Good evening. I would like to call to order this Anoka Henipin School Board work session for today, August 10, 2026. Our first order of business is to approve the board agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented? Thank you, Director Langenfeld. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> With a second from Director Arco. Any discussion? Hearing none. Will all those in favor say I? >> I. >> I. >> Any oppose say no. With four in favor and zero opposed, the agenda is approved. The next item on our agenda is the consent agenda. As normal, members can remove items for separate consideration and discussion if that's their desire. Is there a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented? >> So move. >> Thank you, Director Arco. Do we have a second? Thank you, co-chair Langenfeld. Uh, is there any discussion? Hearing none, will all those in favor say I? >> I. I. >> Any oppose say no. With four in favor and zero opposed, the consent agenda is approved. >> Our next agenda item um for the work session um will be a school safety and security update. Welcome Jeff Thompson, chief operations officer, Tim Fornier with security and emergency operations manager, and Ben Martinson, director of buildings and grounds. Good evening, Chair Hman and uh Superintendent Cole and members of the school board. Um as identified, I'm Jeff Thompson, chief operational officer for the Inocanopan School District. Joined this evening with Tim Fornier, the manager of our security and emergencies response operations, and Ben Martinson, director of our buildings and grounds. We would like to talk to you about some of the work we've been doing as a system um as it applies to safety and security. um to walk through uh the presentation. Um looking at uh the work that we concluded at the end of the school year and over the summer, we've done a couple different uh things to enhance our safety and security. Uh some that we're able to discuss and then some that we're not able to due to the structural integrity of our systems and our practices. Uh some of the things that we would like to share is we've continued our investment with our secured entrances. um adding more cameras to our vestibules and then tying those into um standardized systems that uh we have increased both our access um with our system and then mobile access as well. Uh we've done some strategic security investments in things like um our uh mobile security cameras. Uh that is something that we invested in to tie into our current security system um through Genitech to be able to monitor um high traffic events such as big football games um parades tied to um homecoming and then unique individual things like uh construction sites that have uh shown a high level of vandalism and or theft and have piloted in a few things starting with the Andover family funfest and saw some some great um responses and feedback. Um some additional things that we did um were adding some um some different cameras throughout our buildings in order to again alleviate spots that we saw as high concern areas um to increase again that safety and security. Uh that is as uh noted in the slide deck uh that is one of the continued updates and investments that we as a district are committed to making sure that our spaces and our um experiences are safe. Another thing that uh we continue to do is strengthen and work with our collaborations with law enforcement. Um, a little bit later in the presentation, Tim Ferner will talk about some of those experiences, but uh, just reiterating that these are daily communications, daily interactions, and that, uh, we're able to see, um, really good results from things that are popping up throughout the metro, trends that are of concern for us as a district, and then, uh, allowing that to be an opportunity to be proactive in certain areas. Um, another thing that we're doing is partnering up with our law enforcement to allow trainings in our sites so that in the event um of an experience, they are up to date in both our spaces and how to interact with our staff in those spaces. And that includes working on um national standards on relocation andor uh reunification processes. uh some of the combination of these factors that lead and we believe to effective safety and security measures is that it creates a strong um sense of pride and commitment with both of our community and our buildings. Uh some one of examples is um last year there was an event that happened um and kids on the bus um actually emailed administrators before they even got to school and those administrators were able to meet that student coming off the bus and that was done because of that strong commitment and that climate that we have worked very hard as a system to um improve uh things like open lines of communication um emphasizing the culture of learning and the expectations within our case and then with that that awareness and vigilance with the see it say it um continue to see great results from that. Um again connecting to these our strategic investments that you guys support every year and that we're able to do really great things with it. Uh some other points with the effective security and safety measures. Um continuing in our crisis management system, making sure that we have effective training, um effective planning, and again these things change as events present themselves and national standards and recommend recommendations change. Um also adding the partnership with law enforcement in this topic. Um and the vulnerability and reunification um assessments that we look as a system. Some other additional things that we add to improve our safety and security is how we deal with our students and our communities um individually as humans. And so that's where we look at the support that we offer our students and our families, the partnerships that we have with mental health um working again with our emergency management training um creating positive spaces um and then working through some of those incident response. uh these are a incident by incident situation with a lot of reflection and a lot of assessment and multiple groups within our system and our teams are collaborating to do that. And so an example of that would be an incident that happens in a school and then the debrief time that goes after that with the multiple stakeholders involving people like myself and Ben and Tim and other people in our system to then get outside agency to then look for u vulnerabilities and enhance and improve Uh we are on the tail end as I said of our technological improvements um including one of our most recent threats uh cyber security um vulnerabilities. And so Genitech was an intentional design that uh realines our safety and security, our cyber security to make sure that our closed systems remain closed and that we're doing multiple factor um verifications to make sure that our systems stay safe and locked down. And so that Genitech is one of our new monitoring systems. Um but that goes along with other things um within our our process as people are entering our building to make sure that we are keeping them safe and secure. Um, one of the cool things that is happening, um, is the mobile accessibility with it. So, Genitech allows us remote access, um, which again, when we get into a crisis situation, remote access of our, um, video surveillance allows multiple ways to be successful in that response. And as, uh, stated earlier, this is a commitment to continue to improve both our reaction and our response and make sure that we are always having a safe and secure experience for our communities and our students and our staff. um reiterating this through our constant drills. Uh we monitor that through our crisis response system uh following the state mandates of both um crisis uh fire and um tornado drills and then adding a new element this year with our cardiac response. And so, um, Kathy Schultz is working with our school leaders, um, to create an LMS learning process, um, that each, our individual has the opportunity to learn about cardiac response, utilizing our AEDs and other things to, um, create again a safe and secure experience. And then lastly, our district incident response team, which is is that collaborative effort of groups working together to create the best result for our schools. Good evening. Um, I'll talk a little bit about some of our law enforcement partnerships. Um, as many of you know, most of you know, we do have a very robust school resource officer program. Uh, we have 12 school resource officers throughout