[Music] good evening and Welcome to our June 10th regularly scheduled Schoolboard meeting at this time if you could please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance after the Pledge of Allegiance please remain standing for a brief moment of silence I pledge alance to the CL 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 at this time if you could remain standing in we would like to observe a moment of silence for three members of the district 196 Community who passed away recently ganya simun tree and East viw High School student Axel Carl Anderson a special education teacher at transition plus and Amir Harden an Echo Park Elementary student thank you all right School Board the first item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda there are no additions or modifications to the agenda tonight is there a motion to approve so moved second motion by suchin and a second by Jackie all those in favor of approval say I I motion all those oppos motion carries unanimously on a 70 vote our first item after the approval of the agenda as we're working through our audio feedback issues we'll get there um is our recognition I would like to welcome Paul kovet and Kyle Paulson to the podium to introduce us to the DEA DEA distributive education clubs of America and BPA business Professionals of American National qualifiers good evening board members chairperson Johnson and superintendent creger my name is Kyle Paulson and I am a business teacher at Rosemont High School along here with Paul kovak from Egan um ISD 196 has has a longstanding tradition in student achievement and participation in Career Technical student organizations or ctsos currently more than 400 ISD 196 students participate in five recognized ctsos co-curriculars and we're excited to introduce our BPA and um Deca students who attended the National Conference this year students participate in Deca and BPA gain knowledge and develop skills in Career Cluster areas including accounting and finance business management entrepreneurship marketing and personal finance literacy tonight I'm excited to introduce through three students from Rosemont High School and one from East viiew who participated at the DECA International Career Development conference in Anaheim from East viiew Grace Johnson participated in an accounting series roleplay from Rosemont Alexis Olsen and Grace Menin participated in ear sixth place overall at the International Conference in Bay and team merchandising and Kylie kusen who participated in sports and entertainment series role play Paul kovak is going to introduce our BPA members good evening I have the honor of introducing students from East viiew and Egan who represented ISD 196 in the state of Minnesota at the 2024 BPA National Conference this past May in Chicago we had a great view we were on Michigan Avenue so it was really fun um our students from East View suhas Pula he was in presentation team and Shri Hans satapati he was in business law and ethics and also in presentation team and from Egan high school I have with me tonight Eva Abbe she was in social media marketing campaign team Isaac Bortel Esports team salic gisha CTI he was with social media marketing campaign team aor also with social media marketing campaign team and I have abdulahad Ramen he was with the economic research team and finally nikil Tatam who participated in computer security board I'd like to welcome our students and thank you very much [Applause] come around the front there you go there we go awesome job congratulations congratulations congratulations awesome job congratulations congratulations congratulations conratulations awesome job congratulations congratulations well done congratulations you're welcome congratulations you're welcome thanks so much for being here thank you so much absolutely all right next on our agenda is superintendence recognition so I will turn it over to superintendent creger okay we have many more things to celebrate first I'd like to start off by congratulating the class of 2024 it has been an incredibly joyous last few weeks celebrating more than 2,000 students who completed this important educational Milestone the commitment to education and perseverance of this graduating class is truly impressive and we hope that they carry with them the things that they've learned from their time in district 196 we are proud of them all we wish them best in the future and we are very grateful for sunny skies and nice venues to celebrate our graduates in so now I have a list of successes to share with you congratulations to the Dakota United Hawks adapted softball teams on both winning championships at the state tournaments in May for the pi team it was their third straight State title and the CI team won a championship this year after finishing runnerup last year we look forward to recognizing them in person at our next regular school board meeting on June 24th and congratulations to the Rosemont High School boys track and field team on winning their second straight class 3A team title last weekend at the Minnesota State High School league state championships there were also two individual state champions and other top finishers from district 196 we also look forward to celebrating their success at our next meeting and congratulations to the Rosemont High School girls softball team team on winning the championship in the class 4A state tournament last week we will meet them at another meeting and congratulations to the Egan High School boys tennis team on qualifying for in competing in the state tournament last week and congratulations to the East viiew High School baseball team on their section championship and good luck in this week's state tournament East viw plays in the quarterfinal round third Thursday at 10000 p.m. in at CHS field in St Paul and lastly I want to congratulate the district 196 students who qualified to compete in the National speech and debate tournament June 20th and 21st in De Mo Iowa safe travels and good luck to all of these students their families and coaches thank you excellent thank you very much next on the agenda is our special communication request portion of the meeting we have three speakers signed up for our special communication request um people who' like to speak during special communication requests must submit a form at least 5 days in advance of the meeting 10 speakers receive up to four minutes to share comments we use a timer for public comments which will turn green when you can start Amber when you have a bom 30 seconds remaining and red when we like you to wrap up your comments as a reminder board members generally don't respond to special communication requests as is a time to listen and if any questions are asked during special communication requests a member of the administration will follow up with the speaker after the meeting first our first of on the agenda for our special communication request is Miss Judy Hayes good evening my name is Judy Haz and I teach in district 196 chair Johnson school board members superintendent creger I have taught in this district for 40 years as a speech language pathologist and superintendent rer you have touched my teaching experience in so many ways thank you for supporting Early Childhood special education you have always started with what is Right rather than what is acceptable you have listened with thoughtfulness and you have supported me as and you have supported me as a professional when I have spoken up for what our students deserve school board members as we begin a new chapter I look forward to working together to continue our journey of one District infinite possibilities as we support our earliest Learners because rigorous long-term research conducted by the center for the developing child at Harvard University has shown that early intervention has the following evidencebased outcomes one in three infants and toddlers who received early intervention services did not later present with a disability or require special education and research has consistently demonstrated that early childhood special education can lead to improved cognitive language and motor development reducing the need for more intensive special education superintendent creger I want again thank you for your [Applause] support thank you next on the agenda for special communication requests is Miss Nicole Herring thank you very much I am here representing the East viiew Community Foundation and the East View Community Foundation since 2000 has been supporting the students and schools in the East View Community we support them through various ways through random acts of kindness through scholarships and through grants to our teachers I am here to talk about the grants to our teachers that we have given this year our grant process each year is we request Grant applications at the beginning of the calendar year for the following school year a group of board members review the applications and select the recipients based on how their plans use the funds match with the E with the Eastview Community Foundation missions and goals and also the amount of grant funding we have available this year we selected four Grant recipients the total amount of Grants given this year is $2,143 a check for the amount was sent to the school district for distribution to the grant recipients our four recipients are East viiew High School the grant title is unveiling the DNA Mysteries PCR and gel electroforesis in the biology classroom Highland Elementary their Grant title is creating inclusive playground spaces for all students of all abilities and Greenleaf Elementary their Grant title is beyond the frame showcasing student Talent with portable display walls and finally Thomas Lake Elementary with a grant title of Nature's Classroom enhancing learning Outdoors if anyone has any questions you can certainly contact us via our website thank you thank you thank you and our last speaker of the evening is Miss Mary Snider hello everyone my name is Mary Snyder and thank you uh board for listening me for listening to me today um I'm a parent of two high school teenagers who go to Rosemont High School and I've been in this District since 198 does anyone want to do the math on that summer break you got all got you all got to pass youall got to pass um I've been teaching our district for 28 years and um I started in our district as in 1980 as a second grade at northv elementary school and then on to Rosemont Middle School and Rosemont High School where I the graduating class of 1991 I'm also a very very proud member of our Dakota County United Educators teachers union led by our Union president Kate Schmidt I wanted to take a minute today to thank all of our District leaders and all of you and our community who continue to strive to make our district the best that it can be the accomplishments and successes to those that to continue to invest in the time and energy in our district in a positive way thank you for that I and so many others in our district community and teachers union continue to work together each day for the betterment of every student in our district I have had the honor to experience this District as a student a teacher and now a parent in my my humble opinion what we have in our district is truly special because at the end of the day all the stakeholders know the value of working together we have seen great Su successes and we have been through great challenges in our district we may have differences in how an issue May to need to be solved or addressed and when that happens the open lines of communications begins as you we all know our amazing superintendent Mary creger and our Dakota County United educator Kate schm our president knows the value of working together and our board especially in trying times and we and they continue to