all right I'd like to call to order our May 14th 2024 meeting and we will start with 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 we'll do the roll call Michelle yes uh granin madas here P here Palmer here Mueller here Petway here superintendent stck here okay thank you 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 may I have a motion to approve the agenda a move Michelle and a second second second by Laura any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed abstain motion carries next um our announcements on May 21st Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. will be a Schoolboard work session that one will be at the Columbia Columbia Academy library on May 28th uh Tuesday at 6 pm. we have a regular Schoolboard meeting here in the community room June 11th uh Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. is a subcommittee on policy here in the community room June 11th Tuesday at 5:00 P p.m subcommittee on community engagement in the training room and June 11th at 6 PM is a regular Schoolboard meeting here in the community room um next we have the communication to the board um with any citizen and employee Representatives is there anybody who wishes to address the board at this time right thank you next we'll move on to our consent agenda the consent agenda includes the Personnel report from May 14th the 2025 2026 um uh draft calendar the board minutes from April 23rd 2024 and the policy second reading of policies one1 .1 name of the district 104 School District mission statement 501 School weapons policy 502 search of student lockers desk and person 901 Community Education 905 advert in can iang get a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved Michelle or Julie sorry in a second second bye Michelle any discussion question yes uh yeah there has there been any feedback or any communication on any of these policies no okay thank you Jessica um I just wanted to make a couple of notes about a couple of um uh pieces on the consent agenda so first is the 20 2026 calendar and we did have a presentation about that back in April um in detail I just wanted to note that I'm very pleased that we're able to have a multi-year um calendar set to help families plan and then I also just want to Dimension around the policies that I think that we did um make some substantial improvements to the policies um to make uh those policies easier to understand um and much more in line with our current practice in the district so thank you yeah agree thank you any other discussion we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed abstain motion carries next we have our acknowledgement of contributions um this is a resolution so I will read this and then we'll do a roll call vote acknowledgement of contributions resolution Minnesota statute 123 b.2 permits school boards to receive for the benefit of the district request Don or gifts for any proper purpose and apply the same to the purpose designated on that behalf the board may act as trustee or um excuse me a trustee of any trust created for the benefit of the district and for the benefit of the pupils there thereof therefore the school board of Columbia Heights Public Schools Independent School District number 13 resolves to accept with appreciation the contributions detailed in the background for $6,595 the background includes monetary donation ations General Mills box Taps for Education gifted to North Park for $460 blackbow donated $120 to North Park for student needs Jones Zurich donated $482 to the Columbia Academy Media Center donations to the colum Heights High School for retired staff scholarship were made by Brian and marily Olen for $500 Karma Doge for $250 J an Hennessy and Ralph Cary each for $200 elain kipon Naro for $100 Betty wiberg and Janice olssen each for $50 Sharon elmquist donated $1,000 to the fridly American Legion auxiliary scholarship Megan Nelson donated $162.7 to the team PE scholarship fund donations to the activities Department from the Columbia Heights athletic boosters are $1,000 to the Columbia Heights High School Conference meal $1,900 to the softball team $597 193 booster scholarship fund $2,500 to Columbia Heights High School track and field $4,450 76 to the class of 2024 graduation party and $2,500 to the Synchro team value and kind seven pairs are shoes valued at $375 donated by William Roa Valley View for student needs feminine hygiene and personal hygiene products valued at $750 donated by the Columbia Heights liance Club for students at Columbia Heights High School total f year 2023 2024 monetary contributions to date $11 15,840 can I get a motion to approve the resolution so moved Jessica and a second second second by Julie any discussion Julie I just want to say thank you to our community for all of all of the donations that they've provided um we we have a very blessed community so I just want to say thank you thank you any other discussion all right since this is a resolution we'll do a roll call vote Michelle granin madus i p i Palmer I Mueller I pway I resolution passes thank you Michelle next we'll move on to this discussion reports and informational items we'll start with reports um from members of the board and we will start with Jessica sure um well we have not met as a board in a couple of weeks um but it has been busy like there there are events happening in every corner of this District this time of year so um I've been busy as I know many of you have um I was able to attend the spring concert at Highland where the fourth and fifth graders and the fifth grade band performed I was also able to attend um the spring play at the high school the day the internet died that was wonderful everybody involved with that produ did such a fabulous job um and they only have a few performances and so it's um they really put in a lot of work leading up to that and so it's great to see um so many people from the community our district community in the schools and Beyond the schools come out for the performances that they do have because um it's a lot of work to put together production um I was able to attend the teacher of the year reception here in the community room uh for uh uh local 710s uh named Teacher of the Year Marie Nelson um from Columbia Academy um so it was great to congratulate her and be able to meet um her family that she brought with her to the reception um and then I attended along with um several of you the district career celebration um to recognize all of our retiring teachers and staff um I attended PTO meetings at both Highland and Columbia Academy I was also able to help out um with some of the teacher appreciation events at Highland last week um I like several of you also attended scholarship night at the high school um and um I I I thank director H for expressing appreciation during the contribution section um but I just wanted to note in particular how energizing it is to see so many people who have been affiliated with our district for so many years um teachers from the elementary schools um donating money for their former students um our retired staff um donating to scholarship funds that was just really incredible to see um and I feel really blessed that I was able to be um at that event with all of the um students and their families who were receiving awards that evening um I'm almost done I promise no you're good um I was able to help out with the doughnut truck fundraiser in Highland that was also last week and then um I also uh was able to watch the msba webinar that they held recently on the board impact on supporting educator mental health and may is um mental health month um and so they had uh uh couple of representatives from that have worked on mental health issues in a couple of districts across the state and um I got a lot out of it so I definitely would encourage other board members to watch that recording if they have a chance I think in particular um I'm going to take a lot away from that as we continue our discussions around strategic planning and thinking about how we support mental health of our students and our staff um in thinking about um connectedness within our community so um I'm looking forward to more discussion about that too and that's finally it thank you excellent Julie um yes it has been a long time since we met hasn't it um I was able to review the February 2024 Treasures report and expenses so um I came in to look at at several expenses and nothing unusual um I met with superintendent stenvik to go over the mde website and try to understand the report card data and um we spent probably about an hour together just going through you know what those scores mean you know comparison to other districts and so I plan to take some of the summer to really look at that data and and try to drill into it and be able to hopefully communicate better to our community on where our scores lie and why they do why they look bad compared to maybe some other districts and so I I think that was really helpful um because I think there's real reasons and understanding around that so um I also attended the uh scholarship ceremony where I was also very impressed with um people who have been in the community and stayed in the community and have been continue to give back to the school um I also was excited to see that Fridley who splits their time between or their District between us and Fridley also had organizations that contributed to Columbia Heights because they want to support our schools too so that was really impressive and of course it was really impressive to see several you know a lot of students receiving scholarships so that was really cool um I had intended to meet with principal seac however he we were unable to do that on on Thursday however we did email um we're we're I'd like to go to City of fredley and kind of discuss some needs that they have there at North Park um we will reschedule and then I will go over there um I completed the last section of msba training phase 4 so I'm done yay um it was excellent they do an excellent job I have to just commend them for how they set those trainings up and I just really appreciate the work they do um I also had some communication with athletic director Henderson regarding mshsl meetings we have a plan to go to one this fall together so hopefully that you know it'll give us insight into just kind of what they're working on there and then the other thing I did was um actually The Firm I work for has a professional day and I recommended that to our students it's for high school students ages 16 and up and they can go it's a one day full of you know looking at fraud investigations and fun things like that for those students who and um principal um W has um moved my my information on to those students who might be interested and that's it thank you Julie Laura oh I I don't have very much to report um I I attended the uh 916 board meeting um a couple of highlights from it um one is um we had a very special retirement it was Steve the therapy dog he retired so he came in and we got to we got to see him and and but we he had to leave because he hadn't eaten yet and he's a big dog so but um anyway so that was a lot a lot of fun I I guess uh he was very popular in the various programs um and then the other thing too is is that we actually have um um 9916 is actually doing a um a coursework on being able to actually train and certify teachers um so that's very exciting um they have gotten approval and the curriculum is pretty well set um they also have seven um seven um applicants already so as soon as the uh applications go through um that'll be the first uh the first stage of actually being able to train um a special ed uh Educators um so that is very exciting because you got to grow your own so um because there's they're just not coming out of the universities like they used to um so thank that's pretty much it for me thanks Laura Michelle um so I attended um the teacher of the year reception for Marie Nelson as well um congratulations to her I attended the retirement dinner um which was a lot of fun we had tacos they were great um I also attended the scholarship award ceremony um and it's especially fun for me because I have a fourth grader and last year she was a third grader and she's going to go to everyone every year um so that she can have a thirst for this kind of achievement um and I love that she asked questions superintendent svig set behind us and she kept turning around going miss stck why is it this why is it that and so she really is inquisitive about this kind of stuff and so I figure it starts now so it's it's especially fun for us to be able to discuss um all these accomplishments that we're seeing now and hopefully we'll see in the future um I went to the synchronized swimming live show um which featured um laurian Maddie sorry if I took that from you um it was my first one and it was a lot of fun um I did Chuck a duck and I was the only one to win I have no aim by the way I don't know what this luck was um but I won a bunch of uh CH swag so now I have some exclusive uh things to add to my closet uh so thank you guys for that and then um I went to the honor choir practice at CA this past Saturday um because our students are going to be performing at Silverwood um tomorrow and Thursday I know we're going to talk about that probably after um and so we got to see the Middle School my daughter got to see the middle school for the first time and um yeah that was an experience for her um and I just went to the community meet and greet with um Chief Markham um just before this over at um is it nuk I always sayong Milwaukee Park um which was very nice a lot of community members felt