God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> Welcome everyone. All right, we do have a couple of uh we do have an addendum to the agenda for this evening. Uh two items to add. Are there any other changes to the agenda? >> No other changes. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda with the uh additional addendum? So moved by Scully. Thank you. It's going to be one of those nights. Second by Schmidt. >> I do approve the agenda with the changes. All in favor, please say I. >> Those opposed. Motion passes. Uh moving to some future events. Please check the district calendar and resource guide or the district website for a complete list of monthly events. Monday, August 25th, 2025, welcome back staff breakfast and all staff meeting. Tuesday, August 26th, school board work session at 6 PM. Monday, is it? >> Oh, no. It's 26. Monday is >> 5 p.m. >> Oh, that's right. Excuse me. Yes. No, no, that's you're correct. 5 p.m. Sorry. No. Um, Monday, September 1st, 2025 is Labor Day. All buildings are closed. And Tuesday, September 9th, school board regular meeting at 7 p.m. with communication to the board and administration at 6:45. Moving to consent agenda. Can I get a motion? >> So, move by Hennon, >> second by Vala to approve the following items of the consent agenda. Minutes of the June 10th, 2025 regular school board meeting. June 24, 2025 school board work session bills paid for May 2025 and June 2025 in the amount of 12,978,244 and personnel items. All in favor, please say I. I. >> Those opposed. Motion passes. Moving on to discussion, reports and information items. uh 2024 2025 district operational plan overview projects to advance our vision. Dr. Jeff Renberg, Dr. Hope Ron, and Erica Title. >> All right, good evening. I'm going to kick this off and then uh we'll hand it off to uh Eric in a short time here. But you are very familiar with the strategic plan. This is the uh governance document of the board. At the really at the center of it is our vision which is all about creating a world-class learning community that's aligned around uh fostering those personalized experiences for each and every learner in the system and that's at the core of everything that we do. Um as we look at how do we personalize learning how do we meet the u ensure that we know each child by name strength interest and need as we design their learning. We put together this annual district operational plan which really focuses on three anchors which we've identified in our strategic plan of engaged and enthusiastic learners, effective operations and communications connections. We identify projects within each of those. As we kick off the hard to believe here the 2526 school year, uh we just thought we'd provide a brief overview of this. This is something as school board you've been talking about. Um so an administrative team we've really been working on this all the way going back to last December and January as the board we talked a number of times throughout the spring and into June um so that you had an opportunity to provide input around these projects and tonight is just providing a broad overview of the projects um within this district operational plan. So first off I'll hit effective operations. One of the things and we'll be speaking about this throughout the evening that you do as an as a school board and that we worked um as a system all of last year is this first project to position the district for fiscal health into the future. So this is something that was a project that we had last year and that continues into this year and which uh one of the aspects of this is we look internally at everything that we do uh with our budget, human resources, our use of um time and space, but also we're looking at those emerging influences and how are we positioned well into the future and that's what this project's all about. Um the next piece is looking at how do we enhance staff collab collaboration and efficiency using technology. And this is really looking at again in this day and age. There's so many um platforms out there that are being brought into organizations, not just school systems. What we want to do is make sure that those work together well. So this one is really about how are we creating those conditions for our teachers to really and our staff um have the tools that they need. Uh the next piece is really looking at enhancing school structure, support learning. This has been we're 3.0. This is year three that we're looking at that and that's making sure that we have the systemic supports within each one of our schools to really deepen personalized learning. So that's looking at our um how we're using time, how we're using space, u people. So one of the things that our principles were in with their school leadership teams today and they're talking about something called distributed expertise and how do they make sure they have the right people in front of the um right kids at the right time to make to meet their individual needs. And then finally, another project that we'll be looking at this year is a longtime uh um school within our system is the Lighthouse School. And that serves some of our highly gifted students. It's been housed at uh our high school for um ever since its inception. And one of those things that we want to look at is as we move forward and plan for the future, is that the most appropriate setting for all those students um whether they be in first grade or or high school or is there how do we best serve the those individual students. So, that's something we'll be looking at this year and be bringing a recommendation forward to you as a board later this fall. >> Great. Um, tonight I have the privilege of speaking to the four projects that are under the communications and connections um anchor and as a reminder um all each of the projects and the work um undertaken in those focuses on increasing the connection, engagement and support of our families and communities. um develop and successfully implement a levy campaign um is the first project listed and a topic later on in the agenda this evening. Um so the work within this project will support the actions you all take a little later. Um the enhanced counseling and personalized planning project builds on the work we completed last year um and was shared with the board at the spring retreat. Um the counseling framework for grades 5 through 12 is in the process of being finalized right now. Um we are beginning the year with designs to support an enhanced counseling model at grades um five through seven, a looping model for counseling at grades eight and nine, and an enhanced counseling model for grades 10 through 12. Um the project will focus on supporting our schools in their strong implementation of those designs um the ongoing evaluation and monitoring to make sure they're effective. Um, expand access to youth activities is a project of partnership really with our community um, and is built upon the belief that when students feel valued, inspired, and connected, they're more likely to succeed in school and outside of school. This project aims to expand access to all kinds of opportunities, improve our program alignment, and remove barriers to open more doors for students to engage and thrive in those opportunities outside of our classrooms. Um, these might include enrichment classes, athletics, the arts, or interpace clubs. Um, those are, you know, all those experiences that really allow students to explore what they're really excited about and passionate about. Um, build some skills, um, discover some unique talents and, um, hopefully find community along the way. And then finally, the project we're calling communicate what matters um is really all about being more clear with our families and our community about how we are making progress on the things that matter most to them. Um, education is very technical and educators um are very highly skilled professionals and sometimes how we talk about what we do can be very technical and is not easily understood or appreciated for the impact it makes on really the experience our families and communities want out of their educational experience. There's a lot um that can be missed in translation. I'm sure we've all experienced that. The work of this project is about bridging that gap um and more clearly sharing how what we're doing benefits our young people and really does connect to what our families and communities um what matters most to them and often what