Good evening and welcome to our regularly scheduled schoolboard meeting for November 10th At this time, please rise if you are able and join me in the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag >> of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Good evening, school board. As usual, the first item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. There's no additions or deletions to the agenda tonight. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as outlined? Motion by Robin, seconded by Katherine. All those in favor of the agenda say I. >> Those opposed. Motion carries on a 50 vote. The next item on our agenda is the recognition portion of our agenda tonight. And at this time, I'd like to welcome Rosemont High School principal Pete Roback and Rosemont boys head cross country coach Chris Harter to the podium to introduce members of the RHS boys cross country team. Thank you. Good evening, Chairperson Johnson, Superintendent Bullone, and school board members. My name is Pete Roback, principal of Rose Mount High School, and it's my honor to introduce RHS teacher and longtime coach Chris Harter, and the 2025 Irish boys cross country team, who just wrapped up an incredible season with a third place finish at the Minnesota State High School League class AAA state meet. Coach Harter has been at the helm of the Irish program for 29 years, building not only a tradition of excellence, but also a culture of hard work, pride, and team unity. Under his leadership, the Irish have earned 11 conference titles, 11 section titles, and have qualified for the state meet 17 times, finishing in the top three on five different occasions. This year, that tradition continued in inspiring fashion, and it's only fitting that Coach Harter's remarkable career was recently recognized with his induction into the Minnesota Cross Country Coaches Hall of Fame. Please join me in welcoming coach Harter and the 2025 Irish boys cross country team. Uh thank you Mr. Roback. Uh we had a real uh rewarding season and these guys represent our tradition and they represent their yourself, our school and community and practice and meets and it's one of the rare sports that goes off campus for practice. So they have to do those things and they really uphold the tradition and one thing we talk with our alumni once an Irish always an Irish. Uh we want to thank uh principal Roback and especially athletic director Will Finley for the support they have and the culture they build at Rosemont High School and our tradition of the AAA philosophy. Tonight we recognize the athletics part of the of the AAA philosophy. And uh with us tonight we have our 25th year assistant coach Brian Fenrich is here and our other assistant coach not able to make it. He's retired. He's in a uh climate that's 50° warmer than we're at right now. Charlie Lorch. And then I'd like to represent uh recognize the guys that are here tonight. Uh Evan Boddet, Ike Carter, Chase Wells, Abram Anderson, Channing Goodwin. unable to make it because they have a marching band banquet part of the tripaa. Uh Elias Schroeder and Clayton Bill and also unable to make it Boston Peterson and Luke Sandborn. Those are our nine people that were part of our state meet team. Thank you. >> Congratulations. >> Congratulations. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> Congratulations. What's the job? Congratulations, coach. >> Congratulations. >> All right. Next, I'd like to welcome back to the podium Rosebond High School principal Pete Roach to introduce us to the RHS soccer coach Carl Peterson, who was named state class AAA assistant coach of the year. Yeah, good evening once again. I'll skip my formal introduction since we just did that. Uh, but this evening is my great honor to recognize coach Carl Peterson, varsity assistant boys soccer coach at Rosemont High School, who has been named the 2025 stateclass AAA assistant coach of the year by the Minnesota State High School League coaches association. This past fall marked coach Peterson's 39th year of coaching high school soccer. His remarkable journey began at Minihaha Academy under the Hall of Fame coach Guido Calls. He went on to serve as head coach at Oro High School for 10 years before joining Rosemont High School in 2001. After several seasons coaching on the girls side, Carl became the boys varsity assistant coach in 2004, a role he proudly and passionately held for the past 22 seasons. Carl is recognized statewide for his humility, generosity, kindness, and quick wit. He has been a servant leader in every community he has touched, but most notably here in Rosemount, where he is positively influenced and has been and his positive influence has been felt for the past 24 years. He never sees recognition for himself, always redirecting praise toward towards others. Yet, tonight's award is both welldeserved and long overdue. Coach Peterson's steady presence, professionalism, and genuine care have helped build a culture of excellence, respect, and character within Rose Mount soccer. His impact extends far beyond the pitch into the classroom in the lives of thousands of students. In every math class he has taught, Carl has gone the extra mile to ensure each student feels seen, supported, valued, and capable of success. We would also like to thank Carl's wife Amy who is here with us this evening for sharing this incredible human being with our Rose Mount community. Behind every great coach is a great teammate. And we know Carl's success has been strengthened by your partnership and support. Your family's presence through your children Jack, Emma, and Betsy reflect the same values Carl instills daily in our students. Commitment, integrity, character, and compassion. Carl Peterson embodies everything a school could hope for in a teacher and a coach. For nearly a quarter of century, he has given Rosemont High School the very best of himself day in and day out. And on a personal note, my own life has been deeply enriched over the past 25 years that I've had the good fortune to call Carl a mentor, a colleague, and a friend. His humble presence and unmatched positive spirit inspire me every single day. Whether it's battling it out during our Friday morning basketball games, trying to get on the same team so we can win that varsity game, and I'm sorry that that's an inside reference on that one. um sharing stories and photos of family milestones and adventures. Finding one of your handwritten quotes or words of wisdom on a post-it note on my computer in my office. Or watching in awe as you cross the finish line completing a full Iron Man triathlon. I did say that right. A full Iron Man triathlon. There's nothing this man can't do. My life is simply better for having Carl in it. So Carl, thank you for your friendship, your guidance, and for helping me become a better parent, husband, son, and principal. Your legacy of service, leadership, character, and heart will continue to inspire generations of players and students and coaches to come. On behalf of DI District 196 in Rosemont Mount High School, it's with immense pride and gratitude that I invite everyone to join me in congratulating the 2025 state class AAA assistant coach of the year, Mr. Carl Peterson. All right. Next, I'd like to welcome to the podium Carrie Gore, director of community education and communications for Hastings Public Schools, who will introduce the 2025 State Community Educator of Excellence Award winner, Kaia Bruce. >> Good evening, Chair Johnson, Superintendent Bosone, schoolboard members, and guests. I'm Carrie Gore, MCA region 5 representative, and it is my great honor to share some exciting news about one of your own. This year, Kaia Bruce has been named the 2025 MCA statewide community educator of excellence, a recognition that celebrates her outstanding leadership, dedication, and impact in the field of community education across Minnesota. For more than 26 years, Kaya has shown what true leadership in community education looks like. Visionary, steady, inclusive, and grounded in service. Kaia has also served as a leader within Minnesota Community Education Association as a board member, regional representative, secretary, and two-time chair co-chair of the MCA fall conference. Her fingerprints can be found on many of the events, initiatives, and innovations that have strengthened our professional community statewide. When something needs to get done, when collaboration is essential, or when leadership is required, Kaia shows up and she leads. She is known for her calm under pressure, her integrity in every decision, and her ability to bring people together around a shared purpose. She blends focus, creativity, and compassion. Her colleagues describe her as a skilled communicator, a team builder, and a driving force behind innovative and well-marketed programs. Whether she's launching a new initiative, organizing a statewide conference, or men mentoring emerging leaders, Kaia does it all with energy, humor, and an unwavering commitment to excellence. Kaia's work reminds us that community education is not just about programs, it's about people. Because of her leadership, more motans have access to meaningful learning, connection, and opportunity. So tonight, please join me in celebrating the 2025 MCEA statewide community educator of excellence and region 5 award winner, Kaia Bruce. Congratulations, Ka. Your leadership continues to make a difference not only in your district, but across the state of Minnesota. Thanks, Carrie. I'm humbled by this recognition. Um, and I'm I'm very grateful for it. But this award really isn't mine. I believe that you're only as good as the team that you work with. And it really goes to the team of community education in district 196. I have the privilege of working with such amazing people who care so deeply about our community and also about the power of community education. I'm proud of what we do together, but I'm also very proud to be able to work in a school district that supports community education and understands the value of community education. So, thank you very much. testifying. Congratulations. >> Next, I will turn the meeting over to Superintendent Bosone for recognition of students and staff. >> Yes. Thank you, Chair Johnson. Last Tuesday, we st we saw strong support from our community and we are so grateful. With more than 18,000 voters, we received 68% approval to renew and increase our district's technology levy. This vote of confidence stabilizes our ability to provide opportunities for students into the future. We want to thank our community for its continued support of our schools. Looking back, this community has consistently passed referendums over the last 15 years. I also want to congratulate our four board members who were elected to the school board. Robin Serio, Leah Gardner, and Saken Muhammad were elected to four-year terms, and Katherine Diamond was elected to a two-year term in a special election. All four will take the oath of office and begin their new terms at the January 12th uh regular school board meeting that evening. Moving on to student celebrations. Both East View High School and Rosemont High School marching bands have much to celebrate after a series of outstanding performances and achievements at the state and regional competitions. In the state competition on October 11th at US Bank Stadium, Rosemont High School finished first and Eastview High School finished second among class 4A schools. Congratulations also to the Apple Valley High School girls volleyball team which finished third in state. In leading up to the tournament, they