I mean, we've got just the one microphone tonight, so Just pass that. Sure, absolutely. Hello, everyone. Welcome to all of you, and thank you for attending this panel discussion about the District 112 referendum. Tonight's discussion is being co-hosted by the League of Women Voters of Eastern Carver County and the Southwest Metro Chamber. I'm Laura Helmer, member of the League of Women Voters Eastern Carver County, and I'll be the moderator for tonight's panel. Um, I'd like to ask Steve Curtis to come on up. Thank you very much. My name is Steve Curtis, I'm president of the Southwest Metro Chamber of Commerce. We are 330 businesses, and we serve Chanhassen, Chaska, Carver, Victoria, and many of our surrounding communities. We are excited to partner with the League of Women Voters of Eastern Carver County for the school referendum. It is so important to us that we together we aim to foster open dialogue, and we encourage civic engagement, and we promote awareness of important educational opportunities that impact our community. And as a dad with two boys and one graduate already, thank you for being here today. >> Thank you. Thank you, Steve. The League of Women Voters provides educational programming such as this panel discussion to present issues that are important to our members, to voters, and members of the community. We also host candidate forums in election years and provide voter registration materials and assistance throughout the community. The League is a non-partisan organization that does not support or oppose any political party or candidate, and the League does not hold a position for or against this referendum that will appear on the November 4th, 2025 ballot. You are welcome to submit questions to the panel this evening. Note cards are available on your tables for this purpose. Just hold up your card high above your head, and one of our League volunteers or Steve will collect them. And now, let's meet our panel. We have Dr. Aaron Rathke, District 112 superintendent, and from the District 112 School Board, Director and current Vice Chair Angela Erickson, and Director Jenny Stone. The panel will make a presentation on the referendum, and then will answer questions submitted by the audience. So, Dr. Rathke, I turn it over to you. Great. Do you Is it better if I go over there? Wherever you'd like to be. I'm going to feel really constrained with the cord. Is this okay? Hi, everybody. Well, first of all, thank you to the League of Women Voters and Southwest Chamber of Commerce for hosting us tonight. We're super excited to be here always. Dr. Aaron Rathke, I'm the superintendent. I've been the superintendent, this is my start of my second year. Previous to that, I was the assistant superintendent. So, I've been in the district for 6 years, and I'm proud to lead this organization. We have incredible teachers and administrators and cabinet leaders. We have an incredible school board, and I'm so excited to be here tonight and be able to just share some information. Our purpose tonight is to give you the facts. That is most importantly what we want is, you know, we live in America, it's a democracy, you get to vote, and that is an amazing opportunity for all of us that we have a choice, and we want to make sure that people have the factual information. You know, in a world of social media and chatting and just being able to put stuff out into spaces, a lot of misinformation happens, and I want to make sure that you have the information and then be able to answer your questions tonight. So, we do have a financial reality in front of us. If you've watched the Star Tribune, if you've read the newspaper, if you've been online at all, you're seeing that Eastern Carver County is not the only district facing some financial tribulation um, in the midst of just a really challenging time. So, there's a couple reasons why that's happening. We call it a convergence of factors cuz it's not one thing. And sometimes when David Brekke is here, who's the executive director of finance and operations, I usually like look at him and laugh and I say, you know, David didn't run down to my office in, you know, August and like knock on the door and say we were in a We do five-year projections. We know what is happening in years to come. And so, we've been talking about this. So, when I started as as I started as the superintendent, I did a 100-day tour, talked to hundreds of people, and one of the questions I asked was, what should remain a priority in our budget? Because I knew the budget challenge was here and coming, and that we needed to get prepared for it, and we wanted to start listening to people as we needed to start making decisions. So, a couple reasons why we're here. We have a structural issue in the state of Minnesota. Um, the legislator is not funding education at the rate of inflation. And that has been going on for two decades. And you know, I love to show this graph. Keely has to put it in there for me because I love it. We show it everywhere. And this is just an example of inflate keeping up with inflation. So, if you look at the blue bar and the dotted line, if we would just close that gap there, we would have millions of dollars that would support our system. Now, I can't fix that, you can't fix that right now other than advocating to your legislator. And I do want to say this because I tell this story, and I don't want to just put my hands down and say, okay, well, that should start the problem. I I want to be able to say to all of you, you know, um, my chief of staff, Keely Hego, we are at the capital whenever we can be. And so, our professional organizations hosts host days for us to be there. We tell Eastern Carver County story. We call people that represent our communities to tell them the challenges that are in front of us. I just called Senator Coleman the other day and talked to her about the need of a referendum and her support of that. So, you know, we're there advocating and that's all I can do at this point. But, there is [clears throat] a structural issue here. The second thing is inflation. Just inflation in general. So, if your gas tank costs more to fill, if your refrigerator costs more to fill, so does the district's. And we're all facing that and that is a challenge that's in front of all of us. And so, we are facing that as well. We have a very large district of square miles. You know, we're about 84 square miles that we transport kids across our district. Gas going up is an is an implication to our operational function. So, that's just an example. We feed 9,000 students every single day. And so, food going up costs the district more money. So, I just want to use that as an example. So, if you're facing it, so are we. The other thing is is I want to say this, you know, education is as competitive as it ever has been and I've been an educator for 25 years and I don't know that it's ever been more competitive as it is now. And you know what that means? That means we want to recruit and retain the best, most talented teachers in front of our students. They deserve it. And our teachers deserve to be compensated for that work. You know, in my experience, my dad was an educator. That's why I became an educator and what what my dad would say is that being an educator was just a noble profession and it was like you're supposed to rub two dimes together to live because you were doing something very