(audience chattering) (gavel taps) - I'd like to order thismeeting of the School Board of Independent School District 624. I would ask the Clerkto please call the roll. - Newmaster?- Here. - Streiff Oji?- Here. - Thompson?- Here. - Arcand, here. Beloyed?- Here. - Daniels?- Here. - Ellison?- Here. I would ask everyone to please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. - [All] 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. - We have before us an agenda. I would ask for a motionto approve the agenda. - So moved.- A motion by Ms. Daniels. And a second?- Second. - Second by Dr. Newmaster. Any questions or discussion? All in favor of approval, please say aye? - [Members] Aye. - Opposed same sign? And we have an agenda. We also have a before us a consent agenda, which is the various itemsthat come before us monthly, including donations from our community, and as always, our communityhas been really generous with donations that they madefor our teachers and students. I would ask for a motion toapprove the consent agenda. - So moved. - A motion by Ms. Thompson. And a second?- Second. - Second by Ms. Streiff Oji. Any question or discussion? This will require a roll call vote. I would ask the Clerkto please call the roll. - Newmaster? - [Margaret] Aye. - Streiff Oji?- Aye. - Thompson?- Aye. - Arcand, aye. Beloyed?- Aye. - Daniels?- Aye. - Ellison?- Aye. And we have a consent agenda. It is now time for the publicforum portion of the meeting. There were zero requestssubmitted to speak. So we'll move into ourfirst informational item, C1, Student Recognition. Tonight we celebrate students who have represented the districtin various activities, including Girls Basketball,Boys Hockey, Boys Swim and Dive, Wrestling, and High School andMiddle School Knowledge Bowl. Congratulations, students. And thank you to thestaff and family members who supported the students along the way. Go Bears! (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) All right. Congratulations, students. We'll move into our first discussion item, D1, update on the sale ofthe 2024A General Obligation School Building andFacilities Maintenance funds. Ms. Johnson. - Good evening. There were two facilitiesfunding strategies that the Facilities PlanningCommittee recommended when we went to the taxpayers for the bond referendum in 2019. And that was issuing general obligation school building bonds andfacility maintenance bonds for long-term facilitymaintenance projects. At the August 14th, 2023school board meeting, the school board approved the resolution stating the intention to issue our final school building bond issuance and then a facilitymaintenance bond issuance. And then at our lastmeeting on March 26th, 2024, Shelby McQuay fromEhlers Financial was here to present the presalereport for today's bond sale. And so we received bids today, and Shelby is back to discussthe results of that sale. - Good evening. Congratulationson another good sale day. So as you are well aware,you issue competitively, and there's quite a marketfor your debt out there. And so what happens is we open the bids, we do all the prep work,and Andi, Tim, and Wayne participate in the district's rating. We open the bids at aset time this morning, and then the lowestbid is the winning bid. And so I'll walk a little bit through the sale day report here to just highlight some of the high points. So JP Morgan was thewinning bidder this morning at 3.04, and that is slightly lower than the pre-sale report thatwe brought to you last month. So we were anticipating,given the market conditions, that you would get abouta, a 3.4 interest rate or a little, 3.38 interest rate. So good day to sell, bidscame in lower than that, and that turns around and generates some interest savings for youoverall and the taxpayers. As Andi mentioned, this was combined as part of the last portion ofthis school building portion. So the voter approved portion with the facilities maintenancethat is regularly issued about every other yearor a little bit more to get this project done. So the $13 million portion of the approximately43 million was the last of the $326 million school building bond. So I'll just note, really high level, that at the time that the district voted, we were anticipating about $195 million of interest on the 326. And that was all incorporatedin to the overall tax impact that the voters authorized. With this last issuance of the 13 million, and over the last two,the total interest is, being incurred by the district, is down to 133 million from 195. So some nice savings thereover the three issuance, just because of the good market conditions that the district received. And then there'll likely bean opportunity down the road to even refinance some ofthat debt going forward. So some later opportunities possibly for taxpayer savings there. And as with all the other ones, this issue is refundableas well after 2032. So you'll have funds available on