[clears throat] Call the meeting to order. Please join me for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the standice. >> Welcome everyone. And we're back at it. All right. Uh are there any changes to the agenda? No changes. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda as presented? >> So moved by Mlullen, second by Schmidt to approve the agenda with a All in favor, please say I. >> Those opposed. Motion passes. Moving on 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 24th, 2026. Welcome back staff breakfast and all staff meeting. Tuesday, August 25th, 2026, school board work session at 5:00 pm. Monday, August 31st, 2026, first day of school. Monday, September 7th, 2026, Labor Day, all buildings are closed. And Tuesday, September 8th, school board regular meeting at 6 p.m. with communication to the board and administration at 5:45. Moving to consent agenda. Can I get a motion? >> So moved by Skellyy. >> Second. >> Second by Villaa to approve the following items of the consent agenda. Minutes of the June 9th, 2026 regular school board meeting. June 23rd, 2026 school board work session. Bills paid for May 2026 and June 2026 in the amount of 15,47,471. personnel items and contracts for nutrition services employees and as presented and reviewed in our June work session and building and ground employees uh as presented and reviewed in our June work session. All in favor please say I. >> Those opposed motion passes. Moving on to discussion reports information items. uh 2026 2027 district operational plan overview projects to advance our vision. Uh Dr. Ronenberg, Dr. Hope Ron, and Erica Title. >> All right. So, I'm going to kick this off. Um this is a two-part presentation that we'll cover at the meeting, this meeting tonight as well as at our September meeting. And it meets all the uh requirements for the formerly called World's Best Workforce. And I cannot remember the name of the new But it will be at the end of the presentation so you will see it there. Um but we do meet the requirements with that presentation. First off, as you know, everything we do in the system is about our strategic plan and about kids. So at the very center of what we do is our kids and um with that vision of wanting to be a world-class learning community aligned around um fostering personalized learning experiences so that each child sees no to their future. And everything we do is about that um each and every day. And within that, we identify improvement projects within our three strategic anchors. And that's a district operational plan um process that we go through each year. Um we've talked about this last spring, but we have this year 12 different projects for within each of our three strategic anchors. And this evening, that's what we're going to walk you through. So first off within the strategic anchor of effective operations um we have a number number of projects and effective operations is about continuously improving um our use and management of fiscal time and human resources um and physical resources. So the primary project within this anchor is about positioning our system for long-term fiscal health. So the good news and this is the primary one I'm going to talk about. I'll hit on the other three briefly but I thought I'd spend a couple more minutes on this one. The good news is that we're in a healthy fiscal pos financial position with a structurally balanced budget that aligns our resources with strategic directions. This is a result of strategic sound fiscal management on the part of administration and you as a board as our district grew an enrollment into the mid 2020s and the community support through bond referendums and most recently our levy last fall. So, um, we want to, what we want to do now is make sure that we're positioning the district for fiscal effectiveness into the future, um, so we're able to continue the successful educational programming we have in place in each of our schools. This is especially important as we are faced with statewide declining enrollments um, as well as state and federal funding challenges in the future. So again, we're currently in a sound position now and we want to position the system to be able to m maintain the quality innovative programming we've been able to put in place over the years. So as we look at how we will allocate existing resources in the near-term and long term to support the educational programming and curriculum curricular materials, for example, as well as maintain our facilities. There are three distinct areas we'll pay attention to as we develop our fiscal year 28 budget and long-term forecast. um that you are likely somewhat aware of as a board, but I thought I'd mention tonight. Those are the permanent school funding constitutional amendment and recommendations from two legislative task force forces. So, first off, there's a permanent school funding constitutional constitutional amendment that will be on the ballot this fall. This was a bipartisan legislation approved in last year's legisl legislative session and it would increase funding for schools from the permanent school trust fund. In a nutshell, Congress many years ago, hundreds of years ago, hundreds of years ago actually, passed legislation to fund public schools. And the Minnesota DNR manages about 2.5 million acres of school trust land. So, proceeds from activities such as timber sales, mining, and land leases contribute to the fund. Investments over the years have done well, and this amendment would increase the distribution that goes to schools. So every school system and every kid in the state would benefit equally. Most importantly, there's no cost to taxpayers as it is simply increasing the distribution. While we do not know exactly the amount we would receive at this point, we do know there would likely exceed $125,000 annually um in Spring Lake Park. So it's an important um amendment that we will help make the community aware of this um later this fall. will start putting out more information. It will be on the November ballot um so that people understand what it is. Um other organizations like the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, the Minnesota School Boards Association and others are partnering together to make sure that the uh um the voters are educated about this amendment. So that is one part that will be part of position our district for future health. And this money while it's not a windfall, right? But it would help offset cuts that we know we will see in the future from two task forces. At the most recent Association of Metropolitan School Districts meetings, members of the Blue Ribbon Special Education Task Force and the Compensatory Funding Task Force shared updates. First off, the Blue Ribbon Special Ed Task Force um recommendations. That task force has approved their recommendations. There were four um recommendations that they had that will go to the