um asking anyone that would like to stand up for the pledge of allegiance. Now would be a good time. >> I pledge allegiance 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. >> Thank you. First, I will enterain a motion to approve our motion. >> So, moved. >> Motion made by Jones. I have a second. >> Second. >> Second by Anna. We will have to do a roll call vote for this because uh council member, not council member, student board member, school board member Stark is uh virtual tonight. So, we will go start with Miss Anna. >> Hi, >> Miss Jones. I >> Mr. Car is I >> She's an I. She's I think she's I You're >> start. Uh Miss Yang. >> I >> um motion passes. Next up, I'll turn it over on the agenda to Dr. Brenda Lewis, our superintendent for her report. I am so excited to welcome our dear friends from the city of Fidley to come up and talk about our safe routes to school. So, Brandon and Carl, we are so ready for you. And I just would like you to notice how cute this slide is for you. So, I was so excited when Lori made this. So, we're so excited. uh school board, if you recall in the fall, um I wasn't able to be with you in person because of my injuries, but um you went on the tour in the van to see this in concept mode, and now the construction is starting. So, I am just so honored to have you, um, Brandon and Carl, not only presenting tonight, but you have been outstanding partners, whether it's about safe routes to school, whether it's about construction on county roads where you just step in any way and help us, whether it's about um the work on 61st that we're going to talk about in just a moment. I have to tell you school board members that this team I would say they take about seven minutes max to return an email and usually when I express a concern they're out on site no less than 15 minutes from when I email about that. So they're complete problem solvers and just amazing allies to have. So I'm so proud of the work you both do. So with that, I'll turn it over for you to update us on safe routes to schools and then team I'm going to give an update on the 61st work. Um so if you have just five minutes extra after your presentation, I wouldn't mind if you stayed. Okay, take it away. >> Awesome. Thank you, Dr. Lewis, for the introduction. Thank you to the board for the time here this evening. Uh we're excited to give you an update about the project here and uh we're looking forward to bringing these improvements to you. Um a quick overview here of the presentation. We'll uh touch on the project background. Um we'll review that project location and some of those project elements that we discussed in the fall. Uh and then we'll look at that update as far as the project schedule and construction phasing. Um something we like to bookend our our uh presentations with for our projects is just um communication. It's very important for our for our work. So um if there are any board members, staff, uh parents interested in learning more about the project, we do have a project web page. We have the link there below as well as the QR code. Um, and it's also available on the city's uh web page as well. Um, there you can learn more about the project. We have some documentation. Um, you can also sign up for project updates as we get going with construction here. We'll typically do a weekly project update kind of summarize the week's construction and then a look ahead to the next week. Um, and if there's any questions, we always encourage people to contact our engineering division. We've got our main line here and we'll have our our contact information at the end. So, kind of talking about project background here. The the motive for this project and and other similar projects you've seen throughout the city in recent years um is stemming from the city's commitment to providing residents with safe opportunities for walking, cycling, and other non-automotive transportation. Um in support of this goal, the city has developed an active transportation plan as well as its safe routes to school plan in partnership with Ridley Public Schools. Um those just help guide the construction and maintenance of our non-motorized infrastructure. Um so this project was developed um as part of those improvements identified in the Fidley public schools um safe routes to school plan and in 2024 the city successfully received funding for the project through the Metropolitan Council active transportation grant program. Um so with that the city received up to a million dollars um in grant funding for these project improvements um with a 20% local match by the city. Um kind of reviewing the project location here um and and the project scope itself. Uh this project is going to include a shared use trail construction, uh ADA compliant crossings, some minor utility improvements, and other miscellaneous work um along three general project areas. Um so that new shared use trail is going to extend along the north side of 61st Avenue from the University Avenue East Service Road to West Mor Lake Drive in front of the middle school. Uh we'll also be continuing the 7th Street Trail from 61st Avenue to Mississippi Street. that'll be on the east side of the street um along Commons Park. And the third portion of trail will be along Commons Park and the Fidley Middle School easement provided uh in the fall and that'll extend from Seventh Street to Jackson Street across the north end of the park and the Fidley Middle School property. Um and here's just a depiction of those areas. Um and then in addition to that, we do have some intersection improvements at the intersection of Seventh Street and Mississippi where the new uh roundabout went in last fall. Uh just kind of some more information on these project elements. The primary element of this project is going to be that new shared use asphalt trail. Um that's going to range from 8 to 10 feet in width throughout the project area. Uh that's going to provide two-way uh pedestrian and cyclist um transportation. Um in order to accommodate that, we are going to be bumping the curb out in some sections of the roadway. Um we can kind of go over that as we we have a map of the project area, but um so we'll have some concrete curb and gutter. All the crossings for streets um and driveways are going to be ADA compliant crossings. Um another uh element of the project here uh to enhance safety is going to be those enhanced pedestrian crossings. Uh they're also called rectangular rapid flashing beacons or RRFBs. Those will be what are going in at the intersection of Seventh Street and Mississippi. Those are essentially uh button activated um lighted pedestrian crossing signs. Those kind of improve visibility um for pedestrian crossings in that intersection. Um and then in addition to those, we are going to be doing a a bump out um at the midblock crossing between the community center and Commons Park. Um again, just to increase visibility for pedestrian crossings um and make that that crossing distance shorter. Um and then in addition to that work too, we have some minor utility work and uh things like that. Um, as far as the project schedule here, um, the city did complete the final design for the project and solicited bids, um, in April. Um, we have identified a contractor and have them under contract for construction. Um, we're still working through a preliminary schedule with the contractor, but we do anticipate a start date sometime in May. Um, with that, there's going to be some coordination with both the school and the school schedule, um, as well as our improvements, ongoing improvements at Commons Park. Um but generally speaking, the project is slated to be substantially complete by the end of August. So ahead of the new uh school session, we'd like to have this completed. Um maybe if we'll go back one one slide quick here, we can just talk quickly about the phasing as well. So um to to try and coordinate with those with the school schedule and Commons Park, uh this project is going to have a few different phases um with varying completion. Um the first phase is going to be those portions you'll see in blue and teal. So, those will be along 61st uh from 7th to West Mor Lake Drive and 7th Street from 61st Avenue to Mississippi. Uh you'll probably recognize these as part of the parade route uh for 49er days. Um so, those are going to be the primary emphasis for phase one of the project. We'd like to have those completed ahead of the grand opening for the park as well as the 49er days. Um, and you'll see that that section in front of the school is broken out um in teal um because we want to have that delayed until after school ends uh for construction to begin there. Um the other two phases uh the red portion of 61st Avenue that'll be everything uh west of Seventh Street. Um that can start um at any point and then that would be that completion in August. So kind of let that be flexible for the contractor. And that final portion, the green portion um of the project phase three would be that portion along the northern section of the Fidley Middle School through the easement. Um and that would also begin after school is out and we'd want that completed by by the end of August. So, thank you for the time today. I know it's a brief uh brief update, but um we're happy to answer any questions regarding the project here and um we do have our contact information. and we can leave some cards here as well um if anyone's interested. But again, we'd encourage folks um if they are interested in learning more about the project to uh visit the project web page uh sign up for project updates or reach out if they have any questions. Thank you. >> Awesome. Thanks. I think you guys covered this at one point, but I'm just envisioning what Seventh Street looks like and if things are being bumped out to the curb, right, to allow more access for biking and walking. Is there still going to be parking allowed going north and south on Seventh Street or would there be room? Right. Yeah. Okay. >> Yep. Board chair Caro, that's a great question. Um, so that bumpout and the loss of that on street parking is only going to be north of Commons Park on the east side. Okay. >> Um, we're going to retain that on street parking >> on the seven basically in front of Commons there. >> Yep. Yep. We want to make sure we can we can accommodate that parking need. >> Gotcha. Awesome. Thank you. >> All right. >> So exciting. Um, and I do want to address the part that's in turquoise. As a reminder, Fidley Middle School is closed for the construction. So, it's a closed site this summer anyway. So, that works out perfectly with this alignment. >> Um, as I referenced here just a few minutes ago, I wanted to update you on the 61st Avenue Road construction. Um, so this impacts our Fidley High School, Fidley Middle School, and FCC. So um most of our buildings we had a bit of a surprise last week during arrival the lanes were uh diverted and very much narrowed and we didn't have notice of that for uh arrival. Um immediately reached out to um Brandon and Carl. I think Brandon immediately responded and um Brandon and Carl were both already on the project. This is actually not road construction. I'm going to ask you to help support here. This is centerpoint energy work as a part of the commons um work. Correct. >> Right. Yep. These are coordinated um replacements of the gas man and gas services in the area. Uh both both coordination with commons park as well as safe routes. So typically with our projects, we'll coordinate with those private utilities to to get in ahead of time to make improvements or uh make any necessary relocations so we can proceed with our construction. So, as you can see, this is the current reality of the construction zone. Um, we had a bit of difficulty getting a hold of the Centerpoint Energy reps. The city also requested a meeting with them. Um, they called late in the day this afternoon. They will be at arrival tomorrow morning at 7:45 to watch that. This is an unworkable situation right now. We also have um that the road uh blockages here and narrowing are occurring but yet no work is occurring. So we've requested that unless there's work occurring to have the street as normal, especially during arrival and dismissal. Um Carl came on site, Brandon, I'm not sure if you were there as well, but um the team from City of Fley came on site and had a lot of really good ideas for us as well. So, we are happy that Centerpoint is coming back to the