noble. I think it is a really noble profession and salaries and benefits are competitive and districts are competing with one another to maintain and recruit the most talented staff and we should. Our teachers deserve it. Our staff deserve it. There is shortages of certain staff members such as bus drivers and nutrition services and paraprofessionals. So, those people that don't teach, but are supporting students in other ways. And we also need to remain competitive to make sure that our jobs are filled. And so, those are some of the challenges. The second thing I want to talk about around compensation is that in many industries across the United States right now, benefits, health benefits have gone up and have cost many industries more money. Education is facing the same thing and so, our premiums have gone up quite a bit. So, it's really hard to say, "Hey, you got a raise, but also your health benefit premium went up and so, by the way, you're taking home less money the next year." That's a really hard That's a really hard pill to swallow. And so, we have a competitive industry that we are ensuring that we have the best talent in front of our students. So, it's another convergence of factors. So, there's this collision right now where we're and I could go on and on. I am very passionate about pension reform, our aging population of teachers, wanting to make sure that teachers can retire with dignity and that we can onboard and welcome brand new educators. But, it's hard to do that right now when people can't or won't retire, are not able to financially. And so, now you have the oldest educators on that side of the pay scale versus our young educators coming in. So, there's just a convergence that's complicated, that it's real and that we're navigating as district leaders, as school board members, as we continue to navigate and consider our budget. So, one of the questions and I want to try to answer your questions because of course, I've been out in the community. We have been in every place I feel like I've been around the world in Eastern Carver County in the last like eight weeks. And so, I have been telling the story over and over again and I do want to say this to you and I didn't say this at the beginning. It has been a total honor to share our district story. I have had so much fun being out in our community and talking about the work that we're doing and the challenge that's in front of us. But, I want to try to answer your question. So, one of the things that I get asked a lot is, "Well, you keep asking for money." And that is true. In 20 I'm sorry, 2002 and 2003, 10% of our funding was locally funded. And in 23-24, 26% is locally funded. Again, that's that structural issue and the state is saying, "If you want excellent schools and you want to have a competitive edge, your community has to support it." And many of the districts that we get compared to, they have well um they have well funded community support and I'm going to show you a bar graph just demonstrating that as well. So, we have continued to have to have some support from the community as we've been challenged with our state funding. Now, one of the other questions that I get often is how are you spending your money? Are you being fiscally responsible? I always hear, "Oh, the administrators, the district office is very fat." I don't know that people actually have a factual like number that they're thinking that means, but it's just something we say often in education. I said it when I was a teacher, like what are those people up there doing? I don't know what they do. I'm the one standing in front of students. And then you get up there and you're like, "Oh, this is what everybody's doing." But, I want to tell you this. This is really important. We do analyze our budget. The board holds my feet to the fire with an expectation that ensuring that 80 cents on the dollar is spent towards students. Now, one of the things as a superintendent that I want to share with you is I run a business. I run a $156 million business. I have to have an accountant because you want me to have an accountant. Otherwise, I am not able to be as fiscally responsible as I should be because that person has a degree in accounting. I need that person. And I should be advised by the best people to ensure that we are spending our money the way that we need to. I have to have someone do payroll. We're a business. We have We have over 1,000 employees. If you ask Google, if you trust Google, if you ask Google if I was a CEO of a company and I had over 1,000 employees and you ask Google how many payroll specialists I should have, it would tell you I need four. I have 1.5. So, we run as lean as we possibly can at the business side. And I always tell this, I try to be funny. You all have to lighten up and smile and laugh with me a little bit because it It's true. Like people come to the board table and share with our board and advocate for their kids and they should. No one is going to come to the board table and say to these incredible board members, "You cut that payroll specialist and my daughter is really impacted by it." We're impacted by teachers. We're impacted by support staff. But, if our teachers and staff can't get paid accurately get paid and they don't get the things taken out of their checks like TRA and PRA and paid family leave, all those things, we would be in We would be out of compliance with the state of Minnesota and I would be failing as a business owner. And so, those are the challenges that are in front of us. You know, the service we provide is curriculum and instruction. I need to have someone who has an expertise in curriculum and instruction to ensure that we can be compliant with title one, title two, title three. All of those things that are the business side of education. Now, I wanted to be able to stand confidently in front of the community and share that I was I want to be honest and authentic and say the truth. So, I had our human resources do an evaluation of comparative districts of ours, looked at their org charts and looked at our org charts. I shared the data with the school board because I wanted to make sure that they knew that I was evaluating our administrative costs and we know that we are running lean. More lean than any other district that I have compared us to that we normally compare ourselves to. So, I'll just use this as an example. And there's a district down the road. They have 11 people in their communications department. They are smaller than we are and we have two We have three. They have a $100,000 platform website that they use to market. And so, there are lots of ways that people invest in their community from a business perspective. The expectation of our school board has been is that we remain lean at the administrative office as much as we possibly can and still run a fiscally responsible, thoughtful business. We do have more administrators because we have more schools. So, one of the things that our community has decided to invest in is two high schools. And we have two smaller high schools, which means double the opportunities for our students. I mean, what an amazing opportunity. Like if you are going to a a district that has a 3,200 student high school, there are 10 slots on the basketball team. That's it. If you aren't running for division one and aren't a division one prospect, you're probably not even seeing