Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
District advisory council urges modest daily minute increase and districtwide middle-school BARR rollout
Loading...
Summary
The District Planning Advisory Council recommended adding instructional minutes districtwide (as little as 10 minutes daily) to gain cumulative instructional time and proposed implementing a strengths-based BARR program in all middle schools; the board heard the recommendations but did not adopt policy changes at the meeting.
The District Planning Advisory Council (DPACC) presented two high-priority recommendations to the Osseo Area Schools Board: increase the number of instructional minutes in the school day districtwide and implement a Building Assets Reducing Risks (BARR)–style strengths-based program across middle schools.
Rose Tan, DPACC chair, explained that state law requires school boards to maintain an advisory committee; the committee used the 2023–24 family stakeholder survey, World’s Best Workforce goals and the district’s strategic directions to shape its recommendations. Jill Keim, director of learning and achievement, introduced the presenters and framed DPACC’s process as a yearlong, committee-wide review.
DPACC said modest daily increases — “adding as little as 10 minutes a day” — would yield roughly 373 additional instructional hours across a student’s K–12 career in the district and could create more time for targeted interventions, enrichment, project-based learning and social-emotional supports. DPACC members told the board they compared Osseo’s daily minutes to seven neighboring districts and found Osseo’s school days shorter at elementary, middle and high levels.
DPACC’s second top recommendation, presented by Dr. Britt Stusi and Rose Tan, was to adopt a BARR-like model districtwide in middle schools. BARR focuses on building relationships through cohorting students in core classes, regular teacher planning time, weekly student check-ins and family engagement. Presenters noted a BARR pilot at Park Center Senior High (opt-in for ninth and tenth graders beginning in 2018) that the committee said showed improved attendance and academic performance for participating students. “It costs about $19,000 per site,” Dr. Stusi said, and scaling to the district’s middle schools would increase cost; the presenters estimated roughly one million dollars for full middle-school implementation while noting existing institutional knowledge in the district could lower barriers.
Board members asked for implementation details. Several directors said they supported further exploration of the instructional-minute proposal but were cautious about unintended consequences such as impacts on student work schedules, extracurriculars and transportation. DPACC members said the committee did not design implementation plans — that responsibility would fall to district staff and a working group if the board chose to pursue the recommendations. The board did not vote on either DPACC recommendation at the meeting.