May 2nd. On the next couple of pageswe show all the bidders. So of course national attention, again, JP Morgan was the winning bid. The cover bid was Morgan Stanley. And then there were acouple of other bidders out of New York, Charlotte, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. With any of the issues we share with you the sources and uses,which essentially documents the par amount, or theamount of the debt issue. You did receive anotherpremium on this bid, which means that the bidderpaid more than the face value. So that is able to be depositedinto the construction fund for both the school building and the facilities maintenance portion. Some of the debt schedulesare included in there, but then I'll just, you know, point again to the overall schedule in the visual, so the table here, that just demonstrates that throughout the numberof issuances that we've had, we've been able to maintainthe tax rate, or lower, than the voters authorizedas part of the vote in 2019. So staying well within that range there. And then the last few pages,just for your reference. You did go through the rating process, and S&P affirmed your underlying rating for the district at a AA- Stable. So nice to have thataffirmation from a third party on your overall district finances. And then going forward, that'll hold until likely the next bond issuance, where we'll go through that again for a facilities maintenance portion. So I'm happy to answer any questions. That is the informational report. You will have a roll callvote on the resolution awarding the sale to JP Morgan tonight. - Thank you. Any questions for Ms. McQuay? All right. Thank you so much. We appreciate all of your work, and these are great numbers. - [Shelby] Yeah. Thank you. We're excited to partnerwith the district. - All right, thank you. We'll move in to discussion item D2, Immersion Programming Study Group. Mr. Wald. - Good evening, ChairEllison, Members of the Board. Glad to be here tonight to talkabout our district's effort to explore immersion programming in the White Bear Lake Schools. We currently don't have animmersion program, as you know. But an immersion program fits within the district's strategic plan. In August of 2022, the board approved fouradditional strategies, and strategies two and three would address or would make room foran immersion program. Strategy two is: We willpromote, encourage, and support students' personal learningexperiences and aspirations. And strategy three: We willensure our organization continuously transformsto fulfill our mission. In order to move this work forward, we formed a steering committee who is just starting theirwork, just had one meeting. But these are the membersof the steering committee. This is a diverse groupof district leaders who share a really common commitment to do the work well. And so it's diverseskills within this group, and we share the same commitment. So I think this is theright group of people in White Bear Lake toget the process rolling and to then move us into theinput and engagement process. The purpose of this steering committee. It's an essential first step, but the steering committeeis to establish the framework for the development of aSpanish immersion program within the White Bear Lake Area Schools, and to identify key parameters that will inform thestakeholder engagement process, with the ultimate goal ofbringing a recommendation to the school board in October of 2024. So we think we're just in areally good time slot right now to be getting this work rolling now. We'll have a little bit of a break during part of the summer, and then we'll really be able to gear up in September and Octoberand bring it back to you. This chart might lookfamiliar to the board. It's the Guiding Change documentthat we used in '21 and '22 when we worked on theattendance boundary process. It's really just achart to guide our work. It's developed by TeamWorks International, who we've worked with in the past. And on the left of thischart, you see the box. Context in reality. This refers to our current conditions. And so as a steering committee,we took a look at that. Those are our vision, our core beliefs. I mentioned earlier thatan immersion program is solidly grounded within the vision of our strategic roadmap,our strategic plan. And so our context and ourcurrent reality really fit well for setting immersion. It also, on the Context inReality bubble, it asks us to do an environmental scan oftrends and influences. So what's happening in our local community and our educational community. These are, you know, thatis our current reality. On the right, Results. So that refers to whatwe're intending to create. Our program's performance,performance indicators, outcomes. In the middle is, this intervening spaceis our Creative Means. How we will get there, our process. Our steering committee willreally develop those parameters and engage the public to provide input, and then come