welcome to come and so um kids were playing and and people were coming going it was just a good time and nice to see a lot of City officials and and um elected leaders together um I oh I've reached the end of my list thank you thanks Michelle um for my report um I also attended the staff retirement dinner and really enjoyed um hearing about the amazing careers of the staff um and wish them all the best in their retirement um also attended scholarship night um I can't decide if scholarship night or graduation is like my favorite night as a board member um but that was pretty excellent um so really enjoyed that as Michelle said I was also at the synchronized swimming show um got to see our um wonderful team perform and um there was also a surprise performance by your board chair um she was amazing did a trio um with two other moms uh first time ever never done synchronized swimming at all there may be um Emma did tell me she got lots of pictures and I may have a video um that was Bo packet board packet I have no shame I'll get a I had a blast and I cheated 100% And touched the bottom of the pool I did not do what the Synchro team does and do all of that without touching the bottom of the pool um I do challenge principal wi to do a a a routine next year um as he did one a couple years ago but it's been a while so I think it's I think he's due for another routine um second that I did tell my daughter that I would come back with her next year and do a duet so it it was a great time um and some of us moms were trying to convince um the activities Department to have an adult synchronized swimming class um I go to the gym for like 3 or four days a week I've never had a workout like that hour practice I had before that that was crazy so Community Ed yeah it was it was a great time was a great time um I highly recommend synchronized swimming for your workout needs um I also had a meeting with superintendent stevic and director Henkin um to discuss our fund balance policy um so thank you both for that time that was a super informative and productive meeting and that is it for me um next we'll move on to superintendence resport superintendence report and correspondence thank you um um I've been in communication with multiple state representatives who are working on a bill that would provide funding dedicated to decreasing absenteeism and I think I gave some information to the board about that but I am happy to report that uh Columbia Heights did make the list along with a handful of other districts um um for this pilot project and so the legislative session ends I believe on Monday so hopefully that goes through and we'll have um a little extra funding for that I've worked with social workers and um one of the principles on some ideas for that and we'll move forward with that if it moves forward I attended a special called Tri Metro meeting with principal win and director Henderson um St Louis Park presented their request to join the tri Metro conference um they sought out us at the triet conference because of our commitment to equity and respect however the governing board voted to not add the district at this time as it would upset the current mix of schools and level of competition it was not an easy decision but there are other options that would be a better fit for the district uh this time of year as mentioned is filled with many many celebrations so I have attended the teacher of Year celebration um and I got to be in her classroom this morning always a great time and outstanding um the career celebration the retirement event for chief Austin academic scholarship Awards night which was so incredible um teacher appreciation week was last week we had school nurse appreciation we had principal appreciation we had school communicators appreciation day um so A lot's happening this spring and then later this week I'm looking forward to the Expressions art show at Silverwood um and also I plan to visit Highland Elementary's track and field day looking forward to that um as mentioned I met with member hul and chair Mueller and since our last board meeting I've had communication with every board member so thank you for your time thank you um next we will move on to our out of state and overnight field trips with a host of Highlanders coming up here um director choll uh principal wi Sarah Sarah Honeywell Nicholas Hollman and superintendent stck I'm gonna stay here can't see this under here my readers yeah I do need your readers no I need the better screen can't even see it we got it good evening chair Mueller members of the board superintendent stck I'm here tonight with a whole host of Highlanders I'm here with Sarah Honeywell our Visual Arts High School teacher I'm here with Nicholas hollerman our vocal music teacher at Columbia Heights High School and the principal principal of Columbia Heights High School Todd wi and we're here tonight to share about out of state and overnight field trips our mission in Columbia Heights Public Schools of creating world of opportunity for each and every learner all belong all succeed and really when we think about field trips it encompasses all of our core values so we start all of them tonight and our core values are aligned with the Board of Education Equity statement we're here tonight as an informational item and I'll be returning on May 28th seeking approval of our overnight field trips for next school year our field trips as we think about really when we look back bring a lot of memories for our students we all remember the memories when we were in elementary middle and high school but it also has a lot of research behind it field trips the research behind it really show that our students do better in class it enhances our learning it shows positive social outcomes they have opportunities to interact in different ways and really expands our view of the future our instructional field trips in Columbia Heights are supplementing our grade level standards and content during the school day and that includes summer programming so we have a lot of our schools going to theater they're going to the different museums the Bell Museum the bachan museum lots of choices there they're going to the farm they're going to the Arboretum so a lot of things that enhance their current curriculum and learning during the school day field trips our instructional field trips go through a process in which teachers work with their Administration to get approval to align with their standards and it also supports communication with our families it aligns with our budgets and our Schoolboard policy last year we were here we talked about working on alignment and providing opportunities for each and every grade level and we're excited to share that we're in the works of prek through four to grade 5 prek to grade five almost complete for next school year so our teams came together and with Administration we're looking at grade levels across the district having similar opportunities so in third grade every third grader in the district will go on this field trip there are opportunities that come up that are not on the ones that we picked that we're still open to so there are things that come into town or different opportunities that they receive scholarships for that we still will look at but this will ensure that every student in that grade level has that opportunity it also provides vertical alignment we know love Kom Zoo but we also want to expand Beyond Kom zoo in K1 2 and three so it provides the opportunity for students to see more throughout Minnesota we have so many things right in our backyard so with that I want to pass it on to Sarah Honeywell and Nicholas hollerman who are going to share about our extended overnight field trips which we will be seeking approval for hi thanks for having us uh yeah we're looking to have an experience for our students to facilitate a trip to go to Chicago for a multitude of Fine Arts experiences um we and we the reason we want to do this is because it gives the students opportunities to see real life art outside of the internet like to see a a wide range of visual and and and musical arts uh and that's the goal for our trip that's our purpose um it gives a multifaceted experience to students as an extension to their their curriculum that's already in place uh some of the things that we want to do for the for the for our tour in Chicago is visit some uh colleges and um have do clinics and classes within the museums and within the musical locations and uh collaborate with other students um just more time to for them to build deeper bonds musically and in their Visual Arts and uh the other thing is the critical thinking where we set up uh just questions for them to answer as they're as they're going through their day and then respond back to those questions after they have had time to absorb their experience in previous years we've come to the board asking approval for the New York study seminar so this is a change from that and this came out of the teachers and the students the student sharing that the cost for the New York trip was quite a bit and caused a lot of barriers so our Innovative teachers said Chicago is closer and found opportunities that would fit the budget more and allow more opportunities so it came really out of student response from the New York piece and Nicholas might add in to that one so we're looking at um for our experience to go um February of 2025 it's weird to say that um and so we're looking to go over President Day weekend we looked at a timeline for this we're looking at what are days that are students are going to miss the least amount of school days and also with staff going um missing school days so as a part of that so this is kind of the date we landed on um and so we'll we will work with a company so we're looking at to work with Leisure Time Tours uh which is this is what they do they plan trips for music and arts groups uh and what the great thing about this is they send someone with us on the trip and they're in charge of doing all of the cordinating of making sure we're in the right spot making sure we have the tickets and everything which allows then us ased Educators to just make sure our students are having the good experience making sure that we're getting them to where they need to go and not having to worry about the other uh details um that go along with a big trip like that uh and so what we're looking at is uh inviting our Juniors and seniors in our concert band concert choir and AP arts program we've realized we have a lot of shared students between our Arts programs and so uh when we in the past we kind of did a a apart and choir and then apart and band uh and that was a lot for students have to pick and choose and then they also were picking an Arts track or a visual arts track or a music track and we've kind of uh asked for this to be they get to experience it all so even if they're not a visual arts student they get to experience the visual arts and if they're not a music student they still get to experience some of the musical things and then we're looking at going to some performing art schools and things that have all of that so those experiences yeah we can just talk a little bit about how we're Hing to fund raise some of these opportunities we did start some fundraising a couple weeks ago with some concession stands um we're hoping to we're going to have the booster Wagon at at Expressions art show and our students are really uh feeling eager and motivated to get on board and start to earn some money for their trip um we're hoping to do some grocery bagging I know there was a a couple other things yeah so we're looking at like concessions uh sales looking for local businesses um and other restaurants those restaurants D to donate type uh experiences um so just really having an opportunity for our students that if they want to if they want to fundraise the whole thing um that they're able to do that in providing them with that opportunity uh because like was said we really want to make sure that all students have the opportunity to go on this trip um and that the cost is not the barrier so that's why we that's in turn why we chose this because of the price point because it includes all the transportation the lodging the meals everything that they would need all is a part of the price point that we are putting together in the package we're working with the company with yeah yeah and going in February allows some cost reduction and they they found a lot of ways to find uh ways to make it more affordable for students which we're excited about good evening chair Mueller members of the school board and superintendent syic um also want to put in the same um package for you um the approval for our extended field trips these are things that we are already doing uh and we are asking to continue to do this to give our kids the same opportunities that students from other schools have um and so we do have some support um often from our booster club um and that allows our kids to have access to some of these um Extended Stays or field trips so with that um tennis soccer basketball Synchro Key Club track and field um those are anticip lists but we'd also like just the opportunity for approval for if something comes up that we can make our professional determination and update you as well if that trip is about to happen um so often these are either preseason tournaments or state tournaments so although we do ask for approval it doesn't always happen um if our kids don't qu do not qualify so um that is the ask to just have more of a general statement saying that we we are going to allow our students to do um that group that we