our district, mostly in our high schools and middle schools. Uh, nine law enforcement agencies are represented uh, in our district. It's quite quite large. Um, we have u a lot of meetings. uh Superintendent Cole and I uh before he became the superintendent would attend very regular meetings with the police chiefs and the sheriff um and uh have a real good exchange of information. Uh it's a good two-way street we have going with our law enforcement uh partners and we really respect that. Um I have regular meetings with our SRO's uh as well as other ana henipin staff with our SRO. One big advantage uh to having the SRO program and having the relationships we have is the 24-hour communication. Um uh I do get woke up at night at times and that that it's a two-way street. Um and uh I really respect that because we can get on top of things as they happen. Um our our student body is very aware and very keen on social media and when they see something they don't like, they say something and we encourage that. We don't care what time it is. Uh so it gives us that chance to start that collaboration with law enforcement early when we need to to to put these fires out. So that 24-hour communication is is really uh an integral part in our success and how we handle things. Interd district-wise um we collaborate uh with other districts. I'm actually meeting tomorrow in Edina at the Edina school district building with uh many people in my position throughout the metro just to touch base and and uh collaborate. So, uh, we're involved in that kind of, uh, partnerships as well. Uh, and the law enforcement, um, community also helps us provide event security. We've all been to these, uh, these large events in our district, games, and, uh, a lot of fun events, but it's nice to see that collaboration with us. So, uh, coming from my background, I really respect the relationships we have with our law enforcement. >> Uh, Director Duchain, >> thank you. Uh just before we move past this slide, I just wanted to note that in our consent agenda today, we passed uh or approved uh some of our SRO contracts and I think there was a slight change where before we maybe had SRO contracts for just one year and every year we were sort of revising or or coming back to that agreement and through your discussions if you could talk a little bit about what you learned through discussions with the various agencies that we have those with and why we've extended those to three-year contracts in some cases. >> Sure. Thank you, Director Duchain, that excellent point. Um, so, uh, traditionally law enforcement contracts in this district have been yearly and we renegotiate those based on, uh, economic factors and availability and there's a lot that goes into it u because law enforcement salaries change just like everybody else's salaries change. Uh but that every year renewal um it gets tricky because it you seem to always be in a rush to make sure that we have the services and law enforcement likes to plan ahead. Uh when I was chief of police, I like to plan ahead two, three, five years. And so we found that by planning ahead longer, it makes it easier for both the agency and and the school district to budget for the cost that's incurred to have the SRO program. Uh, and uh, we've had this program for four decades in this district. It goes back a long way and it's really important to us and the chiefs um, respect the fact that we're able to reach the agreement and have a three-year contract. So, this is the first year we're having a multi-year contract, which is uh, makes it a lot easier for both us and the police departments to plan resources because resources may need to change. Thanks for bringing it up. >> Uh, another key component of our safe and secure schools um is our community um and making sure that we have a strong partnership with our community and uh working with our community to create systems that are best um for their work. And so creating multiple reporting options, tip lines, um working with our families through our e-news and a variety of modalities to make sure that they know how to report things. Um and I'm happy to report that those processes and systems are working. Many of our school leaders get emails seven days a week um at all hours of the night bringing these things to our attention and we are effectively able to respond and interact in order to ensure our safe and welcoming schools. Um, so things like our school and district communications, our community presentations, podcasts that we release, um, as well as always looking for opportunities for feedback, um, help us strengthen and create those those good experiences. On the communications side, uh, Jim Skellyy and his team, oh, next slide. There we go. Uh on the communications side, Jim Skelly and his team uh have worked tirelessly to create again a variety of modalities to create um a good interactive experience with our students, our staff and our community. And so our our tech systems um extending things like reach my teach and working with things to create um uh solve obstacles and barriers. Um social media constantly allows us a way to um deliver information in a in a very vast way. uh our collaborations with our law enforcement, again, our city planners, um etc. Uh and then just making sure that our as a system we're aligned in our messaging and that we're creating efficient and accurate processes and then um creating systems to verify and make sure that information is accurate and reliable. And then um you know just being vigilant with this work um always always looking at it, reflecting on it and assessing it. uh to make sure that we never take this out of our priority, that we always have an awareness and decisions that we make and that we are analyzing those uh extensively. And so where something might happen at one building, we use that as a teaching tool to spread it to the rest of our teams. Um using things like our principal playbook and other things to create standardized communications um and allowing those systems to interact more efficiently. Um and then um you know just being innovative and creative. And so um again some of the collaborative work that um our assistant superintendents do with our building leaders that then diffuse down into the buildings again have created really good solutions um and trying to look at ways to solve that inhouse and not always have to rely on things outside of our system. So and then lastly always being open and aware of the other viewpoints that get brought into this um and how that impacts a system. So uh the last part of this presentation um I wanted to go through some scenarios so that you can kind of see a little bit about the work that we do with some real um examples to reinforce that. Thanks Steph. Uh good evening. Scenario [clears throat] one we're going to talk about weather and be in Minnesota we typically think about snow. So that's our driving factor that really impacts what we do every day, right? So when we're looking at that, we have a subscription to um weather watch, which is uh pushes out, you know, real-time weather updates every three hours on the day. And then we also are uh subscribed to National Weather Service that does board packets and they put presentations when we have a a cluster of storm or a polar vortex, stuff like that. And then any me, Jeff, even uh Superintendent Cole will sometimes jump on those if uh time allows and they record them and push them out afterwards. You can watch them on real time if you need to. just tell you the state of the state and what they're thinking of real time impacts to our area so we can kind of really drill into what does this mean for us. Um then we'll assemble. We'll typically talk about okay does this mean an early release? Uh do we call it now? Do we wait and see what we actually get because we've all been bamboozled by that a little bit before? You know they say we're getting a foot and we get an inch and you know some people mad at us and we just can't win either way, right? So we just try to do the uh best case uh with the information we're given at the time and that that's when we again talk about that planning and just you know what does that look like for an early release modified if we're closing and just push out the communication both to our employees so they can plan accordingly and obviously our our students and community so they can make you know the appropriate panel as well. Um kind of antithetical to that, this year we had um wildfires, you know, and we had that also in a heat advisory