thank you everyone for your patience and we want to welcome everyone this evening uh especially with the uh weather that's not so fun but uh thank you for being here uh we're going to ahead and look at the agenda any changes to the agenda as presented no changes can I get a motion so move by henon second by Mullen to approve the agenda as presented all in favor please say I I those opposed motion passes uh moving to some future events please check the district website for a complete list of monthly events Friday March 7th no school staff per professional workday Monday March 10th through the 14th no school spring break Monday March 7th 19 no school staff professional workday Monday March 31st no school holiday Tuesday April 8th regular school board meeting at 7 pm with communication to the board administration at 6:45 moving to consent agenda can I get a motion so move by Schmidt second second by Vella to approve the following items of the consent agenda minutes of the February 11th 2025 regular meeting minutes of the February 2025 February 25 2025 work session bills paid for January 20125 in the following amount of $3,587 1886 Personnel items an agreement with Spring Lake Park schools unaffiliated one and two staff approval of two-year contract between Spring Lake Park schools and unaffiliated one and two groups effective July 1st 2024 through June 30th 2026 all in favor please say I I those opposed motion passes moving on to discussion reports information items effective operations improve our effective management of human financial and physical resources District operational plan project update enhance School structures to support learning 2.0 uh Dr hope Ron our executive director of learning and Innovation and she'll be joined by some Park Terrace Elementary fourth grade teachers welcome thank you good evening um tonight I want to provide an update to the board on one of our district operational plan projects this is the second year that this project which as you see is called enhanced School structures to support learning is in our district operational plan which you might have assumed from the 2.0 version in the title um and our like uh chair Easter said our fourth grade uh Team from Park Terrace will come up short shortly and help me with presentation uh before they come up I just wanted to refresh us on the why of this project to enhance School structure so as you can see on the slide the why behind this project both last year and this year is to help us think differently about the prevailing structures within K12 education uh K12 education has relied heavily on structures that have been in place for really the last 150 years public education was designed during the industrial era when the need was to prepare people for working on an assembly line making sure they could spend long periods of time doing more mundane repetitive tasks that original design was super successful in meeting the purpose back in the late 1800s and early 1900s however as a society we have moved from that industrial economy through a knowledge economy and into an innovation economy yet as a nation we continue to do school largely in the same way that it was designed in the late 1800s for that industrial economy um so we need to continue to think deeply about those structures that were developed long ago and make enhancements to those structures as we work to develop Learners who can generate ideas and apply their foundational knowledge to unique circumstances New Opportunities and new possibilities because things are changing so rapidly what our current kindergarteners will be doing as a career 18 or 20 years from now is largely unknown okay so just quickly what do we mean by school structures there are many but we often think about these structures in four different Al Callum buckets okay how we group students for learning how we group adults to facilitate student learning how we use time and how we use space so as part of the project work last year we heard some ideas at each of our schools for how we can think differently about some of these structures in service of uh increasing levels of student engagement one of the Milestones there are several in the project we're going to focus on one tonight but one of the Milestones within this year's project is to support and monitor implementation of these School level Innovations and that's what our Focus will be tonight um I also want to give a shout out to Dr Melissa Olsen who is in the crowd tonight our director of learning design and student engagement who works a ton to support um people at our schools to both Implement design Implement and monitor um the school level Innovations all right our strategic initiative of innovative and personalized learning which is the image you see on the left and is very familiar to all of us um and the four core components uh of innovative and personalized learning including Competency Based learning learner profiles learner maps and flexible learning environments requires us to think differently about our school structures our promise to know each student by name strength interest motive and need and then use what we know about our student students to design student work and learning experiences that lead to high levels of Engagement requires us to both improve and innovate and that leads to the image on the right almost all organizations want to or speak to a desire to be Innovative few do it though or do it well simply because espousing Innovation doesn't make it happen our work is to create the conditions for Innovation to come to life through our system to be the norm rather than the exception and I just want to note that Innovation does doesn't replace Improvement it's a both and okay Improvement is simply getting better at what we're already doing but