State Representative Wiens made a guest appearance as a part of a task force gathering public feedback on Metropolitan Council governance and the needs of the community. He invited the school board and East Metro residents to an engagement meeting at Lake Elmo City Center on December 14th.
The board passed a resolution for a $100 million bond sale (20-year bond), with plans for another bond sale later. A Truth in Taxation meeting was scheduled for the following week.
The 2023 audit results were presented. The fund balance reserves have decreased to 1%. The superintendent and executive financial officer are monitoring.
Three new courses were proposed: American Studies, Creating Culturally Responsive Classrooms and Mindful Literacy. Three work - based courses in Special Education were proposed to be renamed to align with the Federal Perkins Act requirements. https://cte.ed.gov/legislation/perkins-v
A report on the World’s Best Workforce goal areas was provided. The goals for WBWF are found on the MN Department Education website: https://education.mn.gov/MDE/dse/wbwf/ The achievement gap closed with some groups, but the performance of white cohorts decreased. The integration report looked at Black and Hispanic groups’ college readiness and class failures, noting that a lack of teachers of color is an issue.
A report was given on Summer Success, a 12 - day program that provides high school and college students, who may want to be teachers, an opportunity to work alongside teachers assisting younger students with reading and math.
Link for meeting video is here
Link for the meeting agenda and documents is here.