strive to lead our district in such a manner thank you superintendent president Schmidt our board and our community I know understand I know and understand how our district and my colleagues has helped me grow as an educator and I am forever thankful to my teachers and staff who made a difference in my life from a very young student the staff members and teachers had encour me had encour me encouraged me at a young age and helped me believe in my myself when I was doubtful of my own abilities I could name every teacher who shaped my shaped me into the person I am today but I only have four minutes you can talk to me after um now I have the honor now I have the honor and privilege to be a teacher and a part of the lives of so many students and families I also see how teachers and the staff members help my own two children succeed at rosan high school and and and their other schools we've had so many great people support our district and in my opinion we have great leaders too superintendent creger you have led our district for many years I want to take a minute to thank you for your leadership your vision your guidance your support over the years thank you for coming into my classroom and to so many others education as we know is forever changing and you always wanted to be on the ground floor to see the accomplish the accomplishments that we have made and to see the areas where we need to strive to be thank you for that leadership matters trusting your leaders matters I thank you superintendent creger for the trust you've given me and so many others in our district now it is time for new leader superintendent elect Michael balson I'm thrilled and grateful that you will have this amazing opportunity to lead our district you know our district has you know our district and been a part of it and for have been a part of it and what it is today through all the various roles that you have given your time and countless energy too thank you for that I know you value all voices and seeing and see the amazing opportunity and the importance of working together like superintendent creger and our Union president DQ and all of our members in our community thank you to all of you for the work you've done in 2000 in the 2023 24th school year another school year in the books here we go I wish you all well and I hope to see you in the fall stop on in but those that you know me I sing a lot in my class so don't be surprised if I ask to do you a ask a duet from you you never know maybe we have some singers In This Crowd you never know just kidding thank you so much for listening and the opportunity to speak enjoy your summer and I will see what the start start of the 2024 25 school year thank you to all of you and thank you for listening thank you excellent all right next on the agenda is our consent agenda we have um 39 items on the consent agenda tonight getting my vocal cords warmed up those items include Schoolboard member employment appointments to the legislative advisory Council District memberships for 20242 official newspaper for 20242 revised minutes of the April 8th 2024 special Schoolboard meeting revised minutes of the April 13th 2024 special Schoolboard meeting revised minutes of the April 15th 2024 special school board meeting revised minutes of the April 23rd 2024 special school board meeting minutes of the May 6th 2024 regular school board meeting gifts grants advertising Revenue Treasures report for April 2024 summary of claims for April 2024 schedule of Investments for April 2024 revenues of expenditure report for April 2024 Personnel pay rates for substitute temporary and part-time employees purchase of teach toown special education curriculum 2024 25 cap agency Head Start inter agency agreement special education resolution with Minnesota State High School league employment agreements employment agreements Creationary Highland Elementary School in Scott Highlands Middle School cealing grid replacement playground for Oakridge Elementary School of leadership environmental and Health Services playground for dearwood elementary school Falcon Ridge Middle School Chiller replacement 2024 building automation system upgraded Apple Valley High School designation of identified official with authority for Minnesota Department of Education external user access re recertification system student teacher agreement with Minnesota State University Mano student teacher agreement with Alexandria Technical and Community College Workers Compensation Insurance non-public school Counseling Services agreement Apple Valley High School tennis court relocation Elementary number 20 re elevator rebid districtwide Bond projects commissioning and special inspections termination and non-renewals probationary teachers driver education vehicle lease and Athletics and event registration and fee payment services are there any items that a Schoolboard member would like to remove from the consent tonight do you remember all the items on can said seeing none is there a motion to approve the consent is outlined so move second motion by Jackie second by Art all those in favor of approving the consent say I I those opposed motion carries 7 to one next on the agenda is reports and I would like to welcome Kaa Bruce director of Community Education to the podium to go over our Community Education summer programs good evening chairperson Johnson superintendent ker and members of the board I'm pleased to share with you this evening how our Community Education team instructors teachers coaches and staff have planned fun learning opportunities for all ages this summer we have exciting opportunities for children prek to grade 12 as we have 421 class sections being offered from June 10th to August 18th our youth program coordinators Marissa schro and assistant Amanda Shon are on site this morning for the start of summer classes they get to be on the the front lines where they hear and see the excitement and joy of Summer Fun and learning that is taking place in and outside of our school buildings a favorite program of the summer is Storybook Theater which will hold two performances of each of the three plays scheduled Cahoots is our summer correspondence math and language arts program which is designed to help students combat summer learning loss in grades prek through five the 8-week program is a homebased is homebased and provides workbooks and worksheets for children to extend what they have learned during the school year a Cahoots buddy is part of the program as well they are like a pen pal and are a useful tool to keep students engaged and excited about the program 726 district 196 students are registered this year coordinator Matt mccab and Avid Sports Enthusiast runs our high school sports camps he has worked to bring 178 section of Sports Programming for children's in grades 1 through 12 these camps are run by our school district head coaches and their assistance and currently nearly 4,000 students are enrolled our Aquatics program coordinator Tia Moro has an exciting summer of swim lessons certifications and adult Fitness classes planned currently 1,370 students are enrolled across all of our Aquatics classes of special interest are 12 certification classes which will provide our program with water safety instructors and lifeguards to help address our staffing shortages besides High School Sports Camps Matt McKay plans quality learning opportunities for adult community members of all ages through adult summer programming 56 classes are being offered this summer popular classes include Fitness many which will be held Outdoors Bob Ross painting tennis golf Fantasy Football and the new and very popular fused glass our adult basic education program just held their AB graduation ceremony a couple of weeks ago where 84 students received their GED or adult diploma AB manager Eric Lynn leads the growing a program for the summer he is projecting 375 students to participate in learning English rushing up on math skills or studying for their GED over the past year AB has increased student enrollment by over 14% summer classes for all programs start on July 8th project Explorer coordinator Patty Vance enjoys creating and providing opportunities for adults with disabilities to connect socialize build friendships and learn nearly 1,400 students are enrolled in summer events which include volunteering and adopt aart cleanup and food sorting for Feed My Starving Children many outdoor activities are planned as well as field trips to sporting events a tour to the span Museum and the popular pool parties Christy Hansen Early Childhood family education assistant administrator is also ready for summer classes which start in July typical classes include time for parent child interaction parent education and early childhood education summer session runs July 9th through August 1st family playtimes are set up in mid July for parents who want to bring their children to play with other district 196 children and ECFE staff play is not only fun but instructive elements are Incorporated we invite our district Community to apply to be a representative on our Community Education advisory Council we meet five times a year and are looking for people who are committed to lifelong learning the application is on our website at C.D district196.org summer is a busy and exhil in time for Community Education we are excited to be offering a wide range of activities to educate develop and Inspire our community for lifelong success I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have thank you very much are there any questions or comments from the audience audience first seeing none questions or comments from board members yes Anna not a question not a question but a comment um as you remember Kaa my son and I were able to do uh The Advisory Council for a couple of years and so for parents out there who are looking to get their kids engaged it might be a nice parent or Guardian activity with your student to do together and so I highly encourage it it was really amazing to meet with different uh representatives from throughout the community and learn more about what um you do um and it was eye opening for me so yeah it was great great thanks Anna I'm just going to add I am a as an um Avid promoter of everything that Community yet does and a consumer of their services as well um my family and I are always very benef grateful for everything Community yet does um my kids got their Cahoots book uh in the mail today they were really excited to get mail until they opened it um and um uh also thing that I noticed this year I think earlier on in the year like in March um one thing I really really loved as a parent was when we started getting emails from Community Ed there were links per week over the summer where if you didn't have programming you could select click a button and it would bring you to everything that Community Ed offers that week and as a parent who's trying to plan your summer week by week so beneficial such a great idea to add that as well so thank you for the presentation and everything that uh Community Ed does thank you right our next speaker I would like to welcome Janet fman and Ka you're staying up here right and Ka Bruce to the podium to go over enhancing and expanding Early Learning chairperson Johnson members of the board and superintendent creger Janet fman director of special education and I are here this evening to share an update on early learning in district 196 with you we'll begin with the rationale for early learning and the history of early learning in district 196 and move into our current reality in future plans and needs the early years of a child's life are crucial in creating a foundation for lifelong learning and success research shows that early learning has positive outcomes for students children's brains develop