faced a tough schedule them a better team as evidenced by the South Suburban Conference schools sweeping the state tournament claiming first, second, and third place trophies. Two Apple Valley juniors, uh, Guinea Gors, Jenny Gors, and Sophia Cohen were named to the class 4A all tournament team. Also, good luck to Rosemont High School girls swim and dive team, which qualified for the state tournament this weekend by winning their sectional. Later this evening, the board will be asked to approve resolutions designating the week of November 17th as the custodial and maintenance support employees appreciation week. These employees protect the community's investment in our schools and help to provide safe, secure, and clean environments that are conducive to teaching and learning. We appreciate all of their important work. Thank you. >> Thank you, Superintendent Bolone. Uh we don't have anyone signed up for special communication requests tonight. So that brings us to our consent agenda. Board members, we have 17 items on our consent agenda tonight. Those items include the minutes of the October 13th, 2025 regular schoolboard meeting. The minutes of the October 28th, 2025 special school board meeting, maintenance support employees appreciation week, November 17th through the 21st, 2025. Gifts, grants, treasures report September 2025. Summary of claims September 2025 schedule investments for September 2025. Revenues and expenditures report for September 2025. Assurance of compliance, Irish Dome lease extension, Boulder Trail extension, joint powers agreement for smokefree cohort services, personnel employment agreement, additional FTE, agreement for student teaching with Augustana University and agreement for student teaching with the University of Northern Iowa. Are there any items on the consent agenda that board members would like to pull tonight? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So moved. Second. >> Motion by Robin, seconded by Katherine. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda, say I. >> I. >> Those opposed? Motion carries on a 5-0 vote. That brings us to our reports item of the agenda tonight. And I'd like to welcome Rachel Hughes to the podium and Steven Bell Camp to go over our comprehensive achievement in civic readiness for 2024 25. All right. Good evening, Chairperson Johnson, members of the board, and Superintendent Bosonei. I'm here this evening to present the annual update on the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness, CACR, which provides a report on our progress from the 2425 school year. I'm Rachel Hughes, the director of instruction and achievement, and the purpose of this presentation is to share information about our district's goal and progress we made towards them. There is no action required tonight. This presentation is part of an annual requirement to ensure the community and the schoolboard are part of a long-term strategic planning for instruction. It aligns with our strategic priorities of achievement and equity. Comprehensive Achievement and Civic Readiness, CACR, is the updated legislation formerly known as the world's best workforce. This law requires Minnesota school districts to set and report on long-term goals to ensure that every student is prepared for success in school, career, and civic life. As you'll see tonight, CACR places a strong emphasis on equity, college, and career readiness, and lifelong learning. Each year, districts review their progress, engage with community partners, and submit results to the Minnesota Department of Education. The comprehensive achievement and civic readiness goals encompass five key areas. Ensuring all students are ready for school, prepared for college and career, graduate from high school, and are equipped for lifelong learning skills, and a focus on closing the racial and economic achievement gap. to share an update on our progress towards these goal. I'll turn it over to Steven Belcamp, our coordinator of research assessment and analytics. >> All right, good evening everyone. Um, so the first goal, all students are ready for school. We choose to measure kindergarten readiness using our FastBridge literacy screener. So our FastBridge literacy screener for kindergarteners is administered individually. one-on-one with a trained adult. Takes about 10 minutes to complete and we administer it during the second week of school. Um, so here the the first goal on the screen you see the percentage of students entering kindergarten who meet the FastBridge reading fall benchmark, it's the early reading screener, will reach 69.3% by fall 2026. This is a 3 percentage point increase per year from the baseline uh percentage in 2023. So I'll be consistent this evening in all the graphs I show. The red line, think of that as our trend line. That's our growth goal for multi-year goals. And then our blue bars are the actual results. So while we have not hit our targeted growth each year with this goal that you see in the blue bars, we have made moderate growth. So this fall, 63.9% of kindergarteners met that fall benchmark for literacy. So to support our work in this goal, our prek programs are using teaching strategies gold, which is an observational assessment tool that captures student progress to inform individualized instruction, support family partnerships, and provide data to drive decisions in program improvement. It is aligned with our state's early learning standards and measures literacy, math, language, social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development. So, measurements are conducted three times per year. So, think of this teaching strategies gold as our tool to monitor progress towards this goal. Additionally, our prek programs are utilizing the Minnesota Department of Ed's successful learner equation. This is a collaboration between schools and communities that increases access to services, provides ongoing opportunities for family engagement, and challenges systemic barriers that affect the school experience. The successful learner equation reminds us that it is not the responsibility of the child to be ready for school. Instead, it is the responsibility of adults, programs, systems to support each child. So as we first goal is about students entering our system. Our second goal is really as as preparing students to exit our system. So that's the all students are ready for career in college and we use the ACT ACT test, excuse me. Just some background, the ACT test is administered to all juniors in the spring during the school day at no cost to them. So we remove all barriers students may have to access the ACT. And this goal data specifically um uses results from that inschool test administration. So here's the goal. The percentage of grade 11 students who meet or exceed the ACT college readiness benchmark which is a composite score of 21 or higher will re uh will increase from 46.3% in 2024 to 49.3% in 2025. Again, the red line is illustrating the 3 percentage point growth that we have each year. And nationwide, um, if we think back, schools really saw a decline in the percentage of students that were meeting that benchmark. Um, between 2021 and 2024, as you see with those first three bars on on the on the slide here, we saw that drop as well. And we really contribute this drop to interrupted learning that happened during the pandemic. And I think it's important to note that all those cohorts of students were attending high school during that interrupted learning of the pandemic. So what did we do? So to reverse this trend, we have implemented um strategies at school as well as district level. For example, all 10th grade students take the preac in school each spring. This familiarizes themselves with the kind of the rigor and the length of the test, but more importantly, the results of the preac give all of our educators um specific uh gaps that our students have. And so then our staff can intervene in their classes during the students junior year before they take the ACT. Additionally, another strategy is many of our high schools have an ACT prep course, which is an elective um that really provides structured support about test taking strategies. And for the 2425 school year, I'm excited to get to this. You can see that the percentage of students that met the composite score of 21 or higher rose to 59.3%. Well surpassing our growth goal um indicated in the red line. So truly a shout out to our and this cohort of students is now currently seniors. A shout out to those individuals as well as the educators and our system supporting them along the way. Another our third goal is a graduation goal. So it's all students graduate high school and this looks at our four-year graduation rate. And so the goal says we hope that will increase from 88.7% in 2023 to 93% in 2026. Um there is a one-year lag in reporting from the state of Minnesota. So just this past spring we got the class of 2024's official graduation rates. So again class of 2020 2025 has graduated. We won't actually get official results till about next May. Um, so as you can see from the graph, the four-year graduation rate has remained relatively steady. Um, we did dip a little bit to 88.1% in 2024. Um, I want to add a little bit more context to that number. So, this is the 4-year graduation rate. We know in our district about 4% of any cohort of students, so let's say a senior class goes on to continue at transitions plus after high school. So, Transitions Plus offers these students with special needs programming to help them pursue their transitional goals that are outlined in their IEP or individualized education plan. So, in other words, kind of from the get-go, we don't expect those students to graduate in four years as they already have plans in their IEP to continue services so that they are prepared for um for their life after. And so for that cohort of students, we don't want to look at the 4-year graduation rate. Really, they're going to continue services 8, 19, 20, 21 years old. So, we want to look at the 7-year graduation rate, which the state also releases. And just for your reference, um, our 7-year graduation rate is 93%. So, to help us, going back to the four-year graduation rate, to help us um achieve this goal, all of our schools and school administrators and support staff are working to improve attendance rates. Um, for example, the percentage of students who are consistently attending, that means they attend more than 90% of the school days for which they are enrolled, um, has increased over the past three years. So just some quick numbers in the 2223 school year 80.3% of students were consistently attending and just last year so 2425 that number rose to 84.8%. So along with seeing um an increase in attendance rates in our district as a point of reference that's 9.3 percentage points above the statewide average. So along with us growing, we are also continuing to exceed the state average by about 10 percentage points. Consistent attendance is essential to allow our educators to approve student outcomes and increase course completion rates. The other strategy I want to quickly highlight is the bar framework. BAR is building assets reducing risks that has now been implemented at all of our high schools for grade nine students. This program focuses on building strong relationships using data to identify students strengths and needs and provides targeted support to help every student succeed academically, socially, and emotionally. So, I'm really excited to see what happens as we implement bar over the next few years with our graduation rate. Our