Behind The Innovations At Spring Grove Public Schools

Welcome to the future of education. I'm Michael Horne. Really excited about the conversation we're going to have today about a district in in Spring Grove that has really been pushing the innovation landscape in a variety of fronts. And we get to hear from an assistant superintendent, a partner at Longview Education that's been supporting them, and then a student herself who will tell us what these innovations and fancy word of jargon that we may throw out actually looks like on the ground itself. And as always, if you like this broadcast and what you're hearing, please rate it with a thumbs up on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, wherever you're listening, so that others can find it as well. And with that, we're going to dive right in. I'm going to bring everyone up to the stage, if you will, and do a quick round of introductions just so everyone knows who we have up here. But Gina Miner is the assistant superintendent at Spring Grove. We have Bridget Moriarty Guerrero, who's a partner at Longview Education consultancy that's been supporting Spring Grove in this innovation journey along many fronts. And then Hattie, who is a senior at Spring Grove and will tell us, give us the reality, I like to say, and for those who follow this, I just know I love actually having students on to give us that reality dose as we do this work. But Gina, love to start with you and just help level set us about, you know, who is Spring Grove, if you will, what is the district, how big are you all, who do you serve? And give us some sense of where you fit in the landscape just to introduce us to who you all are.

So Spring Grove is a small community in southeast Minnesota and we have around 1200 people that live in our community and 370 students, students that go through our built to our building. It's A K through 12 school building. So we have our kindergarteners in the same building as our high school students, our seniors. So Hattie gets to see those little kids every day. And we're just a community that's always been very strong in the arts. There's arts programming that's outside of the school that comes in and in the school that goes out. We have passionate people. Our kids are involved in lots of things. So a student might be in the musical and then also in basketball, and then they might go and volunteer and be involved in the different churches in the area. So we just have a very involved community that really bonds together to keep our community strong. We believe in our community and education is at the forefront of what people care about.

It's Obviously a unique community in many ways in that front, in terms of K through 12 in a public school, being all together, tight knit nature of it and so forth. Bridget, I'd love to bring you in, give us some perspective about how you see Springrove fitting in into the larger public education landscape.

Yeah, so I've been working with Spring Grove for a few years now and have been kind of on this innovation journey with them as they went through the Bush Foundation's SDI School Design Institute and really did a process of a community engaged school design. So what's your vision? How do you really think about what learning could be? And so then it's taking all of those words and putting it into practice. And what I've seen with Spring Grove and I think a big part of it is kind of that unique like you brought up, that just that unique structure is they've really been able to push really far with what they've been able to do. Specifically with response to Covid and this sort of societal call to action around like racial equity. They have been able to in the last year and a half, really, really hear their community on those things and get engaged and take action. And so, you know, it's been nice to watch that. And I think when we think about in the broader picture, they're a little bit able to move a little bit more nimbly and quicker than some of the larger districts that are in Minnesota and in all the other places in the US and so it's nice to watch them as kind of like, oh, okay, here are some practices that might actually work. And I think what we've seen is they have really been able to live this sort of ecosystem. That's a word we hear all the time. But when I see their strategic leadership, that's how they do it. They really look at it as a fluid and as a dynamic system of which each of those stakeholders plays a really important part. And so they have then used strategies to really think about, okay, how do we adapt to this? And again in the last year and a half it's been a lot of that. And so they have these really cool tools for being able to do that. And so I think it's nice to have that as a little sort of mini version of maybe what's possible and providing some potential strategies that could work elsewhere.

It makes a ton of sense. It's interesting also that the smallness which sometimes people use as a complaint in some ways of the things that you can't offer actually is a strategic asset in the Sense and how you all have used that to your advantage. It's also, I would imagine, a playbook because there's lots of districts that are not significant in size that sometimes get neglected in the national conversation and can learn a lot from this and impact a lot of students. And by the way, Hattie, I'm going to come to you in just a second but I'm seeing a lot of comments come in on the chat. If you have questions, please fire away and I will do my best to ask whomever you would like to ask. Just a reminder that I'll try to keep it interactive as I see those come in. But Hattie, I'd love you to introduce yourself and you know, who is Hattie? As a senior in Spring Grove, how long have you been in the district and what excites you about the school on a day to day basis and how it fits in with your life?