Innovation and Improvement must work together because Improvement alone like little tweaks to what we already have in place and what we've been doing won't move our results both our academic competencies and our career and life competencies to the level that our kids need to be successful in this largely unknown and rapidly changing future our levels of innovation again on that image the image on the right um helps us create that systemic culture of innovation where new ideas are developed and brought to practice with the intention of dramatically improving the outcomes and experiences of our primary customers our students our levels of innovation simply start by acknowledging that these ideas you can see at the top um develop organically based on some kind of inspiration our image is like maybe when you're having a cup of coffee or you're writing something on the back of a napkin when you're out to eat okay um and uh a a lot of our Innovations start with our convers are inspired by our conversations with our students or each other as colleagues um we then do a quick assessment of the idea is it desirable um Is it feasible can can we do this do we have the time and resources is it viable if it goes really well would we want to scale it for the Future these are what we call constraints and they help us determine how big or how small we might want to go with that particular idea then uh we say yes and the idea moves forward um into design work at one of three levels which helps us to identify the level of support and resources needed to move it to implementation so that level of just do it this is often just at the at the classroom level um or maybe at a team or Department level and often needs pretty limited to no support or resources and yes great let's do it um let's try it this level takes a little more design time and more collaboration with others and Innovation at this level often serves as a proof of concept something we Implement on a smaller scale to continue to assess that desirability feasibility viability before we would decide to scale it to other teams other grade levels other schools okay there's more support and resources that are needed but largely it can be handled within a school at that point let's build it is kind of our biggest Innovation or biggest level of innovation that often can impact a whole school or impact multiple grade levels or departments across the district this level of innovation creates a totally different experience or way of working and often requires a significant amount of time and resource to bring it to life so while we have Innovations happening at each school tonight we asked our grade four team from Park Terrace to share their work with you they will walk you through how their initial idea turned into a let's try it level of innovation and we'll share a little bit of what they've done this year and what they have learned so at this point I will turn it over to the team they'll introduce themselves and share their story with you good evening um I'm pton C I'm a fourth grade teacher at Park Terrace um and I've been in Spring Lake Park for about three three years now hello I'm Aaron ceton also a fourth grade teacher at Park Terrace this is my seventh year and I actually went to canth Hall and Park Terrace for elementary school and I'm Karly Oto I'm a fourth grade teacher at Park Terrace and it's my second here in SLP um and I'm going to kick us off I'm going to talk about how this idea surfaced for us at Park Terrace um it came out of conversations around a new teaming model and we wanted a teaming model that capitalized on our strength and interests we talked a lot about student strength and interests um and we didn't give as much attention to our own strengths and interests um and one of those strengths and interests on our team was Project based learning um and we also had a desire to increase engagement in students um that last spring we had built a free little library with our students and we saw like student engagement went way up there was way more uh cooperation application of learning those career and life competencies we saw really come to life in that project um so that spring we developed this model and we started with just our fourth grade team and our extended team so our academic Specialists and our um like small group teachers and ml teachers we started by just doing a color wheel assessment so we figured out like what are our strengths and needs as humans not just teachers but as humans um so we took this assessment we shared it with each other we talked about like how does this look in practice and that started the building of a really strong relationship which we'll touch on later tonight as well um and in that time we also created Norms how we were going to be with each other during the school year and we still reference those Norms every week when we meet for our professional Learning Community time um so that was the work we did in the spring and then we met in the summer for some work sessions and we started our summer work by watching a documentary called most likely to succeed which is um takes place at Hightech high in San Diego which is a Project based learning school and that familiarized us with what Project based learning is in that setting and it served as inspiration for us around around what we wanted Project based learning to be and look like um and then from there we started to be introduced to schlei and his engagement work knowing that that was going to be a big learning piece for us this year um and we then started to backwards design so we mapped out our competencies our academic career and life competencies by trimester we used our curriculums as um resources instead of just like following the manual straight through they were our resources we