just talked about to have the opportunity to go overnight this is principal wi two and Nicholas hollerman okay I'm gonna switch my hats now and now I'm going to speech coach hat um not music teacher hat um so we are looking this is now projecting into the future a little bit but we are looking at uh taking a group of students to attend the Harvard speech and debate National Tournament um so this is a tournament that happens um over president state weekend it's a 3-day tournament on the campus of Harvard University um students from all across the the United States and even the world come and compete at this uh this tournament and so the tournament itself features each student gets a guaranteed uh four rounds that they speak uh and they will get to compete in the classrooms that Harvard students learn in or in the science labs in those rooms so they get to tour the campus as they're competing at this competition um and so then they also get a chance to um watch all of this different talent and all these competitors um from around the the United States um which often a lot of these competitors are then National finalists and are national champions um but they'll get a chance to advance and then they'll the final round happens in their theaters uh Sanders Theater on that stage um and they also get to receive feedback from judges from um all the all the places around so there's coaches and former competitors so and they get this feedback that they wouldn't receive by just going to tournaments here uh in Minnesota uh so we're looking at this is now February 2026 and the reason for that is we are looking to so we can start fundraising and start planning for that um and so we unfortunately uh the cost for that we wouldn't be able to bring our whole team uh but we we would be looking at uh inviting successful members and All Conference speakers as a part of that uh probably older speakers that have are returning speakers uh for that and so our fundraising for that will be similar to the the Chicago experience um and also because a lot of our students are shared between our Visual Arts and Music so this would be kind of an offe thing so our students wouldn't have to try to do both trips in one year um so we're using the next school year to help build up the fund so that we can provide this this opportunity uh for our students to go compete at this National Tournament which would be really exciting all right I'm up next um as you know I support the American Indian education program um and this is a field trip that I've provided information to the board because it's not in 2025 or in 2026 but it's a fast track which would be next month um so uh we're looking at a group of high school students that qualify for the American Indian education program uh the purpose of the trip is um going to maax and catho State Park um is the purpose is to bring a source of connection with the Earth while learning of the original caretakers of this land through experiential lessons about the ojibway migration and traditional stories of the Dakota people um the field trip would also be aligned to um content area standards some of the features next slide please some of the features include um a presentation and Hiking with uh the Minesota DNR um a tour of the maax museum a visit to the historic maax Trading Post presentations by malax tribal officials um an art project photo contest and journaling so the dates there of course are June 12th to 14th so that is after school lets out um and this field trip would be at no cost to the students thank you and I'll be returning on May 28th seeking approval and thank you to the amazing teachers who keep providing innovative ideas of opportunities for our students any questions thank you questions just a just a comment I mean there there's some great great stuff there I'm really jealous that there's all these opportunities that I never saw when I was a kid so thank you so much for putting all of this together and Chicago the shed museum is amazing it's so much so much history on those couple of blocks there so um I hope you also take advantage of going over to the um Field Museum as well because it's right across the street so just a recommendation Michelle um I mean I had some questions but you guys kept answering them um so great job I mean this is well thought out and it seems like you really did your homework on you know the things that you're passionate about and and want to see happen and it sounds like your students are also just as passionate and are um coming up with some some uh Solutions and using their critical thinking to you know see how they can manage this and um I think it's really helpful to have this kind of stuff not just for the experience but to also see what it takes to do this like lot of kids just get in the car with their parents and they just go on a trip and they don't know what it takes to actually put this trip together so um I appreciate you guys giving them this these experiences it's awesome thanks Julie Mr hollerman I am excited about the the whole speech thing I've art is something that I think we focus on a lot we I mean I know growing up that was something I focused on however speech I think is a unique skill and very needed in our world today I think people need to be able to communicate be able to bring a point to that's been researched and be able to debate um but understanding that those aspects it takes real exposure to these kinds of things and I'm excited about that 2026 trip I really hope we get to send students to that thank you for thinking of that and you know how exciting to go out to to Harvard University and see that so I just wanted to give you some Kudos on that one because I love that thank you thanks Julie Jessica thank you for the presentation um I just wanted to uh express my appreciation for sort of laying out some of the overall principles that we're looking at as a district when it comes to field trips um I don't think that that's something that everyone in the community really knows or understands that it's not like we're kind of just choosing things out of the air that there's um some there's organization that's behind that um in terms of thinking about um alignment in terms of thinking of parity of experiences across the district um and then also thinking about costs and fundraising um and then the substance of the field trips themselves making sure that we have very diverse experiences for students across Arts speech Athletics all of those pieces um and then building in connections with colleges I think is so important especially when we have the opportunity to have overnight trips or trips out of state so thank you for laying all of that out so clearly um I did just have a couple of questions um I guess just generally around um fundraising and sort of how that works so when there's a cost to students and their families for these trips um and there's fundraising does that fundraising go to defay like the overall costs for all of the students that participate or are they um um you know squirel away for scholarships or how does that work yeah I think that's a great question so we have two different types of fundraising we have the everyone does this together to feel like we're all part of this and so things like concession stands or if we do like a big movement to sell t-shirts or whatever it may be um just exactly what you're saying to understand the process after that students can sign up and log their hours and then there's kind of a split pot based on how much money they may bring in so if it's bagging groceries collecting the tips for that along with the amount of money that they make for um tournaments or whoever shows up can earn that money some parents would prefer their child not to do that and are able to afford that and just pay it right up front we also have payment plans for families so that they we keep track each month and let them know their balance so it's a uh multiple ways of fundraising um with a goal of if you can't afford it and you do the time we set you up with the opportunities to do the fundraising to pay for the entire trip you may do that um whereas some don't have to do that so a little of both does that answer your question yeah absolutely thank you can I also just share quick that the fundraising is for extended field trips any instructional field trips during the day there are no costs to any families or any fundraising thank you that's an important clarification um and then I also just had a a question specific to um the new Chicago Arts exper experience and thinking as we're looking you know if we're trying this out moving away from the New York seminar into the Chicago Arts experience we're letting or we're inviting students from all three of those areas to attend um is the thinking that moving forward this would be an every other year experience or something different than that we had the discussion about it thank you for that and talked about every other year as a possibility but really revisiting after this year and coming together with the students and looking at budgets and other pieces to see if that's a plan so we didn't present all the years yet as we really want to reflect after one year sure so still under discussion I suppose okay um and then I guess just another thing to note I'm just thinking about sort of again that experience moving forward and the students that participate in that um I know there's a lot of overlap um in those students um that that are are participating in the Arts um but I also know I'm just thinking about Chicago also being a great theater city um and although we don't um have theater classes at the high school um we do have um Productions every year students that participate in that we have a pipeline of students that come up through the middle school with our theater offerings um and just thinking that as we continue to think about how this trip could evolve that there's good opportunities there um for students that are that are interested in um theater as well thank you that's a really great idea that we can add in thank you thank you other questions um I I'll just make a quick comment you guys know you weren't going to get away from me without me saying something as a as a two-time New York mom um and many many sleepless nights and weekends fundraising for those trips um for my own kids and for lots of other kids um I know Mr Hollman this is something that we've talked about in the past of you know how can we make this trip more accessible to students without the the pain of the of the funds and this is stress and no no student wants to not go when they have the opportunity to go and when there's a financial barrier um that becomes stressful for the student and for the family and that takes front you know front seat over you know maybe their studies or some of the other things that they're trying to do is they're working extra hours or you know trying to do things for fundraising and and I think as you had told me in the past there's so many opportunities that are a little bit closer to home that are still a great experience for students to see something that they might not see here in Minnesota um so as someone who is like yes New York trips they were great I love this idea um and if there can be an opportunity for students to go more frequently um to have these experiences I I think that's great and from from an Arts mom um I appreciate the Innovation um and coming up with a great plan for our students thank you other comments questions right we will see director tuck roll back on the 28th thank you thank you thank you you thank you we'll keep director Tech roll at the table there um and bring up daa fabec uh for our school climate survey hello you are just all baby aren't you good evening chair Mueller members of the board superintendent stvi I am very excited to have our research and assessment coordinator daa fabec here with us who is having a little fabec joining us at the end of the month so you may not see her back this month so we're excited she's here tonight to share about the school climate survey our mission in Columbia Heights Public Schools of creating worlds of opportunity for each and every learner all belong all succeed and focusing in on the core values of community excellence and collaboration and our core values are aligned with the Columbia Heights Public Schools Board of Education Equity statement this is an informational presentation to the board so there'll be no governance question to follow and with that it will be Tia fabec show yeah both of us chair Mueller members of the board superintendent stck it's nice to see you all today um we're really excited to share some things from our climate survey so from this graph you can see participation rates over the past three years this is including students in fourth through 12th grade and then all families Early Childhood through transition high school so any family could participate in the survey this year and something really exciting to see that steep curve of students so we're still serving the same population but we're getting more responses which is our goal and we'll talk a little bit more about that and then our families too we're having more be involved and involve their voice oh thank you that's nice so this particular graph is just for student participation and we parceled It Out by site so that we could really find tune okay who's responding who can we gather more information from what steps can we take moving forward and you'll see this red horizontal line and that's really our goal in Heights for participation we would love 100% um eventually that hopefully will be our goal but