legislature. Um but they were charged with identifying $250 million in cuts to special ed of those recommendations would impact us directly. One is special ed transportation and another called alternative delivery of special instructional services called what's called access. It funds um academic specialists in each one of our schools as as some of our EL teachers and so on. So it really helps kids who may be struggling in the areas of reading, math, learning English, etc. So while we do not know what the actual reductions will be for Spring Lake Park, these would be significant reductions approaching or exceeding seven figures. So that's and that again is that will be determined during the upcoming legislative session. The other one is compensatory. The compensatory task force does not have any recommendations yet, but those are due in February of 2027 and current considerations that they have would result in late um reductions for our school district. So that's why part of this is we sit in a really good position right now. The good news is that we are structurally balanced. We have a fund balance and we're positioned well um in the near term financially as a district. What we want to do is take the time this year to think strategically about the future and look at how we can continue to do that despite some of these challenges that we know um school districts across the state will face. So that's what this project is is really about this coming year and it's an important one. The other three projects that fall underneath effective operations include studying enrollment and program opportunities. As I mentioned earlier, we're experiencing declining student enrollment statewide. there are just fewer school age kids across the state um than we've seen in the past. The largest classes um across the state are at the high school level and it get smaller and that's what we're seeing in our system as well. So what we really want to do is look at trends that are unique to our system and investigate what kinds of programming attract and retain students and families. So again, part of that is being a world-class learning community of choice. We want those our residents to know that they don't have to go anywhere else. choice is just growing and growing across the state. So we want to make sure people see this as their choice. The other thing is we want to make sure people are aware of our two primary choice programs which would be lighthouse and vision. So that's what that project's about. Then we also have another one is uh implementing collaborative technologies and effective student learning really requires our staff be able to work together interdependently and to collaborate efficiently and effectively. So what this is really about is scaling things like the use of Microsoft 365 with our staff um and moving more towards that from Google. This first year will primarily be on the operational side. It's more secure, provides more tools and then then what we'll also be doing together doing this year is putting together a plan that then scale past the operational side of the district. So that's what that project is. And then finally we're going to look at how we refine school structures to support career and college pathways. So much like that study enrollment program opportunities, um, Spring Lake Park is really well known for what we're doing with our career and college pathways. So what this project is really about is looking at those really amazing learning opportunities we have at the middle and high school level and how do we continue to enhance those? How do we remove some of the barriers that traditional structures and schedules may cause to make sure kids can take advantage of these opportunities? So it's really all about how do we continue to enhance those opportunities. So, we look forward to providing more updates on that throughout the year. With that, I'm going to hand it over to our awardwinning communications director, Erica, which you'll get to hear about that later. >> Uh, good evening. It's great to see everyone. Uh, and happy August. >> Uh, within the communications and connections anchor, um, this year we have four projects. Um, the first project is a study. Um, and it's really focused on the communication platforms, the technology systems we use. communicate and connect with families. Um, we're doing a closer look at we're starting with like how what is our current state today? Not just from the technology technologies themselves, but what are the staff practices around using those technologies. We're getting a really firm solid state on what's happening um before we're going to go out and look at what's available on the market to determine if there are some next steps we should be looking at with those. The expand access to youth activities project is focused on reducing barriers for participation in youth activities and really enticing kids to get involved with activities that could be sparks for them in the future, whether that's at school or beyond their schooling. Um, this includes identifying groups and organizations to partner and coordinate with um to help more kids find and engage in these opportunities um that we know can benefit them both at school and um beyond. The Personalized Counseling Experiences Project is a continuing project and focused really this year on supporting the implementation of our approach to counseling for grades 5 through 12. Um the project um if you recall from last year, the project really recognizes that counselors are really a leverage point for personalized learning and how do we um help them fulfill that? um and supports counseling conversations happening every day with students at the center of those conversations. And then finally, the Communicate What Matters project continues the work from last year um to really better communicate with families and our community how the work we're doing already and the progress we're making connects to what they expect of us um and what matters to them. As you all know, sometimes what we do is so technical and we talk about it that way. And so there's often a disconnect that people don't really understand um the impact we're having. Um so this um this work is um just really about building trust and being more clear and transparent with our community. And with that, the DOP tour continues with Hope. Thanks, Erica. Maybe not surprisingly, I get to talk a little bit about the projects under the strategic anchor of engaged enthusiastic learners. And again, just as a reminder, this anchor is all about aligning the work of the adults in our system to uh continuously improve personalized instruction and our responsiveness to meet all of our students unique and varied needs. So, the first project you see there, I'm actually going to hold on. We're going to dive into that one in just a couple minutes. So, we're going to skip right down to that second