looked at student data from third grade we looked at their learner profiles and that really helped us start to backwards design the work we wanted to do and then we took a look at like the structure of Project based learning and what did we want this to look like um and one of the big things we did was we moved away from the idea of like this is my class and my home room and so the these are our kids and this is my home base and our students don't stay in their home base all day we um grouped them um based on some of like we looked at their learner profiles we talked to the students we talked to their families and so we grouped them into groups like this group really likes technology and this group really needs movement in their learning and so that's how they travel through their core classes in the day and so that structure the structure Focus Project based learning is a big piece of what we did in the summer was figuring out that um and so I've been talking about Project based learning so like I want to make sure it's you know what I mean when I say that um the heart of Project based learning is we're really striving to honor the humanity of each of our students and their lived experiences um we really see it as an opportunity to use innovation to create more equity and education um and so you're going to see some pictures tonight and they are all from our project launch and Project based learning always starts with a project launch that's a shared experience that generates excitement and interest in a Project's topic um and I think if I go down yeah so there you'll see um our essential question and all four of our core classes work towards this essential question um and we are very interdisciplinary towards answering this question sorry so in each of our classes we design experiences that guide students towards answering the essential question along the way students have they engage in authentic meaningful work deepening their understanding through cycles of reflection feedback and revision in project-based learning the project is the learning it's not a add-on at the end of the unit or the trimester but rather the process by which students grow and demonstrate their knowledge this year students have taken on project-based learning while using performance assessments to demonstrate their learning in trimester 1 they performed a poetry slam created podcasts about change makers and collected and analyzed data to Showcase examples of great hearts these projects weren't just about completing tasks they were about learning how to think critically communicate effectively and engage deeply with real world ideas our projects are designed in what we call iterative Cycles so between each cycle students have opportunities to reflect on their learning give and receive feedback and refine their work as teachers we also adapt adjusting to our designs based on student input and engagement each product culminates in a celebration of learning called an exhibition for our first project students put on a heart fair for the school and their families showcasing their understanding in a way that was meaningful and interactive these exhibitions create powerful moments for students to take ownership of their learning and share their growth with a wider audience so what we've learned so far as teachers is that through this process we've learned that it's not just about our students but about ourselves as Educators excuse me and as a team we found out that relationships are very important and they matter with the new schedule that meant seeing students way less frequently than we normally would in a stere like a typical elementary school day so we had to be way more intentional in how we build connections and support their learning we've also learned that adaptability has been very important and key we design each produ project carefully we remain open to feedback from both students and colleagues making adjustments along the way to meet their needs um as Carly said trust has been essential as a team our trust in one another has grown exponentially project-based learning requires collaborations not just among students but among the teachers as well our work is in interdisciplinary and we've learned to challenge each other push back when needed and bring our full selves to this work trust is critical in a model that Demands a steep learning curve for both students and teachers and so far from the year we've seen following impact on students we've seen remarkable growth not just academically but in their development of career and life competencies students are making more connections across subjects and seeing how how their learning is interwoven rather than isolated they become strong reflectors able to identify both their successes and areas for improvement and the majority of our students have shown a lot of progress in key skills such as communication critical thinking and collaboration most importantly our students are becoming more engaged confident and independent Learners they're seeing their work as meaningful beyond the classroom and that's what makes this power process so powerful yeah thanks Arin we uh Erin just put up there a few uh pictures from one of the um well showcases one of the launch and a little bit of the Showcase too so you can take a look at that I before I turn it back to the board I just want to thank um Payton and Erin and Cari and their colleague um Justine who isn't here tonight for the work they've done this year and taking this idea that they had that they pitched to Jeff and Melissa last spring and um brought it to life and even I think some of our well couple of our audience members here um that our teachers actually got to go see that in Action a few weeks ago um when we had them visit uh par Terrace and kind of saw