the court. That's not what our community wanted for our students. And so, we have two football teams and two basketball teams and two one acts and two spring plays and two debate teams. It's such a clear investment for our community, but we run two high schools. That means two operational costs, two principals. So, there is some more administrative costs that our community has invested in and I think it's something we should be celebrating, but we got to be able to know the evaluation that we're making when we make statements like, you know, it's super administrative heavy. We do have more administrators because we have more schools. Um, we have three middle schools. Some of our the bigger Some of the districts that we're compared to, they have one large middle school or maybe two mid-size um middle schools. One of the things I've been super excited about talking about and and been really sad to have to share is, you know, our school year started off really difficult. Um, there was a school shooting um very close to us. Many of us have friends or know educators there, students that we serve. That's actually the community what that is near the community I served as a principal when I was in Minneapolis public schools. So, communities of people that I love and care about, you know, we're really impacted by that and that makes parents get nervous and they say things like, "How are you keeping my students safe?" And one of the things I've just been so grateful to be able to share is that um we have small schools. It's an investment that our community has made and one of the things that parents tell me all the time is that one of their favorite things is that their principal knows their student. Their their kid is known. And you know what keeps schools safe is being known. Being known by an adult is what we know that's a proactive way to keep kids safe. Now, we can't stop everything. We should have reactive things like lockdowns and secure doors and all of that stuff around emergency management, but what we really know is when people know kids, they know when they start acting different. They know when they're not showing up. They know when their grades start to change and those are indicators that let us know that something's going on that we need to intervene and support at home. And so, one of the things that makes I I believe makes Eastern Carver County schools a safe place a safer place is the investment that our community has made in small schools. And so, and there is a cost to that as well. Um, so we shared with the board Our board had a big decision in front of us you know, mid-summer was to do nothing. To just uh allow us to consider uh decreasing our costs. And so, whenever you're in this position, you either have to decrease costs or raise revenue. There's no other choice. I don't have a product to sell. Um, I always say I wish I had a product to sell. The product I have is people. Um, if I had a bag of chips, I could put more air in the chip the chip bag, put less chips in there and charge people more money and we'd raise revenue. That's not the option that I have, but I still have to raise revenue or decrease costs. So, the board um I we said to the board, "What Option number one is to do nothing and we will continue to contain costs by cutting services, people, and things from students um and continue to uh evaluate our operational efficiencies, which was one of the things the board asked me to ensure that I was doing um to continue to make sure that we can run as lean as possible." So, last year we cut $5 million um to make sure that we could get to this year and make some decisions. We cut a lot of um administrative pieces. We reorg some of our administrative jobs up at the district office. Um, we did have to make some cuts in the classroom. Really hard decisions. Not decisions that you want to make. I don't lose sleep about too much. Um, one thing I do lose sleep about often and during that time is whenever you take anything from students, you should be losing sleep. Our kids deserve everything we have and more. Um, and so the second choice was a mid-level ask, which is about $450, maybe $500, which is really typically what Eastern Carver County has done. And I don't think it's good, bad, right, or wrong. It was a choice, which brings in about $4 million, and what that would do is allow us to just kind of stay status quo. And we'd be out again. And we'd stay status quo. And I just don't think in a this economy, I don't think in this environment right now and the continuation of having to come out and ask the community for money, what we would the story I would have had to tell was, "Pay more, get nothing else." I don't think that that's uh a good sell, but I wanted the board The board got to make the decision. The third option was this one right here, which is $742 per pupil, which takes us to the cap legislatively. So, the legislator says, "This is the amount of money that you can ask your community for. That's it." And this allows us to be at that place. And um I'm going to finish first and then I'm happy to take the com the questions. Um, I think this is an incredible um opportunity for us. Uh Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Hopkins, the list goes on. These districts have been at legislative cap for many many years, which has allowed them to make some really critical investments in their organization. Um, and so what this equaled for us was $23 a month if you own a $500,000 home. I want you to know there's a dynamic calculator on our website that if you want to plug in your home value, you'll get your exact dollar amount per month. In 2019, we went out for a referendum. That's the referendum that didn't pass. Was about $20. Um, in '21, we went out for a referendum and it was about $22. So, 20 20-ish dollars is about the trend or pattern we've asked the community for. What we also know is in 2019, home values were $350,000. In 2021, median home values were 375. In '25, our median home value in Eastern Carver County schools is $500,000. So, what we know is home values are going up and we know that our community is still growing. And so, this dollar amount will continue to spread over our tax base, which we'll show you another slide about that. I want to just spend another second on this and why I'm telling you about home values is this. Um One of the underlying things that people will ask me is, "Well, you wouldn't have to ask me for any money if you would increase enrollment." And there's like this undertone of like uh people are running from Eastern Carver County schools. That's not actually accurate. And I I want to name in the space. During COVID, did students leave all public schools across the United States? Absolutely, because we were held to a standard that other uh religious schools were not held to. And so, we did lose students. What we know now is our enrollment projection is looking like over the last year and next year is we are at a stable place. Have we lost enrollment? Yes. Here's why. Our 12th grade classes are large. Can you remember what it was like 12 years ago in Eastern Carver County? The it was doubling and tripling so quickly in this community. Those classes are exiting. Our incoming kindergarten classes are smaller because there are less children. And so, that automatically creates So, you you know, 50 in and 200 out automatically creates a 150 student