project. increase the impact of student supports. So what we know is that every student struggles at some point in their education in some way. When they do, it's critical that they get the support they need to maintain that learning momentum and to experience success that leads to feeling confident in whatever those next steps are. Okay. Over the past 10 years, we have done a lot of really intentional work um to support students in whatever it is they may be struggling with. Part of that work [clears throat] was developing a framework to help um really get clear on the practices that we use to provide that support. This year, we thought it was really important to revisit and strengthen our shared understanding of those practices. It's been a little bit since we developed that framework. So, we wanted to make sure all of the leaders and the teachers in our system really understand what those practices look and sound like. Really, this will help us stay consistent, close any of those gaps that may exist, and ultimately support for kids that leads to increased impact whether it be academic, social, emotional or behavioral growth and development. The next project there uh is a study math and implement social studies core resources. So these content areas are not a surprise to anyone here. They were on our district operational plan last year. We made significant progress last year in both and there are of course a few next steps to take. So math moves into its second year of study. Remember when we talk about curricular reviews, it's like typically a three-year cycle. Um, math will be in its second year. We'll review our math competencies, complete a core resource review for math this year, and um, also look at some of our math sequencing at the secondary level. There were some shifts in the state standards um, provided by the Department of Education. That just requires us to take a look at some of that sequencing. We're required to fully implement those shifts to the standards in 2728. So, this gives us a year to really dig in and make sure we're all set for that. Okay. Social studies will be on its third year this year of that curricular review cycle. Uh, as you again are well aware, we completed a core resource review last year. We're bringing new social studies resources into the system this year. And so, we're uh continuing that learning and implementation of those core resources. We actually had a number of people in over the summer getting a head start um digging into the resources, learning around that social studies framework and getting their unit designs that first draft all ready to roll. So I appreciate have a lot of appreciation for the people that have come in this summer to do that work. And of course um for those that weren't able to make it in in this [clears throat] summer, we'll continue that right into the fall so everyone has a chance to do that. Um last you see complete read act requirements. So, you know, we know reading is an essential skill that supports success not only in school but in life. And families want to know that their children can read well because strong reading helps their students in all subject areas, helps them also communicate effectively and prepare for whatever next steps their life might bring. So, the Read Act, as we've talked about numerous times, was passed in May of 2023. uh we it provided us an additional opportunity to engage our teachers in some deep learning and design around strong literacy practices that also blend together that idea of designing for student engagement. Um also over the last couple of years we've implemented a couple of new literacy screeners across all grades K12 to better identify our student reading needs and to guide some of those more targeted reading interventions no matter what grade you're in. um as those needs surface. This year we'll finish the requirements formal requirements of the Read Act and that includes professional learning for our secondary English language arts teachers. Again, a number of them um engaged in that over the summer. Lots of appreciation and that will continue then on into the school year here. Um, we'll also continue to pro uh provide strong coaching and feedback um on those um practices that lead to deep levels of learning and reading to support student success. Right? This is a familiar image. It uh shows our overall work in innovative and personalized learning. Obviously, this continues to be a focus for us and we continue to scale implementation of those four core components that you see in front of you. competency based learning, learner profiles, learner maps, and flexible learning environments. The work that's happened over the past handful, although I feel like I should say ten years that we've been working on this um within each of these areas really creates the conditions for us to take a strong focus on the work and learning experiences we're designing for our students. That's that ribbon you see right through the middle of that image. Um, which brings me actually to the deeper dive that I said I would give you, and in the uh district operational plan project next year that's called engage students through innovative and personalized learning. So we have three milestones that are listed in front of you there within this project for the 2627 school year. Um when uh as I was prepping for some of these comments and developing uh the milestones for this project, something really struck me from one of the thought leaders that we that we use um for all of the work around designing student engagement. His name is Phil and has written a number of books and one thing that he wrote that I think really resonates with the milestones this year is this. There are two things that are within the dis the direct sphere of influence of our educators. The quality of the relationships they build with students and the quality of the work they design. Okay, we've used that statement multiple times as we've engaged with leadership teams and and teachers to help keep us focused on that core business of student engagement. And the first two milestones you see are focused right within those things that he named as our within our sphere of control. Our learner profiles really provide opportunities for frequent conversations between teachers and students with the ability to learn more about their interests, their sparks, their friendships, the ways in which they learn, the relationships they have with the adults in our system, and the progress they're making on their learning progressions and competencies and more. Those learner profiles have quite a bit to them. They look a little bit different K6 than they do 712. Um the milestone this year really focuses on enhancing that K6 uh learner profile to really influence the design of student work and learning experiences. 