[Music] Okay, you guys ready? Dr. Can I keep going? Ready? >> All right. Good evening everyone and welcome to the Eastern Carver County Schools community information session for our 2025 referendum. My name is Kaylee Haga and I am the chief of staff and executive director of strategic communications for the district. I'll be facilitating tonight. Um with me on stage are Dr. Aaron Rafy, our superintendent, and Sean Olsen who is our board chair. Uh we will not have questions from the audience tonight, but we do have note cards out. Um so if you want to ask a question, uh grab a note card or write it down and we will have staff that go in and go through and collect questions along the way. Um and we will answer those at the end of Dr. Ry's presentation. So with that, I'm going to turn over to Cher Olsen to welcome folks and then Dr. Rathy will be presented. All right, good evening. Thanks everyone for uh coming out to join us uh tonight. I know uh during the school year uh weekn night evening evenings are precious time. So thank you for uh devoting some of that um to this important conversation. Um, so as you know, we're um in the process of going out for a $742 per pupil operating levy on November 4th. Um, just personally as a board member, um, this is a decision that we take extremely seriously. So, um, I don't want to completely steal Dr. Rapid's thunder, but I do just want to highlight a couple of factors that have led us to this decision. Um it's specifically talking about um state funding and mandates that have come from um both the federal and state government. The largest individual piece of funding that we get as a school district is called the general education funding formula and it represents 49% of our general fund budget. Um, since 2003, this formula has failed to keep up with inflation by over $1,300 per pupil. That's a $13 million impact every year to our budget. And this gap has doubled since 2021. When you add that on um to the unfunded or partially funded mandates that we have from other levels of government, including special education, English language learners, paid leave, earn safe and sick time, and the read act. Um that's another $5 million in services we're forced to provide but we don't get funding for. between those two factors alone, then our budget is essentially starting every year $18 million in the hole. Um that's a big problem and unfortunately um for our district and others across the state um it has fallen to local property taxpayers to fill that gap. Um, I do want to say, um, you know, this is a this is an important time for our district. Um, we've come through the pandemic and come out of it in really good shape. And that's through the hard work of our of our teachers and our district staff who put in systems um to support our students and families. and we're really um achieving some terrific academic results. Um just in the last few months, we've seen our district highlighted by the Harvard University Center for Education Policy Research as the bright spot in the state of Minnesota in academic performance coming out of the pandemic. And just last week, there was a story in the Minnesota Reformer um that talked about our success in math um and getting scores um back above prepandemic levels. And just to drill in on that a little bit, um we're the only district in our 15 district peer group that we compare against. We're the only district among the 30 largest school districts in the state um that can make that claim that math MCA scores are higher than prepandemic levels. We're in the top 8% in the state among all publiclix and charters in math. And in our 15 district peer group, our achievement level is fourth today versus ninth in 2019. We're making huge progress. Um eighth grade math is another bright spot. Our eighth grade math scores are up 22% since 2022. That is uh fifth best in the state among all districts with at least 50 eighth graders and we have over 650. So incredible work. Um in reading we're second in our 15 district peer group since 2019 and third among the largest 30 districts in the state. That puts us in the top 9% um among all publics and charters in the state and we're making progress compared to neighboring districts. Um our score patterns are better than Minnetonka in Prairie and Shakape um since 2019 um by many points in some cases. So this is a chance for us as a district um to with the with these funds to maintain this momentum that we have. Um Dr. Brady will provide some more information on that and then we'll be happy to answer any questions you have. Thanks. >> All right. Thank you, Chair Olsson. Just as a reminder for those that joined us late, we did have note cards when we came in and there are some up here up front for questions. As Dr. Rathky is presenting, if you have any questions, feel free to grab a note card, write them down, and just kind of lift your hand. And Assistant Superintendent Manine is out there very anxious to collect note cards from folks with questions. So, with that, I will turn it over to Dr. Racky. Well, good evening everybody. They moved the table over to the left so I have lots of room to pace because I get super excited about talking about our district. So many people have come up to me and asked me, you know, are you tired or you've been out and about in the community telling our story and it has been such an honor to tell our district story and it has been really a highlight for me. Uh there's just so many exciting things to say. I just so appreciate you're also just spending some time talking about the highlights because the academic outcomes and successes we've been having, although there's always so much to do has just been amazing. Just really proud of our leaders and our teachers for their really hard work um to serve our students. So, okay. Okay, there we go. Wrong way. So, one of the things that we've been spending time talking about and getting ready as we started talking about the referendum is the campaign of a referendum is usually about telling our district that people like this is all the stuff that you're going to lose. And it's it's kind of a sad hard way to talk about the district and it's the reality of of you know needing to either uh contain costs or raise revenue. That's the choice that's in front of us. But really what happened is last year we pulled a team of people together because that's what you do. You never make budget cuts without a lot of people sitting around you helping you understand