It is 6:30. Good evening. I call this regular meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> Right there. >> I pledge algiance 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. [Music] Sister Good evening fellow schoolboard members, district staff and community members. As a reminder to us all, the mission of St. Francis Area Schools is to equip all students with the knowledge and skills to empower them to achieve their dreams and full potential while becoming responsible citizens in a dynamic world. Our first item for tonight's agenda is adoption of the agenda. Are there any questions prior to a motion being made? See no questions. Is there a call to motion for the August 25th, 2025 meeting agenda? >> So Anderson. >> Is there a second? >> Second. Thank you, Mr. W. Any discussion on the motion? See no discussion. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I and raising your hand. >> Motion prevails. Yes. Thank you. Next item is public hearing item three for the proposed property tax abatement for parking lots. Per district policy 207, the school board will hold a public comment period regarding a proposed property tax abatement under Minnesota state statutes, and there's a couple of them. Uh the abatement totaling approximately 1,375,000 over five years would fund phase one of the parking lot construction project across the district to improve safe and convenient access to facilities. Following the public input tonight, the board will consider an action item on the proposal. Uh Superintendent Anderson, Mr. Linquist, and Michael Hart of PMA will provide an overview of the proposal prior to any comment. Uh, and this is the same proposal that was added to the 10-year LTFM plan on the July 28th regular meeting. >> So, I'll just have a brief uh recap. Uh, this is a phase one parking lot work that's needed throughout the school district and the recommendation is to use the vacant funds to pay for it. So, it does not have to come out of our operating capital budget or general budget. Uh there are two primary projects that we've scoped. Uh one would be uh parking by the baseball stadium uh also known as a lower lot for the high school because kids from the high school will park there and then walk up in the high school for the regular school day. Uh the other area is parking for fields and um some people call them like Chuck calls them the quad fields because four fields. Uh they're near the maintenance building uh but they're primarily uh used for those fields. And uh we also have some other parking lot and sidewalk means uh that could be paid for out of this abatement fund uh as necessary. Uh including a a sidewalk over East Bethl that uh likely needs to be uh redone uh to to serve uh some kids who have special needs. um that use that part for that sidewalk. Uh and there may be some other projects as well. Uh but those are the the two primary ones plus the East Battle sidewalk and then you know we of course have some flexibility to address some other needs as well. So that's all I have. If there are questions about those projects, uh Mr. Linquist could certainly provide some background information. Otherwise, we can hand it over to Mr. Hart. Any questions for Superintendent Anderson or Mr. Linquist specific to the property? >> Are the uh quad parking lot and the lower lot? Is that going to be paved going forward with this? >> Is that the point? >> Yes. >> Awesome. >> The lower lot um was paved at one point and it is from a paved surface in the district. The worst parking lot we have. Um we had a a grandmother actually trip and fall of her walker last year down there needs to be done. Um the upper parking lot or the soccer complex or quad whatever you want to call it. Uh currently doesn't meet city code. Um the city has you know twisted our arm because it's been there for so long but grapple does not meet city code in our town. just does the public can they ask questions just >> right now it's just not that Mr. Hart, you're up. >> Very good. Thank you, Michael Hart with PMA. Happy to be here tonight. Um, now the the public hearing is required by state statute specifically related to the tax abatement which is for the parking lot projects under state statute. But I'm going to take the opportunity because these projects were considered in conjunction to explain the financing of both the property tax uh tax abatement related to these parking lot projects and also the financing uh related to the indoor air quality projects that are being uh proposed and under consideration and were approved as a part of the long-term facility maintenance plan at the school board's meeting at the end of July. So Vanessa, do you have the slides from the packet? >> This is not >> No, it was the next one. These were about the next. >> Thank you. Um, was it as a slideshow or was it a >> I think it's [Music] named Hard Michael. Is it? >> That's it. >> I don't know if the thing works, but I'll just for you. >> Okay, awesome. If you go to the next slide there. So there's really, you know, u Minnesota state statute allows the school board to authorize financing of certain projects, only specific projects under board approval within the long-term facility maintenance uh plan in the parking lot uh through the tax abatement. The LTFM Lion uh bonds were authorized or uh via this board to in an amount not to exceed 36,850,000 to bond the projects that were presented by Site Logic. And the tax abatement is this 1,375,000 maximum over five years. The the HVAC project is a 20-year bond as it's being structured. So, it be paid back over 20 years time. When we're talking about financing, we always want to make sure that the useful life of whatever improvement we're making is going to at least exceed um the the payment back on the financing. And so that's why you see a shorter term related to the parking lot services. Also with an acknowledgement of that facility maintenance bond uh is taking care of a wide range of indoor air quality projects across the entire district. and the parking lots admittedly as kind of a first step in you know many parking lot issues that that will continue to exist. So these are board approved funding options by state statute. They do uh include a tax increase and that tax increase would be seen by taxpayers from the first time when tax is payable in 2026. So when the notice you're you will notice this as a board member when you see your preliminary levy uh in September was the first action that you would see this at a school board next month and then you will make a final uh levy certification on this if you choose to proceed in December and taxpayers will see it on their tax bill next March if you would proceed forward. This next picture, I think, is probably the the real a really important one to understanding your overall financial situation in terms of outstanding debt obligations. School districts use bond issues to finance long-term uh capital facility or capital maintenance projects. The blue bars on here represent the payments that you have on your current outstanding bond issues, most of which was tied to the referendum that was approved by your voters in 2017, I believe, in the fall of 2017. The two red bars there are um related to the HVAC or the indoor air quality project. So, I said over 20 years, it will increase taxes, level payments over that 20-year period of time. The two colors represent that we're uh the proposal here is to issue this financing the $36 million in two parts and I'm going to explain that in more detail here in a moment. And then the red or the the yellow component of that is the tax abatement. So that's a fiveyear period of time for the taxes related to that smaller component of the overall financing. I have some detail here on the next uh slide that shows how all of this gets put together. And the key things here to point out are kind of in the two numbers that are highlighted in blue. The the project