where we, you know, kind of shut down um air handlers. We weren't bringing as much air in outside air, fresh air just because it was just it was hurting people and stuff like that. People were having to go home getting headaches, stuff like that. Um we also canceled afternoon activities and stuff of that nature just because it wasn't safe to be outside. You know, the air quality was horrible. Um one thing we found out about that is our filters, while doing a great job got really dirty really quickly. We had to, you know, have our billing supervisors go through, check those and do a quick, you know, change out, you know, that was un unscheduled, but it is what it is. You know, it just shows that we work they're doing what they're supposed to do. Um, I mean, that's kind of what we're doing for weather. Scenario two is utility based, you know, and for this, you know, I'm at I talk to my utility reps, you know, weekly, if not monthly. Um, we're talking about anything from uh rebates and just energy management solutions, um, stuff like that. Uh but we're also talking about what happens when we have an outage. You know, um power outages, well infrequent, they do happen. Um and you know, they typically last two hours, but in those two hours, we have to really coordinate. Okay, what if it lasts longer? Do we have to start mobilizing for freezers coolers so we don't food, spoil that? When does it happen? Is it during the day? Uh Superintendent Cole went on site to Hoover last year when we had uh one during the day. I think that one lasted literally 1 hour and 59 minutes. So, we were really scratching towards the end there. you know, people, you know, are kind of working what they have because you're in dark hallways. You know, it's if it's, you know, typically it's inclement weather, too. So, you have overcast clouds, you're not getting a lot of sunlight. So, it's just challenging to work in a building with all the students and everybody's running around with flashlights and hold up their phones with a little torch light and just kind of guiding the way and making sure that happens. Um, another thing that we had is we had a or a water break main outside of Wilson this year, you know, and and that was right in the middle of the day. It was right like 10:00 a.m. So, it's like, okay, can we serve lunch? No. Well, we figured that out. Okay, we we had to work with the city because it was out in the throwfare. So, it's like, okay, is that our problem or their problem? Of course, it was ours. So, we had to pay for it. But they came mobilized with their utility team. They dug up the street. That outage was only 90 minutes. That's incredible. You know, I mean, in that time we were talking about, okay, what's this look like from, you know, potting um washing of hands, you know, because we don't have water for the 90 minutes. So, we said, okay, you can use toilets, but you know, you just can't flush them, which, you know, it's a problem, but we were able to work through it. uh the team supplies hand sanitizer to the kids kind of keep them you know somewhat you know disinfected and clean and we got through it but we're always looking through opportunities and areas in which to improve our our practice and how we just respond to those things and again I'm working very closely with Jeff and Superintendent Cole for me and Mr. Skellyy as far as okay what do we have to tell our people is this are we have to dismiss this school how fast we're going either I'm on site or my team members on site I'm dialing them up you know and they're talking to the guy in the hole you know it's just we're just really doing that daisy chain of information to make sure okay we have up to date you know is this is it going to hold do we have the parts is once we fix the valve okay is that going to hold and can we get back online do we have to flush things we just go through all the all the you know operational guidelines and just make sure we check all the boxes to make sure we're up and function and just back on online and we do that very fast, very seamlessly and then with very little hiccups. So yeah, it's kind of those two scenarios. >> Okay, I'll touch on another scenario that does come up from time to time with the large service area that we provide and that is law enforcement events that occur in our area. Whether they occur near a site, whether they occur near a bus stop or where kids need to walk to school or anytime during the school day, law enforcement events, they could happen. And sometimes these things happen fast and we don't get the notification we would like in any ideal situation. Uh and other times we do we are notified that there's something going on. And either way we assemble our team. We have that district team and then we have site teams and we just decide based on the information we have if there's a danger to our students and staff uh that we take appropriate action. uh if that means that we might have uh an event that would occur that would uh that would affect busing or kids walking to school, we take the appropriate action. The point is that we work with our partnerships with law enforcement and we have our teams that that activate to try to mitigate a lot of these things. A lot of them are taken care of before we would even take any action. Um but we have to be prepared for something that might go on longer. And it could be something as serious as an event that affected one of our communities last year where we had to pretty much uh shut down busing and kids walking to school for a few hours. Multiple law enforcement agencies responded to that event. Or it could be something uh a little less um uh serious. I would say last week we had a bus uh that had a little bit of an in trouble and started smoking on 169 bringing some of our kids back. And so they had to pull the bus over, make sure all the kids got off in case the bus caught on fire. But our transportation team kind of reacted to that, got more busing for the kids, picked them up uh to bring them to their destination. So law enforcement related, fire related, student related, all that communication and logistics um works together to make these things uh you know, try to get this worked out as best we can. And of course, our communication team, uh, whenever we have an event, a law enforcement event that we're not in control of, but we have to react to and we have to deal with, it's so important for the communication to be, uh, precise and to be informative for parents and students and staff. And um I'll take my hat off to Jim Skelly and his team again for providing that level of communication because every every uh person represented perhaps needs a different form of communication. Um and so we need to make sure we're doing it accurately and in in a timely manner. Um and they're really good at that. So um I think we all work together and I'm happy to be part of that team. And uh in closing um I I want to um be able to proudly say that um I have been witness to or um part of this process for years and I cannot tell you how amazing it is to see people like BJ and his team, Noah Atlas and his team, Tim Fornier, Ben Martinson, Jim Skellyy, their efficiency, their collaboration, and how it's just seamless. Um, not saying that it's perfect because there is, as I said, always work to be done. Um, but these examples are just but a few of the stuff that happens every day. So, thank you for your time. Do you have any questions? >> Thank you, board members. Are there any questions? Cochair Langfeld. >> First of all, thank you for your presentation. I [clears throat] think we'd all agree the safety and well-being of our students and staff is our top priority um each and every day. and as you explained 247 right so I appreciate all of you and all the work in the presentation tonight as I think about the conversation that we've had tonight and one of the things that just you just touched on is the importance of accurate information and I think that sometimes that requires patience um and in the social media world there's a lot of things as a parent and a community member and a grandparent now that I may can't get it get it from the school district as quickly as I might like >> but I can always rely on the fact that it's accurate and I think that's very important. So if there is a delay would it be accurate to say that that it's because we don't have all the information and you're waiting to get accurate information or how would you explain that? about um coach Langfeld, that's a great observation because um it's dependent on a