Sally Reynolds, Director of Career and College Success with Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) visited with MPS Leadership today. The reason for the visit was for MDE to get to meet our team; listen to our concerns and ideas; experience the great work we are doing for our students and strengthen the relationship between the school community and MDE.
Brian Jones spoke about the Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities (CEO) program which connects students with local business leaders. He also spoke about the upcoming Career and Technical Institute building being constructed and the programs that will be implemented - Automotive, Welding, and Certified Nursing program. These programs have elevated the Marshall High School experience for students.
One topic of discussion was about the program Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR). This program has been implemented at the High School but will soon be joining the Middle School and Southview Elementary through a grant provided by the state of MN. Paula Wolter Mattson stated, “with the program spanning elementary to high school, we will see the benefits as the students move through the district”. BARR has been working well and “has allowed the High School staff to see the whole child instead of only focusing on their academic success”, Brian noted. This is the fifth year that BARR has been at the High School, and we will need to continue to find funding because the program makes a huge difference to our students and staff. Peter Thor shared that “the teachers are excited to spend more time focused on individual students and their needs.” MPS is privileged to be one of few schools in the state of Minnesota to implement this program into our elementary and middle schools.
Darci Love shared that “13 teachers from Marshall Public Schools enrolled in the state’s Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) training last year. This allowed us to be fully prepared for the READ Act since we have focused on this during our own professional development”. With this pursuit, we have increased literacy in the district for the first time in a long time. Because of this, we have expanded our programming to include Middle School and High School including our Special Education and English Learners because we have seen success.
“As daycare rates increase, it has been amazing to offer free education to 4 years olds,” said Tiffany Teske. She reminded MDE representatives that we will be open to assisting in offering free education to younger kids, too.
With ongoing discussions across the state regarding School Resource Officers, we had to bring it up. Sally Reynolds confirmed that “the legislation was put into place to align current processes with statute, it was not put into place to concern police departments and schools. As long as your School Resource Officer was not already using the prone restraint in school, nothing has changed.”
Dion Caron shared with MDE that we are grateful for a number of items, including addressing cross-subsidy funding for Special Education and English Learning, free meals for all kids, and the increase in the general formula to help offset some spending. Some concerns that were shared regarding district finances included summer unemployment and the upcoming Employee Safe and Sick Time. Caron explained, “the district is in support of both of these changes for employees, but we are concerned with how legislature has budgeted funds and we hope that legislature considers how to effectively rollout to schools. We have engaged in hours of trainings, and we will continue to learn how to effectively use these programs at Marshall Public Schools.” Caron also shared that “with ESSER funds being depleted after this school year, either funding needs to increase, or local board needs to be given more authority to increase our local optional revenue.”
We appreciate the Minnesota Department of Education coming to visit with us. We know we do a great job providing education, but it is helpful to have a resource in our state to collaborate with us.