for this year was 80% just to see from past years you know some of the students got halfway through or part of the way through so we really want to encourage those students to finish and this is anonymous for families and students so we can't find students and say oh I see you didn't finish can you finish today because we want that genuine feedback from them and the families as well so again this is students in grade four through High School uh we showed this last year um we're using the same format we did last year because we saw that jump in participation for families and students so it was a Google form that we created in house we had lots of feedback lots of voices looking at these questions saying how can we make this more student friendly how can we make this more family friendly with still the same questions it was short it was available in Spanish and English which we appreciated the feedback from our families and then we had a real specific time for students so each site designated when I'm going to send this out to families or when I'm going to send this out to students and how is that going to happen is it in my home room is it in my star class so you can see some of that up here as well and our program leaders and principles shared it with families multiple times which we found very helpful all right now the good stuff so looking at our student surveys responses for the past three years just to remind this is of the students that completed the survey so we can't speak for all of our students but we can speak for um our goal of reaching that 80% or at different sites who responded so looking at our elementary CA and high school we don't ask our early childhood students questions yet that's something that we're looking into in the future and having maybe a one-on-one conversation and documenting um but you see the same questions as we've had the past three years so students planning to go to a two or four year college or university and then students who care about well doing well during school and I just want to highlight some of the real bright spots that t and I were really excited to see our students want to be here they want to do well they want to thrive and succeed and we know that but our data is reflecting that as well uh still on the student survey students responding if they found things useful that they're learning in class that's something what we really try to Target and our high school you can see had the biggest jump in that group finding things that are useful to them and applicable to After High School graduation um last year we looked at that CA percentage for thinking about school rules are fair and we talked about a lot of those students chose neutral last year so we kind of stepped back and we said okay what is our goal here we want to improve we want to get feedback where are you leaning are you feeling like they're not fair are you feeling like they're slightly fair and then we also looked at the Minnesota student survey and they don't have neutral uh as a response item for students so we removed it this year to see if it would give us more feedback and from our data I mean we're seeing that same kind of upswing as 2022 so close to that 68% 69% this year that gives us something actionable so that we can move forward so the neutral question was removed from all of our surveys because again it wasn't giving us enough information couple more slides of the student data here uh the first question there the percent of students who strongly agree or agree that staff care about them again we see this uptick this swing in more positive response types they call that so more towards the agree strongly agree and SA so again removing that neutral question really helped us say okay we're we're seeing that you're leaning more towards the positivity with this one um then we looked at some things uh related to health so thinking about physical activity in the last couple of days based on the survey question and then sleep so again we're seeing uptic of more agree and strongly agree except with our high schoolers and sleep so tar and I were got on to a little bit more of this and the high school had added some specific questions about cell phone use which we know is a nationwide thing that's keeping our students up at night in the blue light is helping that as well we also know that they have outside responsibilities jobs um maybe family obligations extracurricular activities but this is helpful information for us to go to our health teachers and our social workers School psychologists and talk about the importance of sleep so although it's Le it's not as high as 62% like last year we have information to move forward with I think this may be our last yeah this is our last student one so feeling that internal feeling good about themselves students are responding more positively to this than they have in three years which is really really exciting and encouraging and then expressing themselves this was something that we had excuse me wanted them to focus on as well as knowing how to express their feelings even if they're not um you know happy or excited if they're feeling frustrated or upset we want them to have the tools to be able to articulate that so we saw a great Improvement in all three levels with this question so then moving to the family survey and again we're including Early Childhood here because this was open to all families coming to Columbia Heights Public Schools of the families that were surveyed we asked similar questions um some pertaining a little bit more to families but the school rules feel fair and we see quite an increase in some of our grades and sites and then communication that's a huge goal is are you able to feel like you can communicate well and is it accessible and we see some very high close to 100% at every level uh safety was another question we asked we asked the students this and the families this as well again really really high percentages here of families agreeing or strongly agreeing and that same question of you know students are you feeling like things are useful and then families do you think that the feedback is useful for your learner so comparable to what our students are saying and even slightly higher sorry I'm to call sorry um thinking similarly of questions that we ask students is can your child handle difficult situations based on things that they're learning in the programming and schools in Columbia Heights Public Schools so again you can see Elementary Early Childhood CA and the high school much more families responding favorably to that so both students and families are agreeing in this and then similar to that expressing emotions constructively and again we we worded that in more student friendly ways when we gave it to the students because constructively could be confusing to maybe some um Elementary School students we saw an increase in all levels for that one too especially look at the high school that's a huge jump all right so we went through that quickly but just sort of to summarize some of the areas that we were really celebrating is with the exception of high school sleep we really saw a lot more positive leanings um and again we have a a lot of indications as to why that may be removing the neutral really helped us feel like we could Target more support were needed um when we look at all of our students collectively 86% of them really felt like someone in their site cared about them and then 96% care about doing well in school which is so encouraging and we see it and we know it but to have that feedback is really helpful and then communication that's always something we want to continue to work on but it's improving and that safety is improving or the feeling of safety is improving as well so we set some areas for support and next steps of course getting those students a little bit more physically active because we know how important that is so maybe that synchronized swimming we can really vouch for that we'll get the video up on the website and support I didn't say anything about the video I just had the pictures maybe principal wi can really push that one out um I think that's yes um and then getting more of our high school responses so we did see an increase room last year we're still pushing that we want more student voice especially at the high school and we know they have more to say so those are two areas that we really want to focus on moving forward thank you faex this was this is an informational update so we won't be returning with any governance questions but open to any questions right thank you both or all three of you um questions Julie so do you think that the trend um the the good Trend that we're seeing is because we're Beyond covid now do you think that that could be like a do we go back before covid to see what these Trends were um and see if that kind of was where the wrinkle was yeah that's a great question I know for the Minnesota student survey that's what they were seeing I was at a presentation this year about that is that sort of flattening out of some of the covid issues or experiences of our students our next steps is to really bring it back to student groups too and say here's what we found and here's what you're telling us tell us more cuz I think it's easy to look at data and make our own you know assumptions but the students really know how to give us the feedback but it's very encouraging and now I want to continue to dig a Little Deeper yeah yeah I was just hoping that you know I don't know if we had the same data from prior to 2020 and saw you know hey 86 85% are really enjoying the school and and feel safe and all of that and then all of a sudden we had a the dip and now we're getting back to normal the norm or is this just an improvement from you know situations prior so I guess that's what I was asking but I'm excited that it's improving yeah yeah great Jessica um thank you for the presentation uh to director H's point I'm wondering if you could give us a little bit of background about the history of climate surveys in the district um because I know there have been some Chang in in how we assess climate yes that's a great question so historically we've had a smaller selection of students that we've targeted we've really tried to base it on the Minnesota student survey which is every three years and we didn't find that that was enough information to really do much with so we said we need something in between in those in between years and the Minnesotan student survey is really a small number of students it's fifth grade 8th grade 9th grade and 11th grade I believe um and so we wanted to broaden that so outside of the years of the Minnesota student survey we've crafted our own over the years we have used vendors in the past um and found the information was really really Broad and we wanted to know specific things like safety sleep um if you're feeling like someone cares about you and some of their categories were more broad than that so that's why we created our own two years ago um and have used it since but there are overlaps that we could definitely do a comparison with because we took some of the topics and some of the wordings from the previous surveys as well right thank you I remember being a parent and filling out I think it was a survey that we the district had used a vendor for and they tried to push it out at conferences and it was a very long survey it was it was not uh and you couldn't come back to it it was like you need to stay no it did not promote families filling that out so I I think that's a definitely progress forward but I do think it's that's important context because when you look at I mean even this is just 2022 to 2024 and when you look at like those big increases in those categories I think it's also important to understand how the tool has changed how the question has changed um and how that impacts our ability to compare like you said you can kind of uh you can look at some of the questions that are similar you can look at that um that student survey every 3 years to do some comparison too um but I'm hopeful that we'll be at a point where we have a tool that works really well for us that we're able to have more longitudinal data um to really compare you know much more I don't want to say accurately but just like much more specifically I guess it's probably the right word um ask a question before you move on just related to that so this survey that we're reporting here the data in 202 4 2022 2023 that's the same survey right that's using this new format the only difference in 2024 was removing the neutral categories right correct so this was the same so what we're seeing on our comparisons of 20122 2023 2024 that's the kind of our generated survey you know asking so that is a good comparison it's just kind of going back previous years it would be looking at different surveys correct okay thank you I just thank you because that was something I was trying to figure out because of looking in looking at the presentation thinking about okay well what what could what is really attributing to this huge increase in um in in satisfaction rates overall um from 23 to 24 and looking at like okay is that just attributable to the huge increase in respondents we have because that might give us you know more valid information because there's more people taking the survey um is it really the elimination of that neutral category is that you know kind of pushing some people um you know to kind of take a position right one way or the other um and then also thinking about like are we were the questions all the same what was the survey tool the same tool in 22 that we used in 24 