difference. And it has nothing to do with not being able to recruit students or not um having a capture rate that's high. Um, and so our enrollment is stabilizing and um we are actually seeing some increases. We've seen increases in sixth grade and ninth grade. So, those students that did leave during the pandemic are coming back during those transition times. Our community is One of the reasons people love to live in Eastern Carver County is there's so many choices. There is hardly a district around us that has as many options as Eastern Carver County does. That's also one of the challenges of Eastern Carver County is that there are lots of options. And so, we have families that might pick K through 8, a religious school, but then come during high school. And so, um we welcome our students at any of those transitional times, but we know once students start in Eastern Carver County, the data would suggest that they stay with us. And so, we want to continue to be the best public school in Eastern Carver County. So, what this is going to allow us to do is maintain our incredible programming and opportunities for students and is going to allow us to do some investing. And so, we are excited. One of the things that we have listened to our community talk about is wanting to enhance gifted and talented. Um, at since I've been here 6 years, I've had families talking to me about this since I've been here. Um, one of the districts we get compared to has really high gifted and talented programming and we want to be able to compete against that. That does not mean that that is for the top 2% of students. I don't believe that's what gifted and talented is. I think it does expand um and extend for students that need it, but the way in which you embed gifted and talented at the elementary level is to ensure that everybody has access. So, our K-2 students get talent acquisition and every student gets an opportunity to try and engage and be part of something that is extension and outside of the classroom. Um, and so I'm excited about that. We never want to create gaps or disparities at the elementary level. They happen. We don't want them to happen, but we're not going to create a system that creates that. And so, wanting to be thoughtful about that investment. We also know that our families are talking to us about mental health. If you know anybody who has If you have any pediatric or juvenile mental health like exposure, you've seen it, daughters, families, you know, grandchildren, whatever, it is really hard to find services for students. And so, being able to provide some access through our schools is really important, so we've added some counselors. We want to be able to maintain that. That's what I met with hundreds of students this last year. That is what students are telling me that they want. They don't necessarily want a therapist every week, but they want to have someone who can triage them. I am nervous about a test. This is very stressful. I need someone to talk to. And so adding an additional counselor is going to allow us to do that. Um we need to enhance our our career I'm sorry, our career and college pathways. And so we have invested in some curriculum, we've invested in some software. Investment in that counselor is going to allow our students to create pathways and make decisions around their class schedule and their electives to ensure that they're having opportunities for the career and college pathways that they want. We also hear a lot if anybody's reading anything right now, trades is the place to be. And um if we want to provide opportunities for all students, that include trades and include advanced placement classes and include um you know, woods and tech ed and all if we want to be able to do that, that's a huge investment in two high schools. And so we want to be able to enhance that and maintain what we have so every kid has a choice no matter what their choice is. And so wanting to do some investing around that as well. If it's a not approved and this is the part that is just always like, you know, not my favorite part of the presentation, but people just always have to know. There's always programs, services and people that are in jeopardy when you have to make cuts. And so what that looks like is um taking away some of the gifted and talented, not investing in media specialists, not having fifth grade band, increasing class size. Those are always the things that are in front of us. And really what I want you to see is some of that list, those are the things that make Eastern Carver County different. We have an activities director. There are not many schools that invest in that. We have an activities director that serves Chaska and and Chan and make sure that we have a well-organized prom, debate has some support, speech has support, our plays have support. If that person goes away, that goes to the athletic director. Plus all the sports. So some of those things that Eastern Carver County has been really excited about and really committed to like academics, arts and athletics, that is investments that we've made and it makes us different and want to be able to maintain that competitive edge. Um but those are the things that are in jeopardy um if I if the referendum doesn't pass. So just this slide again, I talked about this already. Here's the tax impact based on your home value. Again, I encourage you to go to our website and plug in your exact number. I also encourage you to look at your property taxes. If you look at your property taxes, I just want to acknowledge one of the challenges right now is that the county has increased your taxes, the cities have increased your taxes and now the school is coming up. I want to just remind everybody, the county doesn't have to ask you, the city doesn't have to ask you. They get to say that the roads need fixing and charge you. We don't have that opportunity. We have to get out and ask you to consider the facts and consider supporting us. And sometimes people are just like tap out, no. Be and it's not because of us, but I do encourage you to look at your property tax and if you look at the district's taxes, you are tax ask, you will see that it has gone down. Um and so make sure that you're just checking that out and and holding accountable the people that need to be accountable to the tax increases in your in your taxes. We also do know again, I talk about tax the distribution of homeowners. Um you know, we know that our community continues to grow and that means that this ask will be continued to be spread over other homeowners as they continue to grow. Now, this is one of the things I've been kind I've been waiting for this slide. So um often times people ask me like, how do we measure up against every other district? And so you can see kind of on the this end here, Hopkins, Bloomington, Edina, Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Wayzata. They are at legislative cap. They have been for many years. Um we are asking that we would be able to compete with those districts with that with this with a similar ask. One of the questions we often get around like Hopkins for example. So one of the challenges that we have is that Eastern Carver County does not have a lot of industry. And so the burden is on homeowners. If you go to Hopkins, there's a lot more industry and so that those businesses, they lift the tax load for their community. It