Everyone, I'm going to call to order the October 28, 20125 Lakeville Area District School Board meeting. If you would all rise with me for the pledge [clears throat] of allegiance. I >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, we'll start with roll call. Starting on my right, >> Amber Cameron, >> Brett Nicholson, >> Paul Carbone, >> Matt Swanson, >> Michael Bowman, >> Kim Baker, Harley Anderson, >> Brian Thompson. >> All right. Are there any additions or amendments to be made to the agenda? >> Chair, Dr. Baker, >> I'm requesting to add an item [clears throat] to the agenda for discussion. >> Okay. uh based on what I brought to the board last time um which was a res resolution for special education. The board asked u me to do some work on that and I did that. So I want to bring the resolution back with an attached uh plan for special education. >> All right. And this is for discussion. >> Yep. >> All right. Is there a second to that motion? >> I'll second. >> All right. There being a second, is there any discussion? If there is no discussion, all those in favor of adding the uh director Baker's resolution and we can discuss the plan as well >> to the discussion at section 6D. Say I >> I. >> Any opposed? It is added. >> Any other amendments? Uh if there are none, I'd entertain a motion to approve the agenda with that one addition. All right. Is there a second? >> I'll second it. All right. Being a first by Director Cameron, a second um by Director [clears throat] Carbone. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> It is approved. Uh Superintendent Bowman. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good news for Lakeville Area Schools. October 28th. The Lakeville South High School marching band delivered their strongest performance to date on Saturday, October 11th at the Youth in Music Marching Band Championships held at US Bank Stadium. Competing against 37 bands from across the Midwest, Lakeville South won second place in Class AAA and was only one of five Minnesota bands to advance to the evening finals. In the finals, the band showcased their skill and dedication, earning fourth place in music and color guard and seventh place overall. So, congratulations to the Lakeville South marching band. Lakeville Area Schools has launched a new social media photo series called Faces of 194. Throughout the year, this series will highlight what's happening inside our schools and give our community a glimpse into the daily life of our students and staff. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to see the most recent highlights and to catch more faces of 194 stories as the year goes on. You can read more about the wonderful things happening in our school district at isd194.org/news. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> All right. Uh we're now going to move into public comment. Uh the board will open up the floor for 30 minutes to allow the public to address the board with comments and concerns. Uh in order to participate in public comment, individuals must have registered in advance using the form provided on our website by noon on the Monday prior to our scheduled meeting. Uh there will be no board response during the session. Um public comments framed as complaints and or concerns about students and or staff are not appropriate in public forum due to data privacy laws. These comments should be addressed to the administration outside of a public meeting. Likewise, complaints about schoolboard members should be privately directed to the board chair and or superintendent. Uh if your comments stray into that realm, I will ask you to stop and the video feed will be stopped as well. So, please do not do that. Uh no formal action will be taken on a topic presented during public comment. Um but as necessary, the administration will follow up with the appropriate personnel on any concerns that need to be individually addressed. Um, also if necessary, the board will follow up during board communications at the next regularly scheduled board meeting. Individual remarks are limited to three minutes. The board will provide a signal when the participant has 30 seconds left. Please try to keep audience noise to a minimum so everyone can hear what is being said. Uh, there's actually only one individual signed up, so if Jamal Hassan would come up, [cough and clears throat] unless he's changed his mind. Jamal going once, going twice. All right, that will be the conclusion of our public comment, I guess. Uh we'll move on to uh consideration of approval of the consent agenda. Are there any items that any board member want to p want to pull out of the consent agenda? >> If there are none, I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> I'll make a motion to approve. >> All right. It is a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All right. A motion by Director Carbone and a second by Director Nicholson to approve the consent agenda um at 4 A through E. Uh any discussion? If there's none, all in favor say I. >> I. >> I. Any opposed? It is approved. Uh moving along. Reports and discussions. Uh, I'll get us kicked off with the the JPA uh, schoolboard members and it's on the board book two as a copy of the proposed amendment. Board has had a chance to review it if you have any questions. I just had one I'll start with. Uh, I know that we're this is an agreement between us and the city uh, the school board or [clears throat] school district and the city council meeting was yesterday. Did they have any amendments that they're looking at to the agreement? >> Uh Joe Marion, who's the park director, let me know today that they had a discussion about it, but there were no actual changes. So, the plan would be obviously school board last night, uh, I'm sorry, city council last night, school board tonight forformational, and then depending on any feedback, it would go back to the city council for approval on November 3rd, and then the come back to the school board for approval on November 11th. >> Okay. Anyone have any other specific questions? I had a question about if no one else I'll go again but uh section 6.1 it looks like there are certain services that the city was providing before that are being removed now in this agreement. Is it because they're not needed or is that just a negotiated revision? >> Yeah, it can be two different things. Is since that the last time that this was uh updated was 2013 for official u approval. There have been a number of either facilities or uh change in use of facilities that just no longer appropriate. Uh one of the good examples are the two ice arenas that used to be by the old district office by McGuire Middle School and those were uh essentially given back to the city. So some of that maintenance is no longer needed. Some of the other aspects are because of the city um essentially requesting uh no longer to maintain some district um fields and grounds to remove those items as well. >> Any other questions? >> Director Thompson. Yeah, we recently received some emails around um the need to have uh parental staff to be in place for um I think some uh association use inside our facilities uh for monitoring of the halls and stuff of that nature. And so I noticed in this agreement in section three it says additional expenditures both parties agree that no custodial or facil facility attendant wages or overtime will be charged. So is that something where are we are we will be staffing and then we will be absorbing those costs or are we not staffing anyone or like how how does it or or does this not apply? >> It mostly does not apply unless there actually were in some issues uh per se and so we have good open lines of communication with the city about the rules and they've been fantastic for using our facilities. Hopefully we've done the same. Um we have our normal operations for supervision, custodial and like building supervision. Those would stay in place and that's what we are not charging for. If for some reason that there was a need uh that we identified for, you know, additional um supervision or support, those are the items that we could charge for. But it's just more the typical uh building supervision, custodial overtime that neither party is charging the other one for. Does that help? >> It doesn't. It does not, but I'll I'll do my best to track. I guess what I'm asking for then is just making sure that we've got consistency between what we are charging um uh tier one, tier two, tier three with for our facility use as well as what the city as well as the city. And so, um that's all I'm asking for if there isn't um to ensure that we've got consistency between the both. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. And I can sure that I mean Lucas oversees that area for operations and I can forward that on to Devon who actually is the one that has the communication with actual users >> and and this is separate I mean this is separate from those groups. I think the distinction here is, >> you know, we're getting, you know, our consideration is we're getting access to facility, city facilities as well in exchange for allowing them to use ours, but if there are additional fees, section three of the agreement says that they will pay those fees. And similarly, we will have to pay their we'll have to pay additional fees that we cause to the city >> if there's damage done or extra >> snow removal or trash removal. But >> I do like that you took out most of section 7 um which seemed to kind of give our buildings to the city after a certain time. >> Yeah, >> seemed odd. >> Yeah, that has long long history and yeah, that was kind of an item that we thought you know what this actually can hopefully simplify things that any district facilities people have one place to go to instead of come to us, go to the city, register through them and oh by the way we have some additional rules. So, it's one-stop shop hopefully. >> Okay. Any other questions? >> Thank you. >> All right. I'll see you in a couple weeks. Thank you. >> Thanks. [snorts] >> On to the audit. Chair Swanson, school board members, Superintendent Michael Bowman. Um tonight, yes, we have um CLA. We have um we have Chris Kenudson, partner from CLA here to present along with um Troy Gabler. Um he he was very instrumental in working on our audit. And I want to give a little shout out to my staff. We have them in the back. Worked very hard to get our annual report done again and we're very pleased with the results and where our financial position is. So come to you. >> Thank you very much, Bill. Um my name is Chris Kenopick. I'm a principal with Clifton Larson and this is our first year working with the district again after a couple of year break and I have Troy Gabler with as well who's the um manager on the district's audit. So we're here to provide preliminary results for the audit. Um the reason I say preliminarily is the um the school district is subject to a single audit. That means we have to audit your federal grants. What we use to audit that is called the compliance supplement that is issued every year typically in late spring, April, May, June, somewhere in there. That is not issued yet this year. Um, so we cannot final issue any single audit reports. >> Why is that, sir? >> I don't know. [laughter] >> Okay. >> Um, we do have a draft supplement that we're working off of. Um, so the federal government, if you want to say, was gracious enough to give us a draft supplement. Um, but we are not able to actually issue until there's a final version out there. So that is the process we're going through right now. So that's why, >> director Thompson, >> can we just make sure we we clarify, you do not have a final version because of why? >> Because of the compliance supplement not being issued by the federal government. >> And then why is it not issued by the federal government? >> They're behind in the process. >> They're behind. They're behind in the process. >> Okay. And then what's the ETA for something like that? >> We have no clue actually. >> And then why is that? So >> because we are at the kind of the mercy of the um federal office of management and budget who issues that document and they they don't have a set deadline to for issuing it. >> Okay. And I I believe the state is also aware of this and they have moved the um kind of the deadline to get us the sing them the single audit results uh to the end of March. Um if the compliance supplement is not issued prior to the end of the calendar year, we will issue the financial statement separately. So you meet your statutory deadlines for the financials. Um and then we'd issue these single audit later uh as soon as we're able to legally do so. Um, so you'll meet all your statutory deadlines and we're trying to issue them together ideally. If that doesn't work, we will just separate the two and you'll hit your financial statement deadline with the state. >> Director Cameron, >> is this an unusual circumstance? Okay. Thank you. >> It it is the last time that the the federal government issued a um compliance supplement this late would have been back in 2020 when the when COVID happened. And that year when they finally did eventually issue the compliance supplement, they automatically extended the deadline for submitting your single audit, I think, all the way till typically it's 9 months. I think they gave you 18 months or something crazy like that. So, we're hoping it doesn't get to be that level of delay this time, but we just wanted to let you know, as Troy mentioned, we will we do have a plan in place to make sure the statutory um compliance requirements are met for the district. it would just be that single audit piece for the federal government. >> Okay. >> So, as we go through the um slide deck tonight, we typically, Troy and I like to say if you have questions, you can ask them as we go. Otherwise, there's an opportunity at the end. So, we're going to go through some required communications that we have as your external auditors. We have some audit results, both the um kind of where are we looking at as far as are there any internal control comments or single audit comments that we have currently. We have uh several slides on financial statement results and then at the end we like to just keep the board aware of any upcoming governmental accounting standards. So you'll