few things and some of that is out of our control. Uh if it's a law enforcement event, uh we have to work with our law enforcement partners before we message anything out because we don't want to interfere with anything that might be ongoing or jump the the fence on that a little bit. So, it's a kind of a fine line um relationship between uh getting something out. Of course, social media is social media and uh you will never beat social media and most of the time social media isn't completely accurate. Uh police clips and other sites where people can hear, you know, police radio uh traffic in real time. Uh we'll hear things before we would have a chance to process them for communicating out. So we try to make sure that our communications once they're delivered are accurate. Um, and that takes patience and that takes the that partnership with law enforcement and and then deciding on the messaging that um that what's the goal of the messaging. Uh, and that's important, too. So, there's a lot of factors that go into the messaging. I know there's a frustration that, hey, I heard this be it took the school district two hours longer to get this information. Well, we want to make sure it's accurate because we're the we're the arbiter of that information once it goes out. So, just as a followup and it's it's somewhat related is the importance of communication um and the importance of families making sure their student information is accurate. I think that there's always that the messages go out and if a phone number is changed or there are additional people that should be notified. So, where would the parent or community member, grandparent, whoever is appropriate for that student or staff member, um, where would they make sure those things are updated as we begin a new school year? >> Yeah, that's the that's the daily work that happens in our schools with our synergy system. And so, um, a lot of schools, um, send out monthly reminders, um, just as part of their their standard e newsws response of, you know, some simple things like, you know, if your address changed or your number has changed, um please make sure that you are correcting that. Uh and then there's some things that are that happen incidentally because of that. So when we send out mailers and we notice that uh something gets returned and it says wrong address, we're connecting with those families, making sure that information is correct. Um also making sure that guardian information is correct, that emergency contact information is correct. And so a grandparent might be reaching out to try to get some information about a student. And if they're not um allowed to have educational rights um or communication rights, then working with the family, here's what the data form looks like. Um let's help you get what your family needs as a system um so that we can effectively do those things. >> Thank you. I appreciate that because I think it's just vitally important when parents want to get a hold of their children or in a crisis situation if you would have to >> go off site. Um vitally important. So, thank you for all you do, >> director. >> Thank you, Coacher Hookman. Um, so thank you guys for the presentation as always. I love these updates every year and I think as a whole, just everything you always present on and particularly tonight. You demonstrate that the district does overall, I think, an amazing job just with we have the right leadership, the right people in the right places, good relationship with relationships with law enforcement, a culture of see something, say something, just um infrastructure, every like good relationships with SRS, everything that um is just indicative of a well functioning system to keep students and staff safe. And so I think that's always it's just great to hear it. and I I I would be I would suspect it would be hard to beat what Anoka Henipin has in place in any other district. So, always appreciate the updates. Um, all that said, I want to throw out just something something for thought. I've mentioned this at um other times, other places, but if there was an Achilles heel to sort of the security system we have, it would be in well actually I want to director Simon's not here, but he's used this phrase before and I've been thinking a lot about this because it's a it's a great idea and I I back the idea completely, but he says um we need to serve our students better and if there are students that are struggling, we need to find a way to serve them better. And completely agree with that sentiment. Um, but I've kind of been wrestling with it. It's dawned on me that there's a kind of another side to that coin, which is that if students or really anybody, but in our case, students, if students don't want to be served, then no matter how how hard we try to serve them, we probably can't compensate for an unwillingness to be served. And so the reason I bring this up just to again use the example is all of these things that we have in place that do an amazing job and I'm only going to reference publicly available information. Nothing that like only a board member would be privy to or anything. Um but there are two events in the last year that the news covered where a firearm unfortunately was found in a high school and thank the Lord nothing bad happened. Thank the Lord you know the right precautions everything were taken to deal with the situation. But that would be it because it would be horribly tragic if something were to have happened. But in my mind, the the Achilles heel I'm getting at is for situations like that, no matter how perfect the systems we have in place are, if we don't have accountability and consequences for students that otherwise have indicated to us that despite our best efforts to serve them, they don't want to be served for whatever reason. I'm not here to judge what that reason may or may not be. Um it it that I think in my mind that's what leads to situations like this where we've been kind of given warnings that we simply chose not to act on and then eventually we wind up in these situations where we can have all the best infrastructure in place but unfortunately if it's our own student doing something like this like there's not a whole lot we can do to stop it unless we had stopped it preemptively based upon just our understanding of the student population. So if there was an Achilles heel to all of this, I would say it is we need to shift back almost to I if there's like a pendulum that tends to swing to one of two extremes, we need to shift the pendulum a little bit back to the direction of having consequences and accountability for students when they do bad things that are little before those bad things become big bad things. Because I I mean, if you think about it from just a growing up standpoint, it it might sound unkind to hold students accountable for little actions, but it is precisely when people are young and their kids that they can make dumb choices and not pay serious consequences for them. And they they have the opportunity to learn from those failures and to become better people as a result of paying the consequences. Not simply doing out consequences for consequence sake, but so that they can grow in their character. Because if you take those same people and they never paid any price for failures they have and then they become adults and they engage in the same behaviors, well then eventually they they wind up in prison. So we're not doing them any kind of any kind of service by not holding students accountable for their actions in this way. And so I personally think if I'm just going to rag on my own generation for a minute, we were kind of the um the participation ribbon generation unfortunately where a lot more emphasis with the millennials that is a lot more emphasis was placed on simply trying and not just you know improving or doing or accepting that hey you tried but you did fail. So if you want to succeed next time you know what are you going to do to get there? Essentially give that drive let that growth of character take place. And so now that we're in the the realm of the participation driven generation is now they're the ones with the kids in public school. I think it's just the next iteration of that way of thinking. So I think we need to swing the pendulum back to just having basic common sense consequences and accountability in place for little behaviors before they turn into big behaviors like unfortunately bringing firearms to school. Because as perfect as these systems are, it it they can't catch something like