rapidly with 90% of brain development occurring before age five these formative years lay the cognitive and behavioral foundation for future development and learning strong early habits set children on a positive path reducing the need for remedial services and increasing the likelihood of high school gradu graduation College and Career Success and positive societal impacts high quality Early Learning programs enhance cognitive and social emotional development children in these programs demonstrate improved social skills stronger self-regulation and reduce behavioral challenges which are critical for success in kindergarten and Beyond these programs also prepare children for kindergarten by developing critical thinking curiosity creativity language literacy and early math skills this foundational knowledge equips children with the necessary tools to sustain themselves academically as they progress through school the achievement Gap begins early with many children from lowincome families starting kindergarten behind their peers studies show that children in the lowest economic groups begin kindergarten with academic skills 20 months behind those of children in the top income category limited access to early care and early care and education contributes to these inequalities to raise achievement and close gaps it is imperative to focus on early learning studies estimate that every $1 invested in high quality Early Childhood programs yields a $4 to $16 return over the past eight years the state legisl has increased funding for programs like early childhood family education School Readiness voluntary prek and pathway scholarships all which support our connections preschool program in this latest session legislators funded early learning for an additional 5,200 students Statewide district 196 Community Education has offered half-day preschool for three and four-year-olds at the Early Childhood Learning Center and an elementary school that had space at the time to all students across the district but required families to provide their own transportation these class rooms included students with disabilities learning alongside their peers in a least restrictive environment in 2012 the first preschool targeting students from their specific attendance area with mday Transportation opened at Echo Park Elementary marking the start of our preschool expansion in district 196 this expansion aligned with our strategic plan which prioritize Early Learning The Early Learning strategic plan committee aimed to align instruction ensure a consistent learning environment support teacher and administrator Effectiveness and focus on data driven Improvement we rebranded our preschool programs as connections preschool aligned our curriculum with K3 and implemented an assessment tool for differentiated and effective instruction over the years as space has become available we have expanded four-year-old preschool and elementary schools growing from just two sections in 2012 to 29 sections today of these 12 elementary schools host their attendance area students three host their attendance area students at another school due to space constraints and three do not host preschool all classrooms include General and special education students those students receiving special ed services attend at a variety of sites which may not be their attendance school while expanding from two sections in one Elementary School to 29 sections in 12 elementary schools over 12 years is progress we are still behind comparable districts on average these districts serve 40% of their four-year olds and 14% of their three-year-olds while our connections preschool program serves only 20% of our four-year-olds and 5% % of three-year-olds our goal is to serve 50% of four-year-olds and 25% of three-year-olds this demand for our program is evident in our weight list numbers as of May 30th there are 209 students on the weight list for connections preschool a number that typically doubles by the start of the school year this highlights the need to further expand our programming thank thank you Kaa um as you can see on this graph we are also seeing a significant growth in the number of students being identified as needing Early Childhood special education services in the last 10 years we have 200 additional students which is a 30% increase note that these Stu students or this data is birth through age five and kaia's data that she shared was just three and four-year-olds in addition to this growth the needs of our students are more complex and in order to best meet the unique needs of our students it is critical to have programs ECFE programs and ecse programs have alignment so we are able to provide the most robust support to our students we also have lack we also are lacking our ability to provide inclusive opportunities for our students due to the lack of capacity additionally we would like to serve more students who are receiving special education services in their home school oops so this work of this committee um I'm going to start by reading the charge statement of the committee in a collaborative effort The Early Childhood Family Services Early Childhood special education services and Elementary primary staff as well as principal and directors will be collectively reviewing Early Learning curriculum and educational materials this review will encom review will Encompass social emotional learning academic achievement and Equity all grounded in research we will identify beliefs practices and resources that effectively accommodate the diverse Developmental and learning needs of every child while fostering a strong partnership with families this collaborative work will begin this summer we will work together to review and reaffirm our District's Early Learning Mission Vision beliefs and best practices and agreed upon outcomes for all students the review will also consider the alignment with our the district's achievement priorities of well-being academic achievement equity and resources given the evolving needs of our students growth in our programs and the need for alignment this review will offer data around our current reality as well as necessary action needed moving moving forward our goal is to enhance and better align Early Learning programs in district 196 by researching and identifying the beliefs and practices that contribute to long-term success for all students families and staff we look forward to sharing findings from the summer work and welcoming feedback from various stakeholders this fall which will help to inform action steps moving forward now I will open it up for questions and comments from the board comments from the audience tonight seeing none questions or comments from board members I'll go ahead Anna more complex needs can you just provide an example or not example but kind of a summary of what some of those needs you're seeing as a trend we're seeing uh more students qualify in the area of ASD autism um with needs around communication alternate communication alternative communication devices um so they need a higher um student to staff support ratio disregulation social emotional needs so um just a higher uh number of students need needing a more contained placement okay so that's what I referenced there but I would say along the full Continuum the complexity of even students being identified in the category of speech we're just seeing different more unique needs and I I don't know if it was you or Kaa that uh return on that investment for early what was that percentage or dollar amount um do you do you have that in your notes it was $1 for for every $1 invested returned $4 to $16 $4 to $16 okay thank you suchin thank you Cory um I'm trying to like an articulate my thoughts here of all the areas that I feel we have the greatest opportunity within this we often talk about the achievement Gap and everything that we have tried you know in the our goal to bring in teachers of color in the classrooms this is perhaps the most under levered Pathway to fixing the achievement Gap in my opinion this is beyond an Roi conversations this is a conversation of access to opportunity and Equity I I can stress more my uh desire to move the narrative from as space becomes available to make space available we we can't be comfortable with the lack of opportunities we're providing our kids uh I am I am so happy to see the Pathway to 5025 but we need the when and we need the framework of the how I I I am this is going to be just my personally that I will put a lot of my heart and my soul and my focus to support each of you as you go down this path but we can't take a passive approach on this and the next time we see this we have to demand these numbers change so I'd love for the committee to think about put us on spot and say okay you want this this is how we get this because that's what we're elected to do we're elected to be advocates for this and so to me I would love to find ways on how we can be more aggressive I mean this is impacting kids of color disproportionately and so whatever we can do to support this we've got to do that and and I'm happy to see we're moving I just want to see us move as fast as we responsibly can can thank you I appreciate those comments I think we would Echo those those thoughts and um agree the urgency is there it's now thank you thank you Jackie I can't agree with such an REM more than what he's already said if we have 290 now on a wait list you said it probably might double by the time school starts that's 600 kids that are waiting for space and hopefully we can provide space um I loved all the things you talked about and I agree with such a this is our day-to-day let's find a way to make this happen um and I'm sure you know you know space issues you people that out here that know space issues and can help you with that and let's hope that we can move the needle on this so we don't have 600 kids at the time the school starts that's the biggest call that I get from people do you have any pull can you get my kid into preschool like uh nope I can't but good luck to you I mean apply and talk to to you but I agree this is our this has to be our number one project to get moving on thank you scouting just uh wanted to say thank you that we're looking into this is really uh uh motivating and uh this is issue that we should have looked uh before but nevertheless it's just that right now we looking at it is really uh uh you know motivating itself the thing also that we looking at a scholarship and also sliding SC you know sliding fee scale and that uh for the expansion is really also something that's a good your presentation you know clearly points us out and provides a very good com you know comparative analysis to how the district lack is so it's really justifies providers a good justification so I cannot wait uh to see what you find out and the feedback that you get uh that you know I'm really happy that we looking into this I mean also Anna uh pointed out that the you know I'm glad she asked that the clearly you know the retur in in investment is right there so we move in a good direction but I cannot wait to see what you find out the feedback that you bring back so thank you thanks yeah I won't repeat the really smart comments that have already been made about the importance of this um so just I'll say agreed um and underscore it and just a couple questions I guess so I see and I I expect there was a lot of thought into who the membership would be um and I and I notice it doesn't include parents and I but I do see that you also have you know you're looking at Pathways for more feedback from the public so curious you know just kind of what went into your thought there what you might um be able to offer at this stage if there are parents that would like to provide input and you know sort of just back to