712 learner profile isn't out of the project. That actually is tied into the operations project that Jeff referenced around the pathways and some of the structures. That's where it shows up for our secondary students. Okay. Secondly, the work and learning experiences that we design for our students really need to include a thoughtful and intentional approach that sometimes you've heard us refer to that's both minds on and handson and that's what we call some of what you see that language there is some of those high leverage engagement strategies. It also really requires us to think about when and how we design student work that involves learning technology inclusive of those artificial intelligence tools. So those are all things that we'll be working on this year around that design of student work. The third milestone in the project is centered around the idea of bringing teachers together both within schools and across schools for the purpose of what we call calibrating student work. It is technical jargony like Erica had mentioned before. Um but what this does is it gives teachers opportunities to really look at the student work that we're asking them to do, right? the evidence of learning, that body of evidence that students engage in to show where they're at in their learning. It's really important for our teachers to have opportunities to look at that work and look at what is the quality of that work. What does that mean when we talk about kids being proficient or not yet on some of those uh learning progressions and competencies? So, like uh we did just have our school leadership teams in all day today for a retreat. We spent a good deal of time talking again within and across school leadership teams around this project and the work that's happening within this project um as we continue to focus uh on this in 2627. So just a couple of final thoughts um between the road show here of Jeff Erica and myself uh it provides an overview of the work that will be happening this school year within our district operational plan. um all leading us closer to that purpose and vision that Jeff started with on our strategic plan um to get kids ready for whatever their next steps are to enhance that sense of belonging for kids to be inspired and see value to what they do. Um the overview as Jeff referenced does meet the requirements along with our board meeting next month uh of our comprehensive achievement and civic readiness report formerly known as world's best workforce report. And uh finally, >> yeah, rights right off. >> Finally, we welcome anyone to head to our website where you can find a detailed version of our district operational plan, the work that we just spoke to tonight in a little bit brief format and that also includes ways in which our students, families, and community can get involved. So, we encourage people to go check that out as they have a moment to do so. >> World's best workforce was did a little bit more that MSD a presenter last Friday called it this one ker and I refused to call it cacker. I just >> no no no no acronym for this one. >> No acronym but it doesn't roll up the tongue so now you have it. >> Yeah. >> But thank you to to both Hope and Erica for their work in the presentation and more importantly to both of them and um all of our other team members and all everybody through throughout last winter and spring. We're really working on putting this this together, our district operational plan. So that question >> I have I have a question. Um and I feel like I'm shaking the cobwebs off of summer. So I know you guys have been deep in this for weeks, but for me I'm like, wait, what? So if you need to answer this, if it's too detailed, you can have me answer it later or you can answer it later. Um I had a question you had mentioned about inserting screening um for reading which I think is great like obviously the sooner we catch it the better. I'm just wondering like in two questions. So in in real time when we talk about screening how how early or how often are we screening? Like is it two four and six? Is it K12? like I I just like in real life, how does that play out? >> Yep. Yep. So, our kindergarten, first, second, and third grade students are screened with a reading screener um called uh Dibbles, the dynamic indicators of b of basic early literacy skills. I think if I got that acronym rolling off my tongue. Um and that happens uh three times a year, fall, winter, and spring. Got it. >> Okay. So, we're looking at growth in that way. um and and any other areas that may surface. Maybe I'll look good in the fall, in the winter. Oh, something popped up here. Let's make sure we're we're addressing that and working through that. >> That's awesome. Um in grades four through 12, again, as part of the read act, last year was the first year we implemented a new reading screener called the CAPY. Doesn't matter, I guess, maybe what it's called, but just that's how how we refer to it here internally anyway. And that is um uh uh in the fall our students uh in those grades have taken the MAP reading test. That's kind of an initial highle look and then any students who are scoring below a p a specific percentile on the map last year for the first time then engaged in this capy uh screener which is much u it still goes into all of the areas of reading but actually helps drill down a little bit at that secondary level like hey we still have some kiddos who are really struggling with decoding multi-elabic words right so it goes beyond just Can can they read and answer questions? Comprehension, right? But really, when it's indicating that that might be something that a student may be struggling with, it gets us a little bit more fine grain with that. Now, that's not everything. Once we identify that, then there's more diagnostic work we do, of course, is when when we're designing interventions for students. Um, and and we have and that that is done the CAP is done once a year um at those grade levels. Um, as we go into this next year, we are going to have just not all kids who are getting targeted intervention in reading at grades 41 12, but some kids based on their needs and where they fall on that, we will actually administer some parts of that CAPT specific to the areas they're working on so we can better track that growth over time that way as well. >> Super helpful. Thank you for that. >> Yeah, the other question I had was around the um K6 learner profiles. >> And I'm just curious, I think the language that was on the slide said something to the effect of enhanced use of K12 profiles. Y >> um I'm just curious like what does that feel like for the teacher? Like enhanced from what and how they um I I'm trying to be thoughtful about my statement is teachers have a lot going on already and of course I want more enhanced everything. More enhance it. Yes. Just curious like what that sort of in a a day in dayout moment uh how that feels. >> Yeah. So um at that elementary level it it looks and sounds