and so clarifying I think some of that has been really helpful um there's a question in here somewhere I'm going to get to it but I'm just trying to think about like from from when you look at the data and you see this significant increase from 23 to 24 how what factors do you attribute to that to do is do you put a lot of uh are you thinking about like elimination of that neutral category being a significant component is it the sheer number of responses because we were able to push that out more widely what just some general thoughts on on that piece I think you named quite a few of them as you did earlier with after covid and I think as our principal share with about their buildings and the changes that they feel they probably can be more specific to the building but just walking through the buildings you can feel it this year you can feel a different sense of our students coming together collaborating focused in so I don't think there's one specific reason why I think there's many things going on and as um daa mentioned earlier we really want to dig into it a little more and work on those student focus groups to see what are some of those reasons that it went up but I think it's a lot of factors coming together in a positive way thank you I just I I think it would be really helpful to better understand that as we have continued conversations within our building um because these are fabulous numbers I'm very excited to see these increases um but they're so significant that I think it can raise some questions about like what what what happened like what's what's changing what's going on um and so for us to be able to to answer some of those things moving forward and so we can also sustain these great results would be really really helpful information superint thank you for the questions just to um add to the the discussion one suggestion from director tuck was that at the annual fall report from each of the principles on their building that this information be included in those presentations by individual building so that they can better you share some of those stories and the and the rationale so this data is kind of hot off the presses and has come to the board before it's gone I think the principles have access to it but there hasn't been we haven't had our June admin meetings yet to to really dig into it so director tuel made that suggestion that this data be presented to the board in the fall along with the princip all the other principal data they're and I think that will provide that context for you that would be really helpful and I just because I I want to be able to talk about the reasons that you know this is happen and allow us to really celebrate this in a big way because we should be celebrating numbers like that that's fantastic um and then I just had one other just I will say on top of that I do appreciate you bringing this to us now knowing that diesa was such a big part of this and wouldn't be able to present to us you know a little later so just acknowledge that go ahead um and I I guess just another question about um I guess the schedule of the climate survey so um because this is our own homegrown survey we obviously don't have the ability to compare our results with any of our peers do we do we do that comparison that's something that the Minnesota state survey allows us to do on that every three-year survey absolutely and that is something that we do enjoy looking at and saying okay what's working and it does parcel It Out by um different groups of students too so as of this point in time we don't ask students to self-identify any um identification about themselves but the Minnesota student survey does ask for that so it gives us a little bit more so it's conversations we've been having to if do we want to add that as an optional question or how could we help um but yes we do um are able to compare with other sites and other um similar districts to us when we have that Minnesota student survey but that every three years with only four grades I'm just like I need more you know that doesn't give us the whole picture like you were no I think this is a really uh good strategy because it allows us to have a good mix of of data it allows us to develop the questions that work well for our district um and to have that year-to-year comparison um but then also be able to look at at our peer districts and be able to make some comparisons that way so I really appreciate you laying out that strategy thank you Laura oh okay yeah I've been to ding to jump in here um I'm ex extremely excited about the communication I mean getting communication feedback that high is just amazing because that's always the number one thing that everybody says is no that the communication is is lacking somewhere so to get hundreds and 98s is just amazing um and also to have all of these um all this data showing an upward Trend with so much more participation you would think I I mean I I can't I can't help but think that what you're doing is providing a more uh more want to participate so I think it's a lot more it must be a lot more Equitable um I'm not entirely sure if we need to parcel them out by self-identifying that might remove some of the data that's just kind of you know just kind of a kind of a thought everybody is kind of working together um and have you ever considered um doing spot check-ins you know how are you feeling today how was your day today something along those lines you know because um things can happen in the world and I know that there were a number of incidences that did affect a lot of student self- safety that have happened over the years and depending upon when you um whenever you get this data and feedback it can be affected by factors that are outside of our environment so um but all in all this is super exciting and I can't wait to see more of the more of the the if there's comments available and stuff like that in some of the general sense so thank you this is wonderful great thank you other questions all right thank you for your time thank you and good luck congratulations thank you next we have director Henkin with the long-term facility maintenance plan for Columbia Heights all right thank you chair Mueller uh members of the board excuse me and superintendent stck um the first item that I have let me just get it open here okay I'm just going to go ahead and open up the next one too at the same time so might make it easier there's one close there we don't need that anymore okay promise I'm almost there okay all right so the first item I have is uh CL HS Public Schools long-term facility maintenance plan or ltfm uh plan uh so this is an annual plan that is presented to the school board um the district is mandated to have a 10year facility um long-term facility maintenance plan um approved by the state of Minnesota in order to receive long-term facility maintenance dollars from the state um so our Mission columb Heights Public Schools uh creating worlds of opportunity for each and every learner all belong all succeed and our core values of community excellence and collaboration Integrity respect courage and Innovation hide this floating panel here there we go okay uh so this not a governance this evening um it's just an informational presentation but I will be bringing this back to the school board and the May 28th Schoolboard meeting for action item so uh within our district um health and safety plan uh that I uh send to the state um it's a templated plan that every District sends it you know has 10 years so it's a it's a difficult grid to try to look at and present and even the state doesn't really FOC focus on 8 years out or 9 years out or 10 years out in our minds we kind of think you know we're we know we're going to go back into roofs we know we're going to go back into HVAC and so we're trying to make our best educated guess where those dollars will be that far out but the reality is is we don't exactly know we focus on the three years current year and the next two years so that's that's the focus when they approve the plan that's what their focus is so that's where I'm looking at the 24 and 26 um So currently um um this first section is more of the health and safety section of ltfm so um back years before so back prior to 2017 um this District did not have long-term facility maintenance dollars coming from the state we weren't one of the bigger districts so we just didn't really had any deferred maintenance dollars we had some Capital dollars that came in and that was it doesn't give you a whole lot um so this this has been a very big we did have health and safety dollars though and so this section of long-term facility maintenance is the combined now health and safety long-term facility maintenance so they mush them together basically um and so we still do those same categories of health and safety So Physical hazards um you know hazardous materials um that we need to do so in a hazardous materials will have um like a lead and water testing radon testing testing and these are things that we have to do every so many years um right now radon is basically every third year kind of because we splited things up based on we used to do all our buildings at the same time and then we remodel two of them which caused us to have to do a radon testing and so now they're off schedule of the others so we do two and then we do three every you know so they on every fiveyear schedule but that's why in 2024 you see this other hazardous it's at 880,000 and it suddenly drops down to 18,000 and 25 and 18,000 540 and 26 um that's why that drop is it'll bump back up again when we have to do a lot of mod testing and we're doing three more buildings um in radon testing in 2027 oh that is actually in the way all right sorry let me move this two on my screen I moved it it's on that screen too okay thank um uh but in the other categories you'll see that they're pretty pretty flat um so environmental health and safety um the company that we work with that works with our health and safety um so they work with our safety health and safety committee they they do testing they we work through them for testing of things uh they do our fesus monitoring um so in the district so things like that so that's where that those dollars are going um we we put a little bit into a spe removal every year um when projects come up um we we use those dollars for the smaller kind of here and there things that we find forestas um but any project that we do like although we did have a surprise in the were washing in the kitchen um typically we have an allotment in there for anything that we're going to find in there um just because we do have the age of buildings that had a lot of asvestas in them um so we continue to work on that every year every year we do Aus abatement just to try to keep mitigating um any possibility of EXP exposure to that um fire safety or fire safety testing that we have to do every year um and then a little bit of indoor air quality in that aspect is just some of that testing that we do for indoor air quality testing um so you again in uh 24 25 and 26 you know it's with the exception of 24 here now we have that increase and again that was because of those other hazardous materials with additional lead and water and radon testing that we did um and then and then we'll again we'll see like I said before that bump bump again in 2027 in this category so that's our health and safety categories of long-term facility maintenance um and then we have the other more construction larger construction related categories um are building envelopes so that's where that brick tuck pointing um comes into play um obviously our buildings are all brick on the outside and and uh there there does come a time in place where um brick tuck pointing is necessary keep the water out um and Revitalize the the face of that brick um or the motor within that brick I mean building hardware and Equipment um we don't typically spend a lot of money in there that's door hardware um you know mostly so um but we do have repairs and Replacements that need are needed every year in that electrical um we don't have any big plans for any big electrical projects um interior surfaces um you know like our floors um and carpets um you know those are examples of our interior surfaces um we do plan on continuing to work in those areas partly because you know we have tiled areas that have U the tiles are aestus we have tile areas that the glue holding the tile down is aestus and we have carpet areas that were carpeted back in the mid90s and you know it's durable it lasts a long time but eventually you need to replace it um so that's that's those types of projects that we're we're doing in there and we we we did some last year we're doing some this summer we we plan to continue to do a little bit of those each year mechanical systems um we I we intend to see that bump up um in 2027 and moving forward we have a high KN and mechanical and uh our roofs are caught up from our replacement um um um through our um roof um study that we did um there was we identified three to five years three if we could do it fast enough depending how expensive things were five if we needed to extend it out and I think we're in our fifth year now and and uh we should be wrapping up with the Highland roof section this summer and then moving forward into um maintaining our roofs versus replacing our roofs for a period of time um so we'll see that drop down um um in the roof section and then we'll see an increase in the mechanical but um mechanical right now we're doing mostly um smaller things like controllers for the mechanical system but not anything major replacement um you know