all right I'd like to call to order the July 9th 202 2024 meeting of the Columbia height school board and we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge algi to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all oh do the roll call please yes uh granin I Palmer here Palmer madas here H here Petway here Mueller here superintendent stck here sorry our mission statement is creating worlds of opportunity for each and every learner all belong all succeed our core values are Community Excellence collaboration Integrity respect courage and Innovation next we have our agenda approval adjustments and announcements can I get a motion to approve the agenda so moved Julie and a second second second by Mary any discussion hearing none we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed abstain motion passes um next we have our announcements on um August 14th again this is not a typo this is accurate Wednesday August 14th at 5:00 p.m. will be the subcommittee on policy in the community room August 14th Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. will be subcommittee on community engagement in the training room um August 14th Wednesday at 6: p.m. will be our board meeting in the community room back to Tuesdays Tuesday August 20th at 5:30 will be our work session here in the community room and August 27th Tuesday at 6 PM will be the board meeting um in the community room I would also like to add that today is Julie hul's birthday so um on our announcements Happy Birthday Happy Birthday Julie thank you for spending your birthday with the board we appreciate you um next we have communication to the board um at this time any Citizen May briefly address the school board um I won't read the entire statement today because there is no one in the room so assuming no one is dressing the board okay good um next we have our consent agenda the consent agenda consists of the Personnel report from July 9th the treasures report from May 2024 the msba membership renewal for 2024 2025 the minutes um from the June 25th meeting and the second policy reading for policy 414 mandated reporting of child neglect and 415 mandated reporting of M treatment of vulnerable adults can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda moved Jessica in a second second second by Michelle any discussion you now proceed the vote all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed abstain motion carries thanks we have discussion reports information items and we'll start with reports from members of the board and we will start with Mary okay um well not too much um I was unable to make it to the last meeting because I was flying in from Washington DC which was exciting uh so since our last since my last meeting um I attended the parade at Jim parade which is a lot of fun and the fireworks um huge shout out to everybody in the community who makes that such an amazing time um and I also had an opportunity to speak with Chief Markham there and just say how wonderful um the officers were during the parade and then um into the evening as well it looked like everybody was having a lot of fun so big shout out there otherwise lots of conversations with families and students um um and elected officials about how last year went and what um people's hopes are for the future for the next school year coming up so pretty excited about that um and I think that is the of my report today great thank you Mary Michelle yep just a few for me as well um I also attended the janur parade and Carnival and multiple nights um the fireworks were awesome um just got some good family time in just hanging out in the neighborhood I also went back to Merin on Sunday for their um for the firefighters uh pancake breakfast um where we assisted um mayor Amad Marcus simila in being in the dunk tank and um children have great arms they were they were getting her um uh Rachel James also participated along with another Community member um they were all great Sports and uh it was a lot of fun to go there my daughter went and she had her friend where there were being like cheerleaders and standing right next to the dunk tank so they can get wet too so it was a great time we hit the splash pad after that it was just kind of a um a weekend for like the parks and like just Columbia Heights fun um so that was great um I also had the U opportunity to participate in a panel at convergence um with our mayor um and uh Roseville one of roseville's um school board members Curtis Johnson representative Feist and Laurel Denine um and the the topic of it was elected officials unveil the power of geek leadership and it was a lot of fun um to do that with our community members even though we were talking to people who may not have been it was fun doing that together and we got to bond a little bit um over a little bit more than just politics and we got to show our geeky sides and um what keeps us going and things that you know we reference for uh motivation uh so that was a lot of fun it was just a great weekend but that's all I had Jessica than I just have one thing to report and that's as uh a parent I got to take my 9-year-old over to the high school last night for the um parent and child pasta making class that was led by our food science teacher Autumn truskowski um through Community Ed um and that was really fun we made fetuccini and spaghetti um and uh really enjoyable um and a great opportunity too because my son was actually the oldest kid there um most of the kids were preschool age so I got to meet some families with um young Highlanders in the community so that was really cool um and for anybody who's listening or anyone at the board that might be interested um they're also having another cooking class uh parent and child cooking class um on August 21st they're going to be doing pizza making um and they're going to be choosing toppings right from our blooming Heights uh Garden so that's pretty cool awesome thanks awesome thanks Julie um I had the opportunity to meet with um superintendent stenvik over the a March and April expenses um we went through those I had several questions just because I'm picking some different you know the the expenses now are are getting more common to me so as I look through them I'm picking out stuff that just looks weird and and going what's this why do we use you know why do we pay for this and um so th those kind of questions come up and there's nothing been unusual or you know I think we talked