a little bit different from school to school, right? That learner profile there's multiple components to it and it's housed actually in um a platform that our teachers use also to track competency and learning progression progress, right? Um and it also includes a lot of those qualitative things that I mentioned. Hey, let's talk about your friends. Let's talk about um h how school is going. What are things that are engaging to you? What are not? Like all sorts of components to that. So, there are more there are more specific times where teachers will have some one-on-one time with kids to just revisit. Those are populated, you know, for year-over-year. They stay the the information doesn't go away when the kids go from first to second grade. It stays there over time. And then in those conversations and then in the conferencing conversations that um teachers have with families, they might glean some other things that they'll go in and kind of tweak and add. And I think uh what it what it looks and sounds like for teachers is there's a little bit of time doing that, but then thinking about as they're designing the work, right? They might have this overall unit design, but as they're thinking about, you know, my 22 first graders in front of me right now, this is what I know about them. This is the sparks. I'm going to tailor this a little bit um because I've got a group that really is gonna hit it hard when they know that this this this reading is about soccer, right? Or things like that. So, it's not individual lesson plans by any means. It's customizing really is what we talk about a little bit based on what you know about the the who is what we call it, the who in front of you. And those learner profiles really help us do that. As kids get older, those learner profiles become really part of a student's portfolio, like as far as who am I as a learner? And it really helps kids as they're transitioning to those next steps even beyond high school. I always remember my son who's 22 now and going into his senior year of college. Like one of his revelations was like, well, I what I have learned about myself as a learner is that I really enjoy procrastinating and doing this at the last minute. And but those were intentional things that he learned throughout his experience that then help helped him actually be more successful when he got to college and in California by the way. So we were nowhere near him and had all the flexibility in the world. So that's the intent of those and what that looks and sounds like um for teachers. on demand as they think about it varies certainly um school by school but mostly we're really wanting them to understand who the student is to help them influence the design of the work and ultimately for the student to understand who they are so that equips them as they take their next steps out of the walls of spring >> I would just add on that last one those are the kinds of things that we've been working on people what are you doing all summer? Part of the reason Hope's able to answer that is because she didn't just all of a sudden start thinking about that now. That's been throughout the summer. And if we've been looking at that, when we say how do we enhance things, it's like it's can never just be continuing to pile on, right? So sometimes just as simple as we have people who are already doing this really well. So how do we create the conditions so that other people can learn from them about how they're doing it? Sometimes it's like we might have to continue did today in school leadership team meetings about what needs to come off the plate because bring something on sometimes things need to leave the system and then the other thing is one of the things we've been continuously um advocating for for years is like if we're really wanting people to design so one thing is designing units it's another thing is hope spoke and this is why I thought of this is when you're getting those profiles and now you're actually want to design the learning experience dayto day sometimes people just need more time to do that so how do we create some more periodic basis. It might be every other week. It might be once a month. Whatever on top of what we've already created in the schedule where people might get a half day where they can just their focus can be designing this learning. Um and that's also so connects to both that project that spoke to and the one that I spoke to about within operations about how we looking at how we use our structures and systems. So those are some of the things we've been working on. I I just really appreciate how much getting a little window into the strategy and the forward thinking and not like just worrying about the next most important thing like I feel like a lot of other districts do. It feels like it feels like we're so far out projecting ahead what's the next need and it's like refreshing. It's so refreshing and it builds a lot of confidence in me as a board member but also as a parent and a you know community member too on what what our money is going toward what we're working toward and such confident people. So thank you. >> I liken it to a game of chess. They're always thinking two three steps ahead. You know you always know what your next move is but you never know if that move's going to work. So you're always thinking okay what's the next one after that or what do I do to counter that? So that's awesome. Oh, and by the way, Dr. Ron, for your son to recognize that at the age 22, >> I applaud him. [laughter] >> I'll pass that on. >> I know there's some who are still struggling, who are decades older, who are still struggling to understand that, but I do have a couple questions. Um, >> for the Reed Act, we're kind of wrapping that up. >> Um, are there continuing education type of courses that teachers will be engaged in uh around the Redact or discontinued. >> Yeah. So, one of the requirements was this was a a one of choose one of three specific professional learning approaches. Um, we we chose one. That's what what we've been working on for the last two years with all of our teachers. So again, as we close this year, we'll uh formally close out that requirement, but we're never done working with teachers um on strong literacy practices, right? So um the other piece with the read that's maybe um unknown or good good to remind people of is part of the readact legislation was around higher ed requirements as well. So while we were all doing this at E12 actually all of the professional learning the the higher ed institutions in their teacher prep programs were also doing the same learning. So as new teachers graduate and come in they will all have had that already. So we still are tracking people moving in from other states or you know from different different careers maybe a second career educator coming in. So that is something that um we are very much on top of and tracking. So we'll