Duluth Public School District committee meeting, Oct 6, 2026
2 h 11 min
This board doesn’t post agenda times. Click a board member to jump to where they first speak; we list only members whose voice our check named. Video length 2 h 11 min.
- Who spoke · first speaks at
- Rosie Loeffler-KempBoard member
- Amber SadowskiTreasurer
- Sarah MikesellClerk
What happened
What happened at this meeting
Duluth school board hears principals' school improvement plans and American Indian aid plan 23:25
- Board members and staff also discussed student test results, including results for Black students and early grade literacy data. 8:37
- The American Indian Education coordinator presented the American Indian Education Aid Plan, which a staff member said was a required annual presentation. 22:49
- Principals from each school presented highlights of their school continuous improvement plans, including their evidence-based practices and goals. 49:18
Item by item (5)
- Test results for Black students 0:00
- A speaker asked how the district could address outcomes for African heritage students, and a staff member said the district was exploring an initiative it has called Black Excellence. 0:00
- A staff member said the MCAs do not correlate with grades because the test measures how the district is doing as a system. 7:25
- Rosie Loeffler-Kemp asked whether the district's research would look at other districts that have seen increases in test scores for Black students, and a staff member said the district would look at districts in Minnesota and across the nation. 12:14
- Early grade literacy data 17:16
- A staff member said 58.8% of kindergartners left meeting the literacy benchmark, a higher percentage than in the last 5 years, and 60.7% of 2nd graders left meeting the benchmark on FastBridge. 17:16
- Rosie Loeffler-Kemp said the district also wanted to recognize its preschool, Head Start and early childhood programs. 20:49
- A staff member, asked whether district goals would change based on the test scores, said school sites were reviewing their own data and the district does not necessarily write specific CTE goals based on the data. 21:17
- American Indian Education Aid Plan 22:49
- The coordinator said the plan aims to raise the 4-year graduation rate for American Indian students from 52.1% to 60% and includes $40,000 for 5th, 8th, and 12th grade graduation banquets and gifts and $33,000 for the district powwow and community gatherings. 23:25
- Rosie Loeffler-Kemp asked how the plan's expenses are funded, and the coordinator said the money comes from student counts through Title VI and Johnson-O'Malley forms rather than from the district. 37:19
- A staff member said potential reductions to general education budgets could affect programming including Ojibwe language immersion. 44:25
- School continuous improvement plan updates 47:48
- Principals shared points of pride, their evidence-based practices and goals for their schools. 53:10
- A staff member said the school continuous improvement plans would be posted on school websites. 1:30:22
- The East High School principal said 171 students in grades 11 and 12 were enrolled in a work-based learning hour and 215 were enrolled for semester 2. 1:43:40
- Board comments and closing video 1:58:56
- Amber Sadowski thanked the principals and said questions would be sent by email or raised during a site visit. 2:01:43
- Sarah Mikesell asked the principals to extend the board's gratitude to staff in their buildings. 2:05:59
- Staff showed one of 9 videos about schools that a staff member said would be shared on social media. ~2:09:34
Written by software from the meeting's transcript and checked sentence by sentence against it.
Other meetings
Other meetings of this board
Video: posted by the district as “October 6, 2026 at 4:30 PM - Monthly Committee of the Whole Board Meeting”