Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Okay. >> Welcome to the Lakeville Area 194 School Board meeting this June 23rd, 2026. Um, if everyone could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance >> allegiance to flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, I'll start with roll call to my far right. >> Tony Ramberg >> Carly Anderson >> Amber Cameron >> Michael Baumann >> Kim Baker >> Paul Carbone >> Ryan Thompson >> Great. With that, I will turn it over to Superintendent Baumann for good news. >> Okay, I have to ask everybody to kind of sit back and enjoy cuz this is going to be a long one. Got a lot of areas to cover, and since we're so awesome, there's a lot of good news, and I want to make sure that we're all paying attention. First of all, last day of schools. Last day of school for our students wrapped up across 4 days. Small Wonders Preschool on May 28th, elementary on June 2nd, high school on June 3rd, middle school on June 4th. Congratulations to our students, staff, and families on another great year. We hope everyone has a safe, relaxing, and fun summer, and hopefully you've already started on that. And to see some of the fun from the last days of school, be sure to visit the district's Facebook page cuz we put a lot of stuff on there. Also, congratulations to the 2026 graduating class. 912 [snorts] Lakeville Area Schools seniors celebrated commencement this year. Lakeville North High School and Lakeville South High School seniors celebrated on June 4th, and it was a glorious day. On June 3rd, Pathways Academy seniors celebrated at Brackett's Crossing Country Club, and it was a glorious day. So, uh congratulations to the class of 2026. We wish you the best in the next chapter of your lives. 99 graduates from the class of 2026 receive academic scholarships. This May, 99 graduates from the class of 2026 were awarded academic scholarships. These scholarships are testament to the recipients dedication to their studies and academic excellence. 44 Lakeville North High School students and 55 Lakeville South High School students receive scholarships at their respective senior scholarship awards programs. A combined total of a $110,000 in scholarships were awarded thanks to the generosity of community organizations, local businesses, alumni groups, memorial foundations, and service organizations. And we offer a big thank you to our community for your continued support of our students. Lakeville Area Schools students earn bilingual seals. This spring, 26 graduates earned bilingual seals and certificates by demonstrating proficiency in languages beyond English through listening, reading, speaking, and writing assessments. These awards recognize students' dedication to developing valuable language skills, and Minnesota colleges and universities award college credit for these achievements. And students from Lakeville North and South High Schools and Lakeville Pathways Academy and Lakeville Online Academy earned eight platinum seals, 14 gold seals, and four certificates. So, congratulations to these students on this outstanding accomplishment. Yes, there is more. Lakeville students make their mark at National Speech and Debate Tournament. Congratulations to all individuals of the Lakeville North and Lakeville South High School speech and debate teams who competed at the 2026 National Speech and Debate Tournament held June 14th through the 19th in the great state of Virginia. For the Lakeville North speech teams, class of 2026 graduate Clara Litherland earned first place in prose making her making her the first national speech champion from Lakeville North in 16 years. Congratulations, Clara. >> Pretty awesome. >> Yeah, that's pretty awesome. Incoming Lakeville North senior Sefon Barento also took sixth place in program oral interpretation. Incoming senior Yutong Jiang made semifinals in dramatic interpretation and incoming freshman Charu Kartik placed third in informative in the middle school division. For Lakeville North and Lakeville South debate team, Lakeville South class of 2026 graduate Alice Ye earned a sixth place speaker award in Lincoln-Douglas debate. She was also recognized by the National Speech and Debate Association as a four-time national tournament competitor. Congratulations to all the competing students for representing Lakeville area schools on the national stage. Well done. Lakeville South golfer Oliver Thiel takes fifth place at state. So, a congratulations to Oliver Thiel on an impressive fifth place finish at the state golf tournament competing against 93 of the best high school golfers in Minnesota. Thiel recorded two-day score of 143 placing him in a six-way tie for fifth. On top of that, the Lakeville South boys golf team took home seventh overall, and congratulations to all our student athletes that complete competed at the state level in golf. Well done. Lakeville South girls lacrosse earned six consecutive sixth consecutive section championship and advanced to state. So, a congratulations to our Lakeville South girls lacrosse team on a very successful season. The Cougars won their sixth consecutive section championship on June 2nd, defeating our neighbors, the Farmington Tigers, by a score of 12 to 10. They advanced to the state tournament, where they competed in the quarterfinals. Congratulations on a great season. Go Cougars. There's more. Lakeville student athletes clear hurdles at state track and field meet. Student athletes from North and South represented their schools at the state track and field meet. Lakeville South senior Ava Welsh delivered an outstanding performance, capturing first place in the girls 100-meter hurdles for her second consecutive year, along with third place in the 300-meter hurdles. The Lakeville South women's team tied for fourth place overall. Congratulations to Ms. Welsh and all Lakeville North and Lakeville South students who competed at the state meet. Lakeville South theater shines with Spotlight Education Awards. Lakeville South theater's production of Hadestown Teen Edition has earned major recognition from Hennepin Arts Spotlight on Education, including outstanding honors in both overall technical production and overall performance. Plus, the top award for outstanding achievement in musical theater. The cast also performed at the 2026 Spotlight Showcase at the State Theatre in Minneapolis on June 8th while seniors Jordan Rivera and M I I apologize if I mispronounce this, Limbulong, also represented Lakeville South in select Spotlight program. So, congratulations to our Lakeville South Theatre uh group. Uh Lakeville South and Lakeville North excel at Ultimate Frisbee State Championship. Congratulations to North and South Ultimate Frisbee teams for their strong performances at the State Championship. Both teams advanced through the quarterfinals before meeting each other in the semi-finals with Lakeville North securing the win, which also meant they won the championship. So, North went on to defeat Edina Ultimate JV Gold and bring home the state title. Lakeville South closed out the tournament with a victory over Roseville Riptide taking third place. So, congratulations to both of those teams. Oak Hills Elementary student invest in success. Students in the fifth grade Ignite program at Oak Hills Elementary put their financial skills to test this spring in the Stock Market Game. Working in teams, students invested a hypothetical $100,000 in the real stock market researching companies and making trades to build the strongest portfolio possible. Out of 217 teams in the regional elementary division, Oak Hills students earned the top two spots. All right, way to go Oak Hills Elementary. I will be consulting with you shortly. >> [laughter] >> Just kidding. But, I probably will. >> [laughter] >> Support student success at Ready, Set, Achieve. I also want to highlight an important upcoming event that ensures our students start the new school year with the supplies and resources they need to succeed. On Thursday, August 20th, from 12:00 to 4:00, we're hosting our 13th annual school readiness event, Ready, Set, Achieve at Lakeville North High School. This event provides free school supplies, immunizations, and other community resources for students enrolled in Lakeville area schools. We need our community's partnership to make this event a success. You can support Lakeville students by donating funds, new school supplies, or volunteering your time. Visit the district website at isd194.org/rsa to learn more about how to get involved. Thank you for your continued support for our students. This is a wonderful event, and I highly encourage all to participate in if in any way that you can. What did you learn highlights? Okay, this is the last thing, but it's it's a it's a great one because we get a video that goes with it. >> [snorts] >> To wrap up good news, we're pleased to share a short highlight video from the district's What Did You Learn series. Throughout this school year, we visited students from across the district to hear how our mission, vision, and core values come to life every day in our schools. This video captures just a few of the engaging and mean- meaningful experiences happening every day. To see more from What Did You Learn series, you can visit isd194.org/video-stories. Um are we queued up? I got a thumbs-up. Roll tape. >> I like only do good things when somebody's watching [music] just to get something in reward. It's like just being a good person wherever you go. >> If you're responsible, [music] you don't only need to be responsible for yourself being like careful of other people to show that you're responsible. >> When you finish [music] this big art project, how did you guys feel? >> Happy. >> Happy. >> Happy. >> [music] >> So, people feel like they have a place here and they just feel good. If somebody's being bullied, you can just like help them get out of the problem and make them feel better. >> Being a good teammate for me is being there for your teammates when they're struggling with something. It's encouragement, [music] it's reinforcement, it's having their back when something goes wrong. And then off the field, helping with homework, helping with personal issues. You know, if you're closer with your teammates on like an emotional level, then if they have something going on, then talk to them about that. >> There [music] was a fire poster for fourth grade, and that was my picture was really good, and I really enjoyed doing that. [music] >> Taking ownership and being personally ready is probably one of the keys to happiness. I believe that if you're ready and by the time you've reached high school, you can really [music] feel like you have a purposeful aim in your life. >> A lot of my [music] teachers are super, super supportive. I genuinely think that their love for teaching is what makes me >> [music] >> love learning. >> I was really, really stuck on multiplications, and like when I reached to like the 12 multiplication, and then I passed, I was so happy that I finally made it. >> [music] >> All right, ma'am chair, that concludes the good news from Lakeville area schools tonight. >> [music] >> Awesome. Thanks, Superintendent Bauman. All right, with that, we'll move to board communications. I think the only thing I have for tonight, and the board has already been sent messages about this. We are per conversation after our last work session, Um, to cancel the work session on July 14th, so that should already be on your calendars, but wanting uh the public to know that that meeting has been canceled. Um, a lot of boards take um a break in July, but we will continue to have the July 28th meeting um just because there's often a lot of um business that needs to get done before the next academic year starts, so uh we'll plan on holding that one. So, um just one one meeting canceled. Uh with that, um I'll move to approval of the agenda. Um, is there a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Uh first by Baker, a second? >> A second. >> Second by Swanson. Uh any discussion? All in favor? >> Aye. >> Aye. >> Any opposed? All right, motion passes 7-0. Uh next on the agenda is public comment. Uh we have two people signed up tonight. Um, so I will read the uh information about the public comment stakeholder session. Uh the board will open up the floor for 30 minutes to allow the public to address the board with comments and concerns. To participate in public comment, individuals must have registered in advance using the form provided on the website by noon on the Monday before the scheduled public comment session. There will be no board response during the session. Public comments framed as complaints and or concerns about students and or staff are not appropriate in a public forum due to data privacy laws. These comments should be addressed to the administration outside of a public meeting. Likewise, complaints about school board members should be privately directed to the board chair and or superintendent. No formal action will be taken on a topic presented during public comment. As necessary, the administration will follow up with the appropriate personnel on any concerns that need to be individually addressed. Also, if necessary, the board will follow up during board communications at the next regularly scheduled board meeting. Individual remarks are limited to 3 minutes. The board will provide a signal when the participant has 30 seconds remaining of their time. Please try to keep audience noise to a minimum to allow everyone the opportunity to speak uninterrupted. All right, the first uh person signed up tonight is Josh Vande Heg. Okay. Uh Josh is not here. Um and the second is Beth Beckwith. Did I get it right? All right. Welcome. >> Hello again. >> For those of you who don't know, I'm Beth Beckwith and I'm the media specialist at Kenwood Trail Middle School and Christina Huddleston Elementary. And I'm here today or tonight to talk about the importance of school libraries and media specialists. One phrase I've been hearing a lot about lately is the current trend in libraries is. While I believe current trends are worth exploring, I believe we also need to consider what we know is best for our community and environment. One current trend is to decrease the footprint of school libraries. After all, students aren't reading anymore, right? Is this actually true? I see this as a variation of which came first, the chicken or the egg. Yes, typically kids are reading less these days. So why not decrease the size of the library and along with it access to books they may find interesting and will have success reading. If they aren't using the library, why have it, right? Vehemently, no. Not all students have access to the public library or have their own personal libraries at home. If they don't have access to a quality school library, they can't use it. Our physical school libraries are important. So is staffing them with licensed media specialists. Part of the skill set of a media specialist is developing collections that reflect the interests and reading abilities of our students. Students are more apt to read what they are interested in reading. Around 10 years ago, Kenwood began to adopt methods described by Donalyn Miller in her book The Book Whisperer. It was not uncommon after we started adopting those things to find kids reading everywhere at Kenwood, in the hallways, in classrooms, hiding books behind things. And so it is possible for kids to still enjoy reading. And Andrew Barron, our assessment coordinator at the time, identified a positive correlation between the reading practices from the Donalyn Miller method and our standardized test scores. The 40 book challenge is one of her unique practices. Students read books from a variety of genres and are surrounded by good books. Students choose their own books, which increase increases intrinsic motivation. The alternative, reading only from a mandated teacher-assigned list, that actually decreases student motivations to read. Another thing is that teachers model reading with their students. Though some may view this as a pass for teachers, it's actually super important. Sometimes this is everyone reading their own thing. Sometimes it's a read-aloud by the teacher, even if it's just a first chapter Friday. It also provides an opportunity for the teacher to book talk their favorite titles. Miller noted that dedicating regular uninterrupted class time for silent reading is more effective than teaching isolated reading comprehension drills. At KTMS, we also noted that our students were more successful at sustaining attention during the standardized tests like the MCA, and we know that attention thing is a huge issue. Back to the chicken egg scenario, if the school library, which is sometimes the only access our students have to good books other than small classroom collections, if it's out of date, disorganized, and has unattractive or damaged books, it's less appealing to students, which is going to decrease the in the independent reading. So, please care. >> All right, with that we'll move to consideration of approval of the consent agenda. On the consent agenda tonight are board minutes from our May 26th and June 9th meetings, employment recommendations, uh payment of bills and claims, wire transfers and investments, resolution regarding acceptance of gift donations, an estimate uh for the district population, renewed designation of identified official with authority, uh the Lakeville Chamber of Commerce renewal, the Minnesota School Board Association mem- membership renewal, the Association of Metropolitan School District membership renewal, and the Minnesota State High School Minnesota State High School League membership renewal. Um the last item is the resolution related to election of school board members and calling the school district general election. Uh with that, um is there uh motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So moved. >> All right, first by Baker, second by Reichenberger. Um discussion, yes, Director Thompson. >> I'd like to pull a couple items out. >> Okay. >> Is that uh >> Yep, what items? >> I'd like to pull item H, which is the MSBA membership renewal. Uh I would like to pull item J, the MSHSL membership renewal, and then item E, the estimated district population. >> Okay. All right. Um with that, um I would like to take a a vote to or is there any other discussion, sorry? Or removal? All right, with that I'd like to um make a motion to approve all items um minus E, H, and J. Uh there's a first and second. Um all in favor, say I. >> I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Uh with that, uh let's move to the first item. Um Brian, is it okay if we go in the order of E E H J? Okay. So, first item, um, is the estimated district population. >> Yes. Uh, so, I I I'm not opposed to this, but I think I just want additional clarity, uh, before before I vote on it. The So, uh, our community education, from my understanding, is that they provide an update of, uh, the number of, uh, community stakeholders that we have. I think it increased from 65,000 to 68,000 or something like that. And and, um, and that allows them to levy additional revenue to fund their operations. And so, that additional revenue is going to be about $24,000. It's It's like I I get it. It's not like It is what it [clears throat] is. It's not a lot. Uh, but I think the question that I have is I thought the community education program was supposed to be net neutral. And so, I don't understand why we would want to levy or why we need to levy more. And I know it's only $24,000, but why are we levy levying more? Now, I'm assuming we are already doing this because we got 65,000. Uh, but now we're just going to update it to have 68,000. Uh, and and if it's net neutral, for those who are participating in the program, I I I feel like aren't they aren't those participants the ones paying for the program? And then, why do we want to Why do we Why do we need to levy more? And And if we don't do it now, can we do it next year? I'm I'm just curious. It's It's not a lot, but it's one of those where, yeah, do we really need to levy $25,000 more? >> Dr. Home Glenn, can you provide a response and any other context that's helpful? >> Yeah, um, in in community education, there is a levy. There's a levy every year, and it's by it's per capita. So, they get so many dollars per capita. So, as most most districts of the population doesn't change much, they just use the census. So, they get an update every 10 years. In our situation, when we're growing, we can measure some of that growth, and this allows community education to just get that little more funds to help their program. Now, um actually, if you want to look at the levy piece on page 40 of the of the budget that I put out, you see that the basic levy there um right now well, that we're levying right now is 388,000. So, that's money that is levied to pay for staff in the in the community education program. So, when we talk about our administration and and so forth. So, this 24,000 that we're talking about here would actually be for the next school year, 28 school year, which would be added on top of that 388,000. >> Just Just a follow-up question. Is that And again, this levy is a a state mandate. We can't There's no way to avoid it. There's no way to to not charge our community members the 388,000. It's It's like it's required. Is that my understanding? >> It's We are allowed to levy. And in any of our levies, we can under levy, but in most cases, we also lose aid at the same time if we under levy. Cuz they're tied together. So, in this case, if we would under levy community education, we would actually get less aid on the aid side, which is larger. >> You would You'd have to cut your community ed support >> Yep. >> uh commensurately. >> Yeah. >> The The The um statement of net neutral, if if that means that fees alone pay for everything, that is not true. >> Okay. >> It's a combination of levy and um fees. um The district All districts in the state of Minnesota during COVID nose dived because we could not provide the services um for that uh that time. And as you have seen in our reports over the last 3 years, we've been trying to get back to a um out of a out of a shortfall for our revenue expenditure uh position with community ed. And I think uh we're anticipating is it 86 87k rounded somewhere in there? Um >> right. I can get a number here in a >> As we've been trying to grow uh out of there. But it is a combination of levy and fees. It's it's never been 100% fees only. >> So so our so our community uh of 196 or 194, sorry. >> No, we're yeah, we're 194. 