that. It would have to be our own discretion with our own students that would have to catch something like that in advance. So, but otherwise everything presented is amazing. Like I said, I think we have the best security system bar none probably in the state. So, thank you guys very much. >> Okay, seeing no other comments. Oh, go ahead, director. Uh, Superintendent Cole, >> thank you. Just a couple comments. First of all, thank you. um you know a few reminders just to folks that we have uh 47 different school and program sites where we have children in them. So uh and and nine different law enforcement agencies and so when these things happen um the protocols and procedures that are in place are are impressive and the communication is really important that we coordinate um all the time. uh city manager meetings and police chief meetings that we hold um are are another uh important uh venue for us to ensure that we're continually talking with our partners in the in the community to make sure that um we we have constant awareness. Um and that commitment to continuous improvement is built into that. I bring all that up uh just to kind of piggyback on on Director Arco's uh comments. I would say that um as just from my own experience in working with student discipline for 13 years for this school district, I would say we would uh bring the same mentality with regard to continuous improvement and continuing to try to find ways to be better um to serve our schools and students better and uh de develop more effective systems for dealing with um the changing times. uh things things change over time and it's our job to to continue to be able to respond to that as best we possibly can given uh information that's out there in the world with regard to how we can support our students, how we can ensure that uh we're clear uh with regard to our expectations, but also clear with regard to how we teach our students. Um can't just always assume that they're going to know how to behave. They show it show us that in a variety of different ways and so it's our obligation to to make sure they know that from us as well. So, we'll continue that same type of structure uh from a student behavior standpoint. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you so very much. >> Our next agenda item is the enrollment center update. Welcome again Jeff Thompson, chief operations officer, and Michelle Vandento, director of enrollment and information systems. Good evening, co-chair Hookman, uh, Superintendent Cole, and members of the school board. My name is Jeff Thompson. I'm the CEO, CC G, COO, sorry, let's try that again, of the noipin school district. Um, as you are aware, um, part of our phase three budget reduction, um, involved looking and analyzing our lease sites to see what financial strategic options we could do to create, uh, better financial, uh, impact of the district. One of those was our family welcome center, a space that we leased that at a minimum was costing taxpayers 350 $350,000 um, dollars a year um, in rental costs. that did not include uh some of the other incidental costs that happened with our air handling um just general security and other facility needs. Uh with that deep analysis of that reduction uh came the creation of the enrollment center that is located at uh the educational service center. Um tonight I would like to introduce Michelle Vanent uh who is going to talk about her tireless work to take this concept and bring it into reality. Good evening, members of the board and Superintendent Cole. Super excited to be here tonight to talk about our enrollment center which is open for our public and our families, community members. Um we occupied the space uh in early July and we have eight staff members that are in that space every day. Um we can access that space going to the ESC um entering through door one. And if you haven't already seen it, I welcome you in. Um, we are very excited. Next slide, please. We are very excited to offer a comprehensive experience for all of our families at this location. Um, in the past, our families have been able to be supported by our sites, 47 sites, as well as our family welcome center. But now, partnering with all of our services that we offer at the ESC and our family welcome center staff, we are housed at the ESC. Um, As we transitioned from our school sites taking on all enrollment to our enrollment center, it is still a work in progress. We partner with our sites on many things and we understand our families are going to build those relationships at the sites but at the enrollment center we're able to offer a very comprehensive experience and very tight in terms of the documentation we are gathering from the families to ensure a standardized process for all students and families enrolling. Um, so we have our special education team that is partnering with us, our English language team, which is our family welcome center staff, our community education team that's partnering, as well as um all our early learning programs and our McKini Vento services. Um, I just want to provide kind of a a picture of what what it looks like when a family comes to our enrollment center. they can come whether they have a an appointment with us or just a walk-in. And when they come, they are able to get help with online registration. Um we stepped into a parent activation project last summer where we've empowered parents to assign their own username and password. That's really empowered parents to be in control of that, but we are able to help them navigate that online platform. um some families don't have access to the computer that they may need or their handheld device is not meeting their needs. So we're also able to offer that to them along with transl translation services um and kind of a comprehensive experience overall. So when the family enters door one, they are in a secure space once they enter into the enrollment center and we do a short intake process to determine what wraparound services we can provide for them. And then we're able to push into a a very quiet room where we are able to onboard the family with many different conversations happening as well as partners pushing into the space to help families. Um like I said, it's a work in progress, but we continue to review and have that continuous improvement in front of us so that we're always looking at ways to improve. Um, you'll notice on this slide, we also partner with our child nutrition department to make sure we're gathering any free and uh reduced meals and having that application out in front of families. Um, we've done some screening of early learners in the space. Um, so really just like I said, a comprehensive experience for our families. Um, we are excited to celebrate this space with two open house nights for our families. The first one is going to be on August 26th and then the second one is going to be September 3rd. The idea behind these openhouse nights is it's an opportunity for families to come outside of those working hours. Um we want to offer them backpacks and school supplies. We want to offer them a bus ride if they're interested. And we also want to offer them that opportunity to get additional support with the online registration process. September 3d is a very intentional date for us because September one and two, our school sites will have their openhouse nights. And so we're hoping that September 3rd is that last opportunity where a family might not have all their documents in and we can we can catch them at that night so that they can get started on that first day of school. The other offering that we um are going to have is uh a ribbon cutting ceremony. And I'm hopeful that you all are able to make that ribbon cutting ceremony. Um that's going to be the evening of August 24th before the board meeting. So on our front door by door 1 as you enter the space we have posted our business hours which is 8 to 4 and then our enrollment window which is 8 to three. Like I said we encourage families to just walk in but we also have appointments for them. We want to make sure that we're meeting all the needs of all of our enrolling families. So appointments can be made by calling our phone number which is listed there as 7635061030 and then we also have an email where families can make appointments. Um it is very much um being advertised on social media at this time and we did see um today um definitely a reflection of families reading and and knowing that we're open and and very much walking in today for service. Um we are in the process of working