see that GASBY acronym used quite a bit that stands for governmental accounting standard board. So that's the standard setting body that tells you what your financial statement should be looking like and what um how to recognize revenue and those types of things. So as we go as far as required communications. So, this really is just that reminder that an audit provides reasonable, not absolute assurance as to the as to the numbers that you're going to see in your financial statements. The reason we say reasonable and not absolute, absolute would mean that we audited 100% of your transactions. That's just not feasible both on time constraints and just a monetary constraint. We also look at the accounting estimates that are included in your financial statements. Our responsibility as your auditors is to make sure they're reasonable and supported. And with that, we also want to let you know that there are two what we consider significant estimates that we want to just make sure we call out to the board. Very common when it comes to school districts in Minnesota. One is going to be the other post-employment benefit liability and then also your um related to self insurance, your incurred but not reported liability that gets reported in your statements. Those are typically both um derived using actuaries and that type of information. So, we don't have any concerns over those. We just want to make sure we call them out to the board. This year as part of the audit, we are also implementing two new governmental accounting standards. The first one is statement number 101 that's related to compensated absences. So compensated absences is the acred vacation time, sick time, comp time that's reported in your financial statements. Um right now what that was historically typically based on is um what the actual potential cash liability is to the district if somebody was to retire or separate in good standings. Understatement number one, it um added another kind of layer of complexity in there saying what's just the likelihood that an employee is going to use it while they're employed. Not necessarily have it paid out, but what's the likelihood that they're going to actually use those acred balances. So that's what we um looked at this year. It was not a material change or it was was it was a material change to the financial statements. So you will see within your financial statements when you get it, you're going to see a restatement on the bottom of it. That restatement is going to say we had a new accounting policy we adopted. It was big enough to where we just didn't want to adjust it through current year operations. So we adjust your beginning net position for that. So >> what what constitutes big enough? >> In this case, it went from around like 6 million to 18 million. Um, but the number that is large enough matter. It just changes yeartoear based on how your assets and revenues by each column shake out. So, >> yep. So, but you know, it's one of those things that we're seeing this year across the board. When we adopted this standard, cities and counties adopted this back for December 31st. It's school district turns now. So, we're seeing these liabilities increase kind of across the board. >> And that is common. The other larger school districts we have in the metro that we work with also had a very similar increase. >> So it's not unique to your district and it only shows through the governmental activities. So the governmentwide where you have your pension liabilities. So it won't affect a lot of what you probably use to um make decisions for the school. Y >> and then the second one we adopted was statement number 102. Statement 102 is just a note disclosure statement. So it was um not a lot of additional calculations. So what it wanted us to do is it wants local governments to disclose more information about your if you want to say your regulator regulatory operating environment. So what that would be is if you had bargaining units that were outside of a contract and there could be a potential for a a strike or something like that if you were meeting and exceeding your debt limit according to state statute. Those types of things is what they want governments to governments to disclose now. So, um, so you'll see a couple extra note disclosures in there about just some of that kind of high level debt limits, those types of things, but nothing that was, you know, going to be shocking or earth shattering for the district when you see that note. As part of the audit, we also need to make sure that you're aware um, we have some what we call uncorrected or past adjustments. So these were where um right now currently under your pension liabilities that requires some pretty significant calculations between um what we consider deferred inflows, deferred outflows. So we're going to kind of gets into the nuts and kind of the weeds of governmental accounting, but we had some minor differences and this happens a lot of times when there's a change in accounting firms. We calculate them a little bit differently a lot of times. So you'll see the amounts on there was uh you know $3.5 million for deferred inflows uh $1.6 million in your net net position were understated you know those types of things. They were not large enough to where it would require a restatement or anything like that. So what we call is we're just adjusting those and correcting them through current year operations. So that kind of puts you into a little bit of perspective. We you know we talked the increase in compensated absences was material so we're doing that. these are smaller and we're able to correct those through current year. Um and then the other the second one that we have is related to bond premiums. Governmental accounting standards was is very specific. When you have bond premiums and discounts, they're supposed to be advertised on what they call effective interest. Um so what that is is your amortization on an annual basis mere similarly to your interest as far as a percentage of your premium that gets amvertised each year. Historically, most governments um used to just advertise those straight lines. So, if you had a million dollars of premium over 10 years, you take a $100,000 each year, but standards actually say it should be effective interest. So, this year was just a cleanup of that just to get those in line with what proper governmental accounting standards should be to advertise them over effective interest. So, um, nothing that was an internal control issue or anything like that that would that would come to a material weakness, significant deficiency, just some cleanup on that side. Um, next one, we want to let you know if we have any corrected or actual audit adjustments, which we had none. So, very positive. The information that we got from from Bill and Jack and the rest of the the finance team were all in in very good condition and and we didn't have any adjustments to it. We'd also let you know if we had any disagreements or difficulties in performing the audit. We didn't. Um, I I typically say no news is good news on that part. If we had a difficulty or a disagreement, we'd let you know about it before a public meeting. As far as the actual audit results, as I'll as I kind of want to just reiterate, these are preliminary because they're not an issued financial statement. So, as of right now, the financial statements will receive an unmodified or a clean audit opinion. That unmodified is the word that we use to say clean. So, that's the that's the word you want to see in your audit report. So, very good news there. Um, since the district is also a single audit, we also have to issue what we call a yellowbook compliance report. So that would let you know if there is any material violations of laws, regulations, contracts, or grants that could have a material impact on the district. There's nothing that is any concern there. So that's a clean report as well. Then we also look at your internal controls. As I mentioned, we had nothing that would require to be disclosed as a material weakness, significant deficiency or anything there. So [clears throat] overall very positive, very clean results for the district. So um really that should be applauded to everybody at the district that plays a part in in just day-to-day activities from processing invoices and receipts to bank wrecks and and all the financial reporting aspects. As well as I mentioned, we did look at your uh we tried to do as much of the single audit as we can using that draft compliance supplement that's out there. So that once the final issued version is out there, our goal hopefully if there's no changes is really just to basically take your grant, compare it side by side and say no changes, we've done all the work and we can issue the report. So with the with that, we have one item under the child nutrition program related to procurement right now that is listed as a potential material weakness that may actually downgrade to a significant deficiency. So um or upgrade if you want to look at it depending which way you look at it. So material weakness is the highest uh potential comment. Significant deficiency is one step below that. So it may actually improve um as we go through our final review processes on that. So what that was is we had one out of the 13 different procurements that we tested that we're just missing some documentation about why a vendor was selected and that type of stuff. No concerns over actual allowability of spending or anything like that. is just more of a documentation issue on our side. So, and then we also look at Minnesota legal compliance as part of the audit as well and and that we did not have any um compliance issues or anything like that related to legal compliance as well. So, overall very clean report for the district, just the one item related in the child nutrition program. So, if there's no questions on anything right now, I'll turn it over to Troy to go through some of the some of the financial results. >> Okay. Thank you very much, Chris. Um and maybe just to put some of that too into context for what we see at other um districts and compare um you have very few um findings in terms of like internal control items. A lot of districts would usually have an item or two. Uh so that's a very good thing. That means you guys have good controls. We're not seeing big adjustments. Uh and the procurement item you have for single audits is probably the most common thing we have. And it's very rare not to have a legal compliance issue which you do not have. So, um, maybe a bit of a highlight there that sometimes I don't know if the you might not know the comparisons or what we see across different clients. So, I like to share that. Um, and then of course maybe just to build off of what Chris said, having a firstear client where we come back, a lot of times there's probably more bumps in the audit process. Uh, it went quite smoothly in terms of us, you know, we did audit this four years ago, but anytime there's a transition, it usually goes a little bit less smooth. So, I think overall very good process. All right. Um, so I'm going to share some of the numbers and results with you. Uh, this slide is just showing kind of the change in the general education formula allowance. Uh, and this is really you're getting this based off of your, you know, student counts. Uh, I think the highlight here is if you look at the percent increase. If you were to take a, you know, look at what inflation has been over the past 5 10 years, you would notice it doesn't keep up. So the important thing here is obviously you can levy for more money and you can build you know up your student base to the extent possible. You know if you have any charter schools or something that you're competing with. Um but ultimately that is a gap that as a board you have to deal with regularly getting worse. Um and so we like to point that out because uh it's a funding thing that you work through pretty regularly. Uh here we have the student enrollment. Uh this is a very uh positive result. You can see over the last five years you've added a thousand students about. Um being in a growing district is nice in terms of um but brings its own set of problems. Um you might have to look at uh closing buildings but you might have to look at how to utilize space and keeping up with hiring needs can certainly be difficult in a growing community. Here we have the general uh fund revenue sources. This is really just to highlight the breakout of your general fund revenues. You can see year-over-year for the most part the percentage of the total is pretty much the same. Uh while they do grow steadily over the past 5 years, uh that's really in line because state and federal tends to follow your student count. So as you increase students, you typically are going to increase your funding. Now expenditures, this is a great highlight, I think, for the district in that you can see about 3%'s used for debt service. You have 2% for administration. Um and there's a couple support services there. Uh but the bulk of the money is really going to supporting the buildings and the teaching and the programming going on at the district. Uh and so I think people like to see that you know a large portion of the money is really going to serving the community and students >> here. This is yes director Nicholson. >> Could you just go back? Can you give us a comparison on other districts that you see? I mean are we similar lower? Higher. So a lot of the ones that have so if you look at the top uh the 1% the 3% and two and three so the first four across where that adds up to a little under 10% usually that's a little bit closer like 15 to 16. Um some districts they get high as 20. I mean part of it depends on how you kind of allocate out your administrative costs. Um so certainly that's a piece. Um but anytime you see over 75% kind of go into instructional special ed and regular instruction I'll kind of highlight that. Um it gets below that I just presented as here here just split out and I don't necessarily think it's a highlight. So >> thank you. >> Here we have expenditures by object code. Um and this is just really showing the breakout for the general fund of your various buckets of expenses and how they compared to budget. I think the highlight here would really be of