matters most to them is what happens in our anchor around engaged and enthusiastic learners. >> That was a beautiful segue Erica. Uh right. So I get to talk about our anchor of engaged enthusiastic learners and the projects that fall under that. And just a reminder, our description of that uh anchor is that uh we're working to align the work of adults to continuously improve personalized instruction and responsiveness to meet our students unique and varied needs. So the first project you see, deepen student engagement, I'm going to hold on that because that's the project we're going to dive into a little bit more after we get through the overview here. Uh so the second project there is uh review and refresh our career and college pathways. And so you know our uh three career and college pathways technology engineering design health and human services and business and entrepreneurship um were first introduced we ran first started running them in 2018 which it seems like just yesterday but that's already a number of years ago and actually um it's been nine years since we did the study to determine what those three pathways were. So um we need to ensure that our programming remains relevant and forward thinking. Um so this project will really dive into emerging industry trends, evolving industry trends, technology advance advancements and workforce demands. And so through this project, we'll continue to collaborate with our over 200 community and industry partners as we explore um programming innovative and and what's happening dayto-day and then figure out how we continue to increase access to those internships, apprenticeships, and credentiing opportunities, additional uh 12 by 12 courses, all to better prepare students for both career and college success. Uh the next project you see there, deepen systemic supports for students. Um we have done over the last three years. We've actually done a lot of district level work around our uh continuum of supports for students. The focus of the project this year is much less about anything designed at the district level and much more about supporting our schools. they're in the throws of um implementing this and uh we just want to make sure we dedicate the time and efforts to support them in their implementation work because they continue to work toward that strong continuum of supports for students not only for academics but also their social, emotional and behavioral development. Uh the last project there is called advanced curricular reviews and this project actually focuses on a few different curricular areas and where we're at in that curriculum review cycle. So the work within the project this year will capture year three of our multilingual learning uh curricular uh work which is inclusive of programming specific to our English learners, our world language programming and our immersion programming. uh we'll hit year two of social studies. Last year we did year one and so this year the work within that is um the process we take to look at our to do a review of our core resources and we'll start year one of math. There's always a cycle going here. So um we'll just get a very initial start on that is the board knows that we often start those curricular review cycles by doing that looking in looking out and looking around. So that's the work that we'll do in math this year. Okay. I just always like putting this image in front of us because our overall work in innovative and personalized learning continues to be a strong focus for us and the district operational plan project specific to deepening student engagement relies on all of the foundational work that we've done in these areas over the last many years. uh we've been uh working for all these years and really largely have each of these four components in place. It certainly doesn't mean they're being implemented perfectly everywhere at every moment. Um but they are solidly in place and they are in implementation work at each of our schools. So this really creates the conditions for us to focus on the work we're designing for our students and making sure that it meets their needs, interests, and motives. That brings us to a little bit more on that one specific project. Deepen student engagement through innovative and personalized learning. So this slide just bullets out the key achievement points or milestones that will happen within the project. This is year two of this specific project and I really could not be more proud of the work our teachers and our leaders have done and engaged in themselves last year as we launched this learning. The primary focus is to continue to support our teachers in the design of engaging student work and learning experiences that result in our students volunteering their time and attention, finding their work meaningful and relevant, persisting through challenges, and ultimately learning what it is they are expected to learn. Last year, if you remember, at one of the meetings, we had six of our teacher um lead learners and facilitators talk with you about the work they're doing around designing engaging work. You heard from six, and we had another 50 or so that were in that role that didn't share last year. This teacher facilitator group will continue into year two of the project, and they were already all in over the summer, uh continuing their learning, doing some additional design work, and kind of thinking about how they bring their colleagues along on that as well. and that's what they'll continue to do through the year. Uh the design work within this project also encompasses our learning spaces and furniture um with the ultimate goal that our learning spaces are set up and used based on the work of the day. It's really we're wanting to get to a point where teachers are asking themselves what's the work that what's the work that we've designed what's the work that students are engaging in and which learning space and furniture arrangement is most conducive to that learning. So, um, everyone, a lot of people have been in buildings. We've had a lot of excitement around that. And, uh, our summer programming actually gave our teachers that were working that a really good, um, lens on here's the furniture, what's the learning, how do I rearrange it. So, um, it was really fun to see that in place. And just a big shout out to Amy Schultz for all of the work she's done with that as well. Um, okay. If you recall from last year, as we keep moving down that list, um we had two deepen student engagement projects. One was specific early childhood through grade six because it had a major component of literacy learning that was aligned to the read act. Um the re the literacy learning will continue this year. Um it this year in year two, it involves our secondary teachers who are doing targeted reading interventions with our students. our secondary specialists for English learners and our secondary special ed education staff and then of course any early childhood through grade six teachers who are new to SLP will bring them along on that. Uh we'll work our way down. Another milestone within this project is related to our learner profiles at the secondary level. Remember, our learner profiles help us get a really full and robust picture of our learners, who they are, the progress they're making in their learning, their aspirations for the future, and aspects of learning that motivate them and encourage them to learn at deep levels. While our learner profiles have really taken off at the elementary level, it's proven to be a little trickier at the secondary level as students work with multiple teachers through the day and through the year between trimesters as well. And just to be transparent, we are not alone in this. When we partner with other school districts across the nation that are working on learner profiles, one of the first questions I ask is, "How do you work that with your secondary?" And the response is always, "How do you work it with your secondary?" Right? So, it's um it's it's something that we're that that we're seeing across the nation, those of us that are doing this work. Um and uh our innovative and personalized learning specialists and Melissa Olsson, our director for um learning design and student engagement, worked last spring to they they've found a a bit of a solution that seems really promising to scale this at the secondary better than what we ever have. So we'll do a pilot of that um as we start the year to see is it as promising