is again one of the reasons people love Eastern Carver County. It's a beautiful place, trails and parks and this investment and in the ways that we navigate this place and there is some burdens on our homeowners that's just different than if you lived in some of these places like Bloomington with Mall of America, right? Um or Eden Prairie who has just more industry and so there is a burden on our taxpayers in Eastern Carver County. But really what I want you to see here is that um you know, we're we're just hanging in there. We're not asking for the moon. So really important, this is going to be my last slide and then just some information and then we'll answer some questions and excited about our board members supporting that. Um we ask you to vote on or before November 4th. You know, absentee ballots still work. Um but on the 4th you can go and vote. Um the voting locations may be have changed for you, so I just want to highlight them for you. So if you are in Chaska, we are going to be at the Chaska Event Center. Typically I believe we vote at the Community Center, but wanted to be mindful of our voters because of construction and wanted to be easy. Um and then Carver City Hall, uh Chanhassen Rec Center and the Victoria Rec Center. And then just the next slide is just a place with information. It's our video. We're we'll probably move on from that. Um You know, if you have an exa- if you want to go look at our website and just take a peek, I encourage you to do that. But if you have something specific that you don't get answered tonight or comes up for you later or you talk to your friend or your neighbor or your partner or spouse or whatever and you have more questions, you can email us at um and someone will get back to you. And then my joke at the end of the every presentation is we also have like 1-800-referendum. It's not really the number, but we do have a phone number and if you call it and leave us a voicemail, we will call you back and make sure that you get your questions answered. Um and again, this is really important because we just want to make sure that you have the facts so that you can make an informed decision at the end of the day. So thank you so much for listening to me. We're happy to answer your questions. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Dr. Rafferty. Now, I saw some people writing furiously, so if you've got a card, hold it up and we'll grab that and bring it up front. And I do have one question to start that came up already. Um it's regarding student performance. There's a community member that has a question that's based on their own research. They have discovered statewide scores for math and reading have been declining since 2014 and 2017. And then they also report that Chaska High School is below those averages. So their question is why should I as a taxpayer continue to put more and more money into a system that may be failing our children in the basics? Um So I think that's a great question. So I've just I want to share the fact that I wear two hats besides being a board member, I'm a public educator as well and I'm a math teacher. So I love it when people dig into data. Um our scores haven't been going down. Our scores have been going up and in fact our scores in the middle school increased more I think than any other school in the state. So while they're not where we want them to be, they're not going down. Um we do have some room to grow especially after the pandemic. Um some kids just learn differently. We've been doing a lot of catch up, but our scores have not been going down. We've been seeing great increases and we are above the state average in every one of those measures. So um and we are really close and above most of our neighboring districts in the amount of growth that we have seen. A lot of our neighboring districts, while their scores may be higher at the original, they're coming down. Our growth has been phenomenal. So I appreciate when people dig into the data and sometimes that data on the website can be difficult, but our scores are not decreasing at all. Really encourage our and Dr. Ericson will our share next, but I really encourage the Minnesota Reformer actually just interviewed the assistant superintendent and I and [clears throat] and encourage you to take a look at that article. We have had the fastest growth in math in the state of Minnesota. We have had seven times the growth of any other district and we were interviewed for asking us about the work that we're doing in our our district because uh nobody's matching some of the work that we're doing. And again, I appreciate what Director Stone said. We always when when one student isn't getting the scores that we want them to, we have work to do. We're always going to have work to do. And I also would just offer to you MCA, that is if you I don't know where that person found the data or whatever. Um I think people are looking at somebody somebody who is not an educator made a website that says ECCS MCA scores. Um my research evaluation assessment executive director dug into that data. It's not totally accurate and the way it's displayed is um would not be research based or evidence based in the ways that we would produce data. So, I just want to put that in the space. The Minnesota school report card is where we produce our data. Encourage you to look on our website and at board meetings where we present transparently to the board around what what is happening in our schools. We have work to do, but we have rebounded after the pandemic almost better than any other district. We have put some really amazing systems in place over the last 6 years that have really produced some effective growth for our students. I would also offer to you MCA is not my measure for student success. It is a different It is a um It is a dynamic and test that talks about one moment in time. We use FastBridge data which tells us in the moment formative assessment how students are doing so that we can adjust teaching. Testing and data is about making adjustments for students. It's not a period, it's an and. Now, what do we do? And so, I want to you know, I think we all have different values around what those tests mean and what they mean for us as educators. And really, we use data so that we can adjust instruction so we can continue to serve students. I know Director Erickson has something to share as well. Yeah, I know I think the majority of what's been covered here is is an accurate assessment of what's happening. It's complex and I think to your point, different types of assessments carry different value to us as part of the education community and they carry carry different value to students. So, the idea that some of those MCAs and some of those tests that end up being sort of the state benchmarks, they do capture a moment in time. They aren't necessarily as valuable even to the students as they're taking them as some of the other assessments that we use on a more consistent basis across the district to really get a sense of individual student growth. So, you know, I think we as board members have really appreciated the opportunities that we've had to get in-depth with data and really get a sense on the granular level, on the student level, in individual classrooms how students are progressing with tools and assessment instruments that the students seem invested in, kind of demonstrating what they can do