table or coming to the table to problem solve with us tomorrow. I think it's one thing to have these plans. I think it's quite another to be on site and watch our arrival and watch our dismissal. And we have some pretty serious situations um that have been occurring around student safety. Not only is it our vans, our buses, our adult caregivers that are driving students to and from school, our high school students that are in newer drivers, as well as then as a reminder for the way that our bus and van situation system works, we have children crossing from the middle school to the high school, the high school to the middle school, and this is right in the heart of that. Um, so it's just really helpful if we get the heads up. And I know the city um was the the contractor was a little bit able to be early. So the city didn't know this was happening either otherwise they would have given us the heads up. So an important kind of learning here for Centerpoint Energy that while great that their work was able to start um earlier it's really important to bring your school district partner on board right away. So, we're hopeful that tomorrow morning there will be um some resolution. And I think Carl, you can speak to the difference between looking at plans and when you're actually on site and watching our dismissar arrival if you don't mind. >> Yep. I mean, we've worked through this this uh similar kind of thing. Um also at Hayes Elementary. Um and I think um getting eyes on, you know, the traffic and you know, how the behavior is um on-site really does lend a lot to to what revisions need to be made with it. So, we're we're happy to see Center Points coming to the table here and uh hopefully they're willing to make some some accommodations here to help with that. So, we're we're willing to help and lend support as well. >> Brandon, did you want to talk a little bit about the work that you've done with your permitting team as well to help so that this um doesn't happen again? >> Yeah. Uh Dr. Lewis, it's something that obviously we have a lot of permits throughout town. You know, it's unfortunate when you have a a corporation like Centerpoint that comes into town a lot and as important as utilities are, um whether it's Centerpoint or Excel, um you know, we want to make sure that we're notifying, you know, that that's obviously that's the number one thing, right? It's making sure that um each, you know, whether it's a school, if it's a business, if it's residential, you know, making sure that we're holding these because obviously they have to get permits through us and we put stipulations in the permits about contacting us so that we can get notifications out, but if they don't let us know, you know, there's got to be some ramifications about not following through. So, it's a learning experience for us, too. And we are, you know, like I said, we're working on it. Well, I greatly appreciate the partnership so very much and I just want to elevate again. You help us even when it's not a city road. So, thank you for that work and we have some projects coming up, county road projects that impact schools and then I think it's in 2029 a pretty significant mind project and um they already told me they'll be right there by my side. So, I appreciate that. So, team so proud of you. Thanks for the great partnership. >> Thanks, guys. And like we appreciate it. This is your work, right? This you know this stuff as much as Dr. Lewis knows about education. Like we're not in the business of putting out safety cones and roads. So uh certainly appreciate uh the help that the city is providing here and your expertise and being an advocate even though it's something that you could probably just step away from and say no call center point. I don't think we'd get very far. So >> appreciate you putting the work guys. >> Awesome. Thanks so much. >> All right. Dr. Cochran is going to give us a very brief summary um so that we have it for our general public of all of the uh work that we just completed in the work session. So take it away Dr. Cochran. Thanks for your great work with your team. >> Perfect. Well, thank you so much for the opportunity for us to share tonight at the work session. Um and a big thank you to our team. We had a wonderful team of educators here this evening presenting on get ready concurrent enrollment and our math curriculum review process and really the work you know reflects the strong commitment to student success and opportunities for all students and we're really excited to continue to grow these programs. Um so just a summary of um the different things we've discussed tonight. Um our partnership with the office of higher ed through our get ready grant which is a fedally funded um grant that supports students in preparing for life after high school. So, really includes academic support, um, college and career planning, and also financial aid and guidance, um, with getting ready for whatever post-secary looks like for students. Um, alongside get ready, um, we're intentionally really working to expand our concurrent enrollment options, um, at Fidley High School. And this allows our students to stay at Fidley High School while earning college credit and really, um, advancing those opportunities, which increases access for students, also reduces financial barriers for students. um the more concurrent enrollment classes we can offer. And then lastly, our math curriculum team um has been engaged in about a year-long process um where we've evaluated really and focused on strengthening our instructional practices and our curriculum needs around mathematics um and really thinking about our new math standards and the alignment to that. And so on the agenda tonight is um asking for approval from superintendent and the school board for approval for our new math curriculum that um we are very very excited about. And all of these presentations are linked in um in these slides um in the presentation. >> Thank you so much, Dr. Cochran. And we're going to ask you to share the great news about our graduation rights. >> Yes. So I am and you can actually we can you click that. >> Oh, sorry. No problem. >> Perfect. Okay. Um so super excited to share. You can click the Oh, there we go. You can click to the next one. super excited to share that Fidley public schools had a 90% four-year graduation rate for the class of 2025, which is absolutely amazing. Um, this is five points higher than the state average, which is at 84.9% and Fred Lee public schools was at 90%. Um, so we're very very excited to that about that. Um, we saw about a five um point increase from 24 like class of 2024 to 2025. So also a big big gain. In 2024, Fley School District was at 85.2%. So again, that nice increase up to 90%. Um, go to the next one. We've also seen a 7.7 um percent increase since 2001. So if we go all the way back to 2001, we were at 82.3% for our grad rate and again all the way up to 90% this year. So a nice nice steady incline and we've been on this upward trend which is very exciting. also Fidley Senior High. And the reason that you hear the difference between Fidley public schools and Fidley High School is that our Fidley public schools includes all of our schools, which would be last year we had an ALC, alternative learning center, as well as our Vista Secondary. So Fidley public schools includes all of our students where Fidley High School is just our students that are enrolled at Fidley High School. So our Fidley High School um graduation rate also outperformed both district and state benchmarks. We had a 94.7% graduation rate in 2025, which is absolutely amazing. Um, again, maintained like really high consistency. We've been consistently above 92%, but again saw a really nice jump up to 94.7%. And then lastly, just would love to highlight that really we have um strong outcomes across all of our student groups. And if you look really amongst all of our student groups, we're really outperforming the state in almost every single area. So um very exciting and really should celebrate the work. Um, I think this work is really our commitment to like our strong instruction. We've been very committed to our instructional practices. Um, really the deep meaningful relationships that um, our educators really build with students and then our focus on equitable equitable outcomes for all students. And I think it shows in our grades. >> Thank you so much, Dr. Cochran. And we could not have these grad rates without our staff. And I'm just so proud of how our staff meet every child where they're at, believe in our children, and bring them to their highest potential. So very proud. All right, go ahead. Go ahead. >> No, I just said thank you. >> Okay, thank you. Um, next, I am absolutely thrilled to talk about some new hire announcements. So, as you know, uh, Kelly McConville will be our Vista High School principal for next year, which leaves the opening for our Fidley High School principal, um, position, and we are just absolutely thrilled. We had an exceptional candidate pool. It was very, very competitive. We had many current sitting superintendent that um really applied not only from across the metro but really from as far away as Hawaii. So we were really excited um to have such a rich uh pool of individuals that want to come and work and serve our students and families. So very proud of that. So without further ado, I am so honored to introduce to you our new Fidley High School principal, Cedric Fuller. Welcome. Cedric brings just a wealth of experience to us. He is currently a principal within Eden Prairie um public schools. He has been in Robbinsdale area schools and has just a wealth of experience that he brings to us. our community. Um, our cabinet principal stakeholder team and our site stakeholder team just talked about his calm, reassuring presence, his drive to ensure that all means all and his experience speaks for itself. So, Cedric, I um am just so honored to be working alongside of you and thank you for choosing Fidley Public Schools. >> Yeah, absolutely. Um, >> when does he start? >> July 1. So, we're so excited about that. I also want to say this was a really good example. Eden Prairie Public Schools worked side by side with us so that our staff didn't hear about their new principal if it was announced earlier than us over at Eden Prairie and that his team didn't hear that he was leaving them from maybe our team. So Eden Prairie Public Schools worked directly with Michelle and we coordinated the announcement. His day gets done a little bit later, his school day. So that's why we did the 4:30 announcement yesterday. Um, but just really proud of how we did that coordination. Cedric, completely optional. You can address the board or not. It's completely up to you. >> I'll say a couple. >> Okay. And just come by the mic. >> I'm here, right? So >> yes. So proud of you. >> But technically not on the clock. So, um I I just want to say thank you um to Dr. Lewis, Dr. Cox, um just for you know what I saw was a very just well organized process um for the interview panel. And I think a big part of um sometimes deciding where you want to work or apply for your work is getting to know who you're working with because that makes all the difference. So, just want to say thank you to the both of you um to the few people that were on the panel um that takes time away from your day. I'm super excited about this opportunity. Uh seeing the graduation rates and already thinking I'm sitting here taking notes like okay how do we get that 90 to 95? So um just thank you for the opportunity. Very grateful to be here. Um look forward to starting in July. Got to finish out the year at Eden Prairie of course. But I'm super excited to join this community and the Ply Tiger family. So thank you very much. >> Awesome. >> So proud of you. >> Thank you so much. And Cedric, you can stay for the duration of the board meeting or you can leave. It's completely up to you. Okay, sounds great. We won't be offended. And now I'm just absolutely delighted to talk about Norman Bell. So Norman um is going to be joining us as we know um with our Vista programming as we continue to expand um sometimes we have some growing pains and we initially were going to have Vista be the one building and due to our um outside of district partners that do the tuition agreements and to us for service for um their resident children which we are so honored to serve. We have experienced pretty significant