course you spent 4.7 million under uh what you'd budgeted and the big chunk of that is really from salaries and benefits from having some open positions that ideally would have been filled and paid. Um and then supplies and materials and capital expenditures for the most part offset. It just kind of depends on if you capitalize it which bucket that falls into. Here on this slide we have the financial position of the general fund um otherwise known as fund balance for governments. And I think the three-year increase you can see from 2023 to 2025 is very good. Um I think if you look at that as a percentage of your overall uh um fund balance you basically have about a month and a half I think of operations or about 12.8% of your expenditures and fund balance. Um that's a huge improvement of course over the last few years. Uh we'd encourage you to continue as you're able to build that up. Uh we typically think about 20 to 25% is uh a good goal to have although sometimes you do see higher or lower depending on what you're dealing with and >> that's for all funds not just unassigned fund balance. >> In this case it is all funds and I do have a I do have a slide that'll break out on assigned as well. >> Yeah thank you. >> Uh here we have the audited fund balance of the general fund. Uh this is just kind of showing the different breakout that you have for the restrictions. Um you can see here we also have the beginning and ending and the assigned amount um as you basically uh have pointed out there. So you can see that that is uh the 2.4 million last year was 3.6 but your unassigned is not the total of the 25 million. It's the 13.4 million you see above that. And that's really what's not restricted for a particular use um that you could have to use for any reason or contingency. Um and here this breaks it into percentages. So there's the 12.8% 8% for total fund balance and the 6.8% is what you have for unassigned. Um, and so again, definitely important to continue to build that up. Uh, but definitely an improvement over the last few years. >> Yeah, Thompson. >> All right. Yeah, just just to clarify again. So, you know, we've been focused very clearly on the unassigned fund balances sitting at about 13.5 million. Uh, I believe that's roughly I think like 6.9% of Oh, 6.8, sorry. 6.8% of of where we need to be. Uh what is So we we made drastic changes over the past two and a half, three years to get it to get it where it's at with it being like negative.2 in in 2023. What what is I know that we had we were downgraded from for for our credit I believe a couple years back. Like what number like where do we need to get to? Because right now as a board we set a policy to set it at 10% for our unassigned fund balance which is different from the whole fund balance. And so the unassigned fund balance we've targeted that targeted that to be about 10% as as a policy goal. uh what number do we need to get to to kind of like recalibrate our credit score? >> I you know and in ter obviously we don't provide the credit scores but what we see in a healthy district that doesn't have a downgraded credit score um part of it really depends on how you do your assignments for fund balance too. Um but you know because if you have 10% of unassigned fund balance and then you had 15% assigned to very specific things um that could look healthy from a somebody reviewing the financial statement standpoint. Um but also again I think in general getting to the 20 to 25% is what we recommend. I mean then you kind of have a quarter year of um you know reserves so then when the federal government shuts down right you don't have to potentially borrow or anything like that if you do have a funding issue. So, >> Georgia Thompson, >> I think the 10% is of our $29 million annual expenditure ballpark or 205. We we went about 20 million and I think that's about three months worth of operating expenditures if things shut down and and so if our restricted fund balance and I see this as 8.9 and the non the non-spendable fund balance is at you know 765,000 that may that may not grow and or that may stay the same but I think what we control the most is going to be our unassigned fund balance. So we need to get that 13.5 ideally to roughly $20 million which is 10% of our expenditures and then our restricted fund balance can can like fluctuate based on whatever we get from the state and whatever is restricted to where we need to go. Is that that that would be kind of what I'm hearing as as the ideal target. >> Director Anderson. >> Yeah. I know um districts kind of take different approaches based on their size and like you said different factors. So, I guess I'm wondering last time um I know the Mooney score has been right. It's Mooney. That score gets kind of like what drives if we're going out for a bond or something like that. So, I'm kind of curious from the superintendent like if we were to go out for a bond for something in the last cycle that we did that I think we were in a pretty good position. So, do you see a certain amount that we need in our >> uh that's that's one factor. Um what my experience with uh especially with Moody's has always been strategic plan and utilization of your funds in accordance with your strategic plan and your growth and tax base fidelity. Those are the three things. Now an unassigned fund balance also is an indicator but it's it's not the leading indicator for in my experience with these and I've think I've done about 17 of them. Um, so an unassigned fund balance at 10% is a great place to be for a school district and wouldn't wouldn't push back on that. That's not the deciding factor on Moody's. In fact, in the time I've been in the district, we were able to get our rating um increased with a 5% standard on an assigned fund balance. Um and after I left it went down but uh I think we are we show a trajectory that I think would be favorable with Moody's. And I think the key too is you know even though you know whether it's 10% 15 whatever you're shooting for you know gradually building up to that is the key and trending in the right direction. And then once you have that then you can decide okay do we want to keep building that up? Are we going to utilize that to lower um levies or can we do something else from a um you know providing additional you know stuff to students or teachers and whatever you have. So I think a lot of that just comes down to the values of the board and the school district itself because as you noted there are a lot of different um theories as to should we have our own money should we be bonding and how that plays in people's risk tolerance for that. So, and I think also being at a growing school district, it's also very different than one that is kind of matured and dealing with a um not a growing student body because you don't have the projection of increased revenues to deal with. So, it's way more important you keep contingency funds than if you know you're in a growing area. So, that's definitely something to keep in mind as well. >> Director Thompson, >> and just uh to share for the rest of the board, I'm just looking at our 2013 2014 budget. We had about 10,170 students at that time. Uh we our our annual budget was 102 million. Uh and we are in our savings account we had 5.5 million. So for some some numbers and then okay um here we have the food service fund. Uh so this is just again showing a five-year trend. I think the important thing here is if you look at the ending fund balance at 3.8 million, that's about uh 35 38% of the expenditures. That's a very healthy food service fund, especially with the um now fixed revenues in most cases uh with the state kind of offering the free lunches. Not every district has been able to operate that effectively and profitably in a way that it pays for itself. Um, so for whoever's involved in running that program, um, and continuing to not see that drop significantly year-to-year, um, I think that is commendable. A lot of times we'll see the general fund kind of, uh, supplementing that, um, especially kind of postcoid. So, that's great to see. >> Director Cameron, >> with that, um, I [clears throat] might be off base here, but we have to be under a certain threshold though with a with a balance for that, correct? Otherwise, we're out of compliance with the state. Is that is that the right fund bill that >> was 90 days? Yeah, >> it's it's back to three months. >> So, we're good. >> Okay, great. Thanks. >> Yep. Yeah, I think the key there is it's not negative every year and you're not supplementing it with um essentially other funds. It's paying for itself, which is great. Here we have the community service fund. Uh here you kind of cut even on this yeartoyear. I think a big factor in that uh and kind of working with the school district uh really pertains to the ability to staff some of those positions to provide the classes and things that you're doing to charge for them. Um and so I think as positions are filled uh that will be self- sustaining. All right. And then I'm going to turn it back over to Chris to talk about the upcoming Gazsby standards. Thank you very much, Troy. So, um any other questions on financial results? Otherwise, we just have a a slide here just to really keep the board in informed of what's coming down the pipeline as far as um accounting standards. So, um looking at fiscal year 26 is audit now. So, we're not quite done with 25, but we're already starting to think about 26. And again, there's going to be two new governmental accounting standards that are going to have to be adopted by the district. The first one, statement 103. This one uh probably the most significant impact to the district is really going to be rewriting some of that very front section of your financial statements that what's called the management discussion and analysis. So the um statement number 103 is just kind of reworking what are the actual topics that government should include in that and how should they be comparative as far as more they want to have more policy driven type discussion. Right now, your management discussion along with all the other governments that we audit really just says here was this year, here's last year, here's why it increased, we had vacant positions, we had this or we had that. Now they want now they want districts and governments to actually incorporate more of is this going to be a financial trend going forward. What's the policy behind or what's the policy or what's that strategic vision behind the government and what's our goals long term for that? So, that's going to probably be the biggest um change for the district on that one. Statement number 104, that's another one that's just going to be a note disclosure statement. So statement number 104 is really cleaning up how we should be reporting some of these new um assets that have been essentially created over the last couple of years. So over the last couple years, we've had right to use assets for leases, right to use assets for subscription um subscriptionbased IT arrangements, if you had any public private partnerships, various things like that. All of those uh specific standards didn't really tell you how to disclose them. They just said you had to disclose them. So statement 104 is actually just bringing it all together and saying they all are going to be disclosed in a certain way so that there's comparability across governments across the country. So really those are the only two standards as I mentioned. 103 is going to be primarily the biggest impact for the district. Um 104 should be a fairly easy one. It's just kind of reorganizing where stuff is at. Chris, in your time as a professional doing this work, has Gazsby ever had a year where they didn't issue a um change? >> Technically during CO Well, actually, they still technically issued a statement during COVID, but it was essentially a statement saying we're going to delay everything by a year or two. [laughter] >> Okay, >> that's probably the only time. So, I've been doing this now for about 22 years. When I first came into the industry, we were on statement number 34. So now we're that 70 70 statements later over 22 years >> and and if you look at the last like four or five years three of the standards added like three significant new audit areas right I mean you know 10 years ago you get like pensions but now we have you have to look at your custodial funds differently you have the leases subscriptions lessor type um situations creates a new receivable um so a lot of years there's been significant amounts of work that go into implementing that or the grouped assets and things like that. So, um this will actually be pretty easy hopefully for the next year or two without, you know, jinxing that. But, uh >> I'm glad you said that, Troy, because what I what I'm sharing with everybody is that the finance teams have to react to this. >> Yes. >> And um the good news is you get the information ahead of time. The not so good news is you got to figure out how to do process procedure adjustment in order to account for that. And then if you change out your auditor in, you know, after two or three years, you got that challenge as well. So hats off again to the team that that does that. And as you know, this is something that happens year in and year out. >> Yes. >> So with that, you know, we're welcome to any other questions or comments or concerns or anything like that. Otherwise, we would just kind of reiterate the thanks to the entire staff that we work with here at the district. They were were great. As Troy mentioned, kind of in that um transition year back to CLA this year, the fact that we're still sitting at this board meeting with, you know, what would have been issued reports if the federal government would have cooperated with us, we're sitting [clears throat] in a pretty good spot. >> Director Thompson. >> Yeah. C can you can you provide again um additional clarity for me because I'm I'm not I don't think I fully understand the compensated absences, the 101 obviously with the 6 million and the $18 million, that's a that's a big $12 million delta. So I don't I didn't see it impacting this school year or this year's budget that ended in 2025. How what does that mean for next year? >> So it the weird thing about this type of liability is with how the government does its