Board hears update on Achievement & Integration funding and new Comprehensive Achievement and Civic Readiness plan

District staff presented two connected education-plan updates during the meeting: the Achievement & Integration (A&I) program status and a review of the state-mandated Comprehensive Achievement and Civic Readiness (CACR) plan.

Dr. Yamalen led the Achievement & Integration update and told the board Jordan qualifies under option 2 as an adjoining district to a racially isolated district. She described four program goals: cross-district "caring and committed" conversations, student leadership groups (grades K–12), MTSS tier 1 instruction, and expanded "reach" elective study halls for grades 5–12. On the measurement approach she said student comfort and connectedness data are gathered by surveys of participating students: "We created a survey... students self report their comfort level," she said, noting the district uses Likert-scale items for areas such as advocacy, leadership and school connectedness. She said the district is "on track" for most goals and that the current A&I allocation is $183,000 per year.

In a related presentation, staff reviewed the CACR plan (the successor to the "World's Best Workforce" framework under Minnesota statute). The CACR framework sets district goals across multiple areas: early childhood screening (the district aims for at least 90% of resident 4- and 5-year-olds to complete screening by fall 2026), reducing reading achievement gaps (the plan sets a target to close the reading gap between multilingual learners and non-ML students by 5% as measured by the spring 2026 MCA reading test), ensuring 90% of students create a personalized-learning plan by the end of 10th grade, and maintaining a four-year graduation-rate cohort above 92%.

Board members asked detailed questions about measurement and budget. One trustee asked whether the student comfort survey is administered to only the participating students; the presenter confirmed that growth comparisons are made on the participating leadership-group population. A trustee pressed whether the A&I $183,000 allotment can be overspent; staff said the district budgets to that amount and does not exceed the A&I allocation but can supplement some positions from other funds when necessary. Superintendent Evenson also warned that MDE had reduced allocations slightly this year, explaining that "I think it decreased by a few thousand dollars this year because they MDE clawed back some funds to pay more for their administrative overhead at MDE."

What happens next: staff said a new plan will be submitted by March 15 (the start of the next plan year if the district continues to qualify), and the board approved the CACR-related action item later in the meeting.