All right. Good evening. Uh, it is now 5:30 p.m. and this is the ISD 191 legislative committee. So, welcome to anybody who's viewing online. Thank you, Dr. Daniels, for joining us. Um, and tonight we're, um, as, um, if you've been paying attention, uh, at our last school board meeting, we had voted to approve our legislative platform in preparation for MSBA and MASA MASA day on the Capitol on the Hill. Um, and so part of tonight's legislative meeting, we will be talking about our plan for March 9th, as well as the first item because I believe when we're going to be meeting with legislators, our legislators are going to be asking us and inquiring about um the increased immigration and customs enforcement's impact on districts, including ours. And so um we will open with that. I do have an understanding that maybe more will come out or be discussed when we have retreat on March 2nd. >> Yes, March 2nd. >> Mhm. >> There any Dr. Daniels, is there anything? >> Um, thank you. Thank you, Director Chester. Yes, we have definitely seen a um due to the uh increased activity around um immigrations in our um community, we have seen uh stress on our system. Um we have had to correct um faculty and staff's thinking around comparing it to CO wholly. Yes, partially this is similar to co in which we are have having to shift to an online model and provide online learning opportunities to ensure the the now safety physical safety of students versus you know the um the the health of students um in co nevertheless we're not receiving additional funding we're not receiving special exemptions we're having to work with the resources that we currently have to support the students and families that are in need of support. Um I um we've shared this data with the staff and I want to share it also in this setting. We've seen a 450% increase in um elementary spots in our um virtual online academy, 150% increase at the middle level, and a 25% increase at the high school level. So the demand for online learning has been significantly increased. We've also seen um a reduction in and in in students attending. Um right the I would say right before I left for the conference we were sitting around approximately 100 students lost. And if we um um net about $10,000 per student, that is roughly um a million dollars. One thing that um I have learned today is that we have seen 14 of those students resurface. And so our team is working to identify those students and make sure they are either in our in-person um in-person um experience or on or a part of our online experience. We've also um seen an increase in the need to provide more security >> because we have had several principles, several neighbor staff members um report um staging activities on our um on our um properties. And so we're looking in how we looking at how do we um provide support without having to always engage our facilities director or principles like what additional layer of security we can provide. So, with all of that said, and that's shared at a very high level, um those are some of the things that we're experienced with also the additional pieces of staff just being stretched >> to meet multiple demands um to um meet our students and families where they are if they do not feel safe coming to school. and we're shifting systems and working to support students um differently um um if they have requested a spot um and we cannot provide a spot at the um secondary level and we're really using our navigator model to to meet their needs. So there are a lot of things that we're shifting. There are a lot of ways that staff are being flexible, malleable, our cultural liaison they're stretched meeting the individual needs. So there are a lot of things that we can talk to our legislators about and how um yes we have a traditional legislative platform. >> Mhm. >> But we also have some things that have emerged in this season >> and which we need to um um pay attention to as well um since they are in session. Things that they need to be they need to be aware of and pay attention to in supporting us. >> Thank you. Mhm. Director Anderson, were any >> um I guess my thought on that is um is there a specific ask we would like to have prepared from for our legislators um in that support? Are we going to ask them to fund something? Are we going to ask them to um I don't know how are we going to ask them to support us? >> If we want to ask them to fund something, that's definitely something I can craft with my team to be clear. Like if if there was one ask we had out of this scenario, what would it be? >> Right? And so that's something that I could work on with my team and share with you all in our upcoming one-on-one meetings in preparation for the retreat and in preparation for the MSBASA um day at the Hill. >> Will that 15-day rule be part of any of that? >> Yes. And yes, and we did um thanks to director Petroski, we were able to speak with the um deputy commissioner and um she definitely provided us some support to to be I would say more accommodating around the 15-day drop. >> Okay. >> And so we have definitely spoken with I I also spoke with Commissioner Jet at the conference in Nashville and um he reaffirmed that support. So we we do have some flexibility with that that we're leveraging right now. But yes, that has that has always already been met. That need has already been met. >> Okay. Yeah, cuz I know that >> Yes, that was that was important for us and that was also