financial reporting. Um you know it's nothing's changing in terms of the cash outlay. So, your budgeting will stay the same because the funds that you use to manage the school district aren't going to be impacted because it's only booked on the level like the governmentwide level where you have like your pensions and your fixed assets and things like that. Um, but the change was really, you know, in terms of previously if I had, you know, a 100 hour sick bank that I'd get paid out upon, you know, leaving the district or being terminated, um, we would acrew that 100 hours. But if you had a,000 hours where only 100 would get paid out, you still would have only acred previously that 100 hours. where now if you have a thousand hours, you acrew the hundred hours, you look at that other 900 and you say, I wonder if it's more likely than not they'll use some of that and that's a lot of work to go through for the finance and work with actuaries and get them that data. Um, and so it blows up the liability because it's really booking something that's just banked sick time um or comp time or things that haven't been booked in the past. But truly your agreement with the unions and employees did not change. They're just trying to make it more comparable entity to entity to look at those and capture some of that. >> So then are you reviewing our contracts, our employee contracts? And then are is your firm the one that's making the determination whether it's more likely or not or is >> Oh no, that is a that is a determination made by the both the district and the actuary they work with. um that is a management estimate and it would be inappropriate as your auditor um for us to make that. Um but we do provide guidance um as far as like what we see maybe in how to look at some of the figures. Um but we do look at your contracts and we make sure it's reasonable. Um and that we're not drawing in incorrect conclusions and we test all the data going in to make sure they're using that. And just just so I'm clear, you're you're still saying that it shouldn't be a concern where we need to go and account for $12 million more of expenditures. >> No. Correct. It's not again, it's not it's booked on the uh statement with your long-term liability. It's kind of like your think of it like your net pension liability. It's not like you're making new pension contributions. It's just depending on the fund how funded it is. In this case, you're not really making an outlay unless everybody chooses to take all their sick time tomorrow, right? um which typically doesn't happen, right? But um that would be where the liability would kick in, right? >> Okay. >> Any other questions? George Cameron, >> on the slide where you showed our fund balance um over the last like six years, it was quite a ways back. Um you are that one. Yeah. Um you are our auditor for CLA was the auditor, right, for some of those earlier years. 21 >> in those [clears throat] situations or just in 21. >> I think 21 on this slide would have only been 21. >> Well, and 25. Yeah, we just did. >> Right. So, okay. My question might not um might be a moot point then, but I was curious if you saw that downward trajectory. Would you raise alarm bells? Um, typically >> we would appropriately come here like we are now and say, "Hey, this is something you really would like to watch. you don't want to end up in a situation where you can't um come up with funds for contingencies and be forced to borrow. >> Um that is what we would come to you with if we saw that trajectory. Um we certainly would never come here and tell you, hey, this is what you need to be doing because everybody's in a different scenario and you really know the district best and what you're dealing with. Um I mean, if you have a building just go down and you have to fix it, you might have to spend down your fund balance and build it back up, right? Um to serve students. I mean, sometimes you have just these huge weird things happen. But yeah, we would certainly highlight that as something just like with the community service fund, we're highlighting if you staff that and it's self-sufficient, you won't have to subsidize that and that your food service fund is very healthy. >> Okay. Okay. Thanks. >> All right. Thank you, gentlemen. >> Thank you so much for letting us come out and present. >> On to Mr. Homegrren. Good evening. >> More finances. >> Just going to take a few minutes now. We talked about 25. Now we want to talk about 26. We're just uh just getting the year started. Um we do have um final numbers as of September. So it's really only about one month into the school district. We have expenses that happen during the summer, but but they're very small. Um but just to give you an idea of what's happening with our with our budget. So when we look at our revenues, um you can see that that's the blue line starting up coming up through September there. And we are collecting more revenues at this point in time than we have in the last couple years. So we feel very good about that. It puts us in a very good uh cash position. Most of these um funds coming in a little earlier are state funds. Um so we're very pleased with that. Again, remember this is really only one month in, so it's hard to make true comparisons. Um but when we look at our now this is looking at all our funds. Okay. Um if you look at that blue line again that is a fiscal 26. So our our new year that we just got started and you can see that every single area is in a um really good uh situation. I want to point out um you see in pupil support it's the almost to the right side of the chart you see pupil support. You see that one is up up a little bit. and what we're seeing in that area that is a trans that special ed transportation. We had a little more happening there than we anticipated. So this will be an area where we look very hard during the revised budget. This is probably a place that's going to be tweaked a little bit and increased a little bit to make sure that we come in at the end of the year in the right place. When we switch over and look at the object side, now this is is um entirely general fund. And what I what I want to point out here again, we are running a little uh lower in almost every single area. You can see the supplies and materials though that are up up a little bit. And this is a timing issue. Like I said, it's only one month in, so it's it's hard to really take a true comparison, but it's really a timing of of making purchases. Um our buildings, some of our buildings are purchasing a little sooner some of their items than they have in the past. And that's really what's what's driving this right here. You'll see that level out as we get into future months. And we switch over and look at the program side. Again, you can see in that pupil support area where that's up at 8 81 compared to, you know, 73 last year. That is that transfer that's that transportation piece which we're looking at. And then way on the right side, you see, oh, that's a little higher. Now, what we we dug back through through this and what this is, this was actually a coding error. We have an expenditure um in the wrong area and it's not supposed to be there. So you'll see that repair itself. Um we've already made the the uh entries in uh in October to take care of that. So that'll be going down. So I feel very pleased with our where our budget is um starting out this year. >> Director Thompson, >> hey, can you pro provide commentary on community ed? Oh, that that's outer. >> Community ed, I mean, as you see, most of our community is it's in a different fund, right? But here in the general fund, you'll see community ed just been here the last couple years. And that's the unemployment, the summer unemployment that we have to pay for that we get reimbursed for. Okay? And we cannot run that through fund has to run through uh fund one. And again, this is a timing issue. Those last two years that that expenditure was made the first week of October and this year it was the last week of September. So you're seeing the expenditure um earlier on this chart. Um, next month you'll see a straight line across because they were almost exact same amounts as the year before. >> Director Carbone. >> Yeah, Bill. Uh, fiscal and and fixed cost 37% [snorts] in 25 and it it bounces up about eight creeping on 9% in 26. What What is creating that? >> That's what I had just mentioned a second ago that we have a coding air and it's in in the insurance area. >> Oh, that's the part. Okay, very good. We we have some we have our our workman's comp insurance got put here and it's really a benefit and it has to be moved. So it has been moved and this has been repaired. >> Okay. So what do you think that number is going to be then? >> It's a it's 37%. >> It's going to be So it's going to >> Well, next next next month will be a little bit higher because we have another month but it's flat. >> Okay. But that's the point. It's going to be pretty flat. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Director Cameron. Uh just a point of clarification given the audit report saying that about 90% of our funds go towards direct student support either through buildings or or staffing. The reason we're seeing low numbers right now is just because in the summer we don't spend those funds in the same way. Right. I just this makes it look like >> yeah I set right >> that's a very good example because you'll see you know elementary and secondary vocational special those are relatively small numbers because that is only one month where you see the admin direct support those are people who work year round so there are three months of expenditures in those in those first couple columns >> so this is not this is only one quarter that we're looking at just to emphasize >> it's a quarter but it's really only one month >> yes okay thank Okay. >> So, I just wanted to show this again. Um, we feel good about how our fund balance has has rebounded. Um, at this point, the budget is projected to be at 7.3 at the se at June of this next year. Um, we'll be working uh now revising our budget for the current year as we now we know who everybody we've hired and so forth. So, we'll bring all those updated numbers to you here and it'll be a couple months, but uh we'll see how that number will change. Any questions, >> Director Thompson? >> Yeah. So, so the 7.3 number doesn't look super favorable when I look at the past two years that we would be able to make enhance uh adjustments from 0 to three, 3 to six, and then like 0.5. >> Yeah, we're not going to we're not going to see a 3% change in our fund balance going um through 26. There's been a lot of changes into this year um with new staffing and so forth. Um, so we will not we I'm I'm expecting that fund balance to increase but it will not increase by 3%. >> By 3%. Okay. >> Are you seeing any change in our insurance fund? I know that was something that we talked about two weeks ago. >> We're also watching that very closely. Um again, we're only one month in. >> Um as of um last month and we still are down another couple hundred,000. Um but we're meeting with them regularly. Um, it's one of those things where we, you know, as we get our year started, we really can't change anything to a good next year. Just like we talked about our staffing, we can't change our our rates on our insurance until we get our renewal here in the spring. >> So, I guess, yeah, that would be my next question. I mean, that that amount could affect our unassigned fund balance because we could have to, you know, adjust some funds or subsidize that. >> That is absolutely correct. in fund 20 if that if that fund gets used up and you said that the that balance was quite a bit lower than it has been. Um yeah the fund balance the general fund will have to um cover anything that's short >> and until when? Like when's when can you make the adjustment on that? You said it's annual. >> Yeah, it's annual. Our insurance rates come out annually and uh we're going out for bid this year. Um, and usually about middle middle of March, we have a pretty good idea what that what that what those numbers are going to be. >> Okay. >> Director Anderson, >> thank you for all of this, Bill. Um, and great job to your team on this uh audit and everything. Um, I guess I'm wondering along the lines of what um, Director Thompson was pointing out. You know, I know um some of us had a very painful onboarding in 2023 in terms of making those uh budget cuts and so I understand kind of the bump in in 24 um and I'm guessing those things carried over into 25 in in terms of those cuts. So are we leveling off because we are bringing supports when you're saying kind of bringing in new staff, are we bringing supports back in or what? Okay, >> if you remember um during over this last summer, you know, we put some new deans in place. We put some new counselors in place. So, we're spending more than we did the year before. So, that that gap that we saw with a 3% increase in our fund balance, you know, we're using some of that in that staffing. So, even though our trajectory is still positive, it's going to be much slower. >> I thought that was a grant that those that wasn't a grant that some of those counselors came in on. >> No, a couple years ago, there is some new funding from the state of Minnesota for counselors. We are using those funds, but it only covers a couple of them. >> Okay. Okay. And so what can we anticipate for because I know we're shooting toward the 10%. So how long do we think that I mean are we going to keep working and kind of half percent or half to 1% or >> Well again I I'm always going to bring you a very conservative especially for our film history we've had our our budgets are very conservative. Okay. Just as this past year um our fund balance is higher than we projected it would be. So I you know I expect some of that still to happen. Um, I can't give you any hard concrete information till we really bring a revised budget to you. Um, when we really look at how the hiring was done this year and exactly where they fit in, if it fits in exactly where our estimates were and our new hiring. Um, so I yeah, again, I wouldn't expect a 3% increase where we be up to 10 next year. That that's not there. But I would expect about a 1% increase. And I would expect that to be about