We have three areas that support counseling and mental health services. We have made growth in each area. In School Counseling we have increased our elementary program over the last two years. We use a scope and sequence that the students have access to. We have an updated counseling curriculum, My Life Plan, for grades 6-12. We have also adopted a college and Career platform.

Regarding our Social Work efforts, we have been experimenting with a direct service model in order to capture the services School Based Social Workers are providing to students. This service model has provided information that can be utilized to plan forward. Our Mental Health Service team has determined that the mental health services we are currently providing are not reaching the impact they wish to have. The current resources are spread thin and they are not reaching as many students in a way that has more impact. We are looking to remodel the service plan to service less schools with more impact. Moving into the Fall, schools will now have dedicated resources, but it will not cover as many schools.

While we have grown in these noted areas, as a district we would benefit from having a Comprehensive School-Based Mental Health system. With this comprehensive system, we would be able to provide greater alignment and overall supports for our school community.

This year, the Equity and school climate team met with district department leaders, community leaders, staff, students, a small group of principals, etc. around what they are doing as incidents of racial harm situations occur. We discussed how incidences are are being experienced and what restorative practices are currently in place. Based on those conversations, as well as reaching out to surrounding districts who currently have a system built around racial harm incidents and restorative practices, we began to put together the student protocol.  

Our team worked on finalizing a draft of the student Racial Harm Hate and Bias Protocol that be utilized at all MPS schools. As this protocol was being created, we had a chance to meet with the Legal Rights Center to provide feedback on the protocol, specifically around the restorative section.  They provided our team PD and have been a partner in this work and will continue to be moving forward. 

We are partnering with seven pilot schools across MPS (Elem., Middle, High), providing PD. The Equity and School Climate team were trained on the protocol and are a resource to school sites. We have also had the opportunity to talk with our district Principals around this tool. As we work with the pilot sites and school leaders, we are collecting data to inform future supports.

By the end of the school year, the SEL dept will complete the installation phase of goal 2.3. To lay the groundwork for Anti-Racist SEL (AR SEL) implementation, we created a 5 year logic model to serve Tier 1 coordinating with Student Support Services to meet Tier 2 and 3 needs. The logic model addresses building beliefs, knowledge, and skills at three levels: central office, associates/school admin, and in schools with teachers.

To support messaging, we have a clear AR SEL framework based on CASEL's Transformative SEL- focal constructs (we call them concepts) and AR SEL strategies. Our "one-pager" addresses strategies implemented at all levels of the logic model. We will have 2 informative videos explaining our districtwide approach to Anti-Racist SEL and the expectations for all spaces by the end of the fiscal year.

We provided PD for principals, associates, the academic dept, ECSE, community ed, student support services, all secondary teachers, and some elementary teachers. Additionally, we offered PD at some schools across the district. 

We embedded AR SEL practices into the non-exclusionary discipline policy and the Climate Framework observation tool to ensure the common messaging and systematizing of practices. 

Finally, by the end of 2023-24, the SEL Dept will adopt SEL curriculum for use across PK-12. The approval process will conclude with the School Board on May 7th, at which point we will purchase materials for the 2024-25 school year. At that point we will move to the initial implementation phase. As part of the curriculum adoption, we will name the SEL measurement tool to use across the district to better understand and address student needs. The goal is for the assessment to align with the SEL curriculum to have lessons that support identified needs. 
 

The 23-24 summer construction projects and school year improvements are completed with fully functioning entrances at North High School, Northrop Elementary and Field Elementary.  Las Estrellas Dual Language Elementary and Pratt Elementary now have cooling systems and all schools with cooling systems are prepared for the warmer weather.

Andersen United Middle School’s Dining and Auditorium space is complete with a two-story space, viewing areas above and a view out to the park.  The old, decommissioned kitchen areas are converted into band and choir rooms.  The new, full-service kitchen is installed with Phase Four plans to complete conversions and an added robotics lab area.

Custodial vacancies and cleaning systems are operating well with partnerships through external agencies.  A 2% vacancy rate for custodians is the lowest in years with a candidate pool for any upcoming vacancies.  Often, our agency temp workers convert to permanent MPS employees.   For the new work order system, we are seeking additional vendors through our RFP process to find systems that better integrate with MPS Tech infrastructure which did not accommodate past vendor submissions

Great gains were made with providing proactive support around building Site Emergency Teams and emergency response protocols. We have streamlined the system and created new guidance around the Standard Response Protocols, which we will continue to adjust as needed. Our ability to respond to critical incidents, including support for staff has increased in part to the hiring of new staff, providing targeted training, and building a support network for service providers. We have seen an overall decrease in incidents that were reported this year. We have completed the strategic alignment of EMSS Specialists to each site, with additional staffing allocated to priority sites. We were able to roll out and train multiple site staff on the Opioid Overdose Emergency Response Protocol. We will continue to refine this process as the use of products changes. We are currently in conversation with the CTE program on how this work could be supported in their Health Care track. Unfortunately, we did not get as far as hoped in piloting additional substance use prevention and intervention efforts, specifically at five pilot sites.

During the 23/24 school year, Culinary & Wellness Services (CWS) offered no-cost school meals to all students through the federal breakfast and lunch programs and in conjunction with the MN Free School Meals Program.  CWS serves an average of 40,000 meals and snacks per day and saw student participation increase an average 8% for breakfast and 15% for lunch.  Special Diet accommodations for nearly 800 students with food allergies and medical nutrition needs are made daily.  Additionally, CWS provides out of school time meal and snack opportunities through nearly 100 partnerships with community organizations.  

Moreover, we celebrated the local food system with 7 MN Thursday’s featuring entrees such as Bison Chili, Jollof Rice with Coriander Chicken or Stewed Beans, and Mega Swedish Meatballs with Kernza Pilaf.  New at the Secondary level was an emphasis on house made breakfast items including coffee cake, breakfast breads and egg bakes. 

Nutrition Education efforts include: 

• Bike Blender reached over 800 students at 10 schools
• Classroom Microgreen Kits reached over 2660 students at 43 schools 
• Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) introduced students to 35 unique fruits/veggies 
• True Food Tasting will reach 3,700 students in May 

We support physical activity through bicycle education that reaches the majority of fourth and fifth graders in MPS through four traveling bicycle fleets and additional school-owned bicycles fleets at schools.  Our students will collectively bike more than 20,000 miles on the streets and trails of Minneapolis this school year. We also promote walking and biking to school through seasonal events, provide resources and training for walking and biking field trips, secure and manage grants that provide additional walking and biking resources to schools, and organize free, community group bicycle rides this October and May that showcase our students (the Let’s Roll MPS).