up with a recommendation. Kind of laced around the outsideis the Unacceptable Means. And that's the what will we not do? What's unacceptable in thedevelopment of this program? We will identify those things and then make sure thatwe're being true to that. Okay? So that's the process. And so then we set up the why,the not how, and the what. So the current reality is the why. The unacceptable means aroundthe edge, that's the not how. And then our desired results is the what. And so the steeringcommittee spent an afternoon developing ideas, youknow, developing the why, the not how, and the what. So take a first look here at the why. So first, I won't go through all of these, but I'll highlight a few of them. There's a high demand forimmersion across the metro and we don't have a program. So that's our current reality. We know there's a strong desire for language immersion in our community, really in the north metro, and so there's an opportunity here for us. Number three, multilingual learners don't have an opportunity to learn in their native language in our system. So our frameworkcurrently lacks provisions for multilingual learnersto receive instruction in their native languagealongside other students. Look at number five. There's an increasing numberof Spanish speaking newcomers enrolling in our district. That really highlights thenecessity of establishing comprehensive supportsfor our newcomer students, to facilitate theirintegration within our system. And then number seven. Many White Bear Lakefamilies seek immersion outside of the school district. That is true. We get phone calls from parents, with some regularity,asking about immersion and potential for immersion in the future. And then how are theygonna get the needs met for their students, for familieswho are seeking immersion. And we know there's a wide network of immersion programsacross the metro area. And these are great resources and research that's available to school districts. The not how. You'll be glad to know, number one, that we will not knowinglyviolate law, policy, or values. But also, number two, Ithink is an important tool. We will not allow special and self-interests to drive the design and implementation of the program. So our decision making process will prioritize the collective good and, you know, the educationalvalue of the program. Three, conjecture, very similar, conjecture and personal impact statements will not drive the designand decision making. Five, we won't ignoreour equity commitment, equity decision makingprotocol, or strategic plan. So those are established protocols that we have within our district and we will follow those as well. Number seven, I think important. We will not ignore the input and needs of historically marginalized communities. And we're committed tomaking sure that families in those marginalized communities have a voice at the table as well. Okay. And then number eight I thinkis an important thing to note, that this won't be a, you know, favorite child kind of program. It won't get additional resources the other programs don't get. There might be someadditional startup costs, like there are for any program, but from a per student funding level, an immersion program should operate at the same level of anyclassroom in the school district. All right, then the what, what do we want? What will our desired results look like? And then, you know, asthe steering committee works through this process, this is an important documentfor us to keep in front of us. And when we come to you in October, we should bring this document with us and show that we've, you know,met our expectations on this. Yeah. Number one, the immersionprogram will be evidence-based. So it's rooted in researchand best practices. The third one. Program will demonstrateWhite Bear Lake Area Schools commitment to multilingualismand cultural identity. So this program allows us to promote language acquisition at a high level, strengthen the cultural understanding for all of our students,and honor the backgrounds of our Spanish speakingstudents and families. The fourth one, family engagement will be intentional in the program to build bridges betweenthe different communities that are part of the immersion program. Future oriented pedagogical approaches, we would expect of all of our programs. And then finally for the WhiteBear Lake immersion program to become the immersion program of choice for White Bear Lake families,and for others as well. So parameters that thecommittee will be held to is the why, the not how, and the what, the things we just took a look at. But also a process forengaging stakeholders. It would be the committee's responsibility to identify that processand design ways for input of staff members, our teachers,our parents, students, interested community members,to have a voice at the table. The steering committeewould be responsible for researching,identifying, and selecting acceptable models foran