about maple syrup um which um superintendent St stenvik is going to be looking into um and then there's um the May report came in this board packet I already have selected my samples for that packet and have supplied that so we'll be setting up a meetings shortly to review those um and then last week um I met with the sd39 Republicans and gave them an update on our strategic plan how to get involved um and answered a lot of questions about school Finance believe it or not so that's what I did thank you Julie um for my report um I had a conversation with a a parent or uh yes about with a parent about um the girls basketball program um and then I too um got to participate in the jambur parade um lots of fun especially not getting poured on this year um lot just so much fun seeing our community members um students and everybody so excited to have a Highlander tattoo like they're they love those and that's a lot temporary tattoos what's temporary temporary tatto temporary tattoos yes temporary Highlander tattoos and children and adults alike appreciate a good Highlander tattoo so thank you um next we have the superintendent's report in correspondent superintendent simic thank you uh yesterday I attended the Regional Council of Mayors meeting with mayor Marcus simula the council invites superintendents to join their Mayors for networking and conversation each July we had a robust discussion on a variety of important topics including the B smart um safe gun storage organization new cell phone policy um artificial intelligence and student screen time budget shortfalls and student absenteeism were all topics that we discussed uh I found it really helpful to hear how City and and school districts are partnering and collaborating across the region um and was able to have really good conversations on our drive home with mayor Marcus simula about um some continued collaboration that we can um either continued or renewed uh or brand new collaboration that we can do so I've also met with chair Mueller and chair grin for the chair meeting met with member H and was able to have conversations with all of you who participated in the Jamber parade thanks okay thank you well Mary and I both forgot that we were at the chair meeting we were minut ago so thank you for mentioning that um next we will move on to radon testing with director Henkin the exciting topic but important I think it's interesting right thank you chair Mueller me excuse me members of the board and superintendent stck uh just give me a second to share my screen got to hide this panel very good okay so district rate on testing so um in the state of Minnesota we are not mandated to District radon testing but it is something that um is highly recommended and also um necessary for us to rece if we want to receive health and safety dollars for it um we have some steps to go through and and so it is funded um through levying um with health and safety which is packaged with ltfm um and so um we do Rite on testing in our buildings every five years and I'll kind of go through that and where we're at with that um so again our Mission columb Heights Public School is creating worlds of opportunity for each and every learner all belong all succeed um and our core values of community Excellence collaboration Integrity respect uh courage and Innovation so this isn't a governance uh there's not it's not necessary for board approval it's just necessary that we inform the board that we've done it and um if there are any results to report um so there's a St Minnesota statute that guides us with this statute 123b .571 um again I reference the health and safety dollars and uh we do have a plan a procedure plan um you know that lays out what we do um there's two types of testing that we can do in this in this is short-term testing and there's long-term testing both of them have the same window um it's just defined in statute uh and uh for completing the tests we do short-term testing um mainly because we find it can be much more accurate um in the sense that uh you know we we do it in February usually is when we do it in the winter months um but if you do long-term testing um there's those testing equipment is in the spaces longer it tends to get more tempered with it tends to disappear um so short term can just be much more accurate um so we in our procedure you know if we choose our we take our choice of what short or long term um and we work with IA consulting company that provides the test for us they do other things but radon is one of the things they test for us um when we test the building we're testing uh the entire building but we're only testing throughout that building the main main occupied spaces so we're not testing every closet storage closet in the building we're testing spaces that are occupied um we do report the radon test results to Minnesota Department of Health as mandated um when we do this testing and um once I present it to the school board which I'm doing right now um Alex uh the director of or manager of buildings grounds will submit that um to mdh and then we make the test results available through the high school office so there's a binder in the high school office that has the test results um this year's uh testing was at three sites um we used to do all five or we were on a schedule of doing all five sites at a time but when we did the bond referendum we added did additions onto the buildings when we do the additions onto the buildings we retest at those sites um so now the high school and North Park on a different schedule than uh the Middle School Highland Elementary and valy Elementary which is fine um and uh so we had 212 radon detectors uh installed 85 at Columbia Academy 44 at Highland 45 at Valley View so of the 212 detectors um none of the uh rooms um received a higher level than four Picto cures which is that threshold um so they're all well within that that Mark um so no additional mitigation is required um if we would have had a room above that Mark um then we would have looked at mitigating factors um which typically is moving the air um so reasons why if we have radon in a in a location U reasons why it may be high is one the HVAC um isn't providing that fresh air exchange like it's supposed to so this is just another way of checking the system or two um when the ventilation system shuts down at night or over the weekend um that air can become stagnant it just sits there there's no circulation and so if