what the implication is going to be. And to be honest, there's only one thing that makes me lose a lot of sleep and it's cutting services from students. Cutting things from our kids, it should make us lose some sleep. And so we want to get the best thinkers sitting around it. we around the decision-making. So, we started talking about what was in jeopardy uh if we didn't decide to go out for a referendum. And all of a sudden, as this list started to grow, we started talking about this is what makes ECCS different. And we started talking about that's really our story. Yes, there are things that are in jeopardy. Yes, there are things that we could lose if we don't pass our referendum. always tough choices ahead of us, but really the things that we as a community have invested in on behalf of our students is really what makes us different. So, let's just talk a little bit. I could spend the whole hour talking about these things. I'm just going to highlight a couple. So, we one of the things that we started this school year with was just people wondering about school safety. I mean, the tragedy that happened in Minneapolis so close to home is how we started school and people had a lot of questions and certainly there are proactive and reactive things that we need to do, drills, all of those things. That stuff is in place. But you know what we do have in our community? We have small schools. We have three middle schools. We have two traditional high schools and an alternative high school. You know what parents tell me the most that one of my favorite things that elementary parents say to me is, "I love my principal because my principal knows my kids' name." And what we know is that when kids are known and they belong somewhere, we if we know them, we can intervene sooner. And so it keeps us safer. Um 95% of our high school students are engaged in something outside of the bell time. That means we have kids that have a sense of community. They have belonging. They have an adult. Their big community got smaller and smaller because they have a place where they're being active. We also know that kids that are more active and engaged in school have a better chance of being academically sound. And part of that is because we have an activities director. So in our two traditional high schools, we have two athletic directors and activities director. So that person focuses on speech and band and one act and debate and prom and yearbook. We're one of the only schools that I know that has an investment in that uh space. If we don't aren't able to pass a referendum, that position's in jeopardy. And what that means is that doesn't mean those clubs and things go away. They get moved to somebody else's plate and they have to do the work to make sure we can maintain those things for students. And I just don't believe it's going to be as high quality to have the outcomes of 95% of our students being engaged on something. Media specialists. I have a really high value of our media specialists. They have a very specific expertise. They are there to create a sense of belonging for kids to see themselves in the books and the spaces and the materials that we provide. They partner with our teachers. They make sure that our kids have the right reading levels. We know that they we know that kids who have more background knowledge actually are better readers. And the way that you get more background knowledge is of access. And so those people do more than shelf books. They are actually there bringing their special gift and talent that makes our kids have a new and different place. And often what kids tell us is that their person is their media specialist because there is a little bit more room to be in an informal space with them. And so many districts have already had to abandon that fifth grade band. That is something our community highly values. When I listen to students, they often tell me about that experience that they get to have. Our community has a high value of music, that pathway that starts in fifth grade that goes through middle and high school. Many districts have had to abandon those things along the way, and we've continued to invest in that. And those are the things that make Eastern Carver County different. And we want to make sure that we can maintain those things. But we do have a financial future ahead of us. And Chair Olsen started to allude to what and how we got here. And that's really what tonight is about. So what we do know is that educational funding hasn't kept up with inflation. So we show this graph all the time. Sometimes it's not in my presentations and then I get thrown off because everybody shows this graph because I want to show this big gap that we have. If the state had kept up over the last two decades, we would not be in this position right now. And so there is a structural issue and I think it's important to the for me to say to the community that doesn't mean we're sitting on our hands and saying there's nothing we can do. However, it's a big system issue that we are trying to address. So, we're advocating at the capital whenever we can, at every opportunity we can. We're continuing to tell our story and the implication of not making an adjustment to this, but we will continue to be in a situation over years and years if this doesn't get addressed. The other thing is is that inflation is inflation is impacting us. So, I always say if your refrigerator and your gas tank cost more money to fill, so does the districts. And so there has been an implication to the race to inflation going up. So that has been um a challenge. I will say this in 25 years of education I have never seen education more competitive than it is right now. People are scrambling to have the best teachers in front of their students. And we should we should be recruiting and retaining the best people. But somehow along the way what we've said to teachers is you just get to be noble. we don't really get to get paid and I think teachers are saying that's not really accurate. So we need to make decisions that are that we can maintain in our financial future and we do want to recruit and retain the very best talent in front of our kids. They deserve it and our teachers do too. So that has raised some of the challenge. Um, so it's not just one thing, but it's a convergence of factors that have brought us here today for needing to come out to the community. And um, none of this is right or wrong or anything we can we can or can't