growth. So we are um having Norman join our team as the Vista secondary assistant principal starting May 4th. So we're absolutely thrilled board. As a reminder, all Vista positions do not touch our general fund. So um just wanted to issue that reminder. Norman brings a wealth of experience to us, including um assistant principal experience, principal experience, and a wide variety of metro districts. So, Norman, we are so honored that you are choosing Fidley Public Schools, and we're so um excited to welcome you. You can choose to address the board or not. It's up to you. >> Just thank you and excited for this opportunity. >> Yep. Thank you so much for excited to have you. And I think you just saw one of the attributes that our team really elevated is Norman is excited. He's passionate. He has warmth. He has the belief in all students and he has that nurturing aspect that is really needed for serving our um students that have the greatest needs with respect to special ed. So you saw that just in his few moments here. So, Norman, very proud of you and you're welcome to stay or go as well. Thanks. All right, board. I am going to transition to our enrollment analysis which is the module three of our SOD um statutory operating debt series. As a reminder, the um SOD information is also housed on our Fidley Public Schools School Board homepage. And with that is a one-pager that goes pretty detailed with links to the this slide deck. It also has the recording of when I did these um modules in February that's available for board and for public viewing. And then it um will have this recording from our schoolboard meeting as well. Um one of the biggest drivers obviously in public education budgets is really enrollment. Um, so we're going to take a pretty deep dive into enrollment and what that impact is on the budget. Here's the brief snapshot of the 10-year history of enrollment within Fidley Public Schools. As you can see, Fidley Public Schools was at a high of over 3,000 students in the 1617 school year. And then you've seen some gradual declines. Unfortunately, this uh data set mirrors much of the school districts that you see in Minnesota. Um you'll see too that we have had that upward trend which is really um positive news. I'm going to put a little bit of disclaimer in. This was before the impacts um regarding ICE metro surge. So that 2778 as a reminder that came in over a 100 students over budget and that was our actual October one count. Um we have lost students um as a a result of operation ICE Metro Surge. are working hard to um to come back from that, but we are certainly not at our 2778, which is um what was our official count with Minnesota Department of Education, which is what funding is based off of as of October 1st, 2025. Um, one of the pieces that the state demographer will share and she presents at AMSD once a year, one of the pieces she'll talk about is that most districts in Minnesota have this same look that we have. And Minnesota is a very healthy open enrollment state. So very much about school choice in Minnesota. So that means unless a school district has closed by board action either a school or a grade level then children can open enroll into that district. Some districts provide transportation through open enrollment. Some districts do not. Uh transportation is not something that has to be provided for open enrollment. Essentially what's happening too is in districts like ours that are located very close in the metro area, we all draw from the same pool too. Um, with respect to the open enrollment, for example, we have a very high number of students that open enroll into us from Columbia Heights public schools. We send more students to Spring Lake Park public schools than we have open enroll into us. So those are just um some of the factors that we have. The demographer will also share with you that most of the uptick of enrollment in Minnesota school districts is due to immigration. So there's concern around um Minnesota and um what is happening with respect to ICE enforcement and whether or not we are viewed as a state where immigrants want to come and live. So that's still to be determined about the impact if we will still be seeing um these levels of immigrants coming and enrolling in school districts in Minnesota. We continue to see like most school districts a large decline in birth rate. So those right there kind of set us up for um the numbers that you're seeing. The other piece here too is Fidley Public Schools by design is a heavy open enrollment district. We're part of Northwest Suburban Integration School District, which the heart of that is seven districts. Um, so it's Fidley, um, Brooklyn Center, AIO Area Schools, Anoka, Henipin, Elk River Area Schools, Buffalo, Han, Hanover, Montrose, and Rockford. We all belong to Northwest Suburban. And students can choose to enroll into other districts through the magnet program. So, as a reminder, we are um I would normally used to say districtwide open enrollment uh under Northwest Suburban because we are a district-wide magnet. We are a district-wide magnet for Hayes, for um our early childhood program for Hayes, for Stevenson, for Fidley Middle School, and Fidley High School. Now that we have additional programs, we are not under Northwest Suburban for those. Um, and what that means then is students open enrolling through Northwest Suburban Integration District to our district or those open enrolling into say Steam programs are out into other school districts that are part of Northwest Suburban get that free transportation. So the way that that works is the district pays all those transportation um costs in the school year and then they're reimbursed a year in a rears. So that's how um that works. So, this is part of this whole open enrollment piece is very valuable. Also, sometimes makes it hard to predict where we might land, but we have been doing well. I just want to remind the board that I'm nervous about what our enrollment will look like as we move forward. Um, but we're definitely working on that to make sure that families see us as their choice. If you look at current enrollment by grade level, again this kind of forecasts the future, right? Look at our numbers in 12th grade, 10th grade, 9th grade, and then look at where we sit there in first grade, second grade, third grade. So you can right there see the impact of enrollment as we come up. And again, um this is not a story unfortunately unique to our district. Um Minnesota is just seeing pretty significant declines in um birth rate. As we look here um here is our open enrollment analysis. This is for the school year 2425. 1184 students open enrollment enrolling in 1239 students open and rolling out. And right there you see the open enrollment out. Highest there is Spring Lake Park. If you look at our open enrollment in, highest is Columbia Heights. So very interesting that neither of those are part of Northwest Suburban, but obviously locationally we're very very close there. And then you can see our others. We have 100 students open and rolling out of our district and choosing Anoka Henipin, 240 Anoka Henipin students, resident students enrolling into us. uh 222 um students from Minneapolis open enrolling into us. 94 students uh that we open enroll that are our resident students into Mounds View. Um 89 open enroll into Columbia Heights. Again, we have 263 that come to us and then AIO 177 students open enrolling in. So those are just a sneak peek here at that. What are the reasons that our families site on choosing us under open enrollment, smaller class sizes, and our specialized programming, meaning our IB? As a reminder, we're the only pre-K through um 12th grade continuum IB district in the state and one of 13 in the nation. So, that's kind of a deep dive into our open enrollment. Here's our student uh retention patterns that you see um here. And obviously our critical transition points are obviously current prekers going into our elementary buildings for kindergarten. Our fourth graders transitioning to Fidley Middle School for fifth grade. The way that our buildings are designed is slightly different. Um oftent times elementary schools are serving children through fifth grade. Ours serves children through fourth grade. So sometimes families get nervous about our children going to um Fidley's middle school and um fifth grade. I would also be remiss to not elevate that in the superintendent interview process and um when I came uh to Fidley, there was a lot of concerns from families that continued to choose Fidley Middle School, from families that did not choose Fidley Middle School, from families that left Fidley Middle School, and from staff that um there were some concerns around student safety um in frankly all of our buildings. Um but really in Fidley Middle School and we have seen drastic changes around that and what that looks like. A large part of that comes down to uh coming out of CO um our buildings weren't able to be fully staffed. So when we have staffing part staffing vacancies particularly in the area of special education teachers and special education pareducators these are kind of the results that you get. So, we've done a lot of work around all of our buildings around that warm, welcoming, safe environment. And I think you're seeing that now come to fruition and we have families that maybe have chosen charter schools that are now coming back to us. So, it's good to see that as well. If you look at our demographic trends here, you'll see um there's approximately 4,800 students that are in the city of Fidley school age population. As a reminder, city of Fidley comprises five school systems. So when people think Fidley public schools, they think it's the whole city when it's actually a small uh portion of the city. Um you see in city of Fidley stable community growth overall when you look at socioeconomic factors that's where we have in city of Fidley 75% free or reduced lunch eligible and you see that in our very own data that we have 50 languages spoken among these 4,800 children. Um when we look at what we call a competitive landscape, we're next door to Columbia Heights, Spring Lake Park, Anoka Henipin. Our charter schools just in this area are six and then we have um three private schools. So when it comes to competitive landscape and competitive marketplace, our families have a lot of options in Fidley and around us. And then um our market opportunities as you know we continue to come in with the smallest class sizes in that um brework study at the elementary level and uh we do very well we're not the smallest at secondary but we do very well when we are um with other districts in that brework study. I already talked about our IB programming and then the strongest sense of community that we have. Our enrollment growth targets here. Our SOD plan is really to maintain the October 1st count. When we worked on this and the SOD plan, we were already at the October 1 count, right? So, we're actually coming in in more of a recovery to get back to that October 1 count. So, this is slightly different than what we had written, but um I I don't like to invoke hope, but I'm going to strongly say as we begin the recovery here from ICE Metro Surge, my hope is that we can get right back to that um October 1 count for next October 1st and um hopefully beyond that. What are enrollment growth strategies? It's really about recruiting. How do we have families see us as their choice? All the way from our littlest learners, ECF, um, early childhood family education, early childhood special education, community outreach, our marketing, um, retention. How do we ensure that families want to continue choosing us? How do we ensure that that transition and support is in place in those critical grade levels like I talked to you about, pre-K to K, fourth to fifth, 8th to 9th? How do we ensure students are successful in our district? How are we responsive when a family reaches out and needs some support and our program enhancement? How do we um continue expanding our federal setting for program, our specialized academic programming, our athletic opportunities, the voters message to us that they wanted our facilities to be improved. So, we are doing that. Above all, our reputation is what draws children to enroll in Fidley Public Schools, and that's what keeps children here is how they feel when they're in our district. And that's a lot of the work that you and I have