as what we think it is um and what we're hopeful for. So more to come on that. We'll update you along the way. Uh we'll also be working with our teachers on leveraging AI or artificial intelligence to support the design of student work and learning experiences in a learning organization such as Spring Lake Park Schools, we view our teachers as leaders, designers, and guides. So while AI will never replace they will never be able to replace the deep knowledge and expertise our teachers have of the kids that are sitting in front of them it is something we can leverage to support the work and some of the efficiencies with that. So we want to dive a little bit deeper into that. And then finally, uh, as with many of our district operational plan projects, we have an evaluation plan that we'll put into play throughout the year so that we can look at the impact of work. And I think that brings us to our final thoughts. Just a reminder, when we review our district operational plan um, and the work within it each year, that's part of our report for our comprehensive achievement and civic readiness. Um, so there's there's multiple things that go into that, but really focusing strongly on our goals and the work that we're doing to help us achieve those goals is a big part of that plan. And um, it can be found online always. You can uh, go on our website and find it if you want to dig in um, just to this overview that we've shared or even deeper into some of the key milestones in each of the projects. Anything to wrap up, Jeff? Oh, you did an excellent job. >> Can I just ask a quick question? >> Um, Hope, can you like give an example of how you see AI being utilized? >> Sure. So, um, there are I mean, there are so many um, AI platforms right now, right? Um, there are some that have been really designed and dedicated toward the design of student work and learning experiences. just as a one that I'm I'm certainly not promoing in particular, but one is called magic school, right? And there are a number of components within there that really um as we put prompts in um help teachers think what are some of the different ways we can ask kids to show work or demonstrate evidence of learning. Um that might be something that maybe wouldn't be at the forefront of our minds. So, um, that's, um, it's generative and that it's not just pre-populated stuff that people have put in there, but it's still generative AI. Um, that's that's just one example. >> How do you see the teachers, the staff, are they like, "Yeah, we want this." Or how's that? >> Yeah. So, um, people I mean, we've we've been working with our teachers and talking about a about AI for three years now anyway. So, it's not anything new or different. Um part of this work though is to really um kind of get that that guidance or framework in place so that we're using it in a way that really helps design for the kids and not replaces the knowledge or work. Right? So um there's a there's a nuance and a balance to that. I think uh we have a number of teachers have been using magic school platform in particular but other aspects of AI um and sharing that with their colleagues with their principles and learning from it. Right? So, this is just continuing that journey a little bit further. It's uh obviously we don't want to stick our head in the sand, right, and ignore it. Um nor do we want to use it um in a way that it wouldn't be beneficial for our students. So, there's really striking a balance. That's that's the crux of the work this year. >> Other questions. >> Real quick question on the ReadAct. I know we're in phase one for >> which grades again. >> Yeah. So, um phase one is the more robust literacy learning around the five components of reading. So, there are um there are identified teachers early childhood through grade 12 that are participating in phase one. Um last year was still phase one, but we focused on that elementary. This year we're focusing on the secondary people within phase one. As we go into the um sneak peek into the 26 27 school year um we'll be hitting the phase two educators. So like our all of our high school English language arts teachers, things like that. So that's coming in the 26 27 year. The professional learning platform and um learning itself hasn't been released for phase two yet from the Minnesota Department of Education. >> Oh. So not phase two. So we're still that that should be released >> all all intents I think are October or November of this year. So once we get that then we'll start planning for 2627. >> Um but this year it's still phase one. So it's the if you heard like if you remember from presentations last year online language and literacy academy Ola is the acronym for that. Yeah >> that all of our um Ksix teachers participated in early childhood did what's called letters for early childhood. Um, and now our secondary folks that are part of phase one are also engaging in online well literacy and language academy. I got that acronym correct. >> So it could so potentially it could well it could continue out to 28 29. >> Um >> I mean just seeing how it's we're doing it in phases. I'm just kind of curious if if this is >> you is there an end end date for the phases or is this kind of a continuous where kind of like you know the 3D the 3D >> model we use where >> you know we're going to roll it out and there's always some continuous improvement to it along the way. >> Yeah. Well, I think um there's a a few aspects that I'll I'll answer there. First of all, um the the guidance from through the legislative requirement of the read Act and then that's brought through the Minnesota Department of Education is continually evolving. I mean, the timelines for the phases are different today than they were when it was passed a couple years ago. So, I'm sure we'll see some some continuing evolution of that. I do anticipate that we'll finish up the initial legislative requirements at the end of 26 27 maybe 2728 but then the other way I want to answer that is this is about strong literacy um practices and literacy learning and we'll never be done we'll never close the book on we've nailed it right um strong literacy uh is so essential for all of our kids and that's something that we will continually work with our teachers on and you probably remember us saying this even before the Reed Act, three years prior to that, we brought all of our staff through essentially the same learning they're getting now. It just wasn't legislatively required. We just said we really need to make sure we have strong literacy instruction in Spring Lake Park schools. So, as we think as we look to the future, I mean, there are aspects of this, of course, that we'll continue to revisit whether legislatively mandated or not, just because that's it's what's good for kids. >> Awesome. Yeah, >> thanks. >> Y >> anyone else? >> Thank you. >> Moving to effective operations, improve our effective management of human, financial, and physical resources. Miss Amy Schultz with our monthly financial report. >> All right. Good evening, board. Tonight, we have our final report for the fiscal 2425 school year uh for cash basis reports. And this is one that we do a May report. We do not do one for June. um that is just historically how we have done that June we could do a cash basis report and then by the time the audit is wrapped up and transfers are done between funds it's going to look very different so it kind of eliminates that confusion of putting one report out and then turning around at the audit and it looks a little bit different as we've done some of those transfers and chargebacks so with that we will walk through the reports for May the first report is our treasur's report this is our beginning and ending cash balance as well as our cash receipts and dispersements for that month of May. Uh May is probably our highest receipt month of the school year and is because we get a prepayment of our county taxes that are collected for the 2526 school year. So we collected about $4.5 million of tax revenue in May as well as over $7 million in state aids. So then what will happen is June is kind of back to a little bit of a normal month and then July and August tend to be very small months for cash receipts from both the county and the state. So uh with that this is kind of where we have our cash that helps us through the summer. Uh the dispersement side for May is very in line with what we have seen in previous months. So you can see our ending cash balance