196 is um gigantic. >> Uh >> Um >> Our community is contributing about 1.2 million dollars in in levy. And we're already doing it right now. And that is to offset some of the expenditures to run community education for all the students that are part of our community. And again, it's not that I'm going to oppose the $24,000 increase. It's just that you know, I was under the impression that we were net neutral. All the programs are net neutral. And and so I'm like, why why are we charging more? So, that's all. Anyone Anyone have any questions or am I the only one that thinks this way? >> Okay. Again? >> Oh. >> I mean, this this is something a lot of districts are doing right now, right? Adjusting their population-based numbers. >> If if they if they're seeing substantial growth, yes, they are asking their board to do the same thing. >> Okay, with that, um can I make a motion to approve the estimated district population? Is there a um sorry. I'd like to suggest a motion. Is Is a first? >> So moved. >> Uh first by Baker, is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Second by Reichenberger. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Aye. >> Any opposed? All right, motion passes 7-0. [clears throat] Moving to the next item, the Minnesota School Board Association membership renewal. Director Thompson. >> Yes. So, the Minnesota School Board Association, there really aren't a lot of associations that we can be a part of. This is the primary one in Minnesota. I was just looking at the line items and there were three uh service offerings that we're getting from MSBA. One is the the policy services, which is about 800 bucks. The um independent school district membership, which is about eight uh $17,000. And then access to Boardbook is I'm assuming what we have access to right now, which is about 3,000. And so, the policy services, the Boardbook the Boardbook services, I see value in that because we use it quite often. Uh I'm just wondering because the $17,000 that we pay the Minnesota School Board Association, uh they're charging us based on the number of students that we have in in our in our district. And so, because we are a top 10 school district, we're going to pay the top 10 price for for the for these services. And so, I I I I'm I'm having a tough time if if this is my understanding. So, I'm I'm having a tough time because if Farmington or Prior Lake, when they've got a question about policy 201, you know what? I I may have a question about policy 201, but I am paying three times more because I happen to have more kids in my community. And And so, this goes back to very much like what we talked about last time with District 917 where I we I mean, what are we getting for $17,000? Cuz I don't call them for $17,000 a year's worth. I mean, if I mean, if if we hire an attorney, a thousand dollars a month, that's 12 grand. We just saved ourselves five. And so, I'm just I'm just curious if there's a way to negotiate, if this needs to be signed today, or have them come to us and present why we should pay them $17,000 for services that Prior Lake, Farmington, and even Randolph, you know, could get the exact same services for being a member. I'm just I'm curious. I don't know. Is that my understanding, or am I am I mistaken? >> Superintendent Bauman, do you have >> Well, what I would say, um, in terms of value, um, with the training, uh, the legal consult- consulting, I >> Well, they don't provide legal consulting. >> Actually, they do. >> Well, they but when I call them every time, they're like, Terry's like, I this is not legal advice. >> Well, uh, I I'm not in on those conversations, so I uh, I have to take you at your word, and I would have no reason to to uh, push back on that, other than to say that uh, the- they are, um, subject matter experts in the field of education law, and the field of board operations across the state of Minnesota. Um, and I believe I'm not 100% sure if Terry's a barred attorney, but I believe he is. Um, so, if he's giving advice, and he starts with I'm not giving you legal advice, I don't know the the, um, purpose of that. Um, I know that he has come to this board, uh, at a work session, and worked with us on policy, uh, statutorily developed policy, um, to which he is a subject matter expert, and and an attorney. So, um, I don't know if any of the two attorneys sitting on this board know differently, um, to the point of how they are fee structured, it's it's not atypical in the education world for that business model to be based on student population as a mechanism for um uh fees or memberships. That is actually quite common. Um whether it's right or wrong, I I won't make a value judgment other than to say that it's the collective benefits from that. If you're on the shorter end and you don't have the resources for the same price at the same level, I think that's what it attempts to balance. Uh and so, you know, 196 could make the same argument about 194. I don't know. Um and I I that's what I understand it to be. I'm not making a value judgment on it other than to say that if we don't have that resource available to us, we probably would have to pursue it uh through other means that would not be free either. >> Dr. Baker. >> Um so, I just want to note that 100% of our public school districts in Minnesota are members of the MSBA, so um I do think that I see value in that membership and obviously other districts do as well. Um I second what uh Superintendent Bauman said that if we didn't have that membership, I would be concerned about who we would call for advice. Um I guess the the question that I have cuz we could we could talk about a contract that we don't have the information about forever. Um is this something that the board would like to pursue and get more information on or are we just um is is this open for discussion? Like what where are we going with this? >> I've heard one board member have concerns. Is there anyone else that is not ready to vote on this tonight. >> I find the membership to be valuable. >> That's all I have to say about that. I mean, it's I feel like we've consulted with them many times. Legal fees separately would be a lot more money. >> Well, >> Director Thompson. >> I'm not proposing that we don't have communications with them. Maybe it's a per hour per communication per basis, but if I guess I I'm just trying to get to the point where if if we're paying 16, 17,000 dollars and everyone else is paying five or six for the exact same services, that's just it's it's just it's it's it's more money out of our pocket. That's all. And I'm not I'm not I'm not saying their services are invaluable, but again, why do we keep paying more for and subsidizing every other school district? Like this it feels like. I I don't know. >> Director Anderson. >> I just I assume that comes from something. I mean, you could we could certainly inquire. I don't I I personally don't want to push this or punt it. I think we renew our membership, but we could explore that in this next year. I assume that the disparate fees for districts of larger versus smaller sizes is based on how much business districts require of MSBA. So, it's probably the case that larger districts contact more often. That's my guess. We could ask for that information in the next year. >> Director Swanson, then um >> Yeah. I mean, just I mean, just to be clear. I mean, there are more services than just calling Terry Morrow for legal advice. Um And other things we do have access to uh bi-monthly meetings with MSBA and their leaders. So, uh I mean, I get the argument and the position that it doesn't seem that yeah, that we're carrying [snorts] a heavier burden than smaller districts for probably the same access. They still have the same number of board members. Um are we going to be able to negotiate a better deal on the contract? >> Probably not. >> Probably not. >> yeah. >> I just want to acknowledge that we're paying more than anybody else. >> Yeah, I I will acknowledge >> That's not true. We're paying more than the remain We're we're the top 10. We're paying in the top 10. >> I will acknowledge that. >> Yeah. >> Mhm. >> Dr. Carbon. >> Yeah, well well, that was my point, too. If um if it's a set fee and it's locked in and and if you're this size, this is what you get and and this is the cost, we really don't have any negotiation room. I I mean, I but the question becomes, is it negotiable? If it is not, then, you know, Brian raises a good point. If there's any way to save money as a school district, we that should be our our focus. But if it is a set fee and it is what it is, you know, then it's sort of there's not there isn't anything we're going to be able to do. >> I'll make a motion to approve it. It says I'm just want to make sure I want to I want people to acknowledge that we are a top 10 school and we're paying for more services and there are other school districts that might be using the services more and or less and we are paying double, literally. So. >> Yeah, and if I may, and not pushing back on that at all, Director Thompson, but services, I think, is an important thing. It's we're not just talking about a limited thing. So, policy, they have a policy library we have access to. >> And policy subscription. >> do policy and audit policy review audits, which we did. Um we did ask for legislative and regulatory updates, which in this business, we're highly regulated. I think if you sneeze, you're regulated on that. Um and so, we need we need to make sure we're staying in compliance. When it comes to board development, they do do new board member training. I think everybody in one way or another has benefited from that. >> But we pay for those. Board member trainings. >> Yes. Uh you pay a you pay a fee uh on top of your membership. Um board self-assessments, they do those. They I just want to share some of the expertise that they bring to the table. And And there's more. There's governance, there's advocacy, whether it's through the state legislatures. Um if there's a big uh piece of legislation that's out there that's um you know, a problem either financially or otherwise for school districts, they they help [clears throat] us um with that. Um in the governance area, they do provide superintendent evaluation resources, strategic governance, those kinds of things. Um they do offer as well insurance access to MSBA insurance uh trust um if we wanted to do that. And then professional learning, which, you know, kind of shapes into some of the training and the conferences that we have access to. Um so, it's not just a consultation. And like you said, in some of those instances, we do have to pay a fee in order to participate. >> Yeah. >> I think I've learned that in addition to the seven of us having access, I believe Kim Ellison in the superintendent's office utilizes MSBA probably the most out of any of of of the people sitting in this little area. I've been surprised by that. And so, I think we do utilize it as a district quite a bit even if individual board members are aren't utilizing it, but it's a a superintendent resource. >> It is indeed. >> So, you made a motion. Oh, to Director Thompson. >> I mean, yeah, I agree. We Could we live without it? Sure. I mean, are there conveniences to it? Yeah. And then, the question is what What would it cost us if our district if our staff had to perform some of those functions, you know, on the the statutory updates, how do the new statute affect our policies? So, but it sounds like Superintendent Baumann is recommending approving this county >> I am indeed, sir. >> All right. Can I take your motion? >> Yeah, all right. No, I think I'll make a motion to pass. >> [laughter] >> Um first by Director Thompson, second by Reckenberger. Any further discussion? All in favor? >> Aye. >> Any opposed? Motion passes 7-0. Okay, last item um from um the consent agenda is the Minnesota State High School League membership renewal, Director Thompson. >> Yeah, >> [clears throat] >> so I've had a few conversations over the past week about this particular renewal. Not that that I'm going to say no to it, but I think I just want to acknowledge it for folks who who may be new to the public education system, but as well as this is that by voting no for this renewal, the high school association league, that would mean that all of our high school activities, all of our high school sports, they would not be a part of this association, meaning that they wouldn't be able to play against those teams. And so, if if Farmington, Prior Lake, whoever, they're part of the the high school association, we would not be able to play and schedule a football game or anything like that. And so, it's it's a in the spirit of being transparent, is it is it a monopoly? Maybe, I don't know. But I think it's not like the SEC and the Big 10, you get options and you get to pick and choose, but Uh, it is one of those whereby voting this down, uh, we are impacting not just our school district but all of our students, uh, student athletes that and and and student, um, students that participate in a variety of different, uh, activities from DECA to to debate to whatever may be, uh, from competing against other, uh, districts. And so, I I just want to make sure that that was shared, uh, and those are the ramifications if this does not get passed. >> Great. So, there's a a motion to pass the high school league membership renewal. >> Yeah. >> Uh, first by Baker, second? >> Second. >> Second by Reichenberger. Any further discussion? All in favor? >> Aye. >> Aye. >> Any opposed? All right, motion passes 7-0. Um, moving to item number five, district reports and discussions. We have, um, a presentation on targeted services summer learning. Uh, thanks for coming. Uh, we have Margaret, um, uh, Gear and Janet McBride. >> All right. >> Check the keys are set. >> Okay. >> Okay. Chart is up. >> [laughter] >> Good evening and thank you for having us this evening. We're, uh, going to give you a quick rundown of summer academic programming. We have are right in the middle of it right now. We are in full full force. We've got our four elementary sites running, our middle school site, our high school site, and our online, um, site running for the summer. So, uh, most people think that we just kind of put our feet up in the summer as teachers [laughter] and principals, um, but I mean, today we were at four different sites alone checking on kids and running around the district. So, um, slide two. >> Is this one? >> Who's running? >> Do you have the clicker? >> You got the clicker. >> do. >> Yeah, look at you. >> Wow, you're empowering me tonight. >> [laughter] >> Um, our agenda is very similar to the last time that we were here. Why is summer programming important? Our summer learning is possible, our program schedule, our highlighted programs. Um we have a program enhancement this year and our school year goals. All right. So, why summer learning? It provides a system of support for the whole child. We do academics that we tie it in with our social emotional learning. It gives it to access to a tiered instruction. What we have done in our classrooms is we're re-teaching and pre-teaching. We're doing station rotations, so if you mix a second and third grader together, they don't know the difference. They're all working on math over here, they're doing something over here, so we can rotate them and help pre-teach and re-teach to make them successful during the school year. Um there's a number of different uh every opportunity video there that any of you had a chance to watch. Um it really shows to get our kids on target by third grade and how much it can impact them or grow the gap if we don't provide some of these opportunities. >> I would encourage you to watch this video. Um it also talks about the importance of relationships. Um it's not children of Lakeville schools, uh but it's just a children's um viewpoint viewpoint. So, if you have a chance, take a look at it. >> You went blank. Try again. Oh, just get All right. How is this possible? Well, we're fortunate. We have an ALC in our district, and if you have an ALC in your district, you are able to run targeted services. We have to we can provide these, we don't have to, but because we find it very important, this district has really allowed us to grow our program if it's necessary. The state funding does we try to break even. We can we can produce an actual point two overage for a student, which is about 204 hours give or take a little bit. Um so when we staff and we put our students in, we go for our break-even number um to include any salaries or supplies necessary. And all of our students qualify under the Graduation Incentives Act. >> I would also encourage you take some time to look at the pictures. These are actual pictures of our programming and it's just like when you're out there today, it's just so fun to see how engaged the students really are. Um so we run June and July um and we for all of our programming, we run in the morning. So our credit recovery is 4 days a week, Monday through Thursday 8:00 to noon. And then our elementary and our middle school are Tuesday, Wednesdays, and Thursdays um 8:15 to 11:30. So it just allows our families some flexibility um on the opposite ends of Mondays and Fridays for long weekends and then also allows our students to come just 3 days a week. We also do use our FastBridge data um when we're looking at qualifying our students. We um give FastBridge as you know three times a year. So we use that data to help us