cost for the tax abatement is 1,141,000. So the difference between that and the 1,375,000 is that there's an allocation for interest in there. Now, um that's a high that's kind of a not to exceed amount and we're going to work with you to get the best interest rate we can in the market. The 36,225800 that is the the amount that um site logic has shared with you as being the the project budget for the indoor air quality projects. And what we're proposing here here tonight is to to split the financing into a bond issue for $15 million that would be sold uh in this current calendar year this fall and then another 22 approximately $22.5 million that is sold in early calendar year 2027. And um there's and I'm going to go through here in detail kind of the reasons for why we're we're proposing that you split them. The the important thing here though is the tax abatement. The parking lot projects would all be funded in this first uh bond issue with the remainder of that $15 million being the first components of the LTFM including the design and the early phases of the construction uh for those projects. There is kind of some magic to the $15 million number in our world in relation to IRS regulations and that's why we it it fits well with the project. We have worked with your partners at site logic to understand how they expect the money to be spent over the next few years as the project is is put into place and it works well with that and and um that that funding that $13.5 million is expected to be enough funding to get us into the early summer of 2027 so that we have um some more information. We go to the next slide. Thank you. So, in relation to tax impact, um I have this shown here and I'll kind of review the highlighted in yellow or orange. The $385,000, which is roughly a median home in your school district, the $36 million project for the indoor air quality paid over 20 years will increase taxes by about $214 on an annual basis. the abatement bonds uh is a $19 increase and all when you put it all together it's $234 on an annual basis or about $19 a month. These numbers are very similar to what you saw last month. They are slightly lower than that because of some of the efficiencies we gain from from selling two types of bond issues or two two uh two series bond issues. And then I have here broken out uh the expected tax increase for different property values and types. In Minnesota, you pay taxes based upon your property classification as well as the estimated market value that's established by the county assessment. So the reason that we're we're proposing two different bond sales is that when you you kind of embark on a project, there's a fair amount of design work to to that needs to go under to happen with the indoor air quality and this provides the funding for that design, but we don't have construction bins in the end as we stand here today. So the $36.2 $2 million is a, you know, it's an educated estimate from your, you know, construction professionals, but under Minnesota state statute, you have to do public bidding for those construction projects. And so that process will happen. And once we have construction bids in hand, we will have a better idea of what the final project costs are. So, the goal here is to make sure we're not borrowing too much money um with, you know, but if we did it all at once, we're going to have better information in a year and a half than we do today. The other second piece is that you don't need that other $22 million today because there's you're going through a design period, which is going to be most of the next year uh with this project. And so, we're not paying interest on that during that period of time. So, there's some cost savings uh from that component. Um, there's some risks and costs to this approach though. We need to make sure that they're it's known. Interest rates can go up. I, you know, as much as I wish I could, we don't control interest rates. Um, and they could change, which could make the second financing more costly than we had anticipated. In our numbers here that we projected today, we are representing current rates plus an additional 3/4 of a percent 75% for market cushion. Um on that second financing issue, the second piece is that um the cost of issuing two bonds is more than the cost of issuing one bond. You have to pay professionals like me, attorneys, rating agencies twice to go through the process. And so there's some additional costs. So we've quantified that on the next slide. to say those additional costs we're expecting would be at about increased by about $90,000. Um, and you know, full transparency, part of that is to pay PMA to do this twice. And I want to make sure you understand that. But if I think this is an important piece, if interest rates stayed exactly the same today as they are in, you know, 18 months from now, you're going to save $1.8 million by splitting this into two. So that's interest saving by not paying interest on 22 plus million dollars during that period of time. So I think for me the most productive way to think about this is how much do interest rates have to rise for us to be in a kind of a break even place and we calculated that to mean interest rates have to go up by 64% for us to be better off to just have sold the whole thing right now uh in terms of interest rates. Of course, interest rates can go down too and your savings would be, you know, far in excess of the $1.8 million if if that's the case. So, we can't we can't operate with perfect information, but based upon these details, we're recommending you consider splitting it. In addition to the fact that um you are going to be in a position where you're going to have better information about the right next steps to take as a board. For example, we did a very similar approach recently with the Laconia school district. They're just completing a lot of uh indoor air quality work this summer in their school buildings. And we were when we got through the construction bids, we were able to reduce the amount that we borrowed by almost $2 million. I'm not guaranteeing you that's going to happen, but we didn't borrow $2 million because we didn't need it, which saved them a lot of money in the long run. Okay. So, in terms of our our timeline and calendar on this, if this is the approach that um you choose to proceed forward with, last month, you you called for the public hearing that we're holding right now, which is statutoily required for the the abatement bonds. You approved an LTFM plan and you said that we plan to issue bonds to support this LTFM plan, which included the $36 million in projects. There was a notice published to notify of the public hearing today as well as a notice to your public publish um that you have and the intent to issue bonds to fund your HVAC projects that happened on August 1st. We submitted the plan to MDE and we are waiting for approval at this point in time which is normal that takes some weeks time. And then tonight you have this public hearing as well as an action item that would off that would approve the abatement and proceed forward with this first $15 million sale of bonds. Um our process then would be the month of September and early October would be preparing to go to the bond market. So that includes a rating call for the school district and there's a lot of documentation when we go to the bond market and we would lock in the interest rates or sell that bond in the middle of October or proposing October 21st. This school board would see uh a resolution to ratify that sale on October 27th. You have money at the school district on November 18th is what those proposals. So this is the first $15 million. The next part of it um there's a the next slide shows a timeline and it's you know very uh much less detailed but is to say we uh believe based upon the conversation with site logic that by the end of the calendar year 2026 or winter of 2026 you will have all the