the same going forward unless we make some type of change. Director Thompson. >> Yeah, I I I think when we saw the the actuals of 25, it jumped from 6.3 to 6.7 or something like that or 6.9. So, it was only a.5 difference at the very on the tail end. Uh but last year, I think I recall you were saying that, you know, our winter wasn't as bad. Uh you know, some we had there was some staffing. >> Yeah. Yeah. If you remember a couple years ago, we had the year without winter, right? [snorts] We saved considerable dollars on snow plowing and heating heating costs. that really helped at that time. I think we had over it was like $600 or $700,000 saving just from those two items. >> Yep. Yep. So, so then I think the the the suggestion or not the suggestion but for consideration as the rest of the board as we go into the budgeting cycle for next year. Do we want to be more aggressive in getting our fund balance back to where it needs to be? Do we want to maintain the existing programs and services that we have? What does that look like for for fiscal year 26 and 27? So, but for now, as it says, it it seems we are increasing, but it's still it it's to me it's flat from what I see. But, >> yeah, I I do think the zerobased budgeting exercise will kind of assist in that analysis as well, you know, to see where we're at. >> Um, but as we're talking about, there are things that you just can't well, maybe you can anticipate them, but uh yeah, what if we lose another $5 million on our on our insurance fund side, you know? Um, >> Director Thompson, >> I was I was just going to say, you know, I um just had a recent meeting where they were talking about 360 communities being back in a few of our schools and like some of this is really really highly necessary resources that are coming back that I would like to see extended into all, you know, all of our elementaryaries. Um, and so that's why I was just kind of curious like are we just bringing back some resources that we really need and so we might be okay with as long as we're moving in that direction of 10% and we're not going down. Are we just kind of slowly building back? So that would have been the goal when we made the budget cuts is to slowly build back things that we can. >> Correct. >> Any other questions for Bill? >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thanks, Bill. >> Director Baker, do you want to take it away? >> Sure. So, the last board meeting I had brought up um a resolution for special education uh based on the RAIF's um from the federal department of special education where those employees were cut. Um the board discussed that and uh I took to heart what was discussed and uh made some amendments and some changes to well I just made some changes to the resolution that I had brought forth originally and then added with it an action plan um which kind of comes back with the resolution is tied to the action plan that gives some steps directs the district to do some things but then also brings back some of the things that we used to do as a district um with regards to special education. And I guess when I look at this um I know Director Nicholson and I have talked about it quite extensively over the last like week or so, but um one of the things that that we had discussed was that there's not a whole lot that we can do at the when the federal government makes these changes, we just kind of sit here and wait for it to impact our district and then try to pick up the pieces of what's left. Um, and while I I agree that there's not a lot I can do, I'm still going to advocate myself um for some of those changes in the things that I can do, but what can we do in our district to make people feel um to let people know that we're going to continue business as usual and that this is a priority for us. Um so I tried to align um in that that plan some of the priorities that we as a board have um undertaken the last several months. Um I included some metrics for the dashboard that that we could monitor. Um I keep track of those metrics already for this district because I we as a board like we have access and so does the public. They have access to all this information on um the Minnesota Department of Education page. But I think it it says a lot as a board that if we add it to our de metric dashboard that we're watching those things too. Um there are also some things that I brought up that advocacy work really that we had done as a district that we're not doing now. Um and some of those things have some I would say some time stamps on them. So, um, I would like some action on some items, but then I also want to be very clear that these are just items that I threw on as a draft from my lens of working in special education. Um, I didn't discuss with Michelle or any of her department yet because I feel like, um, the board should say we as a board should decide like what we want to do before I go do things as an individual board member. I'm I'm part of a team. So, um, that's kind of where that sits. So, those are just drafts. There's things I threw together without, um, you know, discussing it further with any of the executive cabinet. But, um, one thing I am pretty passionate about, the one that has the the time stamp on that is, um, inclusive schools week. Uh, the reason that I bring that up is that, um, Lakeville schools, what started the participation in that. We were the ones that brought it here. It's a national organization. Um we had done that for at least a decade. Um as part of inclusive schools week, we did the inclusion awards. Um and we did a proclamation every year as the school board um to declare it inclusive schools week, which is the first week in December every year. Um that's a simple advocacy thing, right? Um we used to do that, stopped three years ago. um haven't done the inclusive proclamation or inclusive schools week since then. Um but what's what I want to bring to light here is that Lakeville started that and all of the districts around started doing it because we did it and then the governor caught on and he started doing a proclamation for that and then all of a sudden we stopped and everybody else is still doing it and more people are more districts are are gathering. So, I mean, I I hate to see something go away um that we started, right? Like that was that was us. Like that was a lot of work we put into that. >> Go ahead, Superintendent >> Director Baker. What year did that stop? >> Three years ago. >> Do you know why it stopped? >> Change of leadership. I'm I mean I'm I'm not exactly sure. I um we've had lots of changes of leadership and you know so I I don't I'm not exactly sure but um I think the other thing that went with that was that the district used to support the inclusion awards um that the special ed advisory council ran as part of that um those things were honoring like things that staff members um pair professionals, bus drivers, teachers, students like did to bring inclusive inclusion into our buildings and in our classrooms and the communication department did such a wonderful job of like telling stories about the things that were happening and it was so amazing. Um, and that stopped too. So the parent group took it over which was family connections and they've been doing it without the district really backing us and and and having support in that. So they went from getting with the district support hundreds of nominations every year for this to down to like I want to say they had like 20 last year. Um because a parent group just working on its own, you know, we we need to be working together as a as a team on this. So um I know they're gearing up for that again. Um I know it's something that they've been discussing um that specific uh PTO, the family connections uh board and PTO. Um, and I would love to see district um, participation in that. Again, like I said, that's the only time-sensitive one because I'm looking I mean, it's almost November. So, just for planning purposes, I I would like at least some discussion on that. >> I I want to provide a little context and and Superintendent Bowman can help because I emailed him to ask some questions after getting the draft resolution and plan. Um, questions being, are we seeing any loss of funding due to the changes to the DOE? Um, have any vital services been discontinued here in our district? Um, and if so, are we able to provide those without federal assistance? Has our specialled department experienced any disruption as a result of the changes on the federal level? Uh, and is the district currently not abiding by any requirements of um the idea. >> I don't want to steal your thunder. I don't know if you want to address that. >> Oh, generally. >> Okay. Well, I did >> you did provide a response. I did answer instead of me reading it though. I'll let him. So, the fiscal year 26 federal uh um allocation to the state of Minnesota has already occurred. Um and for for our special ed programs, I don't see that as an issue. Um now, if the government were to I'm sorry, >> there's no budget impact. There's no budget impact >> as of right now. No. Um and my only caveat for fiscal year 26 and my only caveat is the government stays shut let's just say till April that might be a different response. Um and so to to that end um all the second and third order issues that were articulated there we're we're doing we're operating normally but it's not normal because the hiring of all the positions that we need still is is lagging. But I've talked to my fellow superintendents and this is a problem across many school districts. Um, and that's not to discuss the qualitative nature of some of that as well, which is, you know, it's a real thing in in our school buildings. And when you get into the classroom level, um, you know, if it it just makes things a little bit more difficult. Um, but it's not because we don't have the funding to hire. We just haven't been able to get the people. um that we need um and and that's having an impact. What was the other ones on there? There was a couple >> um any disruption as a result of the changes on the federal level. >> So, right now, no. Um the there is a a micro website out there uh that the IG's office put out and in and I I went and researched that and I learned a couple things. First of all, the MDE finance didn't have anything to do with it. So, that's our first red flag. Um, the second red flag is it's 2324 data. Um, we're in fiscal year 26, so whatever numbers out there is is not correct or accurate. Um, and and I don't mean to belittle anybody. It's just if you're going to put out information and make make uh statements about what the impacts are, just have your numbers right. Um, so I that's a little frustrating. Um, and the the federal government in the in the US of A in my 63 years of life has shut down before. Uh, and we we have been able to weather that. Now, this one's a little longer. I don't think it's maybe it's the longest yet. I'm not 100% sure about that. Um, but we we will uh continue to operate uh in FY26. Um, we have other challenges and I I'll go back to trying to hire the staff that we need, get the ratios down, uh, and deal with some of the more the the challenges we have. And I would say one of the other biggest challenges that we have is our intermediate partnership. Um, they're full at setting four. They're full. And I, you know, I don't want to go too far off on a tangent, but that has impact on us as well in our school system. and it's true for other school districts and um it can literally depending on how you've how those students are set and where those classrooms are can really impact a building um in in a significant way and and we have some of that going on. So, I'm extremely sensitive to it to the point of I I'm like [clears throat] in the buildings and in our classrooms and I'm observing what's going on and trying to figure out how can I help? um because our our teachers need that whether you're in regular ed or special ed, you know, they need that. Um so again, not to go too far off on a tangent, but when you talk about fund balance and you balance that with needs across the system, um I think you have to be real judicious about that. Um so that's what I'll say about it. >> Answer all those questions. >> That's great. Thank you. >> Okay, >> Director Cameron. >> Yeah. Um, thanks Director Baker for for drafting these. I think what what you said and I think um, Superintendent BA what you're alluding to is I I'm excited about supporting work at the local level the best we can. Um, it seems like something that we have control over. Um, and so I appreciate especially the the district plan for special ed that you put together. I think there are elements of it that um we could we could discuss and implement um as a school district in collaboration obviously with um Director Humphrey's department. some of the things that I just want to highlight from what you mentioned that um I I would support um there's lots of things in it but just some of the highlights are um one of them I do think adding um a metric a set of metrics to our dashboard um seems like an important step that we should be taking to monitor um how we're servicing um special education students. I would like to in addition suggest we look at um English learner students as well here um as a as another group to um make sure we're we're providing services for. And so I'm wondering similar to um how Superintendent Bowman came to the board with a with a set of recommendations. I'm wondering if Director Humphrey's department might have one or two or three um metrics that would make sense for for these student populations and perhaps the um the uh special ed advisory council would want to vet those um and have parents look at them before they would come to the board. But um that's an idea I had there. Um I'd like to learn more about inclusive schools week. I don't or inclusive schools network. I don't know a ton um about it, but it seems that if it's something that the superintendent and um others are interested in it, it would make sense to join. Do you know is there like a fee to join it or Okay. Um that's was my biggest question. Um, and then I like your idea of um making sure that the district is communicating um stories and information to the public um about how we support all students, including uh special