Faribault School Board Meeting: October 19th, 2026
Members: John Bellingham, Chad Wolff, Candance Knudson, Jerry Robicheau, Lynda Boudreau,
Casie Steeves, Linda Moore
Motions?
- Motion to add agenda item: approving the proposed amendment to the Minnesota State
High School League - Restricting sports eligibility to biological females
Items of Information:
Jerry Robicheau
- Voice becomes critical for Board of Education
- Encourage student representatives to speak their voices
Linda Moore
- Reiterates importance of reviewing non-teaching positions for redundancy
Lynda Boudreau - Highlighted cases of transgender athletes in sports
- Believes that it was unfair for the Minnesota State League to allow transgender athletes in
sports
John Bellingham - Attended Rotary conference
Student Board Representatives – Leo Bunch and Amira Williams
Leo Bunch - Rotary club continues to help fund scholarships for students
Amira Williams - Some updates on sports
- FHS students will have opportunity to speak to school board candidates on October 21st
Superintendent Bente - Bente was able to visit Lincoln Elementary and Roosevelt early learning center
- improvements with behavior and school lunches
- Served 2,247 more lunches and 4,557 more breakfasts this September from last
September - Students have had opportunities to visit local nature centers, career programs (connecting
with local businesses), and learn flag etiquette - Will be celebrating Unity Day
- Career Expo will occur
No Public Comments
Committees
District Advisory: Met October 5th (Boudreau)
Lynda Boudreau: - Agenda was overview of ESEA Federal Program (Titles 1, 2, 3, and 4)
- All items are shared with public and non-public schools, but public oversee them
- Title I: Eligibility + Coordination of services
- Free and reduced lunch count
- Elementary coaching
- Title II: Professional Development Services
- Title III: English Learners and Servi
- Title IV: College and Career Readiness, Credit Recovery, Safe and Healthy
Students, Immersion, Technology
Policy Committee (Steeves and Moore):
Casie Steeves: No updates
Linda Moore: - Wanted to add an amendment specifying that students comply with the Constitution
- Code of Conduct (Federal Law does not equal Constitution)
Consider approval of policies
- Review of Policy 424: License Status (Passes 5-1)
Linda Moore:
- Did not want explicit mention race or ethnicity
John Bellingham: - This is compliance with PELSB under the Minnesota Legislature Statute
- Review of Policy 508: Extended School Year for Certain Students with Individualized
Education Programs (IEP’s) (Passes 6-0 together with 536) - Review of Policy 536: Special Education Records and Records Retention (Passes 6-0
together with 508) - Review of Policy 611: Home Schooling
Linda Moore:
- We should not make homeschool students be a part of the Minnesota State League and
force them to make concessions about their values
Finance Committee: October 12th
Lynda Boudreau: - YTD spending on track
Presentation - Valedictorian Discussion (motion passes)
- Most people interested in both Valedictorian and Latin Honors framework
- But only 12 parents at the parent discussion
- Student representations agreed with the findings and felt that it reflected their
peers views - There will be a valedictorian and salutatorian as per usual for the 2027 graduation
- Ice Arena Agreement (motion passes)
- Amended proposal removes statement that stipulates that the district would not be
able to sell time to rent out ice arena - Lynda Boudreau asks about scheduling and logistics of this
- Data Report
- Presentation is only about student learning data
- Assess through universal screening using FastBridge
- Reading Data
- Early Reading
- Generally seemed to be more high risk than other years
- Grade K-1
- More students at high risk
- Math Data
- Grades 2-11
- Generally on trend
- Early Math
- More students in low risk than other years
- Summative Data
- MCA math increased by about 1-2%
- MCA tests suggest that there is an overall drop in reading scores in Grades
3-8 - Science proficiency down 5.6%, but less reliable
- 96% of students taking the seal of biliteracy test passed
- READ Act
- (1) Curricular Resources
- (2) Professional Development
- (3) Screening
Linda Moore:
- What is the purpose of the MCA data
- Presenters say it is general data, but now is being assessed like individual data
- We’re failing our students, the bright sport was k-1 spanish immersion, but most of our
students are at risk - We need to get rid of cultural competencies and put more resources into the classroom
Casie Steeves: - What is the testing like?
- Presenters say MCA is over multiple days for elementaries, it gets more
challenging in secondary, at the high school level (10th grade) it is done in one
sitting and there are some make-up days - Fastbridge is done during the class period
- There is a process to opt-out, but there still needs to be intervention if an
individual is failing - What are we doing with the data? What can the school board do better?
- Presenter talks about intervention model, but it’s much harder at the secondary
level - But this is a problem state-wide
Lynda Boudreau:
- What percentage of students get tested?
- About 90%, 92%, 97%
- Generally healthy participation