immersion program. There's a lot of differentways to do immersion, and finding the rightone for your community and your school district is important. So looking at format,curriculum, assessment, location. And then finally, in October of next year, recommendation to the board. So that's the work our steering committee will be responsible for. Ayan Ibrahim and I will beco-chairing this committee. So that's the work that we have started and that we are committedto moving forward. I am open to any questions you might have. - Any questions for Mr. Wald? I'll start with Ms. StreiffOji and then someone else. - So, I was just recentlytalking with someone that had elementary students in an immersion program in metro. And then they had, they werenot, they had no options for middle school, and thensome options for high school. Has that been a topic of... - Yeah, we just haven't-- Are you doing elementary, and moving-- I appreciate the question, and it's an important question. Many districts who start with an elementary immersion program, in the middle schooland in the high school, have an immersion element. And so it might be two classes in middle and high school that are, where there's an immersion opportunity. So maybe it's math and physics, social studies and something else, where students are in immersionfor a few class periods. It's not typical at themiddle and high school level to have a full immersion. But, we haven't really gotten that far. But I would expect that we're gonna have a robust conversation about that. - Thank you.- Yeah. - Maybe this is also asteering committee work, so you may not have theanswer, but I'm just wondering about the current worldlanguage at elementary, will there be opportunitiesin elementary schools that are not immersion,to have some language? Or would that, is thata steering committee? - Yeah, well, it's, no, it's not a steering committee process. So that's a larger processwithin our district that we're looking atelementary specialists. And so it'll be within that context that that discussion occurs. (board member speaks distantly) EBD? Yes. (board member speaks distantly) Yeah. - I'm just thinking of mybackground in world languages and I know people involvedin some immersion programs in St. Paul and Minneapolis. Many times they also needa strong ELL person there, because if you've gotlanguage speakers coming in, that wanna keep their fluency and ability to write maybein their home language, which you might not develop if you weren't in an immersion program, I'm hoping there'll be a strong, what would you say? A strong position for theEnglish language learners other issue other than English. Because that's a balance that sometimes it's a tough one to facilitate. - I appreciate that comment. We're, yeah, that will be a element that we'll need to be prepared for. A lot of work ahead of us on this. And if you, you know, lookat that committee of folks who are working on there,you have, you know, we have a strong representation from our Teaching and Learning Department. And so we'll really belooking for their leadership. - (speaks distantly) make sure it has a, another strength to addto the end, K-8 program. - [Tim] Appreciate that. - [Jessica] Ms. Beloyed. - So the teachers that we have now, do we have anyone that's ableto do the immersion program? Or do we need to hire from- - Yeah, it is likely that we'll be hiring, that we'll have to hire from outside. But if there's somebody, Idon't know the answer to that. If there's someone who will, who would jump at the opportunity to be an immersion teacher,that would be amazing. That'd be awesome. - So speaking as somebody that actually has a child inan immersion program, locally, they... I had no idea (speaks distantly). They were havingdifficulty getting teachers who (speaks distantly). They were actually going outside the US to get those teachers and some of them werekind of like an exchange. - Mm-hmm. Yeah, we've had conversationswith another school district that has large immersionprogramming in their district and they have partnershipsoutside of the US to bring in Spanish speaking teachers, and like you said, student teaching or with just within, justto add a Spanish speaking, native speaking teacher into that, or adult into that classroom, who might be here on a internship kind of- - [Deb] Is that something youthink we're gonna have to do? - You know, the developmentof a immersion program is a pretty slow process. And typically you implementit in kindergarten, and then you grow. So it's really one, ifit's been one school, and you know, if you dida school within a school, it would just be oneperson you'd be hiring. Or if you did multiple schools,it might be two or three. If you did an entire school immersion, usually districts develop that over time. Start with a smaller program and then when the capacityis significant enough or maybe a waiting listthat the demand is so high that you go into maybe