guess I am going to repeat one thing that suchen said that is this you know this is a real Equity issue so making sure that we're reflecting the communities most impacted by the inequity right now in getting that input so we you know even knowing we have brilliant teachers principls and District staff how do we reflect those that most need these services in building it um would be one question if you care to comment or just you know something to consider the other is just you know if there's any room for a Community Partnership um I think we have amazing Community Partners here that also believe in our young children and I just wonder if there might you know if that could be part of the solu the space solution I don't know um but just throwing out there that there may be external partners that also want to support our youngest Learners absolutely and thanks for that I think we are we just wanted you to be aware of the work we're just starting the work so we hope that this summer we'll um collect some information to answer the questions you brought up I agree and we absolutely will definitely engage parents along the process um we just really wanted we wanted this we wanted collaboration so needing Elementary principles on board directors on board e Fe and SE on board so um that's where we started but I'm sure it will grow and we'll get more clarity as we bring that team together and move forward so what we anticipate is hopefully in the fall we'll have another update on where we're at where the team's at and where we're going so thanks for that those are great ideas questions or comments Anna again just final thing um one of my kids actually benefited from ECFE and from the summer program um and I cannot say enough about that as a parent who was struggling with how to best serve and working with professionals who knew um what to do and my job was to care and love my child and leaning on professionals who know how to engage my child and how to help me work within the system uh to get those uh resources that were needed and so um I I just it was the best thing that could have happened for me and my child and whatever we can do um to expand that um totally supportive of just add I think um there's one thing anyone from the community or your team gets out of this it's pretty good support from the school board and the work that you're doing I think we hear that loud and clear um the only thing I wanted to add to is I loved some of the numbers you had especially around 290 currently on the weight list that could probably double before the school year starts just to add I I would I would guess and theorize that the actual number of students in need is double trip or quadruple that I hear from families all the time that don't even bother to register because they know there's no chance because of how big the weight list is so I think when we can start serving that and getting that done um we'll see the actual need be much higher than the weight list numbers even two yeah and what happens with those families is they show up day one of school and um need a lot of support so yeah absolutely thank you okay thank you next on the agenda I would like to welcome Tony tashner and Ali Garen to the podium to go over 2024 legislative session review good evening chairperson Johnson superintendent creger members of the board here we are again a third time leg islative report in the last 6 months so we'll try and keep it brief Ally and I are here to give a a review of the 2024 session of the Minnesota Legislature which as many of us saw and read about ended memorably at midnight on Sunday May 19th I'm going to start by quickly going through our district priorities for the 2024 legislative session and seeing how we did our overarching theme for the 24th session was for lawmakers to slow down stop approving new mandates and support implementation of the many laws approved during what dfl lawmakers called a historic session for education in 2023 and we and we certainly were supportive and uh and thankful for a lot of that legislation but did want to have help supporting that implementation so in keeping with that theme our first of three priorities was to review adjust and support implementation of new laws there were many of them but we focused on three the re act unemployment insurance and school safety as it relates to the issue involving school resource officers the read act gets a big check mark because this is where most of the additional funding went as Ally will tell us about in a few minutes in addition to more funding we were also asking for additional time Andor flexibility to complete the required teacher training to implement the new literacy curriculum there was also a small win here as the as the state made a small reduction in the instructional hours requirement for next year to accommodate time for more training no check mark for unemployment insurance here we were asking legislators to broaden the definition of like positions from the regular school year to Summer there was no change in language there and legislator legislators did not identify an ongoing source of funding to support unemployment insurance after the now twoe set aside of funds is gone this will certainly be an item again next session and I'll just add because of the the language issue and and and and unemployment insurance we did have to schedule our summer programming this year we just condensed it having it at the beginning of the uh of the summer uh as a way that we to ensure that we had enough employees to run the programs it would not have been the way that we would necessarily have done it but but that was that was the option that we chosed lastly in this section uh is school safety and the change in law in 2023 that resulted in school resource officers being pulled from schools all across Minnesota at the start of this past school year including our district for a few days thankfully additional guidance from the attorney general served to satisfy concerns about liability temporarily and sro's return to our schools for the rest of the year knowing a long-term solution was still needed we didn't have to wait too long to check this box as the legislature approved the law change during the first week of the session thanks to a lot of work done by law enforcement representativ and legislators last fall including uh some of our legislators who were very involved with that so want to thank them for that the second legislative priority for our district this session was to provide additional funding for inflation Equalization and compensatory needs as you can see none of the none of the funding boxes are checked here uh under general education formula we were asking for an additional 2% increase on top of the 2% already approved for next year uh simply to provide some relief for high inflation we're going to lose ground again with with 4% and 2% over the over last year or this year and next year uh the General Ed formula is the biggest single source of funding that school districts receive each year so even with the historic funding in the 23 session since 2003 so we're going back to when the General Ed Levy was eliminated the general education formula allowance has lagged inflation by more than $1,300 per student or almost 19% of the current amount per pupil so again lots of funding in the 23 session going to education um but one session is not going to fix a 20 year 20 years of unfunded so that'll continue next year's a budgeting session we'll be back there asking for significant increases again to general education formula Equalization Aid is something we're always going to ask for because it's simply a taxpayer fairness issue and uh and our taxpayers are on the wrong side of that issue uh there was however no additional Equalization Aid this session in the area of compensatory funding we were asking legislators to continue to provide previous levels of compensatory funding known as whole harm Harless they did agree to this so I guess we should actually have about a half a check mark on on this box um we were also however asking them to identify a new measure of poverty for determining compensatory funding going forward uh now that School meals are free for all students uh families don't have the same incentive to fill out the form for educational benefits which was the form that they used to sign out for free meals so we need to find a different solution for that for the compensatory funding our third and final priority during the 24 session was to increase local control and reduce mandates this is one we see often as well unfortunately none of the boxes on this slide are checked either under local Authority we were and will continue to ask legislators to give you the locally elected school board authority to renew one time a capital projects Levy for up to 10 years in 23 the legislature after many years of of lobbying changed the law to give boards the authority to renew an operating Levy one time for up to 10 years the rationale for this is because straight referendum renewal elections whether it's a levy referendum an operating Levy referendum or a capital projects Levy referendum in this case uh the the um approval percentage is extremely high uh in fact since 2017 there have been 23 capital projects referendum renewals in Minnesota and all 23 have been approved many with overwhelming majorities we weren't successful with this request this year but we be asking again next session if we do not get this Authority from the legislature the district will need to consider conducting a capital projects referendum by the end of 2025 so as not to have a gap in funding for the mission critical technology that the capital projects Levy supports nothing happened again with our ongoing request to reduce special education paperwork and lastly we were asking for $6 million in the state bonding bill to help fund needed Renovations at the Apple Valley Sports Arena which the school district and city of Apple Valley operate as partners our funding request we were told or what we knew was in the governor's proposal but the bonding Bill did not get approved D so we were certainly hoping for for more things on our list this year but that's what the scorecard shows after the 24 session ended so with that I'm going to turn it over to Ally and she'll talk about some additional things that did happen this session thank you Tony so first I'd like to discuss um the education finance bill which includes $43 million in supplemental funding for the 2425 fiscal year a significant portion of this funding is designated oops um to one-time expenses particularly for training and curriculum related to the implementation of the read act our district is set to receive just over 1 million of the 31 million allocated Statewide for these specific needs while we are grateful for the financial support it's important that the public understands that many costs associated with the re act implementation will remain unfunded over the next 2 to three years additionally the legislator increased funding um legislature excuse me to expand the number of voluntary pre kindergarten seats from just over 7,000 to 12,360 annually and has provided ongoing funding to make these seats permanent currently our district receives State funding for 70 preschool scholarships and we are in the process of determining if we can apply for additional seats under this new provision finally the legislature has allocated more than $7 million to a group of seven school districts as part of a compensatory pilot program that was initiated in 2005 this program provides additional funding to districts serving large numbers of students living in poverty We Believe district 196 could benefit from this additional funding and the legislative advisory Council will be exploring opportunities for