is just under 71 million. This is typically the highest cash balance we also have for the school year is at the end of May because we have a lot of expenses that hit in June as can be of our contract payouts where we pay for the summer kind of those last final three months of payments on a lot of our teacher contracts and career professionals. So June is a very big expense month and so that will come down by probably somewhere between 10 and 12 million by the time we hit the end of June. Um and so with that then the next report is our statement of revenues. This shows our revenues for the month of May, our year-to- date, our budget for the school year, as well as our percentage through May of our budget and how that compares to the previous two school years. As a reminder, we did a budget revision in June. So, that is not reflected in this. So, that's a little bit of where we may see some of the percentages being a little off from other school years. So, that is the case on that first one with the general fund. Um, 91% it'll actually a little bit down to about 90% if we were to use the budget that was approved by the board the next month. So really either way it's pretty in line with where we have been the past two school years on a revenue side. Uh food service and community ed. We've been talking about these all school year where in the previous years we had a huge upfront payment on those on um a lot of the esser funds that we were receiving um and supply chain assistance. Whereas for the school year, those had gone away and a lot of our money then ends up being a month behind in how we collect it. So we will see those coming in as well as we wrap up the audit in the school year. On the expense side, this report is set up the same as our revenues. And there's not a lot on this outside of when you look at our supplies and materials line. And that is the furniture project that um we had just seen in our district operational plan as well. They talked about that being one of those pieces. That is the one line item we've been budgeting for it for the whole school year. Uh the furniture was almost 100% delivered in June. So that you will see that come out for the audit. But for May, it had not been recorded yet. So with that, that is our statement for the month of May. If there are any questions, >> thank you. Moving to superintendent report, Dr. All right, a few things to update you on. First thing is kind of fun. So, you're all familiar with our construction trades program and you see Scott Wickland, the the teacher for that program, right at the center of the picture with the big smile on his face as he cuts the ribbon. But our student built house was house was um successfully delivered and set on its foundation. uh this summer. So students will start work in a new house this fall. So really excited about that. And it's going to be for a nonprofit organization provides housing for mothers and children experiencing homelessness. So um it's such a win-win project. Just love it. And um it's always one of the highlights last spring just talking to those kids that have built the house and the pride they had in the work that they've done. So some summer stats. So again, as I shared in June, sometimes people say, "So what are you going to do all summer?" Well, the schools are open for the summer and you can kind of see this. We had over 300 high school and over 450 K8 students continued their learning at summer school. Um 240 students spent their days um in the summer with Learning Adventures Child Care. We had a whole bunch of enrichment opportunities and athletic camps um which you can see there at the bottom left in those bullets. So just picture some of the kids having fun. We started doing this uh a year or two ago just getting given a picture because again there's a lot that ramps up and this actually starts August 7th. We could go back to a lot of work that was done. I left you some updates. So on July and I know um Hope just referenced for example our teacher facilitators were here in July. So we had you know 40 plus teacher facilitators here a number of times um throughout the summer getting ready for the year. But kind of the official kickoff was last week that we had our district leadership team retreat uh for a day on this August 7th. Today we had our principles and their school leadership teams in um on the 13th and 14th they'll broaden that. So they'll bring it will be primarily teachers at that school learning and equity team retreat. So that's um teachers from each grade level or department of high school so on working in the teams. They're really getting ready for the school year and working on their school improvement plans, workshop week, things like that. uh August 19th to 21st already, I can't believe it, new employee welcome and orientation will take place. And then the 25th um which you are all welcome to be at is our staff kickoff. And then that whole week is uh our all of our staff return for workshop week before we welcome students on September 2nd. So this is a we're right in the midst of a busy month for our families. What does that look like? So, as you just saw in that picture a couple slides ago was in June and July that there was summer school going on. Um, we have districtwide school year kickoff message in August 6th. This next week, welcome letters will be sent from school to home mail and email the week of August 11th. We have kinder camp coming up which has been a great ad for the last few years for our uh new kinder kindergarten students coming to school, having a couple days at school. Uh, Wednesday school newsletters will begin on August 20th. So every Wednesday, families will get those newsletters from their schools. Meet and greet events at each of the schools on the 26th and 27th. Then you can see the first day of school for different grades. Um September 2nd and 3rd. And then in September and October, we'll have various family curriculum experiences where families will be invited in to meet with their child's teachers. So kind of a we're back at it. And with that, we're starting our engines. So, we have a start your engines event on Saturday, September 13th. Panther Foundation puts together. Kids always have a blast at this. Big kids and little kids. Um, enjoy some big trucks, big trucks and food trucks. So, um, hopefully we can see more and more people out for that. That's kind of it for the the summer update. So, you go. All right. Thank you. >> Okay, moving to action items. Just checking. I think I need a motion on this one. Can I get a motion to approve the resolution appointing Kelly Mlullen? >> So moved >> to serve as a voting trustee of Minnesota School District Liquid Asset Fund. >> I'll make that motion. >> So moved by VA, second by Forsber. Resolution approving trustee appointment. Whereas Kelly Mlullen has been appointed to serve as voting trustee of the Minnesota School District Liquid Asset Fund Plus, referred to as the fund for a term of for a term expiring at the annual meeting to be held following the conclusion of the fiscal year of the fund ending on June 30th, 2025 and remaining in effect upon election or subsequent three-year terms. And whereas Spring Lake Park School District number 16 supports this action on behalf of Kelly Kelly Mlullen. Now therefore, be it resolved by the school board of independent school district number 16, Spring Lake Park Public Schools as follow. Kelly Mlullen's service as trustee for Minnesota District Liquid Asset Fund Plus is approved for a term expiring at the annual meeting to be held following the conclusion of the fiscal year fund ending in June 30th, 2025. and for any subsequent three-year terms following the election at the 2025 annual meeting. >> All right. Any discussion? >> I feel like I should explain it a little bit. >> I mean, I'm excited for you. This is awesome. I was actually going to um bring this up during our uh board sharing time, but uh for those of you that don't know, the fund is the um where the large amount of money from about 90% of the school districts use as their for lack of a better description, we're going to keep this very layman like a money market checking account, right? So like when we get money from the state, it hangs there until we use it two weeks later for payroll or two weeks later. I'm looking at Amy, making sure I don't mess it up. Two weeks later for payroll, two weeks later for, you know, benefits, uh, payments, whatever the case may be. And