because I think they're able to get feedback and we're able to tailor their experiences and their opportunities for growth based on what we learn about those instruments. That's a little different than the instruments that we see out on some of those state benchmarking websites. I guess the last thing I would say to that is and I mean I think it's a fair question. I guess my I'm getting them I got to use the mic. I'm sorry. I always think I'm loud enough to talk in a small room, but apparently not. I guess what I would offer to you is yeah, we have work to do with our students. So, taking resources from them doesn't seem like a really that doesn't seem like the best thing either is to say, well, you're failing so now we're going to take more from kids. You know, we are using this money to service our students and ensure that they have everything that they need to be successful in investing in their education. So, I guess I would offer that as a just as a thought. Um one last thing as when I work with high school kids, I always get the rumor of the day. Did you know there's a cougar loose in the high school? I actually got that one morning and I'm like, there's not a cougar loose. Can we talk about our primary resources? Where did you get that from, right? And so, I would invite you if you are looking at a variety of places, while you can look at our website. If you want to just go to the Minnesota report card. It shows our phenomenal scores and it compares us just to the state and you can see we're above state. Go to the primary resource, not what someone else says about us. So, that's what we use. And so again, there's not a cougar in the school. Go to the primary resource and you can see for yourself that our scores are increasing and again, we have work to do, but we are very proud of them. Can you speak to how this referendum will help shape our district with projected growth of our community and the person that submitted the question is suggesting that our community may double in size in the next 10 to 15 years. I guess we can just start. I think that's a great question. One of the problems that we have in optics with all the building is that we're assuming that in every house there is a mom and a dad and 2.5 kids coming in and it's just it's not happening. The birth rate is going down. So, we do have a lot of growth, but there's just not as many children in our community as there was. I suggested once that maybe we have our school clubs do babysitting at night for couples so that we can increase growth. It didn't go over well. I you know, I'm trying to I thought it was a great idea, but the board didn't go for it. So, I think what this is going to do is to make us a destination. We already are a destination district to just increase that excellence and provide for our kids, but we are not growing the same way we grew before. We're not growing We're not just having these families move in. They're all having two and three children. We have this beautiful neighborhood right here and it's a 55 plus neighborhood that I can't wait to move into and it's just so beautiful, but we're not not all family housing. So, that's just the one thing that I'm going to say. The birth rate is lower and so, we are growing, but we're growing in different ways. Yeah, I think it's a really thoughtful question because you know, we're faced with a lot of It's interesting. You know, we work in three budget years at once as a board, right? We're reconciling and kind of auditing the year we were just in. We're working in the current year and we're projecting out to the next year especially as we consider any cost containment or additional investments that we need to make. And we also are obligated to come out with longer term projections, too. So, that we make sure we're kind of keeping a long-term eye on the ball with regard to our financial picture. I think the observation and and you mentioned it at the beginning of your presentation that folks in our community have felt um worn from a consistent request for additional funding reflects a pattern of every four to five years we've observed sort of volatility in trying to reconcile that gap between what the state of Minnesota provides and the rate of inflation, right? And the increase in cost. And as our fund balance, right? Our savings account for lack of a more sophisticated way of thinking about it, has decreased every few years we've had to reconcile that, right? By going out to voters. What we've observed when we've taken a look at what this $742, $745 would do to our long-term budget, the idea is that it would provide more stability. So, that those peaks and valleys will not be nearly so stark over time. We find it less likely to need to go out as often to make requests of our voters because we'll have a mechanism in place, right? We'll be at the cap of what we're able to request of our local community to support, which will allow us to better weather some of those highs and lows and and manage the resources more effectively. When we've gone out in sort of bits and pieces and said, gosh, we'll go out with you know, as as little as we can manage and try to make the the tax burden as manageable as possible for our for our voters and for our homeowners in the area, we the adverse effect of that is that it hasn't been a long-term solution, right? It's been sort of eating away at the edges of longer term a systemic, right? A structural issue. And our hope here with a little bit larger investment as Dr. Rathke mentioned, you know, option one, do nothing. Option two, kind of maintain, but you know, fiddle along for a while. Option three, make a little bit more significant investment is that that would stabilize that sort of volatility that we've experienced over the short term. So, all that is to say that we would hope to continue to have resources to support growth and change in the community as we move forward. All right, this question follows up on something that you touched on Dr. Rathke about personnel in our schools. So, the questioner wants to know specifically how many personnel that are not teachers are at the [music] grade school versus how many students? And also how many admin are there per school and how many students looking at junior and senior high school as well. Just talk about that a little bit more. We're going to pass that data down. It's a hard one. >> Okay, that is a hard one. Okay, I I want to I'm going to be general cuz I don't want to I don't want to give misinformation. That's a a dollar that's not a a number I can just pull off the top of my head. So, at the elementary school, we have very few people that are outside of the classroom that are not teaching. Some things that we have that support students are possibly family liaisons who speak different languages. They might be in our spaces that aren't front are not in front of students. We have paraprofessionals that support at the kindergarten level. Does anybody Anybody grandparented or parented a kindergartner who's five? Come on, raise [clears throat] your hand if you do. Like, do you can imagine 25 of them in one space? It's like herding cats. And kindergarten is such a critical time. This is when our students learn how to be students. They come to school for the first time, but they also still need their boots tied and their jackets zipped and how to get in the line. We teach them all the foundational