely on outside individuals and pay for that, do a train the trainer module or model and have are some of our staff trained so they can train educators in that program. So I think that’s all I have for oh ten stand ready for any questions. Thank you. Board members.

00:54:41,870	Questions comments. Okay okay. Thank you. Thank you. At this point I would entertain a motion. With respect to e ten learning environment, I would move that. We find it in compliance. Second we have a motion and a second any further discussion. Seeing none doctor. Lee. Yes. Peterson. Yes. Yes. Hager.

00:55:18,100	Yes. Item B is b b SR three authority of the superintendent. So this will be our public reading of BSR three four. Oh, I got a typo in here. Thank you. Yep.

00:55:49,800	For bso b sr for the board will provide direction to the superintendent through written policy that define the organizational results to be achieved for students and define operational conditions and actions to be accomplished or avoided. One board will develop results policies instructing the superintendent to to achieve defined results for the students served by the district two. The board will develop operational expectation policies which express the board’s value of operational conditions and actions.

00:56:15,470	Certain of these values will be expressed positively to assure that the stated actions occur and the identified conditions exist, and will be stated as directives. Certain other values represent actions and conditions that are to be avoided and will be stated prohibitively as long as the superintendent excuse me.

00:56:43,070	Three as long as the superintendent uses reasonable interpretation of the board’s results and operational expectation policies, the superintendent is authorized to establish any additional district policies or regulations, make any decisions, establish any practices, and develop any activities the superintendent deems appropriate to achieve the board’s result. Policies.

00:57:07,670	The superintendent is not expected to seek board approval or authority for any such decisions falling within the superintendent’s area of delegated authority for the board may change its results and expectation. Operational expectations. Policies, and in doing so, shift the boundary between board and superintendent. Area of responsibilities.

00:57:32,200	The board will respect and support any reasonable interpretation of its policies by the superintendent, even though the superintendent decisions may not be the decisions of the board or its members may have made with that. That concludes the reading of BSR for authority of the superintendent. Miss Preskey. I would move that we retain BSR for authority of the superintendent. I would second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion seeing none. Doctor Sher Peterson. Yes, yes. Lee. Yes. Hager. Yes. So it’s a two parter. Miss Preskey.

00:58:02,570	And I would, uh, move that. We determine as in compliance. Second motion and second. Any discussion? Seeing none. Doctor Scherr. Press. Yes. Lee. Yes. Peterson. Yes. Hager. Yes. Um. Item six. Matters are reserved for board action. Board member school visits.

00:58:28,130	I know we have a couple left that will probably hit at the June meeting. So with that we go down to item seven, which is the consent agenda. What are the wishes of the board? I would move that. We approve the consent agenda. I would second. Motion and a second. Doctor chair roll. Lee. Yes. Peterson. Yes. Prescott. Yes. Hager. Yes. Adam. Eight. Superintendents. Report.

00:58:52,730	Doctor. Foster. Wow. I expected a couple good school reports tonight, but I totally respect why we moved those along as long as we’ve gone tonight. So I do have a few things. Board members.

00:59:11,870	The first one you have in your packet is a is, uh, kind of a outline that Doctor Scherr provided to me with the recommendation coming from Mrs. Wagner. I just want you to be aware that we have made a change in milk delivery contracts. Instead of using the outside contractor. We’re now, um, adding it operationally within the work that does. You might say.

00:59:33,370	Well, why does that help? And how does that help us? Um, actually, we’re having some real inconsistencies with milk delivery to the point that we’re running a little short. And also significant damage to the product, which you’d say, well, okay, sometimes shipping you damage a carton of milk or so, probably beyond what Mrs. Wagner thinks is reasonable. And that does affect what we provide our kids.

00:59:52,530	It does affect the quality of the product we’re providing them in a lunch line. So leading into next year, um, and it saves us money. Um, which is a added bonus for less dollars. And we’re paying now that to contract that milk delivery.

01:00:09,600	Um, we will take one bulk delivery at our location and then we will distribute to schools. And some people say say, well, doesn’t that cost money to deliver it? Yep. But we’re already running trucks from our central warehouse to all the schools already.

01:00:24,300	Um, so now we just add a little, um, capacity to that, a little bit of the load, um, to get milk delivery there. And we’re also going to be doing that for Mandan. Mandan would like to also get rid of that contract for similar reasons.

01:00:40,870	So when we spoken with them and Doctor Bitz, like they’re willing to reimburse us for some of the costs to do that, which offsets some of the difference, which I think is a win. Um, again, one of the benefits of centralizing some of that food processing and food distribution service, we can do it more efficiently, and we can do it with some surrounding neighbors. So in this case we’re kind of testing that out. So I just want you to be aware of that.