four fourth goal, thanks for hanging in there everyone. all students are prepared to be lifelong learners is a new goal for the state of Minnesota as part of CACR. So it's also a new goal for us that we formally put into writing here. So we collected feedback from our partners, a lot of stakeholders last year to determine what this goal area should be. We have that established and now this year we are establishing baseline data. So, as you see the goal here, X percent, that's again to be determined a as we collect baseline data this year. So, I'll read it. X% of students who have been enrolled in district 196 since 9th grade will complete three of the four identified tasks of a lifelong learner in Naviance by graduation. Let me unpack that a little bit more. What is Navviance for example? So, Navvian is our comprehensive college career and life readiness platform that helps students connect their academic goals with long-term aspirations. So, it has modules, specifically the college and career readiness module that enables students to explore their strengths, interests, and values while setting personalized goals. I'll say that our high school counselors were really at the core of the development of this goal. So we really trust their input and the four tasks were identified by them. So within Naviance there's the strengths explorer, career cluster finder, resume builder and career interest profiler. So this is kind of just an introduction to this goal and I look forward to sharing our baseline results as well as growth in the coming years. And we made it to number five here. So um the last CACR goal is certainly a very important one. It's to close the achievement gap between student groups. And I'll say we disagregate all of these CACR goals as well as all of the other metrics we look at at a on a daily basis specifically to monitor trends of under reppresented students. So for the CACR goal, we chose to identify the proficiency gaps of our K6 students taking the FastBridge literacy screener each spring. So here's the goal. By spring 2027, the achievement gap between white students and the identified student groups that you see in the table below who meet the spring literacy benchmark measured by our screener will decrease six percentage points from spring 2024. To be very clear, our goal is to close the achievement gap entirely. So it's not like, oh, we hit our target of 9.1, we're going to stop. Not at all. Right? Think of this goal as we are. This is a goal that progress monitors our growth or our our growth to get this down to zero. Um right now this goal is indicate includes uh students in grades K6 only but I'm happy to report that we have now expanded fastbridge to include students in grades 7 to 10. So we will ultimately expand this goal to be all students K10. The three identified um student groups you see there are black and African-American students, Hispanic, Latino students, and students that have a state race of American Indian. It's important to note that our efforts are really aligned because these three groups are also identified in our achievement and integration plan. So all of our efforts are really working um towards these towards these goals. So before showing the data um I want to highlight the action steps our schools take to specifically address the the increase in proficiency rates. So first our elementary literacy curriculum is grounded in evidence-based practices and the science of reading. So the curriculum integrates decades of cognitive and educational research about how students learn to read emphasizing systemic explicit instruction in phenemic awareness. phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The program is designed to meet the diverse needs of all of our learners through datadriven instruction, ongoing progress monitoring, and evidence supported win, that's what I need, interventions, our data walls and protocols, which my department really kind of leads the efforts, really ensures that no students needs are overlooked when teachers are looking at the data. we ensure every data point and every student is being looked at. So, uh, as we get to the results here, there's there's kind of two things we're going to look at. First, let's just pay attention to the left side where the graph is. That's highlighting the proficiency rates of these four student groups in both spring 2024 and spring 2025. Um note that generally three of those four groups saw an increase of about 3 percentage points um from 24 to 25. The one exception we we didn't see much growth with our black and African-American students. So with these proficiency values, we then calculated the table the gaps that you see there in both spring 2024 and spring 2025. So despite the growth again about 3 percentage point growth for most of these groups, we did not see a larger increase in proficiency in the under represented students which is why those gaps uh didn't really change. We didn't see them decrease. The idea is we raised the bar. We increased proficiency of a lot of groups. And we still though need to make sure that the increase in proficiency rates is larger for those under reppresented students and that's what we will continue to do here. Nearly done here. So to summarize the five CACR goals and how district 196 measures these goals is what you see here. We hope this builds on our discussions about utilizing data to make decisions and improve achievement. Although we did not meet all of our CACR goals for the 24-25 school year, we remain committed to continuous improvement. We are dedicated to using student data to inform decisions. In fact, I look forward to a future meeting pretty soon where we will really dig into the data and most importantly show you how our educators are using that data. So stay tuned for that really fun evening with me here. Um so at this point, thank you for your attention this evening. I know it was a doozy to get through. I'm at this point I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. So, thank you. >> Thank you very much. At this point, are there any questions or comments from the audience? >> Seeing none, questions or comments from board members. >> Leah, uh just one question. I was looking at the fastbridge literacy um you know looking at the gaps and I just would be curious uh because when I've looked at a variety of metrics in the past race is obviously a big um is a big factor and I think something that we absolutely need to be to be looking at. So, not to take away from the importance of the categories here at all. Um, but I feel like at least in some of the data points I've seen, income was actually an even bigger predictor of outcomes. So, uh, just wondering if I'd be curious to see what that data point is as well. And, you know, obviously it's probably somewhat intertwined, but I'd just be curious how it stacks up against the others. >> You're exactly right. And so we do disagregate data all sorts of ways. So our economically disadvantaged students again there's unfortunately sometimes correlation a lot with with different races as well there. But that is something we look at and I well I don't want to speak off the top of my head but that's data we can look at later this month actually too. >> You Katherine. Um I just wanted to confirm that um what we're seeing on the chart is that tw uh school year 2425 is really the first year that we started many of these strategies. So really we've only had one year to implement the strategies. So this year is our second year that teachers are really using it. So there also may be kind of a uptick of >> usability and learning. I think it depends on which specific strategy. I'll say in the past year, we have really started to align all of our practices. So, if we know it is an evidence-based practice that yields good results, we are making sure we're doing it systemwide. And so, I would say while we've been doing some for a while, it is they're now more aligned than ever. I don't know if you want to add anything. It's you're right with the new curriculum especially at our elementary world and just starting with Fastbridge um with sixth grade and now seventh and eighth grade and nth grade and tth grade there is that implementation that will just gap that will just take a little bit of time before we can really um make it really credible and viable. >> Great. Thank you >> Jackie. >> I like the way we've got you've got our goals and our efforts are all aligned. So we know the goal is we know what we're using to measure and how they're aligned. Um, tell me a little bit more about the prepared for lifelong learning. That's the new one this year. I don't remember hearing that from the state. Did they give you ideas for how you were going to do that or was that just a free free ball kind of thing and we just got to kind of pick our own strength and goal and go or >> I I I can't say I was part of the creation of it, but I know the people that were were uh kind of grasping for straws from the state of specific suggestions. And so I think this was created, you know, our high school counselors, our um SEB coordinator, social emotional coordinator really worked their networks to see what are other districts doing. This is in alignment with what other districts in our metro area are doing of how do we measure uh these kind of lifelong learning in our >> these softer skills and so it's in alignment with what other districts are doing whether they use Naviance or a different program. >> Okay. It'll be fun now to look and see because I'm not I used to teach and use the Naviance curriculum in my classroom and it'll be fun interesting now when we come back and look where are we using the strength finder where are we using the career cluster finder and and how are students using that and so how are we showing the efficacy of that being used and does that really move students into lifelong learning >> and and it's that's kind of hard to measure isn't it but to to Katherine's point earlier of Naviance has been around for a while. High schools use it a lot for edocs for college applications, but again to to my point of now we are in alignment. All of our high schools are making intentional efforts setting aside programming and time for students to do this. So again, it's it's an alignment thing that we are working on now. >> Excellent. Thank you very much for the information. Excellent. >> Other questions or comments from board members? >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, I'd like to welcome Danny Duchene to the podium to go over 202627 enrollment projections. All right. Good evening, Chair Johnson, members of the school board, superintendent both Sony, and our district 186 community. Tonight, district administration presents this enrollment projections report for the 2627 school year. The presentation tonight is informational for the board and community and no action is being requested of the board this evening. Accompanying tonight's presentation to the board are in the board packets are two tables. The first is a grade level enrollment summary which includes actuals for the past five years and overall projections for the next five years. And the second table is a document that includes the school by school projections specifically for the 2627 school year. To set the context for the presentation, the enrollment projections presented here tonight aim to predict the October 1st, 2026 seat count for next school year. We are not trying to project end of school year ADMs. We talked about this at the October meeting, the difference between seat count and ADM. So, I