Menlo Park Academy
State of the School Meeting
October 2025
Accountability,
Innovation, and
Research
Presentation Overview
Menlo Park: WHO WE ARE
OUR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN
TITLE I
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Menlo Park Academy�Who We Are
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Who We Are
Mission
Menlo Park Academy is a safe, supportive, and restorative learning community. We strive to provide community-engaged, hands-on, and trauma-informed learning experiences for students.
Vision
We hope for a school environment where all students are excited about learning and understand how what they learn in school connects to how they can improve their community.
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School Stats
We are a school of resiliency and determination. We serve primarily 11th and 12th graders who come to us to complete their high school education. We focus on building a safe environment where students have opportunities to make up credits they need to graduate on time.
Our Current Reality
Strengths
Challenges
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Our School Improvement Plan
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Our school improvement plan:
Every Minneapolis Public School is required to develop, implement, and monitor a school improvement plan.
What’s a School Improvement Plan?
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Our School Improvement Plan
Academic Goal:
At least 50% of students will complete at least 12 boxes of credit (1.5 credits) each quarter they attend Menlo Park Academy.
Strategy to achieve our goal:
Advisors will meet with advisory students at least once a month to review their individual CLP and box sheets and discuss progress towards credit completion. Students will have school and district opportunities, such as independent study, community learning opportunities, and break-academies to make up credits. Students who are within reach of graduation during the school year will receive additional support from the Co-Director during advisory.
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Our School Improvement Plan
Student Well-Being Goal:
90% of students utilize two or more mental health services and other resources available to them through Menlo Park Academy.
Strategy to achieve our goal:
Connect students with mental health and chemical dependency resources (facilitate student-to-student sharing of health resources and how to access them, identify additional chemical dependency resources, encourage use of referrals to in-house mental health providers.) In social and emotional learning curriculum, students will be reminded about the resources available to them.
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Our School Improvement Plan
Effective Staff Goal:
100% of school staff will participate in restorative practice trainings throughout the school year and will be able to identify at least one cultural change within themselves or the school
Strategy to achieve our goal:
Identify staff and reach out to resources/trainers to establish opportunities through MDE and other local organizations. Partner with local organizations to incorporate restorative practices in the day-to-day operations of the school.
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Our School Improvement Plan
School Climate Goal:
95% of BIPOC students will report that Menlo Park has a school climate that is welcoming and supportive of their learning.
Strategy to achieve our goal:
Focus on community-building and student involvement and activities. Maintaining our morning meeting with check-in questions. Maximize and structure advisory to focus on student engagement.
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How We Measure Student Progress
Assessments help us answer questions such as:
Some of the assessments our students will take this year are:
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We want to make sure our students are learning as much as possible, so we use state and district assessments to determine their strengths and areas for growth. The results of these assessments help us figure out how we can better support our students in the classroom.
Throughout the year, we’ll share information with you about how your student is doing in the classroom.
We’ll do it in the following ways:
How We’ll Share Student Progress with You
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Data Points for Co-interpretation
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Title I
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What is Title I?
Title I supports our School Improvement Plan, and the funding we receive helps us reach our goals.
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Title I is a federal program that provides money to schools and districts to help them ensure all children have an equal opportunity to get a high-quality education and achieve proficiency on our state’s academic standards and assessments.
For the 2025-2026 school year, we received $30,728 in Title I funding, which makes up 3.5% of our school budget.
We are required to use Title I funding to improve the academic achievement of all students and engage YOU, our families, in that process!
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Menlo Park is a schoolwide Title I program, which means all our students are able to benefit from the services we provide with our Title I funding.
How We’re Using our Title I Funding
Curriculum and Instruction Support
Creative Arts Therapy groups, to be held two times per week for approx 34 weeks. Our weekly CAT groups provide an opportunity for students to gain social emotional learning skills and helps strengthen the school community
- Mileage costs for weekly fieldtrips to provide real-world educational experiences for students and credit recovery opportunities.
- Salary support for part-time Sexual Health educator (supplemented by gen ed budget). The Sexual Health Educator supplements our health curriculum by providing age-appropriate, engaging, and LGBTQ+ inclusive sexual health lessons by a trained and experienced educator.
Family Engagement
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As a family member in a Title I School, you have the right to…
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Opportunities for Families to be Involved!
We want your input on our:
You can find all these documents on our school website!
We’d love to see you at the following school events:
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School Staff Information
Dean of Students
Dean of Administration
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We appreciate you!
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