with two departments, our print shop as well as our communications department to brand the space. If you do enter the space today or even tomorrow, you would not see this branding quite yet. But the idea here is that it's going to be a safe and welcoming environment. It's going to have a noa henipin um different like our mission, our vision, um colors um to represent our different high schools. And then you can see there's additional branding as well as digital signage that will be coming to our waiting room area of the space. Um, the hopes with the digital signage is really to have less paper and more um, kind of that scrolling of marketing or different events, an opportunity for a family to use a handheld device and scan a QR code to gather those those resources right on their phone. And then we're open for questions and discussion. Board members, are there any questions? Coach Langanger, >> very excited about this with you. It has been a long time coming. So, I know that people have worked very hard on it. So, thank you for that. As you think about um the families, I I was thinking about the staff members. Did they come from other buildings then? So, they've been in similar positions working with families and Okay. I just >> So, um three I I'll share. There's eight members in the space right now. we continue to adjust. So, as we get busier, I'm great um basically asking additional staff members from my department to step in. They're all enrollment specialists. So, what that means is we have been behind the scenes for many years providing support for our sites um on the online registration process. So, three of the members are our ESL specialists from our welcome center and then the other five members are from the team information services. Um, so we are experts with the online registration as well as working with families and and the enrollment options process. >> Thank you for that. Do just one more followup. As we think about um making sure we're serving our families well, are what is the plan to evaluate the effectiveness of this investment? >> Thank you for that. So um as I've mentioned, we have a lot of partners across the district helping with this. Um, with that partnership, we're continuing to ask, you know, what's going well, what's not going well. So, our community ed department is also doing feedback on families on what went well. Um, were your needs met? We'll do surveys and kind of exit surveys with families. Um, we're also using an ondemand interpretation service through Reach My Teach. So, we'll want feedback on that on how that's working. Um but we'll continue to ask families to complete a process where they can give us some feedback on what might improve. Um as as we think about the staff who are implementing these and the change in our schools, I would be interested in understanding if there's if there's any how of a staff for example at at a at a high school or you know this what what impact it's having on their their workload as well and if that's been a very important um cost savings for them or what they're seeing. I'm just curious as as you look forward. That would be something I'd like to know, too. >> Yes. Um, we will be meeting with our data management secretaries and our school office supervisors on the 18th of this month. That will give us our first kind of toe in the water to determine how is it going. We have ongoing weekly communication with them, but it's really important that it's smooth. Um what we're ideally hoping to accomplish with the enrollment center is less of that um fragmented conversation a family would get because they're enrolling in three sites and more of a comprehensive experience and then a smooth onboarding at the three sites. >> That's wonderful. It sounds like you've thought of everything. So thank you. And >> and that was a point that I wanted to reiterate as well with this wraparound kind of service is that um there's such uh decrease in fracturing of information. And so I don't know how you would measure that. You know, I I can say the observable things are, you know, just the last couple weeks I've seen um people from the enrollment area come out and push to questions, community ed asking things about that, asking questions on how to register an activity, how to navigate sites, things like that. And it's all able to happen at the same time. And so really not letting that family go to all of those things have been exhausted and leaving a much different experience. >> Sounds great. Thank you. Looking forward to updates in the future and visiting you as well for the riffman county. >> Director Duchaine, >> thank you. Thank you for this information. Uh, two questions I think. The first one, you had mentioned the September 3rd strategic openhouse to try to pull families that have been at their site, their local school's open house. Uh, has there been a communication plan or like a specific QR code developed so that families at their local elementary, middle, or high school can be connected immediately with the opportunity to come the following night uh should they need that? >> Yes, we have business cards being printed and they will be handed out at the open house nights. >> Oh, that's that's great. Um, and kind of paired with that, and not perfectly related to this, but I think it's a similar um thing that your team may be helping people address, uh, we have the new parent view and student view apps that, uh, families need to be downloading. So, if you haven't downloaded your app, please do that. Um, are we sharing that information or making it easy like kind of partnering those two things together if they're at the enrollment center? Also, here are the apps you should have on your phone to continue your journey of information with the district. >> 100%. Yes. So, we just recently engaged with a refresher training for all of our sites so that our school site staff also can help families navigate that new app and that parent activation account. We also have our back to school annual verification open for all families that are re um kind of refreshing and updating their information for the school year. And so, this is an opportunity to say all those things at our open house nights as well as when they come into the enrollment center. Our goal when a family is new to Anoka Henipin Schools is that they don't leave our enrollment center without that app downloaded and they're familiar with the things they can do on it because it's very comprehensive as well from submitting attendance to paying their lunch um to paying for activities. It's it's all within the app. >> Well, thank you for thinking about that and thank you for sharing it so that everyone can be made aware. I appreciate it. >> Director Thank you, Coach Hulkman. Um, you had mentioned at the beginning of the presentation that it was well, it's listed that we're saving $350,000 annually from just like the cost of leasing that one family mall. And now it's I believe the number is the total number including like upkeep cost that we're saving is closer to 700,000. Is that correct? Per year. I can jump in from my previous role. One of the concerns we had was the the facility that we were leasing. Uh we were facing anywhere between $700,000 to a million dollars in potential mechanical costs that we were going to have to pay. And so we saw an opportunity with the lease expiring [clears throat] and uh probably a 20-year plus uh desire to have a centralized enrollment center that was a better service to to basically provide a better service at a lower cost. and and exit that lease facility. So, it wasn't just the annual lease, it was also the mechanical costs that we were facing in the future. >> Awesome. Thank you. Well, that's good to know. We're saving all that money. Um, and yeah, just thank you guys for the presentation. I love to see just what you've done here and the excitement around it. So, thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Before Oh, go ahead. I just want to make one more shameless plug to uh again invite you all to the ribbon cutting um and to also see the space and also one more time to thank Michelle and her absolute vision and tireless work in the last couple months on all of the other exceptional things she does. This was a a big ask, but she has been amazing. Um and you'll see that when you come see the space. >> Perfect. and to that um just want to thank you for the work on this and um that continued um connection that we see between the operations um that is kind of the behind the scenes doesn't always um connect