when you do that, and it hangs there during those like windows of time, we get interest on it. And we get it in a very lowrisk interest rate. And across the entire state, it brings in about $28 million of interest to the school districts who are participating. So, it's no small amount of money um that we uh get and it's beneficial. So, I'm honored to be part of it. I think it's a lot of fun, believe it or not, to talk about all those things. And so, um, uh, I fulfilled it these last, uh, two meetings because I was covering, uh, for Spring Lake Park. And now, technically, the term is over, whoever I had replaced on that open spot these last two terms. And so, this is to be approved for the next um, full set of terms for that three years. So, that's it. >> That's great. >> Awesome. Is there somebody like are you representing more than our district? Is there somebody from every district on this? >> Yeah, it's a board of like 10 of us and we are of a combination of board members, superintendent >> and um like the Minnesota school district. I I don't remember all the acronyms. Maso and Mazda and all those guys. >> Um and so there's like 12 if you include those sponsoring bodies because they essentially are the ones that are like, "Yes, we think this is a good idea." So, I get to meet um members from all over the state and we meet four times a year and talk about how the fund is doing, making sure it's maintaining its risk, low risk um you know, not too high, not too low, and that we can make the most out of it when we um when we need it. >> Awesome. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Thank you for doing that. >> I love it. I'm glad to do it. >> We love that you love it. >> I know. Isn't that I know you don't hear that often. I'm like, I really dig it. >> Yeah, >> exactly. Marilyn, did you have some >> um I'm very pleased to see you be on this board. Um I know it's not directly Minnesota School Boards Association, but it's an arm of that organization and Spring Lake Park has a history of being very involved with MSBA. So, I am glad you are continuing that trend. >> Thank you. >> Great. >> Any other Discussion. >> Clerk, would you please call roll? >> Yes. Mr. Vala, >> absolutely. >> Miss Schmidt, >> yes. >> Miss Hennon, >> yes. >> Miss Forsber, >> yes. >> Miss McClen, >> yes. >> Miss Kelly Skellyy, yes. And Mr. Easter, >> 10,00% yes. >> All right. The resolution is passed on a 70 vote. >> Awesome. Moving to acknowledgement of gifts. Can I get a motion? >> So moved by Forsber. >> Second. second by McAllen to approve the following resolution. Whereas schoolboard policy 706 establishes guidelines for the acceptance of gifts to the district. And whereas Minnesota statute 465.03 states that a school board may accept a gift of real or personal property by the adoption of a resolution approved by twothirds of its members. Therefore, be it resolved that the school board of Spring Lake Park Schools accepts with appreciation the gifts as shown. I love it with two gallons. >> I was glue. That's awesome. I have so many ideas running through my mind of what I can do with two gallons of glue. >> But it would get me in nothing but trouble. I would get in trouble. Yes, absolutely. >> In case you didn't know, my wife had three kids, not two. It was I was your oldest one. >> Yeah. >> It's always the time of year we see a lot of donations from PTO's and and other organizations to help with field trips which is always amazing because it's so great the kids get to do these things. So thank and thank Chris grateful to everybody for their donations. >> Absolutely. >> Sweet. >> Nice. >> Clark, would you please call roll? >> Yes. Miss Forsber. Miss Skellyy. Yes. Miss Henon. Yes, >> Miss Schmidt. >> Yes, >> Mr. Baloa. >> Yes, >> Miss McClen. >> Yes, >> Mr. Easter. >> Yes. >> Resolution passes on a 70. Is that a resolution? What is that? Resolution. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Moving to addendum item number three. Approval of resolutions starting or Yes. Approval of resolution stating the intention of a school board to issue a general obligation uh school building refunding bonds. Can I get a motion? >> So moved by Skully. >> Second. Second by Vala to approve the resolution stating that stating the intention of the school board to issue the general obligation school building refund refunding bonds series 2025A in the aggregate principal amount not to exceed approximately 44,490,000 and taking other actions uh with respect there too. And then there's a lot of other information regarding that and we have Amy Schulz to help explain the additional paragraphs. >> Yeah, I won't go into a lot of detail. We actually talked with the school board about this last week at our work session and this is an opportunity that comes up at a specific time once we have issued school building bonds, say to build um in this case a center view. When we do that, the bonds must sit for so many years and then there becomes an opportunity to refund them, which is the same thing as really refinancing your home. um if it's a better interest rate environment, it becomes beneficial to look at that. So what that would do um assuming we move forward with this and rates stay favorable. It would be something that when bids come in, so this would go out for a formal competitive bid process, companies would bid on that and offer the interest rates they'd be willing um to have us pay back at. So moving forward with that, then it would reduce the interest payments on our future debt through uh 2035. And by doing that, it reduces the amount that we as a school district would um levy taxpayers in order to make those principal and interest payments. So 100% of the savings that we would recognize in doing this uh would be passed on to the taxpayers. The school district does not keep any of that. Um again, that all assumes that we do move forward with this that this stays a favorable interest environment. And so that is something that when those bids are done, we will bring those back to the school board. um Ellers and Associates would be there at that night to present the bid awards. So they will walk us through that. Um they are financial adviserss and help us through that bid process and all of the legal pieces that go with that. Um currently it is set to based on rates right now save about $800,000 in interest payments over those remaining years of the bond. um that comes out to be about $8 a year to an average home in our district. But it is one of those that we have an opportunity to do this and we always want to make sure that we are taking these opportunities whenever we can to minimize um the tax impact on our residents. So, uh with that, we would be coming back in the fall. Um I believe it' be coming back in October to present the bids and then the sale would be in November. So, with that, I guess if there are any questions, I know we to the school board of like last week. Really all this does is allow us to start that process to have the Moody's rating call, gather all the data, and the board is not locked into anything until it is brought back if the board approves it at that time. >> I know she really is. >> It's like she did this before. >> Any questions? Any discussion? >> All right. And I think I probably should say one more thing. If it does move forward and those savings are realized of about 800,000, that would mean, and it's probably something we may see in a presentation another at another time as well, but since 2010, that would push us to over $14 million that we have saved in future payments to fund. So >> nice. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Can you please call roll? >> Yes. Ms. Mlullen? >> Yes. >> Miss Schmidt? Yes. Miss Forsber? Yes, >> Mr. Vala. >> Yes, >> Miss Hennon. >> Yes, >> Miss Skellyy. >> Miss Guest. Mr. Easter, >> yes. >> That resolution passes on a 70 vote. >> Thank you. >> Moving to approval resolution relating to increasing the general education revenue of the school district and calling an election thereon. Can I get a motion? >> So moved. >> So moved by Hennon. >> Second. >> Second by Schmidt. Thank you. I was going to say Schultz, but I know she meant to approve the resolution relating to the increase to the increasing the general education revenue of the school district and calling an election thereon and to present more information on this is uh Dr. Ron. >> All right. So, I'll give it a minute here for the presentation to load. All right, here we go. So, um I'm excited to walk you through this tonight. This is nothing that I'm going to share is brand new information to the school board. This is something we got an opportunity to study and talk about for a long time, but it's important information um for our community. I think the first thing that I do want to share and I'm going to walk through is that we are really proud of what we've built. You had a chance to hear um some other folks talk earlier tonight share about some of the things happening across our system and it really um is with a ton of pride that I get to talk about that and none of that would be possible without the support first of the school board um leadership you've provided but really our community support over these years has been essential. So, first off, you got a chance to you had the opportunity to hear Dr. Ron talk about this for a little bit, talking about our personalized learning journey, how how we're really purposely working to engage our students. Um, and this is really, it's not something you just flip a light switch and say, "Let's do this." This has been a 13-year journey where we've really worked to put um processes in place where we can know each child by name, strength, interest, and need to ensure that we're really designing engaging learning that meet their unique needs and strengths. So, That's something that we're really proud of. And so I think it's really led to this step that 96% of our families have reported on a family survey that they're happy or mostly happy with their experience here in Spring Lake Park schools. That's something to be really proud of. You also had a chance to hear about this. We've got our three pathways that were launched in um 2019. The study was done a few years before that with um to really identify these three areas of business and entrepreneurship, health and human services, technology, engineering and design and provide 37 courses across these three pathways for our students at the high school to be a part of. And I think um within these we also have 51 courses at our high school that offer college credit opportunities. 83% of our students last in last year's graduating class earned at least a college credit. So sometimes people don't think these college courses or these pathways are for all kids, but what we're seeing is the vast majority of our kids are participating. Um in fact, 92% of our graduates in our most recent class took at least one pathways course. Um in 81, so eight and 10 took more than one pathways course while they were with us. So it's been something that really proud of what we built. you get the chance to see in the my report earlier um our construction trays where they built the house has been it's going to be in our community and people are going to be using for a long time and then you get a chance to see this statistic a lot but our kids are really involved so 85% really take advantage of the many opportunities that we provide so it's a lot of things that are in place and again as I started this section with talking about the community support it wouldn't be possible without this active community support you can see some of the organizations in the upper right that are really actively involved. We have over 200 um community and industry partners who are um not just showing up once but they're active ongoing partners in helping us build those pathways but also building a pathway starting in elementary, middle school and high school and really supporting the needs of our kids. So that's something we're proud of and what we want to do is make sure that we can maintain what we've built and we need community support to do that. So it's um important to be able to do that. As we think about that, part of the way way we've been able to build that is something that I think the board administration partner on is we engage in an ongoing process process that's always focused on really looking at what do we need today while also um looking to the future with the students always at the center and the core of what that is. And that um includes ongoing continuous review of all aspects of our budget. That's something we do each and every year. some of the things on the right. We're looking at emerging external influences. We're looking at enrollment trends. Um taking advantage of grant funding when we have those u making sure that we're again it's position ourselves for the long term while meeting the needs today. So that's something that is is really at the core of what we do. Um and I think it's really positioned us well. So we've had 14 years of the structurally balanced budget. Um, if we're not the only district, we're one of only two or three metro area districts out of 37 seven 37 school districts in the seven county metro area that have not had to make any budget cuts in the past 14 years. We've really utilized the resources we've had. Well, um, we've had 19 years in a row where we've earned national recog recognition for our financial reporting. You just had a chance to hear uh Amy Schultz talk about the 13.4 million that's been returned to taxpayers since 2010 through bond refinancing. that will exceed likely exceed 14 million with the uh bonder funding that you just took action on a short time ago. Um and we have done all of this without any new operating levy dollars since 2002. So we really ask when we need it and what we've been able to do, we've been a growing district and with the growing district we've been seeing um with that new students as they come in, we've had that revenue. We've been able to sustain that. Um, one of the challenges we faced though through all this time, you can look back 20 years, um, is state funding just has not kept up with inflation. So, if you look at the blue line there, that's our actual funding per pupil funding that we received from the state. Had the state kept up with the rate of inflation, we would actually over all of these years have what that red dotted line indicates. So, there's a funding gap in the current year of $1,364. But now multiply that all of those other years and that's per student. So um if we had that we um would be in great shape for uh for our budget. But this is a challenge that all districts have to face. But this is really where we're at with back to that levy not having new dollars since 2002. Um these are the 37 districts in the seven county metro area. And you can see where Spring Lake Park sits. We're all the way to the far right dead last out of 37. We have $194 per student. Um, and again, I think we've done a great job. You saw all that we've been able to build. Um, we've got we have outstanding staff because we've been able to they want to be a part of doing that kind of work. And we've got been able to have competitive salaries and we've been able to do all of this work. But if we had the same um levy as for example our neighbor Centennial has, we'd have nearly $5 million more per year. we had what Henipin has per student, we'd have nearly $6 million more per year. So, while I'm really proud of the work that we've done and how we've been able to build with a challenge with without as many resources, many districts that can't continue, you know, we're kind of at that tipping point. Um, one of those things people might ask though, what about the levies? We have voted on things, right? Because they have. And part of that is when you're growing. We've grown from 4,000 students approximately to over 6,000 students. We've built Center View. We've built North Point. Our high school has had to be um basically rebuilt into a new high school and added on to. We've had modifications at each of our schools. And we are so appreciative of that support from the community. But those bonds can't be used for day-to-day expenses. They were to build the buildings. And that's what we needed at the time because we were growing. And with that growth, we had the revenue for those day-to-day expenses. Levies are for learning and that's that gap that we experience from others. Okay. So, one of the things that was important is as you've looked at that, we've studied this, we also said wanted to see where's the community at with understanding kind of that situation and and and um where's that support? So, in April of 2025, we uh worked with an organization called Morris Leatherman, and they did a phone survey, 400 phone interviews um with community members across our school district that represented our demographic. So, it wasn't 400 