control. And part of the reason we spend time talking about this convergence of factors is because I think the community wants to know, are we managing our money well? And so it is an important question for us to answer and want people to understand how we got here. Um, I the other thing I want to say and I always joke. So, executive director Breck over here, he's going to wave to you. He's our finance and operations person. He's here to answer questions if we need to. He's awesome. He didn't come down to my office like in August and like knock on the door and say, "We're out of money." Like, we knew this was coming and this projection of what could be was going to happen. When I started as the superintendent last year, I started with my 100 day tour and we immediately July 1 were talking to people about the budget's going to be a challenge. What should we prioritize? What's important to you as we have to manage our budget? So, we were asking those questions a year ago. You know, one of the questions that the community often asks us is, "You keep coming back." I that's true. So in 2002 10% of our budget was paid by the local communities and now in 23 24 26% has the legislature is saying community if you want what you a good school system inside of your cities you have to pay for it. And so it is to the expectation of our community supporting education has gone up. So this dollar bill we always show and I think it's really important and I David went through this and made sure and double check our numbers because this is a question we always get asked and I think the community should ask us um how are we spending our money and is it towards students and so we are committed to student centered spending. um 80 cents on the dollar in our budget is for students towards students student facing and we have operational costs that have to be maintained. People will say to me, "Oh, the administration is very heavy up in that district office or um there's so many administrators. I want to just say this, we do have more administrators because we have more schools. So if you were in Minnotonka or Eden Prairie, you would have one high school principal. we have two. We would have one or, you know, maybe you'd have one assistant principal. We have two because we have two high schools. We have three middle schools. If you go to a a district that's similar to ours, they might have one really large middle school and one really large high school. So, building administrators are necessary and we have more schools. The other part is is and it's important to me, but not everybody is always thinking about it, but there is a business side to education. I mean, we run a $150 million business. And so, there are things like payroll and HR, accounting, they have to happen. I don't know about you, but I really want an accountant looking at our money and I should want an accountant looking at our money. Um, I do want someone who is an HR expert so that they make sure that that we are following the law and labor laws. Those things have to happen. You know, one of I always tell the story of our payroll specialists. If I was a president of a Fortune 500 company who ran $150 million budget and had 1500 employees, if you ask Google, so if we trust Google and said, "How many payroll specialists should I have?" It's like four. I have 1.5. And nobody's going to come up to the school board to chair Olsen and say, "My daughter Jenny's really been impacted because you've cut the payroll specialist." That's never going to happen. And our employees deserve to get paid on time with compliance with the right retirement and taxes taken out of their checks. And we need those people to do that expertise. So there are fixed operational costs that we have to have. We have to have bus drivers. We have to have people who serve lunch. And so those pieces do fit into our operational funding. And it is a good question and we should be responsible to answer it. Last year during our $5 million cuts, most of that cut came from administration. As we continue continue to be operationally efficient, that was the charge the board gave and some of our administrators are doing more than one job. Um this uh we always show this graph. It's really helpful for us to see the bottom blue number is our operating levies across our comparable districts. So if you see these districts on this side of the graph, these are ones that we are often compared to. And what happens is the legislature puts a cap on the dollar amount that we can ask our community for. And so there is a percentage a dollar amount that we're able to go. The districts that are on the left side, they've been at CAP for a long time. That does mean that those communities have made these school districts can make different investments than we've been able to. That's not good or bad or right or wrong. It just is the facts. At the top, the dark blue, that's our capital project levy or our tech levy. Um, we we often call it our tech levy. This helps with safety and security, our technology, and there is not a cap on that. So, right now we are um kind of towards the bottom. And one of the things I want to just point out is Hopkins. This is really important because I I want to tell you this. I it matters to me when we ask our community. Whenever you ask people to make an investment, take from their livelihood, give invest, give their money, it they their questions should be answered and people should understand where we stand and why we are asking and how other districts are impacted by it. So in Hopkins, they uh there are there are some barriers. Hopkins has a significant amount of industry that they're able to share the tax burden with. Eastern Carver County is a destination place in the state because there is not a lot of industry. There's parks and trails and these beautiful things that make Eastern Carver County beautiful. And there is an implication and an investment on behalf behalf of our homeowners that is here that would be different if there was more industry. And so there is implication to our homeowners. So um as Cher Olsen said, the board had a tough decision in front of them and they take it very seriously because it is important when we ask our community to invest in us that we're being thoughtful, fiscally responsible, that we're being um operationally efficient. And so there were three choices. Not to do anything. If we did nothing, we have $6.5 million coming up after our 5 million last year. And I just