construction in hand and we'll have a really good idea of how this project is going to proceed which means we should proceed forward with um the bond documentation for that second sale and in in early 2027. So the first half of calendar year 2027 is the concept here as we we get closer to that. So and then there's one final slide in here um related to the action. So you do have a resolution. I think it's helpful. I'd certainly encourage you to read it, but to to summarize what action we're taking there in the resolution, the first cities are granting a property taxment to fund the parking lots in an amount not to exceed 1.375 million over 5 years. It allows us to submit an application to the state of Minnesota for the state credit enhancement program. That's a program where the state of Minnesota says if for any reason the school district cannot pay the bond holders on on a due date, the state will definitive date. It's never been used by a school district. We certainly do not expect you to need to use it, but it does lower your interest rate and it doesn't cost you anything. So, it's very important that we do that. It allows us to reimburse oursel for any project expenditures that might happen before the funds are received, although we don't expect that to be a large issue in this case. And then the board is providing authority to proceed at the bond sale subject to certain parameters with this resolution. And those bond parameters are that the interest rate is not more than 5.5%. The amount to the bond is now more than $15 million. And uh this can be done between now and June 30th of 2026. So uh in that first bullet point on there, the this is giving the authority to the superintendent or the director of business service. one of those two individuals, so one administrator and one officer of the school board to execute the documents to sell the bonds. So to enter into the contract to sell the bonds as long as for these purposes, as long as the bonds do not exceed 15 million or 5 and a half% interest rate, that max the 5 and a half% is truly a maximum. We are going to work with you and it's my job to help you get the lowest interest rate we possibly can in the bond market. What that means is that those individuals do not have the authority granted by this board if the interest rate is exceeded by exceeds five and a half%. The school board would still need to ratify that um action at its next meeting but there you know I want to make it very clear there would be a contract already in place to sell those bonds and then I guess there is one more side um in terms of what's next in in this process of financing. So I told you the funds would be available on November 18th. approximately and we um those funds are held in a segregated account that is only for these projects uh for the abatement and indoor air quality. This does not uh get co-mingled in any way with the the school's general fund budget or you know general operations of the school district. And um we also work to understand and continue to refine over time when are the funds going to be needed and we can invest the money within that account and any earnings that we have on those those bond dollars can be put back into the project. So if we earn let's say we earn $100,000 on that money, we can reduce the next borrowing potentially by that $100,000 because we have interest earnings. Okay? And then when we're issuing bonds as a school district, we get the advantage of taxexempt borrowing rates, um, which is a subsidy of the federal government to the school district for public purpose projects. And what comes along with that subsidy is regulation. And so, uh, the IRS has lots of rules. We call them arbitrage rebate regulations. and one of our responsibilities is to help you make sure you're maintaining compliance with that understanding of it and and moving on project. So that's the presentation I have. I'm certainly happy to take questions from the board for the public at your discretion. Michael, thank you again. Um as a facilities committee, uh we made a decision or recommendation to Michael to present both at the same time. um even though the public hearing is specific to the tax bay, but to present both of those areas because they are a joint when it comes to the bond and we want to be fully transparent with what the plan could be moving forward. So, what questions before we get into public comment does the board have Mr. Hart at this time? All right, seeing none. Thank you, Michael. Uh so next uh for this public hearing, we do have one individual that has requested to speak. Uh Melinda, your time is now. You uh you're the only one that wanted to speak tonight, so we'll give you five minutes, but I do I do ask that you uh keep your comments uh to the proposed uh parking lot improvements and that associated tax abatement. >> Okay. Um well, my name is Melinda. Um, and I wanted to speak in favor of the tax abatement. Um, based on the information that we were just presented, I think that the finances were well thought out. Um, we definitely need the improvements to the parking lot. As Mr. to just explain some of the um problems with not being up to city code. Um it being a safety hazard to students and the public. Um yeah, and I think they really did a good job of figuring out a method that would um minimize the burden on the taxpayer while maximizing the amount of funding that we have available for the project. Um I just want to say it sounds well thought out and I'm in favor of it. Thank you. Okay. Uh thank you Melinda for speaking tonight. We don't have anyone else that wants to speak on that topic tonight. Uh so just a reminder to board members that this will be an action item later in the meeting today. Uh so that concludes the public hearing portion. The next uh item on the agenda is item four, consideration of visitors. We have one individual requesting to speak tonight and we will allow five minutes. Again, ask that once the time is reached to please uh be respectful of the time uh and you make your final comments. Our first speaker and only speaker tonight is Rachel Anderson. >> Hi, my sophomore and I just got back from going to the open house tonight and I just wanted to say the teachers are so great. It was so wonderful to see them like happy to see the kids. my kid is excited to go back this year, which has not happened in a while. So, I want to say thank you. Thank you for supporting the teachers and the kids. Thank you for the time that you're putting into this. I know it's a lot of work in your class. Really appreciate it. Um, thank you for supporting the air quality thing to help our kids have a healthier place to learn and I'm just really excited about this year and continue to support the kids and the teachers. And thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you again, Rachel. Again, it's always nice to have community members uh address the board. Thank you. Our next item is agenda item five, consent agenda. We have six items on tonight's consent agenda. Are there any questions or requests to remove an item from the consent agenda prior to the motion? >> Mr. Just wanted to comment on 5.6 girls tennis team. I just love this idea more kids out there experience different things. I just love the coach's taking on this responsibility. So thank you Mr. President. Any other questions or comments on that? Okay. Is there a call motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So, >> thank you, Mr. Shar. Is there a second? >> Anderson. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing no discussion, a roll call vote for consent agenda. So, if you're in favor, signify by saying I. If you oppose, signify by saying nay. Mr. Or >> Mr. Humphrey. >> Hi. >> Miss BL. >> Hi. Mr. Shrock. >> Hi. >> Miss Anderson. >> Hi. >> Miss West. >> Hi. >> I as well. Motion prevails unanimously. Thank you. Again, as we move forward into the next agenda item, which is action item. I ask uh schoolboard members just to refrain from questions until sorry, information not actually information. refrain from questions until the presentation is done and then we'll hold questions. Uh the first report tonight is our technology report. We have Joe Brazil which will provide the board with an update on three distinct areas of the district technology department. >> If you don't mind, I'll just introduce him real quickly. Uh Joe of Brazil is employed by CISO and uh he's our technology director uh who has done amazing work over the last four or five months that he's been here. So you can see that much of the work that's uh he'll be updating. He's been greatly involved with along with Liz and Hannah and the rest of the technology team. It's a it's a really strong group. I'm proud of the work they've done. But Joe will get an update. All right. Well, before I start the update, uh, a couple things I want to want to echo. Uh, you have a really strong technology group here. Uh, Liz and Hannah, the two technology managers are fantastic. They're great to work with. Uh, they're very dedicated, very hardworking. So, you should feel very fortunate to have the minor team. Um, we've been working on a lot of initiatives and we're at uh, a really nice point with technology right now. It's kind of an exciting point where we're moving more towards uh proactive work rather than reactive. So, we're forward looking, planning forward, looking at building out for the future as well as fixing some of the issues and gaps that we currently have. Uh so, it is an exciting place to be. Uh as you'll see on the report, there are a lot of different things that we're working on right now, and I'll I'll kind of go through them in a few different sections. Uh the first is around safety and security. And so we have a number of initiatives going on uh in that area. The first one is multifactor authentication and I believe uh this has been talked about in some previous uh board meetings. uh but multiffactor is required for cyber insurance and not only is it required for cyber insurance but it's really a best practice in security and so this initiative is is really going to strengthen uh the account security uh within staff devices and staff systems and right now our goal our end goal to have this rolled out to staff is December 31st but I'll say I'm confident we're going to get there quicker uh we're in the process right now of preparing staff accounts uh with the goal of turning it on September 12th and have all staff start using their MFA September 12th. And so we're in process right now of tracking the progress of how many counts are getting prepared and answering questions and supporting staff. Uh the next section that we're working on with uh safety and security is an information security awareness training program. So we're using a tool called cybernet uh which is provided through ACMEC which is a K12 consortium and this cyber security awareness training program is tailored for K12 environments. It's it was built from some former former K12 technology directors. So they started this program has some really cool features for K12. Uh some of the features are micro training modules. So instead of giving staff members a really long training plan that they have to follow or little quick hits of pieces of training. So five minutes or less they can see a quick training uh get some real good pieces of information and move on with their day. Uh it also includes some gamified learning experiences. So if you're not familiar with gamified learning, it's ways to earn badges or to kind of friendly compete against your your peers. Uh so it gives you some incentives to to take the training. And then part of this also includes uh some fishing simulations. So if you're not familiar with fishing simulation, it's a real controlled way for us to allow our staff members to practice what they've learned. Uh so we'll send them out fake fishing messages uh with some links uh some different keys and things that they can can look at to key off of knowing that it's a fishing exercise. And they can practice their learning from the training. uh gives them the ability to, you know, take their training and put it into practice. And the cool thing about this program is it's not punitive. So if you click on a link that's a test link, it's not a punitive thing. It's, you know, you clicked on this link, here are some things for you to look out for in the future. These are some things that could tick you off that is fishing. So it's a real good way to, you know, help improve the learning again without being punitive. [Music] The next thing that we're working on is a formalized information security program. And so now this is a holistic security program. And so what this is going to do is take some of these individual initiatives that I've just talked about and it's going to wrap it into a more formalized process. And so this is really what a mature what a mature technology department gets to when they're looking at information security. So instead of throwing darts at different security tools and initiatives, it's a way for us to pull together a large planning process and we base the program on an industry framework. So it's a best practice and the framework we chose is the CIS critical controls which is used across many K12 school districts. It's also used by the state of Minnesota. And so it's a very wellestablished best practice and security processes. And so this program we're starting out slowly. It's going to take a few months maybe mostly a year to get through this uh because we start off building security standards and these standards guide all technology work going forward. So it ties all work to security best practices. And so we start with the standards and then we work through our processes and procedures. We build into some risk management. So again, it's a it's a full comprehensive security program. So we're working on that as well. The next section is around infrastructure and equipment modernization. And the first thing we've been working on, which I believe you've heard about, is a complete network overhaul. And this network overhaul comes in multiple phases. uh some of the phases we've completed already is a full internet upgrade. And so we went through simplifying multiple different internet circuits and combined them into two um larger bandwidth circuits. And so it simplifies support. Uh it reduces costs and it gives us the ability to build a resilient network where we can run traffic out of either one of those internet connections. If one goes down, we can use the other as as a backup. Uh part of that upgrade was also a wide area network upgrade which wide area network would be the connection between our buildings. So how the buildings communicate with each other and that upgrade has been completed. Uh it's very similar to the internet upgrade where it's providing more bandwidth between the buildings and it also provides a resilient path between buildings. So again if there's a fiber cut somewhere or a network device goes down there's alternate uh paths for that traffic to travel. uh so it reduces overall outages across the district. And the last component to the network overall overhaul is a uh local area network and wireless upgrade. And so the local area network is within each building and that includes the wireless access points that devices connect to. And that's in process right now. Uh we've cut over one building over to this new solution. And this new solution is a fully managed uh network solution. So it's managed by a service provider that guarantees high availability, guarantees high capacity and density of wireless so that every device can connect. Uh they have network engineers, expert network engineers that support us and so it reduces the need to have internal network engineers on staff which is difficult in school district to maintain and so it gives us the ability