us to join this pilot program so we can secure more resources for our students also new this year is the requirement for school districts to Adopt A School cell phone policy by March 15th 2025 district 196 does address the use of cell phones in our student rights and responsibilities handbook but we will look closely at Best Practices that will be provided by the Minnesota Elementary School principes Association and the Minnesota Association of Secondary School principles to see if any revisions need to be made there was also a change in state health academic standards Health standards will now be shifted from being locally developed to Statewide academic standards with local Health standards remaining in place until Statewide standards are ready to be implemented into Health classrooms and in the 2627 school year districts will be mandated to include mental health instruction as part of their curriculum we will explore how to expand our existing initiatives and integrate new strategies to enhance the mental health education we have for our students in addition to this there will be new Provisions for mental health related absences and telea Health appointments students will now be able to be excused for absences due to Mental Health appointments conducted via tella health and schools will be required to provide access to a private and suitable space for these telea Health sessions in addition to the changes I already mentioned we have more new legislation stipulates that public libraries in Minnesota must not ban remove or otherwise restrict access to books or other materials based solely on its Viewpoint messages ideas or the the opinions it conveys and Librarians may not be terminated or discriminated against for complying with the statute Library governing boards including school boards must adopt a policy that establishes procedures for selection of challenges to and reconsideration of Library materials in district 196 we do already have policies and regulations in place that satisfy these requirements during the session another significant mandate was introduced requiring all school districts to develop a board approved language access plan a language access plan is designed to ensure that non-english-speaking families can access critical information and services in their preferred language at district 196 we have proactively developed a language access plan and regulation but currently this document serves as an internal guide for our staff that outlines the services available to families in district 196 the new legislation aims to make these plans accessible to the public so we are prepared to revise our plan accordingly and will present the updated version to the board for approval finally I'd like to highlight a development in support of our future Educators as part of the education finance bill the legislature appropriated $6.5 million for a student teaching stiped pilot program the program is designed to provide Financial stiens to student teachers placed in Minnesota schools during the 2425 school year eight teacher preparation programs will benefit from this funding helping alleviate some of the financial burdens associated with student teaching and last but not least we want to thank members of the legislative advisory Council for their time and commitment to our advocacy efforts this year we also want to thank our legislators and state leaders for their service and we look forward to continuing our work together next session thank you all for your attention tonight that concludes our presentation if you have questions we would be happy to take them thank you are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from Schoolboard members Leah um question uh for Tony and it's I promise it's not even on compensatory Revenue um on the unemployment insurance I recall at one point in dialogues as we were asking for this broadening the definition of like positions that they that it came to light that maybe there's a matter of what was the legislative intent versus how that is being interpreted I don't know if you recall this if you don't we can table it for later but I was just wondering if there was any progress on squaring those two if the legislative intent wasn't as rigid as how our district or I'm not sure about others are defining like positions if there's room there outside of a you know policy change maybe it's administrative conversation to clarify if we're interpreting correctly I didn't in the in the reviews that I've been a part of and and listening we didn't really get into that level of detail in terms of what level or what discussion may have happened um I don't know if that may have some been something that the HR directors or other professional organizations may have talked about so but we'll certainly look into that and and follow up with happy to connect dots if that's helpful yep sure go ahead please oh it's always interesting to me what they've decided to talk about what they decide is important and blessings to them because I know they get all kinds of information from all kinds of people so not too bad I mean some of the things that we asked for were good the one thing I want to talk a little bit about is this school safety and the sro's and I'm glad that our district was kind of in the Forefront of that talking about our talking to our students if that was important to them they all seem to say it was very important to them and so I'm glad that they got that figured out I was lucky enough to be at Rosemont High School for their walkth through for their graduation Rosemont High School students walk up to Rosemont Middle walk through Rosemont Middle greet all their teachers and walk through Rosemont Elementary and greet all their teachers and it's about enough to make you have to use tissues I CU my eyes were leaking but I was standing next to officer Brian Larson or Ryan Brian lson Larson yeah from Rosemont um from Rosemont and he was the officer of the year for the state of Minnesota and I was surprised I was surprised and heartened by how many people how many students graduating students came up and gave them high fives gave them hugs hey Larson and it was just about every other kid they were they were as excited to see him as they were some of their other teachers so I think that says a lot about the quality of of officers that we get here in 196 and how we can support them and I hope that message went to St Paul of why that this is why this is important to us it may not be as important to other school districts but for us it's important and our kids like that and it's a it's a great thing for us so I'm glad that they fixed that so congratulations to them yeah absolutely no we've uh I've been real proud of our district in terms of how we've approached the SRO issue you know back to the George Floyd murder and in the wake of that and and some districts made very knee-jerk reactions I would I would say decisions on that uh we we were more calculated we did have concerns we did address those concerns over time and working with the Departments and I think we're in a much better place and I and I think right it shows I think the public is is happy that we're that we're supporting and working with our police officers and and like you said the survey shows and it's not just in district 196 it is across the state over 90% of students are very supportive of having SRO in their schools thank you Corey before I ask my question because the basis of my question is based on this data point I heard so I don't I want to make sure I heard it correctly Ellie did you say that the read act unlocked $31 million and we got one of those million dollars is that what you just said that's correct so this is my question then so that is about 3% of the funding that we got 1 million of 31 million approximately but we represent 5% of all students in the state of Minnesota so to me that math says that we were 60% disproportionately funded we left $600,000 on the table which is 5% of $31 million why did we not get that incremental $600,000 and why were we disproportionately funded for that I would have to turn to a finance do you know that are you referencing the extra the additional funding addition funding was per pupil I think it was around $40 or something per pupil yep just under $40 per pupil and we don't have to get it but I mean I think you're saying 5% is the is the PO pupil math is no it's not making sense to me right because if we represent 5% of the population of students we should represent 5% of the funding that came with the per people formula so it'll be good just to kind of follow up to see why exactly were we underfunded by 60% of what we ought to be owed if the formula was a peral basis yeah and I I guess I would hesitate to say that we were under underfunded at this point because I maybe haven't presented the information that need to uh to clarify that but I'll certainly look into that as to why I haven't heard anybody in our district raise concerns about that level of funding it's it's been out there for a while uh and nor did I hear anything uh again in the presentations that we heard at amsd or uh or C on that so but I definitely will look into that okay thank you yep oh superintendent K so I just want to make a comment we are really um we were grateful that the legislators came up with this extra funding because it really is looking at our Administration working closely with our teachers union to determine a memo of understanding of how we are going to distribute this extra funds and I think it's it's helpful because all of our teachers are learn they're lifelong Learners every year they have a large load to get ready for that year to make sure they're implementing standards and the latest in pedagogy and research but this year for our elementary teachers and anybody who's teaching literacy that cognitive load is huge and so I think it's a way that the legislators were recognizing the cognitive load on top of everything else you're doing needs some an it'll be minimal nobody's going to have a different lifestyle but it's some recognition that you are being asked to do above and beyond what in our my years as an educator I don't know that we've ever had this widespread deep change coming toward us so it's exciting but it's also nice that we have a little bit of something to help our teachers out any other questions or comments from board members I'll just uh End by saying every single time I talk I talk with legislators a lot and every single time I talk to them I am always hearing how much they pay attention to you and our students and our family members when they're at the capital and advocating for some of these changes so thank you and the Lac for all the work that you're doing because they are listening and they are making a difference thank you we appreciate it all right all right that brings us to our old business portion of the agenda and I would like to welcome Jill Coyle to the podium to go over our second reading of the overview of student rights and responsibilities handbook good evening chairperson Johnson members of the board and superintendent creger I am here on Old business with our 2425 overview of student rights and responsibilities this was before you as new business in May and uh tonight I'm here for your approval um first just a reminder on what the overview of student rights and responsibilities is for the benefit of the audience essentially it's a student and family handbook book it contains a summary of a number of laws and policies pertaining to student rights and responsibilities variety of topics including data practices harassment discrimination student discipline health and safety and much much more um so in terms of the changes for the coming year the 2425 school year the most common sort of change that we see in our