want to remind us in 2019 when we lost the referendum, we haven't rebounded or added back a whole lot from that loss. One of the things that we know is once we lose something, it's very hard to get it back. And so, uh, to continue to have the cuts that would be ahead of us is really challenging. The board decided that was not what they wanted to do on behalf of their our community. So what we decided there was another choice was a mid-level ask $450 or $500. We have often done it that way. Not good or bad or right or wrong, but really what that would the board would have done is said if that's what we would have decided to do, I would have taken out the duct tape and like took duct tape and taped it over the hole. That's happening. And we would have been in a similar position in a couple years again. And I do not think in our economy and our political climate uh in where we are in the district that we can go to our community and say, "Can you make this investment? Give more. Get nothing different." And that's what duct taping looks like. So, we've um talked to the board about going to CAP for the first time in our district. We're really excited for the opportunity to explain to the community why we think that's important and what investments we'd be able to make on behalf of our students if we're able to do that. So, the board unanimously voted to go out for $742 per student. Um, I'm sorry, pure per pupil. So, I have a couple things I want to point out on this slide. So $742 $742 on a $500,000 home would be $23 a month. So in 2019 our operating levy ask was $22. In 21 our operating levy ask was $20. In uh 25 it is $23. So it's typically the trend and pattern that we have asked the community for. What you'll see here is this $500,000 is the median value of our homes in Eastern Carver County. In 2019, it was $350,000. In 21, it was 375,000. 25 500,000. So, we know that our property values in Eastern Carver County have gone up significantly. We also know that our community continues to grow rapidly, but I want to address that because there is always a little bit of a question that comes from the community about enrollment. If we increase enrollment, would you have to ask us for money? Here's what we do know. The birth rates in Minnesota have gone down. The birth rates in the United States have gone down. We also know that the median level home in Eastern Carver County is $500,000. I I think that doesn't always recruit new mommies and new daddies. um living in $500,000 homes. That's I mean our homes out here are amazing and might be hard to recruit new families. There are less schoolage children even though there is a lot of growth. But what a lot of growth will tell us is that $23 will continue to go down historically because we start to spread it over more people in our tax base. So I want to just point out a couple things here. Okay. Yep. There we go. What I'm excited about is for the for this operating referendum, we are able to maintain the program that I just spent a little time talking about that I think make us different. And because we spent so much time engaging the community and listening about what our community desires, we also know some investments that we want to make. These aren't all of the investments, but these are some things we want to highlight and talk about. So, at the elementary level, what we've heard from our families is that our gifted and talented has been limited in comparison to our comparable districts. I think that's fair and true. So, we want to invest a 1.0 at minimum in every one of our elementary schools. What that does is it allows more services for our students that always in core classes. It might make class sizes feel a little bit different or smaller because I'm pulling out or there's an extra adult in the room. What I love about our the way that we're going to roll out gifted and talent is we continue to make sure that there's access for many and all students. So K2 students get all kids get access to talent acquisition because we want to continue to not we don't want to marginalize students already at that level. We want to make sure that they all have opportunities to expose their gifts and talents through this programming. And so we're going to do some investing there and we can maintain our media specialists. we can keep fifth grade band. There's lots of things that we're able to maintain and then do some investing as well. At the middle level, it's the same thing we heard from our families. When I got here 6 years ago, our middle schools were not aligned. You know, you had to go to certain schools to get certain programming. And one of the things that we believe in Eastern Carver County is no matter where you live, what your house looks like, what your zip code is, what your four cities is, is that you have access to all the programming that we have available. In one middle school, we had an accelerated English class. And now what we've done is we started to evaluate that advanced academics and we are rolling out over a course of a couple years um advanced academics at all three middle schools in all four core. But to maintain that and do be able to continue to make that investment in our advanced academics again something that our community has said that they have a high desire for we have we have to have the funding to be able to do that because it is an investment. The second thing is is our YPE students. If you haven't heard about that, we have a a group of students at the middle level. They're they're are youth precipitatory evaluators. I think I said it right. Um YP and our students talk to other students and do evaluation and ask them questions about things that they value. I also have talked to hundreds of students this last year and one of the things our middle school students are telling us is that they want more opportunities for career and college pathways. They are worried about their future. They are worried. I was not worried about that in sixth grade, but they are. They want to make sure that they can make connections to I'm doing this lesson. This teacher is teaching me this thing. What does this mean for me and getting a job? How am I going to adult through that? And so, we want to do some enhancement of our career and college pathway exposures to our middle school students. We want to make an investment there based on what our students told us they wanted. At the high school level, we want to also maintain our high level of programming. Um, we