education students. I I'm aware that um we have to be careful legally that we're not identifying students in any post or anything that that they're receiving special ed services, right? you know this, but um and so one one thing I was um I'm aware of is like 917 has recently started like um profiling some of their special ed staff on their social media and um it's great great stories and with Michael what you mentioned about the faces of 194 perhaps um our communications team is thinking about how to profile maybe some of our um our our our teachers and support staff as a way to highlight programming but then also making sure we're um whenever we're profiling students like first day of school or all school concert or you know whatever the activities are that um all all kids are represented in in what we're promoting. Um I also like your um idea about um adding um some sort of metric to the superintendent evaluation. I looked through the MSBA evaluation that we're considering I think I'm not sure but considering that one. I know we discussed it at a work session and I didn't see any I was surprised I didn't see anything um about special ed in there and so we could discuss as a board you know what what type of things do we want to monitor um and that might align with the metrics conversation from from um Director Humphrey's department but yeah I'm I'm very excited to talk about like what can we do as a as a local school district um at the local level um to support these initiatives and and for me it's it's what what tactical things can we implement um you know relative I don't want to say easily because I know these are difficult things but but what do we have control over um and kind of promote promote those actions? >> Director Carbone. >> Yeah, thank you. Um last board meeting when we started this discussion uh one of the things that seemed to be apparent is that there was going to be a financial deficit for special ed. And Michael I what >> I didn't say that. >> Well, it it seemed like there was some financial strain with funding from the state and so so Michael, I just want to make sure I'm understanding correctly. What you're saying is that there there's no impact to the fiscal year 2026 budget. >> Uh that's where we sit today. Yes. >> Okay. I because I I I just want to make sure because one of my concerns was the funding and making sure that everything was funded properly and it sounds like it is. Okay. >> Properly might be questionable, but >> yeah, >> but that's just as a general matter. >> Just to be clear, the funding the funding shortfall still leaves us with a cross subsidy in the correct north of $7 million. And >> but that's not >> Yeah, properly was was not prior to this. Properly was not the proper word. In essence, it's it's funded and you could always use more. I understand that. So, what my I I'm [snorts] when I brought this forth, it it wasn't that the funding wasn't there at the time because of the way that special ed is funded. I stated like the funding is there through at least October 31st for sure. Um I don't know about any of the other things because sometimes things change and shift depending on how long the federal government stays shut down. Um there are two differences though specifically with this one is that in any shutdown that's occurred before um employees were not fired they were laid off. Um employees in the department of special education which is why I specifically said that were Rifs they were fired. Um my concern with those changes within that department um is that then there's no federal oversight to enforce IDA and the laws that govern special education. Um the issue with that is that um nothing is moving like we're nothing's happening on on any of those those issues. Um there's no nobody to call to ask for support in that office and that happens a lot like you there's a lot of gray areas with special education. Um so we're left without support and we're left without enforcement of that law. And the reason that I came up with this plan that kind of lays out some of that advocacy work that we can do within the district because we're showing we're still doing it. Like yes, we have to follow the law, but that doesn't mean everybody will. Um, as I stated last time, there are 43 out of 50 states that have non-compliance issues with special education, even though there is federal oversight with that law. Um, so those are the things that we worry about, especially as a parent um of a child with a disability. It's it's scary because I know how much it costs to to educate and I know that my child needs more support and more specialists than a typical student. And anytime there are budget constraints or things happen, special education is the first thing that's cut. And we saw that this year in Minnesota when they already started cutting special ed transportation. So, um, right now there's a blue ribbon commission on special education that's meeting in the state of Minnesota. They had their first meeting, I want to say on October 8th. They're looking to cut thousands and thousands of dollars from the budget for special ed. So, it's going to happen. It's coming our way. Um, and without those laws to make sure that we're providing quality services, I worry about what the future holds. >> Director Anderson. >> Um, yeah. I, um, Director Baker, I want to thank you for putting this together and, um, I think this is something obviously we should continue to talk about. Um, this has been something we've been talking about since I've been on the board and obviously well before that uh this is certainly a huge area of concern in terms of funding and you know I I would anticipate that some of these changes impacting the Department of Education are not going to hit budgets until down the road. And so this in my opinion is the time to advocate for something like special education as well as a whole other host of um student needs we need to be advocating for. But I think if we don't advocate, things just get into motion and that's where budgets are later impacted. Um, and so I would encourage us to think about that. Um, and then I just want to I I guess I want to reflect on um what that says about us as a district if we advocate in this way because one of the challenges we're talking about is filling our special ed positions. and at least from what I've heard from our special education educators and in terms of our educators in general, but they don't have enough time or resources or etc etc. And so um if we are the district who is sitting by and letting these things happen, we will not attract and retain our special educate education staff. Um, so I think part of it is advocacy and part of it is um, becoming a district where special education staff want to come and work. Um, and so part of it to me is culture. How do we create a more supportive culture? Some part of it has nothing to do with what is happening at the federal level and part of it is about making sure we are advocating against what is happening at the federal level. So I support um, moving forward with such resolution. >> Well said. Can I just I have a question I guess because it's the resolution is highly focused on what's going on at the federal level. Um but as you know the auditors said today I mean we're underfunded every year by the state. Um and director Baker you're talking about even this past year in the budget cycle and the changes you know cutting more funding from special education specifically and they're talking about doing it again in the future. Um >> are you looking at the right one? because the one that I put forth doesn't say anything about federal funding at all. >> Well, it's worried about people being laid off in the Department of Education and that being shifted over or the OC weakening oversight. I mean, I guess >> I mean that's stating what happened, but then it's saying that we're going to uphold IDEIDA. We're going to focus on inclusive practices, universal design for instruction, project-based learning. Those are all things that happen within our general education environment. Um, we value each student's social emotional well-being, sense of belonging, access, desire, daily none of that's funding. >> My point though is if we are talking about funding or things that directly impact our district and our our special ed programs, I mean, do we throw that in there as well? I mean, if we're talking about advocacy, I mean, I guess my question is where do we stop? I mean, with the I understand where you're getting at here and the concerns. I mean, I'm assuming um Director Humphre would say that they're going to operate, you know, in in accordance with the law regardless of whether or not there's federal oversight. I mean, we still have oversight by our state. You know, the federal government is still there. Those laws still apply. >> Um I'm assuming we're not neglecting them, right? >> That is correct. >> All right. So, and I guess that's why I asked uh Superintendent Bowman. I mean, is there anything we're missing um given these changes at the federal level at this point? And it doesn't seem like there is. Um so I don't know. I I I just again from a resolution standpoint, I guess my question is where do we stop? I mean, it sounds like as far as inclusion week, if we want to do more of like an initiative versus a resolution, I don't know that we need a resolution to reinstate something like that. >> We don't. Um, but if you check out item number six, uh, the reason that I had the resolution is because it's directing, um, the superintendent to prepare and present an annual special education and inclusion report to the board and the community detailing progress and inclusion rates, service delivery timelines, and student outcomes. Now, again, like uh I will leave that up to uh Michelle and her department to determine what that looks like. They do present to us an annually anyway. Um, but I think where that is coming from is that it's going to be included on our data dashboard. I'm looking for those specific items that are in there and it's showing as a as a district that um we're we're monitoring that as well. >> Yeah. And don't get me wrong, I I think we're all in agreement that we could put something like this on our data dashboard to track the metrics. Um it's just adding additional requirements on our district. And there are a number of things here that I just think [clears throat] at least I need more information on as far as what what is intended and what it all encompasses. Um yeah, that's just where I'm at. You mean is it a resolution or is it just something we need to talk about as far as more an initiative? >> Is it a policy change? >> Director Thompson. Yeah, you know, I I think we're kind of combining a couple things as I read read the resolution and and make sure that I'm on the same page. It's the one that's titled SPED resolution 2 is what I was is the one that I'm referencing. >> I believe that's that was the latest one. Um I I I am in line with Director Cameron kind of where you're heading. I'd rather have us focus more locally in the things that we can control. Uh the resolution uh states to that we you know affirms it's our our unwavering commitment to federal laws which I'm assuming we're already doing. Uh commitment to protecting special education staffing and supports within the district budget. We allocate $40 million out of our budget to it right now and and and cross subsidize it with the general fund. Uh there are but I would like to know more of inclusive week and and so I'd love to be able to have you know you know director Michelle Humphre come back and say hey what metrics would you recommend to add on the executive dashboard that we can learn I'm in alignment with English learners having that as a metric or something of that nature but maybe an overview of what is inclusive schools because I because I don't know what it is and because we haven't had it for the past three years and then if and again I'm want to be mindful that we're not weaving too much into the operations of our district versus governance of our of of our of our district. And so if there is alignment by our administration that this is something that they they want to do and there's value in doing it, uh I'm in favor of that if that's the direction that what they want to go that does allocate more resources and time and commitment [cough] towards [clears throat] something of that nature. So an overview would be ideal for me to to learn more of that. Um, and then lastly that I see that that uh that I do have a question on. It's like does does our district ever call the federal office for support or because I don't know. >> Director Humphre. >> I can't say that. I have um if we're needing some more guidance or something, it's typically reaching out >> to the state >> to MD MD. Okay. who would then reach out to. >> So lastly, I would recommend that if this is something that wants to move forward, >> uh have it on the agenda and the next packet so that folks can see what is being requested and then making sure that we or if you want to make modifications to it or at the next meeting if we just get an update from uh director Michelle Humphrey's around uh the metrics, inclusion week overview, any recommendations and then we kind of go from there. I don't I don't know if a resolution is is the path that we should go. So, >> I I did request to have it added to the agenda previous previously um before the agenda went out um and it wasn't added, which is why it's not included in the board packet for the community, which is one of those reasons why I tried to get it added previously so that it would be included. Um I feel like that's one of the downfalls that if we don't do that and then we add at the meeting, then community members are not aware. it creates mistrust because there's no transparency there. Those documents aren't included with the packet. And then also people look at the agenda and determine whether they actually want to attend a meeting or not. So um I don't know would special education parents wanted want to come if they would know that it was on the agenda probably. But that option wasn't given because it wasn't included. So just in response to your question about it being in the board packet. Director Anderson, >> I just have a question and I don't know