rights and responsibilities book this year are law and policy changes so you may call the 2023 legislature had a great variety of um changes to the law affecting school districts we got those infused into our various policies and regulations over the course of the year and now we're doing catchup with our with our handbook making sure that those same policy and Law changes are reflected there again lots of topics from data practices health and safety student discipline is a big one um the other big change that we're recommending this year relates to the way we categorize the various student behaviors so as you look through the book the whole center of the book is a listing of different types of student behaviors and there's 46 of them um what we've done this year is to categorize them into seven broad category sort of umbrellas that go over the individual behaviors and that is to allow better reference for families and administrators um there are a couple of changes that I've made sense it came to you as new business one of them did come as a result of a 2024 legis lative change um and so let me read that to you it relates to our attendance language in the book um there was a change made by the legislature to make it clear that a student may be excused from a curricular activity for an American Indian cultural practice observance or ceremony so that's been added into our book um for the coming year um and then in addition to that I also updated the Statewide testing form that can be found at the end of the handbook um I'll also remind you that one big this year is we're moving to an electronic format rather than a printed book that comes home to all of our families there was a question last time in terms of what did we spend on that last year and so we did a little bit of research it was a little over $50,000 and so we're looking forward to saving quite a bit of that there'll still be some printing costs because we will still have some paper copies at our schools but should still be a big savings and then we'll make sure that all of our families understand how to electronically access the book um with that I don't have anything further for you so I offer to you for your approval the 2425 overview of student rights and responsibilities thank you this is an action item for us tonight so before I move to questions is there a motion to approve so moved second motion by suchin second by Leah are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members I just can't let it go to a vote without saying how thrilled I am that we were able to move to an electronic copy um this year I think that's great great savings and I know to people anyone watching it might seem like a no-brainer oh stop printing move to electronic but there's actually quite a bit of research that goes into that to make sure we can we're still getting the right notices out in time so thank you for all the research the team did um to be able to provide that cost savings back to the district and to be a little bit more environmentally friendly with her paper as well absolutely um we have a motion to approve by Sant second and by Leah all those in favor of approval please say I I those opposed motion carries on a 7-0 vote thank you all right next on the agenda is our new business portion and I would like to welcome Danny duen to the podium to go over our 2024 25 preliminary budget good evening chair Johnson superintendent creger members of the board and our district 196 Community my name is Dan duain coordinator of Finance for district 196 tonight District administration presents the 2024 25 preliminary budget for a first Reading and Review the 2024-25 preliminary budget will be presented for a second reading and recommended approval at the board's June 24th meeting included in your board packet tonight is a draft of the 2024 25 preliminary budget book in all 186 pages of Glory which has been developed in accordance with the standards of the ASO meritorious budget award award which the district has received for the past 9 years tonight's information that I'll go over in this presentation is a high level summary of all the details provided in the budget book after The anticipated approval of the budget at the June 24th meeting the budget book will be published online on a district Finance page for the public to consume before diving into this evening's budget content I'd like to take a moment just to acknowledge a few groups of people who are involved in helping develop this budget a special thank you goes up to our district administrators principles and their teams for the time and hard work they put in to helping us develop this budget members of our finance team specifically Christopher and Kim Woods for their support of not only me but our District budget managers during this cycle and their assistance in helping develop this budget book and finally we would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge our talented incredible elementary students Who provided the the awesome artwork that brings this budget book to life tonight we're going to stop and and talk about four key areas we're going to ground oursel in our district strategic road map our Mission Vision core values and our strategic priorities we'll do a quick review of our budget cycle we'll talk about the people in our district and then we'll dive into the district's financials whenever we present our District budget it's really important us for us to ground ourselves in our why last June the board approved the district new strategic road map and while I'm not going to go into details into all of the four different sections of the Strategic road map I just wanted to bring it to the Forefront of our minds as we talk about the various types of budgets expenditures revenues let's keep our Mission Vision core values and priorities at the Forefront of our thinking and let it serve as our Compass tonight a quick overview of the budget cycle that we go through every single year so each full budget cycle has five critical steps the 20242 cycle began with the board certification of the 23 pay 24 Levy this past December we currently find ourselves at the Second Step the preliminary budget stage the preliminary budget utilizes a couple of key pieces of information that the board took action on in the past year enrollment projections that were presented to the board in November for the 2024 25 school year budget parameters and school allocations which the board took action on in January state law requires school districts to approve a preliminary budget by June 30th of every school year for the following school year our 20242 cycle will continue with the final budget this fall at that point we'll transition from using enrollment projections for the budget to October 1st enrollment actual accounts and then it'll conclude next spring with our spring budget adjustments and our annual Financial audit next summer oops education is a people-based industry okay so it's really important that we acknowledge all the different patrons that are involved in our district and in our budget so for the 2024 25 preliminary budget we're basing off enrollment projections as it mentioned the school board approved in November of 2023 for the 2425 school year the district projects an October 1st enrollment count of 2885 with a split of approximately 33% of those students at the high school level 23% at the middle school level and 41% at the elementary level the budget book contains information for just over 3,900 full-time FTE or regular staff FTE in the preliminary budget which is an align which is aligned with FTE Staffing levels um from the 2324 school year now let's transition into talking about the the district's financials and our budget before we talk about numbers let's do a quick review of the different funds of the district just to ground ourselves in some of the terminology that you're going to hear the general fund is the district's main operating fund and will account for the majority of both revenues and expenditures the general fund has five primary sub accounts we have our main operating account special education transportation qm and operating Capital the general fund has a combination of restricted and and unrestricting fund balances at the endend of every single year the nutrition services account fund account is for all the revenues and expenditures for the district's nutrition program for school breakfast School breakfast and lunch programs primarily this is a self-sustaining and restricted fund the Community Education fund records Financial activity for district provided Community programs for all type of District patrons from Early Childhood programs to adult basic education and Community wreck programs for all ages as you heard K reference here early this evening similar to the nutrition services fund the Community Education fund is a self-sustaining fund where fund balances are restricted only for Community Education activities the building construction fund is where the district records activities for major construction projects such as the bond project voters approved in May of 2023 The Debt Service fund is the fund the district accumulates resources in the form of property taxes to pay the principal and interest um payments and obligations for our long-term debt our internal service funds the district has three of them this includes the revenues and expenditures for our Severance account our self-insured dental plan and our self-insured health insurance plan and finally the the district has one fiduciary fund which are which is our OPB irrevocable trust fund diving into sum of the numbers let's go 30,000 ft up and just look at all funds across um or revenues across all funds in the next couple of sides you're going to see a comparison between the 2324 final budget and the 2425 preliminary budget the 2425 preliminary budget will be the blue bars on the next few graphs total revenues for the 2425 preliminary budget are $ 6453 million the largest share of Revenue comes from the general fund at 49 4937 million which accounts for about 7 6.5% we will see significant Revenue increases expected in the internal Services fund due to health due to increases in health insurance premiums collected from both the district contributions and employee contributions we'll also see an increase in Revenue in the regular Debt Service fund as the district begins to receive funds to pay for the obligations for the 2023 building Bond referendum one thing to note you'll notice a very large decrease in Revenue in the building construction fund for from 2324 to 2425 the reason for that is during the 2324 school year the district received the first rounds of proceeds from Bond sales to fund the construction projects that's not an every year Revenue receipt um so the second round of uh bonds Bond proceeds will happen during the 25 26 school year so we'll see another jump when that budget uh comes forward staying 30,000 ft up in the air we're going to shift over to the expenditure side side of the equation um total expenditures budgeted right now in the preliminary budget for the district is 7535 million the largest share once again comes from the general fund at 506 million or 67.3% the second largest is the building construction fund projected at 100.3 million or 13.3% we're on the converse of the revenue side of the uh the building construction fund now where we receive the proceeds last year when we were in the very early stages of planning for the projects the 2425 school year is going to be the year where more projects start to get planned out we begin construction on a lot of different projects and so we're going to see our expenditures go up other considerable in considerable increases on the expense side include internal Services funds primarily due to the rising cost