what it looks like in real life too so that's kind of fun to have that connection here as well I just wanted to jump in just for the board I'm super excited a coule a couple weeks ago when we thought let's have Park Terrace come over and share what they're doing because I know last spring uh when Mona Perkins who was the principal at the time Park Terrace said my fourth grade team wants to pitch an idea to you and I thought can you tell me more and she said nope it's totally their idea she said I don't really know exactly what they want to pitch so went over there and so that's one of the things I just want to emphasize what they're doing is 110% something that they built with support because once they pitched that idea to Melissa and I one of the first things we said was to that little image that hope talked to earlier this wasn't just a let's try it the idea that they had like okay cool come back next fall and get going it was going to take more than that so I can't even remember how much time but we gave you a week or two in the summer to work with Melissa and Lindsay I think to do some of that that prep work and it's been amazing to see um what they're doing and to hear the kids talk about the learning and how engaged they are so just really proud of the the work they they've done and this is something they've built and taken ownership of and it's uh gained huge dividends for the kids over at Park TS so hand it back to you any questions any questions from the board I don't have a question but I just want to say that this is absolutely amazing and thank you all for your hard work and I'm very proud to be part of the schools so thank you and thank you for sharing um I I have a I have a couple of questions all of this sounds super cool I'm curious like how long does a project last um how how how does it like from Project launch to Showcase you know what what type of things are happening in the middle yes the the first project we did the ones you're seeing pictures from from beginning of the year till early December is about how long it took us and that was with adjust we like flexibility adaptability has been a really big skill for us this year um and like Aaron had mentioned the project is the learning so there is certainly a time and a place that we do the more traditional foundational learning but a lot of what we're doing is very inquiry based student centered student Le learning um which looks like the students are collecting data and making their charts the students are putting together a poetry slam and performing it and of course there's teacher guidance teacher facilitator there um but we try very hard to keep student Le in mind and I assume there's a lot of heavy lifting on your part since this is not Material you've leveraged before do you feel like these lessons for next year this topic is repeatable or you know if it's heart as as what was here is that like oh yeah that's definitely a um obviously your tweaks all the learnings yeah I using the curriculums as our resource has been helpful that's where a lot of our essential questions have come from and the texts we use um but because it is so student L and student centered we do tend to let the students I don't want to say they they drive us so like in my social studies they weren't into the map I had laid out so through some feedback sessions with students we were able to adjust it into something that they felt more ownership in so some of the like ideas and Concepts absolutely we would keep but we really want students to make it their own and I think that's where like being so um centered on our own strengths and interest has really been a a big benefit for us a lot of our cognitive load then can go into what is Project based learning and how to do it yeah I love the interdisciplinary element to it so thank you so much for trying this out and clearly making it a success in the first go I think for me I feel excited that like you guys had an idea and it'd be really easy to just have an idea and be like I'm tired now and not put legs to it but you went the extra mile you did the steps and that's turning out to be a really amazing opportunity for kids to learn in a very different way and probably captures different kids in different ways too so I'm really proud of you um Kelly asked my question so that was great I kind of a detailed person so I appreciate you susing that out a little bit but um I just want to say that we on the board hear about and talk a lot about uh students that are in learning and it's so helpful to us and inspiring we have the best teachers in the world thank you for coming and and and just kind of being an example of of um like how what this can look like obviously the results speak for themselves so um just proud of the kids proud of you guys and you guys just make us yeah you can see we're all smiling so thank you for coming and and speaking to us and giving us kind of those concrete examples anyone else all right my turn I just want to say um I I I'm so grateful that you as a team felt comfortable to take that chance to take that risk that means we as a district are doing something right and that's something that we want to do is we want to make sure that we creating an environment where you as teachers come up with a great idea try it out we want to make sure that you know we're providing that environment and it sounds like we are so that I'm super excited about uh that you feel you have that freedom and and you're feeling the support from the district around that um the my other comment is I have a comment and a question my other comment is around um feedback I think it's absolutely amazing that you're teaching these young kids kiddos how to not just give feedback but receive it because I work with people every day I I work in it in