immediately to what our student experience is but is of course foundational to what's happening whether it's the safety element that we saw in the previous um discussion or what's happening here and how that connects to um everyday experiences. So keep doing the great work that you're doing and also keep thinking too as you look forward, you know, okay, what's the next step because this information now will be delivered to the schools where the schools are going to work hard to meet the needs of those kids and um sometimes when they're entering the school system at the non-traditional times and how we can make that as smooth as possible to get the students well placed um for success. So thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Our next agenda item is permanent school fund constitutional amendment overview. Welcome, Superintendent Cole. >> Thank you, co-chair Hopman, and members of the school board. Uh the this evening, I'd like to uh share with you just some information about a constitutional amendment um that is happening in Minnesota. Uh Minnesota legislature approved a ballot question for the November 3rd, 2026 election for a constitutional amendment to adjust the funding formula used for the permanent school fund. I'm going to talk a little bit more about that fund. Uh the Minnesota's permanent school fund, also known as PSF, is one of the oldest sources of funding for public education in Minnesota. Constitutionally established in 1858 uh when public lands were set aside specifically to support public education. Minnesota's permanent school fund is built upon uh proceeds from public lands acting as a permanent endowment. Over 2.5 million total acres plus 1 million acres used for min mineral rights generate revenue for the fund through timber sales, mining activity, land leases, and other natural resource activities. The fund's assets are invested by the state board of investment and managed to support both current and future generations of Minnesota students. In January 2026, a task force presented recommendations to the Minnesota legislature which led to passing in a bipartisan fashion a ballot question for Minnesota voters to amend the Minnesota Constitution to update how the fund is distributed. If approved, the amendment does not raise taxes and would increase education funding for all school districts. Anoka Henipin estimates a $1 million annual revenue increase if this is approved. If not approved by voters, the existing fund would remain as is. Of note, uh should voters bypass the constitutional amendment on the November ballot or not vote at all for it, that would be considered a no vote if they vote anywhere else on their ballot. Anoka Henipin's communication efforts regarding the constitutional amendment are to ensure an informed citizenry. State law does not allow the school district to advocate for or against the passage of a ballot question. Um so at this time uh what we would like to do is uh show you aformational video uh >> if you sit more than six hours a day you >> with regard to just some basic information and facts with regard to this proposed amendment need this cushion. I bought this ergonomic memory foam seat cushion thinking it would just add a little com Did you know that every Minnesota public school student is part of [music] a public school trust? More than 168 years ago, when Minnesota became a state, lands were set aside to create a permanent trust dedicated to [music] one purpose, supporting public education for generations of Minnesota students. Today, that promise continues [music] through Minnesota's permanent school fund. Revenue generated from school trust lands is invested, creating [music] a permanent financial resource that helps support public school districts, charter schools, and tribal schools throughout Minnesota. [music] Over time, careful management has helped the permanent school fund grow to more than $2.3 billion. This growth has prompted a discussion about how annual distributions from the fund should be calculated. This November, [music] Minnesota voters will be asked to consider a constitutional amendment to update how annual distributions from the existing fund are calculated. The proposal does [music] not create a new fund. It does not change the purpose of the trust and it does not raise income or property [music] taxes. Recommended from a nonpartisan task force and with strong bipartisan support from the Minnesota legislature, the proposed amendment reflects [music] modern trust and endowment management practices and will increase distributions to schools while maintaining the fund for future generations. Learn more about Minnesota's permanent school fund [music] and this fall's constitutional amendment at minnesota amendment.org. So just a couple of other facts um kind why this is being proposed. The fund balance uh for this fund has increased from about se $675 million to 2.3 billion over the last 15 years. And yet in that time the distribution formulas have not changed. So that was some of the reason for this uh proposal. Um and the changes in the distributions because there is a a proposal for that require voter approval through a constitutional amendment. So there is no action be being requested tonight. This is just for uh information only. And with that I would take any questions or comments from schoolboard members. >> Board members are there any questions? >> Director Daine. Uh, thank you for sharing this and I appreciate the intent of having informed uh information or information to inform the public so that they can go ahead and do research on this, continue looking into it and come to their own conclusions about um how they'd like to vote um on this on their ballots this November. Uh do we have any plans to share this information again or continue to make this avail this information available in any particular place on our district website? >> Yes. Yes, that would be our intention. Yes. I well, let me be more clear. Not I don't I I don't know that we have a plan to present it to the board again unless school board members would like us to do that, but we do have plans to make it available on our website forformational purposes. >> Coach Langanger, >> thank you. I think that is probably the most important thing because it it when you first hear it, you have to think about it. So, I appreciate that. I think the video is excellent um and very clear um when you to to modernize how this funding is being distributed. So I would assume you know this is a a bipartisan effort and I think that's something that we all need to recognize doesn't happen every day. So I appreciated all the work at the legislature that was done on his behalf and certainly on the part of different organizations supporting our schools. Um it's been something that I think it talked about there um years in the in the reflection and people talking about it but now it is the first time that we as an have an opportunity to review it as a constitutional amendment without or constitutional yeah amendment without actually changing the content of what's in that amendment. Um, and I've sat in a number of presentations and to your point, Director Duchain, there are many presentations and a lot of information out there. So, I I would encourage people to really take a deeper dive in it and certainly um I would assume questions can be sent your way or >> Yes. >> way as well. So, >> and our communications department. Yep. >> Yeah. And I I appreciate it. I think it's something we we want people talking about and thinking about. So, thank you. Director Aro. >> Thank you, Coach Hulman. So, uh, Director Langfeld and I were both at the MSBA event where we had kind of voted on to support or oppose this. Totally respect the position you and honestly most people took. I was one of the dissenting voices and I would like to explain why that was because I think it's important to inform the public both sides of the issue. Um so the the language at MSBA and you'd even used the word again uh director Langenfeld or sorry coach Langenfeld was to modernize how the fund is spent and um you had mentioned that the the fund essentially consists of assets that the state owns and manages on behalf of the public school district and we essentially take like dividends so to speak or kind of yeah essentially just dividends from those assets which is great. I think what it currently is is fantastic. I think this is an amazing thing to have in place. I think very few people know this exists to be honest. I certainly did it until I was told about