been engaging in. Monitoring enrollment progress. Our key metrics are really our Minnesota Department of Education reports. What's our total enrollment count? What are our new student registrations? monitoring that open enrollment in and out withdrawal tracking and the reasons why. Why are families leaving us? Let's find that out um so that we know so that we can either write that situation or write that situation as a district so that we have um families that don't end up in a similar situation. That middle school example is a lot of what I've talked about. families based on reputation didn't want to choose the middle school and now we have families that confidently choose the middle school. Um and then our board reporting on our enrollment count and our budget variance um and deep dive into our strategy adjustments. Um our enrollment summary. Oh, this makes me a little sad to look at this. Um, at the time the SOD plan was written, we were seeing that rise in our student enrollment. I continue to be confident that we'll come back from that. Um, the retention gaps at transitions, the specialized programming, the community partnerships, our targeted marketing, and our SOD plan is built on maintaining the October 1st, 2025 ADM count through that 2728 school year. As a reminder, our VISTA programming is done in a manner that is with dignity, love, belonging, academics, and it's also a fiscal helper to our school district. So, with that, school board, thank you for your attention on our SOD module. I um will entertain any questions or comments before I go on to the finance report. >> Any questions? >> Kim, I'm sorry. No, because it wouldn't be a part of the agenda. >> Sorry. >> Yeah, we we have to stick to our agenda. We posted online. We posted open meeting laws. We have to stick to the agenda. You could certainly email a question or comment to the superintendent and she'd certainly uh get back to you if it was relevant or come to the next meeting. Okay, I'll move into the finance update. So, um, Lori had a family emergency occur. Otherwise, this was going to be her first finance update. So, I was so proud of her. We discussed and I said, "Do you want to do the update or would you like me to?" And she said, "I got it." So, um, this is actually her update, um, that I will just be going through. Um, so as you know, I share with you that audit tracker. So I'm going to go through where we are. And that audit tracker is also linked in our frequently asked questions which is linked on our Fidley Public Schools schoolboard page so the public can see these audit items in real time. These are the outstanding items. Acred payroll will likely still need to be adjusted. This item has been completed on our end. That was that Skyward issue that we were continuing to work with Skyward on that was holding up then item one, two, and three. Additional items were asked for by the audit team and one of our um finance uh employees has provided it to them. We are awaiting confirmation from the auditors. So, this item can be closed which is that item has been very stressful to us. Adjustments to salary and wages payable after acred payroll adjustments. We're waiting on confirmation on that. uh item to complete from our auditors. Uh no further information is needed from the district on that side. Adjustments to benefits payable waiting on confirmation on that item from our auditors. Interest allocation. This sits with the audit team to provide a journal entry after cash balances are ready. Bank re reconciliation. Our team is currently working on this. Finalized trial balances need a pre-analytical journal entry. Audit teams are sending this when they are ready. contracts payable and retained payable. Um, our auditor has the journal entry and tie uh trial balance. Equity journal entries and fund balances tie out. This is our last step there. Capital outlay codes. Terry is working on the bank wreck. Terry is one of our employees that will help with this one. We are she has an all upper case. Cautiously optimistic. We are inching forward at this items. We'll follow up with audit team again this week. We are working directly with Deb um who is working with us side by side from Minnesota Department of Education on our um SOD plan. >> Awesome. >> Okay. And again those are updated live real time on the board page by accessing the FAQ documents. Okay. Now we are going to move to our construction update. Assistant superintendent Relle Cox is going to do that. Um, are you able to adjust the slides too and all of that or do you want me to do that for you? >> Oh, I can do it all. >> Yes. Relle is like >> doing amazing work. >> The B team here. Um, and missing Lori. >> Yeah. Well, if you're the beeh. Okay. If you just go here. >> Oh, if I just click. Yeah. And then um left click on that. Um right there. >> Y. Thank you. >> Yep. Perfect. >> All right, board. It's so great to be in front of you again talking construction. It's been a while. So, um happy to give you a spring update on where we are with um construction projects that come from a variety of sources of money. We'll go over that on the last side, but have some really fun pictures for you as we kind of go through things. Our first one is going to be our Fidley Community Center, which is our the um the actual uh building we're in right now for the board meeting. Um we're doing a basement project, or as I like to call it, the lower level. I think it sounds a little bit nicer than basement. Um we received a grant um to create a community space in our basement. If you've been to our basement, it was time for a remodel. It was just time. Um because of that grant, we also um are going to be working with health services in our community such as visiting school nurses, um immunization clinics. So we'll have actually a health services suite where we can invite those people in so community members can access um health services in our building. We're also going to have a technology center um for adults. This is a place where we can work on job applications. um people can um work on their resume and use technology for whatever they need. Um and we'll also have an early childhood screening room. So, this will be a space that will be used. But most of all, as you can see here, we'll be able to configure this community space to really allow our community um to gather um having um early childhood events, having um snowing sewing groups um and also um it's right by our dance studio downstairs for all of our yoga and other healthy um classes that we have in community ed. Um and that project um is starting in May downstairs. Also here at the Fidle Community Center, we have a playground project that started this week. Um we are upgrading our playground surfaces. Um as you know, playground technology and surface technology changes. So we'll have a safer um surface for our earliest learners. We also, as the superintendent was saying, we are an IB preschool through 12th grade. Um so there'll be an IB learning space outside. So, when the kids are working on um different themes, they can really bring that learning to the outside, which I think is so important. We'll have built-in storage. You can see those kind of against the against the wall under area A um for toys. There'll be a track all around for students riding play vehicles. And we'll just be doing a general refresh of equipment here at the FCC. We will also be starting a roof project this summer. Um the system and our roof is end of life. Um and this project actually has been prioritized due to water leaks that we're having having right now. The water leaks have really been affecting um our materials and classrooms and just the overall safety of our students. Um as you can see up on top, those little blue things that kind of look like parking spaces too, they're actually solar panels. Um so we do use solar um solar energy here in the district. All those paneling will come off, be cleaned, and be reinstalled this summer. Over at the middle school, we'll be doing I think the superintendent um talked a little bit about how that whole entire school is going to be closed down. We're first thing that we're going to talk about that will be happening at the middle school is an HVAC system upgrade. This project is already started. Um if you look at our roofs, this actual HVAC system um is on our roof right now and is going to be um worked on. Um so this will be a rooftop construction, hence why we're closing the school for the summer. Again, this system also is at the end of the life. um upgrades provide energy efficiency and as we said during the referendum um the things that we're working on and using that money from um that um we were so grateful from our taxpayers is really not to make things like glamorous and glitzy and have razledazzle. These are things that are just really at end of life and that we really need um to have um upgraded and uh brought in um new construction. This one is really exciting. Our pool also needed an upgrade. This project has already started and you see real um pictures there of the demolition that is happening. Um our demolition will be completed completed in miday and we'll be removing all of the tile and pool lining and you can see that um taking place right now. Now, if you've been to our pool lately, um I would say um there's been a head start on removing the tile as we have had major um tile coming off the walls um as in really creating an unsafe place for our swimmers and our spectate spectators. Um this always when you're doing construction um while the school's in section session, you always have to worry about making sure that everything is contained in a no student zone and is a designated hard hat area. The pool is going to have upgrades. So here's a look at the future of what our pool's going to look like. You're going to see Fidley branding, which you see up on top with our FR fidly tighter colors. There'll be a bleacher upgrade in there. The bleachers that we actually have right now are um outside bleachers that we repurpose to try to save money, but it's time now they are at end of life. Also, we'll have a new scoreboard. Um we're actually going to have new energy efficient uplighting. So, right now we have what we call down lighting or regular lighting and that's really hard when you're swimming and you get the glare off the pool. So for our students and swimmers that are doing um the backstroke extremely hard, but even uh people doing other of the different um the different swim techniques I'm losing. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, swim techniques. Um it's very hard to do with the glare that's happening. We'll have all new tile and an upgraded ventil ventilation system. Our locker rooms, which are right next door, will also be remodeled. This project has also started with demo. You see a picture here of what things are going to look like. If you've ever been in a middle school locker room in Frley public schools, they are very large. And remember back into my day, I'll date myself, but there was a lot of kids changing clothes during those days. Um today when I I was talking to the um middle school principal, I'm like, "How many kids like change clothes and get ready?" And he's like, "Absolutely zero, Rochelle." So, we're going to have lockers um new lockers put in. We'll have updated showers. We'll have a renovated restrooms for our students. The really exciting part of this is that we have many of our community members that use our pool for um swimming lessons for rentals. So, we're going to have new restrooms for families. Our locker room was not familyfriendly and also singer single-user stalls. Space used more efficiently and we were actually able to create a new flexible space for our middle school um uh as we use the space more efficiently. We're going to move on to the classroom renovations. This is not a picture of what it's going to look like, but a picture to tell you where we are. This will start June 15th um after school is out. We have selected classrooms based on prioritization and need. Um, old flooring abatement will happen. We'll be pulling the asbestous out. Another reason why we'll be closing the middle school for safety. We'll have new tile floors. There'll be new carpet for abandoned choir rooms. Um, many rooms will be getting a paint refresh. We'll be replacing the ceiling tiles. And it'll just be time for a really important deep clean. Our windows will also be replaced