Bittman shares state of school district with School Board

by Jim Boyle

Editor

The Elk River Area School District this past school year saw boundless successes, conflicting viewpoints and crises that school officials have handled in model fashion.

That was the message from Superintendent Dan Bittman delivered during a 9 a.m. meeting of the District 728 School Board on Wednesday, July 17, at the District 728 offices. His review of the 2023-24 school year came ahead of the School Board’s two-hour discussion on the upcoming search process of the district’s next permanent superintendent. (More on that in a future edition, but stakeholders should know that students, staff and community will soon have access to a survey to provide input to help the School Board in its effort to hire a new superintendent for Jan. 1, 2025, or July 1, 2025.)

Bittman also shared future topics of possible interest, ways to ensure success and effective collaboration. (The Star News will report details of these topics in future editions.)

Below is a summary of the superintendent’s report and comments on the state of ISD 728.

Successes were many

Bittman started by talking about successes, and at the top of his list was improved achievement in every content area, including math, literacy and science, something he noted gets challenged at times by members of the community. Board members have shared that some individuals in the community say achievement is going down.

“That is just not accurate,” Bittman said. “We have improved in every single category, according to the state MCA tests as well as AP tests that give kids college credit. We increased those scores by almost 7% this year and we have the highest ranking of kids in the last five years.”

Additionally, over the last eight years, when compared to the 10 largest school districts by enrollment, ISD 728 has typically been No. 1 or 2 in every achievement area, Bittman said.

The school district settled 10 labor agreements.

“That comes with a lot of emotion, time and conversations, etc. That is an absolute success. (Negotiations) get in the way of all school districts. That’s a huge success and a shout out to our unions, our teams, our executive folks on the committees just navigate the emotions and come to agreements that are fair and appropriate.”

ISD 728 also completed more than $100 million worth of facility improvements and construction that the district promised the community.

“That’s impressive,” Bittman said. “Community members don’t often pay attention to that unless it’s their own child’s school.”

ISD 728 evaluated current systems related to safety and prevention, and provided recommendations to the board for consideration.

“We did that all while we enhanced support for our students, our families, our staff and our community,” Bittman said.

ISD implemented a community-developed strategic plan that takes lots of fidelity, Bittman said, “all while helping individuals identify how they fit and contribute with and to (the school district).”

ISD 728 recruited, hired and retained some of the most talented staff in the state and nation, he said.

“We have an amazing staff and administrative team, people that state and national groups look to for advice and engagement,” Bittman said. “Not all districts can say that.”

ISD 728 prepared for future enrollment growth and development.

“We were able to purchase 174 acres of land for future development in the south and we closed on that yesterday,” Bittman said.

ISD maintained supports added through Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief funds (i.e. COVID dollars) after the one-time money went away.

“You might remember as a board during COVID we prioritized positions related to social workers, counselors, academic intervention coaches at the elementary, etc.,” Bittman said. “The money’s gone and we have absorbed that into the general budget because of our priorities and alignment with the strategic plan.”

ISD 728 also provided recommendations to the board to maximize building capacity, reduce costs and the burden placed on taxpayers, and to enhance programming for all students through the discussions on repurposing.

“We have had groups weigh in on that and eventually the board will want to take action on something to do that,” Bittman said. “That took a tremendous amount of work on behalf of staff, the administration and executive cabinet. And you might remember that those discussions have happened for more than 12 years.”

Navigation of viewpoints

Bittman also talked about issues the board and district navigated. He prefaced his comments on this topic by saying these are not necessarily unique situations in ISD 728.

“This is (affecting) school districts around the country,” Bittman said. “But the board plays a significant role in how those things play out.”

For instance, everybody has a different idea about negotiations, board member dynamics, facilities, athletics and special education.

Bittman said another factor is politics in the community, state and nation and its impact on ISD 728.

“Right now our country is very divisive, and those things absolutely play through our states,” Bittman said. “You saw that some of our representatives put out some very strong statements on ISD 728 and never spoke to the board chair or cabinet. That creates (the need for) hundreds of hours in time correcting information.”