qualify. Is it the end all be all? Absolutely not. Our um staff knows best um what our students need and we're really looking at that whole child. All right. So this year um we are about 4 days into programming. Um so from last year to this year, we made some adjustments um with the 4th of July week being kind of in no man's land, we decided to continue programming all the way through. So we did not take a week off and next week we offered all of our families an optional week and we have had great response. I think we have almost 150 students that have chose to come next week and we will use it as an enrichment week. So we have asked different volunteers to come in and do different things with our students. We will do a lot of like readers theater and actually building different sets and do a lot more cross grade. So we will be offering that at all four of our elementary as well as our middle school. Um credit recovery this year. Um we are able to offer it to our 15 year olds. So when you see our next slide you will see our credit recovery numbers have went up a little bit and that's just because of early identification. Um Margaret and myself have worked really hard with our counselors at both north and south to really catch our students early, get them into a credit recovery program and get them back into the high schools for on track graduation. So we have separated those out. That's part of statute. They are in their own classroom with licensed teachers and we have all four content areas as well as um special education represented. >> All of this had to go through the state. We had to put [laughter] in an application so our continual learning plan. Mr. Baldwin had to sign [laughter] off on this um for us to get our our 15 [clears throat] year old program. So not every ALC offers this. >> Yep. Um we are continuing to collaborate with our special education department in our IEP process for summer planning, making sure that targeted services can support those children as well. Um and then going forward next um year we're look working with our continuous improvement department to offer a step up week for incoming ninth graders. So currently we don't have a program for them. So, when they um are going from our middle school to our high school, we would like to offer um a 2-week program of some sort in um August and work with our high school teachers. So. All right. Um and we've kind of hit this already. Um at our targeted services, we use station rotation, multi-grade when necessary, targeting our math and reading skills, and then also um using lots of hands-on activities. Our credit um recovery we've kind of highlighted as well. We continue to have um all of our licensed teachers at all core areas, including special education. Um and we are um have that at Lakeville South this year. And then this year, we continue our health and our PE with our online program. So, that just started last week as well. All right. Our numbers look pretty similar to last year for our targeted services. It's a projection. So, we are 3 days in. So, I would expect these numbers typically grow in July. Um lot of families didn't know their summer plans when we first sent out the um invi- invitation. So, every day I'm getting emails like, "Can you take them? Can you take them?" So, I expect that to tap out right around where it did last year or maybe a tad bit higher. Um uh credit recovery, um because we hired more licensed teachers this year, we were able to take more students, and then we had the early identification. So, we are um already running about 180. So, one thing I can't give you is how many credits we have attained. Um last year, when we did this presentation, we came at the end, and we were able to kind of tell you what we did. >> The one good news piece we have had three students that have completed their diplomas and received their diplomas so far for summer. >> Yeah. >> For the credit recovery in the summer, do you have someone that um works with the jobs program so that they could get credit for their summer employment, too? >> Not at this time. >> All right. Um Yep. Yep. >> Use your clicker. >> All right. So, this is our online tuition-based program, PE and health. And you can see PE taps out all the time. We're full, we can take 40, um and we filled that. This year, health was a little bit under. Not sure why. So, we're a little bit under what we could take. Um as you can see, we're pretty much a break-even program. These numbers are actually from last year. Our credit recovery numbers are going to be a little tighter than is shown right here because we um hired more staff um because we um took in the 15-year-olds. So. All right. Um our goals for the 2026-2027 school year, we always are gathering feedback from our staff and our families. Um I was part of the um district um summer learning network that was nationwide, and um this past year, and we talked a lot about improving our programs through feedback and stuff. Um we will be looking at correlating our summer attendance rates with our fall FastBridge scores. We look at 70 to 80% um attendance, and what do those do to our scores? Um we last year, this past year, ran a very large um targeted services program during the school year, and a very, very large credit recovery program. We will continue that. We have it at both North and South. And then our online students also have the same opportunity to attend North or South. We will continue our partnership with North and South and our goal is to become a part of those intervention support teams to help with that at-risk students. And we continue partnering with for our auto school programming. All right, just some fun pictures in your free time. All right, this is my favorite slide. So, if you look at my picture I chose, it has the beautiful lake and a little hint of fall in the trees. Because I think it's really noteworthy, this year Margaret and I hired every one of our staff members is internal. And if I look at those numbers, that is pretty amazing. I mean, they Today it they It was today when we were out there that energy by these teachers and the it's almost like they went into teaching. They're given a little bit of freedom in that summer. I was very worried about next week because now those teachers have no break all the way till August and we had a plethora of teachers that just want to do it. So. >> They are very dedicated to our students. >> So. I think we're going to say So, the only thing I wanted to say we Oh my goodness. >> What are you doing? >> I don't know. >> [laughter] >> So, the one thing I do want to say, if you want to take a look at any of our sites, we're at elementaries, JFK, Lakeview, Lake Marion, CMS, come check us out. oh, Lakeville >> please come to the high school. >> Yeah. Yeah. So. >> All right, question. >> Questions. Uh just just a few questions. Uh so, the the funding slide that you showed or shared earlier, um and and just so that I'm aware of it as well as as well as the general public, uh h- how is this funded again? Who pays for this? >> Yep. This is funded through the state. We actually generate an ADM for that, and we can generate a 0.2 for those outside of school. >> Okay. >> So, that's where those numbers come in. >> Got it. Got it. So, so then, I'm a big fan of summer school. A- And I'm a big fan of year-round school in general, but that's for another conversation and maybe in in September or October, but maybe not. All right. But but the reason I ask is because I there's such a major drop-off over the summer for kids, and and if parents or o- or the kids don't do anything over the summer and they're on playing Roblox and Minecraft, it's just it's just dismal. So, having an outlet like this for those who are a bit further behind, and for them to accelerate, catch up, uh which is which is amazing. But as I'm looking at at this model here, like it it's a it's a net positive. Like you're it's you're not losing money in this program, is how I'm understanding it. And and if that's the case, like is there value into doubling this program? Or if does the or does the state say you can only do it so much because it's only for those who need to catch up? It's not for Like Like I would love to send my daughter here for the summer. And like what if it's if it's covered by the state, why not, right? >> Capacity. >> I mean, I mean >> Capacity's one, but there are um underlying factors here. So, all of the students have to qualify under the Minnesota Graduation Incentives Act or the statute, and there's a number of different ways that they can qualify. Main one that we're using for our elementaries is our FastBridge testing, which is behind in test scores. There are other things. There's homelessness, there's um experienced abuse of different kinds, there's um being treated for a serious disease within 50 miles of the Twin Cities area, but there's about 13 different qualifying codes and they have to meet at least one of those to be able to participate in the program. >> Got it. And so then are you or it How do you identify these students earlier so that you can have a larger pool? >> We look at a lot of data all year long. We stay on top of our data. I would say monthly on some occasions just to see if we don't miss kids. >> Yeah. >> And we put the invitations out. We do work with all the elementaries and the learning specialist to try and identify our elementaries. The high schools, we comb through all the failure reports. We run our data. We get individual names. We contact families, counselors in the buildings. >> Okay. And so are we also stuck in the same senna formula where um you have to hire this these staff ahead of time, I would assume, and then if the students don't show up, then we have to then you have to refund that back >> No. So >> So you should come see our office in about February, March. It is wall-to-wall numbers because it does become like a prediction, right? We want to keep Bill happy over there. So we know our break-even points and then we have to kind of build in. We have over the years developed kind of a formula for what we know our attendance rate's going to be. We're at about a 75% hit rate. So we build that in when we do our hiring. Um and then what we do at the end of the school year, um when we feel like we're full at capacity, we kind of start a wait list. And we do that both in credit recovery and in targeted services. And as families' schedules get crazy and then we just go right off that list. >> Can I just add students in? >> Right. Uh Director Anderson, you mentioned you were um trying there's different qualifiers. So I heard homelessness as well as um living in situations of abuse neglect. >> Yeah. >> How are you identifying those kids and pulling them into the program and is there transport like how do we ease the accessibility for those kids I guess I'm wondering. >> There are certain avenues that they can take under the qualifications. So McKinney-Vento helps with some of the transportation pieces for our kids that are classified as homeless. Um parents get them there. Trying to find them we work with the social workers in the elementary buildings, the learning specialist, their admin, anybody of those that will give those recommendations to us. That's not something I find in in campus. Those come from immediate recommendations from the building. >> So I think to your point. So like I pull all the FastBridge scores and we kind of meet with the teachers in a PLC like what's high risk, low risk, some risk. But the teachers really probably what you're asking is they're the driving force behind that kind of next step invite. So the invite actually doesn't come from our department. It comes directly then from the classroom teacher. And then we kind of move it backwards. Yeah. Cuz I would say when I go out to elementaries the first thing I say out of my mouth is you guys know the students better than I do. I can just see the data. >> Mhm. Yeah, I just imagine that's kind of a sensitive >> Absolutely. >> place to try to get parents >> And the other thing that we're really cautious about like there's not going to be invite found in their backpack. So it's a conference conversation. It's a phone conversation and that's kind of one of the requirements that the teacher has that first level of conversation about here's the invite, here's why they received the invite. Um and then if they want to have any other further conversations, I'm happy to talk more about specifics about the program. >> But a child may qualify based on those factors and not necessarily Fast Bridge scores. >> Correct. >> Correct. Correct. And that's where it becomes like, is our program the right match for them? Or isn't it? >> So we're offering kind of support through the summer for them as opposed to the need for, yeah. Okay. Thank you. >> That's wonderful. >> Other questions? Dr. Swanson. >> Um, I know you mentioned this last time you were here, and you said there's a wait list for credit recovery. There's a wait list for credit recovery. Uh, do you anticipate that you'll be able to make it through the entire wait list this summer? >> Actually, we cleared it on Friday. And then, um, now we're looking at second semester first time fails. >> Okay. >> Does that make sense? >> Mhm. >> That's the list we work off of now. So, we cleared the list on Friday, and then we'll go the next slide. We have not had a summer where we have not gotten through everyone. Yep, we've always gotten through everyone. >> And we've come back and asked them again if they turned us down the first time. >> Yep, we go back to the top of the list and we call if we have openings, so. We keep trying. >> Great. Other questions? >> I have one. >> Yeah, thank you for what you're doing. >> All right, moving to, um, item number six, reports with recommended actions. The first item here is the language access plan, and, uh, Director Humphrey, thanks for joining us. >> Thank you for having me. Okay. So, good evening, Madam Chair, Superintendent Baumann, members of the school board. Uh, tonight I am here to bring forward Lakeville's language, uh, access plan for adoption as required by a new Minnesota statute that takes effect this school year. So, while the law may be new, the practices outlined in this plan to Lakeville certainly are not. Lakeville has long provided interpretation and translation services to support communication for our multilingual families. And this plan really just formalizes those practices and documents how we will continue providing language access supports across our school sites. So, this year the state enacted legislation regarding that every school district needs to adopt a language access plan. The statute really outlines specific components that need to be included in this plan including the use of trained or certified interpreters which we do, which we already do, for educational discussions and purposes, notification of family rights and public availability of the plan as well as a periodic review by the school year board. So, every couple of years the school board needs to review the language access plan and you know, adopt any updates that may be needed. So, as we reviewed our current practices this year, we found that many of the required components of this statute are already in place. Really the work over the last couple of months has focused on organizing all of those practices into a formal district plan and ensuring alignment with the new law. >> Do you want us to hold questions till the end or can we ask during the presentation? >> Can we hold till the end? >> Sure. >> Great, thank you. So, some of the key components of this plan is that it establishes a district-wide framework for how we identify language needs across the district, provide language assistance, and communicate with families. It also clarifies expectations for staff and outlines the available supports within the district, including interpretation services, translation services, um how our school success liaisons are utilized, and a procedure for families to um address language access concerns. So, the goal of the plan really is to continue to provide consistency across all of our school sites. So, um regardless where a student goes to school, um that student and family would have the same supports across the district. Um so, one area that has um been emphasized with the with this new statute is that ensuring that families um have meaningful access to participate in their child's educational uh decisions, or decisions that would affect the education of their child. So, for that reason, the plan really specifically addresses communication related to academic progress, um any specialized programming, evaluations that may take place, um our placement decisions for for students. So, it's really about ensuring that language is never a barrier for families, um and that they're able to understand uh important information, written and spoken, um so that they can be involved in the educational decision-making of their child. So, tonight, um really the the goal is to hopefully adopt the language uh area plan in accordance with the Minnesota statute. um From there then we would look at publishing the plan on the district website and then including that plan in our district handbooks and of course continuing to implement as we already have been doing through throughout the year and years and then get on a cycle for the school board to review every couple of years. >> Great questions. Dr. Baker. I just have a few clarifying questions that I as I think about community members that are listening and and how they understand some of this information. Can you clarify when you're talking about interpretation services? I think on your slide it said it was um information. Would that be like information during the meeting or would that be just for the families or are you talking about interpretation services that are happening inside the classroom of academics? I just I think that could be a little clearer. >> Yeah. So for this purpose as I am really talking about family meetings, family events and documents that like an IEP or um whatever educational document that may be needed for families. So this plan really specifically just addresses those meetings and events for families. >> Just one follow up then. So for the legal requirement I think previously we only had to provide like certain documents for special education in their native language. Does this supersede that and now we have to provide additional or >> No. >> No. Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Dr. Thompson. >> This is fascinating. I mean just because with AI and technology today I'm just curious um do you have to go to a vendor or like how how does this get actually get done? Because I can take a picture on my phone, it gets translated in any language. I can have someone speak, it gets translated to me. A homework assignment can get easily translated through Gemini co-pilot, you know, chat GPT, and then some so I'm like what's the cost for something like this? Are we using a vendor or have you guys already already gone down that path to incorporate and adopt technologies that are literally in probably in the classroom and probably the parents phone that might that might need these services. I'm just curious. >> Yep. So, part of the resources for staff is Google Translate or Apple Translation. This is also for when staff have meetings that may be 45 minutes or less. We have a language line that they can call to utilize and get those on-demand services right in the moment. And then for meetings that may be taking longer than 45 minutes, we do have we do use qualified interpreters. And use >> interpreter. >> Yes, human interpreters. Yep. >> I'm just I'm I'm assuming that Microsoft Teams you could have recorded recorded the the meeting and it could translate. >> may. >> All things legislation >> Yeah. >> severely lag technology revolution or evolution. And so, everything you're saying is true, but the whether it's regulatory through the Minnesota Department of Education or statutory through the Minnesota Legislature or on a federal level through Congress, it's not going to it's not going to keep pace and we'll be as a public service entity, we will be required to provide these services and we can talk in minutes. Why can't she talk in minutes? Because the regulations say that. But AI capacity as you note, we are leveraging where we can, but we also have to comply with the requirements which may have financial burden on school districts. >> Yeah. >> Dr. Baker. >> I just want to add how important it is to have just that person in the room to translate just because especially with some of our things that are test names, that doesn't translate for AI and then when you're trying to interpret results of a specific test and you're trying to explain some of the outcomes of those exams, culture plays into that too when you're trying to talk about IEP goals and objectives. So it is very very beneficial to have those liaisons there. I think they are just amazing as far as helping that communication with the families. >> Dr. Swanson and then Thompson. >> I just two questions. So I think you addressed this a little bit, but were there any additional services or procedures that we had to add to our current practices? >> None. >> Okay. And then kind of going off from what's already been said, have we tried to use any sort of like translation earbuds for in the class use for students? >> So I would say I believe that they that they have tried that in previous years and I'd have to get a little bit more information on why it wasn't specifically successful. >> isn't about the classroom. This is only family communication. >> Yeah, family communication only. >> Okay. >> So it >> [clears throat] >> I mean the the statute that you referenced 123B.32 I mean it's pretty broad. I mean it doesn't necessarily necessarily say only for families and I will note as Superintendent Bowmen said it does say we'll use trained or certified spoken language interpreters which I think is part of the problem, but we obviously don't have interpreters in every classroom that we have an EL student in, correct? >> Correct. >> Okay. I'm just wondering again where if we're you know, maximizing access to available technology to to of bridge that gap for those students who might not understand what their teachers are saying completely. >> Mhm. And again, yeah, I I just want to point out the difference between maybe our EL services and then what this this plan is really about communication for families um and not what's going on in the classroom in in real time. >> Would you be willing to describe the language line? My husband uses it a lot in Shakopee and it's a great resource. I think that might get at some of like how how what is it? How does it work? >> Yep. So, the language line is and we have instructions um on our internet for staff, but you literally just you call a number, you give the Lakeville access code that we have um and then you I I think it's typically you talk to somebody to say what um what language you need and then kind of like magic, they just get you hooked up with um with somebody who speaks that language. So, >> AI? >> [laughter] >> I I would say probably not. I've I've used it multiple times and there's always somebody with different voice on there, but yeah, um they are uh trained qualified interpreters um for really those real-time uh moments where teachers need to have a translator. >> Dr. um Thompson. >> I think I recall seeing one of our one of our school district slides. We have what 83 different languages? >> Mhm. Um I believe we are at 88 uh different languages with um English and ASL included in uh in that number. >> Excellent. >> Yeah, >> [clears throat] >> our our most um requested um interpreters are typically Spanish, um Somalian, and ASL. >> Okay. Any other >> American Sign Language. So, everybody knows. >> Right. Yeah. Any other questions? All right. I entertain a motion to approve the language access plan as presented tonight. >> So moved. >> First by Baker, second by Reichenberger. Any further discussion? All right. All in favor? >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes 7-0. Thank you, Director Humphrey. >> Thank you. >> All right. We'll move to letter B, approval of the LEAF contract. Welcome, Director Albrecht. >> Good evening, Madam Chair, Superintendent Bowman, and members of the board. You have before you this evening the approval of the LEAF contract for the 2025-2027 agreement period. The administration has reached a tentative agreement with LEAF. The workers um Pardon me, the agreement includes wages increase of 66 cents per hour across the board for year one of the contract and 67 cents per hour across the board year two of the contract. And there were some other minor language improvements that we agreed upon. With that, the district administration does recommend approval of the tentative agreement. And if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer. >> Dr. Thompson. >> Yeah, I just have two one question and just a just a statement. The first question was So thank you for doing being a part of the negotiation team and and leading this effort. How long did this process take with this particular union group? I I know that we generally wait until maybe I think the the teachers union gets done. This seemed to be fairly quick. >> Yeah, we met we met four times. We met May 7th, May 14th, May 26th, and settled on May 20 8th. >> Okay. Wow, that's fantastic for and great for you as well as well as the district and the LEAF the LEAF union representatives to button this up and get aligned really quick. So that that was my one question, but the comment that I just want to also share is that as I'm reading this I'm 100% supportive of the the wage increase philosophy where again, if I'm reading this correctly, every band, everyone who works got the same dollar or the same raise amount across the board. And so it doesn't matter if you were you know, step one or step four, like it because everyone's milk increased, everyone's gas increased, everyone if so the pay raise, everyone got the same. And so I I really appreciate this model and the philosophy that the LEAF union representatives went after this this particular cycle and cuz then everyone got taken care of. And so I think fantastic. So those are my comments. >> Dr. Baker. >> My question was LEAF encompasses a lot of different employees that they do different things across our district. So this is kind of a loaded question and I'm not quite sure exactly how you're going to answer it, but given the contract and and their wages, are they comparable to other districts around the area as far as how that kind of averages out? >> From from what I know, yes. But it's it's about the total package. So it's about of course more than just wages, it's about what the district contributes to our health insurance plan, the cost of our health insurance plan. So I'm going to answer that as diplomatically as possible. >> I appreciate that. I just when I'm thinking about like some of these harder to fill positions and a lot of times it's LEAF employees that are in those positions and we have to be competitive with the other districts around us. So that was really what I was thinking about is making sure that we're still competitive so that we can get those employees. >> Right. >> Great. Any other questions or comments? All right, I'd entertain a motion to approve the leaf contract as presented. >> So moved. >> Seconded. >> Seconded by Burger, second by Anderson. Um all in favor? >> seconded that, too. >> [laughter] >> I heard I heard at the recent admin meeting someone said seconded by multiple people. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Um but okay, all in favor? >> Aye. >> Aye. >> Any opposed? All right, motion passes 7-0. Um moving on to approval of student nutrition contract. >> Yes, the administration has reached a tentative agreement with child nutrition workers for the 25-27 school years. Uh this agreement includes wage increases of 12% year one and 2% year two. Other language improvements were made including the addition of Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, uh a limit on the performance pay and some other minor language updates. >> Any questions? Director Thompson. >> Yeah, so I think anyone who looks at this and sees a 12% increase in year one, if there's a way to kind of provide additional clarity on what that means, how does that Is it Is it like 50 cents, 25 cents? Like I I don't know, but when someone sees a 12% number, that it seems kind of high. Someone's at your front door. So >> [laughter] >> I'll get it. >> Yeah, okay. You're done. >> I'm done. >> Okay. >> [laughter] >> Um yeah, 12% does seem it is a little bit higher than we've given other groups. But in [snorts] comparison with what a 12% increase is, it's actually not a very large amount. I'm going to look to Bill to give you what the dollar amount would be. Also, just some background information on that 12%. Our child nutrition director did some background work and discovered that we were under market compared with some other districts. So we gave them a larger increase to get them to a comparable market adjustment with their wages. Also these wages come out of a different fund that needs to be spent down every year. So just a little bit of background information on where that number is coming from. >> And this this area is pretty hard to staff generally, right? >> Yeah, I would say positions that are yeah, positions that are you know, less than 8 hours a day and a certain number of days a year they can be hard to staff. You have to find the right person who wants that schedule. Bill, do you have the >> Yeah, in that first year it's about a dollar an hour. >> Per hour? Yep, Director Thompson. >> And and and that was due to the market calibration of how they are with our peers. Funding came from a kind of a different pool or a different bucket. Is that how what I heard? >> Yes, funding this is this is the student nutrition fund. >> Yeah, okay. >> know, we can't we have a very healthy fund. >> It's very healthy, yeah. >> We want to use it anywhere else. >> Yep. >> And this this group needed a market >> Fantastic, okay. >> All right, any other questions or comments? All right, I'm going to entertain a motion to approve the student nutrition contract. >> So moved. >> Moved by Baker, is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Seconded by Anderson, any other discussion? All right, all in favor? >> Aye. >> Aye. >> Any opposed? All right, motion passes 7-0. Last one, approval of the non-licensed educators contract. >> Yes, administration has reached a tentative agreement with non-licensed educators for again the 25-27 school years. The agreement includes wage increases of 2% year one and 2 and 1/2% year two. Other language improvements were made including the addition of the MLK Jr. Holiday and added long and added longevity step at year six, so after the fifth year and other minor updates. >> Any questions or comments? Okay. I'll entertain a motion to approve the non-licensed educator contract. >> So moved. >> First by Reichenberger, second? >> I'll second. >> Second by Henderson. Uh any further discussion? Uh Director Thompson. >> Yeah, can you um I'm not exactly like what kind of a staff are are considered non-licensed educators? Just just for just re-remind me again. I don't know whoever can answer that question. >> Uh correct me if I'm wrong. I think that's our um our community ed, so our um uh ABE or uh Pardon me? >> Early childhood. Early childhood. >> These are like the kids kids on >> adult adult basic education as well. >> Preschool. >> Preschool. Okay. >> Okay. And do we have a lot of bands in this category? I I know that in education they've got like 14 15 steps and um I mean I see the added longevity after >> So these are these are not like our EML because they're not licensed. They're non-non-licensed educators, so there are um there are three steps and only one lane. >> Okay. >> Um so the each step went up the relative or the um uh percent amount that I gave you on each step across the board. Yeah. >> Director Carbon. >> Did you Oh, sorry. Nope, you got it. Any other questions? Yeah. >> I had the same question, so. >> You had the same question? >> Yeah. Okay. >> All right. Anything else? All right. Um with that there's a motion and a second. All in favor of approving the non-licensed educator contract, say I. >> I. Any opposed? All right, motion passes 7-0. >> Thank you. >> All right, moving on to letter E with Director Holmgren to discuss the fiscal year 27 budget. >> Good evening Good evening, Madam Chair, school board members, Superintendent Bowman. I'll go back through our budget for fiscal 27. Since we discussed this 2 weeks ago at the work session, this book is exactly the same as I presented to you that night except the draft is taken off. It is our final version, but we haven't changed one one number. >> You changed one chart. >> I did add a chart and we'll get to that in a second. Okay, just a quick reminder. I mean, this our budget process takes us about 9 months every year to get ready and ready to go for the for the next fiscal year. We start in September when you see our initial levy calculations. And we kind of solidify if we need to be doing any type of cuts when we get into the fall after our audit is done, but we go into full full steam ahead staffing when we get to January and operational through March and then kind of fine tune it as we get through April and May. >> [sighs] >> Again, when we look at our our unassigned fund balance, we're projecting a small growth as we go into next year. This is getting as we go forward. As you know, the way we're funded by the state of Minnesota, the amount that we receive from the state of Minnesota is never quite as much as what we have in increased staffing on a yearly basis. So, that's why you're seeing this number slow down or decelerate. But, looking at an 8.5 as of June of '27. Our This is another another area where we're seeing some slow. Our growth has slowed considerably, so that's part of the not generating as many funds as we have in the last couple years. And you see for '27 we're only we're only projecting about a 25 um pupil unit change from the year before. But we are going forward looking at a 1% going forward. Uh dig right into the revenues. You can see here that we're looking at about 2.68% of new funding in the state uh formula allowance and it's exactly what the formula allowance changed. So it's it's exactly And this is because we aren't really seeing a big change in our enrollment. Uh property taxes you're seeing an increase there. Mainly that is because we don't have that um adjustment negative adjustment from the year before where we had too many funds because of the um enrollment that were projected at the time. So you're seeing we're seeing a almost $5 million there. Federal sources um small change. Uh little smaller. Again, this is a zero fund game when we talk about a federal we actually um get exactly what we um spend back. Uh our local uh about the same. A big one of the biggest pieces of the local of course is our fund balance has been growing so we have a little more when we look at interest earnings uh for the district. That's mainly what that increase is. Our other financing sources, what that is is looking at new devices for students next year and um the money that'll go into that. So we see it's technically where money is coming in. That's why it's under other financing sources. It's money coming in to buy those uh particular devices. So it's not technically revenue. It's really borrowed money. So we're seeing about a five 5.4 almost five and a half percent increase in our revenue. Now here's the chart that we did add. We we talked about it during the um uh session and you know, there's always questions about well well how our operating levies, when do they renew, how much are they? That's going to give a better idea. So, you see there um in 2027 coming up, we do have another renewal. That's at the top of the list there that will be that's planned to come forward. And this is one that's our biggest one. So, you can see that it's generating now about 11.2 million dollars. So, it's a this is a critical operating levy for us. Uh but as you add those up, then that's where you come up with about 24 million dollars in our operating uh levies. But they are about every other year. >> I appreciate you sharing this one. I I think this is good just for for us as a board to have visibility of when the next operating levies are are going to be due so that we can be mindful like this upcoming one in next year. It's a big one. I mean, it's 11 million dollars. I mean, previously we've talked about 3 million dollars, 1.5 million dollars and so forth. Uh but I think the broader context of this particular slide in my mind is that the aggregate of all of those together is about roughly 24 or 25 million dollars. We run in the general fund a 220 million dollar operation, meaning that the state uh gives us funding as well as um required uh levy authority uh that that's the state statute to pretty much get us to about 195 million dollars, meaning that these operating levy referendums, technology, project levies, these are the these are the optional ones. Like we don't have to, but the community is the one deciding to vote to yes, we want to contribute 25 million dollars to continue to run the schools the way we as they are today. Now, if we want more capabilities, more services, XYZ, it's got to come from our operating levies. And so again, when you look at the broader picture, uh 25 million dollars out of our $220 million operation, it's it's it's small percentage that our community is choosing to uh to contribute more of. And so, again, if we as a board find that there's additional capabilities and services that are needed, that's warranted, our community has to decide if they want to contribute uh beyond the 10% that they're contributing right now, yeah, from from from a voting perspective. So, I I just want to like I want to make sure that gets acknowledged here because, again, $25 million is a lot, but it's 10% of our broader $220 million operation a year. So. >> If If anybody didn't find the chart, it is in the book on page 19. >> Um and and I'm just looking forward to this 2017 operating levy renewal, and the funds used for renewal is to avoid budget reductions. >> Now, these these notes that we put in there are are notes that we found in past um levy renewals or when we actually went out the first time. So, we just use the same verbage and put it in there. That's That's where they came from. >> No, I I mean, I think it's interesting cuz it kind of points out the fact that uh you know, the schools are essentially underfunded by state funding. And how do you keep up with it without using your your levy sources. And I do want to point out to Director Thompson's comment. My understanding is we only have like $500 of per pupil levy funding available. >> did look at that. We actually have $470 >> left. >> Okay. >> that we're under the cap, and that in today's dollars or in today's pupil units, that would generate about $6.1 million. So >> Okay. So, even if we wanted to that's the all out, the most we could get is $6.1 million. >> That's correct. >> Yeah. Okay, I'm going Talking about the percentage, when you look at property taxes and our total um you know, our total budget. Property taxes are about 26, 27% overall. Now, um, Director Thompson had mentioned the 10%. That is the operating levy, but there are We have a lot of restricted funds that come through our levy. For an example, the A&I budget or or the grant, a third of that comes through our levy. Our Q-Comp program, about a third of it comes through the levy. So, there's there's restricted funds that are in that property tax area. But, from the state of Minnesota, they give us by far the majority there at about 67 to 68%. Uh, skipping over to the um, expenditures, they'll be on page 11 in in your book. Um, we're seeing