welcome everybody um I'm going to call to order the uh Columbia Heights Public Schools school board meeting on February 25th so if You' please join me if you're able to um stand and we'll do the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance 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 all right Michelle if you would do roll call please I sure will pway here Palmer here Smith here P here maderas here granin here superintendent sck here awesome all right Columbia Heights Public Schools our mission statement is creating worlds of opportunity for each and every learner all belong all succeed our core values our community Excellence collaboration Integrity respect courage and innovation okay so really excited to do Highlander highlights so we have a couple different ones tonight um and so we'll start off with uh the Minnesota music educator Association I know that our um M salv was going to join us tonight she's not feeling well so we hope that she's feeling better so I'll just read a little blur about why we are celebrating this tonight tonight so um first off is Daniel Ababa Abba Abba sorry um Daniel participated in the Minnesota music educator Association All State concert band the students complete an audition process in February so this was not just a couple weeks ago this was last year February um and then attended band camp in August their final performance is the following February so just a couple weeks ago at Orchestra Hall so it's not an award but it's an honor so we are thrilled to have Daniel here so you want to come on up you can sit right do you want to say a couple words Daniel do you want to sit right there and say a couple words tell us about your experience yeah um yeah all state was an unreal experience uh there were um multiple aspects like about meeting new people um like I made a lot new friends met a lot more people that were like above and beyond in their musicians ships and uh being around other talented musicians uh all across uh Minnesota really felt like an honor and performing on that stage at Orchestra Hall really felt unreal and I'm so grateful to have been there and performed awesome well thank you um board members do you have anything Laura uh I was wondering what what instruments do you play what what what is your passion uh I play the trombone I I've been playing the trombone for8 years and uh I have also I also played the drums for four years thank you Michelle um well congratulations that sounds like an experience uh to be had and I'm I'm so happy that you got to to do that um I just wanted to acknowledge that I went to the the band concert uh I was there and um I loved your section swag everyone had on like suit and tie and it was like awesome because you guys stuck out I I had my eyes on you guys the whole time um but you guys did awesome it was a good job but yeah I had no idea that you were um doing so much more um so yeah it was really nice to hear go ahead Julie Daniel how long have you been with Columbia in Columbia ha schools and have you you know are the teachers here um are you in you're in bandn here I I assume as part of that but you probably take private lessons as well uh I actually don't take private lessons you don't yeah um I've yeah I've been at Columbia Heights all my life uh I went to Highland and Elementary and I went to ca I know we have a great program we sure do we sure do yeah thank you yeah um I also want to Echo what Michelle said I was also there um and you yeah it the band itself was amazing um but yes you I was right in front of uh we were both right in front of where you were and yeah it was wonderful it's just been wonderful to see um you throughout the years uh and all of these different things so I'm glad we're able to honor you tonight so thank you all right so usually we say after this you you know you're welcome to go but you cannot because you are going to be here twice so we're going to do a photo though first and then we'll um have you come up and and uh shake hands with all of the rest of the board and everybody else as well where did it go there it is congratulations yep so we're gonna so the same oh yes yep yep yep okay yep um and then can we give Daniel like a round of applause like ni okay um so moving on to the next portion of our Highlander highlights 17 Columbia Heights High School Arts students earned a total of 34 gold key silver key and honorable mention Awards of the 2025 Minnesota Scholastic Arts Awards so msaa a competition organized by Art educators of Minnesota the art students received four Gold Award gold key Awards sorry 11 S silver key Awards and seven honorable mentions in the photography Ceramics and glass drawing and illustration and digital artarts categories The Works were submitted by Columbia Heights High School art teachers Michelle Deets Sarah Honeywell and Isaac gliden uh chhs senior Daniel abiba uh received a gold key award in photography for his work titled Triumph um and as I go through this I believe it's been playing it's been playing yeah so we've had some of those pieces um some pictures of it on the uh on the tele on the screen thank you goodness gracious um anyway so uh chhs junior Yuma uh yumna yes Ali received a gold key award in Ceramics and glass for her work titled the weight of progress chhs Junior Dominic Baker received a gold key award in photography for his work titled gatekeeper and col heights High School junior Taya Jackson received a gold key award in pain ing for her work titled exploration two students received silver key Awards in photography in to Deep by Don Baker sliding through and steps to Nowhere both by Daniel Abba Daniel also received a silver key award for his Art Port portfolio titled verdict to miss Direction two students received a silver key award for Ceramics and glass Serenity by Dan cha Lee and skull of nerd I love the name just GNA Say by Emmy bear Elizabeth Lee received two silver key Awards in drawing and illustration for her Works titled audition and Gourmet and Dan Chi received another silver key award in painting for her work titled reflections of sound we have 15 students that received honorable mentions Dominic Baker three uh Daniel Abba two Mason Leon Sonam moradi and Amir a DA in photography T Taya Jackson Ry mum and yasan Diaz Santos in painting Elizabeth Lee three mentions in drawing and illustration Finn sandic sandvic sorry in digital art yumna Ali louisian sndr two mentions lean B Jasline Negron and Daphne Keb satina in Ceramics and class that was a lot to read but I also feel like it's really important to read out all of that because the students worked really really hard and their teachers worked really really hard to make sure that they were able to present so I wanted to make sure I took the time to read all of that so with that I would like to call uh Miss Honeywell and Miss Deets if you would want to come up and share a little bit with us thanks for having yeah thank you for being here okay should we tell you about our our work yes which we love doing by the way and I think the students really love doing it um thank you for recognizing how hard we work because I think we're really in a group of working really hard and it's really it feels so good to have so many apples on the tree you know everything looks so good there's just so much we're in full bloom and it feels great to be recognized for that and um I mean I think the bigger thing is we support each other so much and the and the staff supports everyone and the students support each other and it is it's a it's a network and it includes everybody here making decisions constantly that are I'm sure not easy and many of those decisions benefit us and our students and it's really nice to be able to be given that gift of of support and then also this year especially like being able to uh use it to to move move the dial on uh the students talents that that's been a good year it feels great so thanks for that yeah uh and then to piggyback off that so we so Sarah and I attended the um msaa award show at St Michael Alber Albertville on Sunday and it was the first year where they did the entire award show for the whole state they had an auditorium large enough to hold everyone and so it was cool to see our students up there on stage with everyone else from the state and to see how many mentions were from Columbia Heights a large it was disproportionately in our it really was I mean our hearts are in the Arts right yeah yes they are their heads too apparently uh and then this year uh as part of the AP process students submitting their portfolio and seeing our portfolio winners this year Daniel another one um I think that's a first for our school there were like 137 submissions in the entire State um and only a small percentage of that won on to win Awards so um it was really great to see our district just even within the larger State since all of us could be together for that award show yeah this year yeah it was cool but thanks again for having a thanks students yeah thank you yeah thank you um so are there are there any students that want to come up and talk about their art and their process you don't have to you don't have to um but if you if you wanted to share some of it we'd be happy to have it going wants no um yeah right like it's all good it's been a long day I'm sure um so I'll then do members have anything that they want to share well you know with me with the art I I love the I love the art and and and and I'm really grateful that um that um that you're teaching the technical skills so that they can share a deeply person art is very deeply personal and to be able to um to be able to give them the the the platform for being able to express that and be recognized for