Well, I'm Hattie like you said, and I'm gonna be a senior this year coming to Spring Grove. I've been at Spring Grove since kindergarten, been here my whole life. And the most exciting thing about school, like everybody else was saying, because of the size it really offers students to get a lot of input versus like a larger district. It's not as easy to get everybody's input, but the amount of times like we've been able to send out like Google forms and get everybody's input and get actual responses and be able to actually communicate with students and get that hands on experience when it comes to like decisions about the school that we are in. That's really exciting as a student to like actually get to be able to decide things that are going to be happening to us.

It's fascinating to hear you say that because again, I think something that's common among schools that are the best at innovating are their ability to really listen to their students and not just do so in sort of a cursory way, but, but actually do something with that information. So hearing you say that brings up a like sort of rings a bell to me. Hattie, when you describe that, Gina, I'm curious. It seems like that would fit into a lot of the work you all have done around design team meetings and community partnerships and really bringing in a larger group of stakeholders is my impression to do a lot of the changes that you've put into place. Can you give us a sense maybe from a process standpoint, who did you bring to the table and how have you organized them to get this input and make changes and things of that nature. And when did that work start?

I feel like Spring Grove has been listening to their students. They've had a student centered network for almost five years now. And those students have been giving input to what kind of furniture do we want to look? Who should we meet with? We've had students meet with the architects at school, along with the adults to take a look at what are the best next steps, steps for our school system, things like that. But during COVID we really took a next step. When everybody in Minnesota got these directions of this is how you can open and this is what it can look like. We didn't spend time just like drawing maps around our building and trying to space kids. We did do that. We spent more time starting design team meetings. And we brought in staff, we brought in students, we brought in parents, and we tried to listen. What do you need to feel safe and come back to school? What are the things that we can implement? What are things that we can start? That led to outdoor learning. We offered three outdoor classrooms that guaranteed to be outside two hours of every day throughout the school year. Some families felt much safer in the outdoors. And so we had teachers that were interested in that staff, students. And so we started outdoor classrooms that will be something that keeps coming, going. We also heard that intermingling students might be something that they wouldn't be interested in. So we started pods. Students ate in their classrooms. Students stayed separate for the year because they wouldn't need to quarantine, and they could be just around very specific groups. We put kids that went to daycare together might be in pods last year. So we just listened to the people and created what they were asking for. And as we got to our February timeline, we stayed in school almost the entire year. Last year, we did not have spread within our building. We were able to keep coming to school because we stayed safe. And we had a very different programming model where we really valued having our students be together, but it might not be the whole school in one space because we needed to also be safe. And that led to February. We're like, well, what do we want to keep for next year? Even if Covid's gone, some of this feels really healthy. And so we started to collect information. We had jam boards that we used, and we talked to all of the students, K through 12. We talked to all of the staff, and we started to hold design team meetings with parents. And we had like, my walls were covered with feedback. And then we would group the feedback and try and look and we'd put those into common themes, like what's showing up really, really regularly. But then we also started to document our hidden voices because what we were doing with our equity work and some of the work that Bridget was working with a group of us with is we were learning that so often we go with majority. But a hidden voice might have a point that other needs to hear. And we might need to respond to a hidden voice because they have a valid reason that might not be everyone else's valid reason. And so we created this document that became very, very long of common themes and hidden voices. And from that we would create prototypes of this coming year. What do we keep? What do we not keep? And we bring the prototype to all those different groups again and we usually miss something. Well, that doesn't make sense, that doesn't work with this or we don't need like. So something we hung onto is staggered starts. Our teachers said our kids don't all need to come in at exactly the same time and run around in a really big space and get all crazy. And then it takes them 15 minutes to calm down and like instead we want to keep staggered starts. We want them to eat breakfast while they're playing. And while I can have a talk, I can talk with every child as they come in and really have a personal conversation with every child. So we kept staggered starts. Most of our elementary will continue to eat lunch in their classroom starting this year. Everyone loved it. It's not overstimulating for kids. They can have conversation, they sit in a circle, they, they find out about each other. There's some people that want to have lunch back in the lunchroom that will be available. So we're just finding that why does our system have to be everyone fits one person's preference instead, let's make options and let people move flexibly within their day. And so we created our last prototype just in August and we're trying to create it. We've now gone. We had every Wednesday students learn from home last year. We're going to transition that so once a month we're having career and college ready Wednesdays. And so we're setting up professional platforms. The students are going to create portfolios of experiences. They're going to do service learning, things like that. So so much has come out that we're going to hang on to because it's better learning opportunities for our kids and our families.