to reach out to these experts if we have issues. Uh, as I mentioned, once one site has been cut over and we're working on cutting over the rest of the sites a couple weeks after school starts, we'll start working on those. And just a note on funding for all of this is that these upgrades are all strategically timed to use the great process, which greatly reduces the overall cost. Uh, the district uh gets a 70% uh reduction in public services. The next infrastructure piece is a phone system replacement. We're currently in the planning phase for this and the process is that we will be working on replacing an end of life phone system. So the current phone system that's in place is end of life. It's running to the end of support. So we will no longer have support. So we're looking at a new solution. The new solution we're looking at is a very much upgraded and modern solution. includes some enhanced communication tools which includes soft phones and text messaging. So it'll give the ability for staff members to use their district phone number to message with community members and parents and guardians. Uh so it opens up that additional path of communication and we're targeting the full implementation of ME grade. The next piece, I know it's a lot of stuff, isn't it? Uh, the next piece is a server infrastructure transition. This is currently in the planning phase as well. And we're moving our server infrastructure from a hybrid solution. So, right now part of it in a hosted uh solution to part of it on premises. So, which means it's being managed here on equipment locally. And we're moving to a fully hosted solution uh with ECME, which is a K12 K12 collaborative. And what this is going to do, it's going to not only reduce costs. We're estimating right now that the annual savings is going to be 80 and $100,000 that we're going to save with this solution. Uh but it also reduces by moving from the onremise hardware is going to reduce the need for us to replace that hardware which is also extremely expensive. And so it removes that that fluctuation in uh budget where every few years you have to make a very large capital purchase to replace all this equipment and replaces it all with a very uh strategically planned year after year budget that you can count on year after year. All right, the last piece that we're looking at for infrastructure is a printing and copying efficiency review. And so right now we're looking at we just started the evaluation process of looking at all printers and copiers across the district. Uh looking at their placement, how many prints are happening per printers and copers. We're looking at the print center and what the operations are like at the print center, how many prints are being done, what's you know kind of the es and flows of of the workflow there and looking at you know how can we do this in a more efficient and cost effective way. So we're looking at all different kinds of options around that. We've just started that process, but we hope to finish that uh probably by the end of the the not the school year, but the end of the actual year. Um, and we'll have an option or some recommendations by the end of the year. The final section I want to go through is around effective and efficient operations. And part of that is we've started a long-term technology purchasing plan. And with that, we're developing a consistent multi-year purchasing strategies. So again, to remove that up and down uh budgeting of technology and have more consistency across the board. First thing we started with was we completed de the development of a device refresh cycle for staff and student equipment. So this again gives us this consistent uh replacement of devices year after year. And not only from a budgeting perspective does it make it easier, but it also ensures that we're staying up to date with technology. And so it removes us from getting way backwards in technology and having to buy a huge amount of devices to quickly get forward and technology get caught up. And as I mentioned with some of the other initiatives that we're doing, uh we're moving to some more hosted and managed uh infrastructure models. So, we're looking at some other ways to improve improve efficiency and uh increase cost savings and you know along with the server hosting uh the phone system uh the network uh management piece we're looking at other ways to move to that more managed and hosted process. And then finally uh we're working on finalizing our standard operating procedures. And this really dubtales from that information security program that I mentioned that that information security program will be done first and it'll really guide the operational piece that we're going to be working on. And so the detailed operating procedures will then be grounded in uh those standards that we're going to build on information security. So the actual operations of technology then follows security and is done in the best way and follows best practices. So I said a lot there. Um, let me know please if you have any questions on any any of these components. >> Carson, do you have any comments before I ask more questions? >> Uh, the uh couple of things. You kind of hinted at it, but I think this work will provide better service um with less personnel needs to to manage the work at a cheaper cost, which I think is remarkable. And uh you can't get better than that. Uh and then the other part is um uh and I know we've talked about this before, but as far as the print copier center, well, we're looking at all options. So we'll look at possibly outsourcing part of it and you know where the printers are, where the copers are and those kinds of things. But you know, we were kind of thinking that maybe by the end of the year that's when that recommendation could come forward. Those are the only two comments I have. >> Any questions or comments from the board? >> One of my questions is guard rails for students getting out to sites that they shouldn't be accessing. Um, and my other question is is that when we lose connectivity in the classrooms, that's downtime. We're losing education time. Do we have the statistics or the numbers of how much that's happened in past years so that we can go forward and compare it to make sure that we're making gains not still kind of staying that same pattern? >> Yeah, if I could answer the the last question first and then I think Joe can answer this. Uh we did have some metrics from a couple of years ago in terms of network reliability and some other metrics. Uh that's those are the metrics that that Andy Sherer could use. Uh and we did follow them on a monthly basis. Uh when when he uh resigned from his position uh and we hired CISO uh we didn't institute those same metrics at that time. Um but as we convert over to the meter system uh we will be using metrics. In fact it's part of their contract that they are guaranteeing 99.9% reliability or network out time or you know some of those things. So that's kind of the historical background and we will have that in place probably in October I would say >> because they're obligated to provide that. >> And then follow up on that. How do we follow that or who's in charge of watching that or making sure that that's that 99% is being met? Maybe Joe could answer kind of how that shakes out with me here. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, like Carson said, uh part of the contract is an SLA or service level agreement for that 99.99. I think it's actually 490% of uptime. And so, it is uptime. So, it's connectivity in the classrooms. So, they're guaranteeing that. And we manage it by a portal. So, the meter team who's running this gives us a portal. And so, we can see right at the portal what the uptime is. we can see if devices go down. We can see, you know, down from the individual access point or switch level, you know, port level, uh, if they go down. And so, we're going to be able to monitor it on our end and get alerts and reports from those that portal on if they're meeting their SLA or not. And then along with, you know, Meter and their SLA, as I mentioned, we we did a lot to provide resiliency in the network. And so we we built multiple paths um communication channels really between buildings and from buildings out to the internet. And so that will help uh alleviate some of that downtime too because uh you know a fiber cut can happen if there's construction in an area. But in this case if a fiber cut happens at one end of the district, we can route traffic then through the other end of the district. And so it gives us a different a different path and keeping up time and then reduces that input or impact in the classroom. >> And then the guard rails. >> Yeah. So guard rails. So we're using a tool called go guardian right now. >> What's it called? >> Go guardian. >> Guardian. >> Yeah. And it's it's loaded on all student devices and it puts web filtering and security protections on their devices no matter where they're at. So they don't have to be on district. They can be at home. They can be in the coffee shop where wherever it is this go guardian then protects their connection. So it looks at uh their traffic their internet traffic and it manages manage it via categories and so we have certain categories that are flagged to block or not allow traffic for those students. And so as I mentioned it's no matter where they're at with those devices. Uh a question on AI. Um is that something that you're looking at kind of the CISA program or you for SOP or is there are you looking at you know like secure AI for the district or anything like that? >> Yes. So so AI right now is being driven from our curriculum curriculum and learning department >> and uh so Stacy >> yeah I could even jump in there. uh we did uh last May we came up with uh the first version of some guidelines for students and educators in terms of uh AI use and so those will be included in the student handbook as well as the standard operating procedures. We know that we need to further refine those procedures and uh so we will be doing that continually I think over the next several years but we do have that first set of guidelines that you can actually uh view as we go through the static operating procedures later and again just the first run at it >> but not a not a set AI for the district that they would go out to public AI. Well, we have um you know expectations for example on what uh people can use chat GBT for, what kind of information they can put into chat GBT, how they can use it in classrooms or not use it in classrooms, you know, so they're general guidelines right now, >> but it's the public forum of check GBT on their school laptops, not a private version of check GT. Correct. >> Uh that I don't know. I have to rely on you. >> We are not recommending chat GPC for students. That's for teachers only. We are going to be using Magic School AI which is a student AI platform. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other uh for starters Joe? Thank you. I mean, as we all know, um, from our personal learning and work lives, it if you're not keeping up with technology, you're getting left and dust. Um, I know we had a lot of issues prior to this and this was a big summer and we did a lot of stuff. So, I appreciate that very much. Uh, based upon the plan that we have put in place, how do you feel knowing that school is only two weeks out? You guys feel like you're in a good spot with kids and teachers all floating back in the building in a short time frame? >> I do. Yeah, I do feel like we're in a really good spot. A couple key pieces uh that really needed to be put in place prior to school were the the internet upgrades, the internet changes, and that WAN uh connectivity change. And that's where you I keep talking about these different paths of communication, and that's where those came into play. And so those have been completed. So So that piece to me feels like it sets us up for success right away. And then now this last piece of getting the meter solution in will just give us that extra guarantee of that 99.99%. So I feel pretty comfortable going into school and then excuse me definitely will feel really good in about October when we get all those components in place. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> With that being said, technology is not going to be perfect. There'll be hiccups along the way. I know some outages. ago. So, I know it's hard to believe, but we were aware of that. The one thing that I'm impressed about with Joe and the team is that they're on it. And uh there were some circumstances over the summer where there were some issues with some of the vendors. Um and uh I know Joe was at the table and his team was able to to figure out, you know, how to resolve it. And that that makes me much more confident that when those issues come up that we'll be able to solve them as as quickly as we can. >> Any other questions or comments? >> Uh Joe, again, I'm going to reiterate what Chad said. Thank you. Uh you said something at the beginning of your presentation that made my ears very happy. Uh proactive instead of reactive. I think that's what we're trying to get to as a district and technology is a huge area to do that. So, thank you uh for taking that approach and what you and the team are doing. I know it's not just you doing it. So, thank make sure you share that thank you with them. Um multi- factor authentication uh school members, we have to do that. So, I'm complete with mine. I'm going to hold you guys accountable to that 13th September because we don't want to be the group that doesn't get added on when it opens up on the 12th. So, please make sure you do that. The the email that was sent out by Liz is very detailed and it walks you through it step by step. Um, I only screwed it up once, so you guys should be able to get it done. Um, the CyberNet and the CIS, I have used that uh in in two other positions that I've worked before. It's a great program. Uh, it does test you and it it's super simple because it takes three minutes to do the training instead of 30 minutes. And three minutes once a month is actually pretty easy to do. And that micro fishing it is ph not an s. So I was after it right away because I was all excited about the fishing part but it was not for that. So something different. Um and then uh Joe one thing you didn't talk about that I wanted to just highlight uh when they're looking at the wireless coverage in our buildings. I know you've been working with teachers and administrators on actual um in building coverage. um because we've had some complaints from our staff that hey the back timer of gym 4 the middle school I can't use my iPad to do whatever to do that stuff. So I know that your team's been working on that and thank you for that because that is a huge issue. It's great that we have wireless but if it doesn't work in every room uh it's not beneficial. So thank you. Yeah, I didn't kind of pass over that quickly, but but yeah, we did do a full a full wireless survey across all the buildings and so that it identified all those different trouble areas and built up capacity and coverage across all buildings. >> So, thank you for doing that. >> Thank you. >> All right, our next uh agenda item for information and reports is the first reading of policy 503. Uh the board packet background uh page provides any changes that are made to 503 and refract nation. So if there are any questions uh on that first reading, Mr. Nelson questions from the board on the first reading. Okay. Uh and then the final information and report items administrator report. Mr. Anderson, >> I'll keep it brief. Uh the first item has to do with some potential dates for presentations of GoPro city council meeting. Uh there are times available on September 29th, March 30th, and June 29th. So if you're interested, I assume they go to you. Y so