of healthcare expenses and the plans needs to pay claims and administrative costs and The Debt Service fund will SE increase as the district begins to pay interest obligations for the 2023 building Bond referendum obligations overall none of these increases on the expense side are unexpected if we dive into the general fund and take a closer look at our district's main operating fund the total general fund budgeted Revenue amount is $ 4937 million the district anticipates nearly 72% of its general fund revenue from the state of Minnesota which includes the 2% increase in the general education funding formula from the 200 or from the 2023 24 level that Tony referenced just a few moments ago nearly 25% of the general fund Revenue will come from prop is projected to come from property taxes federal sources and other Revenue sources comprise the remaining Revenue components at 2.1 and 1.7% respectively one thing to note the last few years we've been talking a lot about covid Federal funding and when that the quote unquote fiscal cliff is going to come the district projects to exhaust all federal covid funding at the end of the current 2023 24 school year so that's the primary reason we're seeing a decrease in federal sources on this slide between the two years now if we look at a cross-section of the general fund expenditures by program classification this is an opportunity where we can connect our budget book directly back to our strategic road map so many of the concepts so many of the lines in that strategic road map center around the instruction growth and the development of students student instruction comprises 67.5% of the general fund preliminary budget additionally student support services such as Transportation soal social work and counseling services attribute 16.4% this means that nearly 84% of our general fund expenditures are going directly to student student centered programming aligning our budget directly with our strategic Road mapap we take a different cross-section of the general fund and look at the expenditures by object code and for those that don't know the object code is really kind of the what are we buying salaries wages and benefits account for 82.8% of all budgeted expenditures in the general fund making Personnel expenses the largest object category so when we really talk about people being critical we're spending more than $8 of every $10 on our people our staffs that are directly teaching our students all other expenditure categories such as supplies and contracted services are slightly lower and very comparable to the 23 24 school year if we zoom out and take a look at high level at projected fund balances at the end of the 2425 school year the general fund we have $493 million in revenues against $56 million in budgeted expenditures resulting in end ending projected fund balance at the end of the 2425 school year of 75.3 million which is a fund balance percentage of 14.9% the district anticipates a 2425 ending fund balance of 11.5 million in the nutrition services fund 3.9 million in the community service fund for fund balance percentages of 57.0% and 36.9% respectively and you can see all the other District funds um are shown here on this slide for the projected fund balances at the end of next school year overall the district anticipates a June 20 June 30th 20125 total fund balance of $370 million it is important to note that $200 million of that is reserved for the building construction fund what I love about this time of year is really the anticipation of a new school year and all the opportunities that lie ahead review and approval of the preliminary budget isn't just a finance process that's required by state law it's an action that connects our students staff members and Community to the resources that make those opportunities possible both the measurable and the immeasurable think about what could happen next year how many meals will we serve what will our graduation rate be where will where will our students experience the most growth physically emotionally and intellectually how many friendships and relationships will form next year that seemed improbable at some point in the past and how many of our staff and students will have accomplishments and experiences they never thought possible this is a time of Hope excitement expectations some uncertainty and optimism every school year is a collection of stories and memories in these budget numbers simply represent the people places and things that will bring those incredible stories and memories to life so respectfully it is our recommendation that the School Board review the 2024 25 preliminary budget and approve the budget at the June 24th school board meeting at this time if there are any questions I'd be happy to take those thank you are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members Jackie thank you for all your hard work I don't have a specific question and I love leaving it with the hope and optimism of expectation and excitement and stories and I mean just getting done with graduation and we see all of these emotions on faces of graduates whether it be uncertainty or hope or their Journey or memories or growth and thanks that was really kind of nice that was a nice way to end it and thank you for the rest of the numbers thank you they don't look too bad other questions or comments cting I think uh I can add to it in a way that to see that how you tie it back to our priorities and the Strategic and visions that we put in place so really happy and Thal to see that 82% we spend in a student Cent uh you know between student support learning support and also just to see in structures combined to those two that's what we're all about so really happy to see that we put in uh good amount of uh our budget in that way so an expenditure reflected that so that's a really reassuring in a way that we are 196 because we care about education and learning so thanks y thank you Anna did you have a question I thought I saw your hand up no no okay other questions or comments awesome thank you Danny we will see you in about two weeks thank you all right next on the agenda I'd like to welcome Jill Coyle back to the podum to go over policy 801 District community relations once again good evening um I am here tonight with new business policy 801 that is uh our policy titled District community relations uh this is a policy that describes many aspects of the school district's community relations including its Community listening sessions so background for the audience community listening sessions are Gatherings that give District stakeholders an opportunity to share concerns directly with between one and three Schoolboard members the sessions are held monthly as long as at least one stakeholder signs up in advance to speak since these sessions were first launched back in 2021 they've proven to be a valuable way for to connect our Schoolboard members with our community members tonight I am with you before you with a small proposed change the administration seeks to strike the requirement in section 1.2.3 that sessions be held at district schools on a rotating basis the administration seeks the change in order to host sessions at the district office while also having flexibility to host them at schools as appropriate this is a review item tonight and will come back as old business later this month June 24th I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have at this time the board are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none Anna um I like that we're doing it in one location because it does get confusing but also is there going to be an opportunity uh instead of actually having it at a physical location are we required to do that or we can do it online because that might make it more accessible especially at the time typically people are having to attend it's like 5:00 5:30 that's dinner time for a lot of young families yeah I I believe I guess I'd have to look carefully at the policy to see if it requires a physical location it may not not in which case there would be the opportunity to hold electronic meetings there's some additional requirements that apply to electronic meetings under the open meeting law we have to post it a little bit different meeting locations have to be public to available to the public in more than one location so there are some complications with doing it that way but I think it would be a possibility and actually as I'm saying that these are not meetings under the open meeting law so we wouldn't need to comply with that so yeah I suspect there would be a way to do them electronically maybe even pilot a couple times just to see I think that would be phenomenal just to see you know attendance with that encourage others that typically can't come sure to come I don't know yeah it's a good suggestion yeah I don't see any reason why we couldn't and if we don't have a quorum of board members um I think it'd be something we could definitely try yeah yeah good suggestion suchin to kind of build on what Anna is saying I think the purpose for these meetings was accessibility uh so I really want to uh endorse and support Anna's suggestion because it opens up another channel of accessibility however I'm maybe not seeing the the value of the district office in how it enhances accessibility um not saying that that's shouldn't be an option it can be an option I'm just trying to I can see the accessibility in the schools through an online Forum but maybe not the district office quite as much so was there a reason why we chose the district office and superintendent creger may be able to expand on this as well I think as as director Williams pointed out the consistency of having one location may make it simpler it can also be difficult at times for schools to prepare for a community listen session Community lising session and then when it cancels late we don't give notice until that Friday before the session there can be some changes that need to be made changes in schedules that need to be made so again it kind of goes back to consistency um but nevertheless you make a good point and again superintendent ker may have some other comments that's helpful yeah I was just going to add because I weighed in on this a little bit too I think um we've found when we when did we start the community listening sessions two three years ago now um I think it 2021 2021 yeah and we've the ones I participated in had immense success absolutely love them gotten some great feedback it's a lot less formal way to talk to the board and get some feedback back however I think all of us who have participated in one you kind of know when you need really need to have them usually if we're talking about a boundary change or there's something really Community impactful all the other times we had them usually we end up cancelling them and we started cancelling them actually after a couple times when I think three of them in a row uh two or three board members went to and the superintendent and no one showed up so you know we had all this preparation we started saying well if we didn't get it ahead of time maybe we'll cancel it cuz maybe there was just wasn't a need at the time so I think just to your point just removing it is maybe there's consistency at the district office by having it but also knowing you know if there's something impacting a specific part of the community we have that um thought process around it maybe we have it at this school instead or this school so just to lets us make the decision at a time and place um without having to be constrained by the policy did you have anything to add no I think you said it aome I would agree I would agree with you Corey when we talked about boundary changes we kind of did purposely go up up to Rosemont Middle and have a have conversation up