just want to be very clear on what this is exactly trying to predict. The district's strategic roadmap centers on our students and tonight's enrollment projections report connects to every single aspect of our strategic roadmap focusing on educating and developing our entire student body. The enrollment projections committee leads the development of tonight's data. Founded in 2005, the committee is comprised of a combination of principles at each level, cabinet level leadership, and members of the district's finance team who are involved in the enrollment and the budgeting processes. The committee utilizes the projection software to analyze the key model assumption key model assumptions and reviews the various model results. Ultimately, the enrollment projections committee recommends district projections to the superintendent's cabinet. And now here tonight to the school board. The committee begins the projections work by reviewing and analyzing the key model assumptions. These are critical inputs that build the base on which the projection methodologies run. Some of the most important assumptions the committee must consider our historical trends both at the macro district-wide level or at the micro school by school level grade by grade level. Impacts of recent boundary adjustments birth rate and kindergarten enrollment trends and progression factors or proportions. the progression factors or proportions. You'll hear it sometimes referred to as migration. Essentially, what it's saying is it's taking the year before, so what was first grade last year, how many first graders last year turned into second graders this year in the district. So, it's tracking those grade cohorts through the entire system. As you can imagine, some of these assumptions are easily quantifiable and able to be input within the simulations, while others may be a little bit more subjective, but they provide the committee with the guardrails to analyze trends against the final data outputs. I shared this slide at the October board meeting during the October 1 enrollment report, and I just want to bring it back to reiterate two key points. Overall, over the last five years, our enrollment methodology has been working and performing very well with an accuracy range of 98.95% to 100.85%. Also, over the last 5 years, we're just looking at the actuals, which are the red bars on the graph being displayed right now, our our actual enrollment has stayed within a range of 152 students over the course of those five years. And that includes some slight increases and slight decreases. We've stayed within 152 kids. This is about half a percentage point of this past October 1st enrollment enrollment count. This provides the enrollment projections committee with a very stable enrollment historical trend to begin our projections from. The committee projects an October 1st, 2026 enrollment count in the district of 28,993 students, which includes 39.2% 2% of students at the elementary level and 53.7% of students at the secondary level, not including center-based or early childhood special education programs. The district anticipates centerbased special education, early childhood special education program enrollment comprises the remaining 7% of projected enrollment, which aligns with recent year proportions for these specific programs districtwide. Comparing the enrollment projections to recent actuals, the 28,933 projection results in an overall net gain in the district of 59 students, or about 0.20% compared to this past October's official enrollment count. The gains are a result of increases at the middle school and high school levels, as well as center-based education. The high school level is normalizing again after the large class of 2025 graduated and moved out of the system, resulting in a lower projected net change between the departing senior class of 2026, the current year, and next year's incoming kindergarten class. This would be called the K12 progression or K12 migration. What seniors are moving out, what kindergarters are coming in from year to year. Zooming out to look at the wide view of recent historical actuals and projections for the coming five years. Overall enrollment is projected to remain stable throughout the 2031 school year, staying within a 90 student range using the current year, though the 28,934 for 2026 as the baseline with the highest enrollment projection of 29,024 students in the 2728 school year. The graph being displayed shows the same time frames as the previous slide within with the enrollments by grade spans. It should be noted the data on this particular slide seen here includes centerbased special education enrollment counts included in the individual grade spans. Middle school and early childhood special education enrollments are expected to remain relatively flat over the next five years. the increase at the elementary level and the increase at the high school level are connected as we have a couple of larger classes in the later part or later years of elementary that you can watch. You can see them move through the move through the system as the years go by. Additionally, the district's open enrollment gains typically are experienced more at the secondary level than at the elementary level. In summary, the district anticipates the stable historical trends of the past five years to continue over the next five years. These enrollment projections presented tonight will be utilized to calculate the school staffing and building operating budget allocations for the 2627 preliminary budget, which will begin this spring for next school year. The district and the committee also continue to monitor the key assumptions between now and next year's enrollment projection cycle, looking at monthly enrollment counts for the current school year, as well as monitoring the registration process for 2627 when that begins over the course of this winter. And at this time, I'd be happy to try to answer any questions that you may have. >> Excellent. Thank you. At this time, are there any questions or comments from the audience? Seeing none, any questions or comments from board members? >> Thank you very much. I'm always um amazed at how close you get to the actual accurate count when they come in. So, we're hoping this one is just as close. >> Keep our fingers crossed. Thank you. >> They just round up to 100 rather than saying 90. All right, that brings us to our new business portion of the agenda and I'd like to welcome Joel Miltier to the podium to go over the school year calendar 2026 27 and 2027-28. >> Good evening, school board. Good evening, Chair Johnson, members of the board, and superintendent BSON. Tonight I'll be presenting the calendar committee's proposal for the 2020 2026 27 and 2027-28 school year calendars. I'll be referring to the draft calendars for these two school years developed and refined by the calendar committee for your consideration. These planning calendars were developed and reviewed by district building and department administrators and a representative of DE Dakota County United Educators. Additionally, input and feedback was gathered from teachers and our parent leadership group. The calendars you are looking at are the draft calendars for the 2627 27-28 school years. Once the calendars are approved, a final version will be posted on the district's website for viewing by families, staff, and our community. The calendar committee aligned our work with core values and strategic priorities. Our core values of student- centered wellness, achievement, and community as well as our strategic priorities of well-being, achievement, equity, and resources are present in the process we used and within the many considerations that were taken into account in developing the recommended calendars. As a calendar committee, we centered our work around student learning and instruction first, family well-being and their needs, our own staff needs and their professional development needed for the best student learning. Our calendar committee is made up of representatives from district's directors, building administrators, department administrators, and the president of the Dakota County United Educator Group, which represents all of our teachers. Additionally, we gathered input and feedback from teachers through a survey for their interests from parents, teacher leaders, and superintendent cabinet team. The calendar committee used a guiding change document, which you have as a handout to frame our work and develop our original recommend recommended calendars. This is a tool that empowers leaders to set clear project parameters, allowing them to then fully engage in the creative process. Our focus question for this project was, how do we provide an academic school year calendar in district 196 that supports the learning of all students while also supporting our family and staff interests. The guiding change document helps to explore three primary areas. Our current context and reality, which is the first column on the image shown on the screen. what we know about our current needs, which is the second column, and what we know about our future needs regarding the school year calendar, which is the third column. We examine a large number of considerations, which we'll review in just a moment. Next, we explore those things that we do not that we will not do when building the calendar. As an example, we will not violate state laws that govern the school year calendar. We will not schedule less than the required number of instructional hours at each grade level, and we will not typically schedule less than 169 student count days. Finally, we explore our goals or intended outcomes for a school year calendar that honors the needs of students and families. The four be big key considerations the calendar committee takes into account are state laws, student instructional needs, family planning needs, and staff development needs. Minnesota statute 128.40 governs the start date for school districts and provides language around potential exemptions for school districts to be able to start school before Labor Day. Recently, our legislators approved temporary law for the 2627 and 2728 school years, allowing school districts to begin the instructional year on or after September 1st in each year due to how late Labor Day falls in these particular calendar years. Minnesota statute 12A.41 governs the number of instructional days and hours for the various grade levels. The recommended calendars exceed the number of state required instructional days and hours. Minnesota statute 128.414 414 governs the number of e-learning days a school district may have during a school year. In district 196 under inclement weather, the first two days are no school days and are built into and accounted for within the number of instructional days scheduled to ensure we have sufficient instructional time to meet state requirements. Student instructional needs are our main priority after ensuring we meet state statute. A focus on this priority aligns our calendar work to achieving our mission of educating, developing, and inspiring our students for success. Family planning needs are also critical in developing our school year calendars. There are many calendar considerations that impact our families and their well-being around family time and commitments that are important to them throughout the school year. We celebrate having a diverse population in our communities and work to ensure we research, listen, and understand how our school calendar and activities intersect with family priorities and needs. Staff