Superintendent cites big drop in out‑of‑school suspensions and seeks board participation on discipline working group

Superintendent Anderson presented a student‑discipline report that showed sustained declines in major incidents across the district and a large fall in out‑of‑school suspensions over recent years.

Anderson said the district’s combined measures—out‑of‑school suspensions, in‑school suspensions and referrals to the Genesis program—were down from the 2022–23 levels by roughly 5–10%. She highlighted a decrease in out‑of‑school suspensions from 342 in 2022–23 to 77 in the most recent year and attributed part of that change to implementing Genesis and increased in‑school responses.

The superintendent outlined planned steps for 2026–27: creating a regional teacher/administrator committee to review discipline (Minnesota requested such a committee), better clarifying administrator roles and responsibilities for special education services, increasing access to Genesis by hiring an additional behavior interventionist and a second behavior consultant, expanding PBIS/PBS fidelity in Grades 6–8, and implementing a digital hall‑pass system at the middle and high school levels.

Anderson asked for board consensus to add a school‑board committee member to the working group; several board members volunteered and the board agreed to put a formal action item on a future agenda to finalize participation.

The board did not take immediate action on personnel hirings but signaled support for the committee and for developing more consistent discipline reporting through Edgenuity and the GER process.