the room needs to be mitigated which in this case we don't have any that do we would then mitigate through um in implementing a procedure with our air circulation and H pack so that's it for the testing um so we've completed it um we've reported it uh there's nothing that we have to do additionally because nothing was above the threshold of Po four Picto CES and curies and uh so um this uh results at each building will be by room um will be put in a binder um like the previous results um and they're available for anybody to look at thank you Dr hankin questions Mary I have two questions thank you so much um I know you said that there is now a difference um we used to do five and now we have it kind of split is there a long-term cost difference in doing them um three one year and two the next or is it pretty negligible pretty negligible um I mean it's you know perhaps if we would have done all five this year instead of doing two two years from now um um our costs through IA might be a little bit less but um it's it's negligible so I I don't um have any any issues keeping it the same and trying to move it forward and spending more money to try to get them on the same cycle yeah thank you um and then my second question is do you know what the um the level is for Radon like what are we like what what would constitute over um the amount anything over that four Mark um is what's what's considered um a number that needs to be mitigated and mitigation just means for the most part in in all circumstances I mean we have it Minnesota and radon and there's some areas where houses and basements they have systems installed um to mitigate the radon and they're just moving air bringing fresh air and circulating that air um that keeps that number low enough um where it's not a factor um or at this point they're saying it's not a factor I should say I mean um you know that I don't think that Mark's mve for a very long time so I think we're we we live with ra on a long time and um we're just more cognizant of it now and and that's why we're even though we're not mandated to do it we do it um here um and it's in our district we have have had rooms um or areas that have tested higher than that four before um in this scenario we didn't have any that tested higher wonderful thank you so much thank you other questions J um so do we have any rooms that are close to that four because when I was doing some research on raon it's EPA said no level of radon is really safe but that for I don't even know where they came up with the four so do we have any rooms that are close and then um I know in our home in our basement we had a radon issue when we first bought the house 5 years ago and so we had it inspected and then they did something with the flooring or whatever to suck air in or whatever and so there's these monitors in there um I guess it's a two-part question then do we have any um rate on that's close to the four and then do we have any of those um detectors that just are there all the time that make sure that during the year um if it's starting to go above we're able to find it cuz that I know in my home I have that so um I'll start with the second part um if we have rooms that are above four we do long-term uh monitoring so you know we'll do equipment that um is you know it's an actual larger box that sits in the room and monitors over a longer period of time and it monitors constantly so we can see overnight what's happening during the day what's happening and really that's to make sure that what we're doing for m ation is sufficient and working um but um to do long-term testing we don't do that in um like that on on a scale um we don't do that randomly throughout the the building um throughout the year we just test on our schedule um and do we have rooms that we have rooms that range um I'd have to look at the test results I don't I don't know for sure I just know for sure that we didn't have any over four um you know we absolutely have rooms that are zero um you didn't have anything and we absolutely have rooms that um are probably in the two or three I mean we've like I said we've had raid on here and we've had rooms that have tested higher before at buildings um and uh um and again we you know we've mitigated it and and it's not her our testing um necessary to do anything more with it so you don't have like one of those little gauges like I have a gauge in my basement that tells me if it's you know not no but again that's something that um after we if a room wer were to test that's installed or put in a space but it's not a permanent installation it's just a monitoring to make sure that what we're doing is working and um once we've proven that that is um through a series of tests then um we don't have it anymore so thank you Jessica I just had one question that hasn't already been answered and that's just to confirm the the types of rooms where this was uh where the testing was done because it says all rooms add are below grade so does that mean we're monitoring all of the rooms that are on the like first floor of the building and the basement all occupied spaces okay so so okay yep so we're we're monitoring occupied spaces okay um and uh it's just just closets that we're not monitoring okay sure I'm just thinking Some of our basement spaces are not utilized by people really at all so if it's a storage room it's not it's not considered an occupied space because somebody's not sitting in there for a long period of time um if somebody was um you know if we you know put a desk in um you know the cage storage room at the high school so somebody could work in there while they're pulling files or something we'd have to consider that an occupied space and we would have to test it as an occupied space even though they're not permanently in there there there's an attention for them to be somebody to be in there for a long period of time um but most of our storage rooms all of our storage rooms aren't that way sure okay thank you other questions thank you Dr anig thank you next we'll move on to our action idence um see yeah um stay a while stay a little while um although you don't have you know there's a whole lot here we have one action item um which is our policy 714 our fund balance so um we will start with a motion to move this forward and then um have discussion after we have a motion can I get a motion to approve the revised policy 714 fund balances so moved Mary in a second second second by