ways to move in school. And so we do have some support outside of the classroom or outside of the teacher that helps students do that as well as one of the things that's really critical at kindergarten is what happens to you before you come to kindergarten as a um reader is really critical. So moms and dads and aunts and grandparents reading to their student is one of the top ways that we get kids to read is that experience. Well, not everybody's having that experience and so we have kindergartners that need interventions on that reading. And so our paraprofessionals provide that because if we allow that gap to happen there, that's where the gap you're seeing in third grade, in fifth grade. So when you ask about scores, it's really important that we have that support to build those foundational pieces specifically around literacy. So we have some paraprofessionals outside of the classroom or outside of the teacher. Um we have a principal and a dean at every elementary school. Um our our elementary schools range multiple um sizes. So Carver is you know, over 800 students where Chanhassen you know, is maybe 400 students. So that person, that principal and dean, that dean does some extra duties at the district office for us to support the different sizes of the elementary school. So we tap into them and say, can you do some we have them do some testing um pieces for us as an example. At the middle level again, we have a counselor. We have a social worker so they support uh some of the mental health pieces. We have a principal, an assistant principal and a dean at our at our middle schools and then at our high schools, we have a principal, an assistant principal and two deans. Um otherwise, you know, we have some safety and security support. Um we have uh you know, media specialists that teach classes but support teachers. We have very little we actually I've been in multiple districts. I would say we have very few staff outside of the classroom teacher in Eastern Carver County. It's very lean. Um but continue to evaluate how that supports students. You know, one of the things that I would just say to our community is that um the expectation on schools is really high um around what we provide. We provide breakfast. We provide lunch. We provide child care. We provide transportation. You know, all of those things we provide um when your family doesn't have the resources that they need at home. We provide resources for students outside of just the classroom time um that our kids experience and so we do we do have staff that do that to support that wrap around service for all students. All the way from the beginning of the day to the end of the day. Even down to making sure that they have food and shelter, clothing as an example. I'll just add one thing quickly. I think that was a really helpful summation. One observation that I've made in terms of um the composition of our staff in each building and the necessity to have administrative staff generally and the value that they provide for our district, I think as Dr. Rathke mentioned, managing the doings of a school building in any given day and all of the many things that are happening there is complex and as mentioned previously, we um our school district serves over 80 square miles, 17 buildings. And the expectations are high that things are coordinated across all of those buildings. So even things like making sure that the curriculum is consistent across all three of our middle schools, across all of our elementary schools, across each of our high schools. That stuff sounds simple enough, but it's actually quite complex to make sure that everyone is learning from one another what's working and what's not and being able to deliver that message to put that burden on a classroom teacher for example, who's spending all of their time as they should on the front lines engaging with our students, right? And evaluating their performance would be an undue burden for them, right? So having additional layers of connectivity across a system that is quite complex is also really important. And I'll just I guess I'm the queen of anecdotes tonight. Um I'm just going to add I'm a classroom teacher again and um our high school classroom teachers serve about 150 students a day. I see 150 delightful 17-year-olds every day. They're all delightful, each one of them. But like the first thing in the morning, Miss Stone, I ran into this kid's car. Okay, I'm trying to teach math. You're going to go down to the main office. You know, someone comes in, my boyfriend just broke up with me and I'm like, oh, you're going out in the counselor's office, right? So people are like, we just need to get rid of that and give all the money to the teachers and the teachers are actually saying, I need support so I can do what I do best in the classroom. I am not a traffic officer. I am not Dr. Phil this morning. I just I want to teach math and that all comes at you in the morning. So the more support the teacher has, the better they are in the classroom doing what we do. Like I couldn't do my job without everybody else doing it. So that's one thing that I hear. People are like, if we just, you know, got rid of everyone, we could pay you more and then I'm like, please don't get rid of anyone. I need more. So All right, this question uh wonders about past referendum and I think you had a slide on that as well. But wondering how much does the school district currently raise via our past referendums? Maybe give an idea in terms of per student or how many referendum we had in the past. And I'll pass this mic down. This is when we wish David was here, I think. So Kaylee, can you show that slide? I'm sorry, 16? 1,600. We're going to have Kaylee answer. She got the she got her calculator out for us. So the current referendums that are being paid for right now are about $1,600 per per pupil. There you go. Yeah, and I think uh maybe said with a little bit more specificity, it uh depending on the outcome of this vote here in November, we would potentially have three on the books uh with regard to operating, right? So we have one that was a few years ago that's about five, four. Including the tech. No. There are four current levies. This would be the fourth. Okay. One is 800 some, one is 500 some, one is 150 and this one would be 750, right? Okay, so four. Thanks. >> [snorts] >> Uh these last questions I have in front of me are sort of just trying to get their arms a little bit around what's going on um with the school as they think this through. The first one is does District 112 high schools uh students or do District 112 high school students still have access to vocational programs through um can't read the word uh Yep. I know what it is. Go ahead, take that one. So um so we belong to an intermediate district. So they do have access to our intermediate district and in fact um Director Erickson is the board rep to our intermediate district. So they do offer a lot of vocational programs um some really high level vocational programs. I know they still um offer, you know, hunter safety too and nursing LPN programs. And so they do still offer it and we are an active member in that and so students still have access to that and a lot of our students take advantage of that program. And we do have some um college or career and technical training in our schools and that's one of the things we've looked want to increase with