if this is who this is for exactly, but do we know how short and this might be a question for Superintendent Bowman. Um, do we know how short we are on on special education and staff right now? And if we are I I don't think we're necessarily unique, but is it are we similar to other districts or >> I I have a special education support plan um that I can get you every uh all the HR and finance pieces. I'll have it for you. Um well, I can give it to you tomorrow. Um, we were doing some refinements on our special ed revenue and expenditures picture over the last five years that I wanted to include in that packet. Um, so I'll get you that. Um, I don't know if Michelle if you have a number. Um, we're we look at it by school by I look at it from a ratio perspective like because it's a workload thing. Um, and I look at it from uh what our the term I use is a a manning record or a man how how many folks we um are funded for and how many um wrecks are unfilled. Um I don't know if you have a number on that Michelle and then you got to break it down by paras and um go ahead. >> I I was going to say I don't have an exact number right now. I would say we are in a much better place than we were last year at this particular time in having to use less contracted services. Um we definitely have more pair professionals positions open than our licensed staff, but we have [clears throat] um off the top of my head like a handful of speech FTE um I think maybe four or five FTE open for speech. Um, we have an open OT position and then um a a couple of centerbased positions K to 12, but by no means are we fully fully staffed with um special education right now, but I can give those exact numbers to you for >> that. Well, the other thing too is we're also using contracted services because um we can't >> do direct hire um with qualified candidates. So that's another while it's not it wouldn't show up as a unfilled wreck, it is contracted service and those cost more. >> Yeah. Well, we want to attract staff, right? we want to hire for these positions. And that's where I would say >> it's just something for obviously our board to be considering, obviously our district administration is considering, but we can talk all day long about wanting to abide by the law, but if we don't have staff to actually fulfill the requirements of IEPs and 504s and those kinds of things, we are not abiding by the law. And so then we end up with lawsuits. And this is how we end up in a position of um Thank you. not potentially being a place where people want to come and work if our staff that we do have are overburdened with case loads. And so this should be a collective um drive from the school board and the administration to address this gap and that's how we create a system where we can fulfill the idea in terms of um what is required. So, I'm just I'm only thinking that does a resolution like this obviously express a commitment to these these ideals and also these requirements um and help us move forward to make sure that we as a system are behind. >> I I guess I'm a little confused. Um >> I mean, your statements imply that it's like the district's fault that we can't hire more people. I mean, we have open positions, right? were attempting to hire more individuals and obviously the problem, you know, case load problem is a byproduct of there being a lot of open positions, right? I think it's complicated. Like that's what I mean about the culture. Is this the reason why I ask is are we in the same boat as other districts? Do we have the same amount of lawsuits for instance related to special education? If we don't, that speaks to a culture problem here where we are not filling these roles. And if that's a culture problem, we need to address it. >> If it's every other district is in the same situation where they are short, very very short staffed to the extent that they can't fulfill IEPs, then that's that's that's a statewide kind of issue. And that's why I was asking that question. Director Cameron. >> Um, when is the next special education advisory meeting? Do you know, Kim, off the top of your head? Like, is it a quarterly meeting? I'm wondering if elements of the plan especially >> could be drafted with um Director Humphrey's department using this as a first go for discussion with that group. Um to bring back recommendations um so that's one idea and then I'd like to make a motion. Can I do that? Um, I'd like to make a motion that the uh, Superintendent Bowman with um, consultation from cabinet, especially director Humphre makes a determination on um, rejoining inclusive schools network including the celebration of inclusive schools week um for uh, a recommendation at the November board meeting whether or not the school district should should join it or not and what would be um, the rationale for doing so. So, I don't know that we don't have a recommended action on the table to make a motion, but Superintendent Bowman, do you think and I guess Director Humphrey, do you think timing wise that would be doable? >> Well, I don't really need a motion because we will figure that out. >> Um, >> yeah, I mean, I think everyone's saying they'd like to hear more from, you know, Miss Humphrey. sorry, but we're probably going to pull you back in to get some more information [clears throat] from you. >> We'll put together uh uh two things. We'll put together I I'll get you the uh special education support plan that'll have a lot of the information you're asking for and I will uh prepare a presentation for our community so they can get a better sense of where we're at and get that on the agenda ASAP. >> Okay. >> At least from my perspective. in our conference. Kim, who else is members of the network? Do you know? Or or maybe not conference, but >> it's it's a national it's a nationwide um it's just inclusivechoolsetwork.org. Um Prior Lake does it, 196 does it, Burnsville does it. Like all of the districts around us in the area are doing it. Um, and really all it is is it's a proclamation that comes before the board saying we are um declaring the first week of December inclusive schools week because within that week they choose that week because it's National Disability Day on I think it's the Tuesday of that week which is December 5th I think um this year. I'm trying to think calendar-wise if it's the fifth or the sixth but um that's the reason they chose that week. That's what they do. And then their website it's free to it's free to be a part of the network. It's free to get all the resources. They have lesson plans that you can do individually with with classrooms all the way up through 12th grade. They have activities that you can do in a school. Um the way that we set it up um in the district that I work in is like the elementary teams all work together um across buildings and they make like a PowerPoint slide, you know, that that they they can pull up during morning meeting every day. They have simple activities in it like here's a sign language thing of the day. They have like a video. They have kids sharing stories. Um last year we had one class that learned the pledge of allegiance and sign language and they were super proud of that. So that was on the video one day. Um it's just different ways to incorporate kids in learning and learning about others. Um and so like all the things to participate are there. I think the biggest thing that we did as Lakeville was um the inclusion awards which that parent group took over and are and are doing it. So all they really want is the district to say, "Hey, we want to work on this with you and support the communication about how to get the link out so that people can nominate people." And then um we used to do this big thing when when they would um recognize the educators and the students and the staff members that won like the superintendent, members of the school board, they would come on to that person's classroom and surprise them during the day and say it's it really was just a certificate. That's all it was. But, you know, just that recognition that the things that you're doing in your classroom are important and that they matter to all of these people that showed up today to tell you during your during your day. And honestly, like that day, like when we would show up and do those awards, it made my entire year because the students were super excited to honor their teacher. And it wasn't like we're buying them anything. It was literally just a certificate for, you know, thank you for being an inclusive educator or um I think the ones the last time we did it, the ones that I felt were so amazing were the students at North where we had a student at North that um was uh music. He was in music and he was teaching students in the special ed room how to drum and so they followed him around and he was teaching all these students drumming skills. Nobody asked him to do it. He was just doing it. um he had an open period and he was working with kids and it it was just amazing to see that video. Now there were confidentiality things with that and we had everybody that communications department ran that everybody signed like a confidentiality thing that they were okay with their student being on the video but I mean those were on um our district communications site. So that's where we went from like us all being involved in it to like crickets. So, >> George Cameron, >> well, it seems like for me, and I know Superintendent Bali, you already said this, but um rejoining that in time for um this season um seems to make a lot of sense, especially if others in our conference are doing it. So, I support that. Um I think the one thing I'll just say with awards, I run awards for University of Minnesota system. Um I think it's important. I I love that the parent parent group is involved in um soliciting and reviewing nominations. Um that should continue. And um if the district's going to be involved, I think it's important that we have um a vetting process or a review process, right? Just to ensure that um if we're if we're giving awards that um especially for people external to the to the district like community members um that um that there's just a review process to make sure that a lot of things are followed um regarding um uh safety and whatnot. So yeah, thanks >> Director Thompson. Yeah, I'd be in favor of the motion just to hear more about what it is and and how we implement it or or how it would be integrated into our schools. Um I do want to be um one of the things that I always think about is is that you know when you come into Lakeville schools uh and you're a student uh like it shouldn't matter like like and so I want to be mindful that wow if we're putting a spotlight on certain demographics or certain types of kids or whatever it may be like I I'm not aligned in that in general. philosophically, like if you're a student, you're a student. One, two, three. And and if you don't know how to read and you don't know math, like that's that's what we need to get to and solve. And so, uh, but I am open to learning more and hearing what what it is and how we can integrate it where it makes sense. But again, we've got 12,000 students. That that's what I see. And so, I want to make sure that I understand that. >> Speak to that real quick. >> Director Baker, >> um, I understand where you're coming from. Um, it's been an advocacy journey that, um, my family never anticipated would happen. Um, my children were the first kids within our family that had disabilities. So, we had to learn and we had to teach everybody else about that. And, um, I completely understand that as a parent of a typical child, like your kid goes to school, it's no big deal and you don't have to worry about it. And I'm so glad that you don't have to worry about it. Um for us that wasn't the case. Like it's not a guarantee that our kids get education just because there's a state or a federal law. Doesn't always happen. Um the Individuals with Disabilities Act was enacted at the federal government in 1975, which is only 50 years ago because states weren't doing that. So if you talk to your parents, your grandparents, those kids were in a different building. if they were even allowed in the building at all. Um the Americans with Disabilities Act 1990, that's when that happened. So that was just to have let people have access not only to their community, to their buildings, to their the buildings that they pay taxes on, but also employment. Um that wasn't very long ago. And and like I said, I know you're saying there's 12,000 other kids, but I'm going to give you another statistic. One in four people in the United States will experience a disability at some time in their life. That's 25%. You never know when that's going to happen to you. Might be a car accident, might be a stroke, might be a heart attack. You never know what can cause disability to happen, but it can happen to anyone. Um, and I think that the reason that I put this advocacy uh resolution up is because it's so important to us as parents and educators to know that um it's going to be okay. Like we're we are going to work to follow the law. We're we are taking this as a priority. We are um understanding the significance and the importance of these services because it is actually life-changing. It is lifealtering, life-changing. Um, without this district and the paras and the speech pathologists and the teachers, I can name every teacher he's ever had. Um, every parah, everything. Without those people, I really don't know where my son would be today. He went from a diagnosis at 15 months old that Kim, I just don't think he's ever going to be able to go to a school. Um, you probably will never hear him talk. And I remember exactly what the doctor said. He said, "You'll be like a picture on the wall to him. There will be no interaction whatsoever. Don't even count on that." Got a second opinion, a third opinion. They all said the same thing. He graduated from Lakeville Area Schools. He graduated. He got accepted into college. Granted, he's doing a trade school. Doesn't matter. He's successful. He's independent. He's doing what he wants. He's a healthy, happy individual who can contribute. um life-changing. Where would he be if he wouldn't have had those educators? I don't know. And so that's what this resolution means to me. And I know that there are