parents, it was 400 parents that represented um age, gender, parent status, voting history, etc. across our school district. And the takeaways was there's really strong support for our schools overall. So, that was heartening to hear that. Um there was also uh people were have seen an increase in their property taxes to support schools given the challenges that we're facing. And that was for um probably just under $26 a month, $310 per year on the average home. And the strongest support really was about maintaining academic programs and support uh keeping our teachers and staff and then where we can expanding some opportunities for college credit and career and technical opportunities. And that was important to our community. Those were kind of the four key takeaways that we heard. There we go. So, that's landed as we've talked with you as a school board. Really, that's gotten us to this point where what we're looking at is one question, and it's has two parts to it. So, it's got two things, but uh one of the things that was important to the board and administration as we looked at this is how do we position the district for the future effectively while at the same time minimizing the impact on our taxpayers because we do know we're in an uncertain fiscal climate for for our taxpayers. Um, so we explored all types of ways uh to pursue a potential levy and really worked hard to get to this proposal that we have tonight that gets us the resources we need, but at the same time minimizes that impact the best that we can. So what we're looking at doing is step one would increase the operating levy by $550 per student starting in 2026 with a tax impact of less than $18 per month on the average home. Average home is $350,000 in the district. Then in step two would increase the operating levy by an additional $380 beginning in 2029 with no net tax impact at that point when we'd increase that. That's because we've timed this again as I said earlier we explored all kinds of possibilities and this is we really pushed Ellers our illers financials our partners in this to like what are some ways we could do this? We know there's expiring debt. How could we minimize the impact by taking advantage of that? and they said they came up with this proposal that would allow us then in 2029 to raise that $380. And what that does is there's no net no net tax impact for our taxpayers doing that because it coincides with um the retirement of some existing debts that we have for for bonds. So again best we can it minimizes the impact on our taxpayers. The focus of this is um we're not going to be adding a lot. What we want to do is maintain what we built. So, we maintain our teachers and staff. We maintain those academic programs that we have in place, critical safety um and security infrastructure, which I'll comment in a middle. And then also, we want to be able to maintain those facilities that our community has supported us on in the past. And then finally, when we as we're able, we want to enhance some of our career and technical preparation and college credit course offerings because that's something that uh our community has told us is important. So where does this how do we look and how do we compare to to other school districts. So you can see these are each of our neighboring school districts Mount View and Centennial and Pridley are on this um graph as well as similar uh demographic similar size districts across the metro area. So again starting in 2026 we'd have that increase of $550 per pupil. um that would cost the taxpayer, you can see less than $18 a month in 2029. Then when we have the expiration of that debt, we would increase it by 380 so that we can minimize that impact on our taxpayers. So there'd be no net tax impact with that increase in 2029. So, while we need that full $930, um, and we had originally, if you remember, the the community had said they'd support up to just under $26 a month and $310 per year. That would have been the equivalent of about $720 per student all at once. So, with this, we're able to do that a lot less. So, um, really, uh, feel good about how we able to do that. Where's that go within this district? We're still have a pretty modest levy as you compare to the other. This would lead us to um being about 30th out of 37 in the metro area. For example, you can see in 2029 we'd be between North St. Paul and Noah Henipin. Um North St. Paul is going out for a levy this fall. So um >> yeah, so we probably won't get all the way up to to 30th by the time our our levy would be fully implemented. So again, the focus of this levy is really maintaining what we built, maintaining those essentials. So teachers, staff, we want to maintain the class sizes that we have from the survey. There was positive feedback about that. Um, we want to be able to provide the small group and individualized support that we do for students. Um, with that, we do that through our academic specialists that we have in place and the various supports that we have in each of our schools, the career and college pathways. We want to keep all of those types of things um in place because they're really important and we want to make sure that we can keep them meaningful and relevant. Um safety and security. Again, I think our system has been a leader in this. We've had people wanting to come and see how how are you doing with that. Again, because our community supported us um with our bond as recently as 2016, we were able to upgrade all of our facilities with uh safety and security. We want to make sure we can maintain that. Um, and we need this uh this levy allows us to do that. And then school facilities is just doing things like our roof repair roof uh maintenance, carpet replacement, those kinds of things that just need to get done. Um, so those are the essentials. And then again, um, as Hope talked about, we're doing that study of our career pathways. We want we want to make sure those stay meaningful and relevant for our students. So where we need to to add some programming, for example, we have a super high demand for our culinary arts program. um but we don't have enough um classroom space and facility space for the kids all the kids who want to take advantage of that that program. So they'd be exploring things like that that we might have. So we're really proud of what we built. This levy question allows us to maintain what we've built. Um that tax impact is less than $18 per month for our average priced home. And there's going to be all kinds of information on the website for people to uh get the information they need prior to November 4th. Thank you, Jeff. Any additional questions, discussion? I know we've we have spent an enormous amount of time with the administration and with Jeff going over um different angles, opportunities uh regarding the levy, lots of information, but any additional information, any additional comments? >> I just want to comment that I like the process. I thought the process was very fair and I'm I like how we got where we're at. So very comfortable. I'm very comfortable with it. >> Yeah. I think that the years of financial responsibility and fiscal management has really set us up well and continues to be how we make sound choices not just for this year or next year, but we really look down that that pipe and say this is how we can continue to have such good opportunities for the students um and good and good um support for the teachers when we um plan are so planful like this. I like that I feel like we're asking for what we need. We're not being excessive. I feel like it's completely fair and I don't have problem with this at all. I'm really proud at this point. So, >> I keep thinking $18 has to be a real bargain for what it would provide for our students. Um, you know, it's not a huge asking and provides so much. So, I'm supporting it. >> Absolutely. I just want to restate that, you know, the team has done an amazing job on this, thinking it through at every angle, working with the partners that they work with. The board is all in agreement. And restate again that we only ask if really if we need it and we understand, you know, that it's it's an ask, but also just what Marilyn said, I was going to kind of say the same thing that the benefit outweighs the the $18 a month. Um, I'm proud also what we've done and where we're going. So, thanks. >> Sure. >> Um, first I was just going to clarify for anybody who w who might be watching these graphics can be a little