it I'm I'm very I'm very grateful and as you can see that that support they're they're showing that they can do it you know and it's it's amazing the the work I'm always just absolutely Blown Away by by the presentations every single year and every single year I go it can't get any better than this and the next year it's even better so and what an amazing achievement yeah Jessica we we have so much talent in our district I just I'm beaming I'm just so proud and um of our art program and uh congratulations to all the students on their accomplishments and um thank you for sharing your pieces with us um and thank you too to all the support that you provide to our students to make our program so great so congratulations Julie I just I'm so excited about this because the Arts are kind of special to me too and my family and I just am so grateful that our school district is strong in this area because the Arts flows through everything in life even you know you just think of metal work and you know public art and private art and just there's so many ways to to actually make a living at this too so I just want to encourage continue to encourage our students to express themselves and to continue in the Arts because it is needed our world needs art in general and I'm just really proud that our school focuses in this area and thank you so much for your hard work I can't help but say today we were talking about just that we were talking about accuracy with your eyes when you're focusing a camera and we were just like you have to really focus you have to really pay attention and then they were like why I'm like because accuracy with your eyes is like really important like in the whole your whole life like and and they were like M and then I just like start rattling off all the ways that you need to make sure you're focusing in on what you're doing and it was it is it carries over Precision carries over to everything absolutely thanks for bringing that up thank you yeah um I want to add to that too um seeing the the Juniors and seniors here um knowing that some of you may have gone to North Park and knowing you know when the community voted for um the changes there part of that was we got a Kil um and to see some of this uh so it's it's not just you know your support it's also the community support that we're able to build off of and how many students now that received these honorable mentions and things were able to have some of those foundational skills in their classrooms even more enhanced so that you could come up and help them re like refine those skills and I think that that's it's such a beautiful tie into our community and um I love this so much so I'm very excited to be able to share this yeah thank you guys so much for your for all of your hard work everybody yeah [Applause] yeah yeah can we get a so we're going to do some photos um we would like the students to come up maybe with the teachers if Miss honey miss if you would like to come up first and then um we'll do do the awkward uh so we'll let them do their picture first yeah yeah and then do you want should we all go over there and oh me then then we'll go through and we'll shake hands in a bit do you want I was gonna you might have to shift Laura Laura okay so maybe all right so actually we will have board members we it's gonna be now yeah we'll have you guys go stand over there for um to shake hands when we're done with the picture I guess sorry guys it's all it's all mov so first we'll do aoup picture in front of the ban [Music] scary when the photography teacher is rest like conrat thank you congratulations and that [Music] pretty awesome you know this isn't the only he do yes it took a sip of water and it went down no yeah's going to have to many people okay thank you okay so now I get to say the thing that I always heard laurian say when she was chair which is uh students and faculty you are welcome to stay for the entirety of the uh meeting if you want to go home now that's okay okay we will not hold it against you um you can feel free to to head out and um otherwise you can feel free to stay yeah so we'll give them a second to I mean I don't blame them especially the students it's been a long day and teachers yeah it's a long day two meetings that are the most fun for me this one and the robotics I know I miss the robotics okay so moving so we'll be moving on to uh agenda approval adjustments and announcements can I get um a motion to approve the agenda so moved you okay can I get a second second all right all those in favor say I I all right motion carries I believe we need to make an adjustment though do we need to pull the Personnel report I'm going to pull something when we get to the consent agenda sounds good all right were you going to pull something was there something you needed to pull from the from the agenda I'm going to talk about it I know I think got it you're saying the agenda not the announcements y yeah that's next okay so good catch uh Karina you caught what there's going to be a slight change uh we were scheduled to have a Schoolboard Retreat on February 27th so this Thursday due to unforeseen circumstances the presenters needed to reschedule so we will be um looking for that to come through we don't have a date for that right now but as soon as we do we will let everybody know and communicate that um March 7th there's no school the 11th of March there's a 445 subcommittee on policy superintendent conference room uh on the 11th as well there's a 500m subcommittee on community engagement and that's in the community room here and then following that on the 11th we have our school board meeting at 6 okay moving on to communication to the board I don't see all right so so there's not any um so we'll move on to the consent agenda then Jessica CH grenland yes um I'd like to pull Item B seniority list teacher and ECFE teachers from the consent agenda all right can I get you don't need a i don't no right so can I with the senior list pulled out can I get an approval for the rest of the consent agenda so moved Laura can I get a second second Karina all those in favor say I I I opposed abstained motion carries okay now we will go to the seniority list that was pulled um I believe this was pulled did you want to speak to that at all sure sh grenland I just pulled this item because um my spouse is listed as part of the seniority list and so I plan to abstain thank you so much for that transparency appreciate that okay so now we will can I get a motion to approve the seniority list so moved but can I U ask a clarification that is both seniority list Item B and C so that is yep so um when Jessica did uh asked to pull it she was clear and she said B it just seniority list teacher and ECF okay yeah I I I missed that yeah no that's okay no I appreciate that um and again Clarity right and transparency so uh I'm sorry um I'm not sure why it was pulled out I couldn't hear um sure my spouse is listed as part of the seniority list oh you were listed no my spouse oh your spouse it includes um all employees in that particular group yeah so we're just noting that is that I plan to abstain and since I I voted uh I voted in support of the rest of the consent agenda so I just wanted to pull that off yep thank you yep yep um fun fun Robert rules sorts of things and state statute things so appreciate that okay so now that we've had discussion can I get a motion to approve the seniority list for teachers and ECFE teachers so moved thank you Julie can I get a second second Laura Okay so we've had our discussion um all those in favor say I I opposed abstained abstained all right Jessica M says abstained uh can the seniority list for teachers and uh ECF teachers is passed okay that was lots um I would also just like to note to go back to that actually uh their policy first reading um some policies that were in included in the consent agenda um these were policies that only needed to be read one time uh due to pretty small changes either they were legislative changes we need to adjust the the number um statuto updates technical updates um grammatical changes those sorts of things uh and so we did approve those in the consent agenda later on we will be talking about some other policies that are on but I wanted to just capture that okay o discussion uh so reports from members of the board let's start with uh Karina would you like to start sure um I have attended the work session meeting between um or last week uh and I'm here today thank you uh Julie yes um I attended the work session as well last Tuesday and then last Friday I met with Mary or chair of grenland and we went through some of the finances for November and December and um I just want to say how amazed that I have been at you guys in you know Brian hanin's Direct henin's um team and superintendent stenvik um focus on cleaning up some of the things that we had seen a couple years ago and have just kind of moved towards getting things better and better in control and I think this has all um been a really good good two years of growth and and I'm just so happy to see the change and Improvement that that I'm seeing so thank you for the hard work and dedication that you guys are putting in in the finance group um but we did that we spent a few hours looking at um some finances and feel that you know we're doing a really good job of of being responsible with our finances reconciling accounts um everything seems to be on the up and up thank you um Jessica sure um it's been very busy did something happen at Highland yeah a lot of things happened at Highland uh been very busy over there we had a family game night at Highland where families could come and uh bring board games or use board games at the school