professional development is also critical to ensure our staff have the tools, resources, and skills they need to keep informed on the latest and most successful instructional practices, providing dedicated time for professional learning for staff for staff, which supports the growth, development, and achievement of all students. After the four primary considerations, there are many others factors that take place for families, families, students, and staff such as school conference schedules, fall and spring testing dates, staff professional development needs, family and staff time off for vacations, potential emergency close days, length and placement of winter breaks, placement of spring break, families with students at multiple sites, and potential child care needs. Dates of new educator and educator workshop. Impact of long breaks on non-licensed staff pay. State and federal election dates. International school field trip dates. Minnesota state high school leagues around fall athletic start dates. Graduation dates. Number of instructional days and hours. Number of teacher duty days and holidays are important to our families, staff, and community. You can see where the construction of a school year calendar that meets the needs of every individual in our community, well over 30,000 people, can be a challenging task. The calendar committee and our other stakeholder groups support the recommended calendars being a reasonable rep representation of all of these considerations and the district remains open to additional feedback throughout this process. Our goal is to produce the best school year calendars possible that serve the needs of our families, students, and staff. The school year calendar process is a five-step process. The calendar committee met on four different occasions to review drafts of the proposed school year calendars. During these meetings, we explored, researched, and reviewed interests. We gathered feedback from teachers throughout through a survey and came to a consensus on recommended calendars. The recommended calendars were reviewed with the superintendent's cabinet team, and modifications were recommended. The recommended calendars with modifications were reviewed with parent leaders and teacher leaders for additional input as well as their future consider calendar considerations. Additional modifications were made to the calendars before bringing them here this evening. After this evening, the cal cabinet and the calendar committee will re continue to review any additional feedback and potentially make additional adjustments before bringing the final recommended calendars before the board at the December 8th meeting for review and approval. Once the school year calendars have been approved by the school board, they will be published on the district's website. If approved in December, we anticipate the final published versions being on our website shortly after approval. It's important to call out specific dates on our calendars for families and staff. We have incorporated both colors and shapes related to key dates we want our community to know about. We understand that the calendar may not always be able to be printed in a color version, so the addition of the shapes helps to ensure families and staff can still identify the meaning of the key dates. The green blocks with the flag emblem represent the first and last days of school. The pink or rose color represents no school days for all students in grades K through 12. The blue color with the triangle represents no school days for students grades K through 8. And the yellow color with a circle represents no school days for students in grades 9 through 12. In your board materials for tonight's meeting, you have draft copies of the 2627 and 2728 school year calendars. These two school calendars are very similar in structure. I'd like to spend a few minutes reviewing some of the key changes and highlights. For 2627, September 1st is the start date for all students. Every year we improve in our processes and technology to be able to operate more efficiently. The calendar committee is recommending the alignment of the first day of school for all students. The recommendation was well supported by our parent and teacher leaders and serves the needs of our students and families. To accomplish this alignment, we removed the two elementary assessment days typically held the first week of school. our staff developing our staff are continuing to develop methods to ensure our newest learners still have the opportunity to meet and engage with their teachers at the start of the school year. We're maintaining the 4-day Labor Day weekend. Our committee and leadership group feels this time is important for students as they begin their learning for the school year, and it provides families and staff important time off to be with each other. Teacher planning and grading days. At the end of each trimester, our teachers need a day to be able to wrap up, plan, and record student grades for that trimester before beginning the next trimester. The Wednesday before November break has proven to be a valuable time for our stakeholders to use their celebration to use for their celebrations or as longer fall breaks. These planning and grading days are no school days for all students. Winter break. Winter break is proposed as an 8-day break for the 2627 school year, and those are school days, not calendar days. In some school years, this break has been up to two full weeks. We determine the length of this break primarily based on state required instructional days, instructional hours, and a stakeholder interest to end the school year in the first week of June. A longer winter break will often stretch the final student instructional day later into June. Spring break. District 196 has traditionally placed spring break in the last full week of March. The calendar committee explored other options and decided to recommend maintaining this placement as a planning strategy for families and staff who sometimes plan family trips up to two years in advance. Having the established practice would allow for future planning based on predictability for the placement of spring break. The last day of school in 2627. The last day of school for students is recommended to be June 9th. This date is determined based on the number of instructional days and hours required under state statute and based on the other calendar consideration and needs for students, families, and staff throughout the year. The chosen start date of the school year can also be a considerable factor in when the school year ends. The earlier we start school, the sooner we typically will be able to finish the school year. The 2728 school year, as mentioned, is similar to the 26-27 with a September 1st start date, still maintaining the 4-day Labor Day weekend. The teacher planning and grading day still on W Wednesday, November 24th, which is a no no school day for all students. Winter break is seven school days in the 2728 school year. Spring break is still the last full week of March, and the last day of school would be Wednesday, June 7th. This is the first reading for the school year calendars and I will be back again in December for the second reading. We are still accepting input on these calendars prior to the December school board meeting. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. >> Thank you very much. At this time, are there any questions or comments from the audience? Seeing none, questions or comments from board members? Leah? Yeah, I have a question just about holidays and I and I do want to say I know all of the different uh factors that have to be balanced here. Um but I will say I know it's come up in community and and come to some of us as board members um particularly Eid as an important holiday. Um, but I think, you know, thinking about our goals of inclusion, I would love to see us prioritizing at least one like the one main holiday for any particular group would be lovely. Um, but at least taking a look at where we have um significant representation among our students and then how does that translate into certain holidays. Eid sort of rises to the top as one example for me. And um I think that if I'm not mistaken that that ended we were able to make that fit into this current school year calendar and it's not as best I understand it going forward. So I was just curious did that come up? Um have have you already wrestled with that? Um, and just I guess anything more about how you look at um, you know, when when that rises um, to the top for for factoring in. >> Sure. Absolutely. Thank you for bringing that up. Holidays for all of our staff, all of our students and families is extremely important and a prime consideration for the calendar committee as we go through this. So we do look at all of those different calendars, Muslim, Jewish, the different religions that we have to see how we can accommodate that for all students and staff. We are continuing to explore how we can meet some of those needs by shifting around some of those dates as we've received input since we built the first models of the calendar and we consider to go through that consideration. So as we move forward before the next meeting, we may be making some adjustments that would account for some of those holidays if we are able. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely, >> Robin. Thank you. Um I wanted to start by saying that um I hope every Oh, there I am. Okay. Sorry. I wanted to say thank you. I know that this is a very complicated task and oftentimes it can be thankless because um sometimes you just don't make everybody happy and so I wanted to say thank you to you and the entire calendar committee for doing this work because it's very important um but oftentimes it can go um unagnowledged. So thank you for that. Um I have heard from a lot of people about not um liking our days before Labor Day, but um you know talking with several people um I think it's important to that you've struck a good balance with starting before that Labor Day holiday because that helps us end at a reasonable time in June. And so I wanted to um just say thank you again for that. Um, I really like the aligned start date for elementary and secondary. I heard a lot from parents about how their older students would be watching their younger students, but when they went to school first, it was a struggle for child care. So, I think that's a really great improvement to have those dates aligned. Um, and those were my comments. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Katherine. Um I was wondering if you could explain um just why we end on a Wednesday. I find it really difficult um well personally, but also just thinking about child care and and just ending on in midweek um is difficult with summer camp and all of that. >> Definitely lots of considerations that go into effect for when the school year actually ends. Starts back from when we start all the way through for the different considerations. Some of the primary things that really impact that day are the number of instructional days and hours that students have to have and the number of uh teacher duty days that they have to have. So we are at 185 teacher teacher contact days or duty days for teachers. We have 171 student contact days for high school students, 170 student contact days for elementary and middle school students. So making sure that we meet the state statutes of instructional hours and time is kind of what determines the last day. We also have a focus of making sure that as as as often as possible we have at least three student contact days in a week so that it feels valuable for students, staff and families all to have school that week. And so that's why we ended up on a Wednesday this year versus a Tuesday or a Monday is really trying to abide by that constraint of having two days but also getting in enough instructional days and building in some time for families within the calendar to spend time together. >> Great. Um, with that, uh, also I hear what you're saying about the three days and again I also echo the thanks for this. This is a very hard job and you're not going to please everyone. So, um, but I also do hear a lot in the months of January and February of those weeks just being really difficult um, with the days off and the one day here, one day there, and then there is that week where there's only three days that the kids are in school. Um, so just noting that as a as a it is a true hardship on families. Um, but I know that there's uh, you know, strategy behind it. But the one point that I do want to make is um piggybacking on Leah's comment about holidays and um I also do understand that we can't please everyone, but I would love for our schools to think about how we acknowledge those holidays that our students are in school during or maybe returning from services. Um and really finding a way to encourage schools to not plan things on those days. We ran into it. My household is Jewish and we had picture day on Russia Shana and while the kids looked extra nice because we had been at services that day so the pictures turned out okay it caused so much anxiety. So I just want us all to be aware that having school on those days is um can be very stressful for families and for children in particular who feel like they are missing out on their time at school with their friends. um in order to also celebrate a holiday which in this case often puts them in the minority and um draws attention to the fact that they are not in school that day when most of their friends are. So just really emphasizing um the impact that that that has on our students but thank you so much for doing this work. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> You other questions or comments? Thank you very much and we will see you at our next board meeting for uh for a vote. Next, I'd like to welcome Rachel Hughes back to the podium and Zach Idolbees to go over our 202627 middle school and high school course revisions. All right. Good evening, Chairperson Johnson, members of the board, and superintendent Bosonei. Thank you again for the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm Rachel Hughes, the director of instruction achievement, and we will be presenting an overview of the proposed middle school and high school course revisions for the 2627 school year. I'm excited to present the proposed course offerings for the upcoming school year and demonstrate how these proposals align with the district's 196 vision. Engaging students with opportunities in academics, arts, and athletics or the AAA philosophy. This presentation is part of an annual cycle to share how the collaborative efforts results in a wide range of course offerings for our students. This is new business tonight and will be seeking approval at the next board meeting. Our course revisions each year reflect the story of what is happening in education at the local, state, and national levels. Many factors shape the proposed course changes each year. One key factor is the academic content standards developed by the Minnesota Department of Education. School districts are responsible for integrating these standards into specific courses and ensuring alignment across the curriculum in schools. While the standards themselves may not always change, where and how the content is taught might shift. Additionally, courses may occasionally be restructured or renamed to better aligned with updated contact content or reflect changes in academic standards. At this point, I would like to invite Zach Idolbus to present the proposed courses. All right. So, first up, we have some updates to our secondary math program. So, we're currently in a phased roll out for the new math standards, beginning with our middle school, which is currently piloting new curricular resources. This will be followed by the high school, which is scheduled to begin its curriculum alignment and resource review process in the spring of 2026. The new standards will then be fully implemented across all grade levels in the 2027-28 school year and the new aligned math MCA4 assessment will be administered statewide for the first time in the spring of 2028. So this table shows the math course options for our students in sixth through 8th grade for the upcoming school year. All of these courses are designed to meet the Minnesota state standards in math either at grade level or you can see some options for a single year accelerated grade level track or two years above grade level double accelerated track. We also have some updates to our social studies sequence. The 2022 Minnesota social studies standards are set for full implementation by next school year 202627 and represent a significant pivot from the 2010 version by centering inquiry as the primary mode of learning. This approach challenges students to investigate essential questions with the goal of developing them into critical thinkers and engaged citizens in a complex interconnected world. This new framework emphasizes a shift towards disciplinary literacy, teaching students to read, write, and think like historians, geographers, and economists. The most prominent structural change is the addition of the ethnic studies strand, which is now a core component of the K through 8th grade interdisciplinary approach. And this new strand is integrated alongside the existing disciplines of citizenship and government, economics, geography, and history. Ensuring these five strands are woven together throughout the curriculum. So here you see the high school social studies sequence to meet the state and local graduation requirements. In the fall of 2026, 11th grade students will begin to take the US government and politics class uh and the and the advanced option of AP US government and politics class as well. Our US government and politics content partner teams are currently working on the development of each of these courses. And next year, content partner teams will begin working on the updating the 12th grade options that you see there. And we have some additional offerings that could be offered in the future highlighted in blue on the slides there. You have all the course updates available to you in the board packet and we're excited to highlight several additional course offerings that align with the district's AAA philosophy. AP business with personal finance and AP pre-calculus will be available to all high school students offering additional opportunities to earn college credit. Flag football and Olympic weightlifting will be offered as physical education offerings, expanding student choice in our FIAD department. Dance 2 and fashion design give students additional opportunities in our dance and fax departments as well. So, thank you for the opportunity to present these new options available to district 196 secondary students. We're grateful for all the work that our teachers, building administrators, and district leaders have put into these proposals and look forward to continuing the curriculum development work with our teachers to be ready to offer these courses next school year. So, at this time, we'll take any questions. >> Thank you very much. At this time, are there any questions or comments from the audience? Seeing none, questions or comments from board members? Thank you very much. It's always fun to see how we keep evolving to meet our students needs and this is one of my favorite agenda items. Um, looking forward to seeing you back on December 8th. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. At this time, I'd like to welcome Kaia Bruce back to the podium tonight to go over 202627 connections preschools fees. Good evening, Chairperson Johnson, members of the board, and Superintendent Balsone. Tonight, I'm sharing the first reading of the con proposed connections preschool fee increases for the 2026 2027 school year. The proposed fees reflect an inflationary adjustment resulting in a three to a 4.5% increase from the current year with all figures rounded to the nearest dollar. This adjustment is a necessary inflationary measure to help cover the rising costs associated with running the program. I want to emphasize that we will continue to maintain our commitment to accessibility by continuing to use a sliding scale based on federal poverty guidelines for tuition. As outlined in regulation 507.2 AR, a family's tuition rate is determined by their family size, annual income, and the chosen course. Since this is a first reading, no action is required tonight, but I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. >> Thank you very much. At this time, are there any questions or comments from the audience? Seeing none, questions or comments from board members? >> Thank you very much. We'll see you back on December 8th. >> That brings us to our other action portion of the agenda tonight. And I'd like to welcome Adam Watenberger to the podium to go over our resolution canvasing returns of school district election. All right. Good evening, Chairperson Johnson, school board members, and superintendent Balsson. Um, I'm here tonight with a resolution canvasing the returns of votes in the school district election held last week on Tuesday, November 4th. Um, in this context, canvasing refers to reviewing and certifying the results of an election to make them official. Under Minnesota law, the school board is responsible for canvasing the returns between three and 10 days after the election. So, we are in that window now. Um, I think we had a pretty smooth election. Things ran well to my knowledge. Um, it's a big undertaking to administer these elections. So, um, really appreciative of all of the people in the district and outside of the district who came together to, uh, pull that off. most of all our elections team at the district office that's been working really hard for the past couple of months especially the past few weeks here but we also collaborate with Dakota County their elections department um huge resource throughout the process the cities of Apple Valley Rosemount and especially Egan who we worked with to get a lot of our equipment that we needed for um polling places dozens of election judges who come out and work extremely long days doing detail oriented work. It's a really important public service. So, we're grateful to them. Um polling places themselves are have their own operations and let us come in and take over their space um for an early morning through a late night. Um and then just districtwide, tons of support throughout all corners of the district. um from the central receiving guys who delivered the tabulators and went above and beyond to help set up our polling places to uh people at the district office um letting us take over conference rooms for the last two months. Um that was it's a bigger inconvenience than you might think. So we appreciate that flexibility. The front desk receptionists who had a lot of foot traffic the past couple months for early voting. Um technology department, communications department, so much support across the board. Um so we are grateful to everyone for helping us pull this off and are happy to uh be on the other side of