I'm fascinated, Gina, with the way you were able to escape the one size fits all sort of approach to this and say, like you said, a lot of places do design thinking. They see what the majority wants, and they put that in place. And then all of a sudden, 20% of parents or families or students are alienated in some way. The ability to hold that seems so both impressive, unique, and needed in public education. I'm curious on the ground, Hattie, like, what did that feel like and look like? Because I guess the flip side is it could look disjointed or something on the student side. So how did that feel from your perspective.

From, like, once, like Gina or Mrs. Minhart said earlier, they really got input from all of us throughout the entire year. And when we had been talking about that stuff, we discovered there, like, things that we wanted to keep than get than, like, things we missed from before and wanted back because we had already been working on and wanting to implement a lot of these things. And then Covid actually gave us an opportunity to do those things. So now approaching my senior year, we're being given opportunities that, like, students have never been given before, and it's always stuff that has maybe been wanted that now we are receiving. And it's giving us, like, a broader, like, spectrum of things and, like, activities that will really build up our portfolios for either college or whatever we want to do in the future.

You just used a word there. Portfolios. It sounds like that's a pretty different thing from the standard school as well. When you say portfolios, what does that mean? And what does that look like really.

Like, when you're applying, Like, I just started applying to colleges and stuff when you're applying stuff that you really like writing down and just, like, stuff that either future careers or future colleges will look at and say, like, wow, this really sticks out. And we're, like, being just handed these opportunities. Like, there's not really, like. Like, it's not a case where we don't have these opportunities. We're just really being, like I said, handed them.

Yep. Bridget, I'd love you to put this in a little context for us. Right. Like, there's a lot of things.

Being.

Named that I think are unique, needed, and responsive for students. Give us some context about what this looks like nationally and also from your perspective, what it's like to work with a district that is willing to do these sorts of things and listen and upend traditional structures.

I mean, that part's so fun and so inspiring and, I think, energizing. Yeah. A lot of these words we hear a lot about.

Right.

So design thinking is becoming such an important tool in education and really bringing in stakeholders. But I think there's this piece that Spring Grove has been able to do really well, and Hattie kind of touched on it, and Gina, the same is that we're not just gathering the information from you all, so it's not just on Gina's wall, but we're actually doing something with that. And so it's that sense of inclusion and engaged participation that is really real. But there's also this then ability for Spring Grove to hold multiple possibilities as yeses. Right. So in part of the conversations that Jean and I were having this past summer, it's been, wow. Well, what we really heard in all of our design meetings and in all of our feedback sessions starting last February is some of the things that we want to hold on to are very different. Some people really don't like this, and some people really need this. Can we do both? And it's just been amazing to me that the answer is frequently yes, when I think that if you were coming at it from the other point of view. So especially over the last year, we've gotten so many mandates from lots of different organizations telling you what is safe and what isn't. But to say, okay, that's sort of secondary. We have to pass all of those. Like, you know, we have to check those boxes. But first is the learning in our community. And we know that safety and inclusion is a huge part of that. So how do we start there? And that's really what I think they were able to do. And that allowed them to be more flexible, to say yes to things that were very different and to be okay with the fact that we may have people selecting, making different choices and then tying it together, though. Right. So what. What holds all of that together? Because you can't just have it, like, exploding off into multiple, infinite options. So it's those. They have a profile of a learner. They've got clarity on what are our outcomes that we're looking at. They've got different strategies for collecting evidence of learning, portfolios, showcases of learning. All of those things, I think, work together for them to be able to provide really clear evidence that all students are meeting those learning outcomes, that all students are kind of getting what they need, and that there isn't a sense that something's not happening correctly. And I think that's what's been so powerful to watch is. And. And, you know, I think in all of my conversations, Gina and the team there, Rachel and Luke, they'll be very humble, but they are very strategic in how they approach these things. So the design team Meetings and the way they're looking at that data, the Student Centered Network, all of that is really strategic. The way that they're able to be flexible about scheduling, they're doing that because they know that that's going to lead to better outcomes for their learners. And so there isn't this back and forth around, oh, well, you know, if you'd make that change, then this is going to be upsetting to. It's like, this is about learning. We're all here for this, and we need to be able to provide that. And so they've been able to both hold that at the center, but then be really strategic in terms of how they approach it. And so, again, I think that that is helpful for a lot of school districts to be thinking about is, okay, what are the actual strategies that we can be using? What are the tools that we can be using so that we can be more adaptive and be better responsive to, you know, the community that we're serving?