and hang out and enjoy playing with each other so that was really fun um we also I was able to attend the student wax museum over at Highland where we had a group of students um that worked really hard putting together uh biography projects um and then they dressed as their uh historical figure and uh they had little buttons you could push and then they would give their little Spiel they had posters it was very adorable and the students all did a really great job it's a lot to memorize for those students for sure um uh Highland also had uh their most recent PTO meeting where they're planning um events for spring and end of the year and looking at celebrating the fifth graders I also attended did uh a bingo night at Highland which was really fun we had about a hundred people come out for that so that was really great and we had um high school students that are members of the National Honor Society and Key Club come and help with concessions but they were also our Bingo callers and they did a fabulous job of calling bingo so um hats off to them um I also had the opportunity to um chaperone uh the fourth graders on their field trip last Friday for both Highland and Valley View they went to see um or really participate in a concert at northr auditorium at the University of Minnesota so over um the last few months they actually had visiting artists that came into our district into both of the schools and taught the music classes um songs and students not only learned those songs but also developed choreography that they submitted to the visiting artists and so then when they went on the field trip it was schools from all over that had worked with the visiting artist um and then they all got to sing the songs that they learned together and do the choreography that they submitted so that was really powerful experience uh for everybody um I also attended the Columbia Academy PTO meeting where they're also talking about their endof year activities and how they plan to celebrate the the eighth graders this year um what else I uh attended the work session last week I was unable unfortunately to attend the policy subcommittee or the last school board meeting due to illness so I'm kind of catching up on what I missed there um and I was also I know that I always promote uh these um classes in these meetings but they're just so great so I want to talk about it I attended the uh parent and me uh cooking class the most recent one uh making Pop-Tarts um and it was really fun um lots of in attendance um students uh that are you know real little 2 three years old uh all the way up through you know elementary school and middle school so that was really fun um I want to let the community know that there's another uh uh cooking class coming up on April 24th they're going to be making Strawberry Shortcake um the families get the opportunity to see um our culinary room with the high school too which is really cool and to meet um our teacher over over there so um my uh my kiddos are already talking as a result of this about all of the culinary classes that they're going to take when they get to the high school so that's really great and then lastly um I wanted to share that member pway and I attended the Columbia height city council meeting last night and we as a district um were provided this Proclamation from the mayor for National School breakfast week um and so we had the opportunity to go and receive that on our behalf and also to thank our um wonderful Food Service staff for everything they do to make healthy creative culturally relevant um and locally sourced meals for all of our students so that was really exciting so superintendent uh senic I'll pass this Proclamation on to you and I hope that you're able to share that message with our food service staff as well thank you so that's all for me thank you wonderful thank you yeah it's been very busy um Michelle yep so um I attended the um bipac Family advisory committee meeting over at North Park um it was on Zoom uh we had uh we're we're actually a growing group and we have quite a few parents who attend so it's really nice to see um all the participation we've been trying to get it going for quite some time North Park also hosted um an event for African American parent involvement day um which uh is a it's a really it's once a year but it's really a big day for for our black families um and our students to have their families in the school with them see their classroom um this year they shared experiences and um did a little presentation for their families still a small group so hoping to grow that and next year is always uh another opportunity to get families involved in that uh so that that's fun too um I also attended conferences at North Park um which well I I attended both nights night because the book fair was the week after we went so we went and then we went back um so I got to see a lot of North Park last week um which is great I hadn't been up there for quite a minute um I attended the work session that we had and I also um as I said earlier went to the high school band concert um which was very very nice U right now my daughter's playing the clarinet she loves it and um it's always nice for her to see um the the next steps and so she's hyperfocused on the clarinet players in that section and and so it's just always a lot of nudges and hey look look what their look at their finger you know so it was really nice to see her interested um in in taking that further and not being like well next year in middle school I don't want to do it anymore she's really tapped into that so that was nice um and and then yeah I attended the the city council meeting as member madira stated um which was great to be able to pass that torch um to the new liaison um having been the the former um so yeah and you did it so eloquently and and you're just awesome um so yeah it it was nice to be there and to um you know be a part of accepting the proclamation um and just knowing that our our staff our our students and and our district is been recognized for positive things uh so that's all I have thanks great thank you Laura wow I feel lazy um actually um all I really did was um attend the work study session last week and the chair me meeting prior to this that's not nothing that's not nothing yeah well I mean I had I had a lot of stuff going on my personal life you know but we don't need to share that here so um all right well uh I attended the work session and the chair meeting prior to that last week was fantastic and we're going to be talking about some of those things later um I also attended the second part of the chair training chair Vice chair training at through SBA um as was noted earlier I met with Julie um to sort of understand and to see um what you know she sees when we're going through those things and that was really great to sort of get that that context um I attended the concert at the high school as well and again just so amazing um I today I had an opportunity to join with folks Statewide um for MCA review so reviewing some of the questions for Community bias um and those things and being part of that work group was really amazing especially seeing how thoughtful they are and actually uh Gathering making sure they have um a lot of different areas represented so not even just um location wise but also making sure that a lot of diverse uh ideas and um areas come together to be able to talk about those as we're looking at putting these questions to students in 2027 and implementing the 2020 standards that was really interesting um and I do believe I had a number of phone calls with folks uh back and forth the last week and I'm sure per usual we're forgetting things right um so yeah all right so that was mine and then we'll move over to superintendent stenvik thank you uh very busy few weeks um but I will just have a couple of updates you know just two really shoutouts well first is to Northeast Bank for presenting us with um a donation which covers the the cost of the um the financial curriculum that we use at Columbia Heights High School so we really appreciate their support and then a shout out to the uh mayor and city clerk from Hilltop who met with assistant superintendent Bondo and I today um we had a great Exchange and heard about their updates and we provided them with our updates and we'll be scheduling a tour of Valley View and Columbia Academy which reside in Hilltop um very soon all right thank you okay moving on uh we have Native American concurrence and we have Yolanda dor slowy who's our Native American mentor and Elena wolle who's the chair um if you could come up and hello talk a little bit about concurrence good evening um I'm excited for this um presentation I'm always excited to come see you guys I'm not nervous until I actually get called up so um thank you for having me tonight um our vote of concurrence uh is um voted on annually and um compliance is super important to our families I have our Co our chair Elena here with us today um okay may I ask that you speak into the mic oh yep I will do that yeah I sit in this room a lot and I do my meetings in here and we never use um microphones and our last meeting we had two and we had our vote so we were trying to use it we all laughed about it because we never do um so Columbia Heights Mission here uh Columbia Heights creating worlds of opportunity for each and every learner all belong all succeed I think that's an important um thing to say at each and every time that we are able to have these kind of meetings um I did a presentation with our teachers uh last end of last month and I really felt like all belong all succeed I think that is very powerful for simple words that um are much needed reminders and