it. Um I will get to the results here uh which are not a secret but we will review them for the uh to make it official. So um the resolution that you have before you formally canvases the returns and declares the results of the election. We had a total of 18,35 ballots cast. Not every one of those ballots voted for every question, but that's the total number of voters that participated. That's about 16.7% of registered voters in the district, which pretty standard for a standalone school district election. Um, so in the general election, the general school board election, we're electing three school board members for new four-year terms starting in January and going through January of 2030. Um, the three candidates who received the most votes were Leah Gardner, Robin Serio, and Cicen Muhammad. Those three are elected to new four-year terms starting this starting on Monday, January 5th, 2026. For the special school board election to elect one board member to fill a vacancy for the remainder of a term that expires in January of 2028, uh, the candidate receiving the most votes was Katherine Diamond. Uh, overcame the odds on that one. she is she is elected to fill the remainder of that term. Um so congratulations to the four winning candidates. Um I'll be in touch with all of you with some paperwork in a week or so. There's a couple other forms to fill out. Um and if everyone, including people who aren't running, if all of the board members can make sure to check in with Kristen before you leave tonight, there's some signatures we need as part of this process just to make everything official. Um, and then for the big one, the ballot question, the asking voters to renew and increase our technology levy. Uh, the question received 12,370 yes votes to 5,823 no votes. So, yes, received 67.99% of the vote. I'm comfortable rounding that up to 68 for purposes of talking about it. Um, so having received the approval of a majority of the votes cast, the yes vote prevails and the question carries. So your board materials include an abstract that's a formal document that the county prepares that shows kind of a precinct by precinct breakdown of the votes for each race. Um, as well as some materials that document the various legal notices that we published and posted. Um the resolution also authorizes some post-election measures that we'll complete um including the steps necessary to notify the county and department of education to officially certify the results. Um and the resolution authorizes the issuance as the issuance of certificates of election to the winning candidates. So with that um I request the board approve the resolution and I'm happy to answer any questions. >> Excellent. Thank you very much. Board, this is an action item for us tonight. So before we go into questions, is there a motion to approve the resolution as presented? >> Move approval. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion by Jackie, seconded by Catherine. Right. At this time, are there any questions or comments from the audience? Seeing none, questions or comments from board members? Right. I have a motion to approve by Jackie, seconded by Katherine. All those in favor of approval say I. >> Those opposed? Motion carries unanimously on a 5-0 vote. Thank you very much. Next, I'd like to welcome Danny Duchene to the podium to go over the fiscal year 202425 financial audit report. Well, good evening once again, Chair Johnson, members of the school board, Superintendent Bals Sony, and our District 196 community. The finance team in district 186 is pleased to present the annual financial audit for the 202425 fiscal year. We are proud to report that the 2025 audit includes a clean unmodified audit opinion with zero material audit findings. Included in the board packet this evening are two documents. The executive summary which will be the primary content of tonight's presentation and the 2025 annual comprehensive financial report otherwise affectionately known as the ACTER. Typically, there is a third report at tonight's meeting, the report on the district's federal grant awards. As of today, audit firms have not received the final compliance supplement or the audit guidelines from the federal government for federal programs. Therefore, ID is unable to issue the final report for the fiscal year 25. Tonight we will be asking the board for approval of the ACT for and the financial statements and we'll bring the federal rewards report back to the board for approval at the appropriate time when the final compliance supplement is received. Before introducing tonight's presenter from my daily, I'd like to take a moment to thank a few individuals and departments who were instrumental in completing this year's audit. The annual audit is required by state law and provides our district with the opportunity to analyze and reflect on both our internal processes as well as our performance for the previous year. This monthsl long adventure requires collaboration, communication, teamwork, trust, and honesty from everybody involved. A special thank you to members of our finance district 186 finance team. Christopher Aneno Robshaw, director of finance and operations. Adam Lloyd, who was our former controller who started the audit, Seth Mater, our new controller who entered the district during the middle of the audit, and Kim Woods, our manager of financial systems reporting and compliance for all their hard work, expertise, and leadership on their various areas of the audit. Additionally, we'd like to thank the extended teams in finance and payroll, human resources, legal, nutrition services, our state and federal programs teams, our special education team, our purchasing team, as well as our team in facilities for all their assistance pulling documentations and answering questions over the past few months. Sometimes questions over and over and over again. Finally, our team would like to extend a great big thank you to Jamie and her team from ID Bailey for their work and their true partnership during this audit season. Special thanks goes to Jamie, who will be presenting to you this evening, and Mason Urstead, who led the day-to-day operations of this audit with our district 196 team. We genuinely genuinely value the collaboration, teamwork, and trust we've built with this team over the past three audit cycles. So, at this time, it's my pleasure to introduce Jamie Faith, CPA and partner at IBY to present the 20242 annual financial audit. >> Excellent. Thanks, Danny. Okay. Good evening, Chairperson Johnson, schoolboard members, and Superintendent Bosani, and members of the community. So, I am Jamie Fay. As Danny mentioned, I am an audit partner with ID Bailey. Uh, and I'm here to present the audit results. When we're talking about this year, quote unquote, we're talking about FY25. So, that is the year ended June 30th, 2025. That's an important distinction because I know you're talking about future years and past years and current years kind of all jumbled in one. So, what we're going to do tonight is go through the executive summary. This is a document that we have put together to take the 176 pages of the ACTER and get information out of there that we've seen that's beneficial for the board. gives you some colors, some graphs. As much as I would love to talk about spreadsheets all night long, I know not everyone loves that. So hopefully you see value in this. If you have questions, um, or anything that you would like to discuss, definitely let me know. Okay. So, first and foremost, when you hire ID Bailey to come in and do an audit of your financial statements, you are hiring us to give you an opinion. We give you an opinion on if the financial statements are materially accurate or not. That does not mean that we have tested every transaction and that does not mean that we have recalculated every single thing to the penny. We have a materiality threshold. We test a sample of transactions. We recalculate some things. We ask Danny and his team a ton of questions sometimes in different ways to see if we get different answers. Um so we do that and then at the end of the day the questions that I get first and foremost is okay what what do you have to tell us? What are our results? What are our findings? So, first and foremost, as Danny alluded to, you received a clean, unmodified opinion on the financial statement audit. That is what you want. That's what you have received in the past. And that means your financial statements are materially accurate or not. So, when we're talking about the audit, we are talking about the audit of your financial statements. The other piece of the audit that we do that again, Danny alluded to this as well, is the federal funds. So, if a government spends more than $750,000 of federal money, you have to get a separate audit done that's more compliance-based, a lot of times called the single audit. That really focuses on what are the rules of these programs. We have to test a certain amount of dollars to get up to a coverage threshold. That is the piece that is not completed as of yet. So, when we audit that, we follow what's called the compliance supplement that is released by OM and the federal government. We have not received that document for FY25 yet. So once we get that then we'll be able to do that testing and get that buttoned up. Um but at this point that part is not done. So MDE has given the guidance. Go ahead and issue your financial statement piece and then we're doing what's called dual dating which means that federal audit will come later. What I want to do tonight though is I still want to give you a high level. We have tested the audit of the federal funds in accordance with the draft compliance supplement. So, we got a draft of this document and generally the draft to the final, especially in programs like Title One and Child Nutrition that we tested here, they don't tend to change significantly from the draft to the final. So, I'm going to give you what we found for our testing for the federal funds, knowing that there is a giant disclaimer that this is not done yet. So, once we get that final compliance supplement, we'll finish that up and if there are changes, Danny will bring that back. So, we tested of the 19.4 4 million of federal dollars the district spent this year. We tested title one and child nutrition funds. That's about 53% of your dollars. When we test that, we test things like compliance with reporting requirements. Did you spend the money in the right way for child nutrition? Were the children receiving the free and reduced meals? Were they eligible? How did that eligibility look? When we're talking about findings, we have no findings for the financial statement, no expected findings for the federal awards, and then no expected findings or no findings for the Minnesota legal compliance. So, you received an unmodified opinion for the financial statement audit. You're expected to receive an unmodified opinion for that federal audit and then really no findings to report. So, that's all great news. That is my favorite thing to report. Uh that last piece on this slide for findings is Minnesota legal compliance. So the state auditor's office has some legal compliance guides that they have us run through a few checklists and say, "Hey, these are the state statutes. We want to make sure these schools are in accordance with." There was nothing to report there either. So now we'll look at some colors and graphs and kind of numbers. So the first one is cash and investments. And this is cash and investments for the district overall. And this is not a you