I'm curious. There's a number of threads that I'm curious about that I want to pull out a little bit. One is that yes, and mentality. You just referenced Bridget and Gina. You probably will have thoughts on this as well. So have both of you weigh in on this. But Gina, you also said, like, you're good at saying we're going to stop doing this and we're going to double down on this, which seems like super important because a lot of districts and schools, one of the reasons it's challenging to change is like, you have just processes layered over, processes that are, you know, date back decades and you keep adding stuff, but you never take away stuff and at the same time creating multiple options so you create those choices that Hadi was saying are so helpful before. How do you do both and balance that? That seems like a. They could be in tension with each other. How do you manage that from a resource perspective? Bridget, if you want to jump or Gina, go first and then Bridget, I'd love your take as well.

Sure. So it's a mix. Yes. And gets to be specific. So as I am also a coach within the district, so I work with all of the teachers and the students. So when there's an idea that wants. That they want to have happen, they get support to do it. They have a coach that meets with them. I go in and teach with them. I partner with them in that work. If there's a community partnership that we are pursuing, I'm going to help with the communication. I'm going to help with some of that legwork behind it. And so the people that want to do things get support in doing things. They're not out there on their own island. And I feel like my job is a connector. Like if you're doing this, who can I get that's also interested in this work? So I'm always listening and connecting. And also I'm supporting teachers to let go and maybe students too, or community members. Also, as we're saying this. Yes. Do you understand that this also means a no here? And are you okay with that? No. As long as we're doing this? Yes. And so it's a lot of communication and clarity. And I think that helps in our design cycle. When we bring back a prototype or we bring back something that we know is shifting, we get that feedback a second time and we say, now part of this is this. So we want to. We want to make sure you understand that clarity. And sometimes that will shift things that might shift their input once they understand that they might be giving up something. I would say surveys here. Like there's usually a one year, one time a year that we're just checking our how are we doing? And all the rest are very action based. Do you want us to do this or this? Or do you want us to do this, this or this? And then we take the action based on that feedback. And so surveys even look different. They're truly deciding, I'm going to register for this, I'm going to do this, and that's what we're going to offer. We have to. There's things that we had thought were a great idea and we let go of them because the students weren't interested in that kind of thing. And so we, we have to be okay with letting go of some things so that what has the interest and support is what lives and moves on.

Bridget, what's your take on that same question about the tension of letting go versus keeping things?

Yeah, I think. Well, so in terms of especially thinking about this from a broader perspective, I think there's a couple of things that have really helped at Spring Grove for them to be able to do this. One is clarity on that vision and that that vision was co created with stakeholders so that it is something that's really shared. It's the input of students, it's the input of parents, and it's the input of educators. So it's not just a poster on the wall, but it's something that they really value and then they're starting to see happening in schools. So having that really like an anchor around that clarity of like, this is what we are, these are the outcomes we're looking for. And then I think what Gina just said is so important. So it's. There's this action orientation. Because I think a lot of times when school, we see education, the use of design and education, it's a lot of vague surveys or questions around, you know, things that are really broad. Right. And that you can get some. And you sometimes need that level of information. Right. Especially when you're doing maybe some of the initial visioning, but then when you're getting down into the implementation of these things. Right. So the practical. How are we doing this in classrooms, outdoor classrooms? Right. Specifically, what are we saying yes to? Because what I saw happening in other places was, you know, tents being set up and classrooms being reproduced outdoors. That is not what it looked like in Spring Grove. It was getting access through the community to parks and trails and it was place based learning. Right. And so Gina, again, just that communication of this is what this would mean for students and to teachers.

Right.

Because you're asking an educator to do something really different. Multi age classrooms. I remember lots of conversations with teachers coming to GINA in the middle of the year. Like, I don't, you know, how do I do this? I'm now I'm juggling all these different. And Gina again, just offering that clarity and that coaching around, okay, here's what, you know, here's the. Yes. And here's what we have to let go of. Right. So just that clarity and that being able to say we have to take some actions based on what the things that we know we want to do.

