White Bear Lake Area Schools — Transcript
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Birch Lake Elementary Update
Oneka Elementary Update
2025 payable 2026 Preliminary Property Tax Levy Certification
Votes (3)
Birch Lake Elementary Update
Principal Julian Stanke updated the board on Birch Lake Elementary, highlighting its three-year high in student enrollment (246 students), significant populations of ML (15%), special services (31%), and free/reduced lunch (53%) students. The school met two of three goals last year, reducing aMath and CBMr risk and improving attendance (averaging over 90%). New goals for '25-'26 include 65% low risk on FastBridge CBMrs for 1st-5th graders, 63% low risk on FastBridge aReading for 2nd-5th grade ML students, and 90% or higher attendance. Key developments included the expansion of the CUBS program (supporting high medical needs students), a new accessible playground, and community partnerships. Board members inquired about staff-to-student ratios, ML student support challenges, and factors driving attendance, prompting discussions on resource allocation and socioeconomic factors impacting attendance, particularly concerning the intensive support required by programs like CUBS.
Oneka Elementary Update
Principal Lori Mosser presented on Oneka Elementary, emphasizing student and family priority, staff dedication, and strong community engagement. Demographics include 457 students, 18% free/reduced lunch, 7% multilingual learners, and five specialized programming clusters. She reported significant academic gains, particularly in first-grade literacy, moving from 49% to 71% low risk by spring. Goals for '25-'26 target 80% low risk in early reading, CBM reading (fluency), and aReading (comprehension) across K-5, 90% of students feeling valued/safe/engaged/respected, and 90% attendance. Strategies include tiered instructional practices, regular data meetings, and family engagement events. The discussion highlighted the importance of meaningful parent-teacher conferences, the value of parent involvement, and the correlation between student well-being, attendance, and academic outcomes, leading to a broader debate on data collection and the impact of socioeconomic factors on different schools.
Certification for the 2025 payable 2026 preliminary property tax levy
Dissent: None
Moved by Jessica Ellison [0:49:57] · Seconded by Angela Thompson [0:50:00]
Ms. Johnson, the Finance Director, presented the preliminary property tax levy, requesting board approval for the maximum amount allowed by the Minnesota Department of Education. She explained that property taxes constitute 20-25% of the general fund revenue. Although the total revenue is expected to increase by 4.4% for the district, the impact on the average taxpayer is projected to be flat or slightly decrease due to new construction and increased property values spreading the tax burden. The maximum approval is sought to maintain flexibility as the Department of Education finalizes calculations, particularly regarding costs from Northeast Metro 916. The final dollar amount will be approved at the Truth and Taxation hearing in December. Board members asked clarifying questions about the state's complex levy calculation process, the district's history of requesting maximum levies, and the non-district control over property valuations by the county.
Notable Quotes (11)
We are one of our Title I school programs at Birch Lake. We're approximately 15% ML students, about 31% special services, so receiving some form of support through their IEPs, 504s and so on. And then about 53% free and reduced.
Our CUBS program supports students in the community with some of our highest medical needs. They're developmental and cognitive delays, high level autism. And we added a third section to our building this year.
I think something that's challenging is that the things that get in the way sometimes for students that are having chronic absenteeism are things that are perhaps out of our control... But I think that that's one of the challenges because there are pieces that we can definitely support and then there's parts that are challenging beyond our control.
The staff ratio there is high because the students need a lot of support. So all those people are gonna be counted in that staff, staffing ratio... having a program like the CUBS program, which is a wonderful program and something we're very proud of... would help kind of illuminate, you know, why staffing might seem higher in some buildings because of some of the programs and some of the supports that we are required and that the right thing to do for all of our students.
At the beginning of the year last year, they were at 49% low risk, 51%, like some are high risk. By spring, we got that number to 71% low risk and 29% some or high risk. The high risk, so that 29% is including some in high, it's actually only three students were at high risk by this spring.
We want at least 90% of our students to report that they feel valued, safe, engaged and respected. And then for attendance, we want at least 90% of our students to maintain a 90% or higher attendance rate. I believe we're at 89 this spring. So I hope we can surpass that.
And I would just say that we would probably find a correlation because if we look at Oneka's free and reduced lunch rate, it's 18.36%. Now, if we go back and we look at Birch, was it at 53% are at free and reduced lunch... So those families are gonna struggle. Those families are gonna have a harder time coming to conferences.
I've heard all of those rationalizations, and I think we're still, and we have a lot of resources for interventions and our job is to prepare our kids for the future no matter what their circumstances are. And that's our job here. And academics matter, attendance matters.
As a school district, we're working with the Department of Education and providing information between August and throughout September to make sure that all of our levy amounts are accurate. We have to ask the school board to approve an amount. And at this point we typically ask that you approve the maximum amount of preliminary property tax levy that allows us to continue to work with the Department of Education and make refinements as they are necessary.
So the total revenue that we're going to be receiving is gonna go up by about 4%, but there's a higher amount of property in the school district. So that might come from, you know, new assess values, but it also comes from new construction building, new businesses coming in. And so that's spread over the entire, or the entire property taxes or the property value. And so that's where it results in that almost flat slight decrease for the average home.
If you set a dollar amount, then the risk would be that 916's calculations were such that it wasn't enough to cover our expense our to our total expense. And that would just be a general fund expense at that point.
Ordinances & Resolutions (9)
Individualized Education Programs, mentioned for special services students at Birch Lake.
Plans under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, mentioned for special services students at Birch Lake.
An assessment used for early reading and literacy, with goals set for student low-risk scores at Birch Lake and Oneka.
An assessment for comprehension, with goals set for student low-risk scores at Birch Lake and Oneka.
An SEL (Social Emotional Learning) screener used at Oneka Elementary to assess student experience.
A communication platform used by Oneka Elementary for parent communication.
The official financial document for which board approval of the maximum amount was sought.
A future official hearing where the final levy numbers will be presented for approval.
Description of the Minnesota Department of Education's complex formula for calculating the maximum property tax levy.