there I think it's smart that we have a one location um we've had schools that had moved things around for us to be there and then we don't show up because nobody has has called so I think that's a smart idea it'll be interesting to me to see if people would be interested it might be worth a couple trial runs to see if a zoom meeting would be nice but it also is nice to to see people face to face and have those conversations so no but it's worth a try or a thought questions or comments Leah I can just add really quick to that I will say in my day job working with you know people who are really struggling with poverty I worried about going to something relying on technology and I was wrong it when you're balancing a lot more in your life people know how to get on their phone and open a Zoom app and I do think um the accessibility of that and being able to do that while you're feeding your kids or you know getting them to whatever they need to get to I I just I do think it's worth a shot I think it's a great idea thank you and certainly the benefit of this given that it doesn't prescribe that it's take that it takes place at district office but just strikes that language and gives us that flexibility to to host it electronically or at a school or at the district office question comments seeing none we will see you back in about two weeks thank you thank you all right we are moving right along into other action items I would like to invite uh Mr Adam wadm marer to the podium to discuss a resolution calling special elections to fill Schoolboard vacancy and establishing our candidate filing dates uh good evening chairperson Johnson school board members and superintendent kriger um here with some election business um as you all know but for the benefit of the audience uh one former director Bianca Vern resigned her board seat in January after being elected to the state legislature that created a vacancy in that school board seat the board then filled that vacancy by appointing director Gardner uh but Minnesota law does require that a special election be held to fill the remainder of that term no later than the general election date this November um if anyone is wondering that a bill actually was passed during this last legislative session that will change that statutory requirement so that if a vacancy occurs anytime with less than two years left in the term the board's appointee can serve for the remainder of that term without an election but that new rule only applies to vacancies occurring on or after July 1st of this year so we are still subject to the old requirements and so we got to have an election um so this resolution before you tonight will officially call call that special election for November 5th 2024 to elect one individual to serve as a board member and fill the vacancy in that term that will expire on January 5th of 2026 um so that means that that seat will be up for election again uh next year at our regular uh 2025 School Board election um the resolution directs and authorizes the various election procedures and legal requirements to be fulfilled because this is the date of the general election um we as a school district won't have quite as much to do we won't be directly administering the election itself or running the polling places um voters will vote at their local city Precinct and the School Board Race will be on that ballot with all of the other important races this fall um we won't be using our combined polling places voting and everything will run through the individual City precincts U but this resolution authorizes the various notices and other requirements that we will be responsible for the other thing this resolution does is establish the candidate filing dates uh there is a standard window of 98 to 84 days before the election in which anyone who meets the qualifications can uh file an Affidavit of candidacy to get their name on the ballot so for this election those dates will be July 30th through August 13th uh that's a Tuesday July 30th and runs through a Tuesday two weeks later so anyone wishing to run can come to the district office during that time frame fill out an Affidavit of candidacy and pay pay a $2 filing fee or alternately a petition of 500 signatures um so with that I would recommend approval of the resolution but I'm happy to answer any questions thank you this is an action item tonight so before I go to questions is there a motion to approve second motion by Art second by s are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members excellent um with that we have a motion to approve by art seconded by Sout and all those in favor of approval say I I those opposed motion carries on a 7-0 vote thank you thank you all right next on the agenda I would like to welcome Shelley mson to the podium to go over our Collective bargain agreements with vehicle technicians good evening chairperson Johnson school board members superintendent creger I'll be referring to the collective bargaining agreement with the school district's vehicle technician employees for the 2024 25 and the 5 26 school years before I do so I want to take a moment to thank our vehicle technicians on behalf of the district as they not only ensure that our large Fleet of bus school buses are wellmaintained um they also step in to drive those buses when needed which has been essential these last few years and for which we're very grateful these employees represented by the Minnesota Teamsters Public Law Enforcement employees union local 320 ratified the proposed working agreement on May 10th I'll highlight the terms of the settlement for you the wage schedule as well as the longevity and Lead differential schedules in this agreement were increased 3.5% the first year and 3.5% the second year the district contribution to health insurance was increased by 12% the first year and by 8% the second year the tax deferred matching plan contributions were increased by $100 each year there were other minor language modifications as well as housekeeping updates to this contract the total of the new costs involved during the term of this agreement will be within the parameters you've approved approved on behalf of the administration I recommend that you approve the collective bargaining agreement I just summarized and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have at this time thank you this is another action item tonight so is there motion to approve motion by Jackie seconded by Leah are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members excellent excellent thank you very much for um all the work you did bargaining this and um also I appreciate your words of support for our vehicle technicians because they do do a lot for our districts as well we have a motion to approve by Jackie second and by Leah all those in favor of approval please say I I those opposed motion carries on a 7-0 vote last under other action tonight I would like to welcome Jill Coyle back to the podium a third time tonight to go over our Property and Casualty Insurance renewal third time's a charm good evening again um the last item I have for you to close out other action is the district's property and Casualty Insurance renewal um so first by way of background the district is part of a seven district Insurance Pool it's named The Alliance for liability and Property Services we call it elps um elps uh through the pool elps members have a pooled loss fund to pay for their property and liability losses and claims up to a certain amount and then layered on top of the pulled amount is traditional insurance to cover larger losses uh the cost of participation in the pool is determined annually in advance notice is required in order to leave the pool um the cost of Alps includes the district's loss fund contribution administrative fees and premiums for insurance coverage for those claims in excess of the loss fund coverage lines include and there's a few of them property liability Auto crime excess property and liability errors and omissions boiler cyber and pollution liability this year the cost of the package is 2,151 256 and 89 so that represents a 3.7% increase over what we paid for the same Insurance last year it is a slight increase but it's much lower than the steeper increases that we were seeing the last few years with the hard um property insurance Market largely driven by property claims um not necessarily the district's property claims but Nationwide uh Insurance costs were up uh the district's experience with Alps has been positive and the costs have been reasonable compared to the more traditional Insurance Market uh this is an action item tonight and the administration seeks your approval of the Alps insurance package as I outlined and also authority to bind coverage you is there a motion to approve second motion by Jackie second by suchin are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members I just wanted to add for the board um I am going to be abstaining from this V tonight my private employer has a very small layer of the package here so just to avoid any perception of conflict of interest I will be abstaining um we have a motion by Jackie seconded by suchin all those in favor say I I those opposed and one abstention motion carries on a 61 vote thank you all right that brings us almost to the conclusion of our agenda tonight I will turn it over to superintendent creger for superintendent updates okay I just have a few first I want to make sure that our community um knows that we have many opportunities for students 18 years old and younger to have free meals throughout the summer so visit district196.org for complete details including locations and times and then lastly I just want to encourage all of our parents and Guardians and families and friends to help their students continue to learn throughout the summer months just take a few minutes to get your kids outside and play in nature to read them a story to talk with them all of those activities really help our students be ready to learn come fall when we have a more traditional learning environment as we heard tonight Our Community Education Department has a wide variety of activities and classes that are fun and educational and you can look them up by week of the summer which I think is a great option so for more information just go to district196.org and have a great summer excellent are there any board MERS with items they'd like to share tonight Anna um so I'm sure some of us are been attending a lot of graduation ceremonies or at least uh um parties um and uh I had an opportunity to talk to a young man who graduated and is going to be going to HCMC sorry um yeah henic County uh for Technical Institute for HVAC and I mentioned that we are looking for bus drivers and that would be a great opportunity for him to possibly work pay for some of his education um and uh maybe even snag a career here eventually for HVAC because I know we're also uh there's going to be some people that are retiring in the near future so if you are out there when you are out there and talking to uh recent graduates or even college graduates or just people who don't even know what they want to do yet please please whatever you can encourage people to go go to our website and look at opportunities um yeah that would be we we need bus drivers and we can't get our kids if we can't get our kids to school they can't learn um so excellent great reminder I had a similar conversation with an aspiring lifeguard a couple weeks ago and I know Community I would love that yes other um items board members would like to share seeing none that brings us to the end of our agenda tonight is there a motion to adjourn so mov second motion by suchin seconded by Art all those in favor of adjournment say I those opposed we are adjourned until Monday June 24th [Music]