so I appreciate that and I like to make sure that we all um feel those words our core values I also make sure that I highlight all of these core values when I talk about Native American Education Community Excellence collaboration Integrity respect courage and Innovation I added seven new values to this when I talked to my um teachers our teachers um and those are the seven Anish shab values that I have grown up with courage is on both of our lists and it takes courage and respect to do this work and so I like to make sure that I walk into everything that I do with those but my first value in everything that I do is love so when I come to these and when I do anything for any student when I wake up in the morning and every job I have love comes first so I like to make sure that that is um stated before we start this um our governance so February 5th 2025 the Native American Education parent committee um voted for our school compliance um there is no need for you guys to have any governance this is just uh informational for the school board so our Minnesota statud 124d 78 all Minnesota school districts and tribal schools with 10 or more American Indian students are required to have American Indian parent advisory committee School boards of the district must provide with for the maximum involvement of parents and children enrolled in the education programs programs for elementary and secondary grades special education programs and support services we have changed our name here at Heights to the Native American parent advisory committee we are stepping away from that word Indian it does not correctly identify who we are and our um board H or our committee has voted that we change that language we recognize in the state of Minnesota legally we have to have American Indian parent advisory committee so on some of these things you will see that iapac but just for future reference it will be napac um the Native American parent advisory committee work we review our data we inform the district on our Native American Education programming and our goals they Rec they make our recommendations to the district and the school board and we vote annually on concurrence which we did February 5th um so for our program this is our new logo I don't know if you guys have seen it yet uh thank you Emma she's not here today but she and I collaborated for this beautiful logo it um brings in we talked about art today art is a like um Julie said it's a living and breathing way of being uh for Native American people art is a Central way that we teach our children our regalia is handmade um the regalia we see here is lifelong um skills that bring our students from prek all the way into adulthood and um we were lucky to bring our students to the archives at the malax lake Indian museum to see art that was created hundreds of years ago and um for them that brings a connection to their lives today we do do our powow here and it's important that our children are given the tools which is the regalia to have that connection community and um we dance and we drum and we have a great time we also um connect those values into our graduation so our Native American students are given eagle feathers at our celebration our Pao so our poow is a connection of community and their academic learning and it's important that we honor that spiritually also so as you see here Rosie is holding her eagle feather almost every picture I've tooken of our graduates that day they were touching their eagle feathers it was bringing them grounding it was helping them through this commitment and this um new ushering to New Path of their lives um Val are my predecessor is in here also and she this is at her honorin for her last year here last year or no two years ago and um it was very special for us to I took that picture actually I took all of these pictures um I am I'm very proud of our students here we do academic tutoring we do our honoring um for academic achievement we also do our field trips we have a tradition here to take our students to our Sugar Bush and to our buffalo cultural um activities but we also have started this new tradition of bringing our kids up to the malax like Indian Reservation where they um this year were a part of our B our big drum ceremony and um the big drum teaching is really held a lot in our fourth grade classes our fourth grade teachers are phenomenal on the education that they bring to all of our district kids so I think it was really important that our Native American students have a direct connection to that big drum ceremony so that when they do go into other schools the elementary schools and they talk to students they have that direct connection um we also set a dish at our big drum for our program here and when we do that we ask for the money do our spirits to take care of us and to make sure that we are doing this work in a good way so that when I do speak to you or the teachers or you know any of our meetings with Zena we are able to make these changes in a way that enhances Native American culture for everyone not just my Native American students I believe that it's important for my specifically my Native American students that they are in a community that understands them and that connects their values into the academics into the curriculum and to their everyday connections with our teachers um this program has been um a really good way for me personally to live my life also so I really appreciate um everything that we are able to do here and the change that we are able to make and the support that we have within the district not only with our everyone here but also in the in the schools with our teachers and our admin and our principles so yeah I'm very very happy with what we got we got going on here um so for our vote compliance we the American Indian parent advisory committee has issued a vote of concurrence we agree that with the contents and implementation of our Indian education progam program plan and the commitment of evaluating evaluating the I at the end of the school year to ensure that it is continuing to meet the needs of American Indian students which I'm so proud of I was so nervous I know that we do our work above and beyond sometimes but um it's really the parents that tell me what to do and how to do things they agree and they say these are the goals that are important and then I just bring it forth wonderful thank you m m Julie I have a question stamp Escape oh we're closing off here okay um any questions concerns suggestions um how many nations are represented in our student body and how many students are involved okay um so our our numbers fluctuate so um this year we have 67 students there are 11 Nations um when I say Nations there are multiple tribal Nations within tribal communities so even though we have most ojibway and Dakota students they are from many different nations okay y thank you yeah any other questions or comments Karina yeah I had just noticed on the compliance stock there might have been a typo um for the year to be 2025 instead of 2020 okay so just whenever well there's paperwork over here somewhere yeah thank you thank you so much wonderful and um it's really amazing to hear from the parents that they're feeling supported and um yeah concur with the way the program is going would you like to say anything Alina no [Music] okay it's important that we um we do this work I I understand that there are other communities and other school districts that don't have the support of their Administration that they could use and so when we are doing this work and we have this support it's it's very important that other people see it and so that other superintendent or Administration understand that it's it's a connection of community not separate individual boxes that we need to stamp so I really appreciate everyone here I see you um superintendent stck Yolanda thank you for all the work that you do as the board knows I um have the honor of meeting with the pack every month and I know Elena's being a little quiet this evening which is just fine I just wanted to thank you Elena for your leadership as chair of the committee um you bring such strength and a wealth of knowledge and experience to the committee and we really appreciate it thank you Michelle I mean I think it's all been said so I'll just keep it short and say thank you thank you I've been here for a couple years I've attended a couple PWS and they're always very amazing interesting and educational so thank you for allowing us to be a part of that sacred moment you know um and letting us be able to share in that yes I appreciate you all being there and as always you all invited everyone is welcome to poow it's a really good exp experience and I really like that when our our people show up our staff shows up our students feel that connection um Mr burka showed up last year and every I was like a rockstar walking in everyone was so excited and so the community sees you there and they and part of our goals in this program for the state is making sure that our community feels that connection that our Native American students have the support of the administration in the school board and so when we do these votes and I do talk to our pack about it I'm very real about what's going on in our community and it's very helpful that the truth uplifts us all so I appreciate that yeah um I just want to add you know thank you so much for your words at the beginning of this um of your presentation and you're right all belong all means all right and um I think that you know here this is not like you said this is not another checkbox this is not something that we're we're doing just because the state's mandating it and all these things I over the