make sure every um every teacher comes in gets that initial deep learning that we have everyone has had. >> Oh, okay. So even teachers moving. So we're taking on the the responsibility for teachers maybe moving to another state. >> Yep. >> To make sure that they're up to speed on >> Absolutely. Yeah. Teachers moving within the within the state of Minnesota, they will have gone through the same requirements, right? So we We're we're keeping tabs on all of that and making sure we provide that initial deep learning for anyone new coming into the system where we don't have the body of evidence that they had it elsewhere. >> Cool. I was not aware of that. >> My last question is on uh calibration across schools. >> Um I I I if I heard you right that's across the different campuses that we have. Does that also include uh high school visiting elementary middle school? Because what I heard is there was a lot of value in getting high school teachers out of the building to to see what's actually being taught in our elementary schools and middle and intermediate. So just curious if that's a part of that calibration also. >> Yeah. So uh that particular milestone really looks at that idea of the student work and so there's value in doing that both within grade level and across grade levels, right? That's what we call horizontal alignment and vertical alignment in the education jargon world, right? So um we as that milestone starts we're going to start just within schools right um because we're not going to take it all at one at one fell swoop right so we'll start within schools both within grade level and across grade levels and then as the year progresses have opportunities for people to to do that like get together and engage in that dialogue. We already do that at some level as our K12 teachers come together and work through um competencies and learning progressions, right? What they aren't doing with that yet is actually bringing examples of student work to that. So this this is essentially the next step of that. >> Yep. >> Awesome. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Erica. All right. Uh moving on to effective operations improve our effective management of human financial and physical resources monthly financial report for May and June 2026. Miss Amy Schultz. >> Good evening. So we are a few months removed from the month of May. So it always seems like that was a really long time ago. Um so right now in the business office we are really working on closing last year which is why tonight is really an update on May. We tend to not bring June at this time because we are doing a lot of work in closing out year end which is June 30th. So a lot of entries that go between funds and things like that. So we tend to skip June for the moment knowing that our audit is our true June month and year end. So we'll cover the month of May today and doing those same reports we cover each month which first one is our cash basis basis treasures report. So you can see with this one we had a a month where we have a lot more money coming in than going out. That is very common in the month of May. So on the receipt side, we have in May and June tax advances from the county. So if they have started to make those first collections of taxes, we get larger advances. So $5.5 million came in in May. You'll get that exact same amount in June as well. Um so these are two of our bigger months for tax receipts. And then in addition to that is also, which is unusual, a large state where another seven half million dollars came in for state aids and those hit just the general fund and community services fund. State aids also come in for food service. They come in through a whole different system. So there was another half a million dollars there. So it was a large month for receipts. Dispersements on the other hand is a very normal month for what we typically see in May. So with that we finished the month of May with just under $70 million in cash. We will now start to see that number go down as we do each year. June is a very large month for dispersements, so we will see that drop quite a bit. And then July and August are slower receipt months. So we will continue to see that drop over the next several months as we do each year. Uh statement of revenues. This is our receipts for the month of May as well as year to date our budget in May and then where that compares to the past few years as far as receipts as percentage of budget. So with this one, our operating funds, which are our general food service and community service, are very consistent with what we have seen in previous years. On our debt service, that one looks to be quite a bit ahead. Normally, our budget is much smaller in our debt service fund, but with the refunding that we did back in November, that amount was so large that as a percentage of our budget, it's just making it look like we're a lot farther ahead [clears throat] um due to that large dollar amount. So without that, we are really with where we would expect to be each year. So on the statement of expenses, this is the same report just done on the expense side where we break out the general fund a little bit more. Um within that we are right in line on a from a compensation which is salaries and benefits. All of those other lines can kind of move around throughout the year depending on how people allocated their budget and where the money was spent throughout that year. So right now it does look like we're just a little bit ahead in the general fund compared to last year, more similar to the previous year. A couple areas that we noted that are just a little bit ahead of budget from where we've been were in purchase services. Um and that was kind of a combination of transportation expenses and pair of professional substitutes. So that's just one area we'll look at as we look at our overall budget. But within that, I mean, there's nothing shocking. Other ones are lower than expected. So with that, this is the last report. Then other ones are very similar to previous year, but that is the last report we'll give you for the 202526 school year. The next time we'll come back with these will be in the fall as we start up and then hopefully giving updates on the audit which they have started their work. Um and they come back in about five weeks to kind of do the full rest of the audit. Are there any questions? >> Any questions? I have I just have one quick question. Um, under general health and safety. >> Yes. >> Um, what for 2526 143% just curious. I'm trying to figure remember what that was. >> Yeah, health and safety could be any number of things. It could be a year that we had um inspections done in the month of May that maybe were done in June. So, sometimes it's literally just something is done. >> Um, and health and safety as a percentage is a really large percentage, but as dollar amounts >> as our overall budget. Um, it's a very small