for example when we did um or we had a bit out for um Valley View to do the kitchen the cafeteria and um and the gym and you know when we're encroaching 650 700,000 just for those are areas but you have an entire building that's needed um you know it's it's an area of Need for us and we just don't have the funds in this this um area for it so we're looking at some other things we've had some meetings with companies to talk about other other ways to fund um projects like that um so I I would venture I guess in the near future we'll have more conversations with the board about that um because that is a high need Plumbing um nothing major there at this point um we we we do have areas that we need to look at in the near future we've been trying to tackle them with other projects of just original U water pipes in the buildings that um so we may have to but right now we're just planning on maintaining in that area um we haven't been putting anything in Professional Services we've been putting it all into construction so then the rough again um looking at um you know wrapping up the last year Highlands spill all over into the next year um we have some identification at um Columbia Academy of some water areas that we may have to address so right now I'm kind of a placeholder there uh forecasting out um that we may have to address something there which will be a cost otherwise that money's you know mid year we we would shift up um site projects we don't predict anything with site projects we saw some big expenses in site projects as we were redoing um pavement Drive entrances exits putting that Bus Loop in or bus driveth through in at the high school um that's worked out very very well for us so total um deferred Capital expenses within this category 1 million are for 2025 um 1,80 for 2026 1,1 145,000 um so you know we've seen a little bit of an increase in our ltfm funding our LTM funding is based on a per dollar per pupil um that's the base formula they have some uh Equalization factors into that um the equalization factors aren't really giving us any more money it's just a matter of it decreases the levy amount to the community and add some state aid into it that's the equalization so um um it's great I mean it's less you know levied to the community we're a community that you know most of our things when there's some kind of Equalization like that it there's state aid that comes in that helps support the funding versus it all being Levy to the community so um but a majority of it is is levied so I think it's about 400,000 of the total um is state aid and then the rest is Levy so summer 2024 we I talked about Highland roof um District wide mechanical the summer of 2024 but the Howland roof is GNA technically be fiscal 2025 it's going to come in July and August so it'll be fiscal 25 continue with our districtwide mechanical work as I explained our districtwide case work in flooring so example at the high school we have a project this summer in the math area um they have tile um with aestus glue in that area that that Wing so um and we have they have some wer carpet that's over the top of that tile and a couple other classrooms so we're just taking it all out and while we're doing that we're replacing the original cabinets um so we're just kind of doing it in one project um so that's part of that project this summer 2025 um we're shifting to a little bit of prick tuck pointing we we were not complete yet but we've engaged with the company that did our study for rofs Garland um to look at Brick tuck pointing and we also did complete a facility study um with Carl Sanders looking at you know the big picture of everything um and have some identified spaces um at North Park um that you know is the original sections of the building where we have some um tuck pointing that's going to need to be addressed and so we intend to do that then um again continuing mechanical districtwide that's just going to be a broken record for quite a while for us um and we do intend to continue the district casework um in flor ing just to kind of continue picking away at an areas that you know that asbest is flooring and while we're doing that addressing any any of the cabinets that we need to address at the same time in some cases depending on the room depending on when it was done if it's original case workk um in the room and um we and there wasn't anything done at any point over time uh there isn't flooring underneath the casework a couple places we found flooring underneath case work um so we're you know trying to address that as we go but um in most building or most of our classrooms particular at the high school I mean the case Works in very bad shape so so that's what we're looking at in 25 questions Julie um so I noticed Brian that excuse me director henkins that you have Lake Plumbing you stayed flat every year do you not put an inflationary estimate in there because I would expect even if we had the same exact repairs they would be more expensive yeah we don't typically spend all of that money in plumbing um we do very little in plumbing if we're doing just repairs we're just BL I'm just blanket it's a good question I'm just blanket stating that we are going to do some we know we're going to do some and I'm allocating some resource towards it I guess I was thinking bro more broadly and that was an example that your numbers seem to indicate that you did not include an inflationary number for the next year's in that one I can see it's flat so did you do that in the same estimates in the in the health and safety area up above you'll see those numbers you know incrementally go up um and that's what I'm doing is I'm just putting an inflationary adjustment on it in the bottom part it's just we know we have a project it's an approximate number of you know I know the roof's going to cost me in in that fiscal year approximately $400,000 I don't have the actual project bid out I'm just plugging in a number and so it's just to plug in a number to say this is how we think this year is going to go out in that area health and safety it's a little bit easier because we have the standard costs um we have you know the standard inspection that we do every year we know it's going to cost us more every year and so that's why I put an inflationary adjustment on that um IA with our with our that you know the Professional Services up in the health and safety area we know they're going to cost us a little bit more every year because they're not going to just charge us the same amount because their staff costs go up too so um I do it up there but down below it's just whatever's of our total ltfm numbers whatever we're not budgeting out of health and safety um I'm spreading that out between what we believe is going to happen and I'm just putting whole numbers in there yes great question there questions Jessica what is the current like total deferred maintenance for the district right now the total deferred maintenance Revenue that we receive every year or the total deferred maintenance needs needs so um it's it's a loaded question just because it's you know there's a lot of there's there's areas like when we did this facility study there's areas that are yellow um orange red you know critical um items and you know based on Age and and based on you know they may have identified them as critical will they last for another 10 years maybe um and so you know what we do know is for example um we did an HVAC um facility study um in right around 2018 and we identified okay going forward what are our needs going to be U with HVAC um and I kept saying mechanical mechanical mechanical um and at that point it was 44 to $46 million in deferred maintenance needs in that area um and you know and it's not because equipment's going to die tomorrow but the equipment is meeting its life expectancy so the equipment may not be meeting a current standard you know a lot of our our equipment right now doesn't necessarily meet current standard but it meets it's it's grandfathered in based on the standard that it it you know the past standard so um you know it's so we have that equipment you know is it is it meeting you know is it meeting the need that it needs to by code yes is it meeting necessarily the current standard no and so and that's not everywhere but there are places that it does exist and so um that 44 to 46 million is now not double but it's more in the 60 million range um and so that's why I mentioned we're having discussions with companies about putting a plan together looking at additional revenue streams um because the traditional Revenue stream for something that large obviously isn't just save it over 10 years and you got it because we'll never get to that large of a dollar amount and and still be able to maintain the facilities right now um is bonding but there are other avenues out there that were exploring um and and you know we'll have more discussions about them when we get to a point where we feel like they're they're viable um and and we need to look at those so um I mean there's different you know different grants I've looked at some geothermal and there's grants associated with that but it's so there's there's things out there but it's not it's not like you just say hey we want this we need it and they just give it to you and it takes a lot of time and effort and and we can't do it alone we need strong vendor support in order to do it as well so um but we're looking at it so the need is very high for sure Michelle um I mean I know we're talking facility maintenance right and um pretty much just maxing things out until like they go bad and then we have to fix them so this question question is maybe you'll want to answer it or maybe you can't um but will there be a time where we are able to kind of um I don't know maybe like help CA a little bit with the a remodel or some sort of um maybe not a full you know reworking of the entire building but just like certain areas like is there something set aside for that kind of work so just with mechanical at CA Alone um you're talking 18820 million um so they can't make it pretty not yet so it's you know that's that's you know and obviously you know long-term facility maintenance dollars that's we had 1 point and I had 1.1 in 2026 of the whole District you know yeah we can't save all that for 18 years to get to that point so um again that's why we're talking about these other options for or we're looking into other options for receiving that Revenue because it's you know we have deferred maintenance dollars we have capital projects Levy dollars to work on the immediate needs but to do like a major remodel that's that's a North Park conversation you know really when you if you if you're if I'm thinking the way you're thinking like a major remodel of the building um you know it's not and you know North Park was you know you know 12 million um so that's you don't get that without without um bonding really so good question other questions all right we will see you at our next meeting for approval yes thank you we're going to see you again right now for the Northeast Metro 916 long-term facility M maintenance plan okay share my screen again and see if I can get the right one chps there it is okay oops all right thank you chair Mueller members of the board and superintendent stck so the next item is Northeast Metro 9916 long fac long-term facility maintenance plan so um in in the state of Minnesota in order for the intermediates to um receive long-term facility maintenance dollars they re they can't receive the they don't have their own District boundaries District Community they have their member districts so and they obviously have buildings um and we we send students there they um to receive Services um or education and um um and so they they can only receive these dollars through their member districts and that's based on the membership like how many students so if they have 12 member districts and they you know have a total of a thousand but we only have you know 18 kids you know we pay our proportion of that um so um it's you know it is levied um to the community the same as our long-term facility maintenance um so uh as a and so that's that's what this conversation is about so um we're mde requires us to approve this at our board level in order for them to receive long-term facility maintenance dollars for their buildings so our mission colums public school is creating worlds of opportunity for each and every learner all belong all succeed in our core values of community Excellence collaboration Integrity respect courage and Innovation again it's an informational and and again we're mandated to um take action on this in order for them to receive dollars um this will be brought at the May 28th Schoolboard meeting so similar to what ours uh presentation um although I didn't on this one I'm not spreading it out over years we're just focusing on on their current um approval plan they usually um send theirs in a one-year Focus um so not a lot has changed from their previous plan um one thing of note um uh member who will U mention is the inflationary adjustments so in this health and safety area that's exactly what they do they throw an inflationary adjustment on there um you know you can see their largest expense in this area for them is the environmental health and safety management um so I'm assuming they're working with a company similar to ours I'd like to think that since theirs is more expensive we're getting a better deal than them um but I don't know what else they may have in there um so this so as you can see a total of $186,800 in the total health and safety um and uh um and so you don't see a lot of