that overall our salaries and wages are are increasing by two point about 2.5% and that pretty much balances with the with the uh, TAs that were brought forward uh, this evening. Our employee benefits, we're seeing a higher percentage change this year and that is 100% due because of the increased uh, health insurance costs uh, that we are seeing. Our purchase services are within the 2% that we expect. Um, supplies and materials here, it's uh, teaching and learning, we have some more cost going into um, curriculum. That's why we're seeing a bigger uh, change than usual there. Our capital expenditures, of course, the big one there is the devices for our students um, and the iPads. Uh, other expenditures, we're seeing about a 5% change. And here to look at the program side, so you can see where the money's being spent in programs. Uh, but we look at the elementary, secondary education, the special education, and instructional support. You know, those are the pieces Those Those are the dollars that go directly into the uh, classroom. When you look at the pupil support, a big piece of that is our our bussing costs. Um, and then of course, our sites and buildings. All the the LTFM and so forth sit in that area. I'm going to run through the other funds. Um, first of all, we have a student nutrition fund here, a very very healthy. Um, as you know, over the last few years we've been talking about trying to get that fund balance down a little bit to get down to under 3 months of uh volume and expenditures. We're a little bit of still above that. At this point in time, the state of Minnesota has not changed that rule back to 3 months, so we don't have to do something drastic about it, but we still have very healthy there. When it comes to the student nutrition fund. Community service, we mentioned this a little earlier uh this evening. Uh there we're looking at an improvement of about $55,000. Um, they've been working hard to try to bring that back up, but uh you see that we still have a deficit fund balance overall in that fund. Um, building construction, you see a little more volume here. That's mainly because we're going to start working now on the new additions on the uh middle schools, where we didn't have we just ran LTFM through there this past year. So you'll see instead of about 12 million or 13 million, it's going to be closer to 30 when we look at fiscal year 27. Um, debt service fund, this has um grown a little bit. As you know, we can we're allowed to levy 105% of what we need to make our bond payments um in case someone doesn't pay their taxes, we can still uh make the payments. Um, uh so eventually this money goes back to the to the to the community as we don't need that on full 105%, but this has grown up a little bit and we'll see a we'll see a deduct in here in the next in the next fiscal year. Uh, internal service fund, of course, we've talked about this one a lot um over the last year because of our insurance um costs that we saw uh year ago, 12 months ago. Um, so still in 26 we're projected to uh see a decrease there of about a couple million dollars, a will lower um but looking at that going flat forward. Small improvement but not but a lot. But we'll watch that very closely and continue to work on getting that fund balance built back up to where it needs to be. >> Yeah, Bill on the on the self-insured health plan which is um always a risk because of the randomness of of what could happen every year. How much of that is how do you break that out per plan? The my my point is is there a specific plan or benefit structure that's showing a trend that's that's really creating a tremendous amount of claims? Is it random across all the plans and everybody takes their turn if you will? Um I I guess what I'm saying is is is there something that's driving that expenditure which is a big one? That we in the next negotiation can start having conversations about. >> I guess I I'm not I don't like tonight I could give you a lot more information on different trends when it looks at our when when we look at our health costs. >> Yeah, what what to your point Director Carbone, excellent point. We need to um I think we need to bring in uh uh Aaron and team and do that analysis and and then report back to the board on what that analysis is telling us. Um the I know one of the biggest things in the market and I think it has a little bit of impact on us but probably um uh not the major driver um I think the the G What is it the G1 or the What is that the GLPs? I think that was one of the things that popped up on the net across the state that's been reported as a as an issue, but for us I think like you say, there's a there can be a random nature whether it's by plan. You should be able to identify it by plan on where it's hitting, but that it could be you know, the dreaded word cancer, right? And it really wouldn't matter your plan. So, um there we can get that analysis. >> Okay. I I think that would be good because the group's big enough that the experience should be reasonably credible to to make some trend predictions and so, okay. Thank you. >> Dr. Swanson. >> Um I was wondering I know you have the 26 budget for this fund. Where are we actually at to date as far as expenditures? >> I I took some time and looked at that today. And when we look at expenditures to date, but before we saw the increase volume last summer, um it's almost identical. I mean, we're like within $50,000 from the cost from last year. Um so, right now we're at right on track to be where we need to be. >> Mhm. >> Um but it was um >> Is that right? >> June and July that gave us the problem last year. >> What are we at, like 30 million right now or >> Yeah, I think we're at 26. >> Oh, 26. Okay. >> Wait. So, let me to clarify. So, we're spending the same amount as we spent last year and in previous years. We just don't know if June and July is going to be another outlier year compared to compared to last year or in the year before that. Okay. >> Correct. >> Yeah. So, we're just wait and see. >> Yeah. We >> Yeah. That's That's all we can't do anything. There's nothing we can do. >> As we learn more, we'll we'll let you know what those numbers are. >> But here and again, if you need care, go get care. But and and so that that's not the question. I I think it's just more of understanding are we going are we budgeted appropriately for that and those instances? And if it happens twice, then then we've got a plan in place. Um if it doesn't happen, then then the plan allows to bolster its savings account. And then there's a uh a review next year to decide if it makes sense to continue down that path to for full further bolster the savings account or recalibrate it to a different number. So. >> Yep, absolutely. >> sense. >> So, what you presented at the work session is kind of still holding true today. Okay, great. >> Now, you know, it's only 2 weeks ago. >> Right, yeah. Yeah. I'm like, I feel like I remember this conversation. Yeah. >> Well, a lot can happen in 2 weeks. >> Well, [clears throat] that's true. >> Uh so, here's just a summary of all of our funds. You can see the volume now at the for Lakeville Area Schools, you see uh total revenue here of around uh 300 million and some other financing pieces at 55. And then spending uh 335 million overall in all our funds. So, um you see uh change in our fund balance positive, but mainly that is borrowed money uh making that change. Uh with that said, um again, I just wanted just say again, our general fund on assigned fund balance is projected to increase to 8 and 1/2%. So, we're very pleased about that. Um the fund balance has come up over the last uh 4 years uh very nicely. Um and we're now within the new fund balance policy between the 7 and 1/2 and and 10%. Of course, I have to put a disclaimer, it's subject to change due to hiring. We're still hiring, so we're not quite done. But, I think this is a very conservative budget. I don't I don't see it um coming in lower than what we talked about. >> Yeah, I want to make it clear that the change uh subject to change is change improving, not >> Mhm. >> not improving. That's a double negative, but you know what I mean. >> Director Swanson and and Thompson. >> I just want to clarify something cuz I know Director Thompson is just talking about our savings account. Is the general fund unassigned fund balance is that in a separate account or is that just in our general fund? >> commingled. >> Okay. We have one checkbook, right? >> It's just not dedicated to anything. >> Right. And is that Is that common practice that you don't have a separate account for that unassigned fund balance? >> Oh yeah, that's common across all. I mean any type of fund accounting you look at a city or a um or a county >> or our school district. >> Um pretty They're pretty much all The funds are separate. In the system, we can we know exactly where how much is in each fund, but when we talk about the actual cash at the bank, it's a it's one place. >> Sure. Yeah. >> With it being the the fourth year of my term, it's it's super favorable and uh great job in getting us from fiscal year '23 to '27 from what? 0.7% in our savings account to 8.5%. Uh and and again, having roughly what? 19.2 million is our target for next year uh in our unassigned balance. Again, it's just another word for just calling it our savings account. That's still less than uh 10% of our of our expenditures, which is $220 million. We We want We want about 220. We want about 22 million if we can, uh but getting close to 19.2 puts us us puts us at about 8 and 1/2%. Um I do want to acknowledge to the rest of the board here that that while there is roughly $20 million in our savings account, that does not mean we should be spending it on recurring expenditures or miscellaneous. Uh and and and there may be instances where it might be worth spending a million or or whatever may be out of it if there is a strategic decision uh that makes sense. Uh but do want to share some data. Back in fiscal year uh '19 or actually fiscal year '2020, we had 9.44 9 and a half percent in our savings account at that time. And now our budget was a little bit smaller, but we had about um I think it was like 16 maybe or something like that. I don't know exactly Well, it was 9 and a half. I'm looking at the uh the the budget from 2023-24 packet. Uh we were at 9 and a half percent. And I share this because like our hope is that we never run into another COVID scenario. And and and we don't know. And and the and that's the issue. We just don't know. And because we had 9 and a half percent in our savings account in 2020, it allowed us to literally like maintain our operations for that entire duration. Uh from my understanding, we did not let go any staff or any teacher or well, I don't know about staff, but we didn't let go any teacher during that entire duration. And so, we were able to maintain class sizes, maintain continuity, but that also meant that we decimated our savings account to like point 7% and so over over that three four year span. Now, there's a lot of other uh factors that played a part in that, but without that savings account, it allowed us we we we probably wouldn't have weathered the storm very well if if we didn't have that extra cushion. And so, uh knowing that we're at 8 and a half percent, uh knowing that our expenses are continuing continued continuing to grow, and we're going to try to strive for 10, uh puts us in a very favorable position where if an outlier does occur, we we would have past experiences to hopefully know and and and leverage to say, "Hey, this is how we would navigate through that." So, my two cents there. >> Great. Dr. Anderson. Yeah, I mean, I know there's a lot of talk about the internal service and all of that. And that to your point is what we have to be really careful of just kind of looking at these numbers and the risk that is there in terms of how we're dipping into our general fund to cover that fund. So, it's it's something that I think it's going to be with I just want to make clear like all the questions around this is because it's something we're watching because that could be a major thing that affects our um budget going forward. >> You're absolutely correct. >> Yeah. >> Dr. Swanson? >> Uh yeah, and I'll just note again, I mean another thing that's not maybe COVID level, but we could not renew a levy. And then there's 11. 225 million that has to be found in the budget somewhere, you know, for this upcoming levy. >> Yeah. >> So, that Yeah. So, you need to have some sort of a healthy unassigned fund balance, too. >> Yeah, avoid I don't even know what the cuts would be for 11 million dollars. It'd be significant, so. >> I'm busting. >> [laughter] >> I mean, that busting is 11 million. >> Ryan's going to be driving a bus. >> I don't know if we have to think about that. >> Yeah, yeah. >> We have the option to renew. >> Yeah, next year. >> All right, any other questions? No. Not >> I'll make a motion to approve. >> Great, thanks. Um first by Thompson, is there a second? >> Second. >> Second by Reichenberger, any other further discussion? Dr. Thompson? >> Yeah, so because we have a healthy budget and well, we've got a good plan in place and we've kind of weathered the storm through COVID. Our budget's kind of back to where it needs to be and or is on track. Uh I would like to make a amendment amend the motion to update board compensation. And and so, currently board compensation for us, uh school board members, is like $6,000 or something like that. Uh I would like to uh propose that we make it 10,000 across the board uh so that we are in line with Rosemount, Apple Valley, Eagan, Bloomington, and and and other surrounding districts of our size. I think that would increase be roughly a total of an extra 34,000 in our overall broader 220 million dollar budget. And then I also would like it to be tied to the state increase annually. I think whatever the state gives seems like a reasonable increase. So that is my amendment to the budget motion. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second it. >> All right, second Director Carbon. Can I ask a question of you Director Homegrowner on this motion? Does what the motion that was just presented, does that impact how the budget is presented? In the sense >> it would change it would change the dollars. We would we would present it in a revised budget. I wouldn't say it changes this one, but >> We would not be able to pass this tonight in other words. >> No, you can pass it the way it is. It's just that there'll be a footnote that that this what what has taken place and that the revised budget would indicate what the actual amounts are. >> So still no impact? Or >> Well, there will be impact to the dollars. >> Yes, eventually. >> Eventually, yeah. >> All right, discussion. Director Eichenberger. >> Um Yeah, I I if being that this being my first year on the board, um I do agree we do a lot of work, a lot of unappreciated work that is not just within this room, but um all around town, uh all communicating with various schools and then and people and everything and and it is a lot of work. Um however, um we have We had a teachers negotiation which the increase was 2% a year this year, 2% next year. Um we just went through a number of different um uh you know, approvals for increases for Leaf and for um other groups that were, you know, relatively um you know, uh uh commensurate um and I don't feel comfortable increasing the school board pay 35% um when the others are only increasing 2% and they're doing all the work. Um that, you know, without the teachers, we don't have a school district. We don't have like, you know, the workers, we don't have a school district. So, um I I appreciate the sentiment. I mean, I I do think we do a lot of work um that a lot of people don't know about, but um I think it's just too much and not the right time for it. >> Yeah, Director Yeah, Director Thompson. >> Yeah, I think I I I I understand it. Uh what what you your point of view. It is a a percentage increase that does is is is larger, similar to the 12% that that we shared earlier. Uh I think when we think about school board services, uh it it's 5 10 hours a week and then some. And uh from policies reviews, and in if an average person works 40 hours a week, you know, that's 25%, you know, $500 a year easily. And and if you divide that by our board compensation, it's like 13 bucks an hour. And like, and and I'm not I'm not complaining that it's $13 per hour. What I'm saying is that, you know, when we've got new board members that might be coming in November, how do we make sure that they've got also funding to be able to offset, whether it be for child care services, whether what are they giving up, uh and so forth. Uh how do we make sure that we're consistent with maybe our surrounding peers like Bloomington and and Rosemount Apple Valley. Uh when they review policies, it's the same as how we review policies. When they have budget reviews, it's the same as how we review uh budget reviews. And so, uh you know, adjusting our conversation to recalibrate it to make it more market comparable. Uh 10,000 across the board, I thought was just a reasonable number that that I saw. >> Dr. Carbone? >> Yeah, when was the last time the board had an increase? I mean, I I don't even know. I've only been here a little over a year. Carl, you're smiling. Do you know? >> I'm smiling because I only know about the decrease where we didn't pay ourselves for um 6 months. >> So, it was 6 months? >> So, we then we brought our salary back. >> Which was also Brian's idea, right? To not get paid. >> Yeah. That was your idea. >> Well, we were in like a $7 million dollar hole, and I'm like, here. >> Which at the time, it's pennies in the bucket in terms of what we were cutting, and it felt terrible, but it felt like a way for us to contribute. >> Dr. Swanson? >> Brian, I I assume you looked at other districts and what >> Yes. >> been in other districts. Can you comment on where other comparable districts >> Yeah, I mean, again, we are a top 10 district. You know, uh Minneapolis, St. Paul, they're sitting about 21, 22. Rochester sitting about 16. I know Hennepin sitting at 15 six. Uh Bloomington 10 uh 10,008 uh Rosemount, Apple Valley, Eagan, I think the chair gets 99. So, that's kind of the range. Uh again, I'm not proposing that we need to do 20 or, you know, or or 15, but it's one of those where, hey, it We've done a lot as a board over the past year. And the board has also done a lot over the past 3 years. Uh and then to uh you know, to to help with future candidates that might We mean, we just passed the during the consent agenda, you know, uh a the board the school board candidate election form so that people can can join and participate. Uh let's try to make it easy for them uh financially because not everyone knows the level of effort it takes to be a board member. And when you get on, you're like, "Oh, oh, that's a lot of hours." And it it takes time uh away from other jobs, other whatever it may be. And so we're we're looking at $34,000 in a broader $220 million budget. So, that's my proposal. 