offer programs that serve all students that come into our building. So, if you want to do be someone who's a carpenter, um, work, do auto mechanics, wants to be in the trades, we want to make sure we can serve you. I met with a group of, I mean, I had like this drop the mighty moment last year at the end of the year. I met with a hand about 25 seniors at all of our high schools and heard all their stories about how they experienced Eastern Carver County and the vast programming and opportunities were provide are just amazing. So students like I took this woods class with Mr. Poran and I'm so excited to be a carpenter. I also did auto mechanics and I can't wait to be a mechanic. I went to um the co-op and I took uh EMT classes. Now I'm working as a EMT to make money and I'm going to go to school to be a paramedic. Then I met with students who are like, I took 14 AP classes. I can't wait to wear a pink business suit. I'm either going to be a lawyer or a doctor. I mean, it was like all the way from here to here to here. And it was I it was so incredible. But having that kind of opportunity through programming is an investment. We want to maintain that. Again, those outside of school activities that are really critical for our students. We also heard a significant amount from our students and our families that we continue to need more mental health supports. And if you have a friend, a child who is experiencing pediatric mental health, it is hard to get services. And that is something that we want to invest in. And that doesn't mean we can always have a clinical approach, but what we can have is more relationships, more licensed people to support our students. And so this year we made an investment in a fifth counselor at our two traditional high schools. What that allows us to do is have smaller case loads. Smaller case loads mean um I have more time to triage students and I have more time to have one-on-one meetings with students to make plans for the future. So both a career and college investment and a mental health investment. What our kids are telling us about mental health is a little different than my definition of mental health. But what our kids are telling us is, I want to be triaged. When I feel stressed out about my test, I want someone I can talk to in that moment and then I can go do my test. And what they make connections around is they love their teachers and they can talk to their teachers, but they also have this feeling like a social worker and counselor also has this other thing that I think I need when I'm feeling anxious or stressed. And so we want to make sure we can provide that. So we made an investment with some money from the legislature, but want to be able to maintain that investment. Same thing. We want to enhance our college and career pathways. We've started that process with this fifth counselor. We've invested in some technology. Our kids are going to get more one-on-one meetings where they can talk about what they want to do with their future and how they align their electives and our class choices to make those decisions. Also, opportunities to explore. What's my inventory say? What might there be out there for me? I don't know about you, if you've ever looked at a trade school list of opportunities there. I just did this last year. My son goes to ANOA Tech. There are jobs on there I didn't even know you could go and be a Duke. I was like, that looks like a cool job. I didn't even know that was a job. And so giving our kids opportunities to see what's out there for them. This will help us enhance that. So really excited about the opportunities to not only maintain what we have, but also do some clear investments in every one of our levels. So here's my slide that's sad. Um, and I it's not my favorite slide, but it is the truth and the reality of of what happens when a operating levy doesn't pass. We have to make cuts and have to make decisions around programming and where we can trim things. This last year in our $5 million, we called it the scalpel approach. We tried to trim things here and there so that we didn't lose everything totally because like I said earlier, once you lose something, it's hard to have it get it back. And so here are some things that are always in jeopardy when these things come up. Fifth grade band, um, kindergarten paras. I don't know about you, but um, I was a high school teacher and I was a middle school principal, so I did not do elementary students um, classes, but kindergarteners are like hurting cats. I love them so much. I feel like I miss out on such a great opportunity to spend time, but you know, they need tissues tied and boots on and coats zipped. They need all kinds of things and having another adult in the space is really important to our teachers. We've had to do some elimination of that and want to continue to maintain that support. Also, kindergarten is such an important time in school. I'm learning how to be a student. I'm learning how to come to school. I'm learning how to be away from my caregiver. I'm learning how to sit in my desk and do and move and follow the line. It's so such an important time foundationally for our kids. um you know reducing some of our gifted and talented programming that staffing at the athletic and activities level. There's just a lot of jeopardy. So we always show this tax impact. And so this is just a a home value and what the referendum would cost you. If you go on our website, we have a live calculator. You can put your specific numbers in so you can get your specific monthly and yearly payment. And I shared this already. This is a graph that we use to just talk about the tax base spreading. And so I had the opportunity to be out at all four of our city councils. And most of them actually when I was out there were talking about the home growth that they're all having in each of their communities. So very exciting. Um and again it just helps us think about $23 and what it might historically has gone down because of the growth of our homes. This is also I shared this a little bit already but this is the tax impact that the district has had in the community and if you look at your property tax what we have found is that if you look the district's um amount has gone down because again home home values going up tax base getting bigger but in 2019 $22 was $20 and this year $23 again trend and pattern of around a 20-ish pass. So when we pass the referendum, we move up one spot. And so this is an important