an environment where we use an iterative process and we go through the whole feedback loop and everything and it's amazing the amount of work I have to do in coaching adults on you know what feedback is a gift that's the line I always use feedback is a gift no one has to give it to you but they're giving it to you because they care they want to see you improve so to see young kiddos learn the the value of feedback is is amazing and then my last my my one question is is what did you find most challenging about the process um I think for myself the most challenging part was like I'd say Carly's our expert on this topic so the whole like the project is the learning the project is like still trying to grasp that versus like like here's the end of the like the unit the trimester the project so that part has still been a struggle for me but honestly I think that's it like we just work so well as a team and we all have the same goals and the same passion and want to see the same thing for our kids so I know that's not the challenge but um it's been a lot easier because of that in this team can can I ask one more question oh I'm sorry I [Music] um I would second what Erin said I think it's there's been a lot of like mindset shift that has had to be done um just learning in a different way myself growing up um and then learning in a different way throughout College too um but it's been fun to explore and I feel lucky that we have each other to like lean on and ask questions to um and give feedback to also um but yeah I would say the mind set shift has probably been been the hardest thing but challenges come with good rewards so it's been great yeah I I heard that mindset shifts of adults and um students as well um there's so much um play playing school like I I know how to play school so coming into a project- based learning environment can definitely be a mindset shift for students too and we're modeling that right up along with them I I had one more um detailed question all right um I'm just curious since you're a team are you sharing students during the day like are you just like is it they're in so you're all just it's not in each classroom the same work is happening it is that in your classroom it might be a the math element of the project in yours it might be reading is that how that's working in like real life okay yeah we have four like core classes that the student stud travel through throughout the week yeah and then the Project's just everybody's project tone and okay cool I have one more sorry sorry this so okay M and then I know I know wrap it up Mar's GNA follow follow after um okay so I'm wondering to how is it how is it being received from the parents how are the parents with this project I'm just kind of curious like what kind of feedback are you getting from because it is different or are they um we've heard like nothing but I mean there hasn't been a ton of feedback but the feedback from parents that we have received has been they like at the beginning of the year when we t or told them that they were going to be part of this they were excited and then like through conferences and phone calls and conversations they've also been very positive about it I don't think I've had one negative piece of feedback from families you to add to that too we had our exhib exhibitioner showcase for our first project project um and it was open to the community and families to come and see um and it was really great to see how many families showed up to see the learning uh that the students were doing and see the work that they had produced throughout the project so I would yeah I would just add to that because that's something that Lindsay principal shared with me is that they've really seen an increased in the parent um and family engagement at this grade level with showing up that the exhibitions are learning and um feeling like they really have a better grasp on what the strengths are their K their kids what they need to work on so that's been a real positive as well so I think it's great that the kids have some ownership of this because if we can get kids excited about going to school we wouldn't have any in attendance problems so getting kids excited is just absolutely great can I I wanted to to share one thing because the Star Tribune was out a few weeks ago and hung out for um I don't know if it was a full day afternoon with them as teachers and Justine was still here then and she's out on maternity leave right now and she was instrumental in all of the design and planning so she had a but she had a cool quote a star Tre article that I just thought I'd share and she's not here able to share but she said um it's been a hard shift but a great one change is slow and scary but this feels so authentic and then right after that there was a quote from one of the students who said she said I love that we do projects instead of just sitting and listening to the teacher or taking a test I think I learn a lot more so thanks really appreciate everything you're doing absolutely and one one last thing I want to identify um that you called out then then I'll be done is that it sounds like you you went for the summer you got together you took like an assessment to kind of find out where your strengths and weaknesses are or strengths and opportunities don't don't want to call them weaknesses I just want to call it out because honestly not a lot of teams are willing to take that step so you took that step to find out what your strengths and what your your uh opportunities are for growth and you built on that you came together and I just want to I just want to honor you that honor all three of you or all four you missing one honor you for that because a lot of teams don't look at that of what do I have to offer first it's just kind of they come