effect in this area um really on the age of their buildings um this is this is their um you know the other categories where you see the the construction or equipment again um you know they have newer buildings um so um it's not a huge expense here um we will see some bigger expenses in the future this is their expense plan this isn't actually what their total revenue is um I don't know if I wrote down what their total revenue was but I think the other sheet that's attached to your in your board agenda shows what their total revenue is and what our our piece of it so um they do have mechanical work that they're doing um and I I assume that that's going to be one of their biggest expenses until they shift to roofs um I think uh they project out um in a few years they're going to have to do some rough work um but again currently they're you know again their their buildings are are newer um so oops sorry about that um so they don't have a lot of expense there it's mostly mechanical and interior Services again the interior surfaces a lot of what you see there is flooring so a total of $31,995 which is very similar to what their their last year expenses were so our percent is 3.5% $1,474 so you can see our our portion of it is not not large um but again that's that's um proportionate to you know our number of students compared to the other districts questions questions Julie the more I learn right um so do we have any due diligence that we do to make sure their numbers are reasonable um I mean they they present the plan um MD approves the plan so mde is really their the check and balance of um no different than our plan approval so um we're our board does have to approve that because we are um it is a levy to our community but um I get what your question is but I mean really the check and balance has always been mde they approve the plan and and they um they're they're the on ones that are the check and balance of whether it was an um appropriate expenditure or not um did it fit into mechanical um was it a deferred project or did they try to buy a new fancy air conditioner with it instead of you know just a deferred maintenance in replacing what was existing can can I make it um Laura is that something that the 916 board would also approve the so that that school board that Laura sits on for our district approves their thank you for poting that I guess that's so we do have membership on the board that approves their plans and their construction projects other questions J good other question Jessica oh I was just oh thank you for making that clarification I just I to add just so that it's clear to folks watching that 916 School Board is made up of members from the member districts y so it's not like a board that is like isolated from the district membership and I'd like to make more comments on that as well um being a member uh we are basically one of the founding members also of n of 9916 we've been on there a really really long time and this commun this this District um it is um we basically we own kind of a part of all of this um we have actual invest investment in these buildings it's not necessarily it's it's more of an extension it's a collaboration and a partnership but we we all have you know um like I said we we own part of these buildings this is actually a capital investment should we pull out we would have actual Financial Obligations um because of the investment and we also have uh Capital because of the investment so it is it is it is it is US yeah and I and I would say too Julia it's a great question um and on you know the how that works and what the oversight is and um I think we've got a great board member with Laura having really represented our district for a number of years as 916 so as you're looking through this you know if you've got concerns or you know certainly sharing those with superintendent stvi but you know Laura as well as you know their their boards going to make those approvals too any other questions all right so that'll be back at the next meeting as well yes super thank you thank you um next we have the we're going to keep on 916 here we have Northeast Metro 916 agreement for services with director Godfrey it's up there's just a few presentations up as well nobody's closing their theirs out after they're dead there we go okay good evening superintendent Sten chair Mueller and members of the board um tonight I am here with an information item of the uh Northeast metro 96 Intermediate School District education and related service agreement so our mission Columbia Heights Public Schools creating worlds of opportunity for each and every learner all belong all succeed so tonight I'll be going over the core values of Excellence collaboration and respect so Northeast Metro 916 Brian was talking about this right before I came up um is one of four intermediate school districts in Minnesota um 916 serves over 6,000 students through shared programming the shared programming provides expert and reliable related services to member school districts and the students and families they collectively support so these are all of the I wondering mine looks different than yours but um Forest Lake is the is the top one up there so the rest you can see on on the screen so some updates uh Northeast Metro 916 has a new executive director of special services and his name is Dave havan coming to us from Lakeville public schools and he will be joining us over the summer um 916 has been able to provide students with low incidence disabilities related services and supports and I will share with you some um pictures of those folks and what they do with our students um however we do still struggle to get setting for placements within 9916 uh currently we have four students on the waiting list um where there is not um they've reached capacity within 916 and so we are um creatively programming for those students they await placement so they provide specialized programming and supports to support students across a Continuum of service um this might occur in a public and separate day school so that's setting four that I was just talking about um we currently have 31 students enrolled in setting four Services across seven programs in 916 um we have four graduates from 916 from those setting four programs um one just did her final presentation today um she talked about budgeting and she has a budget and a finance plan for after graduation um she has some secondary education that she has planned um she did reflecting of how she's grown as a student over the last few years in high school programming and um is very excited to see what comes next and she's really um excellently set up uh once she leaves in June so those related services that I was talking about so we have physical therapy deaf and heart of hearing physical and health disabled uh Blind and Visually Impaired orientation and Mobility um a certified occupational therapy assistant that works with our other occupational therapists uh we have licensed School nurses uh school health specialists speech and language Pathologists in Consultation Services um in Behavior mental health and programming that um those those Consultation Services um they come to us they do observations of teachers and students and classrooms they meet with teachers they give PD they give feedback um and then they come back and they do follow-up support and coaching uh for next year we will have an intervenor um that um person will support a deaf blind student in our programming um so that will be new for the fall um we already have a plan in place for that and um um that FTE will be in place in the fall when the students arrive so here's some of those people that I was talking about so Mary Williams is our our Kota um that occupational therapy assistant we've got Kelsey in uh Physical Therapy Jenna works with uh Blind and Visually Impaired students Rachel works with our deafen heart of hearing students uh Nicole Nelson provides Occupational Therapy Services Nick Hadfield provides uh blind and visual impairment he also provides that um orientation and Mobility piece and then Janelle fres is our physical and health dis disability teacher uh she does a lot of services within the homes for students that um might not necessarily be able to come into our building so these are their pictures so the board will be asked to take action on the agreement for Northeast Metro 916 intermediate District to provide special education and related Staffing to students enrolled in Columbia Heights for the 24 2025 school year at the next school board meeting on May 28th 2024 so thank you and what questions do you have thank you director God for questions Jessica thank you for the presentation um you mentioned um the challenges we have getting students placed in setting for um and I'm just wondering for the students when students are on the wait list how long are they generally waiting it it depends we try to be proactive in talking to our teachers in the springtime if um we're collecting data and looking at the interventions that are in place um if we see a need uh that weight time is shorter if it happens over the summer because students move um and so that's usually when students are freed up um into February is the last time that we had movement on the waight list but we haven't had any since then so between February and now we're we're still waiting now those students might not necessarily have been on the waiting list in September um some of those students come to us throughout the year and so um 916 has created an online system that I can see um where the students are in the weight list so that I'm not having to constantly email the sites and ask them where we are in the weight list so I can see it in real time and then share that information with our school teams and our parents as well I can see how it would be difficult too even looking at the spring because you have students that do come into the district if there are students that were um waiting in their previous District do they just stay on the wait list when they transition to our district if they're part of 916 they do and that's an agreement that we've created with the um administrative team in 916 um if they do come to us from Minneapolis they wouldn't we wouldn't have them um within the system to be on 916s weight list so they wouldn't be um as part of that process though we do give the the Guardians caregivers those options of perhaps Minneapolis there's there's different schools in the area that have setting for placements that the parents could explore to see if they don't have a weight list will they then stay on our 9916 weight list to see if they um are ready to attend at that time okay thank you and that that actually helps answer partially another just general question I had and so I don't know if that's a question for you or superintendent denic but I'm just wondering um outside of the participant districts in those four intermediate school districts what how how do other districts across the state meet their their service obligations outside of these like consort it's kind of like a Consortium these intermediate District sure um they also struggle uh very much similar to to ourselves um I'm part of other distri uh other director consortiums where we talk about these things and we try to solve these problems um I would say it's a little bit harder for maybe like Forest Lake and north of there to give ideas similar to how I could say there's St Paul there's Minneapolis um so it's harder in those more rural areas even than it is for us with our students um but they struggle there's there's not there's not enough enough teachers um working in setting for schools is a very difficult job and um being able to maintain the Staffing level um the professional development and support that needs to go with that position is very difficult um we've given a lot of feedback to mde around the fact that there's um a staffing shortage not only is there a staffing shortage but also running out of room in those spaces so we need to see what that could look like um if we did something like cre one ourselves we would have to have an additional separate building within the district and then we would be we would have to maintain the Staffing ratios for that in order for it to meet uh federal and state requirements as well as maintain a safe environment for our staff and our students so for a point of clarification Minneapolis and St Paul they have their own like setting four as part of their District because they're not part of 916 like they have their own that is correct and also where I worked previous to um coming here yeah Julie oh sorry just just outside of setting for then the same question around like uh providing low incident Services how do other districts manage that so they um the folks in this slide right here um they mo some of them like Nick for example is only here for part of the time so we look at the students that we have here our blind and visual impaired students we look at their service grid and we talk to Nick and the the team about um how much FTE fulltime Nick needs to spend here and then he goes to Fridley or other districts that are in that 916 group so that he'll have a 1.0 FTE but he might go between sites so that's that's how related services are met in those low incidence disabilities sorry I I I probably wasn't clear I I meant so so again for districts that are not part of Intermediate School Districts how do they provide um services for low incident disabilities sure so for a district like Minneapolis um they they just have a higher number of those students and so they would just have more FTE within their own District