The topic of equity and diversity divided the board greatly this past year.

“We had opinions on the board that this is a really good thing and we should absolutely do this ... and we had members on the board say this is terrible and I am never approving it unless you do the following things.”

Bittman warned that those types of decisions and focus areas for the board will have an immediate impact on staff, kids, programming and so forth.

“Don’t misinterpret me to say one side is better than the other, but this will absolutely have an impact. The board has to be able to talk about things like that and to have all the information before they make decisions and also not surprise board members and administration about that at a board meeting.”

Board members also expressed significantly different ideas on curriculum (such as health, literacy, social and emotional learning) in terms of support and opposition.

“It’s not to say whose viewpoints are right or wrong,” Bittman said. “These are viewpoints that the board does not agree on that have huge impacts on the district, on finances, on programming and student support, etc.”

The board has also wrestled with how to communicate and engage with internal and external stakeholders to provide feedback on various topics.

“I would guess some of you have a very different constituent group than others,” Bittman said. “So if board members are just working with pockets of community members, it will really be difficult to get anything done ... and have all the information and then make decisions.

“I would encourage the board to continue to think about ways to engage our community and students and make sure you have all the information before you make a decision.”

Conversations and policy discussion about Social Emotional Learning also generated an extreme range of opinions.

“Board members said they will not support anything that is related to the national organization,” Bittman said. “That’s what’s in statute. That’s the number one source across the country. But again really strong opinions — not that they’re right or wrong — but it has significant impacts on how we spend our time, support we provide for our students and families, and people’s jobs. We have people dedicated to each one of these. It will really be important for the board to be aware of that.”

How to handle policies has also been a divisive issue, and there has been talk of a separate sub-committee of the board so that they can make sure that committee can make frecommendations to the full board.

“Again, nothing is wrong with that, there’s not right or wrong, but again there are significantly different opinions on the board, and so it will be important for board members to be thinking about that.”

Crises regularly present

The last topic heading that Bittman addressed was crises, and he reported the district has had a ton of success supporting students, families and communities in the district.

“You know we have nearly 15,000 kids, and we serve kids and families in five different counties, and we are the eighth largest school district in the state of Minnesota, and we built two new schools in the last eight years, and we continue to grow.”

Bittman said in all his years as a superintendent, he has found it is pretty common for 1% of those the schools serve — students, staff or families — to be in crisis.

“Some of those you know,” Bittman said. “Some of those you don’t know, but our team knows, because that’s how we’re spending our nights, our weekends. This weekend was a perfect example. A recent graduate passed away. A second recent graduate went missing in Montana and he’s now been missing for several days. ... You might remember just this last week, a parent drowned in the Mississippi River. That parent has two children in our school district. You might also know that three of our students were in a bad car accident — two of which were fatal. They would have been seniors in our district.

“Those are situations that take an immense amount of time and energy. We do that really well, and ... the board should be really proud. I don’t see that on any political billboard on either side. But again when it comes to sitting down with a family member who has just lost a child, it kind of puts the other things that are important to each of us in a different category. I am super proud of our team.”

ISD 728 has developed, implemented and refined standard operating procedures related to crisis management and coordination. After every situation, people gather to debrief to consider what went well and what should be done differently.

“The state has asked us to present information and be the model for other districts to follow in crisis planning and management,” Bittman said. “I take no credit, but our executive cabinet should as well as folks like director Rachel Hilyar and her team. The team does that amazingly well. Any law enforcement agency in the five-county area will tell you that.”

Bittman said ISD 728 also increased its partnerships with cities, counties, and law enforcement partners in the local five counties.

“We have significant projects with each of them,” he said. “We have regular, ongoing meetings that I facilitate and many of you attend. We have grants with them. We have facility partnerships with them. We have debriefs with our law enforcement partners.

“You might remember the Legislature made some decisions about SROs in schools, and we were one of the only districts who had no issues at that time. We had no disruption of service in five counties and 21 buildings.

“My point is we have a lot to celebrate in that realm.”