together and they just start working on something but the four of you came together identified where your strengths are where your opportunities are hey how can we work best together and and make this work so that takes a lot of honesty transparency and vulnerability so I do want to recognize that so great job I was just gonna add since you got to hear from Park Terrace this week last time you had the opportunity to hear from teachers from I think pretty much every school was represented at that one but in the coming ones uh meetings will because we've got these things happening we want yourself and the public to be able to hear about that so you'll have the opportunity to hear from some teachers doing some work in some of the other schools as well up she will thank you thank you that was a great presentation moving to effective operations improve our effective management of human financial and physical resources monthly financial report for January 2025 Miss Amy Schulz Executive Director of Business Services good evening board I am going to request next time that I get to go first so I was just gonna say you ow next next month we're GNA put you first and then so with that um the board's going to see their monthly report as we do each month and so with us it is our same three reports that we present the first of those is our Treasures report shows our beginning and ending cash balance for that month of January as well as the cash dispersements and receipts um so you can see that this one when you look at the total we did spend a lot more money in January than we brought in and that is what happens each year so that is Not Unusual on our receipt side uh we had close to $8 million in state AIDS really big month from the state and that is because they do their metering schedule January is a big month because it is a very low month for property tax receipts of about 255 ,000 so they do tend to kind of weave where the months that we have a higher tax receipt the state AIDS tend to be lower so it does at least give us a little bit of a consistent sort of cash flow throughout the year um and then with the other receipts that we see in in our other programs especially food service and Community Ed tend to be for those fee based programs or federal and state grants that come in through a different avenue um on the expense side you can see that most most of our accounts are actually a little less than usual and that is normal because cash bills that are paid in January are usually for December um and with that being sort of a short month for schools school days the dispersements for January tend to be lower with the exception of debt so in total our dispersements are much higher than what they would normally be so with that we did pay about $9.8 million on our principal and interest payments those are actually due on February 1st but being a part of the Minnesota state enhance credit enhancement program which does give us a little boost in our rating and therefore lower interest rates being a part because the state backs our debt then so it just kind of gives that one extra level of security for Bond issures um so then with that we are required to pay three days in advance of the due date so the actual payment hits in January so with that one really exciting note is that our OPB fonds are now paid off this was our final payment so uh that will actually drop off from The opep Debt Service moving forward so on our statement of revenues um both on the revenue and expense side there aren't some of the numbers shift but percentage wise uh it's a little harder to explain this month than it may be next month uh we did budget adjustments in January a lot of years we do them in February so we that adjustment hits it kind of usually tws up the Year we're a little we're a month ahead of where we were last year and doing that so year-over-year when you say January they may not look quite the same um but with that because the adjustments were done in January the budget column does reflect those changes um so on the revenue side most of them I have a feeling they're going to look a lot more somewh when we get to February when we look on a year-over-year on the expense side also then showing our EXP expenses for the month of January year to date um and how those compared to the budget and where those were the last few years um these you'll see some larger swings in percentages um mostly in that capital projects and supplies um supplies is where most of our furniture project is and then on the capital side are a lot of those other projects that we've been talking to the board about for the past few years so with the budget adjustments we have increased the budget for those projects that we initially had some in last year's budget when we didn't have them done by June 30th um due to timing bidding whatever those were they hit really either this summer or they will be done in June of this year or potentially over the summer we'll know more about some of that timing in the coming months um but one of those big projects that we did to over the summer of this past year of 2024 was the LED project I'm getting all of our buildings um switched over to LED lighting uh larger ones that still remain with um our solar project we are hoping to have potentially one of those done in June one is more likely to be in August um as well as Furniture project and we've been talking about this furniture project for quite a while um we are hoping that that entire project is wrapped up delivered installed before the end of June so that should all hit this year as well so those orders are in so now we're just finalizing schedules so that is what I have for January there any questions any questions all right thank you Amy moving on to superintendent report update you on first