um superintendent and I have been going out and meeting with our cities uh and we have met with Mayor Wolf and he has asked us to if there's opportunity to come and present uh just the happenings of the school district and that did our first one did a great job showing what the district is doing some highlights and and just getting that out in the community. Uh he has offered that up to us. They have uh city council meetings the same time as us except for those dates. Uh so if you are interested if one of those dates works perfect for you. I will help you with the report. We just need somebody to go up and and speak. Um I'm willing to do it but we all know that we get busy. So not one person can say they can do it the whole time. But I will help you with the report. Uh and it was less than 10 minutes, right? >> Yeah. >> It was fairly simple. There was a couple questions um specific to what our report was. So those are the dates. Feel free to take a look at them if you want to do that. Reach out to me. If you don't, I'll probably ask anyways to see who can help support those. Thank you, Mr. >> No problem. Uh the second item is district standard operating procedures. So this document is is aimed at uh employees uh explaining how we do things. Uh this is well there's a rough draft in the board packet today. Uh, but I'd like to issue the first um actual document tomorrow night or Wednesday morning. So, if you had not had a chance to look through it, if you could, you know, in the next few hours uh tonight or tomorrow and then let me know if you have any questions or feedback and then, you know, I'll try to accommodate some of the changes that that are suggested. Just let you know though, this is the first version. There will be regular updates, maybe monthly, maybe even more frequently like that until we get a really good hand of the pulses as far as what what uh conflicts there are with current practice and those kinds of things. So, there'll be a lot of changes, but I think this is a a good first version. Do you have any questions? How how sorry you say Mrs. How did um this get put together you and >> it was um I led the effort but uh there was a lot of information provided by the the principles and especially the the cabinet members. So, for example, Stacy would work on the uh information related to curriculum and instruction topics, but then I would add things and I changed things. And so, it's been a it's been a work in progress most of the summer. >> And was there a template that you used like MSBA or other school districts? >> Uh the only other school districts where I've worked before. Um, so I use a lot of that language like from Watertown Maron Redwing in certain sections of it, but St. Francis is completely different. So even if I started that template, you know, I made changes to reflect what we do here. So it's it's really a St. Francis document. But like I said, you know, there's a there are a lot of things happening. Uh and we're trying to streamline processes and have more consistent processes between buildings. And so we're learning a lot every time we issue something. You know, it'll be a question or maybe one of the schools does it a different way. And so we need to reconcile those differences. >> Any other questions on that? Um Mr. Anderson? So, just so everyone's aware, this aligns directly with our schoolboard member handbook. That is another reason why it hasn't been fully published yet is I wanted to make sure it aligned and we didn't contradict anything that was in this. And our formatting is similar. So, once this publishes, then you'll see our handbook just like the handbook is a living document like Mr. Anderson said. So, as things come up, as recommendations come forward for better ways of doing it, it will be updated. So, it's not going to have a hey, this is it for the school year. It will um change as needed. >> Definitely working document. And uh three areas that I want to highlight real quick. Uh first, we are changing our fundraising uh approval process. So, that will impact employees uh quite a bit actually, but we've already run it through maybe about 10 or 15 requests so far, I would say. And so um you know we'll make changes in the form and the process as we learn more. The um the other one is extended trips and you know we've already implemented that form as well and kind of new new process. Uh when we get feedback you know we'll update the form and you know those kinds of things. And then the third one is field trips but I just ran out of time so I put a placeholder in there and then we'll review that and uh implement some new procedures there as well. Uh the next topic is professional development week. I think we had a really good first day uh today uh with staff members back and I want to thank uh Stacy Piper in particular uh for leading the effort this morning uh but I know actually everyone at that table had a big part in it uh and others as well. So, appreciate their extra work on that. And there are training sessions uh tomorrow through Thursday and then uh I think there's some on Friday as well, but it won't be as extensive. I already mentioned the fundraiser changes. Uh but I'm working with uh representatives of the elementary parent groups to explain the changes and Joan will be working with coaches and adviserss to to explain the changes there. Uh facility updates. Uh Chris gave me uh kind of a heads up on a couple of issues uh that are being addressed. Uh the one issues at the middle school gym. The the the gym looks beautiful. It's going to be a really nice change. Uh but there was a delay in getting permissions to put in the bleachers. And so we have the parts in the gym, but they haven't been installed yet. So we expect that to be done in the first part or the middle part of September. Uh the other area has to do with our auto mechanics room at the high school. Uh it was discovered that there was a leak of hydraulic fluid uh from previous years. Uh I'm not sure if it was years ago or decades ago, but there was a leak. And so obviously we're going to address that uh by remediating the spill. Uh so it's not going to be immediately available uh when students are there, but they are actively working on it. And uh I walked over there with Chris to see the latest and uh it's it's quite a project and I'm actually amazed at how all the different groups are working together to make sure it's safe and that we completely take care of the issue. Uh just a note that we are adding a lift to the auto mechanics area. So, by the end of the day, we'll have more lifts for our kids to use in the auto mechanics program. Uh Brandon uh gave an update of our vacancy lists uh to me uh today. I was going to include it last week, but I thought, no, I want the latest greatest information so I can share that tonight. Uh we're doing uh really well overall compared to previous years. Uh however, we do have a lot of needs for education assistance in special education and noon and recess work. So we have 14 education assistant uh positions available in special education and then three more for noon and recess. So um I know they're actively publicizing and hiring and then we get some resignations and so uh we are looking for people in those areas that need That's all I have. >> Any questions or comments? >> Under the lifts, the hydraulics, one functional and one not functional. Do you mean by that? >> Um, you know, Chris, could you explain the condition of the lifts when um that we uh started to work on? >> Yes. So, at the beginning of last year, um we had one above ground lift and one inground lift. The ingground lift was not working properly. at the request of Mr. Robin that teaches in that space. One lift is not enough to function with class sizes and the demands of the program that that he wants to to bring forward. Um we worked to purchase three additional lifts and had them installed last year. So now there are four above