need to be here or there. This is simply showing you where you're at compared to where you've been for the last 5 years. So, at the end of 2025, you had about 188 uh these are in thousands, so 188 million in the in cash and investments. These do not include um things like building construction cash because that cash is pulled out. That's set aside for something specific. So, we didn't want to include that here. These numbers can eb and flow depending on what you have for receivables and payables at the end of the year. Next up, we're going to talk about the general fund. So, the school board, every every school board I've ever talked uh to has a really good thumb on ADM and student membership, but I like to point it here just so you can kind of see the history of where you've been compared to where you're at. So, for the district revenues are very dependent on student counts. So, here's where you can see your student count was for 2025. Um it was really pretty consistent from 24 to 25 about 28,536 for that student count. This next slide is a lot of numbers. This is the one number slide, so bear with me. There are just a few things to point out here. So, this is the budget to actual for the general fund. So, what did you budget? What did you amend your budget to the that longer second to the right column is the actual number. So, what really happened for the district in 25 and then the far right column is the variance with final budget. All of these are big numbers and you can slice and dice them a whole bunch of different ways. At the end of the day, total revenues were overbudget. So, they came in over budget of about 2.5 million and total expenditures were under budget of just under 3 million. What that means is you spent a little bit less than you budgeted for and you took in a little bit more than you budgeted for. Conservative budgeting. That's what I see in a lot of my Minnesota school districts. Um, so no surprises there. Then at the end of the day, if you go down to the net change in fund balance, it's a positive number of about 7 million. So an increase to that fund balance for the general fund leading to about 118.6 million in fund balance at the end of the year. That is a big number and kind of hard to decipher. So we'll talk about what that how to analyze that in a few slides. But this is really kind of where we're at in terms of what the district looked like for the general fund for the year. in these procedures if there are things that are different from the budget our procedures in the audit are we go to Danny and his team and we say hey why are these different um if we were not able to come to a conclusion on hey this seems reasonable or it doesn't seem reasonable um we would do more work in that but we were able to get explanations for every question that we had on these so when you talk about a fund balance you want to have a positive fund balance for a few reasons first and foremost it contributes to a favorable bond rating so if you're going to use debt you get a lower interest rate better bond bond rating um in the process. Second, it produces some investment income, provides you a little bit of working capital, meet some cash flow needs, and third, and I argue most importantly, it offers a little bit of a cushion. So, if something like a revenue shortfall or a global pandemic happens, you've got a little bit of cushion there. So, when talking about fund balance, there's a few categories that are laid out here. I'm not going to go into detail on all of them, but they are here if you need to reference back to them. What I am going to point you to is the next slide where we're talking about the UFAR's fund balances. So the final balance at the end of the year is the far right column here. So the top line is non-spendable. That's required by government accounting to be equal to things like prepaids and inventory. Then you have a number of categories that are under the restricted heading. These are dollars that someone has given you. Usually it comes from the state. They've said you can use it for a specific purpose. You haven't spent it yet. So those dollars are set aside restricted by somebody else. You can't use that on anything else unless you were to get permission from those outside entities. Then you have a category called assigned. So there's a few different assigned categories. That's a total of those categories of about 19.4 million. And then that bottom line unassigned, that's really the one that you can use to analyze kind of where the district is at on the next couple slides. So that unassigned portion is about 76 million of that 118.6 million. So seen a different way, here's the totals in some colors for the the past five years for these fund balance numbers. You can see that unassigned number is the largest piece, that blue blue category or that bottom category. That's what we would expect. Um some es and flows happen depending on what you get for restricted funds balances. um we saw a lot of es and flows depending on what COVID funding came in or if you got special grants from certain places. So when we're talking about those categories, the question that I always get asked from a board is what should we have? What are we supposed to have? And to that there's not really a right answer um in terms of across the board. What I would point you to is the next slide. the district has a policy of maintaining a minimum unassigned fund balance of no less than 5% of the operating expenditures. So that would be really what I point you to. There's a couple other resources out there that kind of say, "Hey, maybe have it around here," but they're not specific to your community. They're not specific to Minnesota school districts. So that's really a decision for the board and for the district to make in terms of what do we want to have kind of in the bank when you think about 5%. So when you're thinking about a percent, if you were to talk to a personal finance person, a lot of them will say you should have six months in the bank, that's a 50%. So 5% is a whole lot lower than six months. And I'm not recommending six months. I'm just that's a good way for my brain to kind of process that in a non-numberss type of way. So here is that number um for the past five years. So we have that red line on here that shows 5%. That's where your um uh the policy states 5% you were at for unassigned you're at 14.9%. So you can see we're above that. Some districts that I have use that percentage as a we will never go below it. Some have a range where they say they want to stay between it. Um some say we just want to make sure we're above it at all times or maybe we want to grow to a certain point. So again there's not a right or wrong answer here. It's just good to have a thumb on where that's at. And in every conversation that I've had with the district, they always have a good uh good thumb on where this is at in the finance group. So there are never any surprises coming up. So that's the general fund. Next, we're going to talk about just a couple of the other funds of the district. So the first one is the community service fund. So this fund really is the community service programs. We see these operate very differently in different communities. Sometimes they are supplemented by other funds from other districts. Sometimes they have very few programs, sometimes they have a lot of programs. So again, this is not a right or wrong answer. This is simply to show you where the district is at for this fund. So for 2025, you can see the fund balance for the community service fund did jump. Um it was right around 4 million and now it's closer to that 5 million mark for this year. And then the last fund we're going to look at is the food service fund. So the food service fund is meant to account for just that food service. So feeding those kids, getting the federal dollars in, getting the state dollars in. There's been a lot of changes in how the food service fund looks in Minnesota over the last couple years with the COVID money covering meals and then the state covering meals. Um, so this hasn't really had a normal trend in the last few years. The red line on here is the state's maximum allowable fund balance for this. What I will tell you is in that maximum fund balance, what the state is looking for is making sure that hey, are you charging the right uh dollar for meals? Are you keeping up your equipment? They don't they're not going to take funding away because you're over that. I've never seen that happen. What they want to do is start a conversation. So, I mentioned this to Danny when we were talking. The district has a plan. There were there are some larger spends planned. They just didn't happen in this year. So, it is planned to come down below that. Um, but this is one that I have seen really eb and flow over the last few years, ever since that co funding really came in for food service funds really across the state. And with that, that is all the colors and numbers and charts that I have. So, any questions for me on this information? >> Excellent. This is an action item for the board tonight. So, before I go into questions, is there a motion to approve the 202425 financial audit report? >> So moved. >> Second, >> Robin. And I think I heard Leah first at this time. time. Are there any questions or comments from the audience? Seeing none, questions or comments from board members. Jackie, >> the best thing you said was there's no surprises. >> That's my favorite part. >> That's what we like to hear. No surprises. There shouldn't be any surprises. Thank you for everybody who worked on this. It's a lot of work. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. I agree. This is a I like the part where it's clean. >> Yes, absolutely. Oh, that's my favorite. Um, we have a motion to approve by Robin, seconded by Leah. All those in favor of approval, say I. I. >> I. >> Those opposed? >> Motion carries on a 5-0 vote. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. Have a good night. >> All right, that brings us almost to the end of our agenda tonight. I'll turn the meeting over to Superintendent Bosone for superintendent updates. >> All right, thank you, Chair Johnson. We recognized many athletes earlier this evening. Now, I'd like to uh showcase and highlight some upcoming performing arts events that are happening in the district. Apple Valley High School has a theater production of Hades Town, which opened up last weekend, and it runs through this weekend. Egan High School will present Frozen, the Broadway musical. December 3rd is the senior preview. There are no tickets required for that specific date. And then the show runs December 5th through 14th. At the same time, East View High School will present Newsies, the Broadway musical. They have a free senior preview on December 3rd and then the show runs December 4th through the 13th. Coming soon is Rosemount's on stage production. They have a senior preview on December 3rd and uh and events uh event dates after that. Tickets for all of these events are available on each of the school's website and we encourage um students, families, and members of the public to attend. Thank you. >> Excellent. Are there any items that schoolboard members would like to share? All right, seeing none, that brings us to the end of our agenda tonight. Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion by Robin, seconded by Katherine. All those in favor of adjournment, say I. >> I. >> I. >> Those opposed. Motion carries on our 5-0 vote. Our next regularly scheduled meeting is Monday, December 8th. We stand adjourned.