graph just to see. I we just I think we need to be committed to our community to just share. We don't want to overt tax. We don't want to over ask and we believe that we are still staying in the range of our comparables and and want to demonstrate that fiscal responsibility. So the vote is on or before November 4th. So absentee ballots of course has increased in popularity. The county is supporting us with absentee ballots. We're grateful for their partnership. You can vote on November 4th. I It's our normal voting locations. I do just want to point out that Chesa Community Center is normally where we vote. We're going to be voting at the Ches Event Center. Wanted to be careful and support our community. The construction makes it a complicated place to be right now. And so want to just highlight the Ches Event Center. And I think we're gonna show a video. At Eastern Carver County Schools, strong relationships, highquality programs, and opportunities for every student are at the heart of who we are. This November, our community will vote on an operating levy that would provide stable funding to sustain and build the highquality educational programs our families value. Like many districts, we're facing rising costs in state funding that hasn't kept up with inflation. Our district has already made more than $5 million in budget reductions. Without additional revenue, another $6.5 million in cuts will be needed over the next four years, which could mean increased class sizes, reducing music offerings such as fifth grade bands, eliminating kindergarten pair professionals, and reducing media specialists, gifted programming, and staff supporting high school athletics and activities. These cuts represent investments our community has made in the past that set our district apart. That's why this fall, voters will consider a 10-year operating levy that would provide an increase of $742 per student with an annual adjustment for inflation. For the owner of the average value home in our district, the estimated tax impact is about $23 per month. This funding would allow our district to continue our strong academic preparation of students, invest in greater opportunities and support for all students, and provide stability to protect programs from shifts in enrollment, funding, and unforeseen circumstances. At the elementary level, it's really important to have those small class sizes because of a lot of our curriculum. So, things like those reading small groups get students exactly what they need at their level. One of the things that I think is the most important about our kindergarten pair of professionals is their ability to know every kindergarten student. So they support students not just in the classroom but also at lunch and recess. So allows for that connection back with the classroom teacher as well. >> Music is important for development because it fosters collaboration, creativity. You have a lot of math concepts in there. You have decoding and when you're working together as a team, you get that team building teamwork. goes well together. And then when you're working together, that's when the the magic happens. They're able to really create something beautiful. >> My kids were able to be in adaptive sports, typical sports. They also were able to have Spanish and languages and arts that are still available even though we're a smaller school. Accessibility to all the different programs was amazing. >> After my experience in the district, I felt exceptionally well equipped to go to college. Going through this district taught me how to be a good, kind, and proactive person. It taught me a ton about making good choices by using my time well about building relationships with people. So, I was exceptionally welcomed in the course of my work dealing with kids who have graduated and now graduated from college and they're wanting to come back cuz they want their kids to have that same experience. >> Please vote. Please vote. Please vote. learn all you can about the referendum and please remember to vote on or before November 4th. The last slide that's coming up is just ways to get information. So certainly take out your phones and and um grab this. We have a website that's live and dynamic. We keep updating it. We have a email address that you can email us at so that we can get your questions answered whether it's uh our board members or administration that can support depending on what the question is. And my referendum joke was uh 1800 referendum. You can make call and make a phone call. It's not really 1800 referendum but that's what I've been saying. And no one's called us yet. So you can also call. We just want to make sure that we have people have access no matter how they want to do it to make sure they can get their questions answered. That's the most important thing. Um, we know it's a always an investment in our community by making um making this decision and we want people to be informed accurately. So, thank you so much for coming. Tonight, we're going to do some question and answer. >> Okay. Thank you so much, Dr. Reky. So, um, our executive director of equity inclusion is in front with extra cards. So, if you had a card that if you have a question that came up and you didn't grab a card, just raise your hand. She'll get she'll get to you. And if you have a question with a card, lift it up and we've got folks um in the audience. So, I think the first question I'm going to ask, and I'm going to ask this of you, Cher Olsson. Um a lot of people are curious uh how the election process works in a school district referendum election when it's the only thing on the ballot. How do we work with the cities and counties in partnership and what does that process look like in terms of selecting election judges, those types of things? >> Yeah, sure, D. Thanks for the question. So um with this being a special election um things do work a little bit differently. We as district are um on the hook for the expense related to it. Um our number one priority obviously is um following all applicable election law and making sure our processes are done in a way that promotes integrity and transparency and uh you know making sure that people can feel confident in the results. Um it is important to note that because it is a special election for a school district, which is a nonpartisan um election, it does work a little bit differently than your typical statewide election um on the even years. under state statute um section 