off just a couple weeks ago on a Saturday spring L Park High School will host is what was actually at our high school the 39th Annual State youth EMS competition so there were over 70 students um who participated in that and Spring Lake Park High School team swept the competition so um continues to be such a strong program and uh heard a lot of really positive feedback about it so crudos to Bill and team so then we had 50 students who competed in the DECA District Six competition had a record number who advanced to state so I think you're all familiar with Deca as a CO curricular activity students in business and Leadership getting to explore that um and what's really cool is to see how much this has grown in recent years that it's really grown and uh really reflects a diverse group of students which is awesome all right and then we had North Point had their um talent show uh at the high school and there's just some of the kids who participated and congratulations to Claire who won with a singing performance and now Panthers for purpose um I'm going to invite Colleen Peterson who works with the panther Foundation to come up this was just a huge success the entire week and um the evening at the the panther party was just awesome so I'll let cleen share a little bit more good evening yeah it's my pleasure to report that the Panthers for a purpose uh Panther Foundation week of giving raised over $159,000 uh to support programs and activities for the students and staff um at Spring Light Park school so we're really excited about that we had themed spirit days D to Donut opportunities and a silent auction with over 430 items I know many of you were bidding so thank you very much um we had over 231 individuals in attendance at the event on Saturday evening February 22nd and even more exciting 356 biders from across our community and actually across state lines um it's amazing to me how an aunt or an uncle or a friend or a colle colleague says hey you should check out the silent auction it goes to a good cause and it supports this really great school district and so we see our our scope of where we're reaching just get bigger and bigger each year which is great to see um excitingly we launched a new uh uh project this year with our funded dream and that was called The X Factor and I know I've shared with the board in previous meetings but the X Factor is funding programs and projects that support the extra that go into making a panther fully a panther so the extras beyond the school day starting as early as elementary school making sure that there are no barriers for kids to participate in activities outside of their school day so we are really excited that we raised over 4 $44,000 for this project and how that money will begin to be distributed is yet um yet to be determined but we are thrilled with this funded dream response it's actually the largest funded dream we've ever had so that's very exciting and I know I shared with the board and with uh Administration last week but I was just overwhelmed I think with the pride and the joy that I was seeing surrounding Spring Lake Park schools and the panther Foundation uh during this week and so my hope is that will'll continue that throughout the year but I I thank everyone in our community from the business owners to those that participated um to our families and our students thank you so much for participating thanks cleen and I appreciate the work that Colleen Did and the entire um the members of the uh the volunteer committee who lead the uh planning for this entire that entire week so they put tons and tons of hours into it and we really appreciate what they do because it adds a lot into what we're able to do here in the district two more things just calendar reminders for folks uh end of trimester is on March 6 we'll resume again on March 18th um March 31st there is no school um there's another on March 19th there's an upcoming uh live on 65 event opportunity for people to attend that and then the last thing I just mentioned is continues to be a really slow start to the legislative session uh down in St Paul got a chance to talk with uh each of our legislators as well as some of the committee chairs here in the past week so we'll continue to do that but uh things continue to just be kind of a slow start until they get the upcoming budget forecast as well as there's the election that will um happen to to that last house seat once that happens I think we'll see things pick up at least we can hope it will so yeah that's it thank you okay moving to action items acknowledgement of gifts can I get a motion so move by Schmid second by forsberg to approve the following resolution whereas Schoolboard policy 706 establishes guidelines for acceptance of gifts to the district and whereas Minnesota St statute 4653 states that a school board May accept a gift of real or personal property by the adoption of a resolution approved by two-thirds of its members therefore be it resolved that the school board of Spring Lake Park schools accepts with appreciation the gifts have shown any discussion we always want to say thank you to our to our donors and those who give so generously to the district it is it is greatly appreciated her can you call roll please yes Miss hennon yes Mr valala yes m forsberg m mclen yes Miss Skelly yes Miss Schmidt yes and Mr Easter yes it resolution passes on a 70 vote thank you and moving on to board Forum we'll start with our student Representatives okay so as um this season of sports and activities comes to a close we have had a lot of success with them um as the superintendent mentioned 50 kids went to Deca which is incredible and I know that it was an opportunity that a lot of people didn't have last year because last year state was held over spring break so it was really