years I've really appreciated seeing how much thought thought and care and emphasis goes into making sure that not only are these students seen they're seen contemporarily like we're not talking about them in the past we're not talking about um about just the things that happened Native American people don't exist now right like we we don't want to erase that um what they're living the life that they're living now so I really appreciate all that you um and the the parent advisory committee brings to to our students um and not just our Native American students because really it benefits us all yep um and so I I truly appreciate that and and how welcoming you you all are and it's really exciting this is a vote of concurrence is important and it it matters and um honestly just so so appreciative of the work that you guys are doing so thank you yeah I love my job I I love the work that I get to do I I really feel a passion for it and I feel like it's my lifelong um Journey you know and this this is what I'm supposed to be doing and so when I when I make you know the lessons or our presentations I do it with that thought of Continuum so we are still here our students are living their culture in action our parents are using their voices for their children and our elders are saying enough is enough and that all takes courage and responsibility and we are doing it so that's we we'll keep on doing what we're doing wonderful we're we're absolutely here for it so thank you so much thank you thank okay um so the next thing is policy first reading so um we have two policies uh 204 Schoolboard meeting minutes and 4:28 remote work so these are um policies uh community members and people can find those on our website for that first reading um do I need a motion to carry this forward I don't think so in the consent agenda it's in the consent agenda oh that's right next week yeah okay well so on to our action items first up is achievement integration budget and I do believe assistant superintendent uh nway is going to come up and talk about that you can tell we have our own internal jokes Mod's presenting first chair grin superintendent stanic uh members of the board I am here seeking approval of the achievement and integration budget for the year 2025 2026 I was here last uh well two weeks ago and gave you the details about our achievement integration budget all right okay so can I have a motion to approve the achievement integration budget 2025 Karina can I get a second second Michelle all right discussion I know right was any discussion um I think the only discussion I would like to say is that we had a good conversation about it um on at our last meeting which was on the Heth so if anybody is looking for that they can find that online on our in our meeting from then okay any questions okay I think we're good we need to vote oh we have to never mind we have to vote yep yep I'm getting there guys you got this okay uh is it it's a roll call is it a roll call no it's not all right okay so motion was yep all right so all those in favor say I I opposed abstain motion carries I'll get it yet for sure good you know probably round about November guys laurian made it look easy laurian made it look so easy come all right so next up we have director Henkin this one will not be as quick I am guessing it might be a little longer there a lot of you you have a lot more to present he already did that work a couple weeks ago okay discussion chair GRL uh thank you yes all right so um do I do we do I do a motion now I'm all like she I'm all combobulated do I start with you do I vote for the motion what do I do thank you chair granin members of the board superintendent stck um I this evening before you is for Action um is the Valley View Elementary facility indoor air quality mechanical project the actual governance question is in the presentation and so I'm going to go into the presentation um we thought that you know we had a lengthy discussion um about this at our previous meeting and uh but providing some context on camera is good and so we've adjusted the presentation a little bit for tonight um so our mission colum Heights Public Schools creating worlds of opportunity for each and every learner all belong all succeed and our core value of community Excellence collaboration Integrity respect courage and Innovation aligning with the chps Board of Education Equity statement um it takes a lot for a project of this conversation so um we're really encompassing really all of our core values in this conversation so as I mentioned there is a governance question tonight um we presented that informational at the February 18th work session and the question is the authorization of the administration to engage with World Architects and engineers and car Anderson to begin detailed planning for the indoor air quality project at Valley View Elementary um so I want to start here um and we have overtime had um extensive facility um plans uh and looking at deferred maintenance projects and what are the needs of our buildings and uh recently um within the last year we updated that plan working with car Anderson and looking at the facility condition index so looking at the Deferred maintenance totals divided by the building replacement costs and really coming up with you know where do our buildings fit within their um deferred maintenance needs and as you can see um from the chart in the upper right hand and um Valley View Elementary um is the building that shows as the highest need in our district um in that poor condition um and uh obviously we do not want our buildings to enter that critical condition um and so looking at Valley View this is how we came to um focusing on Valley View Elementary so really looking at the data on on what the needs of our buildings are overall um this is just looking at you know so take that um um chart this previous chart of you know where it puts us in the poor condition um and that rate um with Valley View Elementary and seeing where are those um what makes up that rate um so you can see that HVAC is obviously the highest need in diver maintenance across that building and so really this conversation of indoor quality focuses on that um it's touching other aspects of this of deferred maintenance needs in this in this conversation but the real major focus is on the HVAC and indoor air quality so um the facility you know when you look at um back at this previous slide and you look on the left hand side you can see that those figures are in millions um so um the needs um of that building are very costly and those needs really do exceed our funding capacity so we really have to look at other avenues to um have enough funding to be able to achieve uh um our goals in this area that or with this building in air into air quality so in that conversation we want to take a long-term approach of it um and looking at how can we best U maximize resources over time um in order to achieve what we want to achieve um and then also in this conversation in you know we're already having this conversation tonight we're focusing on valy view but you know obviously the next question is what about our other buildings but um so you know from an internal perspective these are things that we're discussing um so I just want to make sure everybody knows we're not forgetting about those um but U really the focus is Valley View Elementary right now as our starting point and we really want to leverage the board authority um to be able to raise the funds to be able to um complete this project so we're in this planning um phase um and um through this process you know again we're looking at it over time um and really the first step um is that uh indoor air quality project at Valley Elementary so the scope um I talked about um HVAC um so Heating and Cooling uh mechanical equipment replace that older ventilation systems in most of the building there are a few sections in the building that um have newer equipment that we would leverage um utilize uh in this project we would um utilize supplemental geothermal heating and provide de humidification in the building um and and through this we would be updating and replacing classroom casework um looking at addressing the bathrooms the main student bathrooms um in this and then also replacing ceiling and lights in the affected spaces so as we're putting duct work in and um you know we're having construction within that ceiling space so really looking at um some major updates to that classroom environment Beyond just the heating and cooling um so really the result is a better indoor environment um for our students and staff um and you know we know that we are significantly increasing the Energy Efficiency of the building um we've talked about in in the previous meeting that you know we're adding solar on because in this conversation there will be we're looking more at you know electricity as a use and the solar offsetting that cost um and really looking at this long term so that Balan this is a tax impact conversation so that balanced approach over time um to mitigate that so as a school board we have different mechanisms for you know raising these additional funds um which were discussed in the last meeting we have uh voter approved building bonds operating Levy and we have our capital projects Levy so those are the three you know voter approved uh the school board also has Authority through statute um to issue facility maintenance bonds for deferred maintenance um and facility maintenance bonds for asbest fire safety and indoor air quality so the indoor air quality is what we're looking at leveraging um through a board authority so as I mentioned this conversation is um you know a tax impact to the community um