Michelle any discussion and I can start with the discussion um I want to thank the board and director Henkin and superintendent syic this has been a little bit of a process um getting here but an important process um policy 714 fund balances um was um proposed some re I proposed some revisions and met with director Henkin and thank you for all the work that you did for actually putting my thoughts on paper and in policy um we reviewed other District's policies um really did some research to figure out what was going to be best for our district um the revisions then went through the policy subcommittee um and then we also um had them uh discussed at a work session a very good healthy conversation at work session and then were presented our last meeting as an informational item and now we're here um at the um at the meeting for the action items and so definitely a little bit different process than what our policies normally go through um you know earlier today we had our policies on the consent agenda um but this was important um and really looking at some of the changes in this policy which are are procedural changes for us as a district um the proposed changes um that are are noted in the policy is changing our fund balance range from 6 to 12% to 10 to 18% um the former policy also said that the goal the policy was not to be at the top of the fund balance um uh r range um this policy says it is the goal to be at the top of the fund balance range um in addition um the the previous fund balance policy permitted or had the language in there that that certain dollars could be assigned um as practice it's not something we had been doing as a district this policy does state that you know we are looking at at assigning um the funds for special education English language learning and capital projects um which are three areas that as a district for us we see es and flows um and can really impact student learning um and staff's ability to do their jobs um well so really taking that into consideration so those are um and I think really working as a as a group to add language in here to make sure that we're reviewing that policy that um that the assignments are you know coming to the board um and that that there is you know room in there that if we have another pandemic or major you know enrollment decline that there is um you know revision or a look at terms of what is the fund balance and do we drop below that fund balance policy at that time because what we don't want to do is is inhibit learning to be at a point just because we're concentrating on the fund balance um and the 10 to 18% came in terms of um how that was derived is really looking at um what do we need to not have to be just one incident away from statutory operating debt or one incident away from cash flow borrowing how do we have those dollars but but at the same time not padding our our fund balance so that we're taking dollars that we're receiving from our community from our taxpayers from the state and just squirreling it away that's not the plan the plan is to use the dollars on our students that are here today on the staff that are here today um but still having funds available when an emergency comes up or when we have es and flows in enrollment or uh you know many new English language Learners that come in or change in someone's um special education needs so that we can we can adjust and adapt to that so um trying to summarize you know director Henkin if you have anything else to add um to the to the discussion on the re revised policy um no not I I think you covered it well and and um you know you know we've we've lived um you know that incredibly low fund balance and and that you know happened through the pandemic and and and it's hard to be in that position and and uh um for everybody at every level and uh just incredibly important for us to put ourselves in a position where we don't have to be back in that that point um when something major happens means a lot and um I think this will do that any other discussion Jessica um I expressed my support for the changes at the last meeting in detail so I don't have much to add to your great overview um but I would just agree that I think that um these changes strike a very good balance between our fiduciary obligations of of care and good stewardship for for our community that's here right now um and then I just wanted to add to I did have an outstanding question at the last meeting that had since been answered and so I wanted to just say something about that publicly which is that again when looking at what that range should be try to look not only at other districts but also um at what um finance officer organizations really look to as best practices um and so I had a question about where that range gets us in terms of months of expenses because the best practices that um I found really speak to um keeping a fund balance um of no less than two months of oper operating expenses um and so since that time we got information as a board that that range does put us well within that best practice um and I just thought it was important to um state that here and then also thank director henkins for that additional information I think that just really bolsters um my personal support um for um that particular uh change to the range of fund balance um and then I also just wanted to express my appreciation to chair Mueller um and and uh to staff in in really thinking this through in a very thoughtful way bringing it to the board um and being open to uh really um honest discussion about what this means for our district um going forward so thank you very much you any other discussion all right hearing then we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed abstain motion carries thank you all thank director Hans um next we will move on to board topics do we have any board topics today I have just one I just want to tell Julie happy birthday again because I think if you spend your birthday at a board meeting you should get a couple of uh little you know Kudos there so happy Birthday Julie I mean this is what happens when you have a birthday finally something to celebrate having a birthday in the middle of the summer right like there you go you get to have a quick meeting and a short meeting as your birthday present as a birthday present yes chist was done for you Julie so happy birthday yes any other board topics all right hearing none we will adjourn the meeting at 6:30