10 10 $10,000 starting at the uh starting at the school whatever the school budget year, January 1st, and then uh increases would be tied to the state of Minnesota increase, whatever it is that they provide. And then it's just consistent and automatic. >> My personal opinion maybe aligns more with Director Reichenberger in the sense that I think 35% increase is is does is not commensurate with the other um groups that have been getting raises. And so maybe there's a number there though that does make sense. I don't know if it's two or five, you know, between the two and 12. I would be interested in a a work session discussion where we're actually analyzing what the other districts are getting paid who are, you know, the top the top 10 districts as as us um before I could make a decision or have an informed decision about our comparisons. I just don't have that data in front of me. Director Carbon >> Yeah, and and I want to go back to the comment I made a moment ago. Um if if there hasn't been an increase in I don't know how many years and and Carly mentioned that there was a dip. And Carly, I'm assuming if you dipped, you came back up to the level you were at. Okay. Um you know, it would be good to know that because let's just say it was 2 and 1/2% per year that you didn't get an increase over 4 years. Whatever that amount becomes. So, I think we have to be careful of you know, it was like what we were talking about earlier with the percentage. What's the raw number over the course of how many years and [clears throat] look at it that way versus Brian's What did you say? 35%? I didn't do the math. >> The Someone said that number. I didn't do the math either. >> All right. >> Actually that's what I got. >> But yeah, I got >> I got that number >> You know, 5% sounds like a lot. >> I got that number 6,500 to 10,000 and I think 35% although I don't know if that's the exact number, but it's clearly close. >> But again, if if >> It was 50% off. >> If it was 5 years of no increase and that should have been I'm just making numbers up. 2 and 1/2% a year over 5 years. You know, what does that equate to as to current dollars? I mean, that would be my comment because I know Tony, you mentioned um that teachers didn't get whatever percentage Brian was talking about, but the teachers didn't take a pay cut and the teachers didn't freeze their salary over how many years. So, I mean, we have to keep that in mind, too. >> Director Anderson then Swanson. >> I I was just looking at this back page. I I was thinking the same thing along with um Chair Cameron where I think we should look at this from a work because I agree that if we're getting paid, I'm not all about increasing our salary. And if our salary is far lower than the other top 10 um districts and if perhaps there's more variability, so I would say we do a work session where we look at the top 10. >> We could utilize our MSBA membership to help us analyze. >> [laughter] >> The $17,000 that we're spending. >> Director Swanson. >> [laughter] >> so >> Yeah, I I mean, I think I probably speak for most of the people on the board that, you know, we don't do it for the $6,000 that we're paid. >> But, I mean, there is a point to, you know, it is a sacrifice from other obligations and work obligations, and it might detract from other people running from the board in the future cuz I'm sure not all of us are going to serve on the board, you know, forever. Um So, yeah, I'd be open to the dis- definitely open to the discussion and further discussion on this. Um if the board isn't willing to vote on it now. I don't know if Director [snorts] Thompson would entertain a motion to postpone this until there's further discussion with more information provided. >> withdraw the motion of the amendment the amended motion. >> Okay, so the motion's withdrawn. >> Yes. >> But, we can put it on a work session >> Mhm. >> and collect the data for a discussion. Does that work? Okay. >> Fine with you guys. >> So, we're back Oh, sorry. >> Yeah, sorry. And tech- procedurally, we technically might need to amend the initial motion we made back in January to set set the salaries. >> That's true. >> Unless you're >> Mhm. >> just scheduling it to begin next January. >> No. I I think that personally, I think uh the compensation should be tied to whatever the budget is. And so, I mean, if it renews in Janu- if it starts in July 1st, like that's the budget cycle. But, that's just me. I mean >> We can investigate how that works, too, if it's changed mid-year. >> You should be you'd be you we ought to be incorporating that as part of the budget discussion that should be occurring between January and March. >> Okay. Great. Okay, so we're back to the original motion. >> Yeah. >> That was um I believe Thompson and Brackenburger. First and seconded. >> Yes. >> Any other discussion? All in favor of approving fiscal year 2017 budget, say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right, motion passes 7-0. Moving on to letter F, intent to sell bonds resolution. Thank you, Director. >> Yeah, the the the resolution is is in your packet. We talked about this at the work session, but to start the ball rolling and to sell bonds to start our um addition projects to the middle schools, uh we need to pass this resolution to move that forward. >> Okay. Any questions for Bill tonight? All right, is there a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Great. >> First by Anderson, a second? >> Good. Good. >> Second by Baker. Any discussion? >> Build the fast. >> All right, all >> [laughter] >> in favor say aye. Any opposed? All right, motion passes 7-0. Thank you. >> All right, moving on to policy 606.5. This is a second reading of library materials and Director Brovold is here to walk us through some changes to the original draft based on conversation with the board. Correct? Okay. >> Right. Good evening, Chair Cameron, Superintendent Bowman, and members of the board. Following the school board's previous discussion of policy 606.5, I sought additional feedback from our digital media specialist and leadership regarding the two items that we most heavily spoke about, the reconsideration appeal process and the potential addition of a school board member to the review committee. And the resulting revisions that you see are intended to maintain the school board's governance and oversight role while preserving the integrity in and impartiality of the review committee process. The green edits that you're seeing on the policy reflect the original recommended revisions and the red edits reflect the revisions that I'll be speaking to you about today. So, if you can jump to line 270, based on a recommendation from Director Swanson, we added the word automatically and that was to clarify that challenged resources do not have to be automatically removed during the reconsideration process. This gives the administration discretion to temporarily restrict access when it's determined to be the most appropriate course of action for our students. If you'll jump down to line 273, based on the feedback from our experts, no changes are recommended to the committee composition. Maintaining a committee without school board membership helps to preserve the committee's impartiality while allowing the board to fulfill its governance role through oversight of policy and procedures. And then, on line 315, the revised language here allows a requester to appeal a review committee's decisions decision to the school board, and the school board's review is limited to determining whether the reconsideration process was conducted in accordance with district policy and procedures. This will help the school board to maintain their governance and oversight. It does not involve a reevaluation of the instructional material itself. >> Great. That's all I have for updates. >> Yeah, if >> All right, discussion. You have Dr. Carbone. >> Yeah, please. Thanks, Amber. Um in Tracy, in regards to the almost the last thing you said, >> Yeah. >> uh that school board review shall be focused on reconsideration process, etc., etc., etc. >> Mhm. >> Um the premise of the discussion the last time, or the or two times ago, I don't remember how long ago it was, um was not necessarily whether uh the committee was following the procedure. We would hope that they would follow the procedure. What it was what the discussion was about was the ability for the parent to appeal that decision. Because ultimately that becomes the you know, the ceiling for the parent and one of the things I mentioned is if a parent isn't in agreement or is is very very um upset about what the decision is, they can come up here, make public comment, read an excerpt out of the book, whatever it is. Uh show the book to the count I mean, they still could make this very very public. So, the analogy that I used was that the the uh the board would be like the Supreme Court and if for some reason there was truly something that um the committee Let's just say the committee made a decision that a parent or a group of parents didn't agree with, that they had an appeal option. And that's what I thought Matt was talking about and I was talking about and maybe Brian was talking about. I don't remember the whole conversation. But um and I'm not seeing that in the in the policy. It looks like all we have to do is go, "Okay, you followed the procedure. Whatever you decided is fine." And that really wasn't the premise of the discussion that Matt and myself and again, I think Brian and I don't know who else last time. >> If I'm correct, I think you took all of our comments and brought it back to the group who was working on this. And not to say that every comment that was made was in incorporated into this draft. Um and so I think some of those things could still be up for discussion, but what your group is proposing is not that recommendation, that the board would >> Correct. >> be the final. I think I looked into it after we met it and I know there's not a lot of districts that have this policy at this time. I think Terry even Terry Morrow even mentioned that from Minnesota or from MSBA. But I did I I Googled districts that had it. And so I think Bloomington, Edina, 196, South Washington, Stillwater, White Bear Lake, and Prior Lake have this and perhaps others. I was kind of looking at metro schools. No one has the school board as um as the appellate if if a if a um if a if a parent wants to appeal a decision of the committee. At most it went to the superintendent or assistant superintendent for a decision and then it and then it was final. So I think that's that to me felt like we are in alignment in in what we're proposing with these other kind of powerhouse school districts. We're not and and so I that's made me feel comfortable having us stay at the governance level and having the district stay at the management level. Yeah. Director Swanson. >> Yeah. I just push back on that and I guess I would just ask what's the concern, right? I mean we are already in the position where we approve you know, every hire as every resignation, every textbook, you know, that we're already teaching our kids. So how why are we drawing the line and saying hey, you know, yeah, we'll approve curriculum and textbooks, but when it comes to library books, you know, we're going to put that with somebody else and our only authority is going to say we review as to whether or not they reviewed, you know, used the proper procedures that we set forth. Um I I just don't understand why what what would be the concern with we as us as the school board uh receiving a recommendation from uh this committee that's reviewed the matter provided their proposal. We weigh that against whatever the appeal is from the parent or the petitioning parent. And then we as the board make the final decision. I feel like that aligns a lot better with our obligations under Minnesota statute section 123B.09 uh and the duty specifically under section 8. Then get just delegating that authority completely. Cuz otherwise you get a situation where it's okay then well, what if you don't as a school board like the decisions that are being made by that committee? Then you're pressuring the superintendent you know, to do something put by motion. Whereas I I don't think it comes up very often. >> Yeah. >> You know, I don't think it's come So, why not just say, "Hey, this is the policy. We don't have to align with everybody else." But have the you know, have the final say be the school board. We're held accountable by the public. If the public doesn't like the vote we make, then they can let us know. >> Yeah, right. >> Director um Carbone and Thompson. >> Yeah, I To me it's not um this book or that book. To me it's a parental rights issue. And and yeah, my sense is is that if there's something really obnoxious, and I don't even know what that would be, Tracy. But if there was something really obnoxious and and a parent again was upset and probably lobbied other parents as as I've seen in this room where people will come up in groups. Uh again, it boils down to parental rights. I think they need to have the ability to get a final arbitration, if you will. And and that's why I think we should be the ones and I'm not suggesting we do this routinely, but when a parent thinks they've been wronged or a group of parents think they've been wronged I think they need to have an appeal process. Again, it's a parental rights issue to me. >> Um can I comment to that, Director? Um Director Carbone, we do already have that as part of the policy and our guiding practice that if a parent does not want their child to read a particular library book, that we make sure that the student isn't able to check that book out. In this In this part of the policy, it's talking about a parent asking to or community member asking to have that book taken away for all students, not just their own student. And so that committee would is filled with different experts and different people who are representing different parts of the community. Uh, those experts know what's appropriate for age levels >> Correct. >> and at different student groups. And so our the conversation I had with our experts in the field was about trusting that community that community that committee and trusting the process. And um, not having making sure that that committee remains impartial and they can bring their expertise to the table to be able to help make decisions. But the part you were talking about is already taken care of within our existing procedures and within this policy. >> Dr. Thompson. >> Yeah, yes, I yes, I I do agree that those employees on the committee do want to represent the school district to the best of their ability. But if they don't reside in our community, they're they're they're employees of the district and they may reside in Bloomington, Apple Valley, or somewhere else. But out of all people, there's only seven people that represent the community and that's it. And and and if we don't If a community member of ours doesn't like something, then they bring it to us and then we have to decide what to do. And and so um, I just want to be mindful like the school board has final authority. Like that's that's your job. And and when I look at uh it's in in section two uh it's at the general statement purpose uh number is it one number 25? It I think it say states that the school board has final authority on selection of library materials. Like it literally just says that in in that section two. And so if we have final authority, I'm not giving my authority, the board should not be giving their authority to any other committee. And so if the section way down the bottom states that we're giving it to a committee, then then let's remove the line item 25 where it says the school board has final authority on selection of library materials. >> Director Anderson. >> I what I a lot of what I was going to say was similar to what uh Director Broaddus is saying in that I think if if I were to take a step back and think about that this perspective as a parent in this district I think it's more of a concern to me that the school board can make a decision to stop um giving children or students a book as opposed to um like parents already have the right to withdraw their students participation. If the board makes a decision that affects my students' ability to read a book that affects parental rights on my side of the equation if that makes sense. And so I think the concern here for if if I'm to be honest is that there have been this has not come up a ton for our district. Sometimes I think when we make um changes to how the board is acting in positions of authority versus not because there are lots of committees that we don't provide direct oversight of. We're not making every decision at that level even though we could. That kind of change in decision-making can lead to changes in behavior in our community and what might propel certain groups to come forward with concerns. And I still think there's opportunity for those parents to come forward with their own concerns on a personal basis as opposed to making a change for the entire community. Um so there have been districts who have engaged in book banning and things like that and I don't want to see that happen. I want our experts in our district making those kinds of decisions. >> Can Can I May I just interrupt? >> Director Thompson. >> You uh Director Anderson. If a school district book bans a book, the seven individuals that were elected by the community made that decision. And then the community members who voted for those seven individuals made that decision. And and so I I I we are supposed to operate in a manner that represents our community. And so if there if there are pockets in different districts, whether we agree with it or not, if that district does chooses to do that, that's that's their demographics. That's their community. And so I am not proposing that we are going to, but we should have final say in that decision because you represent to your community. And so I I'm not in favor of of that particular line, but I'm like but again, if a district wants to ban a book, the district Well, the state of Minnesota says you can't, but if there are certain reasons for whatever it may be, if a district makes a decision, then the district is making a a decision based on the school board that was that was that was voted on by their community members. So. >> Um and Director Swanson. >> Yeah, and and thank you Director Thompson for reminding me of the point I made a couple weeks ago about uh line 25 and and saying with recognition that the school board has the final authority on selection of library materials. I mean, we can't have that line in there and then the process down below where we discuss that takes any authority away from the school board. I mean, there's no there's no authority under this to for the school board to remove any books or any materials. And so I I again, we're just internally inconsistent with our drafting here. And maybe this hasn't been caught by other districts. Um but we can't say in one sentence at the top, you know, we have the final authority of selection of library materials when I don't think we have the authority to select library materials. They come in um and now somebody we're delegating our responsibility to, you know, evaluate whether or not they should be removed to a different group of people. >> Dr. Baker. >> So this is the exact same conversation we had last time about this particular um policy and all of these comments were taken back to the committee and then they brought this policy back again. Um and again, now we're still having the same discussion and we're not moving. >> Well >> Nothing can >> I'd like to hear the I'd like to hear the board members respond to what I just said though, instead of deferring to say some other group of people made these changes. >> Can I finish, please? So >> Hey, hey. >> instead of us >> That's okay. >> Okay. I mean >> I mean really. >> Director Baker was speaking, so let's finish. I feel like everyone's being respectful and waiting until the other person's done. >> I just think that if we're going to continue to do this that we just need to vote and see if the majority of the board disagrees with that part. Otherwise, we just continue to spin our wheels because then it goes back to the committee, they do the same thing, they bring back other things. Is this what the board wants or is this what two members want or what one member wants or what three members want? I don't know. Like I guess that's where I feel like we need to make a decision if everybody disagrees with that one statement or not. >> You want some Dr. Anderson? >> I just Um Dr. Brovald, do you know about that line, how the did the committee discuss that at all about that line of the policy? >> We did not. >> Do you have any off-the-cuff thoughts about it or Is that putting you in a tough spot? Want to get the committee's thoughts on that? >> Uh yeah, I'd like to go back to the committee to ask. And then I'd like to look at other districts to see how they um manage that as well. >> Okay. To me, how I I interpret this um and we actually approved that too tonight in the consent agenda, was delegation of authority. So, there's many things that the school board, you know, when school boards were created, right? We were the school boards were supposed to run run the school district. Well, that's not how things work anymore. We delegate most of running the school district to the superintendent and then, you know, down the chain. And so, for me, I am comfortable delegating authority for many things, including this, to an expert um committee. What I am most concerned about is and and this does stem from current events, is turning this board, this room, the district into this media circus, where the conversation at this table becomes about should we ban this particular book, rather than focusing on, in my opinion, really that is a very minor issue to me, knowing that a parent still has the right to to restrain that that material from their particular child. And it takes away from doing the in my opinion, like the core business that I think this board has really been focused on. And so, while I recognize Director Carbon, I think you're right that a parent could come up here and read excerpts, that will happen regardless of this policy if they feel strongly. But, what we can control is the amount of airtime we give the media, our whole broadcast about that particular resource. Um >> [clears throat] >> So, my opinion is um I support this version. I feel like it aligns with most other of our peer districts and I think I want to do business like the best of them. And so as much as I can align with the best districts on anything, that's what I look to do. Because I think that is when we're we don't need to reinvent things in order um in order to do good business here. So, Director Thompson. >> Yeah, so um I'm looking at again, if if uh if I'm looking at this correctly, is it line 316 or 317? The item in pink. I'm sorry, is it purple? A requestor may appeal. That's the that's the recommendation. >> Mhm. >> Got it. >> Correct. >> So, uh I'd like to amend the motion. Do we approve this? Or >> There's no motion yet. >> All right. How do I do this? >> Would anyone like to Would anyone like to make a motion to approve the policy as drafted? >> I'll make the motion. >> All right. >> Second. >> Um first by um Director Baker, second by Anderson. Discussion. >> Thank you. >> Director Thompson. >> I'd like to amend the motion to um strike the the item in purple or the line the line item the the words in purple starting in row 316 and replace it with the review committee shall provide a recommendation to the superintendent or the superintendent's designee and the school board. The school board retains final authority regarding retention, restriction, relocation, or removal of library materials following the completion of the reconsideration process. Period. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second by Director Swanson. Any discussion on the amended motion? Okay. All in uh favor of the motion, say I. >> I. >> Just a second. Just a second. >> Are we voting on the motion or the >> the amended motion. >> We're voting on the amended motion. >> Yes. Yep. >> Thank you. Could direct Could Director Thompson repeat the language really quick for us? >> Yeah. So, let me start from the um start on rule 315 where it's it's in it's in black. The superintendent or the superintendent's designee shall inform the requester and the school board of the review committee's decision. And then how I have it added as the review committee So, this is my addition. The the review committee shall provide a recom- maybe is No, yeah. So, the the review committee shall provide a recommendation to the superintendent or the superintendent's designee and the school board, period. The school board retains final authority regarding retention, restriction, relocation, or removal of library materials following completion of the reconsideration process. So, another checks and balances how >> So, you're saying no appeal process. >> The >> This seems like >> a reconsideration process. So, the appeal process is already >> Here, but the parent wouldn't be the one requesting that. You're saying the school board would be the one. >> I don't understand all this. >> The the review committee would be providing a recommendation to us and the school board. >> I think you're I think you're missing a So, you have the superintendent or the superintendent's designee shall inform the requester and the school board of the review committee's decision. So, the review committee makes a decision. >> Yes. >> And then a requester may appeal the review committee's decision to the school board would be the next line, right? And then your sentence that you added. >> So, you're amending his amendment. >> Well, I'm I think I think you're missing I think [laughter] you're missing a sentence >> I I think I am missing a sentence. >> But are you missing it or do you need to withdraw your amendment >> What I want is that the the the review committee is going through a consideration process. And they're going to come to the board and or the superintendent and the school board and say, "Hey, here's our decision on this review process." And then we as a board we we retain final authority. So, it's almost implying that the review committee recommendation is going to be more than likely aligned with what our approval is going to be similar to curriculum and the budget, but we retain final authority regarding if we disagree or or or not or or agree with that output. So, it's not a parental uh a parent's not coming forward. The review is is coming forward with them going through the process of what's already been done. Does that make sense? >> So, that's not even like the they have a decision and the parents don't like it, so they come to the board. You're saying every review process has to ultimately be decided by the >> often does something go to the review committee? >> Well, but that I'm just clarifying. That's what you're saying. >> Yes. Yeah, because because it allows us to get ahead of it because if it goes through the review committee then it comes to the board saying, "Hey, here's what's going on." And then here's our call. And then we either we agree or disagree and as long as we retain the authority on the the final direction, that minimizes if the committee says something bad or not bad but whatever whatever decision that they end up having a community member may disagree with that output and then they're causing, you know, you know, they have the right to be here or there as long as we get that end result similar to um you know, HR hirings or HR updates, you know, it's like, "Hey, here's an update. So, that's high-level policy. And then the district can figure out the SOPs. >> Okay. Okay. So, can you restate your amendment because I >> Yes. >> I don't think that's clear. >> All right. So, the designee, so the superintendent or the superintendent's designee shall inform the requester and the school board of Well, I don't think I would That doesn't make sense. Cuz I'm reading number five. >> You did start by saying that last time. >> Yep. >> Got it. I did say that. You know what? Let me strike that cuz I don't think that's relevant. Cuz of what I want is at the I want a line item, wherever it makes sense, maybe that's what it is, that the review committee shall provide a recommendation to the superintendent or the superintendent's designee and the school board. The school board retains final authority regarding retention, restriction, relocation, or removal of library materials following completion of the reconsideration process. >> You have to withdraw your former motion. >> Withdraw your first amendment. >> Okay. >> And then do this new one. >> But what are we taking out? >> You just said strike the first sentence. >> sentence. Okay, got it. Then I'll I'll withdraw my motion. >> Okay. >> Or my amended motion. >> So, So, you're So, we're back to the original unless you amend again. >> Yes. Then I'd like to amend. >> Okay. You're essentially striking that section. >> I'm striking that. Well, here's I mean, the superintendent though So, number five in that section says the superintendent or the superintendent's designee shall inform the requester and the school board of the review committee's decision. Okay. So, we assume it's went through the process and now they're informing the school board, right? Okay. So, then if that's the case, then I need to alter mine and cuz I've got mine stating that the review committee shall provide a recommendation to the superintendent or the superintendent's designee and the school board. And so, the previous section or the previous sentence that I just stated says that the the review committee's is not even a recommendation. I think that sentence is they've already made a decision. And they've already implemented it. And so, it sounds to me that maybe we What I'd like to do, if if others are aligned, is that maybe number five just needs to go away because ultimately we want the process to occur. We I just want the review committee to provide us, the school board and the superintendent, their final recommendation. >> We have to make a an amended motion. >> a motion or no? >> Yeah, I don't >> Can I make an amendment to the motion? >> amendment. If you can find a better way to handle that. >> All right. Um yeah, I would propose my I move to amend the proposed um draft here. So, 4D would be revised to um say shall submit a written report to the superintendent or the superintendent's designee containing the review committee's um >> recommendation. >> decision on decision on whether to retain, remove or take other actions. Okay, so that's staying the same. But then five, I would keep the first one as I started first sentence. Superintendent or superintendent's designee shall inform the requester of the school board or the review committee's decision. I would strike school board because it's not the school board's decision. So, let me Sorry, let me clear that up for you. So, the first sentence would be the superintendent or the superintendent's designee shall inform the requester Oh, sorry. And the school board of the review committee's decision. Um A requester may appeal the review committee's decision to the school board. Which is already there. We already have it. >> there. Yeah. >> And then um upon appeal the review committee shall submit a recommendation to the school board for review and a vote on whether to approve or reject the decision of the review committee. >> Can I Can I riff off of what you what you just said? >> Matt's making an amendment. So, there needs to be a second to move this forward. >> Matt, can you just repeat it just so so we get the wording right? >> Yeah. Let me just type it out. Give me a second. >> While he's doing that, can I ask a question? So, if we do that, then I don't understand the whole point of the review committee because the board can always overthrow their decision. >> Let's wait for the amendment for discussion. >> Okay. >> Can I make a motion to table? >> Well, a motion's already been made. So, we got to vote on Matt's I mean, he's he's just clarifying it. So, that has to get voted on. Or seconded, rather. >> But does does a request a table override any motion at any time. And then we can bring it back to the next meeting. >> approved, yeah. >> We can bring it back to a working session and >> Camera roll. >> have Yeah. Have further discussions. >> Yes. I believe so. Mhm. >> Motion I move to table. >> All right, is there a second? Do we Well, what So, we have a motion on the table with a second. >> No, there's no second on Matt's yet. >> That's the amendment. >> There's a second on the original. To just take it as is. So, >> But I >> Okay. I'm just verifying, Brian. >> I think the motion to table supersedes. >> Mhm. Yeah. So, the motion I think to table supersedes. I just don't know if it's 2/3 vote or majority majority. >> Um >> I'm sorry. Point Point of clarification. Matt, are you are you making a motion to table or did you >> The table is primary, so it takes precedent. >> So, the table >> It The motion does. >> Okay. >> to table is >> The motion to table >> supersedes it. >> [clears throat] >> Okay. Okay. >> For July 14th? >> Simple majority vote under Robert's Rules. >> Yep. Okay. So, there's a motion to table. Um is there a second? >> I I'll second it. >> Seconded by Carbon. All in favor of tabling this for a future meeting. Say I. >> I. >> I. >> I I. >> Okay, so we have Brian and Paul, is that correct? And and those opposed to tabling? >> No. >> No. >> No. >> No. >> Okay, so 5 2. We're [clears throat] we're back to Matt >> All right. >> with an amendment. Is that correct? Okay. >> Correct. So here's the proposed amendment. It's to five. Uh the superintendent or the superintendent's designee shall inform the requester and the school board of the review committee's decision. A requester may appeal the review committee's decision to the school board. Upon appeal, the review committee will provide its recommendation to the board or school board for review and a vote as to how to address the challenged material as to retention, restriction, or relocation in the district's library. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Oh. >> Go ahead. I'll second it. >> Okay, second by Carbon. Discussion. >> I do want to clarify your question. So what does the review or the review committee do? They provide the initial step and analysis and response to the person challenging challenging the action or the the materials. Um it can end there. If it doesn't end there, they provide their recommendation to us using utilizing their expertise and then we as the ultimate have the the ultimate say as to whether or not we're going to keep these materials in our schools just like any other libraries other and I think it's consistent with, you know, line 25 of the policy. Otherwise, [clears throat] without it I don't think they're I think it's internally inconsistent as drafted. >> I guess I still would say like if a parent was that adamant about the material, I think once something came to the committee, it would be a rare occurrence if something were to be banned. So then, in essence, pretty much anything that goes to the committee will then come to the board to vote on, and the board will be constantly be voting on banning books, which I don't think is our main purview. >> If >> Dr. Carbone. >> Yeah, if I may, um we are tunnel visioning tunnel visioning this thing to the word ban. There could be numerous variables that come out of a situation that we could make a decision on or not make a decision on. I think we've got to be really careful to say the only thing this board's going to do is ban books. I'm not sure that's a relevant statement. >> Can I clarify that, Dr. Baker? >> Please. >> Um so, the parent rights discussion goes both ways on this. So, I as a parent have the right to choose what my kid reads or not, and because one parent disagrees with it, and maybe four members of the board what's that? Then you're infringing upon my rights to let my kid read what they want what they want. Like, I don't think any one parent should be making that decision for my kid, and I don't want to make that decision for someone else's kid, either. But, I think the process that we have in place as a district that we've had for several years, if a parent has a problem with one of those books for their own individual child, they can go through this process, and they can get that that book removed for their child. This is a step beyond that. Saying now you can remove it out of all of our libraries within our district, and again, now that's infringing upon my rights as a parent. So, I just want to make sure that we're looking at both sides of the coin here, because as a board, that's really what we should be doing. >> Dr. Anderson then Swanson. >> Yeah, I'm just looking at line 25 of the policy. So, [music] I just want to read this part because it says responsibility for selection shall rest with professionally trained school district staff, with recognition that the school board has the final authority on selection of library materials. Parents and guardians have the right and the responsibility to determine their children's access to library materials. So, I think this isn't internally consistent from my perspective because we ultimately, when we're approving the budget, we are approving purchase when principals are deciding what is put up in their schools or those kind of like everything that is budget related, we ultimately have the authority of in terms of selection. So, to me this part toward the bottom has more to do with the process of um tape removing or taking something out, which is different. So, I don't feel there's internal inconsistency from how I'm reading it. >> I I think I feel similarly in the sense like the budget analogy, we're not approving what chalkboard someone's going to buy or what I don't even know what they don't buy chalkboards anymore, I realize. But, you know, what >> Pretty much do not. >> Okay. But, [laughter] but we're not we're not approving individual purchases. We're approving large line items. And so, that's to me where my preference as a board board member sits is at that delegation of authority, letting the superintendent and then people um you know, in the various roles determine what exactly should be purchased. I don't I again, I'll repeat it. Eagan, I-96, South Washington, Stillwater, White Bear, Prior Lake, none of them have the school board involved in the in this decision at this level. And so, I don't align differently than all those other school districts. I um I want [clears throat] to be like them, not different from. Director Swanson. >> Yeah, I mean, [clears throat] I guess I I still I mean, you can call it a book ban that's going to come to us, but I I I still am confused as to what the concern is as a school board member and why why you'd hesitate to, you know, be accountable for this decision. Again, it's after it comes through recommendation. If there's a request that, "Hey, there be to Director Carbone's point, we want to limit access to this specific book for this specific age." I don't understand what the concern is for the school board to look at that and look at a recommendation from a committee of our, you know, school district employees and say, "Yeah, I agree with the committee." or "No, I don't agree with the committee. We should bump it up to this access level." Um it doesn't have to be banning necessarily, but uh if there are people that want to bring those concerns forward cuz we are not on the front end. We are not on the front end of the books coming into the school. And so, something could be in the school that we don't know. I'm not going to the library, right? Parents might be. I am not. I'm assuming none of the board members are. And if somebody raises something that got in, you know, without the board knowing it. Um and it gets challenged and somehow makes it all the way up to us. I don't understand why this board would hesitate to exercise the authority to say, "Yeah, I'm in agreement with this committee." or "No, I'm not in agreement with this committee." and be the ones that are ultimately accountable for that decision to our public. Um and again, I I would just point it back to you can say budget. We could nail down on the budget if we wanted and say, "Hey Bill, stop spending money on that." Um and we do have ultimate budget authority. I mean, we're looking at Do we want to spend $17,000 on MSBA contract today? Um so, we do have a lot of authority and especially when it comes to the textbooks. And we discussed this before when we were doing the um I'm blanking on the the curriculum that we were doing for middle school, but yeah, there will be a book list that comes to us apparently that we approve. How is this any different, you know? We're going to approve that, but then be