one of the things that we look at is is in our surrounding communities and their tax impact so if you look at a $275,000 home um what's the tax impact for that home across communities and you can see in this graph um we're clearly the low we have the currently the lowest tax impact around us um to the communities you can see where Fridley is at a um 1402 um we're at 1,51 um you can see St Anthony at the top of this chart at 1 1525 for a $275,000 home so that's our tax impact so um we've known this that you know our debt um in our in our district is very low um and it's showing here um and um so you can see see that um to me what this says is that other districts have already taken and we do know that they have um taken advantage of these to do improvements to their buildings um so even with our current impact and I'll go or current plan our impact would still leave us at the bottom of of this chart so again the proposed project um being discussed is upgrading the HVAC and ACC compy mechanical systems keeping the existing boil Oilers because they are um approximately four years old and adding geothermal system for um Heating and Cooling and deification so this project or this aspect of the project um and I'll I'll show numbers in a breakdown of what the numbers are um would be board approved and would increase taxes and I'll talk about that the classroom case workk and the bathroom renovation don't fall into Indo indoor air quality that project would be board approved within our ltfm plan um and we would be um bonding for that but bonding against our existing ltfm dollars which would not be a tax increase to the community can I one second um LT long-term facility maintenance yes sorry acronyms um so geothermal I would just want to touch a little bit on geothermal um so we have some pictures on here um so the the geothermal system that we're looking at is a Darcy system and um they're they're leveraging the aquafer um for that um that heat and that Cooling and um it's a closed loop system so we're not really drawing water out of the aquifer and putting water back in the aquifer um it's closed loop we're really just taking the Heat and cooling from there so they're dropping a heat exchanger down into the aquifer and that's providing that that heating and cooling up into um into our heat pumps um which is pictured in the upper right hand corner and uh you have a heat pump for each well um and when the water's or when the um the energy is coming into the building here you can see for each there's five of them here so the system that we looked at they call what do they call the manifold um is what they called it on our tour this is a picture from um a site that we visited and uh so there's one for each each well and in the bottom left hand corner is what you see outside for the well and um so we're taking that energy and we're utilizing it within the building for heating and cooling and um so we can see uh it's very efficient on the heating side um it's efficient on the cooling side but not as efficient as it is on the heating side um and what this allows us to do in in leveraging our boiler system still is in the months where let's I'll just use a temperature for an example but if it's above 30° but it's 30° it's still cold out we still need to heat the rooms and geothermal will allow us to provide heat um to those rooms through the geothermal and then if it's you know 20 below out we need the boiler running and the boiler will help supplement to make sure that we can provide enough heat because the geothermal alone wouldn't provide enough heat we would have to put more wells in for that so we but we because our boilers new we want to leverage that um um because we've already made that investment in the building and uh but it can be what it in the past what we do is is we're turning the boilers on a point in time now we'll be able to provide heating cooling consistently at the same time as so as we're getting colder out we can keep those rooms at the same temperature or the proper temperature so we don't have the hot and cold so um again you know looking back at that chart the results we're really creating a more efficient um uh consistent learning environment um for for our students and staff um so uh one note that we want to make when we're talking about a tax impact to the community is you know we did recently pass an operating Levy and that was a tax increase to the community even though that we did that this year um the local school proportion of taxes actually went down by $58 approximately on a $275,000 home and the reason that happened is something called fiscal disparities which is pool a pool um and we access that pool in the in all of the district um in the metro area access that pool since we passed the voter approved Levy um and which increased our tax to the community that also allowed us to increase the amount that we get from that pool um so that brought in additional funds um which actually lowered the taxes this year so we're actually lowering it this year and in this conversation we're talk we'll talk about how much we uh this project would increase it the following year um and so let's see right and then the pro these propos this proposal is really based on that needs assessment from the start you know what's the status of our building what are the Deferred maintenance needs of that building this isn't about um you know new fluff or extras in the building this is just the nuts and bolts of of that learning environment um so as I explained um the taxes this year decreased um so it's approximately $483 per month and with this project um as proposed um it would be a tax increase for an average Homeowner of $6 per month so if you take the decrease plus the increase so then moving forward it's about a117 per month increase moving forward on an average $275,000 house um so we're looking at a constant value which we know that adjusts a little bit but um that's what that would look like um so I mentioned that there's parts of this that are in the conversation about a tax increase which are the indoor air quality components of that so that's the upgrade to our mechanical systems or heating and cooling systems um so the geothermal Wells and the mechanical equipment within the building fall within that air indoor air quality um eligible so so about $ 14.5 million of the total project 16.32 covers um in the air Indo air quality of tax impact so that's at $6 and then the no tax tax impact is the classroom casework and bathroom renovation it doesn't fit within indor air quality and that's the bonding that we would do against our long-term facility maintenance existing dollars which does not have a tax impact to the community so that we could get the funds enough to do the work and then we would pay them off over um you know 3 to 5 years depending on what that term is um uh more probably more like the five or six years but um whatever that term is we would pay that off um using a portion of our already allocated long-term facility maintenance dollars um so the timeline we're looking at is um you we talked about in January that there was a reduction in the school portion of proper property taxes um we're discussing right now in February we've had that work session that d detail conversation um we had World Architects um Carl Anderson and actually our our financial adviser ERS is here um in and so we had the experts in the room for the board so we could ask the questions at our work session and this evening we're asking to move that take that next step forward and committing to that design phase uh of this project um in May June we would actually be bringing that long-term facility maintenance plan to the school board and that's where this project would be included in in that plan and that's what the board would be when the board would be approving that um project and then in September or October we would move into that bid process stage um so in order to keep that timeline intact um that's why I'm here this evening talking to the school board and asking for that action item um in 2026 that's when that tax impact would hit um so that's when that change would happen um we would continue with our um presentations of the board keeping the board informed um it would be the summer of 2026 when we would actually start demolition in the first phase of the project project this size we cannot fit it in one summer um so we'll have to phase it in um and that um actual plan would be developed um after this evening um and then in 2027 again ongoing informational and then the summer of 2027 we'd be looking to complete that project in actually full impation so it takes time for a project of this magnitude um we would like it to happen overnight sometimes but it really doesn't um so again the governance question is authorization for the administration to engage with world world Architects and engineers and Carl Anderson to begin the detailed planning for indoor air quality projects at Valley View Elementary all right thank you so can I get a motion to approve that authorization so moved Laura can I get a second second Julie discussion Jess um first of all thank you very much for the presentation I know it's a lot of information to try to fit um into a short period of time for this board presentation um I just wanted to note that um you had mentioned uh previous presentation to the board on this and the discussion that we had and I just want to be very clear that even though this is a lot of information and very complicated that this was presented to us at the work session on the 18th and that I think maybe someone can correct me but I think that meeting ended up being 2 and 1 half hours 3 hours and this was the only agenda