this referendum. Yeah, and to put a finer point on it. So um Director Stone's absolutely right uh and I think part of what Dr. Rathke mentioned in uh ratcheting up our technology and our guidance around those pathways is to make sure that more and more students know about those opportunities that are available to them because they really are some world class opportunities and they are fantastic. And so we offer a very wide swath of what we're able to cover uh you know, within our district boundaries and um in budget. And then what we aren't able to pick up or what we're able to augment through our relationship with Southwest Metro uh intermediate district is fantastic. And sometimes students don't always know about those opportunities. So it's our responsibility to really uh enact uh strong and robust systems so that they really get on a path and know what opportunities are available to them. So I'll give the story Director Stone on this one. So um thank you for that question and I last year at the end of the year uh Executive Director Haga, I I sat down with her and I said, I need to talk to seniors. I want to hear about their experiences because we were talking about, you know, this college and career pathway and reimagining high school and what we want to be outside of like, what do we need to do next? And she was able to set up about 25 I had met with about 25 students, some at Chaska, some at Chan, and some at our Integrated Arts Academy. And I just I walked away just my heart was so full and I just was so proud of what our kids were sharing with us. This was a diverse group of students, but I heard stories all the way from I did my wood class with um Sam Porthan, and Porthan family is a Porthan if you live here, you probably know that name. Sam Porthan who came to us from Waconia is now at Chaska High School teaching and said, "I loved my woods class so much, I want to be a carpenter." Then I had a student who said, "My favorite thing about school was my coaches and I'm going to play basketball in college, I'm so grateful." Then I had someone a student who said, "I took an EMT class at Southwest Metro. I'm a certified EMT. I am working to make money as an EMT. Now I'm going to go to Rochester Tech and become a paramedic." Then I had a student a young lady I sat down with and I was like, "Tell me all about your experience." And she's like, "You know, I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm going to either wear pink scrubs or a pink suit. I'm going to be a doctor or a lawyer and I took 20 AP classes." And I I just want to tell you like and then I met with a student who was a native Spanish speaker whose family um came here from Mexico and did our immersion program and saw themselves through our immersion pathway and now is going to be an international business because they are bilingual in Spanish and and is college bound and and picking an international business majoring in Spanish. I mean, I sat down with these students and I literally walked away and I was like, "I don't there is no one who could convince me that we are not providing a first-class amazing experience for our students." And it ranges from any from here to here to here. If our kids want something, they can get access to it and they will have a great experience. And the what everyone said was that they love their teachers, they love the staff, they love their principals, and that they felt like a deep sense of belonging inside of our community. And so I don't know if you like the word drop the mic, but I literally like I literally like laughed and I was like, "That was like my drop the mic moment." Nobody convinced me that Eastern Carver County Schools is not providing an incredible well vast huge range experience for students. And this referendum gives us an opportunity to continue to invest in that, maintain it, and enhance it where it is necessary. So, thank you. Uh the last question I have is uh someone is wondering about the number of home-schooled students in our district and how this does or does not connect into what we're talking about. Yeah, no, thank you for that. I don't know the exact number. I don't I don't know the exact number as well. I apologize for that. You know, homeschooling has certainly become a more popular option since the pandemic. Um I don't think we have we're you know, that's a huge investment in a family and it's a choice. Just like I said I shared earlier, um Eastern Carver County has lots of choices. There are religious schools in our community, there are charter schools in our community, there are public schools in our community. I mean, there are lots of choices and homeschooling is a choice. And you know what? What I always tell people is we I all I can be is the very best public school inside of Eastern Carver County Schools. And there are and I am a circle and there are squares and some squares are not going to fit into my circle. That's just how it is. There are some families that you get the choice to decide what you want your child's education to look like. That is a beautiful option for our families and they should choose. And homeschooling is a choice and what I can do is be the very best public school in Eastern Carver County that I can be with the parameters and the expectations and the standards that I have set by the board as well as by the state of Minnesota. So, I'm sorry I don't have an exact number, but certainly we have seen an increase of that. Do all the home-schooled students get to participate in like Yes. Yes, absolutely. Kaylee is giving me the number 314 students are home-schooled. Out of how many students total? Around 9,000. Well, that that was That's not a Yeah. Oh, right. Okay. >> people in our community who have chosen to home-school. Yeah. So, adding up all of the other options that would be available to them. 9,000 plus those plus all of the other options. Yeah, thanks for that clarity. And to your point, we want to be a welcoming school even to our home-school families. So, there are many families that home-school and then their students play sports with us. Or they home-school and they play in our orchestra. Or they home-school and they're in our arts program. So, we still want to be a welcoming place and a place of excellence for all of our families no matter what they choose for their students. All right, the League of Women Voters Eastern Carver County and Southwest Metro Chamber of Commerce would like to thank you all for coming tonight and our online audience for viewing. We would like to thank our panel especially for sharing this information to help voters make their own decision about the referendum. The recording of this referendum panel discussion in its entirety is the sole property of the League of Women Voters. The League does not authorize the use of excerpts or edited clips for any partisan or political purposes. It will be posted in its complete and unedited form for public viewing on the Chaska Community Television YouTube channel, the LWV ECC Facebook page, and the LWVMN website. Early voting has already begun. Carver County residents can vote in person at the Carver County Government Center in Chaska. And I don't know if we can go back to that slide, but make sure that we'll put the location of uh where you can vote on election day. It is November 4th. The polls close at 8:00 p.m. on that day. Good night. Thank you for coming and for viewing.