afull immersion building. But we aren't in a positionto take a lot of risks. You know, we have to be really thoughtful, to make sure that from afinancial and an operational, strategies are in place to be able to, you know, have a program last. - [Deb] Thank you. - Ms. Thompson. - So then off of that, with our current discussions on budget, and we know where our budget is, and it is not in a very good place where we would like it to be right now. And we're not surewhere it's gonna end up, 'cause that'll depend onmany different factors. You know? And how this, number eight is,we will not create a program that receives more resources than an existing non-immersion program. So I see this as, thisis a wonderful thing, and hopefully we can finda way to make this work, but we won't be implementing it if it's gonna affectcurrent programming, right? Say you have to hireteachers to do this program. Right now, the way I see it, we would have to remove teachersin order for the budget. - Yeah, you know, there hasn't been a year I've been at White Bear Lake where we haven't hiredteachers at all grade levels. Right? We're hiring typically,a lot of times it can be, it might be July orAugust, but we're hiring. And so if you think that you were to start an immersion program at a school, next year, let's say, you'd be looking athiring a teacher, right? And so, I think it's doable. - How are you looking at mapping that out so we would know which school this will get enoughstudents for it to be, you know?- Yep. - A thing that we couldactually implement. How are we gonna collect that data? - Yeah, well, it would bea data collection process all the way through it. And so when you implement a immersion classroomin a school, let's say, yeah, you're starting that sign up, we'll be having parent engagement to gauge whether we have theinterest in the program. It could be that everyone says, "Nope." Not gonna happen. Based on the numbers ofconversations we've had and phone calls we've received, I don't think that's gonna be the case. In fact, in every immersionprogram in the metro area, there's a waiting list. So I don't think we'regonna have a hard time getting people into the program. Right. And in fact, from a budget perspective, if you were just to considerit from that point of view, I think it could havea very positive impact on the school district. - [Angela] I just wantedto put it out there. - Yeah, one of thethings we pointed out is, I can say with some confidence that we've lost studentsto open enrollment because we don't havean immersion program. - [Angela] I've heard that conversation, so I just had to ask the question. - Yeah, yep. - [Angela] (speaks distantly)are thinking about it. I know you guys don't (speaks distantly). - [Jessica] Dr. Newmaster. - I think it sounds like you may have started this in a very small way and see how it fills. And I'm thinking aspeople change districts and look at programs, you know, they're looking at a continuum. We do have, I know a Spanishimmersion daycare (indistinct), so there's people there thatare looking for something. But I can see why then they'd say, "But I also want a 2nd grade." So you're gonna have a lot to balance. - [Tim] Yeah. - It's old hand for you.(people chuckle) - [Tim] Nothing's ever easy. It's just the work. - Yeah, I think this is areally good place to start, and I would be interested to hear an update from thecommittee before October, to kind of see where you're at before you bring arecommendation to the board. That would be really helpful. Globally, we're behind our students being able to speak multiple languages, and so I think any, and this program would be optional, an optional opportunityfor our students to have. So it would be fantastic. I think the only you know,reflection that I have is when I first joined the board, we were having a lot ofconversations about the IB programs, which is at Matoska still currently, but we removed it from the middle school because it wasn'timplemented with fidelity and didn't have the same support. And so I would just ask that the committee keeps that in mind, that there'sa long term plan in place. Which, again, I know that you know, but I do think it would be helpful to get an update before October. - [Tim] Okay. Dr. Newmaster. - As you mentioned Matoska, and thinking about immersion programs, that's another one that's kind of a district-wide gather perhaps. So do we still have the district-wide giftedprogram at Lincoln? - [Jessica] Mm-hmm. - And that has special busing issues, as well as a large percentof the kids at Matoska are district-wide enrollees. So this might be another one. - Yeah.- Could be. - [Tim] It would serve as a magnet- - At a school that already has- - A magnet where you wouldpotentially, you know, have transportation available from all parts of the district. - [Margaret] Or if you have a school that's already drawing from the district, it might be a good pairing. - It might, yeah. Very, very true. - [Jessica] All right, Great.