item so we had hours of discussion um getting a feel as a board for all the components of this right because it's not uh it's not just a facilities question it's also a finance question there's a lot of complicated information about um long-term facilities maintenance plans and how voter approved levies work versus the the board approved levies so there was a lot of discussion also at that meeting we had representatives from wal and from Krauss Anderson there to speak in detail about the planning process and also about the um mechanics the specifics of what we would be doing so I just I wanted to to have that here and be very clear in that in this meeting here that um there was a lot involved in that discussion um um y thank you so so with that I do have a couple of questions if that's if that's okay um I'm wondering if you can I know we talked about it in our work session but if you could just remind us about the age of the the Val view system or the the I guess it's hard because the system is different pieces but the building as a whole just so the community can understand the age of this yeah um so um all of our buildings are really 1960s I mean a couple of the buildings started in the ' 50s but they're all 1960s buildings um and a good portion of um or good portion of the air handlers in the building um are original to the building the univ ventilators in the classroom um are '90s um and have been end of life for many years and really their ability to provide um air to the building and the filter or to the classroom and the filtering in the classroom is why we qualify for Ender air quality um this is a state um we do need a state approval um for a project like this for this funding mechanism and we've already um been involved with the state in that conversation and making sure that our plan and that our project does qualify um so we've already covered that um so um that we do have some sections of the building there's two um which is the kindergarten Wing that was added on to the building and then the two original kindergarten rooms built to the building where we did do um um well one part the addition is new but at the same time we did replace the mechanical in that area so in this project those two areas would not be um replaced we would leverage the existing that's there um and but then the capacity of the system that we're putting on when those end of life we will be able to bring those spaces on online with the geothermal for heating and cooling thank you um can I can okay great um so I know you presented the slide on the overall facility condition of Valley View and then you can see that on that slide that um the the Valley View FCI is in uh the pore section it's not quite in critical which we don't want it to obviously tip into we have two other buildings that are in that Poe section as well so I'm just wondering if you can speak to what our alternative would be if the board didn't go ahead with the the detailed you know planning process um um how we would keep our building safe and out of that that critical FCI so yes thank you for that question um with with the existing funding that we have there would be no way for us to prevent the buildings from continuing to move towards that critical um we can we have deferred maintenance dollar um you can see that this project is is a $16 million project um and and um but we only receive you know a million dollar um $1.3 million in deferred maintenance doll every year and so and that has to be for the whole District um so and in this Elementary is one of a mirror of Highland Elementary and there are two smaller elementaries at this point they're the same size so you can see that the magnitude of what a bigger building would probably cost so we don't have the dollars um with the existing funding that we have um to stop that trajectory um where they would continue to inch towards that critical um we can keep it you know it would be slow but we can't we can't stop it and so we would get to that critical point and then we would be in the decision of what are we going to do with the buildings as far as replacement versus um maintaining them um and the only way that at that point that we would be able to do um anything at a level of impact is a very large Bond referendum to the community um so it would be really kicking the can down the road and it would really be deteriorating what we have today it'll and it would just continue to thank you for that additional context I think it's helpful to understand how we got to this point right that um we're not Suddenly at a place where we have a $16 million project out of nowhere that this is something where we've had limited ability to um tackle the Deferred maintenance over time in buildings that are that old and I think uh it would be also helpful if maybe you can just remind us a little bit about the this the particular funding mechanism that we're talking about with the the board approved um long-term facilities maintenance bonds that it it's my understanding that that's a relatively recent mechanism something that we have not necessarily had yes it's a re more recent mechanism for a school district our size okay um so um up until 2016 school district our size didn't even have long-term facility maintenance dollars um larger districts um did and um and today larger districts have additional funding mechanisms that we don't have access to in this conversation too so we've had this since about 2016 and there have fridley's um taken or has leveraged um this in their District um to do um endoor air quality projects in the past um so there are our districts our neighbors um that have leveraged this as a school board and as a district um but there's three categories um within long-term facility maintenance because they really took health and safety which was a mechanism that um we had available to us in the past um which is you know our sprinkler system at the high school and our sprinkler system at the middle scho School came through health and safety um because it was a code that we needed to bring our building up to speed and and health and safety allowed us to do that and health and safety um at that time was it was board approved um and uh and then that was a board approved tax to the community so health and safety did exist so they took health and safety and they kind of they put it to in with long-term facility maintenance so in a sense we're still accessing something that you know kind of existed before but it's in long-term facility maintenance and there's three areas it's the spus removal um fire safety and indoor air quality so those three things in a project that exceeds $100,000 um the board can approve or give Authority approve Authority within the long-term facility maintenance plan for us um to do that project at the you know the dollar amount um in this case indoor air quality at um it's a total project of 16 million but it's more like 14 you know and a half million for the the indoor air quality approved and once that's approved that goes to mde and mde looks at the full plan and says yes indeed that does qualify for indoor air quality and then we can proceed with the project once they give their stamp as well um so it yes it is a newer mechanism for us um and um even though they've given us that Authority as a district our side other districts have an additional additional Authority um that we don't that you know basically any other deferred maintenance projects the board can take action on and and do so it's it's unfortunate that we don't all fall under the same rules but um it is fortunate for us that we finally did have access to these deferred maintenance dollars again which we didn't prior to 2016 thank you for that and I think your answers just really highlight for me the need that's involved here but also context as to how we got here and that it's not based on you know ignoring our needs completely that we look at a long-term Facilities Management plan every year um that we just have not had adequate resources to meet the needs of our aging buildings and I I also um think it's important to understand that as we look to the Future and some of our other buildings and thinking about the ways in which we can make significant progress on updating our buildings when it comes to health and safety I want to highlight one more thing and then I'll open it because I know I've been really hogging the time um but I just want to also highlight uh the indoor air quality component of this project and how essential that also is for health and safety as we're thinking about the ways in which air indoor air quality standards have changed when we're looking at uh the protection of respiratory health of all of our students and our staff and we're thinking in particular about um reducing absenteeism of our students and our staff um how essential that is too so I wanted to highlight that component of the project um because that's going to be a significant um upgrade um meeting the standards for for um that many other schools in other districts enjoy so um thank you for the time thank you for answering my questions I really appreciate it questions and great comments uh Laura um I I just wanted to make a comment on um I was very impressed with the presentation that we had um at our uh work session um especially with regards to um how um how the the financing um the parts of it we're still going to be able to do our basic needs um and that was part of spreading it out over a longer period of time plus additional phases for being able to work um on some of the other bigger needs specifically like Highland and then going on to you know being able to keep this up so I just I just wanted to really express my my