205A.10 subdivision 2, it does indicate that um there is no requirement um for balanced partisan election judges like in a general um statewide election. So um let me just briefly explain um and we did have a more detailed discussion um on this topic at last night's schoolboard meeting. So, I would reference you to the to the video for that if you really want to um dive deep into it. But basically, the way we put together the election judges for November um was we asked the cities which kind of control the approved judges list um for the judges that worked in their cities um in 2024. And then based on that, the cities either contacted those judges on our behalf or they gave us the contact information and the district um reached out to them. Folks who were interested in serving as an election judge um in November were asked to fill out a Google form um that just had some really basic information, things like their past experience and training. Um what location they would prefer um to work at? Could they do the full day or just a half day? Were they interested in being a head judge? Um at no point in this process um either collecting the information from the cities or on the Google form itself um at no point in that process were we collecting anything uh about the partisan identification of those individuals. Um once we had the group of folks who were um interested in participating um based on their experience and all the other factors were assigned to locations and shifts and we approved those judges at last night's meeting and so um you know most of the folks have done uh I think virtually all the folks have been election judges in the past and so um I expect it'll go very smoothly on election day. One thing I would also note is for early voting um we do contract with the county um to do that um we could under state law do that at the district office um but we contract with the county to do that just to um make sure there's no appearance of impropriety on our part that you know we're not asking you to come into our building and cast the vote there. um you go to the county and the experienced folks in the county elections department take care of it. >> Thank you so much. For this next question, I'm actually going to ask our executive director of finance and operations to come on up and answer it. Um so if you want to come this way, Mr. Bret, uh it is what are the top four expenses for the district? And I could do the short hand, but I'll let you go into it longer. >> Got it. top four expenses in the district. Um so district accounting follows the UARS reporting system in the state of Minnesota uniform financial accounting and reporting system. In that system there are six codes that every expense is tracked by and that's a fund code, an organization code, a program code, a course code, an object code. Um so there's different ways to think about expenses within a district. um two of the most common ways. Object code or object series. Uh number one expense in the school district is salary. Number two expense is benefits. Number three expense is purchase services which is often other people doing services that we don't hire internally. Examples I like to use for that are architects, engineers or legal services. We don't hire our own but we are needing services. So we pay for that. Um and I believe in that series the fourth is capital expenditures. So expenses probably maintaining our buildings. The other that was the dollar bill that Dr. Rafki showed earlier is the program series. So if we look at the expenditures across the district based on program series, number one expense is regular instruction. Number two expense is special education instruction. Um number three expense I believe is operations and maintenance and in that group is custodial and transportation and nutrition services. So a bunch of people with salary and benefits again and then the next two are either pupil support or instructional support other services that are at the building supporting students directly. So there's other ways to break it down in the EU far system, but those are probably the two most common ways and how I recall the expenses kind of from top to three or four or five. >> People people um so the next question I will let um Dr. Aky start and then if there's any um additions Cherylson, what cuts have been made? I think thinking about the the $5 million in cuts where what was impacted David, you might want to help me with this one, too. Um, we usually are, historically, we have buckets that we highlight. Administration is one. Um, direct teacher support is one. Um, special education is one. There is um student activities that um is at the bottom. I think I'm missing there's one other category. And so some things that were impacted, we trimmed down some um kindergarten paras. We increased class sizes uh at the uh at every level except kindergarten. We protected kindergarten. Uh we cut and reorganized the district office quite significantly. Um cutting administration there as well. Can you recall some other things, David, on that list? Um I think the the groups are instruction, administration, operations and maintenance and then student activities are the largest groups. Um so I think you hit most of them. Reorganization of administration uh at the instructional level. One of the ways we manage that is uh board class sizes across the district. And then in categories like I mentioned before instructional support or pupil support. There might be roles in there like paraprofessionals. There might be roles in there like clerical support. There might be roles in there like counseling. So some of that was restructured and reorganized. And then actually we took a little bit of a a different maybe a little bit more creative look. Uh unfortunately it still impacts students and parents. Could we raise revenue anyway? And we looked at some of the few places that we actually generate revenue through fees. So we haven't increased student and activity fees in this district in a dozen years or more. So, we looked at uh rebalancing that with what other school districts are doing. See if we can increase the revenue to offset some of the expenses in some of our program. >> And I don't haven't seen any additional questions come up. So, so this is the last question that I have for you all. Um and I think we'll start with you Dr. Ratky and then I think um Cher Olson I think maybe this person did missed the great the great news that that Cher Olson