- All right, thank you. - Thank you, Mr. Wald. All right, we'll moveinto discussion item D3, which is the first readingof school board policies. How this works is that theboard policies come to us two separate meetings. They come to us for a first read, where board members askany questions or discuss, and then they come to us on a subsequent meeting for approval. So this is the first reading of school board policies 403, 498, 502, 606.5, 801, and 910. And if board members have any questions, I would ask that you please point us to the school board policy and the page number sowe can follow along. Any questions about any of these policies? All right, so these policieswill come before us in May for a second reading and approval. We'll move into our operational items. Operational item E1, action to award 2024A General Obligation School Building and Facilities Maintenance bonds. Ms. Johnson, - Earlier in the evening,Shelby McQuay went over the sale day report from the bond issuance that we have for your approval tonight. So the recommended action is to approve the resolutionawarding the sale of General Obligation School Building and Facility MaintenanceBonds, Series 2024A, in the original aggregateprinciple amount of $42,835,000. - You've heard the recommended action. Could I get a motion to approve? - So moved.- So moved. - A motion by Ms. Thompson, and a second by Ms. Beloyed. Any further questions or discussion? This will require a roll call vote. I would ask the Clerkto please call the roll. - Newmaster?- Aye. - Streiff Oji?- Aye. - Thompson?- Aye. - Arcand, aye. Beloyed?- Aye. - Daniels?- Aye. - Ellison?- Aye. And the motion passes. Thank you. Next, operational item E2, action on the Fiscal Year2022-2023 Federal Single Audit. Ms. Johnson, - At the January 22nd, 2024 meeting Jim Eichten, from ourauditor, auditing firm MMKR, presented the FiscalYear 22-23 Audit Report. And at that time he explained that we would later be coming forward for your acceptance ofthe Federal Single Audit. And so that's what we're bringing forward to you at this time. The Federal Single Auditis a separate audit that we're required to perform because we receive more than$750,000 in federal funds. And so there's a lot of testing that goes into our compliance and making sure that we're dotting our I's and crossing our T's appropriately. So this year they lookedinto three programs, our special educationprogram, our Title I program, and then our multitude of ESSER programs, our Covid funding programs. And we're pleased to let you know that we did not receive anyfindings on any of the programs. So that's quite a feat. We're very proud of that. So at this point, therecommended action is to accept the Fiscal Year 2022-23 FederalSingle Audit as presented. - You've heard the recommended action. Could I get a motion to approve? - So moved. - A motion by Dr. Newmaster. And a second?- Second. - Second by Ms. Daniels. Any further questions or comments? Oh, Ms. Daniels, - Congratulations. I know it's a lot of gathering everything, over a long period of time andinterviewing a lot of people, and making sure you have all the paperwork and all the receiptsand all the everything. So good work. - [Andi] Yeah. Thank you. - [Jessica] Single Audit isa tremendous amount of work. - It is, yes. And it's a lot of differentpeople who are involved in that. So it's not just me and my team, it's the Teaching and Learning Department, the Special Ed Department. There's a whole lot of people that make sure we're doing whatwe're supposed to be doing. So thank you. - All right, we have a first and a second. This will require a roll call vote. I would ask the Clerkto please call the roll. - Newmaster?- Aye. - Streiff Oji?- Aye. - Thompson?- Aye. - Arcand, aye. Beloyed?- Aye. - Daniels?- Aye. - Ellison?- Aye. And the motion passes. Thank you. Move into operational item E3, action on the Highway 61/8thStreet/Division Avenue Project. Mr. Wald. - Thank you, Chair Ellison,Members of the Board. A requirement for the permit for the high school expansion project was for the districtto do road improvements to Highway 61, 8th Street,and Division Avenue, to make the school more accessible for the larger number of individuals that will be accessing the building. So tonight we're askingthe board to approve the bids for the project. I want to tell you a littlebit about the project first, 'cause it's a little bit complicated. Highway 61, the projectwill add a stoplight at Highway 61 and 8thStreet, and it will create more queuing space fornorthbound vehicles. So right now as you go, there's a stoplight at 7th Street, and then you can move on to8th, there's not a stoplight, and there's really notmuch room to queue there. There will actually be pretty, it'll queue almost allthe way from 7th Street to 8th Street on that left hand turn lane. Okay. So that'll create more space there. There'll be improvements