gratitude on not having this you know having to go out for a bond and having a big sudden jump in in how much we were asking for support for our from our community and that this is a much more gradual support uh gradual um yeah grad process I thank you for mentioning that um because as uh Jessica or U member madas mentioned um you know what are our mechanisms you you know for a district RSI up up until 2016 our mechanism really was and I mentioned this a large Bond referendum which we did in the 9s and so our tax impact of the community spiked really high and then over time it goes down as we pay it off and and if you know so our model in that form is Spike again really high and so we have lots of um you know I would say mountains and valleys um in that and really this approach that we're we're working through now with the partners that we've engaged with our financial planner is about trying to manage that so that there it's more of a constant there's not these big Peaks and valleys um in that tax impact to the community so um you know we gave uh additional information in the meeting about you know thinking about those other buildings um um obviously we have to do that but again for this conversation to try to simplify it um of what we're talking about specifically here which is just Valley View Elementary and and looking at that at this point in time uh Karina um I was just wondering if you could repeat what you had shared on slide 15 15 yes thank you so um uh we you know we passed that operating Levy um so we had a tax increase to the community that was a voter approved um there's a one-year leg on us our ability to access that fiscal or how they re-evaluate our access to the fiscal disparities pool which is you know just uh Metro districts that are that pool and um so that allowed because of our increase that allows us to access more dollars it gives us a bigger portion of that fiscal disparities so now we're receiving that this year that additional which is actually what caused our taxes to go down this year to our community um and um for for versus the previous year and now with this conversation there is a tax impact um we're bonding um again through that Andor equality long-term facility maintenance which is a approximately $6 impact on the $275,000 home so when you look at our decrease this year and then um pending uh approval um in June or May June um the voter of the school board for our long-term facility maintenance plan which would be approximately a $6 increase so that really the following year it would be an approximate do7 increase per $175,000 home average um in the community uh moving forward thank you yep thank you um I just have one question um thanks for that question the decre this is just one year that we're seeing on this slide yes yes so the decrease just happens to be in in 2025 because of the pool right but we won't have that next year well we won't see another decrease next year I mean we're still accessing the pool we're still getting the same rate from the pool okay um you know and and of course what other school districts do what we do in the future affects that pool too um there's a lot that affects the fiscal disparities but you know this year because of our increase previously and again it's a one-year lag so that's why we're seeing it this year um um if we would have if it would have been you know immediate um access to the the larger portion of the pool after we approved it then that would have been recognized right away um in the first year of the tax increase but since it's a one-year leg we don't we don't recognize it until the next year so does the decrease continue over the years or is this just a oneyear do7 per month mon or whatever I mean because it seems like that since we're going to be going for bonding over per time yes and so again all things being equal snapshot and time $275,000 home this is what it is um you know you know looking at that from last year to this year to next year it's it's next year we're going to see a17 and um you know there's other compon components in that that can affect um you know it's um values in the homes in the community um portion of the residential versus commercial um you know these things can all have impact which I can't crystal ball see but um right now this is this is exactly what would happen and thank you um thank you I think you know as was noted this was a very very robust discussion and we asked a lot of questions um this board does not take raising taxes lightly especially for folks that live in Columbia Heights who just weathered a 30% increase um but part of the reason for that 30% increase was because they didn't increase over time and I think we are also learning from that and the access to um the different funding streams really helps us to sort of mitigate this you know not so high highs in low lows um so I I think this is you know Valley View was built in 1964 and so um and it you know it's got good bones and we want to make sure that we preserve that but also um principal kolman was here too to talk about his day-to-day and what students and staff experience and that was also really helpful um I think this board especially appreciates hearing you know from the people who are are most directly impacted by the decisions that we make um and that was really helpful to hear all of this um but again you know that $275,000 average is not something that we made up I we got it from Anoka County um it's the averages and right now we're making we're being asked to make a decision on um what we know now also knowing that like everything it's going to fluctuate and I think um you did a great job Pres presenting and again it was an amazing um thorough discussion about this um this question that we have last week and um I appreciate the information on the slides and um what you shared tonight and the questions so with that are we ready to vote okay uh all those in favor of the authorization to Administration to engage with wal Architects and engineers and kuss Anderson to begin detailed planning and designs for the indoor air quality project at Valley VI Elementary all those in favor say I I I opposed abstained motion carries thank you board topics all right I have one does anybody else have any all right um I'll go first real quick this weekend um you know don't let the weather fool you we all know that it's not going to stay this nice for much longer than a week or two um but if you are looking for ways to engage with your with your kiddos and learn about um how to play board games and what board games there are there's a really wonderful um opportunity this weekend through Heights next there's a um it's called cooh highcon come learn how to play games um see some and I say this with love nerdy things um and just come have fun and enjoy with the community uh and that'll be that'll be at meran Hall thank you don't ask me what time it starts I think it's 9: it's from like I think 9 or 10 to midnight yeah yeah so daytime is for kids and then there's after hours karaoke open bar for the adults exactly yeah the adult kiddos lots and lots of fun um things to be had in virsion Hall in Columbia Heights on Saturday cosplay contest cosplay contest going to be a judge yep yep all right any yes anything else um I have a question for our parliamentarian um I had been I was reading some articles and um just happened to notice that our attorney general in the state of Minnesota um put out something that said that if you abstain in a board meeting that is not it's automatically a yes versus a no you know or or just being left out of the vote and so I'd like to find out if that's actually really the truth I I mean it was what I read I don't know what specific you know memo or opinion you're referencing but my understanding is that if you have that that's something you would consider if you like did not have a majority so how the exstension counts when you're thinking about whether or not a motion passes in terms of the number of votes okay yep I think they they covered that in but I don't I don't know specifically like the the opinion um superintend St would you be able to follow up on that thank you yeah y it'd be like yeah if we had a split vote right like if yeah yeah which would makes sense and the split and somebody abstained that would possibly become the yes even though it was an exstension but I I'd want to see the the language of I think it was listening to an msba thing yeah well we'll get some clarity on that so thank you well the attorney she's saying there's an attorney general I always understood abstentions as um as going with the RO of the board um I always understood abstentions to be as going with the will of the board yeah so it basically becomes a vote with whatever the majority is yeah so we'll get some clarification on that and then we'll super syic will give that out to us so um any any other others I had a couple of word topics if that's okay ch um so first of all I just wanted to wish everybody a happy Public Schools week I don't know if anyone saw that but it's a great week to Showcase all of the wonderful things that we're doing here in Columbia Heights Public Schools and public schools across Minnesota and the country um and then I also just wanted to share that um tomorrow here at the district Center The Early Childhood family education uh parent par advisory committee our parent advisory Council excuse me is hosting a winter carnival for families to come play games win prizes there's going to be lots and lots of fun activities so I believe that's from oh 4:00 to 6 p.m. I did write it down here at the district Center thank you wonderful thank you uh anything else all right with that we will adjourn at 7:30 37