shared at the beginning of the of the session. But the question is why are test scores dropping? And I know that that has not been our experience. >> Would you like to share? >> Yeah, I mean I think I would reiterate that um you know I I wouldn't agree with the framing of that question in terms of suggesting that test scores are dropping across the board. They're not. Um, as I mentioned in math, we are above prepandemic levels. Um, and again, I'll point out we're the only large district in the state um, that's seeing those results. You know, over that same time, Minnotonka is down five points. Prairie is down nine points. Statewide average is down 10 points. Shakip is down 17 points. um we are doing some really great things in math and um you know I think those methods that we've put in um I you know I would say this across the board across math and reading and our other areas um you my five years on the board what we've been able to do to build an organization that looks at data and is able to respond to it um is really it's been huge for our district. Um we are able using tools like FastBridge um to identify those students who need interventions and get the right targeted intervention to them quickly and then we have the tools to assess them to make sure that we've got them back on track. And I think um just the systems and the support we have for our teachers and our families there um are moving us in the right direction. Um obviously we went through a global pandemic. Everybody has seen huge impacts from that. Not just here in Eastern Carver County, not just here in the state, but across the country. Um you know it is true reading scores are down a little bit but again we have a lot of great work going on across the district in place. We started um our science of reading curriculum even before it was mandated by the state. Our fast bridge scores for learners in kindergarten through 2 grade um who haven't quite reached being able to take those MCA tests. Those numbers are really encouraging and we believe that those students who've kind of been in that science of reading curriculum their whole time, as they move up and get into those MCA scores, we believe we'll see that translate. Um, and again, I'll point out compared to other districts, we're doing really great in reading. Um, we're second in our 15 district peer group, third among the largest 30 school districts in the state. Compared to other districts, we're plus two versus Tonka, plus four versus Eden Prairie, plus seven versus Shagi, and 10 better than the statewide performance since 2019. So, um, we're doing a great job. We're top 10% in the state, top 9% in the state in both math and reading, um, among all public and charters. So, I think we know there's more work to do, but we're making great progress. And I think, you know, this referendum is an opportunity for for folks to say, do we want to keep that momentum going? And uh you know, I think I think we have a good story to tell. Um but obviously that'll be that'll be up to folks to decide on that. >> Here's the other piece that I would ask. I mean, MCA tests and scores are important. We look at them. It is part of the way that the state measures us and puts us out on a report card, but it is not the only measure of success for students inside of a school system. And people use MCA and correlate it with something else. MCA correlation to graduation, MCA correlation to grades. It doesn't measure the same thing. And so it is one moment in one data point in time. That is a a moment that we report out on, but it isn't the only data point that represents the success of our students and what they're experiencing in Eastern Carver County Schools. And it's important. It isn't a measure if students So, what I often hear in the community is um they people look at MCA scores and say things like kids kids in Carver County can't read. That's not the same measure. That's not what the MCA measures. And so we're talking about aspirational Minnesota state standards that are set by the state that we are think are important and they it's how we write curriculum. It's how we think about pacing. It's how we think about um skills and competencies we want students to have in that moment. And there's other measures that we're looking at to ensure that we get to proficiency along the way. What our district has seen is that if the measure was in, you know, fifth grade, our numbers would look different because in third grade right now in our system, we're still trying to figure out how to crack the code right there. But what we know is when we see third graders, we see that data, we make the adjustments. In fifth grade, we have almost 80% of our students that are coming out proficients outside of our middle, our elementary schools, which is really incredible work. We just need a little bit longer time with some of our students right now. And um as chair Olsen said some of the work that we're doing there's you know there's science around implementation and what happens when you implement and our educators have made I want to never minimize the work that our educators have had to do around the science of reading. Um math implementation that we've done to ensure that our students are engaged. The pandemic maybe feels like an excuse, but our kids, I mean, everybody just went through something and foundational skills that our kids need when they come into school is always a factor. And we're watching our kids go through the system and experiencing what a pandemic, you know, did to them and to us. And so, always work to do, but excited about the growth that we've made in the district over the last five years. And, um, we'll always have to keep working on behalf of our students. I want to be respectful of time. Um, we do have a variety of schoolboard members and district leaders in the audience. So, if you have questions um that you didn't get answered or that um you didn't want to ask in front of an audience, please feel free. We're here. Uh, with that, uh, Chair Olsson, any parting words for folks? Um, I would just encourage folks, um, visit the website, um, if you need additional information, um, or talk to a board member, um, talk to a member of, uh, of district staff, um, get information and then please, um, between now and November 4th, get out there and vote. So, thank you all for coming tonight. >> Dr. Ry, you want to take us home? >> Okay. Well, thank you all for coming and uh we will see you soon. [Applause] [Music]