tothe railroad crossing skirt across 8th Street. There'll be improvements tosidewalks along that as well. There'll be crosswalks boththe north and south side of that, of Highway 61 and 8th Street. So if you're walking from down 8th Street to get to the other side of downtown, there'll be crosswalks on both sides. And I believe a refuge on the north side. At Highway 61, yeah, the refuge would be atHighway 61 and 7th Street. There's not currently a refuge. If you use the crosswalk on 7th Street, there's not a spot there. And to stop in the middle, if you got too courageousand then changed your mind, it will create a refuge there in the middle of Highway 61 on 7th. On 8th Street the road will be widened. Parking will be limited tothe south side of the street. Currently cars park onboth sides of that street. There'll be a sidewalk onthe south side of 8th Street that'll stretch from Highway 61 to Bloom. The parking on thatside will really create that barrier to that sidewalk, create a little saferbarrier, on 8th Street. And 8th Street and Divisionwill become a four-way stop. On Division Avenue we will be adding north and southbound turn lanesinto the school parking lot. So there'll be two entrances on Division, the north one, the north entrance will be for student drop off and pickup. The south entrance willbe for student parking. And there'll be turn lanescoming each direction. And there will be a crosswalk from the student drop offparking lot, across Division, that will lead to a sidewalk that'll run the length of the Centerfor the Arts property. So we've had conversationswith the Center for the Arts providing opportunitiesfor students to move from the high school toutilize that facility. So it's gonna be an excitingelement for our arts program. Also for the Center forthe Arts to have access to so many students and provideart education opportunities. So there'll be a crosswalkwith a refuge in the middle and then a sidewalk the north-south length of the Center for the Arts property, and then a sidewalk enteringinto their facility. So we will have easy access to walk students across tothe Center for the Arts. One thing I want to note is this agreement will be presented to theCity Council tomorrow night. And so we're asking youto approve it tonight with the understandingthat the City Council will approve it tomorrow night. And so bids won't be awarded unless both organizationshave approved it. Okay? So the bids are dividedinto two separate projects, the Highway 61 Project andthe 8th Street Division. There's multiple entities working on this. You have MnDOT, with Highway 61. There's two railroadorganizations we're working with, one who's the owner of therailroad, one who leases it. And then the City of White Bear Lake and the school district, sothere's a lot of organizations to get together to come to an agreement on how this project will work. But, the Highway 61 improvements, the low bidder was Forest Lake Contracting with a bid of $754,600. They did our intersectionup by North Star, and did it great, theywere great to work with. And then on 8th Street and Division Avenue is Miller Excavating at $845,307. So the total for the projects, $1,599,907. Compared to the high bids,that's quite a difference, which came in at 2,186,714. That might be listed incorrectly on the memo on the high bid. But compared to thesecond bid, is $1,669,300. So there's a difference of about $69,393 between the low first bidsand the low second bid. So the recommendation isthat the board authorize the Superintendent or theAssistant Superintendent for Finance and Operationsto accept the bids for Highway 61/8thStreet/Division Avenue Project as presented to Forest Lake Contracting in the amount of $754,600, and Miller Excavating Incorporated, in the amount of $845,307. Acceptance of the bidsby the Superintendent or the Assistant Superintendentfor Finance and Operations is contingent upon approval of the project by the White Bear Lake CityCouncil on April 9th, 2024. - You've heard the recommended action. Could I get a motion to approve? - So moved.- A motion by Dr. Arcand. And a second?- Second. - A second by Dr. Newmaster. Any further questions or discussion? Real quick clarification, Mr. Wald, this falls under bond referendum funding? - Yes.- Okay. - Yep.- Thank you. - [Tim] Thank you. - All right, any other questions? All right. This willrequire a roll call vote. I would ask the Clerkto please call the roll. - Newmaster?- Aye. - Streiff Oji?- Aye. - Thompson?- Aye. - Arcand, aye. Beloyed?- Aye. - Daniels?- Aye. - Ellison?- Aye. And the motion passes. Thank you. Operational item E4,action on the resolution proposing placement ofcontinuing contract teacher on unrequested leave of absence. Ms. Gustafson. - Thank you, Chair Ellison andMembers of the School Board. In order to meet the budgettargets that were approved by the school board in February of 2024, we seek approval of a resolutionplacing Elizabeth Kratzke on an unrequested leave of absence. - You've heard the recommended action. Could I get a motion to approve? - So moved. - A motion by Ms. Beloyed. And a second?