starting June 15th. So many of our windows will be end of life and so they've been sele selected based on an assessment that was done at the beginning of the referendum. And then everything will be an energy efficiency upgrade. And if you're here in the in the Fidley Community Center, you'll see where we did that project last summer and it looks really nice and has made a world of difference here. On to athletics. This um project will be starting in May. Um our stadium will be receiving a new school board, a new renovated track, and we're excited about the track because right now we cannot host meets because our track does not meet code. It's dangerous for students. So, um that's going to be really important to our school pride, but also as a piece that we can participate and have a track meets here. We'll be having a new football field that will be taking place um that will be um all installed and you see kind of a rendition of that here. There'll be a new concession stand and ticket booth as people enter allowing us to uh make sure that our home section and our visitor sections are also greeted but going through separate doors. Um allowing us to have kind of that safety piece in place. Um phase two for this will begin summer 2027. We'll be looking at a bleacher refresh. Our bleachers I believe are 30 years old. Um also end of life um time where um we continue to do um maintenance on them, but it is time to get those replaced. And also the press box will be replaced. If you've ever want to take a tour of the press box is up very high. I'm happy to arrange that for you. I might not go up with you, but I um I can arrange that for you before that is is gone. Then we'll have new one. I'm really excited about our new concession stand, too, because we'll also have a place for our referees to go um uh when the um halftime is. Um and they'll also be um running water and real bathroom. So, we will not be using porter potties anymore. And we'll be able to have a wider selection of food items for our guests. >> Um athletics, um we have a renovated baseball and softball fields. You can see here um upgraded fencing and you'll notice kind of a theme as we try to use branding for even the look of what our athletics are. So you'll see the black fencing here, new dugouts on the bottom pitcher, new scored boards, um and updated batting pages. This one I'm personally really excited about. Our message board outside of our high school um has been broken. You'll see a picture of it on the left. Unfortunately, the red lighting has stopped working too. So, this picture isn't even a really good representation of what it have. It actually has gone dark due to not being able to be um not being able to work. It's been uh it's unfixable. So, we will be taking and as you can see, we'll be taking to try to be as costefficient as possible. The pole will stay the same, but we'll have new lighting, a new board, and new branding there. This is a list of all of our project timelines and cost. Um I'm not going to go over this with you, but point out a few things as we move forward. Um it's really important to look at this and you'll see the different financial sources. So you'll see some projects are um referendum. Some are looking at um long-term facilities maintenance, capital projects, levies, grants that we've gotten, and health and safety bonds. So, this will be up on our website so you can kind of track that. We'll also be adding pictures and really making sure that we're giving you updates on all these exciting projects for our district. Superintendent, I'll turn it back to you. >> All right. We are just so honored to be moving forward with this work and to um see it coming. file. Um Michelle talked about some of those upgrades. If you recall, we were in that position at FCC where we had to do mold remediation in October of my first year with the massive um problems that we had on our carpet and our windows leaking and so forth. So this work allows us to not get into emergency situations which number one are unsafe for children and staff and families and number two actually cost us more money in the long term. So it's a lot of infrastructure work that you're seeing here but a lot of uh ways that we continue to invest in our buildings so that they are in the best form and the most fiscally responsible manner. So just so exciting to see my first year we went from if we had funding to now this is what we're doing with the funding and we're committed to continuing to give you these progress updates now as it's prime construction season every month. Please expect to see these updates and I'm so excited to have um this launch. One of the things too um that we have is just really looking at things like we were received a department of health citation for our concession stand. The um press box, if you remember my first year, we almost weren't able to have the first home football game because um our press box was cited and didn't meet code. So, these are the types of pieces that I'm really hopeful that we rectify, but we don't end up in situations like that. So, it's been really good to see um this progress come to fruition. We'll stand for any questions. Board, >> any questions? >> Very thorough, Michelle. Thank you. >> Yeah, amazing job. Okay, next we have our Vista update. Harold Scott and um Michelle Cox will be giving um this update. I want to talk a little bit as they come up. As a reminder, this has started as that one building program and our VISTA program is a very unique program. So our district operates as an LEA, local education um agency just like a Columbia Heights, Minneapolis public schools, etc. where you see that we are different is we also operate as an intermediate um s which means that we serve districts um district students that are not our resident students and the way that special education law and funding works in Minnesota as far as setting for which is what all of our students enrolled in VISTA are is then those districts where the resident students are enter into a tuition agreement. So before I came and my first year, we had tuition agreements with um 916, which is our intermediate district. 916 is not unique to the other intermediates and collaboratives um and service co-ops across the state where the need is far beyond what those um intermediates, collaboratives, cooperatives, service agencies can provide. It's sometimes about space needs. It's more about staffing. So to find the licensed teachers that are able to be special ed teachers and then to find um individuals that are able to fill special education pareducator roles. So for example, in a setting four max for a classroom space is six students, but there must be three adults in that classroom. So that typically looks like one specialed licensed teacher, two PAR educators that are in that classroom. So that really tells you about the staffing levels that are needed. Um 916 has been so supportive and such a helper in our programming. And what has now happened is children not only in our district, we are not sending children out and saying to families, we are so sorry we are not able to serve your child here. Um we are keeping all of our resident students as well as really helping the metro then to bring in other students that are on various weight lists and not able to be served. So this is really benefiting broader than Fidley public schools. And what is also happening too is through things like the uh space that is colllocated um Vista Secondary colllocated at Fidley High School, the utilities then are able to be part of how setting for tuition agreements and funding works, that portion of snow removal. So what's actually happening too is that's reducing some of our obligations in the general fund. So it's also a fiscal helper, but we really have built these programs from a place of dignity, love, belonging in an academic setting. And we just see our students thrive here. So we're just thrilled to give you a look at where we've been, where we are currently, and where we're headed. So, with that, Harold, um, I will let you take it away. >> Sorry, allergies tonight. Excuse me. Uh, good evening, board chair Carup, board directors, uh, superintendent Loris, assistant superintendent Cox. I'm Harold Scott. I'm the senior officer of student and family support. Um, Vista, the programming that we're talking about, it's an acronym and it stands for valuing individual students talents and abilities. Um, what I'd like to start off by saying is every student is our student. And so with the intro that Dr. Lewis just provided, I think as we go and progress through the slides, you'll see kind of where we started, where we are now, and where we're going because there is a vision here. So, we started as a small site over uh on Rice Creek in 2024 open for students grades K through 12 or in this instance due to special education law, we actually can support students up to age 22. So, that's why it says um uh ages K through 22. Um we started small but we were mighty um student centered approaches. Um Dr. Lewis referenced the adult student ratio in class. There are laws about the number of students you can have in class. Um the number of adults you can need to have in class, the supports that they provide. Um this really helps with our um vision of making sure that all of our students feel belonging, opportunity, and have access to educational opportunities and learning. Um and we really focus on the whole child. Speaking of growth, so we started with the one small site and this year in October we opened Vista Secondary which is located within the Fritley High School. Um but as Dr. Lewis stated, colllocated really means that they're two separate entities. So even though they share space, um Vista has its own entrance. It's for Vista students and Vista staff and support which is separate from the high school. Uh we started well we current we started we had 13 students. We currently have 17 students. Um we have the capacity for 24 and we do have several students on the wait list that we're actually in process of onboarding into our district as well. Um provide therapeutic supports um and we are expend and we're experiencing growth um at an unbelievable rate. So next slide please. Um, Harold, I just want to chime in too that we spot save at every level for resident students. So, there is no wait list for children that are are resident students for placement um once the IEP process has happened for setting 4 and that's a really another unique feature that we have. So, go ahead. >> Thank you. Um, so this slide talks about the options room. At each of the Vista sites, we have an options room. And that's really what it is where our students will advocate and say, "I'd like to go to the options room options room to speak with the um the therapists that we have um on site. We have a therapist at each of our sites through change, Inc. We have a collaboration with them. Um we really talk to the kids a lot. It's a little tougher with the secondary students, but as you'll see, the colors there are really the zones of regulation where a student can identify by color how they're feeling. Um, typically they'll say, "Hey, Mr. Scott, what zone are you in?" I'll say, "I'm in the green zone today, which means I'm chill, everything is good, things are going great." Yellow zone might mean that might be a little irritated about something. Blue zone might be I'm really tired today or I'm just sad. And then of course the red zone is that outward expression of anger and that sort of thing. And having um the change in collaboration and having a therapist there to really help support our students in addition to a behavior intervention teacher. Um and we'll get to the staffing in a minute, but our options room is a space that our students will ask to go to or sometimes they just need to be away from other students or whatever. So, we really try to coin it as a as a positive. Um, and it's something that the students seek out themselves. It's like, you know what, there are three people in here. They're talking. Can I go and work in the options room because I need to finish my math or whatever? Because clearly this is school. So, we have education responsibility with these students as well. Um at the bottom you'll see we have a PBIS positive behaviors interventions and support program through Vista where we provide students with what we call Vista vouchers or VISTA bucks that they can collect for