Hattie does that. How does that look on the ground for you? Because that could be a lot of shifting. Like one week you're doing something and then like prototyping, et cetera, like comes in and then there's a big shift in practice, I imagine, on the ground that could change your reality in some way. How did that feel as a student when you saw practice dramatically change throughout the year?

Yeah, it was definitely a lot of shifting, but it was definitely, it was more in a good way than in like a negative way. Because like Mrs. Minard said, it was all from our input and like, whether we wanted it or not. So it would be like us getting input and then getting almost instant feedback and we'd be shifting back and forth, trying different things. So it wasn't too scary. It was more like enriching in a way. And like, it was like instant gratification almost where we would get what basically what we wanted from giving our input. And it felt very like it was very nice to get that.

Yeah, it's incredible actually, when you said it that way, which is. I mean, you must have felt a certain amount of agency and ownership that actually made you invested in the changes and okay with them. I'd love to actually key in one of them specifically. Then out of that Hattie for you, which was. Gina mentioned the staggered schedules and coming in at different times and things of that nature. What did that look like on the ground for you and how did that specifically start to feel?

I think all of the students, all my peers, we all ended up really liking it because, like Mrs. Miner said, it was way less chaotic. And even this like past year, it made it a lot easier for like clubs and like, like I had higher before school this year, so it was easier to like come into school and then like get settled down easier because we weren't all rushing in and there wasn't like. Like our schedules were set up so that there would be less chaos and so that it wouldn't be like such. So like tight. Such a tight time slot to be able to come in.

It makes a ton of sense. I'm struck also by the thoughtfulness. You know, Bridget, you were referencing the outdoor classrooms and how they actually became authentic uses, if you will, of the space around as opposed to transposing classrooms into just a different environment. That resonates with me on many, many levels as a parent right now, having seen this in other ways. But I'm curious how much, you know, one of the things that I've seen districts struggle with, frankly, is it's been all hands on deck during COVID just to, you know, deal with what you were saying, Gina, earlier, like the orchestration of just operations and logistics and. Right. And as opposed to asking these bigger questions, how much does it help to. To be able to have Bridget, your team at Longview, or people that are somewhat out of the day to day operations, I guess, able to create capacity for you on the ground, Gina, as you're doing this work, and how much were you able to create within your leadership team, and how much were you using or relying on an outside consultant to be able to create that time and space, if you will, to ask these deeper questions and make these changes in the midst of actually, you know, you're building and flying the plane at the same time?

In essence, I feel like that that type of support is critical. When I turned to Bridget and had a question or something we were doing, I needed to research it, it's not just input from the stakeholders. We also need to know that this is educationally sound, that there's motivation, brain based research, equitable. So there's all of these things that we have to do to stay in check and know we're doing the right thing. And so I met with Bridget once a week and I would have a full hour of these are the things we're doing. Can you give examples of these? Can you look at research of these? And she would be sending me things that I could share with people so that we have this conversation about this depth of learning. Because our goal is a deeper, more engaging experience for our students. And we can't just go with any idea without doing the research behind what is engaging and what do students need along with what students telling us because they know what they need also. So it's that blend that it was very helpful. The other piece, as I have seen my work with Bridget build over time, is it was just me meeting with her and talking about all of these relationships. But over time, Longview helped our teachers to join into a culturally relevant student centered course. So there was a small group of us that took a bunch of credits together and met outside of school hours to learn professionally and to question. And we had action research projects happening and we were reading books together. And so we were really digging into the research behind this. And Bridget was our connector of all of these things. And this coming year we're hoping to continue this culturally relevant student centered work for the whole school. Not just this pocket of people, but the people that took it the first time can be the coaches. So it's also taking me as the only coach out of the equation and instead becoming a system where people support each other, people try things together and they coach through things. And we're changing that for our students too. So we've got these career and college days and our advisors are taking a role that's a career and college base. The students have goals of things they want to accomplish throughout the year and the advisors are going to be coaching them to meet their needs. And so instead of having such specific silos of jobs, you're a teacher, you teach, you're a coach, you coach and you're a student, you learn. Instead, we're all coaching and we're all learning and we're all doing those parts to support each other and it changes the way the system functions.

