The ISD 200 School Board discussed the increase in behavioral issues across the district in April, and reviewed the elementary science curriculum proposal, the long-term facility maintenance plan and the timeline for finalizing the new strategic plan.

Behavioral report
Principals from across the district came before the school board to discuss the quarterly behavioral report. April saw a rise in referrals across the district, a spike not unusual as the school year comes to an end and warm weather arrives in Minnesota.
The middle school in particular saw 375 referrals in April, more than 100 more than the previous month, what Middle School Assistant Principal Scott Addyman called “very high referral numbers.” Despite those numbers, Addyman was positive on the year overall given the changes to the house system in the middle school and implementation of the cell phone policy: “We’d take this all year over what last year was.”
Scott Doran, rincipal of the high school, spoke to the continued implementation of the cell phone policy in the high school where students can only use cell phones during passing time and at lunch. Especially given high numbers of referrals, Doran referencing “on occasion having to remind staff about those cell phones.”

Curriculum update
Elementary Curriculum Coordinator Andy Larson and Director of Teaching & Learning Andrew Hodges presented the staff’s recommendation for a new elementary science curriculum and elementary STEM curriculum.
Staff recommended moving forward with the Amplify curriculum for k-4 science. Hodges described the curriculum as “skill-based of knowledge-based,” with students working to solve overarching questions rather than learning about a specific subject area.
Of the teachers who reviewed the proposed curriculum, 100% said that they believed students would find the curriculum engaging and exciting and that they would be comfortable teaching it.
Staff “universally thought Amplify is a very good program,” Larson said.
For the elementary STEM curriculum, Larson and Hodges presented on YES Elementary and Engineering in Elementary (EIE) from Museum of Science in Boston. These curricula will be fully reviewed in the coming school year with proposed adoption of full STEM curriculum for 26-27 and beyond.
School board members are in the process of reviewing materials from the various curricula in order to formalize its adoption which is expected later this summer.

Long-term facility maintenance 10-year plan
Director of Facilities & Safety Scott Stockdale discussed projects in the district across the next decade in the long-term facility maintenance 10-year plan. Notable projects in 2026 are upgrades to the high school elevator, work on the high school parking lot asphalt, and repairs to the middle school PAR system.
Notable projects beyond next year include $500,000 for carpet replacement in the high school in 2027, $1.3 million for turf replacement in Todd Field in 2029, $3.45 million for middle school roof system replacement in 2030, and $2.7 million for a new air handler unit in 2031.

Strategic plan
The district’s new strategic plan is expected to be finalized this summer. While iterations of the strategic plan have been presented and discussed in various settings from board meetings to workshops to community collaboration committee meetings, much of the verbiage is not final.
Board members plan to “wordsmith” the strategic plan in June but are seeking input from the incoming superintendent Dr. Kristine Wehrkamp-Herman before finalizing it, which is expected to occur in July or August.