demonstrating certain behavior. We recognize and catch them when they're doing things absolutely well because it's real easy to see that when things aren't going well. We make it a point to catch our students doing and and acknowledging that with them. um they can earn Vista Bucks. And I think the hottest ticket going right now are Takis. If you're not familiar, um the things that we have for the students actually purchase with their Vista books are all things that they've told us that they're interested in. So it's not just we're trying to buy and say here you work for this. We have them working for things that they really want. our Vista team currently and as we plan for the future um each site will have its own principal and administ and assistant principal so administrators at each site. Each site will have a special education coordinator uh BCBA which is a board certified behavior analyst and of course a behavior intervention teacher. These folks provide the leadership of the program um that we have now in the current the programs that we're thinking about building. Um, in case you didn't notice, it's the same picture, but they're all happy people. Um, our Vista team consists of classroom teachers, uh, building subs, pair of educators, which are very important because they work one-on-one with our students and really provide, um, that support that I think even beyond a teacher in a classroom as a former principal, your pair of educators are the folks who really lead the work. They really, uh, form the relationships with the students. you know, we all do, but it's just something very special about that relationship um with PAR educators with our students. Um we will have social workers um for next year. Um Change Inc. will continue that collaboration. Um we have a school resource officer currently that's um at our two sites um as well as security personnel. Naturally, you need somebody to do the clerical stuff. school secretary and then um Vista has its own dedicated um custodial team. So what I love about this slide is along with the other nine districts up there and our own Fley students, we support 10 different districts currently and I know that there are some in the Pikes, others in the Pike that are interested in exploring um setting for placement opportunities with us within our district. So, I'm just proud of that that we have this um collaborative thing that people entrust us parents and school districts to reach out and say you can provide my student the level of support that they need that they cannot get in the district that or their home district I should say. Um the purple thing in the back is called a nook. We have purchased four of those. This is the one that's at Vista Elementary. um along with the rugs like that. We have those rugs in almost all of our buildings because it's visual appealing. Um soft texture, you know, all those things like that are really important um in a setting for a program. Um changing therapists. I referenced that. We spoke about the options room and um we'll talk about furniture renderings in just a moment unless Dr. Lewis has something and then we'll turn it over to Michelle. >> So these nooks are amazing, right? They're also very large. And I asked Relle and she said, "Absolutely not. And I'm still going to work on it." I asked her, "I think this is reasonable. If we could roll, she and I this down to FCC on the sidewalk for you all to sit in it at a board meeting to feel it. what the the therapeutic nature, the pressure, all those things are. And she said absolutely not, but I don't know why. >> I agreed with that. By the way, >> we can't wheel it down. So, option two is we're going to do it like an OSHA approved way and bring it over on one of our lift trucks. Um, and Michelle was a bit concerned that we wouldn't get it pushed back up the hill. I didn't even think through that. Um, so we're excited. Um, and she is right now so angry with me, which is why I'm not making eye contact. Um, she doesn't actually want us to haul it down here, but we're going to. And so I'm so excited that at an upcoming board meeting, you will all be able to try this out. Yep. Notice how I say that publicly. >> We're moving on to other furniture. Um, you know, one of the things and Harold will be talking about lessons learned, but um, we have furnished our uh, vistas and you know, we found that we've learned a lot of lessons about that. So, we've been working with a couple com companies to really have a standardized classroom furniture um, for all of our vistas. So, I want to show you a few pictures of that. So you can see here this classroom looks pretty crowded. But what this is is a standard classroom that every classroom will have access to all of the seating. But they might say, you know what, you see those uh independent workstations there to the left with the desk? We might not need two. We might only have one in the classroom. Or we might decide to take out the green chairs on the floor because that's just not working for our students here. But every classroom will have available to them all of this type of flexible seating for students. Here's another picture where you can see this one now has some different table um the table in the back where um students can be in a small group setting. That's often a skill our students at Vista need to work on and learn how to do. You'll see the bouncy balls um there for um more of a sensory experience while you're sitting and then the spaces are often put in. So there's some space where you can get away from what's happening rest in the classroom. The little box um down here in the up bottom left corner with the blue um pad on it, that's a light box for um students to have a sensory experience of having their um whatever materials they're working on lit up. Here's one for our older kids. This one really gives you an idea of having more space that looks um more inviting to our older students where they can be on couches. They can have the bean bag chairs. Again, flexible space. These can change as they move forward. We'll also be utilizing our hallways. So, if you've ever been in our Vista secondary, um we'll be taking out all the lockers because we just don't need that and it's wasted space for us. But we'll be using this as students are able and are learning to interact. socially as they're learning on being. You can see um in towards the back of the hallway, these almost look like places where you could sit and maybe have lunch together as kids learn how to do that um together. So, really having some space that is communal there um uh for learning. Here's another configuration. So, we just want to kind of show you how flexible it is. Another corner. And those cool colors on the floor are all sensory plaids that um give some tension. You'll see things on the wall as they look forward. So that's just a look at what some of our furniture is going to look like. Carol, back to you about lessons learned. >> Yeah. One thing about the nooks that I neglected to say is when you sit inside of them, even though it's opensided, it really drowns out a lot of the noise. So unless someone is standing right in front of you and screaming, it will be almost impossible to hear what other people are saying. So that will support some therapeutic needs as well. Um as um Michelle and Dr. as um Assistant Superintendent Cox and Dr. Lewis have mentioned um we've learned some things along the way. I mean two years into the program and we've already expanded into two programs. I think um glows our Vista teachers and staff are 300% locked in. They come to work every day um sometimes to situations that most teachers will find difficult and they are there for the kids. They understand that there's a different level of support that's needed. There's no judgment. Um I have been so amazed by that team. I shared with Dr. Lewis um even earlier today and sitting in a meeting how their solutions oriented. They're not necessarily looking for problems to things to complain about. They're looking for hm we had this situation today. Let's talk about as a group how we can collectively go about this or you seem to be the person that really connects with this student when they're at this state maybe in that red zone. Um we'll have you be the first point of contact because that relational capacity is already there. So that is that that I think has been absolutely great. Um I think another thing for us is we have continued to evolve. We've learned that we need to be flexible. Um we are we are certainly 100% committed to this process, Dr. Lewis's vision to bring this programming to our district to keep our students in district and to serve others. Um I think some things we've learned some grows um especially recently um at the Vista Secondary and Vista High School is noise and how do we how do we um set up the Vista portion the Vista program with barrier sound barriers and such that because we have the high school that's connected to it so that that noise isn't seeping into the other classrooms and and interrupting um learning opportunities for other students. Um I think for sure we um have worked a lot and will continue to work on and as part of our training next year is working with our staff with IEP, making sure the individualized education plan, ensuring that everybody understands the importance of them, that we're following them because this is what tells us how we best support our students. Um and I think just a continuous level of um continuous support across the VISTA programs that we have currently and those that we plan to open um soon. >> Um do you mind if I comment a little bit on the work we're doing with the neurode diverent specialist? >> Yes. So we are working with a company that uh specializes in environments for um individuals especially in schools with neur neurode diverency people that um have disabilities. So we're so excited. They work on colors, they work on furniture placement, um they work on different furniture types, they work on carpet, noise mediation, etc. So we have been actively um talking to them about here's exactly what's happening. Can you come up with a solution for us as well? So um that's probably our biggest um learning around the colloccated is really that noise mitigation. >> We also have fun. So Vista fun nights we have one in the um fall and one in the spring. We just had one about about a month ago about five weeks ago um where we invited all the parents of um students participating in Vista Elementary and Vista Secondary came over to Vista Secondary um program at the high school um that's colllocated at the high school. We had pizza and beverages. There was games. There were karaoke. Um it was good to have the younger kids with the older kids and that sort of thing. there really are some bonds that have been created because when we started out the year, everybody was in the initial uh Vista program building. Um but now that we've separated that has been great. So we actually have one of our students who um would not have it any other way other than being the blowup tiger um to greet everybody and and and and to have a good time. It was really good. It was well attended. parents were really appreciative of the opportunity and really got a chance to connect with our staff and um that's one of our greatest responsibilities too is supporting families who have kids that have that struggle um we don't need to remind them of that they already know and so when we can do fun things like this it really creates a collaborative space for everybody >> I'm going to finish up by talking a little bit about our vision for program expansion we've touched on it a little bit tonight but we'll be expanding ing into a colllocated space um that is attached but separate from the middle school and then also a coll-located autism center that will be here at the Fidley Community Center. Um the middle school expansion um will um renovations will be started this summer which is really nice that our middle school will be closed so we can we can do that. Um there will be uh four classrooms. So we'll have a capacity of 24 students um and really excited about that and that is anticipated to be opening at the beginning of the school year. We're also t um have been talking about for a while and have decided that we're going to move forward with programming specifically for students with autism. And this is because stu autism programming can look very different than our