Brigid, what's your perspective on this? Because I know that everything you just said, Gina, really resonates because I've Also seen a lot of districts where they got through their planning, say, last summer and finally felt like they knew how people were going to come back to buildings and so forth. And then they were like, okay, let's turn to the pods conversation. You noted you implemented a version of pods, for example. And it was just like deer in headlights because it was just too much to take on in the time remaining because they hadn't asked these questions much earlier. Bridget, I'd love your perspective on this, having worked deeply, not just with Spring Grove, but with a lot of districts around the country.

Yeah, again, I mean, I think it's this clarity of vision, this central, like, we are here to learn. We have, you know, these outcomes that we have defined, and those have been defined by our community. And so then that's the lens through which we make all of our decisions. But then it's also these structures in place, so the design meetings and really getting that feedback. It's that human centered and the communication then back and forth. It's, you know, just what Gina was saying. But I think when she talks about this system piece, I think that that is really. And we're looking at potentially providing additional opportunities. That is, I think for me, the thing that I've seen springrove do really differently than I've seen in some other places is to not just talk about ecosystems, not just talk about agency among educators or agency among students, but to really actually create those conditions for that to happen. And the example Gina just gave is a perfect one. Right? I mean, how simple is that? But it's also not simple because you've got to get either additional funding or you've got to get time in people's schedules. So there are like these logistical questions that come along with it. But what Gina, I think, and again, her leadership team see is that by doing that, by making those kind of not sacrifices, but making those adjustments, you end up gaining so much more in the long run because now you've got people supporting one another. And so, you know, in the conversations that Jean and I would have, I would be doing the same thing. So I'm going out and I'm having conversations all across the country and hearing about, you know, all these plans for Covid re entry and all of these responses to. To racial equity. And I'm saying, okay, what would be helpful for this team? How could some of this support them? And then I'm taking what they're doing and I'm sharing it back with others. And so it's like we're kind of at all the layers in this work, we're looking for ways to do that so that it's that sort of just in time responsiveness. And we know that about learning. Right. Like if you kind of get the answer to the question that you're trying, that you're grappling with, you can get much farther, much faster. And it's that personalization, it's that agency that's involved in it. And so I think that's what's been really powerful is to see that really happening in the classroom level at Spring Grove among educators, back and forth between the community and then out to a broader network. So participating in communities of practice with us and then just me sharing Springrove's work, they're starting to go into competency based learning and they're partnering with others on that. You know, there's a lot of things that it's. It's a very network, it's a very open and flexible. When you think of that word ecosystem, again, it's tossed around so much. But it really can work if you find ways to create the structures that allow for it to happen effectively. And I think that's what it's been fun to watch that be able to happen and to be able to really lead to. I would enjoy the phone calls with Gina last year because they were having a great year and that was a hard year. That was a hard year. And so to have that felt so inspiring, so wonderful that, you know, despite everything they were learning and they were doing things differently and they were pushing themselves and kids were able to engage in deep learning and grow. So it was really cool to kind of be a part of that as well and just see how that was happening amid all of the challenges.

It truly stands out what you just said, right. Having a great year. Last year was not the norm across large parts of the country, I think it's fair to say, as we wrap up here and there's so much to dig in on, I'm curious, what do you see coming out of the pandemic that you want to do more of going forward that you're not going to lose? I've heard, and I'm just going to list quickly just to make sure I have a bunch of the stuff on the table and then you can add or take away. But you've talked about being clear on outcomes and moving to competency based learning, learner progressions, multi age classrooms, pods, staggered start times, the equity centered education work that you all have been doing in terms of culturally responsive curriculum and so forth. The outdoor classrooms. I think that's a lot that we just threw out there and maybe there's other things as well. What do you see sticking as we go, as we leave from. And you're like, we're going to continue to work on this and like five years from now we want to be really hitting, you know, hitting on all cylinders on this set of things maybe. Actually, I'll start with you, Hattie. What are you most interested as a student? I know you're a senior and you'll be off at college somewhere next year doing great things, but what do you say? Like, yeah, these are the two or three things that I really want to see the district get really good at taking this moment and continuing to lean in on.