amount. >> Um, but yeah, there's a lot of health and safety things that we do have going on. There was no major project, nothing significant. Um, just kind of the standard day >> walk through those health and safety inspections. >> Okay. Yeah, it just caught it just grabbed my attention. I thought I I couldn't remember if we had something going on. Any other comments, questions? >> I was I was just going to make a quick comment. I just want to because this is wrapping up the uh fiscal year 26 kind of last presentation when we have the audit that we'll wrap it up. But I just want to acknowledge the work that Amy and the team do because they do a great job. Amy comes up and she makes it sound so simple. What's not is she briefly goes um you know and concisely goes through this. But I also just want to bring to your attention like we've already started the audit for fical year 26. There's districts that still have not completed their fiscal year 25 audit um in the metro area. So it's you know it's just something I don't want people to take for granted is that um our business office does a great job and I think it's much of what we were able to talk about the things that are happening across the district in previous presentation as a result. So I just wanted to acknowledge that. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you Amy. Moving on to superintendent report. >> Y so as this comes up that question that talking to Mike Callahan today, one of our principles and people so what you do all summer and you know there's a lot going on in the summer in school districts. We don't just turn on the lights on that first day of school. So just to share some of the things and I think we have the wrong presentation up there. come up. We're going to walk through some of the things that are have been happening and will be happening. So, it's both a look back throughout the summer and what's coming ahead. Thank you very much back there for getting that up. All right. So, first off, we had Discovery Days kiddos. So, there's been a lot of learning happening happening within the walls of our um our schools and the grounds of our schools throughout the summer. So, water day for our discovery days. And a lot of these slides, I'll let you read the uh descriptions and just take in the fun pictures. So, Park Terrace hosted summer school and we had our Spark summer showcase recently and all kinds of fun games and problem solving and a lot of kids involved with that. So, see Parker made another appearance and some of those summer stats 3 50 plus high school and 400 plus K8 students continue their learning at summer school. We had over 9 nearly a thousand students who participated in 30 different athletic camps and clinics and nearly a thousand of our kids 15 plus enrichment and spark camps by over 550 students. Then we had another 160 students who spent the summer with learning ventures child care schools were busy throughout the summer. This is kind of fun. So, congrats to Bill Nice who at the HOSA International Leadership Conference earned the International Legacy of Leadership Award for 38 years of leadership program. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. Pretty awesome. Our student anglers, so the fishing club, they continue to uh do well at tournaments throughout the summer. I should have them show me how to catch fish. I have not had I've had very little luck this summer. So, this is one that's kind of fun. So, Spring Lake Park [music] School's communications team, they were honored with the gold medallion award from the National School Publications Association. So only 15 winners were selected nationally from among7 107 competitive countries. They also won six awards of excellence for publications in digital media. So features in writing, marketing or brand extension. Um but I think there's little things we take for granted. It's just like I said I didn't want us to take for granted the business side. But one is as simple as this presentation. You see Parker running there. Um, and it's like as I was watching the presentations earlier tonight and these super reports all the time, there's so much thought they put into it. They never miss an opportunity to make sure that they're putting an amazing um face telling stories of our district. Um, they just do a great job and even when it's something that isn't as positive, they make sure that we're still clearly communicating that message to our public. So, in a nutshell, I appreciate the quality of their work. They're so professional and I just sent a text to Erica just to tell her At the same time, all our presentations and everything that we do, our messages that go out to the community, they're they're super professional and at the same time they're fun and reflect the young people that we work with. So, I feel like they just hit the mark all the time. So, and I think and we had to tell her that we were going to share these uh award awards that they won. So, we had a super hot day this summer. Panther Foundation's golf fundraiser raised 12,000 for athletics and activities. Panther Stadium and gym are getting their scoreboard facelift over the summer. So, community fundraisers are helping to make this um enhancements possible. So, see before and after. It's going to be a fun upgrade and experience for our kids members. Now I said looking forward. So it's kind of once you hit August, it always feels like you just um you know you get to going like this. You get to the top of the roller coaster and then you just glide out. That's what it's like. So last week we had our district leadership team retreat. Today we had our principal and school leadership teams in for the day. Later this week our school learning and equity team retreat. So there's going to be teachers back in all of our schools as they're working to get ready for their colleagues coming back. They'll be working with the principles for those three days. Um, next week we have our new employee welcome and orientation coming in and then uh workshop week the 24th to 27th. Hopefully many of you will be able to make it to our kickoff on August 24th and we have that first day of school this year on August 31st. It's coming quick. Uh, what time is it? 7:30 pick up. Thank you. >> We'll get you that get that for you at the work session. about so family timeline. So what our families are going to experience is you see I walked through some of the summer school and summer experiences. Uh last week the districtwide school year kickoff message was sent um welcome letters sent from the school to home email and home mail and email. Uh this week, Kinder Camp August 18th to 20th. That's a cool thing that was started a number of years ago to to help that transition. Wednesday school newsletters begin on August 19th. So a couple weeks before school starts, those newsletters start. Meet and greets at each school be on the 25th and 26th of