it recently. Um, but here's the thing there like like as nice as that word modernize is, it's there's only one thing you can do with an asset if you're not taking dividends, but you want to increase the money you're getting from it, and that is to sell the asset or to perhaps loan it, leverage it or something. But the key is you have to relinquish ownership of it in one form or another. And so the the part the the quiet part that is not being stated out loud to this is that this fund is great but if you want to tap into the resources more the fund will diminish over time permanently as opposed to right now it just continue the assets continue to grow in value because well the value of the dollar continues to decrease over time and so the the first um landmine to be aware of is and I'm sure this will pass by the way I have no doubt this is going to pass because like you said it has bipartisan support um but the first landmine to be aware of is there certainly will be a glut of money to begin with and then over time unfortunately it will just diminish because selling is the only thing you can do to tap into more of those resources. And then the other thing I I I personally find if you read the official ballot language um it says I'll just read it out loud. says, "Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to increase the funding going to all school districts from per from the permanent school fund, which is a fund that supports school districts without raising individual income or property taxes effective July 1st, 2027 sounds amazing. Truly, everything about why would anyone vote no on that?" Unless, of course, they were to include, and I'm sure they didn't on purpose, the part that I just mentioned, which is we have to sell the assets to get that money. meaning once we sell them, they're gone. And so the the massive problem with this is yes, like we will get more money, but here's the million-dollar question because the state's going to manage it. Or perhaps the multi-million dollar question, do you honestly expect the state of Minnesota to manage a fund well when they're allowed to sell assets? There's a a funny saying, if the government owned the Sahara Desert, there would be a shortage of sand. I could not agree more. And I think this is as applicable to this fund as it is to quite literally everything else the state of Minnesota government has done in the last several years. So as much as I want the schools to have more money. Um and I not even necessarily against the idea of selling some of the assets. I just don't trust the state of Minnesota to do it well. I think it's going to be like giving a kid $100 and sending him into the candy shop and asking him to only spend $10. It's just not going to happen. And so just understand like I like I said, I'm sure it's going to pass as bipartisan support. Um just understand that you will get something initially and then you will lose things in the long term. So just let the voters know the other side of the coin or the other side of the story which is not being discussed hardly at all. >> Director Shaane, >> thank you. Um I just want to correct uh a few things that you've shared because most of what you've said is inaccurate. So the principle or the corpus the the money that are those assets that you're talking about the investments the lands that are generating cash investments they're generating revenue based on the sale of timber and the sale of mineral mineral rights uh that the constitution prohibits that from being spent. It requires the state to hold in trust those lands in perpetuity. That is not being changed with this amendment and there's no plan to do sales of those assets. Rather, the investments because of the the increasing cost of timber, the increasing in uh funding coming in from the mineral rights, the use of that land that has continued to increase over time where that income coming from this trust has gone back into the principal, right? It's gone back into the fund which has caused it to grow to that $2.3 billion dollars. So by changing the distribution the the funding to schools to be modernized right it's looking at normal endowment practices normal trust expenditures it takes like life cycle looking back 20 30 40 years to see okay what has the timber done for us to see if we give 2% of those incomes if we get 4% of that income it never touches the principal it never touches the corpus there's no plan to sell the assets to account for this increase in funding. I think that's just very important that people are aware. Coach Langfeld, >> thank you Casey. I appreciate that explanation because that's accurate. And I think the other piece that they've seen increases in the diversified mix of the stocks that they have and I know that people u gain assets from stocks and bonds as well in this process. So just to put that out there. Thank you, >> Director Arco. >> So, I do actually appreciate the conversation. I'm not certain that what you're saying is correct. I will certainly look into it, but I'm not certain that's actually the case. But just for the sake of discussion, even if we grant everything you just said, let's assume the land is held and not sold at all, there's there still are assets that will now be spent down. And so those assets, even if it's just cash on hand, so to speak, that's reinvested or total, not principal in terms of land or however you worded it, something has to be spent down to increase the money that can be distributed to schools. And so again, just granting the premise, you could be right. Um, I'm going to double check it, but something still must be spent down to tap into an additional source of funding, even if it's just the cash on hand. So the fund overall will be diminished over time. Even if it has like a bottom limit that it can't be diminished beyond, something nonetheless will have to be tapped into. Okay, if there's no further discussion, thank you for the presentation. >> Thank you. >> We are nearing our last board agenda item, board correspondence and communication. Members, this is your opportunity to share happenings in your community, report on committee assignments or other items of interest. Does anyone have anything to share? Co-chair Langfeld, >> as as we um enter the fall and the state fair is right around the corner, it will be the kickoff for Minnesota Kids Rise and it is a statewide nonpartisan effort for public education initiative with community support. Um you'll hear more about it hopefully at the next meeting. Um they have a great video out. But with this kickoff, um, I think it's really important and I invite you to check it out on the website. Um, it's Minnesota Kids Rise, it's called. There's a lot of a lot of work going on in public education over the years and the intent is to really tell the stories out there of the students who have been successful. I know there's always more work to do. um we're never satisfied and should not be as part of our continuous improvement, but there's a a tremendous amount of very positive things happening in our schools. So, it's to tell those stories. There is a broad support for it from PTA association in Minnesota to to the administrators across our state, community ed programs, um that group as well, public relations, Minnesota service cooperatives, association of school metro districts as well and private entities as well. So looking forward to sharing that. the kickoff um will be at the state fair, a whole booth um or area uh for for sharing information. Um we will have people from all of those organizations represented school boards. And if I will be there, if there are other board members who are here or um not here, but part of our team, if you'd like to join us, you certainly can. Um, and I'll I'll have my granddaughter with me who is a public education student here in the district as well. So, we'll bring more information hopefully and share that video so it can be shared out broadly um across our area because we'd love to see you at the state fair, but most importantly, we'd love to join you join us in that effort to raise up all of our kids here in Minnesota in our public schools. So, thanks for that. Seeing no additional comments um or discussion, our last agenda item is to adjourn. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? >> Thank you, Director Dashaine. Do we have a second? >> With a second from co-chair Langenfeld. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. >> Any oppose say no? With four in favor and zero opposed, we are adjourned at 6:40 p.m.