programming for students with emotional and behavior um disorders. And really autism programming that's quality um is an unmet need in our community. So some of the program highlights is we'll have teachers with specific autism expertise and lure. Um each of the classrooms will have separate offices. They won't have doors in them, but it'll be a separate space where students can have independent work time where they can go if they need to get themsel regulated. Um there'll be a lot of, as we know, students with autism oftentimes need alternative um communication systems. So, we'll be specializing that and have a variety of those available for our students. Be a lot of visual schedules around as we know that visual strategies are very important for our students with autism. There'll be structured teaching strategies. We'll have specialized seating and movement activities. We're going to have a comprehensive therapy space um that we really um are looking forward to having a state-of-the-art one because therapy, occupational therapy, um speech therapy is an important part of the educational programming for our students with autism. Sensory toolkits, social stories, role plays will all be strategies that you'll see um being used in our program. So again, as I said, this will be located here at the Fidley Community Center. Um, Alpha Lab Runsaway will be our new principal. Um, our senior programming, as we talked about before, will be moved to our lower level. Um, and they'll have a whole new renovated space that we'll just we're so excited to um, welcome them into and we'll be opening this fall of 2026. >> Okay, board will stand for questions. Yeah. >> For our autism center, what is there an int like is there an intended age range or grade level that we'll be serving? >> Yeah, we'll actually be able to because we'll have separate rooms be able to program for K through 22. But we'll see what happens as we kids students come in. Another question that um people have asked is well what if there's a student with autism who's already at say Vista Secondary? um that student and family will really have a choice whether to stay there or if this new programming better fits their needs. So um students will have a chance to move um to and from the program as we go as we go through. And again this is all special education money. This is all um if a student is not from our district they will be tuition build and they will pay their fair portion of the programming. So this would be either our students which we are responsible for paying for their education or other districts will pay in for their students >> and that includes the construction. So the way that that works for buildings that the district owns is first it goes to state special education reimburseable. So that reimbures us anyway between 82 and 87%. And then from there for non-resident student that are here on uh tuition agreements, then that is their fair share is then build out to each individual district from that tuition agreement. And then for the students that are Fidley resident students, that's where our thirdparty billing dollars come in that we have from the Medicaid billing to um offset those construction dollars. So again, none of this is part of our bonds. It's not part of the referendum. It's not part of the general fund. Um and again, this building also then will have lease payments back to the district for that space, the utilities portions, things like that. So again, it's really about um programming for our children. Number one, and as Harold says, they're all our children. I'm talking from a very technical lens right now. Programming for our resident students with dignity programming for um students that are in the metro that also don't have places to go to receive the level of support, teaching, and learning in the therapeutic setting that we're offering. And then thirdly, with the enrollment, with the tuition agreements, with the reductions that occur to the general fund, it's also a fiscal helper for our district. But most importantly, it's about that programming. It also then helps our environments kind of what I had talked about a little bit with Fidley Middle School and the reputation when I came. It helps us so that students that are needing to be in a setting four when they're in a setting three, which is our neighborhood school, we are not able to provide the appropriate staffing ratios as well as the appropriate instructional environments. And what happens then is we see emotions that come out. We see behaviors that manifest and then that upsets much of the other school environment. So, it's a helper all around with school environments as well. >> Do we have any um expectations of how many uh students might be enrolled this fall? >> Yeah, we would look at and I'm making sure I'm correct here. We would have 24 students. Again, we're going to save spot save for from some of our resident student placements. So, I would anticipate right around 20 since this is a larger age range. We would probably look at about 20. Is that accurate? >> Absolutely. >> And then um if um some of you were with me as we opened uh Vista and I've learned the original Vista um I've learned to issue this disclaimer. It will probably be full and weight listed quicker than I anticipate as well. And the other fiscal savings that I forgot to mention here is that we're not paying that out of district placement tuition and the transportation >> on our resident students as well. And that usually runs >> um $150,000 per student plus transportation. >> Wow. >> Okay. >> Thanks, Harold. >> Thank you. >> Nice work, team. >> Appreciate you. All right. We're now going to talk about insurance renewals. Go ahead, Relle. >> Yeah. Thank you um board. It it's absolutely my pleasure to bring forth a recommendation from a committee that I've been working with um that's looking at our medical insurance. Um we've been studying cost and looking at that and working with um our advisors as well as the insurance companies to look at um a rate change for to our members for our medical insurance. We looked at a rate change of 8%. We looked at 10% and 13% and our committee that was filled with our staff, um teachers, um our union members, our principles, um everyone, um we really worked hard to get everyone's voice in the table, made the decision to recommend to the board an 8% increase. Um so you'll see here in the yellow the employee change from the current rates over on the left hand side to the new rates that will happen um in the fall a if you vote so um so when we look at their single single plans of course employees don't pay um so that remains unchanged at zero and then as we add the plus one and family you start to see the in the change in increase and then the total um premium you'll also see in the middle of each um column what the district plays and then on the right side what the employee plays. So I stand ready for any questions that you have um as we look to vote on this tonight. >> No questions. >> Okay, nice work. Okay, next is Michelle. Um, one of the things that keeps me up at night is the level of resiliency that our staff has shown and continues to show. Um, you might think you're keep kept up at night by resiliency. I don't think with what we've gone through that that resiliency is at a a normal level. I'm really worried about the mental health of our staff. Um, so with that, I said to Michelle, I'm gonna be nicer than I actually said. I'm going to make it seem like I was nicer. Okay, so just support me in this. >> Hey, hey, I bet that health partners would love to partner with us and donate to our district for our employees some additional supports. And so then she reached out to Health Partners. >> Yep. And I said, "Partner is in your name." So here we go. Okay. Um I will say um Health Partners was great to work with um uh and understood our need. Um they understand the effect it had on our district. So we know that our um employees can have three free sessions for mental health um consultation, therapy for any occurrence. So this isn't like three a year and you're done, but anything that happens, you just come and you do that. So that's um been in place for our um for our employees. We are adding on the aware mindfulness-based stress reduction program. That's six sessions. This is free to everybody in our um in our district and really looking forward and hoping that our employees take um advantage of this and really thankful to Health Partners for adding this to our plan. >> We're really proud of that. Oh, and here is like a little bit about each one of them so that any of our employees listening tonight or watching this recording um this is also on our website, but you have all the information you need how to get started. >> Thank you. I was contacted um a few weeks ago by um Representative Omar's team and um her team asked that uh we meet together uh to talk about um the impact of ICE Metro Surge on Fidley Public Schools and how she could be a helper. So, we met for probably an hour, I think. Um, and it was just quite a visit that was just amazing, inspiring. And I will say that while all elected officials at this level, not school board members, um, run on um, a particular party affiliation, none of that came up in the meeting. It was just really about what is the work that needs to be done? how do we ensure that children are safe in schools, staff are safe in schools. So, this was just a really phenomenal visit and I was honored to meet with her and um Michelle sent the press release to her team and many others and her team reached out and was so proud about our graduates. Okay, the Ways and Means Committee. Okay, as you know, I get asked a lot to testify on um ICE uh the impact, the fiscal impact, the mental health impact, etc. I was asked to testify to speak um at the press conference held um by representatives um Cedric Frasier and then to talk about to testify at the Ways and Means Committee. and we've been having um some pretty intense times testifying and in front of education committees and things like that. And I have to tell you, I was shocked. I was, I believe, the only educator >> uh excuse me, Colombia Heights board chair as well. Um I'll say I was the only superintendent. We'll say that at the ways and means and it was bipartisan support that I really felt. This was the same day as AMSD um day at the capital and so director Jones, I'm sorry, Vice Chair Jones was able to um be there and popped up for the Ways and Means Committee and this committee hearing gives me hope. We saw some real bipartisan support that came out of this and a lot of really good questions. So um stay tuned as this um comes through. It is a lot about funding and making back holes small businesses. I don't know if there will be money attached to this for education. Um also this doesn't have the actual fiscal note attached yet. Um but just a a really really optimistic feel around this committee. Um Vice Chair Jones, anything you want to add there? >> That's a great question. Um I do think that the testimony from Fidley and from Columbia Heights was very powerful and um I do agree with you that that the the impact that our community felt was definitely heard. Um there were a lot of people that testified at this um at this particular committee meeting, but um I think that the impact that they collectively had definitely was received very well and understood how how upsetting that has been and the just the financial cost that now goes along with that initially and now the restoration that needs to be done as well. >> Thank you. Anything on that Relle? you were there as well. >> No, I would just say you were in very good company. Both the mayors of Twin Cities and St. Paul were also there. So, there were um there was a lot of people who were sharing impact. >> Thank you. Okay. And then um we'll talk about AMSD MASA day at the Capitol. I actually didn't participate. So, uh we had that all lined up. It was going to be Michelle and um Vice Chair Jones and myself. And then um ways and means press conference got scheduled. Um so I was there uh spoke at that and then the hearing went and went and went some more um which is really good thing. It was a really good set of testifiers like um Michelle talked about as well as then um just really good dialogue questions. We were actually called back up which is rare. Um the board chair of Columbia Heights and myself were called back up. So that