August. And then you can see it's kind of a staggered start. So basically everybody in grades K9 will start on August 31st. And then our grades 10 12 students start on September 1st and then throughout September and October there'll be um meet and greet is really about just having your kids get welcome back to school right but then September October there'll be those experiences where you can learn more about what's happening with that then there's the back to school hubschool.org back to school. Um, all the information a family member or a parent may need is available there. And then we have our start your engines which should become an annual event that's really fun on September 12th that we'll be kicking off. One of the things I do want the other one I want to share I'm just kind of like singing the praises of some of the team members tonight but um is and I sent you all and she doesn't know it but I texted you all Colleen um in her glory presenting to our and uh and Megan I don't even know if she knows but Megan and J took that picture our high school principal and sent it but then later that night so she said that picture I sent it to you and I haven't shared this yet but she sent it and says feeling bully fans are proud tonight 50th class reunion 1976 50 plus people were there they were so impressed by our facility what we offer pathways programs one is a special is a former special educ special ed educator for the last 12 years of his career. Carter Blue, another lives in South Carolina and falls follows all things SLP on Facebook and says he sees our brand as far away as South Carolina. Um, talk of educators from 50 years ago that impacted their lives still today and they want to run. So, um, and I don't know how many more of those do you have coming this fall classroom? Three more. So, again, I talked about Erica telling the one way does that another way with all of our all kinds of community partners and in this case for our alumni. So thank you for doing that. >> And that wraps my reports. All right. Thanks Jeff. Moving on to action items. Uh can I get a motion for adopt proposed policy modifications? So move by Henon second. Was it Marilyn? Okay. Forsber to approve the adoption of the following policies with proposed modifications. Schoolboard policy 208 states if policies modified with minor changes that do not affect the substance of the policy or because of the legal change over which the school board has no control. The modified policy may be approved at one meeting at the discretion of the school board. And we have listed 12 different policies that will be updated. Any discussion? All in favor, please say I. >> Those opposed? Motion passes. Moving on to board forum and reports. We'll start on this side. >> Just going to share that. It was kind of cool. I mean, I don't really have anything from a school clearly, but um Kade this summer was able to secure a summer job that was it's like a town home maintenance person assistant because of his knowledge with the trades program. So, it was really great and it was kind of fun for him, too. And even my husband hired him to repair some things of the jobs that he was working on because he trusted him enough with what he had learned. And so, he was able to use those that I mean, it's probably not what he's going to go into full time in his life, but it was really nice to get a good paying summer job because of his knowledge of what he learned. So, well done on that program, too. Awesome. >> Staff for these presentations. I mean, this is just awesome to me. You know, I say I'm of a dying breed because I started my education in a one room schoolhouse with one teacher teaching eight grades and teachers at that time were required to have six weeks of summer school to be teachers. So when I see this happening and all these things that are with kids is so amazing. So it's a thank you. Um 916 had their meeting last Wednesday and some contracts and a report that their reading and math scores are both up from the previous year. Um the retention is up which is always a good thing because by having more staff they can accommodate more students and there's the waiting lists are much less than they [clears throat] have been before. So um that's that's the current story. >> Well that's good news. It is >> very good >> because I think for a while they were they were >> having some issues but >> well they still struggle struggle finding enough education assistance but um things are better and the program that was done with Mano State people who were currently on their staff but did not have the requirements to be teachers. Seven of them graduated from that program and all seven have been employed at 960. That's great. >> Kind of a grow your own program that has worked out very well. >> Absolutely. >> Um just a couple things. I So speaking of sons, um mine just finished his first year of college um in the springtime and since we haven't met, so this is a quick story which is I how the [clears throat] first year went and his answer was I thought high school was harder. now he goes to the you know so I you could argue maybe that's not a good answer but it made me feel like he was really well prepared for the level of academic rigor and um work output that was required and his grade showed it too and so that was really like a different kind of prepared but it I felt that too. Um, my other quick update is, as you all know, I am a representative on MISLAP, which is the liquid acid fund that our school district as well as 90% of the other school districts in the state use as um kind of a holding tank for our money before we write the checks and it gains interest. So, I serve as one of the trustees and I went to the quarterly meeting just last week. Um there is a little bit of turnover happening on the fund's primary team uh and but they're doing a really good job in terms of transition and succession. Um the the investments themselves have been doing well. Uh overall we're at 3.6 and 3.52 for the two main buckets of money which for this for this window that we are in is um better than um our our peers. Um, and as the team is transitioning, a lot of it's for good news, like someone's retiring and you know, there's it's it's a natural set of turnover that's happening. But anyway, that is coming and so starting to meet new members of the team and we'll be spending some time with them, going deeper on their operations and stuff in the coming days and get more scoop on that. >> Anyone else? I don't really have an update. I just want to thank the staff for their continuous hard work for our students. I appreciate that. And Marilyn, I want to be you when I grow up. >> Thank you. [laughter] >> Anything else? Let's move to adjournment. Can I get a motion? So moved by Vala, >> second by Hennon to adjourn the meeting at 6:59. Any discussion? All in favor, please say I. >> Those opposed. Meeting is adjourned.