too scared as a board to look at this in the limited or if it ever really comes up, you know, it might never come up. So >> And I I need to clarify. I don't think I mean, me personally, I don't think I'm scared to make this decision. I'm certainly not. I one, I'm concerned about our work session discussion where it was implied that in order to make this decision, like if a book did come forward, board members wouldn't read the book. Um I think that is a concern about our due diligence and or in a in our ability to do it. We just talked about how many hours we spend doing this and I don't feel like there was a common commitment that we would be able to to read fully all these materials. I think um >> [clears throat] >> my challenge also comes that we are not experts in literature or in child development at this table. And so I I I don't feel like any one of us should be making a decision like that. And that's why I feel very comfortable in in confident, not scared, in giving the delegation of authority to the experts who do. And finally, it goes back to my I said this already, but I I find when boards get in these conversations, it becomes a PR circus and I don't think that's healthy for our community. So for me that is why um I I'm not in support of the board having these discussions at this table when I feel like we have competent people in our district who can advise the superintendent and the district on on materials. Dr. Carbone. >> Yeah, I'm I'm going to bet and I'll ask the two lawyers this. If if a parent or group of parents, um I mean, who knows who would bring things forward? Anybody could bring anything forward. If they brought it forward and they were building a case or presenting a case, I would be willing to bet we wouldn't have to read 600 pages in War and Peace. I would be willing to bet they would say, "Look at chap- Look at chapter three. Look at Look at Look at and it would expedite the ability to make a decision. I'm I'm not I I Amber, I I'm I'm not convinced that we would be in uh you know, an English class reading a list of books every month. I mean, I just don't think that's going to happen. If somebody's going to bring something forward, they've got to make the point or why would we even entertain it? >> I think you actually brought up what I'm concerned about, which is I think interesting. I'm most concerned about us making decisions based on excerpts. >> Out of context. >> I think excerpts out excerpts out of context um is not doing our due diligence in in in literature or in whatever publication it might be. And I think that that is where I become most frustrated with these types of discussions at school boards is some of the best books ever written are are being eliminated from school libraries because of one sentence or one paragraph. And I I think to me that is unacceptable way to to evaluate the rigor and appropriateness of of literature. >> But but again, if I if I may I'm sorry. Hold me first. >> first. Yeah. >> Okay. Um I'm I'm Sorry, I'm going to push back on that a little bit, Amber. Um I still think for us to accept the case, if you will and rule on a case, if you will, there needs to be a really good um I hate to say prosecution. I can't think of another word. You lawyers help me. Um >> Like case. >> Yeah, if you're going to if you're going to build a case and present it to the board it really needs to have value in the points it's trying to make, not necessarily look at the sentence. My point is we can throw a case we can throw a case out if there's not enough evidence or there's a case if if the presentation isn't strong enough. We can throw it out. So, my I'm not convinced that one sentence is going to turn it into a circus. I mean, I don't think that's what we would do. >> I don't I don't necessarily think the board would do that, but I think that is what current events would show us is happening. Director Rickenbacker. >> Yeah, um there's there's basically three points I want to make and the first is that when we when we talk about First Amendment law and the ability of to read what you want and and have your children read what you want, the the the common standard that you that keeps coming up over and over again is community standards. And um the way community standards are usually determined are by their elected officials, what their elected officials allow and what their elected officials appropriate. So, it's like we're on the hook for that whether we want to be or not. Um it is our decision ultimately. Um I am I I think everybody's been making some really really great points. I really love the conversation here. This is really thoughtful conversation. And I think um I think the district is is is should be thankful that this is a really good conversation we're having. Um I'm really concerned with a lot of the the items that um Director uh Cameron and Director Baker brought up, which are that from a procedural standpoint um this is another layer which could bog down a lot of the work on a minor relatively minor issue um that the school board has to confront every single day and every single week and every single meeting. Um people are going to find objectionable material everywhere. Um they do. Everybody does. Um I I still stand by my my you know my the idea that like you know what if you find something objectionable, the worst thing you can do is point to it and tell everybody about it. You know, it just brings attention to it. But that's not the world we live in. Um I want to kind of get back to Director Swanson's language for this amendment. And um cuz that's what we we should be talking about because that's what's currently on the table. And um I'm looking at his language and I'm looking at what's currently in purple. And there's not [clears throat] much difference between the the the construct here. Um it's basically um the you know superintendent the superintendent they they let the requestor and the school board know what their decision is. Um the requestor can appeal. Um the school board takes you know if if they want to push it up, the school board takes a look at it. Um I don't find that objectionable. I I don't find that wholly different than what's currently within the language that um Director uh put well put put on there. So, um I you know if if we just take a step back and we think about it and we just kind of wonder is it worth all this angst in this this conversation to parse over a very very fine line? Um you know, the way I would do it I would I would approve it as it's written currently. And and frankly I would approve it the way Director Swanson put it because the it it's it's we're parsing very very small things here. Um it's not that big of a difference between the two when you think of it. Um and so I just want to bring that up and bring you guys all back in. Um, you guys are making some great points. This is a great conversation. Um, but um, you know, I I I think we just have to take a step back a second. >> Dr. Anderson. >> So, I I think there's a in my mind there's kind of a subtle difference in that >> No, there is there's there's no difference. >> I see with this writing is they come back to us and our decision with how it stands in this uh, current draft is is not anything about the board opinion. It is did you follow the procedure that is set out in this policy? And if that was followed, then we back the decision of the committee. >> Yep. >> Versus what what Director Swanson's um, amendment is stating is ultimately we vote on whether or not we agree with the decision of the committee. So, to me that's actually it's subtle language, but big impact in terms of what could happen. >> It is. It is a little bit broader. Um, but [clears throat] um, you know, um, in practice uh, when it would come before the board, I would see people bending that procedural language to their the way they they think anyways. Um, cuz it's cuz the the authority is still with the board. So, >> Can I do a call a question? On the amendment? Do you have one more point, Director Swanson? >> we do call a question after that? All right. >> Um, Yes. Uh, Director Anderson. >> Thank you. Um, Director Anderson, you are you are right because it does say the school board's review shall be focused on whether the reconsideration process was conducted. And so, as long as the process was conducted, um we're allowing district employees to use their judgment, and the output is going to be based on their judgment following that process. Not our judgment, not our beliefs, not what we not what we believe the our community should should have or should not have. Um and so, I I did some quick super quick research on Hastings. And again, just because they had an There was an incident 3 or 4 years ago at Hastings. Now, I don't know the full details. So, I So, I'm not going to act be an expert on that. Um just from what I read on Fox 9, um KARE 11, and and and CNN, >> [laughter] >> they they said that there was Scholastica had some books that were very mature content for grade 9 through 12, and they were placed in the middle school. And so, if And and and they were trying to say, "Hey, we just We're not trying to ban it. We just like get it where it's age-appropriate." And so, if something like that occurred, it goes to the review committee, and the the review committee said, "Yeah, it's it's it's We think it's appropriate. Blah blah blah blah blah." Uh the process was conducted, then the board still doesn't have We don't have an out. We don't have We don't have governance. We don't have oversight. We don't have a get-out-of-jail card because of whatever it may be. And and at the end of the day, the school board is 100% responsible. Nothing should Nothing should trump the decision of the board. And so, when I read this, it says like I don't get a choice. The board doesn't get a choice. And so, if if the concern is banning books or removing books or whatever may be, um I'm okay if that stuff is out of the equation or out of the policy or whatever it may be. I I I I want that whatever the decision that the review committee has made or recommended or is implementing, that the board still has autonomy, has the judgment to be able to say we Thanks for your Thanks for your good recommendation. Thanks for your thoughts. We disagree. We're moving forward. And And we run into this scenario many times with superintendents. I think the previous superintendent, we disagreed. And the previous superintendents, they probably disagreed. And the board That's That's like your You get 51% majority. You don't get 49. And so, again, number five in the content, to me how I read it was as long as they follow the process, I don't have a say. And And And my hope And I assume the experts are going to make a decision decision based on their expertise. Totally get that. And it may be 95% of the time or 99.9% of the time we're going to be aligned. But in that one instance that that we're not, I should have 50 The board should have 51% majority in that decision. >> It doesn't state that. It doesn't state that. >> Maybe where I differ, Brian, is I feel like I I have the choice right now in making a policy and giving delegation of authority. So, I feel very much in control of this policy in giving this to the committee to handle. So, I think I think it's just a it's a different way to think about when we are when how we are giving our authority to the process. Um And so, for me, it's like yes, I'm I'm I feel like Edina has done that. 186 has All of these boards have made this choice to give their authority to make this decision. So, Director Carbonne. >> Yes, thank you. Um Director Swanson, does not your motion amendment answer Director Thompson's concern? >> It does. >> It does. So, should we >> Let's vote on it. >> Should we call the question and and vote on on Swanson's uh >> Second, we can do call the question. All in favor of um moving to a vote, say I. >> I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay, um call the question passes. Um everyone, Matt, can you read your amendment one more time? And it was seconded, correct? >> Yes. >> It was seconded, yeah. >> All right. Uh my amendment to the original motion was to amend uh paragraph five. I'm not sure what sub what section it's in right now. >> I think we are. Line 315. >> Starting with line 315, yeah. Yeah. Uh removing existing language and replacing it with the following: The superintendent or the superintendent's designee shall inform the requester and the school board of the review committee's decision. The requester may appeal the review committee's decision to the school board. Upon appeal, the review committee will provide its recommendation to the school board for review and a vote as to how to address the challenged material as to retention, restriction, or relocation in the district's library. >> Okay. Any further discussion? All right, all in favor of the amendment, say I. >> I. >> I. >> Anyone oppose? >> No. >> Nay. >> So, the motion passes. Is it four to three? >> Uh-huh. >> Okay. >> Um So, then we go back to the original uh with the amendment um inserted. All those in favor of approving policy 606.5 as presented with the amendment um from Director Swanson that was passed, um say I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> No. >> No. >> No. >> All right, um motion passes four three. Okay. Thank you, Director Botel. All right, moving on to policy 102 equal educational opportunity. Director Albrek, are you presenting this or >> There there weren't any >> Right. So right, at our first reading there was no questions or discussion. I would entertain a motion to approve policy 102 as presented. Motion to approve. First by Swanson, is there a second? >> I'll second it. >> Second by Carbone. Discussion. Okay. All in favor of approving policy 102 as presented, say I. I. Anyone opposed? All right, motion passes 7-0. Then moving on to policy 531, pledge of allegiance. This is also the second reading. There was no questions or discussion at our first reading. Is there a motion to approve policy 531 as presented? >> I'll make a motion. >> All right, first by Carbone, is there a second? Second by Reichenberger. Any discussion? >> I've got a question. >> Yes, Director Compton. >> So this is an interesting one. >> [laughter] >> Not an interesting one. Well, it might be. Um So there is a line in here. There's a sentence in here something and I'm trying to get I'm trying to get to the to the line. Something to the extent that if a student chooses not to recite, they don't have to. And and so um I'm just curious if how the school district currently handles scenarios in that manner. Do they do they sit down? Do they not stand up? Do they How do we make How do we make the environment where they're not like called out or I'm just curious operationally because there while I am in favor of the policy 100% but I also want to be mindful of folks that may not want to. And and if now again because it's an individual right to either do it or not do it. And so if they're if they're choosing not to participate, uh I'm just curious on how that is operationalized in the classrooms. >> Uh I'm going to Director Baker about perhaps there's someone Is there anyone in here that can speak to that, too? Director Baker? >> In every classroom that I've been in, it is never brought to attention if someone chooses not to. Um they're not singled out. It honestly it happens quite frequently because there are students that are nonverbal within our classrooms. There are students that physically can't participate. Um there are students that choose not to. Um it's just one of those things that it's the great thing about being a citizen of the United States, you have choice. But it's never brought to made anyone feel um less than if they choose not to. >> Superintendent Bowman, do you know how this has played out in our schools? >> I My observations I've not seen um isolation of any student uh but I can't point to a uh situation where I observed a student not participating. So, um I would have to give you more information on uh what the the technique or practice is within each of the schools uh with regard to that. So, I I do not know the answer cuz I have not observed it. >> Dr. Thompson? >> A- And again, th- this is more of student choice, parental rights, you know, like if a child wants to, doesn't want to. But as long as they're not infringing on others conducting the pledge, then like then I'm fine. But again, I just I was just curious. That was the only line that I saw like, "Oh, well, what do they do if they choose not to?" So, that's all. >> We can gather information to send a Yeah, Director Albert. >> That actually comes from statute. >> Mhm. >> Oh, that that entire sentence? Okay. The the statute have explained what people did or mean, they probably don't know. >> I'm sure we could find out what in practice how this plays out in the schools. >> Got it. >> Offline. Yeah, Director Swanson. >> Just to clarify, we are removing the notes from these, right? >> Notes are getting removed. Yep. And any cross references are getting updated. This one doesn't have that, but on the yeah. >> Notes and cross references. >> Okay, any other discussion or questions? All right, all in favor of approving in policy 531, say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right, motion passes 7-0. Moving to item number seven, board member reports. Anyone have any Yeah, Director Baker. >> I almost intruded on your good news today, but it was so long I figured that this could probably come at a different time. So, um for those that may not know, the state of Minnesota is hosting um the Special Olympics nationwide um event this this week. Um Well, it's more than this week, but anyway, the athletes flew in on Sunday. The opening ceremonies were on Sunday night. Um And we have one representative in Lakeville, Caden Roseth. He was a graduate of Lakeville South. He is um representing the state of Minnesota on the tennis team. So, if you have a chance to watch this week, um he's one of our athletes that's on the tennis team representing Lakeville. He was actually featured in Sports Illustrated, too. So, always been on the Blazing Cats. Um so, go Caden. >> That's great. I work as you know, I work at the U, and weight lifting was happening in Northrop Hall, which is right next to my building today. So, I snuck over there for a little bit and watched some other weight lifting going on. So, it was great. Yeah, any other board reports? >> Is it at the U? >> Yeah, it's at the U. And and I think other locations, too, but mainly at the U. >> Hm. >> Director Thompson. >> I have been to more graduation parties than >> [laughter] >> than I would have than I've ever done ever. Well, well, yeah, when I was 18 then yeah, but it is it is super awesome to see images of these kids from kindergarten and then their progression all the way to high school and their hairstyles from the 80s look to the braces to the glasses and then and they parents don't care. They throw these pictures on the wall. They supers they extra supersize them and and again, I'm not I'm not saying that I go to grad parties like every year, but like this is a year where I went to a lot and it was just fascinating to see but also very encouraged by these young men and women that are going to be coming through the ranks of of our of our community and and it's just we got a great group of kids that are that are coming and that are going out and so excited. So good. That's all. >> Awesome. Great. Anything else? All right, superintendent report. >> Yeah, just one item on the morning of the 4th of June, had a very heated conversation. You know, that was graduation day with Mother Nature and I won. >> [laughter] >> Nice work. All right. >> nicer next time because [laughter] it gets tougher. >> It was hot. >> Mother Nature won. >> All right, I think we are adjourned. Is there a motion to adjourn? >> So moved. >> Moved by Anderson, second. >> Seconds. >> Seconded by Reichenberger, all in favor? I. Any opposed? All right, we're adjourned. Goodnight, everybody. >> Okay. >> Mhm.