was a really good um level of engagement. Um so then what happened there is uh vice chair Jones went to ma meet with Senator Kunes. I texted her and let her know that she was of course very supportive as you know she authors a lot of bills around ICE and that impact. She wasn't part of this but um does that on the education side and other other streams there and then um Rep. Kaggel was in the ways and means committee. So then um she and I and Michelle met at the same time that uh Vice Chair Jones was meeting with Senator Kesh and we just talked about our needs again. Same needs around compensatory education um dollars, a hold harmless and then a permanent fix to that, the impact of ICE. Um we are in favor of the mandates such as unemployment um and paid family leave act. we just need a funding source so that that doesn't come uh out of our general fund. So of course our reps were very very supportive. So I think the day went well. It was just a little unplanned u or deviated from plan. Anything you want to add there? >> No, I think that was it at the beginning. Um AMSD and MASA held a conference with or a presentation from the education leaders from the House and from the Senate um that gave updates on where they were at. Great. >> Okay. We are so sad that she's at the track meet, but so proud. I think we put this in again at May 100%. >> Don't you think? >> So, our very own Ayana has an amazing scholarship that she achieved as you will see as you saw this is out on social media. I saw many of you have um shared about that. So, she has um been awarded $240,000 for University of San Francisco. This honor comes um through scholars that are chosen based on their academic merit, their leadership potential, and their commitment to supporting underserved communities through their chosen career path. Don't you just feel this on her? And I must say that I'm proud that I have been a reference for her. So I am just honored to sit next to her greatness. So we'll bring this back again in May because she deserves every recognition. I'm so proud of her. Let's also clip that and send the clip to her too. >> Absolutely. >> So forward anything you want to say there and we'll love her up again in May. >> To be continued. >> Yeah. So proud of her. Okay. Thank you. And then um I was honored at the voices magazine award. Um so this is 11 years and I was asked to um be an awardee for the work that Fidley public schools has done around our students and um keeping them safe during ICE Metro Surge. And that is a handcrafted trophy from um Ghana. I was going to bring that today and I forgot. As you can tell, um I didn't go there right after work. Clearly, I don't dress like this, but it was a a red carpet, black tie, like a literal red carpet, black tie event. And then a very dear friend of ours, Seattle Lee, as you all know, he um kept a large secret from me and that was that Senator Hoffman was going to present the award to me. So just quite an evening and he was there and he keynoted and it was just a a perfect moment where we could see our school district recognized among um others uh other individuals who are doing work that is really about humanity and dignity whether it be in healthcare in affordable housing. I think we were the only education ones recognized. Um, so it was just quite uh a lovely evening. Anything you want to add? Relle was my plus one and it was amazing to have her there. >> It was great. I mean, just the recognition when you looked across the crowd as Superintendent Lewis spoke, I felt like everybody was writing down the name Fidley Public Schools, right? So, I think it was a not only a wonderful tribute to um superintendent and all of the district staff and board, but also I think it was a great recruitment effort. So, I'm expecting to see some more kids next year. >> I would agree 100%. So, yes. Um and now I'm delighted to uh chair turn it back to the board. Um vice chair will um share Northeast Metro 916. Treasurer Anna, I believe, has updates for Northwest Suburban. Um, we have AMSD in there as needed. And then there's a staff meeting on Friday, so I don't think you have one um for that. So, Vice Chair Jones, >> great. Thank you so much. Um, at our 9:16 meeting at the start of this month, we had our initial presentation was very exciting and familiar. um the staff imple or talked about the implementation of their Ukaru program which I know is something that Fidley utilizes and so to see that being brought into their uh setting for programs additionally was very exciting and the work that has been done around that they are working to bring that throughout their system um as one of their best practices which we know about and then we had a number of policy first readings um that were worked on and approved um a number of policies after their second reading. Um we approved a playground that is being replaced at one of their buildings and they have um two calendars that we approved for the 26 27th school year. Um part of our meeting was looking at their LTFM plan which we are going to be looking at and approving tonight. It's coming to our board as we pay a portion of that. um the expenditures uh go back to each of the districts and the distribution of or the the way that that is contributed by each of the districts depends on their ADM numbers as well as their property tax base. So we have a a portion of that based on our usage um that goes towards 916 but it is proportionally allocated between the 13 member districts. Um, we renewed insurance for 916 and we approved their United Educators Local 3748 and Behavior Analyst contracts for this school year and next school year. >> Thank you. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Um, let's see. We are in the process for Northwest Suburban um finding a new director for Northwest Suburban. So the last meeting, I believe it was a week ago, we approved to appoint Dan Niditch, I believe I pronounced that right. Okay. From CISO. So he's the interim director. Um he's going to be working two days a week started on April 15th just to help maintain operations. Um, and then we also approved the executive director job description and candidate profile and it's going to be open through May 6. And then right now tentative interviews are scheduled May 20th and 21st. I am going to get more info by the end of the week. So yeah, that's it. >> Thank you so much. Um, chair, anything you want to update on AMD? >> Nope. I'm going to keep my streak alive. >> Sounds great. Okay, that sounds great. And with that, I believe that concludes >> the superintendent update. No, you were perfect. Uh I know this was a pretty thorough one as we continue with our fiscal monthly updates as well as our SOD modules. It will continue to be this length. So, I just appreciate your patience as we work through that. >> Awesome. Thanks, Dr. Lewis. Next up on the agenda, we have our some business action items. Uh first I would entertain a motion to accept a gift from Mimi Belki. Uh specifically looks like uh they donated some testing materials to the for the middle school. So I'd certainly entertain a motion to accept the gift and send gratitude. >> So move >> motion made by Anna. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Second by Yang. Again a roll call vote. Uh Miss Anna >> I. >> Miss Jones >> I. >> Mr. Carup is I. >> Sounds like Miss Stark is jumping the gun. Are you and I? I'm going to take that as a yes. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh Miss Shriner, >> I >> Miss Yang. >> Motion passes. Next up, I would entertain a motion to uh approve the Fid Fidley public schools health insurance bids for 26 through 27 that uh Michelle um presented on. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Motion by Anna. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Second by Shriner. Another roll call vote. Uh Miss Anna. >> I. >> Miss Jones. >> I. >> Mr. Carop. >> I. Miss Shriner. >> Hi, >> Miss Stark. >> Hi, >> Miss Yang. >> Hi. >> Motion passes. Um, next up, we I would entertain a motion approving the Northeast Metro 916 Intermediate School District's long-term facility maintenance program. >> So, move. >> Uh, motion made by Jones. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Uh, second by Anna. Another roll call vote. Miss Anna. >> Hi, >> Miss Jones. Hi. >> Mr. Carup is I. Miss Shriner, >> hi. >> Miss Stark, >> I >> God bless you, Missy Hang. >> Hi. >> Motion passes. And then we have I just want to make sure I'm continuing this right. Yep. Entertain a motion to approve the agreement um with absolute commercial flooring for the for the middle school flooring project. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Motion made by Shiner. Do I have a second? Second by Yang. Um, roll call vote. Miss Anna. >> Hi, >> Miss Jones. Hi, >> Mr. Caras. I Miss Shriner. >> Hi, >> Miss Stark. >> Hi, >> Miss Yang. >> Hi. >> Motion passes. And with that, what we have left is uh the consent agenda. The chair would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as reviewed. >> So, move. >> Uh motion made by Anna. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Second by Shriner. Uh, roll call vote. Miss Anna, >> hi. >> Miss Jones, >> Mr. Carapai, Miss Shriner, >> hi. >> Miss Stark, >> hi. >> Miss Yang, >> I. >> Motion passes. Written information. The first reading. Are we covering that? Do >> I have to? >> I got it. She's Yeah. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Um Lori and I are working through the um policy review this year. We are starting with the 300 series policies. Um, and we looked through all of them. There are two that we wanted to propose changes to. The first one was policy implementation and we uh wanted to update to MSBA has a new standard policy and so we wanted to update to theirs. So the first one for 305 the policy implementation is to align with MSBA's update. And then the second one is the administrator code of ethics. And this one additionally MSBA and MASA MSBA has a new um proposed standard policy and it aligns with MASSA's um guidelines for administrators and so we wanted to update to what MASA says would be their guidelines for administrators which is what MA or which is what MSVA recommends. >> Awesome. So, those are our two changes for this um month. >> Thanks you for your your work on that, Sarah. And since this is the first meeting, there's no action item here. Um next up, we have some important dates. Uh Fley High School conference conferences, April 23rd from 4:00 to 7:30 at the Fley High School. The high school spring play, which is the dining room, will be at uh on April 23rd, 24th, 25th, all at 7:00 at the district auditorium. We have our preschool spring conferences on April 28th and the 30th here at the Fidley Community Center from 3:45 to 7:45. Our free family movie night is featuring the Spongebob movie, Search for the Squarepants on May 1st here, sorry, at the district auditorium starting at 7:00. Our prom Grand March is on May 2nd at 4:00 at the district auditorium. Our next school board meeting will be here at the community center starting uh on on May 5th starting at 5:30. Hayes carnival is on May 7th from 5:30 to 7:30 obviously at Hayes Elementary. Our middle school band concert is on May 12th. Sixth grade will perform at 6:00. 7th grade will perform at 7 and 8th grade will perform at 8:00 at the district auditorium. Our scholastic achievement banquet will be held at the the dinner will be at the high school cafeteria at 6:00 on May 13th with a program following shortly after at 7:00 at the district auditorium. Stevenson's carnival will be on May 14th from 5:00 to 7:00 at Stevenson Elementary. And we have a second grade concert, glee club, and art show on May 14th from 6:00 to 6:45. Not sure how they're going to fit all that in in 45 minutes, but if anyone can do it, the people at Hayes can, which will be at Hayes Elementary Public Schools, uh, schoolboard meeting, uh, next one also will be on May 19th here at the community center. 5:30 work session, 7:00 public comment, 7:30 business meeting. Any other dates that we may have missed? Okay, with that, I would certainly entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Motion made by Shiner. Do I have a second? >> Second. Second by Anna. Uh roll call vote. Uh Miss Anna. >> Hi. >> Miss Jones. >> Hi. >> Mr. Carnup is I. Miss Shriner. >> Hi. >> Miss Stark. >> Hi. >> Miss Yang. >> Hi. >> Motion passes and we are adjourned at 9:21. Thank you everybody.