lots of other people within this district that would feel the same way. When I look at our special ed population, 19% would probably feel the same way. >> Director Thompson, then Director Cameron. So, I wouldn't be too too quick to judge as as I do have two children that have learning disabilities. Okay. And I would have to say that the staff that we've had to work with uh at a fantastic elementary school has helped both my children get to where they are today academically. And so, again, there are students in variety of different spectrums and in ranges of their of their skills. And and I just want to make sure to acknowledge like we have 12,000 students. And again, you They all need to learn how to read in math, read and do math and science and and the core academics. So just be mindful of of how you of of you know of that. >> Yeah. Inclusion means everybody. So >> So just one second. Okay. I think we're I mean I'd like to wrap this up. I think the general idea is we are going to have uh Director Humphrey and Bowman come back and do a presentation and provide some more information on these ideas at a future meeting unless that's not what I'm hearing as a general consensus. But go ahead, Director Cameron. >> Um, yeah, I I agree with that. Um, Matt, I think Brian, to to your comment, I I just need to say that I think it's important that we as a board remember that we service all kids however they come to us, right? And there are some kids um or I think our our metrics um discussion has highlighted that there's many ways to assess how a how a student is growing and developing in our school district. Um common assessments through FastBridge or MCA is one of those things, right? But it's not the full story for any kid. But um there are kids that are um have different needs that um we need to support where getting up to grade level for reading or math might not be the goal for that child and their family. Um and we need to respect that and still provide a quality um educational experience for that child even though it doesn't align with the metrics you're trying to hit. So I just want to say that. >> All right, everybody good? Move on. uh until a later date. Um board member reports, Director Anderson. >> Okay. Um yes, I want to highlight some good things happening in the district. So, um attended the Lakeville Arena's Board meeting and that went very well. Um there was a um a review for our manager of the meeting that went very well and so things are plugging along there and within budget and then um attended our first wellness council committee or wellness council meeting this week. Um had a nice presentation from our superintendent about the budget or about the upcoming levy and then um some things just to consider. So, one thing that came up in this meeting for just to um raise the awareness on this, it sounds like there might be a policy sitting somewhere for the policy committee on the wellness policy. Um so that is something that we probably need to kind of um bring front and center hopefully sometime soon. And then um there was really really good discussion on what we could be doing in terms of advertisement advertising around student wellness. And so I think people should look forward to well one thing we have a really great um student from Lakeville North and we're trying to recruit from Lakeville South as well. Um, and I think we're going to get some students involved in some videos um, related to sleep and screen time and then also looking at uh, helmet safety. Um, so those little bikes that these kids are riding around probably illegally we decided, but um, those we want to raise awareness. One of the things we were talking about some of the parents is like what is the age for the scooters, the electric scooters? Everybody should know it's age 12. So you're not supposed to be riding those scooters before age 12. and those bikes. Um, you are supposed to have like a real uh um whatchamacallit permit for that or something. So, um I just want to stop all these kids on the road and say something, but I don't. So, um there's going to be some good educational things coming out of this committee that I think we should all look forward to. So, great stuff happening. >> Thank you. I guess I'll go. I took my uh rotation in the third grade class at Cherry View, which was a lot of fun. Um, if you haven't gone there yet, I would uh encourage you to do so, led some reading groups. Um, yeah, it was great. Miss Banovich is doing a great job um under challenging conditions and and I know her goal was just to provide an example of this is what teachers deal with every day in our district. Um, and had a good opportunity to chat with her a little bit about that and then with Mr. Hellberleberg as well. So, uh, yeah, I appreciate them opening up their school and classroom. Director Baker. >> So, um, just to update the board, the, uh, public engagement committee will meet tomorrow at 6 o'clock. Um, that's posted on the district website. Uh, the next board engagement opportunity will be November se November 7th at CMS at 11:00. Um, and just for public awareness, the board has been touring um, schools within the district that are over capacity. Um, I'll let Director Cameron talk about uh the tour that we did Friday at um High View Elementary. Uh, so we got to see the conditions within um that building. >> Yeah. Um, Kim and I were able to tour High View on Friday and um, it was great to meet the new principal. She's doing a great job. Um, excited to have her in the district. And yeah, I mean we saw overcrowding, right, that we all have heard um in discussion and from um other conversations. So, I think the important thing to to for the community and for the board to know is um rooms that were designed for certain functions like the STEM room um is now turned into a classroom. And so STEM is mobile um in the K in in the um facility. [clears throat] And then the there's a a gym, the DAPE gym, um to service special ed students is turned into the art room. And so um DAPE services are being offered primarily um right in hallways. Is that correct, Kim? Um and then we saw there are cases where um there's a in particular a second grade classroom that's meeting in a very small small room. Um and so yeah, it's over capacity. And so I think um as we discussed with um Emily McDonald and the principle there is the good news is that through boundary adjustments, we'll we'll be able to address the elementary um overcrowding at least temporarily uh for the next uh foreseeable future. Um so yeah, it definitely it definitely needs to happen. Um but it good news is we can solve it. >> Yeah. >> Anyone else? >> Sorry. Um last night the early childhood um uh advisory council met and I just provided some updates from our board meetings over the last um couple cycles. Uh I just want to say that group is just a powerhouse of um really volunteers who run a lot of amazing events for our early childhood families. And so that a lot of their meeting is spent planning for for the events that they have. And then also um Dakota County Libraries is always there talking about the partnership between early childhood and um our library system. And so that was great to hear about last night. And then um policy committee will meet um this Friday on Halloween um at noon from noon to 1. And just to update the board quickly, um uh Matt Brian and I will meet, but uh one of the things we'll go over is um an audit that uh MSBA did for all of our policies and they have a a recommendation on how we might proceed with um policy updates. And so we'll we'll meet about that on Friday and then can give an update to the board um at our next meeting. >> Director Cameron, can I ask question? Is a costume required for that meeting? I put it a PS in the email and costumes are optional. [laughter] >> I will not be wearing one. >> Anyone else? >> Can I just ask a question? >> Yeah. >> Um, are you are you chairing the policy committee now? Because I may have like some questions about some policies coming up. >> I'm help coordinating the meeting. I'm not the chair. >> Okay. So, who? >> Director Thompson is still the chair. >> Okay. So feel free to shoot emails to Director Thompson. >> I will. >> And he can share them. >> Superintendent Bowman. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, superintendent's report. So, first thing I'll tell everybody who's listening, skip the line by voting early on the capital projects levy renewal. District residents can vote at their convenience here at the district office, right on the other side of that wall. Um, and you can do that through November 3rd. On election day, we will have all of our polling sites open from 7 in the morning to 8 in the evening or 8:00 p.m. at your designated polling location. And you can go online to isd194.org/vote in order to figure out uh where you uh would go to a polling site. Second thing, oh sorry, >> you can even vote on Saturday, right? This Saturday. That is correct. >> Yeah. At the district office. >> Here at the district office. From what time to what time, Kim? >> 9 to 3. >> 9 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. And vote your conscience. Thank you. Second thing, last Wednesday on October 22nd, I had the opportunity to present at the annual Lakeville Chamber of Commerce State of Schools lunchon. Uh the presentation highlighted the district's operations and how our schools have been performing. and I was able to provide an overview of a student and staff demographics across the district and a detailed look at some of the things uh upcoming on November 4th which uh is related directly to the levy renewal. I would like to share this evening with uh all of our many many viewers um a short video to share the Lakeville area schools impact by the numbers and detailing how we ensure that academic, social, civic and personal readiness for every student is inculcated into our system. So if I could have our master director All right, he gave me the thumbs up. Your kind attention please. >> [music] >> This school year, we're embracing the [music] theme of all for 194 and living out our core values, which guide everything we [music] do to ensure the academic, social, civic, and personal readiness of every student. Over the past decade, our district [music] has seen significant growth. With new homes and families joining our community, we expect that growth to continue. Our district [music] is becoming more economically, racially, linguistically diverse. Today, 16% of our families speak a language [music] other than English, representing more than 80 languages across our schools. Each day, our dedicated staff [music] help students grow academically, socially, civically, and personally as they work [music] toward graduation and life beyond. To support every learner, we provide [music] a wide range of educational and social emotional supports. Many students [music] benefit from individualized support such as English learner programs, special education, and [music] academic interventions or accommodations. 30% of our students participate [music] in advanced programming, allowing students to explore their interests and take on new challenges [music] in their academic journey. Our students success is reflected in [music] an average GPA of 3.3 and an average ACT score of 23, a testament [music] to their hard work and the commitment of our staff to academic excellence. Our graduates [music] are ready for the future. According to the most recent data from the class of 2022, 93% of students graduated, [music] 17% entered the workforce immediately, while 79% pursued [music] postsecary education. Behind the scenes, a dedicated team of more than 2,800 staff members serve students every day across 19 facilities, [music] making Lakeville area schools the largest employer in Lakeville. Our transportation partner covers 10,000 miles [music] daily, safely, bringing 9,000 student riders to and from school. In our cafeterias, we serve over 2,900 breakfast and 8,600 lunches each [music] day, fueling learning and growth. Technology plays an essential role in learning. With more than 17,000 iPads and devices [music] in the hands of students and staff, we are preparing learners to thrive in a digital [music] world. At the same time, we continue to invest in comprehensive safety and security measures, ensuring our schools remain [music] safe, welcoming environments where students can focus on learning and growth. Beyond the school day, our facilities [music] are community hubs. This year, community facility use is projected to reach nearly 200,000 hours, a reflection [music] of how our schools bring people together for learning, recreation, and connection across [music] the Lakeville area. Strong connections with our community through transparency and [music] positive relationships, including community engagement and feedback, are essential to making our mission possible to support every student's success. And it's clear [music] our community is proud of our schools. In the 2025 survey, 89% [music] of community members gave the quality of education at Lakeville Area Schools an A or a B. The district received [music] its highest scores in the last 3 years for satisfaction. Overall, our community believes we spend [music] taxpayer funding effectively, do what's right, make good decisions, and involve the community well. Our community also says our leaders are doing a good job and that our [music] teachers are fantastic. From classrooms to cafeterias, buses to ball fields, and the stage [music] to the stands, the Lakeville Area Schools community is united in ensuring the academic, social, civic, and personal readiness [music] for every student. We are all in all together working toward our mission [music] and vision. We're all four 94. >> So, thank you for indulging me with that. And then I just would like to say to our educators that are sitting here tonight, thank you for coming. We appreciate you. That's my report. >> All right. Thank you, Superintendent Bowman. Um, we have no recommended actions. So, with that, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn, unless you guys want to hang. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. >> I think there is a motion and then if director Carbone says a second. All in favor say I. >> We'rejourned. All 41 94 Four.