important for students and families. >> Great. Can we have any >> um as far as like security? um what pieces of that are involved with like the legislator. I do have um one question too and I don't know if this fits in anywhere but I've heard of increased like activities around bus stops, school buses. Where does that fit in as far as like any controls that they can have in preventing that? So, one thing that we have that's a part of our legislative platform is we are one thing that we are requesting is additional dollars um of funding around safe schools and how we could leverage that money if we were able to move from 35 I think it's $35 per pupil to up to $100 per pupil or it is yes it's $36 per pupil. If we were able to move that up to $100 per pupil, we would generate almost 800,000 more dollars um for safe school funding. Um without that, we are working within the limitations and the boundaries of budget we currently have around safe schools. One thing that we are I discussed with um chair alt and um vice chair Hume is providing um more security. Perhaps we we had to purchase a vehicle, but making that vehicle and and hiring someone to like patrol particular areas at certain times, you know, certain bus stops according to data to make sure that we have more of a presence um in the community around these things since um I'm receiving data and information that um the activity in our community is pretty comparative to the activity in Minneapolis. And so although we've heard that there is um a withdrawal happening in the metro area, we are not seeing yet a decrease in our community. And so with that heightened um awareness and we're still seeing the level of activity that we're seeing in the community, we see that you know what, we may have to invest in this vehicle, this this security-like person, and we want to do that. I've told Stacy to continue to go down that road and flush that out because we're just seeing that as a need in the community. >> That's a good idea. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Great. Thank you. Um and we have retreat on March 2nd too where we might have more information that will help us um with information when we go on March 9th. >> Yes. >> So we'll continue that then. Um, so next is planning for MSBA, MSA, MASA Day on the Hill. Um, and uh, so if if uh, people haven't signed up yet to sign up to go, I'll be going. I let Sarah know. >> I just I just made the assumption like, oh yeah, she's going. >> Well, I'm glad you I was like, is Director Chester going? But yeah, so so far um >> um Director Anderson is attending, Director Hume is attending, and Director Chester is attending. So, thank you. And of course, I'll be attending. >> Yep. So, hopefully we'll have a few more if you're available to go. It's a really great experience. Um and so, you can see um either in our >> board book thing um or here um kind of what uh MSA has come out with. Um, and so it's from 9:00 to 3:00 Monday, March 9th. Um, new new location being the history center, which will be cool. Um, and they always have this really great panel and opening um, preparation. Um, and that, um, what I appreciate and I'm hoping will go a little more smoothly this year than last year. Um, last year was the first year they set and scheduled the meetings with the legislators and it was kind of all ours were all kind of like all over the place and I'm I'm hope and not always scheduled so we always had to like just drop something off or or something. So, I'm really I'm hoping that as uh we get notified of what our schedule is to meet with different legislators, they it's a little more robust than than last year. But it was even still the the people we did talk to, it was um really worth our presence there. And so, um, and I think the other thing I would, um, plan for is, um, post this event. So, if if there was legislators we couldn't meet with, maybe a next step would be to invite them to a legislative committee meeting if they wanted to come here. um would be something that would be next steps after we see what the outcome of March 9th has. >> And then I think we wrote we sent out a thank you card or something with the legislative platform again attached in case they forgot it. as a reminder. >> As a reminder, here's this is um and then if there was any follow-up information they were asking of us too is something that we would follow up and provide as well as after those meetings. So, >> um I don't I don't know if I have anything else. Any think based off of your experience? Um, no. I mean really there's uh you have the schedule here and then once they schedule our individual meetings that's you really can't plan much other than that. >> Mhm. >> So >> yeah. Any thoughts director? >> No, but I do need to register. >> Yay. It'll be so much fun. It's so much fun. >> Yay. Yay. Yay. >> Let Sarah know. So we have director, director Chester, director Anderson, and director Hume. >> Love it. Last year, Director Mikkelson joined us. So hopefully maybe she'll be able to join us again. >> She said she would know closer to the day because of the work. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah, cuz Yeah, cuz it's going to be auditing season. So >> that's exciting. >> Yeah, it's tough. >> Yeah. So >> good. I think that concludes our legislative committee and we'll have our board meeting and retreat. So >> we'll see everybody on the hill. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.