01:00:55,700	That won’t start till next year. But um, operationally making a little change, um, for us in the food service program, um, any questions on that one, I guess. Okay.

01:01:14,470	Um, I did in the your consent agenda, you approved changes to FGF eight, and you do this commonly when we have a new technology platform, a new vendor that’s getting access to student or staff data, we add that in there. It’s required by law that we list those, um, and have those available for people to review. What I’m informing you of is a change in practice.

01:01:33,930	Um, over the last year, we’ve seen an increased number not just in Bismarck, but across the state and nationwide of bad actors who are going after student data and they’re hacking platforms that schools use to, in essence, get part or some part or all of student data records. And then in essence, they sell them back, they ransom them. They the vendors are paying for them.

01:01:56,570	And some of those that have been example, um, as of this time last year was Power School. That was a power school hack didn’t affect us directly, but because all North Dakota schools are power school users, obviously it affected us secondarily. But just recently we had a similar breach reported to us by McGraw-Hill.

01:02:16,170	So, um, my team, as we talked about it, Mister Mueller is like, well, we make this a little easy for the bad actors. Not that we have vulnerable systems, but we give them the list of people they should go after. We list all the vendors on our website of who they should go target.

01:02:33,930	Um, so we said, why are we doing that? Why are we making it easier for them not to say that they’re using our list, but we said it just seems reasonable to take that list that you just approved, pull that off the public facing website that we all see on the website and all

01:02:48,900	of our policies. Let’s pull that off. If anybody in the community is listening and wants access to that, you just contact my office. We will get it to you. You are a person we know. We trust. You live in Bismarck. We will get you that list.

01:03:03,370	But the bad actor who lives somewhere else doesn’t can’t just get it off of our website and access it. So, um, just informing you that we’re pulling that off the public facing site, but we still have it available to any patron who wants it. If they would just have to ask for it.

01:03:17,000	So just so you know, okay, um, last thing I have before I hand it over to Doctor Scheer is the 2026 bond. Again, we’ve had this on every agenda, allowing people to kind of come up and ask questions. I would just tell you, we continue to, um, provide information.

01:03:34,670	I was at an event on Wednesday. I’ll be at an event on tomorrow. Um, just being available to answer people’s questions. I think we have done an outstanding job of providing factual information to the the community.

01:03:52,930	I think, as I said on Wednesday, when we were, um, I was in front of the, uh, Romeo group and I won’t give the analogy of that because it’s a bunch of wonderful, wonderful men that we got to speak in front of on Wednesday. But, um, it I think we’re near 80 presentations that we’ve done across the community on radio, on TV, we continue to provide information we did today on our website.

01:04:09,870	We’re expanding the FAQ. Um, almost weekly as we add more items to that. But we’ll continue to add inform people, address those questions and get out the information best we can. And again, what I would say to everybody watching and to you, everybody in the audience is do your civic duty.

01:04:28,530	Um, I was in a presentation or had an opportunity to hear Senator Dever speak on Wednesday, and, uh, he laid it out very well that due to the wonderful anniversary of our wonderful nation and the the work of becoming, uh, the United States of America, we should take upon ourselves the

01:04:48,270	civic duty of going to vote. So go vote. Get out this week. Get out next week. Next week. Um, Wednesday, I think, is early voting. And up through June 9th. So I would stand for any questions that you have. Not seen any doctor. Share. Thank you. President Hager, members of the board in front of you.

01:05:09,670	We have the financial report from the end of last month. Um, and I’m not going to reiterate what I say normally, but things are trending on track. And in a positive note for Bismarck Public Schools.

01:05:31,070	Um, I will, um, say that, you know, again, uh, if the bond would pass, some of these things will self-correct with some of the maintenance dollars that hopefully that’ll free up money for other things like, uh, unified sports and inclusive sports. Um, how’d you like that one? So, uh, no. On a positive note, we’re trending favorably, and I would answer any questions that the board would have on the financial report.

01:05:49,700	Board members questions. That’s any. Thanks, Doctor Scherr brings us down to item nine. The executive session. I would look for a motion. I would move that. We enter into executive session pursuant to North Dakota Central Code section 4404, 19.

01:06:30,400	1, subsection nine, for the purpose of discussing, negotiating strategy and providing negotiating instructions to administration regarding a potential property acquisition. We have a motion. Second and a second. Doctor chair. Yes. Hager. Yes. The board will now be