confusing. The less than $18 a month just kind of it is the same through the whole time. That's what the zero net additional tax impact means. It's the same amount uh through the whole thing. Um, I just want to second the points that have been made. um really proud of the fiscal management in this district and how we haven't had to make cuts even in leaner years because we we plan so well. Um when we talk about the process for those who might be watching every year the board gets a you know kind of like a fiveyear planning um proposal or or um looking for >> forecast thank you that that Jeff and his team put together. And so there's always a lot of looking forward, thinking about what we need, thinking about the factors that are in front of us, such as um the growth in enrollment being a little less um having less growth in enrollment than we used to have, what's going on at the state legislature, which has changed over the last few years, uncertain sort of other financial fiscal issues. So really proud of all of that. Um, also that proud of proud of the process that might sometimes seem if you watch that we don't always ask a million questions, but I promise you we always ask a million questions in all the process that leads up to this. So kind of getting us all comfortable with it so we feel good about this opportunity. And finally, just the great thing about this board is that everybody here is here for the kids and we all feel like the kids need this and that's like the most important factor. So that's it. About it. >> Great. I don't know if I can add anything else other than I think it's um is speaking to our fiscal responsibility. 14 years of not really asking for an increase or a levy, 19 years where we've won awards for the great fiscal management that we've had at the district. I mean, to me, that just speaks volumes as to um as to how we manage things. I I can I can think of probably a dozen companies off the top of my head that do not fiscally manage their business as well as the district does. I'm I think when I first became a part of the board, I was blown away at the amount of focus and attention and just commitment to forecasting. And we don't want to put ourselves in a position where we were decades ago with, you know, we were was it decades ago or was it we'll just say years ago when uh things weren't we're were very lean, you know, and and I remember stories where talking about uh board members talking about getting rid of towels for for uh gym class because we just couldn't afford it. And now to be on the other side and, you know, just we've learned our lesson. Um, and yeah, I'm really excited. I'm really proud. I I think we've we are I would say we're leaders in how to fiscally run a school district. >> I think that we were in statutory operating debt 20 to 30 years ago and learned a lot from that unfortunate process to be fiscally responsible and have been ever since. um spending is uh there's some big numbers that go in and out of a district like this, but those dollars have been monitored very carefully. >> Absolutely. So, with that said, clerk, would you please call a role? >> Yes. Miss Mlullen? >> Yes. >> Miss Hannon? Yes. >> Miss Horsesburg? Miss Kelly? >> Yes. Mr. Vala? >> Yes. >> Miss Schmidt? Yes. Mr. Easter? Yes. >> The resolution passes on a 70 vote. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Moving to board forum. >> We'll start on this side. >> Anything on this side? >> Marilyn, anything for board forum? >> Unfortunately, I didn't >> Thank you. I did not attend the 9:16 meeting, although I understand it was a meeting that only lasted 40 minutes. Um, two of the things that came out of that that are of interest is there is a new HR person who was hired from one of the other intermediate districts. Um, the previous one has decided she would move on to other things including spending the summer with her children. and the Metro Heights facility which is moving to University in Mississippi will be completed in time for the beginning of the school year. Um I know the superintendent and Erica and maybe others of you were on the AMSD meeting. Um it was quite interesting. It's a new group that's forming, but after thinking about what they had to say, it seemed to me it was really personalized learning. And there might be some tidbits that we can gleam from that, but I thought I've heard this somewhere before. >> Thanks, Marilyn. How about this side? I love that update Marilyn for 40 minutes uh that you didn't make. You got a lot of good info. So like good intel. Um uh one of the quick update for me is um one of my interest areas is the nutrition in the in the district. And so uh with the help of Dr. Ronberg, I got to meet up with Amy Kimmel who leads nutrition services. And let me just give you a couple fun facts because I'm just gonna s sing some praises for a moment. Um, roughly speaking, we serve a million meals a year across all of the um, breakfast, lunch, K through 12 uh, and uh, discovery days or learning ventures. One, those two. Um there is I had a lot of questions because in my mind like nutrition has receded right a lot and through through um easy food and whatnot. And Amy and her team do a lot of cool things. So including they have harvest of the month where she goes around to the different elementary schools and the middle school and does a new fruit to try or a new vegetable to try. So they've tried asparagus, they've done dragon fruit. And so it's just to try and like expose kids to, you know, what real food might taste like and food that they might not have at their tables. Um they have um uh a relationship with one of the local organic farmers and sometimes she is able to get some harvest that she can bring in to be served to the kids. And um all of the all of the um kit options include fruit and vegetables in m much larger quantity than I thought. And for those of us that are old enough to remember this and I really hate using that as my precursor, but you can remember way back when when like ketchup was deemed a vegetable or whatever like way back. I know like way that's a way back machine. Well, um we're far from that line. Okay. So, uh, so it was just it was really great to hear. So, they do a lot of things where they're looking for what they call clean labels, and that is, um, opportunity for minimal, um, sketchy stuff in the kids' food. And they do a lot of actual like regular home cooking. So, I didn't know how operational the kitchens were. I didn't know if it was like a reheating situation or if it was made from scratch. It's actually quite a bit that they're making in house and putting together for the kids. And so, um, some of it's like us when we're at home and it's like an assembly, right? Like here are my noodles and here's my sauce, but it's still, um, pre pretty pre-clean label. So, just a kudos because they do a lot with a little. They have to, um, make all of this happen with the limited amount of funds that they have and it's kind of like their own um, if if we don't have the the makings of that meal, they can't get credit for it to get refunded from the um, government. And so it was just cool. I We spent way more time than we thought we were going to, but it was really good information. So that's it. That was my little field trip into nutrition last week. Yeah. >> I think it gives encouragement because like I think you we all have our opinions on what that is, the whole deal situation. Yeah. >> And then to hear this, it's really I think it's helpful for parents. It's helpful for me to pass along >> also. I think it's Yeah, >> it's good. Thanks for doing that. >> Yeah. I spent a little time in a lunchroom a few years ago a lot of years ago before I became a board member. And I just hope kids aren't throwing the apples and the oranges in the trash anymore. >> Well, fun fact, they have something called a drop zone. So, if they did not plan to eat said apple, they can put it in a particular place where other soul might like another apple and can use it. So, it's also part of like their overall sustainability and waste management and they're always looking for ways that they can do that, too. >> Nice. >> Good work. Other updates. >> Investigative reporting. >> I got nothing. I got nothing. >> All right. If nothing else, let's move to adjournment. Can I get a motion? >> So moved. >> So moved by Forsber, second by Vala to adjourn the meeting at 8:12. All in favor please say I. >> I. >> Those opposed. Meeting is adjourned.