Well, basically the one thing that we really pushed all year was like the equity aspect. One thing that also wasn't on the list that we were fully able to like was fully student led this year was a trauma sensitive approach to school. And both of those aspects I'm really excited to see really be pushed this year now that we have that full opportunity to. Because it really helps build the community that we've already built and is already established and just make it even better than it already has been for the students and for the teachers and for like everybody in the community.

That's awesome. Brigid, what's on your list as you look at them that you're like, I hope they double down on these three things coming out of it or that you see them already doubling down on?

Yeah, I definitely see them already getting started on competency based. So they have a cohort. And I think this is another just kind of tip is like they're not going all in on cbe, but they have a group of middle school teachers who are ready for that. There's a readiness there. They've done some collaborative work. So they're really moving into how do we do this? You know, what does this look like from an assessment point of view? What does this look like from an instructional point of view? And they're really working on that. So that's one thing. And I think then when I think about, well, how does that, you know, how do you make that real? It's those portfolios and those showcases and I think that that's. Those are those two kind of go hand in hand and they can work really well together. And then the other thing I would say is just it's the leadership work that they've done. It's. There's a couple of things. It's that you know what Gina brought up, that hidden voices. I think that that's part of it, but I also think it's that they have really taken the time to try to understand what does equity even mean? What does structural equity mean? We're a part of this broader system of education and we need to know and understand this. And so that work, I think they're working broadly across their whole county, really working collaboratively to say what does this look like? What does equity look like across all of these sectors? So healthcare, education. So that work, I think will be really important too. And it's just that ownership and shared ownership model that they've really been able to live out with their staff and their leadership. If they can keep doing that, I think things will change and evolve, but they'll keep adjusting to what's needed for learners and I think that will be kind of get them the farthest.

Gina, you get the last word. What's on your list for doubling down in the years of years ahead?

I would say I believe we're becoming a community based school. And if you were to think about us like a target, like you start on the outside. And we have been organizing, like Bridget said, with our healthcare providers and other agencies, mental health has completely changed. We're bringing mental health in a preventative platform instead of just a responsive platform going into the future. And we're partnering with our Heritage Center. Our students are actually creating displays that go in the Heritage center and they're taking a look at how they can write grants and offer educational opportunities that are multi age and for their people that would just come there, but also for our students. And so it's if you take it like the outside ring, we also have a farm partnership that we started. So our middle school is not only going competency based, but they're going to be traveling to a farm one day a week and we're going to purchase a pig and then we're going to learn about what happens with the money at that pig before we sell it and those kinds of things. So we're truly living real world learning and students are making choices that are real world with real results and that they're getting a deeper experience. Experience because of that and enjoyment in that learning. So as the ring comes into the city, our students are part of the Spring Grove 2030 committee and that is a group of people that have youth and adults that are all speaking about our specific city. What do we want here? What architecture do we need? What are we missing? What bike trails do we need? And Our students have a voice that's just as strong as any other person in the community. And so you take that step in and our students are planting the trees up on the Our city got a grant, and our students have planted trees and native species gardens. They designed a garden this year for the city, and then they presented it to the city. And so at the city level, our students are involved in every aspect of the place they live and bettering the place with equity conversations and all of those kinds of things to make sure that we're drawing in and having the most welcoming, open community that can talk about difficult things. Also at the city level, there's a new equity discussion group that meets every two weeks that is involving youth and adults and leaders and teachers. And all these different people are coming together to talk about are we welcoming, what should we think about? How can we make sure that our discussions are inclusive and how do we need to check ourselves so at that city level, and then we come down to our district and that is where we are concentrating on the student. The student matters. That is why we're here. We're an educational system that is here only for one thing, and that's the students. And so how are they going to learn? Well, they're going to learn by being involved in all those rings, and those rings just went out to the county. So how can we, into the next five years, make sure that our students are globally connected or regionally connected? And how do we make sure that our students know who they are now and know what their future is and what their passions are and how they can contribute in a meaningful way?

You've just made a very strong pitch, I think, for a lot of us to move to Spring Grove, so I'm going to throw that in our list of destinations. But I have thoroughly enjoyed learning from all of you on this conversation. Hattie, Gina, Brigid, thank you so much for being here with us and for all of you tuning in live and as you watch the replay of this broadcast, just really appreciate you all being with us on the future of education. And we'll be back next time.