ground lifts. But due to the scope of the removal of the ingground lift, which nobody puts hydraulic lifts in the ground anymore, um for good reason, uh we decided that we needed to wait until summer when school was out to remove that lift. So there are currently four lifts arranged in a way where you can you can get cars in there and access them. Um we'll get those inspected as soon as the uh they are inspected. All done. Perfect. Um, and then we just remediate the soil, get the testing back, fill it back in, and cover the concrete and away we go. Thank you. >> Any other questions for this transition? >> Thank you. All right. As we move forward to agenda item seven, our action items. Again, I'll ensure that each board member has an opportunity to speak um before the other board members or before you get your second chance uh to provide any additional comments. We have two action items for tonight's meeting. The first one is 71, the resolution to approve abatement bonds for parking lots as recommended by administration and the facility and grounds committee as presented earlier in the meeting. Are there any questions prior to a motion being made? Seeing no questions, is there a call to motion to approve the resolution for the abatement bonds for parking lots? >> Thank you, Miss Anderson. Is there a second? >> Second. Thank you, Mr. Sha. Is there any discussion on that motion? Seeing no discussion, uh, this is a resolution, so it will require a roll call vote. If you are in favor of the motion, signify by saying I. If you are opposed, signify by saying name. Mr. W. >> Hi. >> Mr. Shark. >> Hi. >> Miss B. >> Hi. >> Mr. here. >> Hi, >> Miss West. >> Hi, >> Miss Anderson. >> Hi, >> and I am I as well. Motion prevails unanimously. Thank you, >> Miss Young. Thanks for sticking around for the hope the whole party. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> The next action item for tonight is 72. Approval of policies 414, 418, 501, 515, 516, 534, 621, 707, 709, 802, and 806 as presented at the August 11th regular meeting. Are there any questions prior to a motion be made? Seeing no questions, is there a call motion for the approval of those 11 listed policies? >> Thank you, Miss Anderson. And is there a second? >> Second. Thank you, Mr. Working. Any discussion on that motion? See any other discussion? Again, if you are in favor of the motion, signify by saying raising your hand. Signify by saying I. If you're in favor, please raise your hand. Motion prevail. Thank you. Uh, next agenda item is upcoming meetings and topics. Are there any questions about any upcoming meetings as presented in the board? All right, seeing none, uh again, thank you board members for reaching out for potential topics. Uh we're slowly getting uh to some of them as you saw the technology. We're getting to that. We're working to go through that and then we'll be getting the work session and plan uh presented to the board here shortly as well. Uh, next agenda item is item nine, school board member reports. Mr. Shrock, you want to start us off? Uh, went to open house at the high school tonight. It was just nice to see kids and parents and it was full there when I was there. So, it's just nice to see them back in the building and the building was amazing. Thank you. And sports, they're up and running. volleyball and tennis. They have matches last week when they have games coming up this week. So, check out those schedules and go support these kids. Yeah, just looking forward to next week, the first day of school. Good luck, teachers. >> Um, I went to the Parker Peterson golf tournament. Um, and while I was there, they gave a little um spiel about how much has gone into our district. So, I wanted to make sure there was a next to that. Um, to date, there's been $19,500 to 183 of our graduating seniors, fidget toys to all five school counseling offices. Um, the world is better with you in it signage to both the middle school and the high school. and last year they sponsored five of uh the school counselors to attend a mental health conference. So amazing work by them. Um and that is the update. >> Thank you for going and representing that Mr. Humphrey. >> So I'd like to bring up the new band teacher at the high school. He's not new to our district, Mr. Warner. I remember him uh standing in front of a whole bunch of recorders in elementary school at East Elementary just like while the rest of us were smiling with pride. Uh he was up there proud as well. Um and went to the middle school and now he's at the high school. This guy has the I haven't seen so much swagger since like uh Miss Trevish perhaps or uh he is he bleeds blue. He's been he's worked his way up and observed and this is going to be one hell of a year for the band. I'm really looking forward to it. Um and he's inspiring kids. Uh my son who was always in jazz band and kind of stepped back for a couple years is now doing jazz band again. So I know he's uh Mr. Werner is really uh setting forth some good news. So I really appreciate the hire and that was that was a great choice. It's going to be a good year for the band at on all levels of course, but the the crescendo in the high school will be fantastic. So, >> thank you Anderson. >> I don't have anything. >> Um, yeah, I just want to kind of jump on Rob's back. Fall sports activities through community ed are all in full swing. Um, if you don't participate, get out and support those kiddos. They need it. It's super fun. Um, as most of us know who do some coaching, we are in it as we speak. So, appreciate that community support. Um, and then just on a personal note, I will not be attending the next meeting due to scheduling conflict. Scheduling conflict. Thank you. Negotiations are in full swing. everybody has attended, I'm sure, at least one or two um negotiations sessions and good luck to all the students students um going back to school, teachers, staff um going to be later. >> Thank you. Like Annette said, uh teacher negotiations and other groups have started. I think we're in five groups currently negotiating. Uh I attended the first teacher negotiation uh with Mr. offrey. Uh that went very well. We're still waiting for a full proposal, but we are working through the process as as planned. Um members of the facility and grounds committee met with the city of St. Francis once again uh continuing to build that relationship uh and talk through um our long-term plan and their long-term plans to see how that can work together. I do expect some more updates on that in the near future to the board. Um, we talked a little bit about open houses, but this week is big for the district with open houses. So, board members, if you have availability to stop in, even if you don't have a kid at one of those facilities, it's nice for the public to see us there. Please um, reach out. I think the schedule is on multiple uh, sites that you can see. We'd love to have people at all of them. Um, attended the welcome back and provided a thank you to all of our staff on behalf of the school board this morning. Uh it was awesome to see uh the group all together as one. Uh there was a you know one or two that were missing but it was nice to see everybody there. If you notice the district office all looked really good in the same color tonight. Uh that was the theme. Uh each facility had different colors that they got to wear. So it was cool to see those groups together and they got to do some fun events uh with some cheering and some other things. I did my best uh to wear a Skittles shirt. Uh that's kind of blended in with everybody because we want to support the entire team. So, uh thank you for pointing that out, John. Uh and that's all I have for my report. All right. Uh I'm going to call for a fivem minute recess. Uh as Yeah, I'm just going to call for the five minute recess and then we're going to go into a close meeting, close session. So, fivem minute recess. Be back here at 7:46.