itself um and then some of those might be part-time um the deafen heart of hearing Community is is a little bit different than the Blind and Visually um impaired community in that um students that want sign usually go to the Metro def school and then the heart of hearing students are still within um the school within Minneapolis public schools for instance um so they just have more FTE as part of their their planning because they have a higher number of those students right and so for districts that are small like us that maybe are in like Northern Minnesota they have um Cooperative so it's it's like 916 but it's even it's even bigger and and then they do the same thing with um with the director position too so that director oversees multiple districts as well thank you that's very helpful yes Julie and you may have asked this but I couldn't hear you so um so for the four that where there's no capacity MH okay so they're on the wait list are we giving them service because we do have an obligation to give them service right yes we are okay so we're doing that inhouse versus at 96 that's correct okay that's what I needed to understand thank you yeah can I make a few comments okay um well I mean uh we we do get a lot of services through there and that's been one of the things is is making sure that we have capacity there are a number of factors that are are creating problems um one is um is covid hit that particular type of field really incredibly hard it was um it was a very I it was very uh basically a lot of people retired that were in this very demanding field one of them was educational assistance um we're still a little bit short on actual Staffing over there it has improved a great deal and of course teachers um if you're short a teacher you can't have a classroom and then that's also we may have the actual space but we don't have the Staffing to support the students you know so that's that's one thing that's why I was so excited to share that they're actually going to be able to certify teachers right on site um and be able to and be able to take educational assistance and turn you know and and help them to grow at very little cost while they're still working into actual um certified teachers there's also uh some additional Li insur and stuff that they're going to be able to participate in that's also going to be one of those little to no costs type of deals um for those that qualify so there's been a lot of uh planning that's gone into place to be able to increase capacity um and it and it's not necessarily physical space it's actually just making sure that that that that the legal requirements are being are being met and having those additional supports and those safe spaces um but in addition to that they also have um the mobile assessments um that they can that they can do and these additional Services where they come out and then help to uh to train the staff if they have students with specific types of maybe behaviors and and training and stuff like that so there's there's a lot of support that's coming into the schools to prevent that transition over uh to a more expensive setting like um over at like uh carer blue or quora or so on so anyway I'm just filling in some of the blanks thanks Laura appreciate that yeah any other any other questions all right so we'll see you at our next meeting for approval of the service agreement yes thank you thank you thank you um next on our agenda we have Highland building capacity superintendent simic thank you chair Mueller members of the board um in a typical school year what's typical anymore right but in a typical school year um we see we actually tend to see a decline in overall enrollment um we are in an atypical school year and this school year we continue to see an uptick in enrollment and I think we enrolled something like 20 additional students just last week um and yes we are required even though there's just you know a handful of weeks left in school we are required to allow students in and welcome them in and and continue to educate them um even at the end of the school year um and we're happy to do so um but again very atypical so we're trying to really monitor that enrollment in a different way and in a finite way and so I'm coming this evening to share with you that our current Highland Elementary second grade has reached uh such a high number that we would like to proactively close to open enrollment that grade level for next school year already um of course over the summer we'll continue to monitor that monitor that but we do see a great deal of students enrolling um in August um and they will not be able to have the capacity for the third graders um because as a reminder when it comes to closing to open enrollment we need to have some space for Resident students um often times we see some attrition over the summer with you know some mobility and people moving so um but we are at that point and so my recommendation to the board is to close Highland Elementary grade three for the start of next school year thank you questions Jessica I know we had some pretty substantial discussion the last time we looked at uh closing open enrollment this year about how we establish uh or look at building capacity and I'm just wondering if you can talk a little bit about um how we look at uh grade level capacity versus like overall building capacity what are how what are the considerations we look at there yep so at the elementary level in general so from grade K kindergarten through fifth grade we like to see an average of 24 to one 24 students to one teacher that oftentimes means that fifth grade will have 30 or 33 students and first grade you know would have fewer than the 24 that's kind of the ideal um but we've just been in an atypical enrollment pattern and kids are enrolling um and so I'm I'm feeling a little bit wanting to be more proactive in closing to open enrollment because the folks that are coming to enroll here the families are are residents um so we must have some have space in our buildings for the residents so we're we're clearly already beyond that for um that 24 to1 which is our desired Elementary for funding and Staffing and and and whatnot thank you so a kind of on a just I think to I'm going to ask a question that I know the answer or two right um to have discussion and for people who may be watching but um could we just add an additional like third grade section I think we're I'd have to pull it up but I think we're already slated for four so we wouldn't have the capacity for five so there isn't like an extra classroom is what we're saying to be perfectly honest I did consult with director Henkin about the idea of a portable classroom and the portable classrooms are no longer temporary buildings like just roll in a trailer you actually have to make them permanent and pora cement pora footings and and everything so I I mean we're we're to that point um when we do close a building or a grade level to open enrollment particularly at the elementary level um you know there might be space in another building and when it comes to open enrollment we have the right of assignment which school they can go to um we also like to honor our school district bound boundaries for our residents you know families so that if you live in the Highland area you get to go to Highland um so does that answer your question y thank you affortable can you imagine yeah I've seen it at the colleges they've done it yeah yeah so we're just Clos we're just considering Closing one grade in one elementary school so if we have open enroles who want to come they can still go to the other two elementary schools if they like as of right now we do have our you know as you all know right now Valley View is closed to open enrollment every grade level and we have our eye on it um and so I have regular Communications with the principal about the capacity and the the threshold that we have and um again in a typical year we do see move kids moving in and out um over the summertime um so I may be back soon for and I was going to say that we might be having you know conversation in August you know of you know removing the closed to open enrollment of you know maybe some valy view classrooms if there's capacity or closing additional classrooms if there isn't so I mean I do think this is a fluid thing and I appreciate it you know coming now um because families are trying to make plans too um you know in terms of in terms of fall but I think you know come over summer if we have more students who maybe move away than what we anticipated then you could come back and we can reopen this has this is a big deal and a big decision because it does have funding implications for the district so it isn't something that we take lightly um we are just so full right now I we have so many students and and when we have 20 kids enrolling in May last or you know just last week it's very atypical so I I do want to be proactive and I appreciate the board being Nimble if we you know if we do see a drop in in enrollment in the places that are closed then we would reopen point of clarification we did our current uh school grade levels in schools that are closed are closed to the end of this school year Okay so we're watching that and we may come back and say no we really need to keep it closed perfect okay just to open enrollment yep apprciate that clarification Laura oh I I just want to make a comment I'm I'm I'm glad we're looking at clo at closing to open enrollment at least because I I don't want to see the the days of having to have a classroom in the media center again um because we did do that before we got those additions on and and um that that just made that Media Center like not as you know not as useful so Jessica I would agree with that I think I'm really supportive of taking a proactive approach while it does impact families that are looking to open enroll um being reactive has impact on all of the students who are currently enrolled and all of our staff um and thinking about again um May's mental health month and thinking about how uh we want to make sure that uh all of our Educators our staff our students in the building um are able to thrive and maintain uh their positive mental health um I think that's really important to look at too I did just have a question too around um resident students and so when we're thinking about I don't know I'm thinking of it as like wiggle room right so we maybe cap open enrollment before we're at capacity so that we have enough room to bring in is there like an ideal um amount of wiggle room in your mind for like I shouldn't say in your mind but like does the district have a a concept of like the ideal wiggle room for for Resident students to to join the school communities we just really look at the trends and so the trends that we've seen over the last two two and a half years is is new families moving into the district and so I'm I'm going to follow that data and base on that data you know the the overall building capacity to open enrollment would be a lower threshold knowing that what our trend is is people moving into the district so leaving more room for those students um than maybe we would have seven years ago sounds like a very difficult balance to calibrate so I appreciate all of the work of you and your staff to to be looking at that and following those Trends it's well I'll reiterate appreciation for the board's Nimble nimbleness in in this is not a typical it's not you know member Palmer can attest that it's not typical that we would come so frequently to close to open enrollment but I'm putting it out there that that's my prediction that that's what will be happening thank you oh and you're right I mean from a concern we're getting more housing in Columbia Heights and so we know that and so we do have to consider savings room for our residents and that's necessary so makes sense yeah other questions all right so that'll be on our next meeting agenda as well action item next meeting agenda perfect lots of action items our next agenda up for being for the fact that they are moving on there are no action items tonight um they're all on the 28 because they're all at our next meeting discussion yeah so a lot of conversation at our next meeting will be um you can go watch the video from the previous meeting where all of these were robust conversation any board topics tonight Expressions yep Expressions at Silverwood Wednesday Thursday this week Elementary Wednesday and secondary Thursday I must see for the community I must see I think it's the other way around it's the other way around secondary is tomorrow and then I mean am I saying it right tomorrow and then primary I know it changed yeah one way or the other it changed but the art will be up at both so I believe boost Che out I believe the boosters wagon will be yes the there for dinner this is new um and it is a fundraiser for what could be um a um overnight field trip should that be approved at our next meeting I I wanted to make a comment um I was actually very proud of our goals this year as a board um when I was in class at msba one of the other board members in the state um was talking about how they communicate or um engage with their non-english-speaking or um English native English native English parents and and Learners and I said oh our engagement team is working on reaching out to ours and that was one of our goals this year and she was like I need to talk to you so it was really exciting to see that we're we're actually leading the way in doing that so excellent thought i' make a point great thanks Julie any other board topics all right with that I will adjourn the meeting at 8:05