- Second. - Second by Ms. Daniels. Any questions or comments? All right. Seeing none, this willrequire a roll call vote. I would ask the Clerkto please call the roll. - Newmaster?- Aye. - Streiff Oji?- Aye. - Thompson?- Aye. - Arcand, aye. Beloyed?- Aye. - Daniels?- Aye. - Ellison?- Aye. And the motion passes. We'll move into our next, next operational item, E5, action on Tentative Agreement 2023-25 with the Confidential Employee Group. Ms. Gustafson. - Thank you, again, Chair Ellison. We are here tonight to seek approval for terms and conditions for our Confidential Employee Group, a group of about five employees that includes human resources specialists, along with the executive assistant to the superintendent and school board. The proposed terms and conditions do fall within budget parameters, and so we do seek your approval of their 2023-25 terms andconditions of employment. - You've heard the recommended action. Could I get a motion to approve? - So moved.- A motion by Ms. Daniels. And a second?- Second. - A second by Ms. Streiff Oji. Any further questions or comments? This will require a roll call vote. I would ask the Clerkto please call the roll. - Newmaster?- Aye. - Streiff Oji?- Aye. - Thompson?- Aye. - Arcand, aye. Beloyed?- Aye. - Daniels?- Aye. - Ellison?- Aye. And the motion passes. Thank you. And we'll move into ourfinal operational item, E6. action on school board policies. This is a second reading, and we usually approvethese in one fell swoop. So we are looking foraction on board policies 609, 901, 903, 905, and 906. Could I get a motion to approve? - So moved.- A motion by Ms. Thompson. And a second?- Second. - Second by Ms. Daniels. Any questions or comments? All in favor of approval, please say aye? - [Members] Aye. - Opposed, same sign? And the motion passes. Move into our final itemon our agenda, board forum. Board forum is anopportunity for board members to share things that aregoing on around the district, things that they'reconnected with in their role as school board members. Does anybody have anythingto share for board forum? Ms. Streiff Oji? - I have a few things here. One was, I just wantto say that I attended, I know some of the otherboard members attended also, the Willow Lane ISIthat happened last week, which is an IntentionalSocial Interaction, inviting families infor a community dinner. And it was really excitingto see a packed gym and lots of families. And especially with the boundary changes, because there are quitea bit fewer students. And to see it just ascrowded was really exciting. And then tickets are on sale now for this year's middle school musical, "Disney's Descendants: The Musical". Performances will take place at 7:00 PM on April 25th and 26th, andat 2:00 PM on April 27th, at the District CenterCommunity Auditorium. Find ticket information in a news post on the district website at www.isd624.org. And then Sunrise/Sunset. The team at Sunrise Park MiddleSchool is pulling together a Sunrise/Sunset eventthat will take place from 6:00 to 8:00 PM on Thursday, May 2nd. The event will offer communitymembers the opportunity to visit Sunrise Park Middle School before the middle school moves to the current South Campus building and becomes MarinerMiddle School next fall. Sunrise Park will be convertedto a housed district offices, Early Childhood, TransitionEducation Center, and the Senior Center. Additional informationwill be shared soon, but mark your calendar for May 2nd today. - [Jessica] All right. Thank you. Anyone else? Ms. Daniels. - I just wanted to let the community know that there's a community market. If they haven't heard about it yet, it's over at Normandy Park right near the SeniorCenter and Early Childhood. And the community market is open to any neighbors in thecommunity that are food insecure. And there is no, you don'thave to fill out any paperwork. There aren't any restrictions to anyone. This is all food recoverythat we get from supermarkets, grocers, from all over the community. The people volunteer to go pick up and then it comes to the community market. And you can find the hours on the White Bear Lake Food Shelf website. And they welcome customers. And you just wait in yourcar until it's your turn. They take your phonenumber and they text you and say it's your turn and you come in and you can shop and take the food home. So I hope if you know of anyone or your families need extra food, that you'll take advantage of this. - Thank you. Anyone else for board forum? All right. With that I wouldask for a motion to adjourn. - Chair Ellison, I movefor an adjournment. - A motion by Dr. Arcand. - And a second?- Second. - A second by Ms. Daniels. All in favor ofadjournment, please say aye? - [Members] Aye. - Opposed same sign? And we are adjourned. (gavel taps)