nice that it lined up this way this year um as well uh FCCLA had 14 kids qualify for state and I believe it was every single person who was on the team so really impressive and then adaptive hockey went to section finals as well um the theater uh department is starting their prep for the spring musical they're playing Hello Dolly and it's about a Matchmaker set in 1890s New York so interesting um um as for student council we are preparing for our blood drive that's happening after spring break so yeah we're sitting at lunch tables trying to get the word out awesome yeah so we got a lot of exciting things going for the last week of the try um so yeah winter sports have come to an end spring sports are ramping up we actually have some sports starting this spring break week which seems soon but it just emphasizes how quick this year is going um try to is ending so there's a lot of excitement and nerves throughout the school for students and staff alike I think excitement for maybe a vacation or a break but also nerves because got to get those grades up so girls hockey went to State and although we did not win even though we should have we had a really good season um they did win in support um if you weren't there you could have seen just the wave of red in the crowd it was really hard to pick someone out in the crowd because it was very bright red um so that was really exciting Clayton soberg went to State and he got sixth in State wrestling which is he also had an amazing season so not only are we good at oec theater Sports we're kind of all over and sweeping all these competitions so um not only is it the end of the try but College decision time is also happening so that's starting to ramp up and parents community members can follow along on the Instagram page to see where these high school seniors are committing to for the next year and yeah we're just ramping up for try three getting ready for a spring break full of snow which is exciting but it's almost we're almost there so we get to sleep and rest and maybe go somewhere warm or make a snowman so it's exciting I love it was uh uh Deca was that downtown the state yes it was I thought so I was walking through the Skyway for lunch and there were P not there were packs of these teenagers running around with these lanyards in suits trying trying to figure out how do we we get back to this place how do we go this place and I like oh boy so I was wondering if okay great well I hope they all had a great time downtown can be fun awesome thank you for the updates appreciate it and thank you for for the team spirit not not bias at all and that's okay I appreciate it all right board any updates uh other state was curling team went to state tournament this weekend and that is kind of funny they um are just bringing State back for curling after 50 years so this is only the SEC yeah 50 years 45 years it's like a long time not since the 70s um so this was the second one and held up in Cambridge and last week was the Middle School's High School Musical play so yay I went to the play on Friday night and I was so impressed as always all these little middle schoolers do these Productions in front of all these people they memorize those lines they actually look like they're having fun and acting you know what I mean like it's it's amazing it was lovely um I'm looking forward to the next one and then I just want to say one more time I know Jeff said something that cleen and her team and the awesomeness that they do for that Panther Foundation uh party is it's it's amazing to be part of it and the um something was different this year in in terms of um just the the vibe that I got in the room and I think it it's it's going to be good for years to come so if you haven't checked it out check it out next year so thank you anyone else at this side don't forget to turn your mic on thank you I know know I'm he's still W I don't think it's going to happen not so much tonight 9:16 meets tomorrow tonight so I'll talk about that next month um we've been recognized in the newspaper in the local paper if you didn't read Joe Nathan's article last week it recognizes math teams and ours was mentioned in that as well and very positive about it and and then there was an article in Sunday's paper about the changing landscape of populations of kids participating and sports and again if you haven't seen that it's well worth a read so that's thank you very right quick update for me uh yesterday I had the pleasure to present to the purple team at uh Westwood and it was it was a bless it was the purple team Avid students I was expecting 30 and it felt like 300 because we all packed into the den the library there it was packed but it was it was absolutely fun I I just shared my um just a little bit about me my childhood growing up my education and and employment experience and just some some tips to help them uh kind of hopefully help them in the future as they're looking for a career or college choices and you you don't always have to follow the the traditional path of going straight from high school to college um I didn't really follow that path and it was a yeah I know hey hey right right exactly I'm probably the example of not what not to do in many things but no it was it was a great opportunity just to share with them that you know really you define your success you know it's not found on social media it's not found um by what other think and say about you but you to find your own success and create your own path and and dream big dream big so yeah so that was great had a good great time anything else from the board all right we'll move to adjournment can I get a motion so move by henon second by mlen to adjourn the meeting at 755 all in favor please say I I those opposed meeting is adjourned thank you everyone